Thought this could be a blog for my friends on Facebook and anyone else who is interested in this whole shebang. Eight days ago I decided that enough was enough and that I simply didn't want to continue losing my @#%^$ battle with weight anymore! I had been a secret dieter for years, bitterly, loathsomely ashamed of myself for my string of endless failures. The biggest eye opener was when I followed Weight Watchers with great success finally at the age of thirty-' managed to lose thirty five pounds by working out every day except Sundays for an hour and a half or more- then proceeded to spend absolutely NO time enjoying being slimmer because all I could think about was putting the weight back on, and how hard it had been to lose. I dreaded falling asleep because I had a recurring dream that I would awaken fat again. First I reached the dreaded plateau where you don't lose weight despite following the eating plan to the letter and working out, I got really discouraged but continued to count points and hope for the best, but the worst happened instead, I started picking up a pound a week, this freaked me out and eventually I thought, well I am not going to carry on working this hard if my destiny is to be fat, and I threw my hands up on the air and just ate whatever I wanted until 2 years and six months after I had lost some weight it stormed back, pound by wicked pound. It was like watching a slow motion car crash with myself behind the wheel ever single day. Yes, I know I sound dramatic but for me I felt like I was in the fight for my life every time I craved a cookie, or candy or coke, my arch nemeses. On top of that, being an opera singer we ALL know that the old adage of opera singers being heavier is simply no longer true, in fact I think a great many opera houses quite simply will not cast someone that has extra poundage regardless of how well they sing so I started to notice the effect of my career, which caused more shame and embarrassment...sigh. Anyway to make a long story even longer, I decided to 'screw my courage to the sticking place' and 'out' myself on Facebook!
As it turns out instead of the ridicule and judgment I expected most of my friends just exuded love and understanding, and BRILLIANT help and advice, and I realized that waaaaaaaaaaay more people than I suspected struggled with weight and most of my friends were a treasure trove of helpful advice and experiences, and if it wasn't weight it was something else, and that it is not some deep dark secret, I mean we all know we can't keep it to ourselves,. after all it is not like people didn't notice my exploding body, most were just too polite to say anything, but I hoped that if I didn't speak about it, it would go away...yes seriously, that was my 'stategery'...needless to say, it did not work.

So here I am on day ten of Phase 1 of the South Beach diet....wanna hear what I have experienced so far....this is the deal by way of explanation and how radical the last few days have been for me, I have simply never ever eaten something that is 'too sweet'...you know those people that eat some celestial caramel-covered chocolate bar and then wrinkle their faces and utter 'yeuch, too sweet for me'...I BELIEVE they are liars! Thus I decided to go cold turkey and quit sugar , alcohol, and most carbs in preparation for a healthier life style, which is essentially the premise of the south beach diet, phase one was designed to help curb sugar craving to set you up for a healthier WOE (that means way of eating btw)...something I discovered while trolling the endless forums and websites out there dedicated to this exact subject. I had tried to do this once before four years ago and lasted the sum total of two and a half hours before I was lying on my couch seemingly paralized with a debilitating headache..I mean I am not even a hypochondriac for heaven's sake!!! Anyway back to the present day, yeah, day 10, down 6 pounds, and most FRIGGING EXCITING FACT OF ALL...drum roll please.....I DO NOT HAVE SUGAR CRAVINGS RIGHT NOW, for the first time that I can remember. More on all of this tomorrow as I suspect this is all too long and boring for one blog.