I ate food and it didn't kill me

LOL. I finished my six full weeks on the liquid diet with my doctor. Lost 19 pounds officially. Go me. So, I now get to eat real food for dinner. I am quaking in my boots. I can eat either a lean protein (chicken, fish or turkey which can be grilled, broiled, or baked) and two vegetables, one of which must be a dark green veggie OR I can eat a bottomless spinach, mixed greens or romaine salad with fresh veggies and the lean protein on it. White carbs are to be completely avoided at this point. Sounds easy, right? Yeah well, when I asked "how much is a portion?" I got nothing but a smile from the doc. See, her theory is that when she's all done with me and turns me completely loose, I won't be weighing and measuring anything. So, she doesn't want me to start out doing that. Instead, I am supposed to alternate bites of everything and stop eating when I first begin to feel full - no matter how much is still on my plate. For someone raised in the "you better clean your plate because there are starving children in Africa" generation, this is no small thing. I did pretty well last night even though I went out to eat with the ladies from my old investment club. I ordered a small mixed greens salad, trout (broiled), and steamed asparagus. I brought home a little more than half of the trout and half of the asparagus, which with another veggie will make dinner for tonight, too.

Intellectually I know this is the right way for me to progress even though I have another 20-25 pounds to lose. But I am so afraid of reversing my good progress. I just want to be healthy and feel good about how I look again.

On a positive note, I started at a new to me gym this week since mine is still closed from the flooding. Getting back into weight training is kicking my butt. Which is a good thing. I went four days this week, which is good for me because I hurt so much. I'm considering doing a body pump class with a friend of mine next week. I'm a little intimidated by it though.

Interestingly, though I've lost 19 pounds and lots of inches everywhere, I still have not gone down a full clothing size yet. I started out in size 12's - admittedly snug size 12's. But I cannot yet get into all of my size 10's that I wore a few short years ago. I can wear some, but not all. Size 8's are still laughing at me tauntingly. Someone on one of my stitching boards posted about being able to lose two pounds and be in a smaller size while someone else she knew had to lose like 15 pounds to decrease clothing size. I guess this goes in the category of things that make you scratch your head. For me, the biggest size changing issue is my waist measurement. I lose weight there last. So, while I am wearing small and medium tops, my bottom can't quite keep up. Clearly, you don't lose weight evenly throughout your body. Weird, huh?

Well, those size 8's can laugh all they want. I'll be wearing them at some point in the not too distant future. My dream is to be comfortable in size 6's, but honestly, I could be content to be a size 8 for the rest of my natural life, provided my body fat percentage is in the healthy range. That's really the key. I want to be healthy again.