The BIGGEST Simplifier!

First, I'd like to shout "Woo-hoo!" from the mountian tops because I've discarded over a hundred things, as of today!!! That's 103 things in two weeks! Yipeee!

Second, and you might have seen this coming when I got rid of my scale, but I got rid of dieting! This is scary and exciting at the same time. I've been dieting for almost 35 years. I'll be 41 in August. My mother had me on my first diet when I was six years old and really screwed up my self image... and I wasn't even a heavy kid! It was about her own fears. I feel like every time I've dieted I've reinforced those old feelings of being punished and basically told I'm defective and not good enough. I am so sick of beating myself up over this nonsense. And yes, this does include raw foods. However, for the record, there are some raw foods I'm still going to eat because I freakin' love them like: fresh pineapple, mangos, chia and baby Thai coconuts! But I am going to let myself be free to eat whatever the hell I want for this entire summer. I'm also going to make my six mile walk a daily adventure. Already got it in today and I feel great. I want to do and eat things that make me feel great. I've found after five years of trying to be a raw foodist and falling off the wagon thousands of times, that the deprivation really screws with my head. I rebel against it every time and when I break raw, I eat the worst possible things I can get my hands on, things I normally wouldn't go for. It's like a giant "F you, Mom!" every time and I've had enough. I'm not even following Margaret Cho's famous "Fuck It Diet", although I re-read it yesterday just for fun. http://www.margaretcho.com/content/2003/11/06/the-fuck-it-diet/

Instead, I'm just being me, listening to ME and feeling good. I've tried to give up diets before when I felt they were driving me mad, but couldn't last more than a few weeks. It is my longest running addiction, but I know I can do this. Right now I'm eating a romaine salad with grilled chicken, REAL mayonaise, sea salt, pepper, onions and celery and it's damn good. I knew I could have anything I want now. I could've had chocolate cake, a bag of donuts or gone to the casino for the buffet, but what did I really want? This salad... to a T and it is AWESOME. When it came to food, my life had become so ridiculously complicated. Simple = Happy!