And so it begins...

And so it begins...

I eat the Standard American Diet.  And I need to lose about 80 pounds.  Those two statements taken together will not surprise anyone.  We've been hearing for years how obese Americans are becoming and I guess I feel right into the same path as everyone else. I've always eaten what I wanted and what tasted good.  As I reach my 50's, it's all caught up with me and it's time to do something about it.

Aside from the obvious health benefits of losing weight, there are two main reasons that the time has come to do something about it. I have two beautiful little granddaughters and I want to be able to do things with them as they grow older.  And I love to travel.  I love to have adventures.  All the extra weights jeopardizes both of these.

I'm not the type of person that decides I'm going to go whatever-free or low-whatever.  Those types of diets usually last 2 days or less with me so it's time to reevaluate my eating and see what will work.  My current plan, and what I hope to chronicle here as a kind of diary to follow my progress, is to see how I can modify the Standard American Diet to keep what I and my family love and still lose some weight.  We do a lot of entertaining and attend a lot of events so I have to find a way to incorporate those things into my plan and not drive my family and friends nuts with trying to accommodate my need to lose weight if they do not.

My plan today is to first, weigh myself.  I will not be posting that weight here.  I will post what I lose or gain but not the total.  Second, I plan to observe very carefully what I eat and when.  I believe a lot of what I eat is done without thinking about it.  I think that eating consciously will make a difference.  I believe that portion control will be a big key to what I want to achieve here.

I won't be completely cutting out anything.  I love pop!  I just do!  My challenge will be to start controlling my consumption of the foods I love instead of letting them control me.  I'm going to call what I hope to achieve the Common Sense American Diet. And so it begins.