Eating Is Not Cheating...

I plan to eat for the rest of my life. That means that I need to balance good, healthy choices every day with a few of those not-such-great-choice splurges once in a while. I will not go the rest of my life without pizza, cheesecake, martinis, and pasta.

Some folks may have read my posts the other day and tried to put them together: I reached the halfway point and "rewarded" myself with pizza. Not so. I reached the milestone and ate pizza on the same day, but they were in no way related.

I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what I am going to eat, but everyone once in a while I get a hankering for something. I can live without it, but if an opportunity to eat that something comes up, I am going to go for it. The paradigm shift came with the realization that I cannot eat pasta in cream sauce 3 nights a week and maintain my health - but I don't have to deny myself all access to it, either.

It's that balance thing, again. Is it really neccessary *for me* to be absolutely perfect in my eating and working out? Um. Nope. As a matter of fact, perfectionism is an illness that I am trying to overcome. I am able to moderate what I eat and do and have managed to lose nearly 20 pounds without losing my mind in the process. Whether it takes me 2 months or 2 years to lose the next 20, I am heading in the right direction, and at some point I am going to want to maintain my weight. When that day comes, I do not want to have to re-learn how to live. Because, like I said, I plan to eat for the rest of my life, I figure the best time to learn how is now.

My approach to fitness is not for everyone. Heck, it probably isn't for anyone but me! I am all about choice and self-determination. If you have determined that you cannot go off plan at all, you know yourself best, so stick with it. Either way, here's to long, healthy lives. Oh, and pass the pasta. Thanks!