Totalled?

I've become a tea drinker.

Not because I particularly like tea. And what I drink is not black tea... except for the odd chai. No, I drink tea that doesn't taste like tea. Like Chocolaty Chai, or Rooibos. I do have the odd green tea once in a while.

And every cup of tea is sweetened with two packets of Sugar Twin.

I am sure some of you are recoiling in horror! Why would I not use something like honey, that golden goodness chock full of natural sweet?

Well, because I am on a diet.

My preferred hot drink is a mocha, minus all the whipped creamy stuff. I just want half coffee, half hot chocolate. That, unfortunately, is loaded with sugar, which means calories, which means it is now a treat and not a several times a day drink. I nearly wept at the thought of doing without when I first started on this diet, but now, it's fine. I can handle it. I've adjusted well. I'm tough, you know.

You see, in the fall of 2008, I had my gall bladder removed. It was full of sludge and not acting appropriately. In fact, it made its presence known much more often than necessary, which had been causing me quite a bit of distress over the previous three years. So I had the offending organ lopped off and discarded.

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you might recall this was the same time that That Damn Cat earned her nickname. I was slimmer then than I am now. The ensuing time has seen my weight creep up by about 25 lbs. I am not pleased! Neither is my wardrobe.

So I decided it was high time to take matters into hand and do something about it. I have the time to devote to such antics and likely will for the remainder of the year. Hence the full-on effort to shed said extra baggage and return to my svelte self... I know it's in there somewhere... I've seen it before!

I'm doing this sensibly with walking, watching the calories that go in (without being ridiculously stringent) in an effort to make the weight loss gradual so it can stay off. I figure by the end of summer I will be right where I want to be. Slim and trim. I've also incorporated what exercises I can that don't require a right arm, such as ab work, legs, and some weights working arm muscles not involved in lifting the arm away from the body. I can do bicep curls no problem, as long as I use a lighter weight than what I used previously.

Hence the tea totaller. Something with flavour but no extra calories. It's working too. My clothes are already getting looser. Soon they will fall right off and I will require smaller bits to wear. Of course, it also means my bits are getting smaller too, but that is the price I must pay.