A little over a month in...

I'm down 19.20 lbs and off all of my blood pressure medication.  I feel good and have been getting to the pool 2-3 times a week at LA Fitness.  My physical activity still isn't where it needs to be, but I'm getting there.  I try to make water aerobics and when I can't I run in the pool up and down the swim lane.

I'm enjoying the food still and shakes are fun to flavor with sugar-free fat-free pudding mixes and sugar-free flavored syrups.  Now that I  can have the soup, I have been making it into a gravy and adding it to entrees to change up the flavor and texture.  It is also good just as a nice, hot savory soup.  It is like a creamy chicken bouillon with herbs.

I really enjoy the hot multi-grain cereal, which I have every morning at work.  There are recipes to make muffins and pancakes with the cereal, but it makes such a nice big bowl of hot cereal, I'm not all that tempted to trade it for a low-volume option.

Thanksgiving wasn't as big a challenge as I feared it might be.  I stayed 'in the box' and really didn't feel deprived.  I mean, I've had my mom's devilled eggs hundreds of times, turkey is just turkey and I don't really like pumpkin pie anyway.

It definitely helped that my daughter took over the cooking for the second year.  She is a talented cook and does a wonderful job. 

Honestly, there hasn't been much of anything that I have been missing or jonesing for in terms of food.  (Other than I still dream about tater tots.)   I'm sure down the road I will have some struggles, but I think I'm still in the honeymoon phase and am just very pleased that I  am able to lose weight, eat food that isn't horrible (yeah, I'm talking to you Nutrisystem) and feel like I'm not damaging my health in the process.