Am I on a diet too?

I met a friend for "breakfast" this morning.  When I say breakfast, it's me drinking tea while she has breakfast.  We met at a local family restaurant in town ... down home cooking, oil in everything and a smell that gets into your clothes somehow.  I've been thick in that food before and loved every bite of it.  I arrived, didn't see her yet, so I decided to just get a table and order my tea.  The waitress gave me a paper to read while I waited for her.  It was actually quite lovely to just enjoy my warm tea and read about the goings-on around my home.  I was  not bothered for even a second of everyone eating around me.  Hmm, very surprising.

When my friend arrived, she talked for a while about the diet she's on.  She is the one calling it a diet, not me.  She's basically eating hardly anything and it doesn't sound like she's getting in her basic nutrients, but I can't judge her.  Some people call what I'm doing crazy in that I don't even eat food, just drink everything.   Touche!  Anyway, she asked me how my "diet" was going and I have to tell you it was like hearing fingernails on a chalkboard.  Diet.  Die-et.  Diet.  She told me she could never, ever do what I am doing.  More fingernails.  So I explained to her how the entire program works and that it's not really dieting more than the beginning of finally getting healthy.  I could tell I was trying to convince her, so I shut up about it.

Vanilla Optifast shake made with
Key Lime Sparkling Water and
lots of ice in a blender.  Yummo!

I thought about it and wondered, do I really consider this a diet or do I really believe it when I say this is a beginning to getting healthy?  The truth is that you just don't go this route for a few pounds to lose.  It is a major lifestyle change and it really does take commitment to be successful.  Had I tried Optifast at a different time in my life, I know I would have already been cheating by now.  I would think of each shake as a punishment and count the days until I can get off of it.  Yet, that's not the place I am coming from today.  I am in so much gratitude for how God is blessing me and taking care of me through this.  I am finally feeling alive and, as each day passes, I am definitely feeling healthier.  Granted, I haven't been doing it for long, but for me with all the problems I have had in sticking to a program, this is major. 


So, as I watched my friend pick at her oatmeal and raisins and have a bite or two of her sourdough toast, I became so grateful for my shakes.  Eventually food will come back into my life and, I pray, I will be able to handle it appropriately when the time comes.  In the meantime, I can enjoy the nourishment I do get and that feeling of the pounds melting off my body.