Second Cycle!

Today was Day 1 of the second cycle I'm doing. This time, it's 24 days, and it's expected that I'll lose 25 pounds. That will put me firmly under 300 pounds, which is thrilling — I haven't been there since summer 2008 and never really was able to keep it under at that time. This time will be different, and it's exciting!

My two load days were not as enjoyable as I thought they'd be. It's almost as if my thinking about food, my desires, are already starting to shift. I found myself looking forward to starting up on the diet again, to be honest. I ate a lot of crap, but not as much as I thought I would, and I just didn't get that much pleasure out of it. Weird!

I'll be eating about the same as I did in my first diet cycle, but a tiny bit less. For lunch and dinner each 3.5 oz. of protein, 2 cups of veggies, 2 Melba toast, and one fruit. The other day I treated myself to a wonderful gourmet balsamic vinegar that makes salad and even just plain tomatoes something extra special, so that'll be nice. I've said this before, but I really like the structure I have when doing the diet phase, and not really having to think too much about what I'll be eating. I wonder if I'll have as hard of a time on certain days with cravings — I suspect not, or at least less so. Those were more psychological than anything anyway. Now I know that those foods I really wanted to eat during the last cycle are not "all that", so who knows. We'll see. I have a feeling that after several cycles, I might just break my problem with food at long last. Stay posted!

Oh, and a note about finishing up maintenance this last time: my final weigh-in before the load days was just ounces above my final diet weigh — perfect! Just where I wanted to be.

Going in to my second round with a really positive outlook. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to waving good-bye to the 300s!