Weigh in day.

Drum roll please...

OK...I lost 8 lbs this week. I think that is roughly the weight of a gallon of milk. I'm pretty thrilled. When you're a biggin, you can drop a lot of weight very quickly at the beginning of a diet. I'll take it though. It hasn't been a bad week. I have never really been hungry (except the first couple of nights when I would wake up starving.) Since then, I have not been eating at night.

Tonight, I had a ham and cheese omelet for dinner. It was very tasty. I made it with no butter, about a tablespoon full of shredded cheddar cheese, and about 3 oz of lean ham. I took it all and rolled it in a piece of whole-wheat flat bread. Lunch was another grilled chicken and pepper wrap. I'm trying to use up the peppers before they go bad. I found that yellow and red bell peppers get sweet when you stir fry them in a little light vegetable oil. Breakfast was mini wheat again. I snacked on some baked Doritos this afternoon when I felt the need to chew.

OK...it's been a few days since the last "Today's Nasty Fat Side Effect" so here it goes. Those of us on the portlier side of life discover that at some point our thighs begin to rub together. The really big amongst us notice that the two thighs eventually become one! It's a marriage of fat and cellulose. The result can be unnatural wear and tear on the inner thighs of pants. Even better is some serious chafing at the pool or beach. There's no way around it. I suppose you could slather on some lotion to ease the friction or maybe wear chaps...but then you go from being a sad fat person with thigh chafing to a sad fat person with thigh chafing who is also a freak. Really, losing weight seems to be the best way to go. I'd like to be able to sit with my knees together again without pulling a groin muscle in the process.

In the final analysis, I know that this is just the first week. It's going to take many before I undo the damage I have done to my body over the last ten years. I am encouraged. I haven't been too hungry, I have eaten a decent variety of food, and I am feeling better. Being accountable to my friends and family through this blog is motivational. Each of you adding comments, sending e-mails, and posting Facebook messages, encourages me to go on. Thank you for that!

51 weeks to go on this project...then the rest of my life.