My name is Chubby...

We have a little family joke/skit where I smush my cheeks in with my hands and say:

My name is chubby, my mama's chubby, my papa's chubby and IIIIIII'm chubby. One day my mama said to me, "Chubby? can you smile through all that fat?" And I said sure ma, see. [attemptting to smile with cheeks smushed , results in hillarity from my children]

D likes my "squishy tummy".... it makes a nice pillow, he says. It's "comfy" he says.... (not when I try to squeeze into that cute skirt in my closet that fit me last year). Urg.

Sometimes I want to give up. I don't think I've lost anything other than my patience on this South Beach Diet. It is day #9. Yesterday I caved and ate half a plain donut, but the previous night I had thrown up all my salad I ate for dinner (not on purpose), so I thought I deserved a treat. It used all my will power not to eat the other half later that day.

So far the benefits I have noticed from this strict phase of the diet:

1. I really appreciate natural sweeteners which I'm sure I had taken for granted. Artificial sweeteners suck!
   
2. My skin looks great (but that may be do to the facial I had on Friday).
3. I'm drinking more water.
   
4. Less cravings or "munchies" although I still snack on things like celery with cream cheese and nuts.
5. Eating a lot more veggies.
6. Becoming a more creative cook.
   
7. I sympathize much more with anyone who has ever deliberately tried to lose weight. It's tough.

I could list the negative aspects, but I'm trying to be optimistic. What has surprised me the most is how supportive everyone I've told about this has been. Two things come to mind, either they also think I'm chubby, or they see that I'm serious about this and want to be encouraging.