A steady hand, a firm grip, a quick reflex

I finally did it, a couple days ago. I took one of my pairs of size 4 pants off their hanger, and stepped into them. It was a pretty tight fit; I bulged out a little over the top, and I was quite uncomfortable. But. I’ve done it. I can fit into size 4 pants again! I’ve been on this diet for what seems like forever. The very physical evidence that I’m now on the final stretch of it is… soothing. It’s not hard to believe, as I’ve had very solid evidence all along of the progress I’m making (a daily log of my morning weight, among other things), so it’s no surprise that the pants fit. But it still is something of a watershed moment.

It’s been a long couple months. It’s taken a lot of willpower, a lot of goal-setting, a lot of stamina, a lot of desire. I really really really want to be able to fit into those size 4 pants again, and make them look good. That’s gotten me through these weeks, and will get me through the upcoming, final weeks of this diet. I’ve had to do a lot of planning, and I’ve had to do a lot of improvisation when things changed.

Another project where improvisation necessarily happens is with my project to master quick breads. This week it was a fortuitous change! I bought cranberries a week or so ago, thinking they seemed like a good snack food to bring to work. Not so much, it turns out; I had been expecting them to be pretty tart, but I had not anticipated the thick skin they have. So these cranberries were just lounging in the refrigerator. They probably would have just continued lounging there, except! While I was browsing the Internet for recipes to make for Thanksgiving, I stumbled onto one for Cranberry-Orange Bread.

Perfect! While in my mind, my quick bread mastery project just revolved around the five types of bread that I’d already made, and would now just involve repeating those recipes or new recipes of the same five kinds, it was easy to simply expand the fold and incorporate this new type of bread. Accepting a change and moving forward has strengthened my breads project, just as I’ve had to accept many plan changes during my dieting project, and moving forward from them likewise strengthened that project.

Cranberry and orange, to awaken you to new possibilities…

Featured Recipe: http://www.chowhound.com/recipes/cranberry-orange-quick-bread-29110