I'm not going to worry about a title right now. . .this is more for my own cathartic rambling than anything else. I am losing weight. . .I have already lost a LOT of weight (see the last post for a count). People can't help but notice that I've lost the weight. And yet, I don't see it.

I mean, I do see it. . .but not the way that others seem to see me. Several of the older retired people at work call me "Skinny Miss". How funny is that! ? ! I still weigh in at 170, which is far from skinny. My goal never was about being skinny. It was about saving my joints and lowering risk factors for medical issues as I grow older. (BTW, for the record, I will never be old. I have already decided that. PERIOD. . .there is no room for further discussion on that.)

Co-workers regularly ask how I'm doing this? Can I help them? With a background in pre-nursing and lots of health science and nutrition classes under my belt, I respond sure. It's pretty simple.

To lose weight, energy in must be less than energy out. In other words, what you eat, must contain less calories than what your body requires to maintain at your given weight. I know all the calculations for basal metabolic rate, and I highly suggest to EVERYONE that they do a diary. One of the best tools I've found with my weight loss has been the food and activity diary.

This is not rocket science. In fact, I would venture to say that the large (pardon the pun) majority of people who are overweight are just flat in denial about how many calories are in what they are eating. Did you know that one piece of Wonder Bread is about 100 calories??? And on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for example, you add another 150 calories for each (PB and the J), for a total caloric intake of nearly 500 calories??? WOW! That's alot of calories, and alot of sugar and fat!

But that wasn't the point of this entry. The point of this was that some people (okay, two people whose opinions oddly seem to matter to me) have not even commented ONCE on my loss. And I am left to wonder, when even the people at the grocery store, the gas station, and the bank who don't even know my name have noticed and complimented me. . .well, what gives with those two????

So I remind myself that I didn't do this for either of those people. I did this for me. But do me a favor, if you see either of them, smack them for me, okay????