I really, really miss cheese

Don't get me wrong - most of the time I feel great... not hungry, not tired, and really positive and happy about this experience. But I miss cheese more than anything. Ever.

If you asked anyone who knows me well what food I would miss most, they would have said "ice cream". And yes, I'd love some. But I don't care that I can't have it. It's cheese that I'm dreaming about. Every time I see it in the fridge I want to pick it up. Hold it. Smell it. Lick the edge so I can just taste it. There are lots of other foods that I love - sweet potatoes, eggs, yogurt with strawberries... but I could live without all of them for just one more piece of cheese.

But my resolve is strong and I will not cheat. I'm down to 132lbs today!

Tuesday morning was my first plateau. I didn't lose an ounce from Monday to Tuesday. I was miserable all day. We took new pictures anyway and I couldn't look at them. I wanted to fall under a bus instead. Now I'm happy again because I've lost 2 1/2 more pounds since then. Which leads me to my next rant:

IF YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY DOING THIS PROGRAM, DO NOT WEIGH YOURSELF EVERY DAY. Or even every week.

I've been telling women for years to throw away their scales and ask instead "Do my pants fit?" and "Are these the pants I want to be wearing?". Those should be our only questions. Answered honestly (and acted upon), they will keep us at a healthy weight. We will feel good about ourselves and our self-esteem won't be damaged on a day-to-day basis. It's too easy to measure our "success" - and therefore our worth - by a number!

So to do this program, I had to put aside my beliefs about weight (and how totally unimportant it is) and weigh myself every day, and it's taken less than two weeks for "the number" to rule my day. How damaging would that be over the course of a few years? A lifetime?

On the flip side, if I didn't weigh myself every day and continually see the number going down, I might lose a bit of my motivation and succumb to the cheese. So for now, the scale is a necessary evil. But I am really looking forward to the day when it is once more just a dust-collector in the corner.