I had to take a break from going insane for personal reasons. Getting back on track has been more complicated than I expected. Prior to taking a break I put myself on a 350 calorie per meal plan. I’ve been on this meal plan for just under two weeks. I purposely didn’t say DIET, because it’s not a diet. I’m not trying to lose weight just to fit into a dress, or for an event. Unless the event is to live as long as I possibly can and be healthy as long as humanly possible. I thought a 350 calorie per meal plan wasn’t going to work for me but boy was I wrong. I even survived my “high craving” days. 350 calories per meal comes out to 1,050 calories per day. I was concerned that 350 calories wasn’t going to be enough but I have some left over with every meal. Originally I was going to do a 250-300 calorie per meal plan but I wanted to have room for snacks, so I decided 350 calories hopefully would be enough. So far it’s been more than enough. Sometimes I have more than 100 calories left over from one meal sometimes less. For breakfast I’d eat 1/2 cup of cereal with 1/2 cup of skim milk, light yogurt and water, or 1-2 waffles with 1/2 cup of light syrup with a yogurt sometimes I’d include fresh fruit with breakfast which means I’m eating even smaller amount of cereal and 1 waffle, pancake or french toast . 3/4 cup of cereal, before I was like who does that these people are not being realistic, well I was the one not being realistic. My goal is to eat at least one cup of yogurt per day. I hear it helps with the belly fat so I eat at least one cup of yogurt either for breakfast, lunch or dinner and I eat my last meal of the day as close to 6 PM as I possibly can. I also found that eating yogurt in the morning for breakfast helps me feel full somehow. I eat Baked Potato chips, use skim milk none of which I was eating before. I still ate my Swedish Fish, those things are so addicting, don’t even understand why but I included them in my meal plan. In stead of eating 1/2 of the bag in one day I ate about 7 which came to 150 calories worth. I eat 1- 100 calorie ice cream bar. The serving says you can eat two but I chose to eat just enough to satisfy the craving and that way they’ll last longer. I didn’t know how far I was going to be able to take this calorie counting, or if I was going to end up raising the calorie amount but when you give more attention to how you eat what you eat you find that you can eat, not feel hungry and have a snack and still be within your calorie goal plan. I know I can’t allow myself to get hungry, because I learned from previous failed ideas that once I’m hungry all deals are off. I’m going to throw something, anything together and forget measuring, I’m just going to eat,so I don’t allow myself to get hungry. For the last week plus I eat salad with my dinner every night. My calories I carry over from day-to-day but not week to week. If I don’t use them by Saturday night which is when my calorie counting week-end then I take satisfaction in the fact that I ate fewer calories per day for the week than I expected.  It’s a great feeling to know not only am I staying within the meal plan and not going over but I have hundreds of calories left over. Last time I posted a pair of my Capri P J’s I was able to tighten the string on and another pair of PJ pants they had turned into Capri’s, Lol but they are now Pajama pants again. I am drinking no less than 96 ounces of water per day. Every so many days I will treat myself to a powdered drink with my water but as a rule I don’t drink anything but water. I even find that the 24-32 ounce of powdered drink last all day sometimes even into the next day. Didn’t used to, used to be gone within 20-30 minutes. I am so proud of myself and the changes I am making just for me. To look in the mirror and see where my waist line is shrinking and my face (cheeks) seems to get slimmer everyday is a speechless feeling. Yes its going slow but at least I can see the results of my hard labor. Which I must admit isn’t as hard except for the exercising part. Honestly that had even gotten where it was getting easier. I’m not perfect, but I feel amazingly great about myself. I’ve said I love me but I’m taking the time to show myself just how much I love me and truly just how much I value my health and my life. I have cut my calorie intake WAY down, I ask my daughter, how many 12 oz bottles of pop she believed I used to drink she said about 2-3, I knew she was wrong I’d have 2-3 just for breakfast. I ask my youngest son, how many bottles he believe I used to drink he said about 5-6 and that was more like it and during my “high craving” days it would be more or when I was “stressed”. I told myself some people smoke cigarettes, do drugs abuse alcohol, I’m ONLY drinking pop so how bad can it be. Looking back, very bad. So a year ago I was drinking most days just under a thousand calories, 3-5 days out of the month I was drinking possibly 12-1500 calories. I was also eating. Just thinking about it makes me realize I was a walking heart attack just waiting to happen. I’ve always heard God looks out for babies and fools. Well God knew I was a straight fool to drink all those bottles of pop. We’re not even going to talk about the amount of Caffeine and Sugar I was consuming EVERYDAY, I possibly can’t even count that high. Remember Sugar is the Other White Powder. Thank God for common sense and the mind to make changes BEFORE the problems/sickness begins. Well I’m going to save some for the next time. Enjoy your Sunday and love yourself enough to Quit Using Excuses and make the necessary changes so you can increase the possibility of you living a longer and healthy life. I don’t know what my life is going to be like in 50 years but I’m nosy, an I know I definitely would like to be around to find out and be healthy and fit so I can enjoy it. Be Blessed and Be a Blessing to others 🙂