Coming 'Round the Mountain

I am feeling as if the good news continues to blossom. 
Am still eating smaller meals (as I wrote about here) and weightlifting two to three times weekly. Today is my 16th day off of all grains. I also weighed myself on Monday, have put a weekly weigh-in on my calendar, and am logging my weight.

Hello, old friend.

I was not pleased with my weight (200 pounds, exactly), yet was tired of my fear of the scale, and gave up that curious and familiar belief that if I didn't weigh myself I wouldn't weigh as much. (In my defense, I will say that the foolishness of this thought is a lot more evident on the screen than it is in my brain.)

In the beginning was the writing...

A few days ago I (again) started writing down the food I'm eating. Some of it (like raisins and nuts), I measure before eating. And as was true with the granola, just the act of recording the quantity has painlessly led me to eating less food. 

I do have challenges when I go out to eat. Yesterday, for example, I met a friend for lunch at Pambiche, a wonderful Cuban restaurant, and had roast pork, pinto 

Pambiche

beans, brown rice, and flan. 

The food was so tasty! Unfortunately, I was full half-way through the carbs, but kept eating. I really looked forward to the flan, so had some, in spite of my fullness.

Pam, who also got the flan, wisely took most of it with her in a takeout box. As she did so, I thought to myself, "Why don't I ever think of that?" I never do. I did write down my food when I got home, a good thing. 

Fortunately for me, I don't eat out very often, so this is (hopefully) a small blip in my move to eating smaller portions. And the next time I do, I hope to be more conscious of my fullness, and not feel the need to take all of the food home in my stomach.

I'll Take It

My food interests and volume are changing, and I'm not exactly sure why. I'm:

• eating smaller meals
• snacking less
• eating more greens
• eating more chicken and less beef and pork
• not craving  carb-y food (as much)

Here's what I had for breakfast (and, in parentheses, what I would have previously eaten):

• small plate of salad greens (large plate of greens)
• 2 eggs with scallions (3 eggs and sausage)
• 1/2 cup of pinto beans (ditto)

I am quite full (actually, I think I'm a bit over-full from the beans), and my mouth isn't "craving" anything (well, except for some small sweet thing. I may have a date after I write this).

Why is this happening, and why is it happening now? There are a couple of possible reasons: