Damn COVID-19 pounds!!! You know, those that have settled on your thighs and made themselves at home around your belly pretending to be a tire.
Glenn and I had them.
I am lucky. I like boho palazzo pants. They are cute when I am skinny and have much-needed space when I am not. They can hide a lot. But, eventually, something had to give.
We were walking every day – well, almost. And we weren’t eating badly. But we were mindlessly snacking. And it all added up to being downright uncomfortable.
We weren’t necessarily overweight. We still could find ourselves on the good part of the charts.
But, I have had an eating disorder lasting from my sophomore year in high school till about eight years ago when I moved in with Glenn, who knew the complete story and was a bit too vigilant for me to get away with participating in my full-blown disorder. One never quite gets away from the disordered thinking, though.
It can dominate thoughts.
We visited Dr. Leslie Flores, our wonderful doctor here in San Miguel, and I was at my max in frustration. I had tried reducing calories, doing Pilates (at home – whoops, a bit too easy to slack on) but I was in a holding pattern, a plateau. Fluctuating between 135 and 138, when I feel best and healthiest at 117-121, was driving me batty. I ruminated and fussed, and Glenn tired of it.
Leslie mentioned vegetable soup. AH – cabbage soup diet. YES! I had done that before. It worked. A little light in the tunnel.
So on the way home, we filled our day packs with a large head of purple cabbage and a whole lot of other veggie goodness, some stock, and a can of stewed tomatoes.
At home, I got on Google and looked for the Cabbage Soup diet plan. Yes, there is more to it than soup.
There are lots of websites that have versions, but this is the one we used, without the potato.
And there is a Cabbage Soup Facebook Group I joined for a bit of motivation.
We made that big ole batch of soup, spiced it up with some lime and chili flakes, and started sucking it down.
Glenn lost pounds fast. For me, it took three days to see the results. And I got frustrated and a bit whiny during those days. But the group said just hang in there and the morning of day three I had lost 4 pounds. Then I lost 4 more by the end of the week. Typical is 7 to 10 pounds. Glenn lost 11 or 12.
You need to follow the plan strictly in order for it to work the way it is supposed to. The diet is for seven days. If you still have weight to lose, wait a week to start over.
This is not a long-term diet. It is just to get you over the plateau hump, basically.
I am now down to 120 and want some more pounds off. But I am happy at this and have a few pound fluctuation.
We actually enjoy the soup so much that we have a batch made every week and have it a couple of times a week to maintain. Glenn supplements it with some grilled chicken – yummy!
The bounty of San Miguel, our daily shopping for goodies, makes it easy.
It is much easier to do this and stay at the weight we are at than to indulge all the time and get back up 15 to 20 pounds and say Ugh Oh, I got a boulder to get over.
Now, in maintenance, we allow some indulgences of margaritas, a dessert or two, a night out for a grand dinner. The rooftop restaurants beckon. We can never say no to them. But we rein it in the rest of the time. It is all about balance.
Yes, my niggling thoughts of keep at it, just another 10 or 20 pounds will do the trick, do pop up.
My over sixty body will never get back to bounce a quarter off my butt, or stomach, you pick the body part. And that bikini is a thing of the past, along with the toilet bowl. I am never going back to 78 pounds and ribs sticking out, the horrible shaking, the runaway thoughts, the constant comparisons, the bad teeth, the passing out, yo-yo-ing.
In San Miguel, eating can be an event, a romantic interlude, a get-together, an experiment. That is a much better way for me to look at it rather than a curse.
I feel great after my nudge. Glenn does too. We are determined to keep a healthy eye on our weight. It is so much easier to walk up the hills, scoot around town.
San Miguel has given me more than a lovely place to live with “Mi Amor.”
San Miguel has given me a place I can be whole in. Be my best self. And be healthy in mind, body, and spirit. To be content.
The United States was so toxic it almost killed me.
Sometimes a decision to change gives you a whole new life.
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