Losing weight-- the cheetah way

5 x 7 acrylic "sweet"

I decided about a month ago that it was time for me to lose the baby weight, especially since my baby is well past the drinking age. 

I know I shouldn't have let those pounds creep up on me.  I was always slim.  So since my husband and I are recent empty nesters I felt that now that I wasn’t cooking for a herd anymore, it would be a bit easier to diet.

Oh no, I said that awful word—diet.

Just so you all know I have already lost 12 lbs, and a dress size.  I didn’t buy expensive frozen food from TV ads, and I didn’t take diet pills. I did it the old fashioned way.  It really wasn’t that much of a sacrifice and I found out that you could lose weight by eating!  Yes I really said eating.  One shouldn’t define the word, diet as a major sacrifice.  A diet should just identify an organisms sustaining food source.  For example…a cheetah’s diet consists of antelopes.  See, that doesn’t sound like the Cheetah is giving up anything!

A few changes are necessary, I know. I never ate breakfast, since I was never hungry till lunch. So I started forcing myself to eat a breakfast even if I wasn’t hungry.  I found that if I count calories (sorry there is no easier way) and write down everything I ate in a day, I could see there were several things that should be limited for the time being.

Did I really need a pound of butter on my toast?  Did I really need two slices of toast or would one be sufficient?  Do I really need high fat dressing on my salad?

I discovered that I liked the taste of food without the little extras.  Salads tasted better without drowning them in dressing, croutons and bacon bits.  I also found that fruit was a great substitute for dessert.  I will never totally give up chocolate but I didn’t have to.  Special K makes a cereal that has chocolate pieces right in the box.  And it was really satisfying. 

I amped up the exercise.  Just walking the dog is a wonderful way to stop and smell the roses as well as dropping a few calories from lunch.  The key I found is to do something you enjoy!  Cheetahs happen to like running at 70 MPH and I’ve never seen a fat cheetah, have you?

I learned that a binge was no reason to get discouraged because tomorrow is another day and everyone needs to let loose once in a while.

I still would like to lose 20 more pounds till I lose the rest of the baby weight, so I intend to keep up my no sacrifice regimen.  Pretty soon I will be looking as fit and svelte as ….yup you guessed it, a cheetah!

Be sure to check out all the great artwork by the super talented artists at paint party friday!  That's where I am headed!! J