Before the band, I used to sometimes measure time in terms of "pounds ago". 100 pounds ago was quite a while ago, high school years. 60 pounds ago would be more recent, about when I was 19 and 20. 40 pounds ago I met my husband. Twenty pounds ago I started to give up on losing that 20 pounds from 40 pounds ago.

Now that I have the band, I suppose I could try it in the opposite sense. It is sort of strange in a way, having my linear sense of time disrupted. Maybe its a good reminder that life and time really are cyclical. Now I can say that 40 pounds ago I had weight loss surgery and was waiting to see if I got into grad school. 10-15 pounds ago, I found out I got in. Hmm...

I've also been working on my rules for when to not follow the rules.

Normally there is a stage in every diet for me, when "just this once" starts to happen more and more frequently until its always just this once and I think we all know that it is pretty downhill from there.

)

So I have my rules on when there can be no rules. If it doesn't fit in here, then sorry, I have to be good:

1) My birthday; whole day is a free for all (if my birthday is "missed" due to illness I may reschedule for a later date.

2) Celebration dinners (and no, everyday cannot be a celebration)

3) Christmas, New years eve, the eight major pagan holidays, and maybe a couple other holidays I specify in advance.

4) Cinco de Mayo. Its mexican food and margaritta goodness.

5) the times I order movie theater popcorn so long as these times do not exceed 8 times per year and the bucket never exceeds a medium (probably won't be bigger than a small). I get soda on those days too.

6) vacation

If its not on that list, then its not allowed to be a free for all. Naturally, I reserve the right to revise my list, but I think this is a good starting one.