My Sincere Apologies

Wow, I’ve been busy. Tres busy. Too busy (so far) to make the move I said I would do in the blog entry below this one. My apologies about that. I know you’ve probably come across blogs that apologize about not posting, and think, “wow, that’s lame.” But mine is sincere, so the lameness is gone! Kind of.

In fact, I’m just dipping in here now very quickly, as we have really high winds here today and the power has already gone out twice on me. Hopefully, it’ll stay up long enough for me to post this.

For those keeping score, I’m still on Smart for Life, and have now lost almost 55 pounds. That’s in about 4 months’ time. Not bad, eh? I’m back into clothes I haven’t been able to fit into for quite a while. I’ve already had a suit and some pants taken in, and I’ve got two blazers I like but are too big, so they’re up next on the tailor’s form. Plus, I’ve gone through two belts. We’re talking gone completely through two belts. Yee hah!

We were on a cruise a few weeks back, and I gained a bit of weight back (not nearly as much as I would have back in the “bad old days” of out-of-control eating and drinking, though). But just 2 weeks later, after re-starting Smart for Life and “hitting it hard” when we came back, I’m back down to the weight I was just before I left. Phew.

Now I’m at a bit over 270, and want to be at 255 by my birthday (at the end of next month). That’s 15 pounds in 5-ish weeks, which I think is doable. Then my next goal is another 30 pounds off by July 4th (225). 30 in just over 2 months? Doable wit’ a capital D.

One really, really good thing about Smart for Life is that you can fairly easily hop right back on the horse if you fall off. We’ve had a few short periods of cheating, including the cruise. But picking up this good “habit” happens in just a few days (after you get through that “I could eat a horse. And a house” feeling). And the quick weight loss really reinforces the plan itself.

And when we do cheat, we act like people who are already at goal. So we really watch what we eat, etc., so that the “cheat” really isn’t all that bad in the first place. And you know something? It works. When we do “cheat” like that, we don’t gain weight; we maintain our weight. Which tells me that when we’re done with losing it, we’ll be able to keep it off this time.

The not-so-good thing? Smart for Life’s cookie quality has gone down. I mean, really down. The chocolate ones used to be pretty darn good; lately, they’ve been really dry and not all that tasty. At our local clinic in D.C., they told us that their corporate HQ had switched bakers — I’m guessing an ill-advised cost-cutting move on corporate’s part. The good news is that they are now switching back to the original one that made the yummy cookies, which is a really great move. This is not the easiest diet to stay on, and you really need to have something that tastes good if you’re going to replace breakfast and lunch with 6 cookies.

A new thing with S4L, meantime, is that they are starting to encourage exercise. Not too much, mind you. But I guess they’ve had a lot of people like me, who complained about not being able to exercise as we lost weight and really started to feel good. So all this week, I’ve been walking at least 30 minutes with my dogs, which has also helped with my weight loss, too.

I will do at least one more blog entry (before moving), about getting more protein into your system on a daily basis, without really violating the S4L principles. Basically, I don’t think that the amount of protein in 6 cookies is enough for me, even with a protein-dominated dinner. I’ve found a really good, lactose-free, fat-free protein powder that absolutely kicks butt when mixed with Crystal Light Sunrise orange flavor. Tastes just like a Creamsickle, I swear. So I’ll detail my strategy behind it, and the results I’ve been getting.

Of course, I’m only telling you what works for me. I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, and I’m not recommending you do anything. Your mileage may vary. Actual results may differ. Insert your favorite commercial disclaimer/cliche here.

If you want to check out what has kept me so busy, visit my company’s new “baby,” Sibdu. It’s all about commercial real estate search, but it flips the idea on its. Basically, it reverses the very process of search itself. We call it “Search by Request.” When you go to the site, you’ll see why. And of course, we blog there as well, at Sibdu Blog. Pretty cool stuff, actually.

Oops, another power dip. Gotta run. I promise to get a new domain here @ WordPress (somewhere) and blog away about my weight loss experiences, though. Please bear with me.