This whole process is s two edged sword. One, I am replacing unhealthy foods with healthy foods, and two, I am learning to get by on a smaller volume of food. Couple these together and I am eating less of lower calorie foods. Sort of doubles the benefit but presents the problem of not being able to consume sufficient quantities to hit my calorie target every day. I have manually lowered the target by 200 calories and am still coming up short many days. I am not starving myself, and I seldom if ever feel hungry, although I have moments when I think I am hungry when I am actually not. It is a pretty good dilemma when think about it but I have to be careful to make sure that I eat when I am actually hungry. I think one of the keys is that I don't assess my level of satisfaction after a meal until AFTER I finish round one and sit for awhile. In the past, I would immediately go for round two and then feel gorged. I have not gone for round two in three weeks and I find myself with more energy and less "gas" and heartburn.

I am trying to look at my weight loss more holistically and work toward re-training myself to be more sensitive to how full I actually am vs. how full I might feel. It's one of those times when waiting a few minutes pays off in a big way.

Her is the recipe as it seems to work for me. I dish up the equivalent of a single serving of three things. Tonight it was 1-1/2 servings of vegetarian lasagna and 1-1/2 servings of sliced beets (I happen to like beets). Total calories about 840. I eat it slowly and enjoy every morsel. Wash it down with a diet Dr. Pepper and some water. Then I spend a few minutes just being sociable at the table. When others were going for seconds, I was feeling full so I passed. I feel great. I wonder how long I can keep this up?