How It's Going

 I realized when I sat down to write this, I had not taken one picture today and so I just stepped outside of the porch and took this photo of the wisteria arbor and the phlox behind it, not even realizing that Maurice was in the frame until she meowed at me. 

That's her "Do you realize it's after four and I have not gotten my Temptations?" look. 

It's been a decent Sunday and on the whole, I guess I've felt better today. I didn't especially wake up in a good mood but as the day has progressed, it's gotten better. I made our Sunday brunch but it has definitely changed since Zepbound has entered my life. For some reason, I'm not real excited about eating eggs. In fact, the idea is a bit icky. I've also become a little paranoid about eggs being not very fresh. This is not like me. But this morning before I cooked any eggs, I did the float test on a few of the ones I had in the refrigerator and although most of them passed technically, the results didn't please me. Anyone who has kept chickens is probably aware of the float test because sometimes hens don't lay in the laying boxes but rather in random places they feel more comfortable in or for some other mysterious reasons and it's a good thing to be able to tell if they are still fresh enough to eat or not, thus the float test. This involves filling a bowl of water and setting your eggs in it to see if they float. If they do, throw them away. They should just settle right there on the bottom. Ideally. However, if they are somewhere between really fresh and not-so fresh, the small, pointier end of the egg will magically float above the rest of the egg so that it appears to be standing on its butt. These are probably safe to eat but I didn't feel like testing that theory out this morning and threw some of those away. 
And in fact, I decided I didn't want an egg anyway. 
So I made biscuits and sausage and sliced tomatoes and cooked Mr. Moon some eggs and I ate a biscuit and tomatoes and a piece of sausage which was a small patty and delicious but my stomach has been telling me all day that it wasn't very pleased about that decision. The biscuit may not have helped. Who knows?

I am still learning. 

Here are a few of the changes in my life since I started taking this medication about five weeks ago: 
Except for a very small piece of the prune cake I made May for her birthday, I have not eaten one dessert. I have not had so much as one dark chocolate chip. I have not eaten ice cream or cookies or really, sweets of any kind. Except for fruit. 
I have eaten butter on exactly one slice of bread. I have not used butter on potatoes or rice and I have not used even half a stick of it in my cooking since I started. I do use olive oil. Mostly in salad dressings. 

I have not had one in-between meals snack except for my late afternoon cottage cheese and fruit, except for a very few pistachios one day and a very, very few roasted peanuts another. 

And of course the serving sizes of what I eat are generally dramatically smaller. 
Now. Here's the thing- none of this has been difficult in the least. I do not feel as if I am denying myself anything. I feel quite happy with vegetables and grains and tofu and beans and some meat. We eat some sort of seafood at least two times a week. 

I do not go hungry. If I was hungry, I would eat something. 
And every bit of this is because of the Zepbound. I know this without a doubt. I do think I am making good choices when it comes to my diet but it is so easy. 

This is a remarkable drug. At least in my opinion and experience so far. I don't think it's magic although, I can't help but feel that it has magically allowed me to be someone not ruled by food. I do think about food and I always will, but now when I think of food, it's mostly about what I can make that will be nutritionally dense and that I would really enjoy. 

But I cannot take credit for the changes I am making. And if I had to stop taking Zepbound, I'd be right back where I started and I know that. 
I do not want to go there. With all my heart I do not. 

I think that some people who are on these medications eat pretty much exactly what they've always eaten although far less of it. And this must work too because it seems like almost every one  on them does lose weight. And that's fine. But along with losing weight I want to lower my cholesterol so that I can perhaps cut back on that medication and also I would like not to blow the sphygmomanometer when I get my blood pressure taken. Again, this would mean less medication.

And I'm not going to lie- I would very much like not to cry every time I get on a scale or catch sight of myself in a mirror. 

And that's what's on my mind right now. 

Glen is heading back up to Lake Seminole tomorrow and Gibson is going with him this week. Hurray for Gibson! I was going to make them chicken and dumplings and I got the whole broth/stew thing done and decided that instead of dumplings, this is going to be a soup and I added some nice brown basmati rice to it. That will be far better when it comes to transporting it and heating it up. Mr. Moon gave this his whole-hearted approval. 

Tonight we're having yet another salad with bread that is about to go into the oven. It's made of whole wheat flour, oat bran, and white flour. It also has molasses in it. If I have one weakness when it comes to sweets now, it's molasses. I know that molasses is not one bit better for me than white sugar. All the sugars from completely refined to dark molasses or cane syrup have the same chemical formula. 

C ₁₂H ₂₂O ₁₁

Different forms of the sugar we eat may have trace minerals that more refined versions do not but as I always say- they call them trace minerals for a reason. In other words, I am not fooling myself, I am saying that I am not afraid to eat some sweet things. 
Except, obviously, for mangos. 

Jesus.

I can't talk about politics in any form tonight. I just can't. 

Moving on then...

Ms. Moon