This is a combination confession and mini update - hope that's ok. I just wanted to say that I'm truly amazed with the difference in how I'm feeling these days. I've been on PP before, and it's been a chore - I've been at war with myself the whole time. I've seen it as a way to get some weight off, then get back to 'normal'. My all-time high was 272, and now I'm at 226. Some of that progress is from PP, some from other things. At any rate, that means I've lost about 1/3 of the total amount I want to lose.

Right before I started PP this time around, I was eating 3 supposedly balanced meals a day (food pyramid), sugar sweetened soda, and lots of extra sweets. I was eating 2-3 candy bars a day, along with some ice cream. I was wanting to change my behavior, and I was trying to change it, but I couldn't. I was feeling really trapped and frustrated. I felt like a failure and a loser.

Then, last Tuesday I decided to do PP for a couple days as a quick fix. I always got a strong diuretic effect from the plan, so I thought I'd do it for a day or two and then just see. I cheated once a day, but compared to what I'd been doing, it was a lot better.

Then, a couple days ago, I had a sweet food after supper. I felt awful afterward - headache, indigestion, and a general 'icky' feeling.

I have finally seen that eating sugary or starchy foods makes me feel physically bad. When I eat within the PP boundaries, I feel much better. For whatever reason, this time around I feel like this is a positive change, not something I 'have' to do. I got some low-carb cookbooks from the library, and I've done a bit of shopping to have the things on hand that I need to be successful.

I think I got into some sort of sugar binge cycle or something, and doing PP helped me break out of it. Right now, my cravings are minimal, and I'm finding I can be satisfied with the sweetness of a bit of fruit or a small (malitol) piece of chocolate. I get hungry, but I am not having the severe cravings I was having before. I feel cleaner, like my cells are letting go of some junk. I don't know how to describe it, except to say that I'm enjoying this food plan quite a lot this time around. There are a few things I miss, and they are high-carb items, but with a little more time and progress, I will probably invest in low-carb variations of those items. For now, I'm just extremely happy that this is working, that I'm losing weight and feeling better, and that I feel more at peace. I sure hope it continues!!

-Catinhat