For some odd reason, I have been having some stomach problems the past few days. It’s almost like my body is going through a second detox of some kind. (Which I’m learning isn’t all that uncommon). But it’s been extremely hard to eat much of ANYTHING and keep it in my stomach. Yesterday all I managed was 1/3 of a bowl of Special K, then about 7 spoonfuls of tortilla soup at a Mexican restaurant, then a few pieces of hard candy. I have no choice but to let this darn thing run its course… can’t force myself to eat if my stomach is upset, especially since I’m not home as often as I used to be. Lots of stuff to do lately. Keeping myself and my mind busy to keep me out of trouble. (Well, kind of…)

As of this moment it’s almost 4pm and all I’ve had is a biscuit and some coffee this morning.

Oh well.

For exercise, I’ve been walking either up or down the 7 flights to and from my car. Not much else yet though.

The view from my balcony right now… perhaps we will get a decent storm today!

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog! I haven’t been around much at my other blog, either.

To be quite honest, I’ve found a lot of peace in my life lately. More peace than I’ve had in my life in many years. It makes me not really care as much about my weight… or care as much about celebrity diets and all the rest of the stuff that has kept me quite occupied over the past couple of years.

However, don’t get me wrong - I’m not giving up either blog. (I should resume posting regularly on TheSkinnyWebsite next week). I’ve needed a break from it all. I’ve taken this “time off” to really begin my recovery from alcoholism in earnest. Doing the 12 steps, attending AA meetings every day and speaking with other people in the same situation has really forced me to take a good long look at myself, my life, and what I have done and what I need to change. This is what I’ve been doing lately and I have to say it’s been fantastic!

Yep, this is “deeper” than I usually go on this blog. But I don’t care… I’m happy.

Anyway, the update on my weight is good news… I’m losing weight at a steady rate now without really doing much to cause it. Alcohol was responsible for the 20 extra pounds I put on over a year ago, so it only makes sense that now that I’ve stopped drinking and given my liver time to recover from the strain, the weight would begin coming off. My face and chin areas are no longer bloated at all. (Never knew alcohol was responsible for that until now!) My stomach and waist have slimmed down a bit. I am not doing anything special with eating these days - just a meal here or there when I’m hungry, plus a snack here and there. More coffee than I’ve ever drank. Last night I went and had a slice of chocolate cream pie with a new guy friend around midnight. Probably a mistake diet-wise, but the conversation and company more than made up for it.

I’m planning a nice long walk along the river tomorrow at some point, weather permitting… speaking of weather, there has been some crazy weather going on here! Just a couple of days ago, there were tornado sirens going off long and loud all over the city. Apparently one touched down not too far from where my sister lives, about 5 or so miles. I happened to be driving over there when the sirens started. A bunch of us went downstairs to her neighbor’s apartment to wait and see what would happen.

Good ole’ Tulsa… I’m enjoying my time here immensely right now.

Anyway, that’s my life right now… dieting is up there on my list of priorities, but just not nearly as high as it was. But the alcohol weight is coming off… and that’s exciting!

Well, it was quite an interesting weekend to say the least… this may sound lame to some of you, but I spent Saturday and Sunday night hanging out with some new AA buddies. Saturday night after the late candlelight meeting, we went and played pool. I discovered that yes, I am halfway decent at pool even while NOT drinking alcohol. After that (around 3am), we went to an all-night diner and had some food.

Last night I went to a restaurant with a new guy friend and a girl. I stuck with just iced water and coffee.

Anyway… onto the Special K diet. I am not following it extremely strictly or anything to be honest. So far I’ve just been having a bowl of it for breakfast with fruit. I’ve been so busy during the day lately that I haven’t really been eating much for lunch or dinner. When I do eat it’s usually protein or a sandwich. And lots of coffee! I’ve taken to drinking coffee with my new sober friends at all hours of the day and night, in fact. (None of those iced calorie-laden drinks, I’m talking regular black coffee with a little non-dairy cream and a dash of either sugar or Splenda).

It’s nice to be on a “down-eating” period like I am right now. I’ve gone through this many times in the past - where I’ve gotten too busy to sit around and worry about what I eat. So my current diet is looking like this: Special K and fruit when I’m home and actually hungry (which isn’t too often); coffee, sandwiches or small portions of other foods when I’m not home. My sugar intake was especially high for the few weeks following my stopping drinking, but has finally dwindled back down.

Something is definitely happening on the weight loss front, but I haven’t gotten on the scale since the last time I posted about my weight going down. I will get on tomorrow morning again though!

OK, I am usually not one to do fad diets and all, but my younger sister and I have decided to do the Special K diet for a week and see how it goes. So it’ll be a bowl of cereal for breakfast and lunch with fruit and a sensible dinner for me, something like chicken, some sort of veggie and maybe some organic brown rice. I figure, why not? It’ll at least get me back on track with healthier eating. I will supplement the diet with a vitamin shake every day and 30 minutes of some sort of exercise.

For some reason I have still been extremely tired lately, sleeping somewhere around 11 hours per night! Apparently my body is working hard to reverse whatever damage I did to it while I was drinking alcohol the past few months.

I am still not keen on revealing my weight here, but I will keep track of how many pounds I lose. I’m starting this diet tomorrow, so I’ll keep you all update on my loss.