Every time I’ve decided to lose weight, I’ve gone on a diet. That meant things like eliminating entire foods out of my life, or counting calories, or counting fat & fiber, or counting points, or buying prepackaged food from places like Jenny Craig. And it also meant lots of cravings, temptations to cheat, and the inevitable binges that led to the diet being completely abandoned.  It was all about deprivation. Seriously. I remember being on Weight Watchers, and figuring out how much food I could possibly eat and still stay within points. Or I’d decide to eat something bad, so I’d look up the points and plan around it. And I lost weight. Every time I joined Weight Watchers, I’d lose weight for as long as I stayed with the program.

So now I have eliminated entire foods out of my life (meats, dairy, eggs). I’m not paying someone $35 a month to go sit in meetings and weigh in once a week. I’m not counting calories, or points, or anything else. And I’ve lost 30 pounds–it came off very quickly at first, but then slowed down to a trickle. And yes, I do weigh myself every morning. Even though the scale seems to have gone on hiatus, I can tell how much I’ve lost by how my clothes fit (or don’t fit). I still don’t like to see pictures of myself, because I still look incredibly obese (that would be because I am), but when I can jump up and down and have my pants fall to my ankles, well! Very gratifying!  But there’s no deprivation here. None. This morning I had a bowl of oats with a little Sucanat, some cinnamon, a sliced banana and a few sliced almonds. Then I ate some fresh cherries and red grapes. I’m feeling a little hungry now, so I may go have a little fresh roasted-garlic bread with a little schmear of Earth Balance margarine (tastes way better than some of the alternatives and it melts, too, like it’s supposed to).  I don’t know yet what I’ll have for dinner, but I guarantee you that it will be delicious and satisfying.

I like abundance. I like being able to eat whatever I want whenever I’m hungry. It’s a great feeling. I don’t have to figure out how to eat the bad stuff and still have points for the rest of the day. There is no bad stuff. (Well, okay, I could go eat a bag of Oreos, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.) I’m not feeling deprived because I choose not to eat cheese, for example. Who cares about cheese or eggs when I can have a pound of fresh cherries, or a tofu scramble with potatoes and black beans, or a bbq seitan sandwich with a couple of blue tortilla  chips.

Abundance is good.

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