Maintaining

From 24th October (my dad's birthday) through the 17th of February (my birthday), our calendar is blessed with 7 birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day and a couple of important wedding anniversaries, not to mention several 3-day-weekends which give mid-winter opportunities for a quick getaway.

I can tell that this is going to be a rough time for the diet, so we're working hard.  Yesterday, I hit a new peak with 45.5 pounds of total weight loss.  However, we celebrated the end of a stressful week and some good behavior at school with dinner out (and bad restaurant behavior from the very boys who'd been good at school).

With the exception of an occasional break like last night, we're pretty faithfully sticking with Phase II of the South Beach Diet, which limits Carbohydrates to "good carbs" of whole-wheat and only one or two servings a day, and pretty strictly limits portion sizes.

For example yesterday's pre-dinner menu.

Breakfast:  one slice of whole wheat toast and 4 oz skim milk + a very large cup of hot tea.
Mid-morning snack: one ounce baby carrots
Lunch:  one slice very lean smoked ham on whole wheat with a slice of low fat cheese and spinach.
Afternoon snack: one ounce mixed nuts.

We are planning dinner out next Thursday for my wife's birthday (just the two of us!) and my goal is to lose another 1.5 pounds from yesterday morning before then. 

That would put me under 230 pounds for the first time since about 1998.

For those keeping score, my peak weight was 278 and my long term goal is to be under 200 pounds.