Day 5 of Phase 1.  I will not mention weight until the 14 days are over and I start on Phase 2.  Phase 2 is another word for the rest of my life eating plan.

Day 4 (yesterday) I was successful in keeping my eating on track.  So exhilarating!  I believe my talking about DASH diet on Facebook is helping me.  For one, I want to keep up with so many friends who are losing weight and getting healthier.  For another, I don't want to disappoint others who are giving me kudos for losing weight.  And finally, I don't want to disappoint myself after having come this far.

To most, losing 66 pounds is a great accomplishment.  Marie Osmond lost only 50, but she has earned bragging rights and tells about her success many times a day in her ad for Nutrisystem.  I was on Nutrisystem for a number of months and know it is a marvelous diet.  Of course, I stopped using it and regained weight and added even more for good measure!  What I am concentrating on now is choosing foods that are readily available and using them as they were meant to be used.  The Word of Wisdom, a revelation given to Joseph Smith in the 1800s, advises us how to eat.  The main advice about food is moderation.  

I remember when I was 30.  That was in 1976.  I had my stomach "stapled" by a surgeon who did many of those procedures.  I had that surgeon operate again a few years later because the suture line had come undone.  After the second surgery, I could tell the suture line failed again, so I didn't go see him again.  In 1997 or so, I had my third bariatric surgery, only this time by Dr Dan Baker in the Minneapolis area.  I lost after that, but then started re-gaining.  Again, I gained even more.  I think I was around 275-295 for a long time after that.  Then Nutrisystem and a few other seminars/plans.  Years later, I somehow got up to 354, even though I could tell my third surgery suture line held up.  It is indeed possible to graze one's way to morbid obesity even after successful surgery.  Gastric bypass only gives you a year or less to lose weight while you take on better habits.  The surgeon's offices are full of scrapbook pages of those who have lost all their excess weight after surgery.  They do not show any pictures of those of us who regained their weight.  I hope they now advise people that it is possible to get obese again.  I know they have support groups, unlike when I had surgery.

I will never forget one of the security guards at Mercy Hospital.  She was very tall and fairly young.  Only she was morbidly obese.  She walked around strong and proud. But she avoided eye contact.  Well, she had the surgery and got almost down to being normal weight.  Then she regained every pound she had lost.  I was not one of her acquaintances, so I didn't ever have the occasion to talk with her about anything, much less her surgery.  But I was as sadder for than for myself.

Feeling a bit down today.  Weather is so cold.  Bob is fretting because he can't think of what we should have for dinner.  I told him we should steam our fresh cauliflower and have some meat and a lettuce salad.  We have plenty of food here.  I guess nothing is inspiring him today.

I really should take a new picture of myself for Facebook.  I can easily take a "selfie" with the iPhone.  I might even be able to post it without help from Phil or Ryan!!

I had better get something to drink.  I'm so dry!  I have to keep reminding myself to drink water when I feel hungry.  I have too often mistaken thirst for hunger and eaten instead of having a drink of water.  I could then also have my light yogurt, which I love to enjoy slowly while I watch TV.   Last night I finished off a stalk of celery, but I have another I can clean and bag for today.  I'd like to buy the celery hearts rather than whole stalks because the outside stalks are most often not as good a flavor as the others.  When I get a whole stalk, I feel honor bound to eat all of the stalks.  Oh well.