Thanks for your advice, but.......

So, there is this fabulous lady at the gym who is probably in her late 50's but her body is TOTALLY awesome. She is always lifting weights and jumping around - no joke - reminds me of the dot drill from high school. Anyway, we've chatted a couple of times and on Friday after I completed a set of jumping squats (hello booty!) she told me she had noticed that my hard work was really paying off. So nice of her to say! Then I let it slip that I had lost 46 pounds - that's right 46 POUNDS - and she was quite impressed with that number and here is our conversation from that point:

Janice: So surely you've changed your nutrition too?

E: Oh, of course.

J: And you've probably cut out the carbs?

E: Nope, just trying to stick with whole grains (and the occasional churro).

J: Well, I guess that's okay since you are working out so hard. But you've stopped eating after 6 right? That's so important because your body just can't burn those calories after 6.

E: Uhhhhhhh.......

We chatted for a bit longer and left it at that. She is such a nice lady and I really appreciate her noticing the changes I've made, however, I just thought it was so funny how she was trying to get me to admit to giving things up - which I haven't - and assuming I've stopped eating after dinner because it would be physically impossible for me to lose weight if I was still having a late night snack - which I do every night after the kids are in bed (Healthy Choice fudge bar - SO GOOD - and a 100-cal pack of something).

I just want to make sure that I am making myself clear at this point in my weightloss journey - I have NOT eliminated any food from my diet, although I no longer drink regular soda - I wanted to make this my lifestyle change until I'm gone. And right now I would be sabatoging myself if I didn't eat after 6 or gave up carbs - I'm smart enough to see the bingeing that would ensue. I think the big "secret" for me is that I'm doing what works. Sure, I eat oatmeal with pb for breakfast now - when we lived in Idaho I would go the the Maverik at least 2 or 3 times a week and get a donut, soda and some sort of breakfast sandwich. I eat my spinach salad with some turkey and hardboiled eggs and yogurt for lunch (or my beloved subway or costco salad) - when we lived in Idaho it would NOT be unusual for me to make myself physically sick from eating lunch at Big J's or from the deli at Broulim's, and I was doing this on a pretty regular basis. At night I'm still eating what I used to make for dinner in Idaho - the difference being that I cook dinner at home on average 6 times per week compared with 3 or 4 in Idaho. And I've already mentioned my evening snack - I cannot tell you what I used to eat after the kids were gone to bed and Jeremy was working his second job at Walmart because my face is starting to turn red even thinking about it. I was not only medicating myself with food each day but I was also abusing myself with food. Food helped me ignore the fact that I was ignoring my life.

Whoa, that got a little heavy for a sec. My point is that I'm going to just keep doing what I'm doing - lunch this week will be spinach, sunflower seeds, 2 hardboiled eggs, 3 oz. Columbo Herb Roasted Turkey (absolutely heavenly - thank you Costco), my Kraft Zesty Italian light and an activia yogurt. And I'm quite sure that I'll have a churro or two this week and might even have pizza for dinner and have at least 2 cans of diet coke each day. But I also know that I'll be at the gym for 10 hours this week - two of those hours spent in my saddle at my spinning class - and I'll continue drinking my water, eating my oatmeal, measuring out my dinner portions and sticking with my calories. Maybe I'll get more hardcore later - and maybe I won't, time will tell, but for now.....

this is me now