I stopped trying to be perfect and LOST! :)

I'm one of those all black or all white people - finding the middle ground is hard for me, to say the least. I think that's why I've had such a hard time with losing the weight - I try so hard to do things perfectly - follow this plan perfectly, that when I slip, I totally go the opposite direction and go crazy eating crappy food.

This week, I tried to remember how I used to eat when I didn't have to think twice about it - healthy eating, or eating to maintain, was just the norm for me. Because of that, it's hard to remember what I did, LOL! But this week, I counted calories (I try to stay around 1600-1700) and swapped out substitutions. I didn't try to eat all clean foods, I didn't try to come up with crazy recipes, etc. and everything. I just said, I'm hungry, what can I eat that is low in calories and will make me feel satisfied? Sometimes it was a cottage cheese, sometimes it was a piece of chocolate cake that I mixed with pumpkin (yum!). I ate the dinners I wanted to cook, but watched my portions and substituted Barilla Plus pasta for regular, etc. Nothing major.

Yesterday, I ate 777 calories OVER my goal and I fully expected to wake up this morning a pound or so heavier, just from the food weight, or sodium, or whatever. I had dropped another 1.2 pounds!! That makes a total of 4+ pounds just this week. I'm sure that some of that is water, I know that that is not a normal amount to lose every week, etc. But for the first time, I felt "normal" - like this was a way I could eat for life. It's not 100% clean, it's not Weight Watchers, it's not any one plan. It's a combination of plans that works for me.

Dare I say I've found that elusive gray area?