It's time for the big reveal...

Ok. So it's not that big. It's not anywhere near as big as I had hoped. I'm gonna give myself a break though, cause, come on. Festive holiday cheer and soy nog and all that. And chocolate. Piles and piles of chocolate.

The day after Christmas, I was all set to jump back on the crunchy granola band wagon, but there was the small matter of left over ham and pumpkin pie in the fridge. I did really well ignoring it. I ignored it all through breakfast and ... I was eating it by noon. The following day I did all right. Until I got to work. And there was all sorts of candies and coffees and goodies. The cheery bastards. Don't they know I have the will power of a golden doodle?

On the 28th, I was determined to get back in the saddle. I made all my meals, I prepared everything in advance. I knew I had to drive down to San Diego to celebrate my sister's birthday at a barbeque restaurant so I prepared my food, took it with me and ate it in the car on the way down. You're gonna be so proud. I didn't have a single thing at the restaurant. Things were really looking up. That is, until my other sister, who drove down with me, drove through In and Out on the way back up to the desert. I'm not even going to tell you what went on there, I'm sure you can figure it out.

So, step one. I'm admitting I have a problem. Finally, by the 30th of December, five days after my firey downward spiral from grace, I beat my diet back into submission. I have now had 5 whole days of clean and healthy eating and it can only go up from here.

So, this morning was my appointment with the nutritionist. Even with my little five day "bender", I lost 5lbs of fat! My lean body mass stayed right where it was at 162 lbs, and my hydration improved. I no longer have any idea what my goal weight should be, because if 162lbs is my lean body mass, obviously I should weigh more than that right?

How about the non-weight related benefits? I can now say with definity that I have much less inflammation in my joints. Its especially noticeable in my knees and ankles. I have so much more energy and my mood has really improved. The energy thing is particularly incredible to me because I have mostly given up caffeine but I have felt so peppy. Other people are noticing too. People at work have been asking me about my energy and one girl even asked, "What did you do? You're so much nicer now!" Which, if you think about it, is just another way of saying, "You used to be such a bitch!"

Where to from here? Well, the nutritionist taught me how to design my own menus, so I should be able to add in some new foods, but we decided that I would stick with these for another two weeks. I still have a lot of work to do on my health. My hydration was better, but I am still bad at drinking water. I'm still drinking caffeine, (only one 2 oz espresso a day now though) and I'm not sure I'm at all interested in giving that up.

In October, I woke up one morning throwing up blood. I went by ambulance to the hospital where they discovered that I had hepatitis and hemolytic anemia. It took them four days to narrow the cause down to Epstein Barr. I was told that it could take several months to heal from this completely, but, because the pain has yet to go away, I'm going in for an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow morning. I'm pretty freaked about this, because my grandfather on my mothers side died of liver cancer when he was 34.

My biggest goal, with this diet, and assuming that everything turns out ok tomorrow, is to make sure that this stops happening to me. No more mystery illnesses, no more hospitals, no more drugs. Just a healthy body that functions that way it should.

Ok, now that this got so dark, I think its time for a little levity. How about a game? I have five weeks until my next appointment with the nutritionist. Leave a comment on this post with your guess as to how much fat I will lose (in pounds) by February 8th, and the closest guess will win an amazon.com giftcard. Ready, go!