How to Lose Weight without Suffering #1

RULE #1 Eat whatever the hell you want…

Just not everything you want.

I lost ten percent of my body weight and have kept it off for over a year without pain, without “dieting,” without combining stupid foods. Southern Belles don’t suffer on purpose.

It all started on June 15, 2011, but I didn’t know it, I thought I was just going to spend a month in Europe.  At the time I said I weighed 150.  It was more often 152, 153, but I didn’t want to be petty. I also said, my weight fluctuated between 152 and 147.  (The only time I hit 147 was when I had the flu.)  But I thought I looked OK and at 5’4”, I wasn’t unhealthy.  Five pounds overweight, according to the CDC, but what’s 5 pounds? 

In London I joined my cousin who was going through a divorce and had lost 60 pounds on the misery diet. Misery aside, she looked great and was determined not to stay that way.  We walked everywhere.  She ran and swam.  I just walked.  She cut out sugars, starches, and breakfast. I ate breakfast and bread, but I wasn’t going to pig out on cookies around her.  Still we ate in restaurants almost every night and sometimes at lunch. She counted calories, I was just aware that I didn't want to overeat. "I didn't eat everything I wanted."

When I got home on July 15, 2011 I weighed 148.  A month later, I weighed 146 without suffering. That’s when I decided to get serious and see how much I could lose while living my life.  My goal was 130.  

In my next posts I’ll let you know how I did it and some easy rules that I follow.

London transportation

The fastest way around London is by the tube. But you're underground, breathing foul air, herded like cattle at transfer stations. The most expensive is by taxi and it can be very expensive. The slowest is by bus. Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend in Belgravia. What a treat it was to walk down Sloane Street past the achingly beautiful and wildly expensive shops and then take the bus back to the flat in Maiden Lane. I sat on top in the corner and watched the world go by. We lumbered past Hyde Park Corner, the Wellington Arch, Green Park, the Ritz Hotel, up Piccadilly past the Royal Academy of Arts, around Trafalgar Square, up the Strand to Maiden Lane. A great way to see London and get home at the same time.