New Friends

On my trip to New York, I gained some new friends in our group of chaperons. One of them, Max, had recently been able to lose 105 pounds. I never knew him before this trip, but he says he gets some interesting looks and comments from people who see him and are amazed at his weight loss. He has been able to do a lot with regular exercise and watching his portion sizes. It turns out that he works out at the Wellness Center too! I noticed that he kept to fruits, salads, and yogurt parfaits more than anything on this trip. He looks wonderful and seems to be in excellent condition. Although I didn't make as many wise food choices as he did, it was nice to have other people trying to eat healthy. I don't really feel guilty about what I ate on the trip since we walked a lot and we were pretty good about sharing food and avoiding snacking. The real beauty of what I have learned in our nutrition classes is that I'm not on a diet. I'm making wiser food choices and I'm being careful with my portion sizes and I can do that forever. This is not a "diet" that ends when I get to my desired weight. This is a change in how I live my life. Exercise has also become a very normal thing for me now. My husband even tries to park the car further away so we can get in a few more steps. I'm glad I don't have to feel like I'm denying myself anything. We learned in this morning's class about hunger cues and paying attention to whether we're truly hungry or we want food for emotional reasons. That will be one of the most helpful tools for me since I often eat because I'm bored, dehydrated, tired, sad, lonely, etc.