Hi Pam,

I bet your friends love your job! I think I'm like most people in that I don't like to feel deprived. I am also in the minority because I don't really think about calories, I refuse to be around scales, and I despise dieting.

What I do try to do is this. We walk absolutely everywhere. We hike, we go out on the bikes, and we're rarely sedentary. If we go out to dinner, we usually walk to the restaurant. Sometimes it's up to five miles round trip! When we go to the grocery store, we walk unless it's a huge shopping trip. We eat out tons and when I'm bad, I am bad. At home I try to make decent choices (ie egg beaters, whole wheat/grains, turkey bacon) of things that I am so used to, I don't even know the difference. In restaurants I also try to make good choices unless I'm having huge cravings for something. We split the appetizer and dessert and generally I have enough dinner left over for lunch the next day.

The bad part is I did stop riding/going to the gym for about a year and I'm paying for it now. Now that I've started back up, my clothes are starting to fit again. We also tend to have free flowing beer, wine, and bloody marys at home. If we didn't do that, I'm SURE I'd be tons lighter!

So I guess this rambling post just means to choose your battles. Try to move around a lot, try to make the best choices you can, but also enjoy it when you sin. Unless you're training for something or you want perfection.

You know what also? Just came to me. The more you eat sugar, the more you crave it. If I don't eat chocolate for a long time, I don't want it. When I do, the floodgates are open Maybe it'd be good just to do a week long (or so) detox from sugar?

Ok, I'll shut up now!