Giving up things

So, many moons ago, I lost about 80 lbs on Weight Watchers. Woohoo, right?  Well, in the past 10 years or so, I've bounced around a bit, and reached a place where I'm only down about half that.  Still, great, right?  So I am back on the WW wagon, counting points the new way, and trying to eat more real food and less packaged processed crap this time around.

In the last year, I have given up a couple substantial things, and I think this will probably help me on this whole journey.  Actually, scratch that...  I hate calling it a journey, it sounds kinda cheesy and lame.  So I am going to call it my...  Weight loss extravaganza?  No, too snake oil salesman-ish.  Weight loss rodeo?  Maybe.  I'll let ya know what I settle on.  Anyhoo, about a year ago, I gave up gluten on a recommendation from my doctor.  To be honest, when she suggested it, I totally thought it was bullshit.  But, I decided to give it a few days, and I was shocked to find out that my gut felt about 800x better that it ever had before.  I accidentally ate something with gluten about five days into the experiment, and hooooooboy, did I notice.  So, it made it relatively easy to not eat it again.  I haven't purposefully eaten it since.  Of course, every now and then I end up eating it without realizing, and I know immediately.  Booo.

I also, on the recommendation of my doctor, eventually gave up my long time diet soda addiction.  Primarily diet Mountain Dew, but really any diet soda worked.  This, my friends, sucked ass. It was WAY harder for me to give it up than gluten.  I drank a lot of it.  Like, maybe 3-4 20 ounce bottles a day, if I am being honest.  Probably more on the weekends.  I loved nothing more than an ice cold fountain diet soda.  Honestly, I could still happily go back to this habit, which is why I am not trying moderation!!  I've been off it since October 28, not that I'm counting.

What finally convinced me to give it up was my doctor talking about cell death, primarily in my
brain.  Now, I have not done a ton of research, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that chemicals (aspartame) are probably not great for you in the qualities I was consuming them.  Given that I've been trying to get to the bottom of what the fuck is wrong with my gut, I figured this needed to happen.  I can't say as it made a difference, but really, I am glad (most of the time) that I ditched it.

Caffeine withdrawal headaches are a bitch.  That was the worst.  So, I took up a coffee habit.  A mocha habit, to be specific.  :D. Pick your poison, right?  Anyhow, because I cannot afford to go to Starbucks four times a day, I have reduced my caffeine intake a lot, as you can imagine.  Which helps me sleep better.  Shocking, right?


I suppose I should give up mochas, but at this point, I've given up two major things, and I can practice moderation with them (because I cannot afford not to!).  I get a skinny mocha, which does use sugar free syrup, but it's the Splenda kind, not anything made with aspartame. It's a treat, for sure, but at 130 calories (3 pts) it lasts longer than a candy bar, for less damage.  So it's not going anywhere for now.

Welp, here we go...

I've just recently gotten access to blogging from work, so I've decided to try and do some blogging about my adventures.  :D  That's such a dumb thing to say.  What I'll be talking about is my bag business (hence the name) and my weight loss efforts.  I'm finally back to a place where I'm ready to do this again, so here I go! 

I just rejoined Weight Watchers, which is typically what works best for me.  So I'm counting Points, and hopefully making some progress.  WOOT.