Dieting a dress size or two improves my manly self image too.

I've been dieting for nearly 3 months. I used to try to gain weight, then watched as every 5 years I started putting on 10 lbs. The first 20 from 125 to 135 ( I am 5'8" and used to run distance) was just fine, I could finally buy male clothes in the men's department off the rack. Not as pleased with the next several blocks of suet around my middle. Ive hit a little over 170 at my peak. I went on my first and really only previous reduction diet a 2-3 years ago, and got down to 155, then convinced myself that any weight I added back was obviously muscle from my occasional yard work, and a vigorous couch sitting. About the time I started playing dress-up recently, I was again near my highest weight. In an effort to see my progress, I set up a backdrop and a camera on a tripod in the garage and took some pictures. I don;t know if the camera adds five pounds or not but if it does it adds it where men carry weight,in the front, and not where women carry weight in the hips. So instead of looking curvy, I just looked like a middle aged dude with a gut in a dress.

I also was buying clothes from the ugly rack at a thrift store because they are 65 cents a piece and I had no eye for sizes. I found that size 14 was tight on me. I browsed and learned and discovered that every time I found something cute it was a size six. Having no idea what a size six weighs, I set a more realistic goal to have the size 14 fit better,and maybe squeeze into a cute size 12 skirt I bought.

My weight was 168 when I drug out a scale to check. I started watching what I ate, not anal retentive about it, but used fat free substitutes if they didn't get fat free from simply being made of sugar, and used lower carbohydrate products as long as they didn't lose carbs by being full of fat. A practical joke I have always wanted to try is to make up some nice looking stickers on the ink jet and slip into the grocery store labeling the C6H1206 as NOW FAT FREE!!! and Suet as ZERO CARBS!!!

The biggest difference I think for me was milk. I've always consumed gallons of it. When I was actively trying to gain weight I went a couple of weeks eating 2 pieces of fried chicken, deep fried potato wedges washed down with I-kid-you-not 1/2 and 1/2. No really affect on my weight so I gave up the effort and went back to whole milk, a necessity for me f I eat anything sweet, or fatty, or salty, or spicy, or well, if I was just thirsty. I was born in Wisconsin, where I only lived for a year or two, but apparently it was enough for the dairy farmers to male an impression. My father even worked at a condensed milk plant. After about 130 lbs I switched to 2% mostly because Dee was watching her weight and it was kind of a compromise between my whole milk and her skim milk. Somewhere I started buying 1% and found that it didn't taste much different than 1%. My last diet, I started drinking Dee's skim milk and have always thought it was healthy and low calorie. I never really bothered with labels and was surprised recently to find that skim milk while being good for those that cant metabolize fat well, is still calories. It has 60-70% of the calories that plain old whole milk does.

The only reason I even found out about the calorie count in milk is that our year old 15 lb infant inherited her fathers inability to gain weight. We read labels and feed her the highest calorie items.(Sweet Potato Souffle, Banana Supreme and peaches and oatmeal in that have 160 cals, 150 and 140ish.) We have fed her soy from birth because she was just to wimpy to nurse, and she seemed to have problems with the first formula we tried. She seems fine with yogurt, so we were going to ease her onto whole milk for the calories.

I have been eating Walmart's version of Special K Red Berry for a while during my diet either for breakfast or when it looks an inappropriate snack is inevitable. I poured out some the other day and then found we were out of skim. I grabbed the whole milk and poured the least amount I could and still feel like my flakes were kissed with the nectar of cows. MMMMM, nirvana, I hadn't had cereal with whole milk in years, Its got more flavor and a much better mouth feel. I grabbed an empty jug out of the recycling and compared labels, whole was obvious more, but I was surprised that skim was as high as it is. For the average person skim probably is a good choice with lots of calcium and protein and vitamin A&D, but I would chug 12 to 16 ozs at a time several times a day. I was probably drinking over 500-600 cals a day that way.

When I realized this, I had already cut way back, but mostly because of the cookie and the milk syndrome. You know - you have 3 cookies and a glass of milk, you either finish the cookies first and still have milk left so you add cookies,or your milk runs out and you get another glass. It was kind of a ritual for me that I had to break. I was drinking mostly water because Dee would slap me if I consumed too many of her diet Dr Peppers and besides I don;t like the aspartame and battery acid that much. I do probably the majority of the grocery shopping and started buying Diet Right orange and Jones Soda Diet Black Cherry, because the have Ssplenda, and I have a sneaky suspicion that when the majors went to Splenda then back to Aspartame, that they found that aspartame was a better seller. I wonder sometimes if Nutrasweet causes cravings, I find that it leaves me thirsty and looking for something sweet and I don't think that is a coincidence. To be fair I have similar feelings about Splenda.

I started drinking soda a lot and found I rarely drank water. During this time my progress towards a girlish figure that had been going well I had dropped 14 lbs slowed then stopped completely, I could NOT break 150, even naked on the scale! I would hover between 152 and 154 most days. I even found no progress on days that I did some physical activities. A couple of days ago I was clearing some more space for sod (as an aside I drove 70 miles o get 23 rolls of sod that was posted on Craigslist at 11pm, thinking it would still be there. 5 of the worst mangiest deadest rolls were left, but I hate to throw anything away so I was putting it down on my slowly progressing backyard.) I had one of my girls bring me a glass of water and she brought me a HUGE carnival glass, had to be more than a quart. I ended up drinking about three of those.

I finally got back to 150 and stayed there. I added water and subtracted soda. I finally hit 149. (of course I was wearing nothing but a blue pair of bikini panties and a smile.) Later I hit 148 for an nice round 20 lb loss. I haven't been back to 150 since.

Dee and I have a friendly rivalry going, It is friendly because she is winning. She says "Bitch!" every time I hit a new mark, and I lovingly utter the same when ever she is bragging a bit about her progress. She has been amazingly diligent, tracks every morsel, avoids everything and she is down 28 lbs. (not including turning the fetus into a bouncing -if light- baby girl.)

I like how I feel. I can hop up into and out of dumpsters with ease again instead of having to muscle my way over. My size 10 suit from Coldwater Creek fits if a bit snug. But the best part is how I feel en homme. I kept kidding myself that now that I could actually put on weight I would lift weights for bulk instead of strength training. I do neither for years. things I don;t like about myself the double chin in the mirror that makes the lower 1/2 of my face look like my father, the hairy round belly, all look better thinner.

I have been having a little crossdressing fun in bits and spurts, but haven't shaved for a couple of weeks because I am out of Veet and I wanted to try waxing again and needed a little length. A little bristle on the legs and chest don't seem as offensive to me these days even when feeling feminine. I just pretend I am a lesbian! ~wink~