Good Morning

I cannot believe how much weight each of you has lost! I don't know how you have the self-discipline. Kudos and admiration to you all!

I agree with you on the value of My Fitness Pal. For me it has essentially shown me the "big picture" in terms of my daily diet. Although I was aware of the caloric content of carbohydrates vs protein vs fat, I did not have a real grasp as to their individual impact on my health.

I know that I have never met a carb I did not like and that my diet was lopsided in favor of carbs, but I have come to look at carbs as the friends you desperately want to hang out with because they are laughing and cutting up, living on the wild side and loving it, but when you hang out with them you tend not to do your homework, start telling your mother to "chill" when she tells you to do something, and suddenly you think your Neiman Marcus wardrobe is frumpy.

If a food contains more than twenty carbs in a serving when I look at the label, I literally throw it down like it is scalding hot or contains strychnine. People in the grocery store must think I'm a paranoid schizophrenic.

My husband came home on February 1st from work and announced that he was entering a Body Fat Challenge at work and that he was going to win the district prize and lose 45 pounds. Since that day, he has become a Nutrition Nazi. Initially he researched foods and nutrition and passed on his newly found knowledge to me, asked my opinion, etc., but, just as I feared, he began passing judgement on every morsel of food that passed between my lips. Please do not misunderstand me when I say that his and my weight situations are radically different. I certainly want and need to lose weight and become healthier overall but I am trying to get back to my high school weight, not ward off a real and present danger of Type II Diabetes or hypertension. I am very grateful for all of the things he has made me aware. It has completely changed my outlook on food, but his fanaticism has made me reluctant to eat with him unless I am eating a food of which he expressly approves. I eat a large salad every evening but I no longer eat it in his presence because he would glare at me for putting salad dressing on it as if I were eating the heads of small puppies. Oh, and when he walked into the kitchen to find me taking a sip of orange juice, I may well have just issued a declaration of world war. I will continue to strive to eat more nutritiously, to be aware of what I am eating, and to force myself to get structured physical activity, but the fitness fanaticism and guilt imposed on the rest of the population by these nutrition martyrs are rather tiresome. I feel certain people are going to begin asking my BMI before having a conversation with me. If I tell them it's over 18, I will become a social pariah!