Still Going Strong...

Not that anyone really cares, but I'm still doing well on my diet.  I've officially taken off 11 lbs. in less than 5 weeks!  I'm thrilled with that result!  I went back and read my first post about dieting and it was actually encouraging.  In that post, I talked about how hungry I was all the time.  That is the biggest change I've noticed so far.  I can easily get from breakfast to lunch with no snack.  Before, that was incredibly difficult.  I am still having a small snack around 3:30 every day.  Lately, it's been a low-fat oatmeal raisin granola bar.  Here are the rules I originally set...let's see how many I'm sticking to:

1.  Stop eating like a crazy woman! Check!

2.  Breakfast will consist of cereal with skim milk. Check!

3.  No snacks between breakfast and lunch. Check!

4.  Lunch will consist of something low fat. (Last time, I did turkey sandwiches with no cheese or condiments. This time I might go for low-fat vegetable soup. I like it and it sounds good to me right now. When I get sick of that, I might give the turkey sandwiches a try again.) No chips with lunch, no dessert after lunch. Check!  The veggie soup lasted a while but I'm on turkey right now.  I usually have a piece of fruit with the sandwich, still no chips.  Although, this past week I've had a tiny piece of chocolate a couple times for dessert.  Hey, I was proud of myself and needed a little reward!

5.  One reasonable snack between lunch and dinner. (Snacks are my worst problem. I'm home all day so I tend to munch throughout the day. I get a serious tummy rumbly when I don't snack between meals. But this needs to stop!) Check!  I'm really proud of myself for sticking to this one!  I have also resisted the before-bedtime snack too!

6.  Dinner will be normal. I just need to have portion control. Check!  Although I did go a little crazy with the garlic bread last night.  It was so yummy!

7.  I have to cut out fattening things like mayonnaise, cheese, pepperoni, chocolate...all the good stuff. Check!

8.  Desserts are a no-no. (I'm starting to cry now.) Um, kinda Check.  I've only started allowing tiny desserts the past week.  So far it hasn't seemed to affect me negatively.

9.  Water gets hit big time. Only one glass of tea at meals is allowed. Check!  I've started drinking my tea with Splenda only.  And not very much of it.

10.  Start running again as soon as the weather breaks. (I think that was a big contributing factor. All summer and into the fall, I ran a lot. Then winter arrived and I became sedentary. I'm training for another marathon so I will have to start running again. That will definitely help!) Negative.  I haven't started yet.  The weather was beautiful last week but winter has come back.  Also, it's still too dark to run after dinner.  I have to make my schedule according to when Hubby can watch the kids.  He has been getting home around 7:00 lately so running after dinner has been out of the question.  Hopefully soon though!

Needless to say, I'm pretty darn proud of myself!  Does anyone else have a success story to share?