Quality, not quantity

I want 2011 to be the year when I eat smaller amounts of food, but of much better quality.  I want to be able to enjoy wonderful food like avocado, almonds, dark chocolate, olive oil -- all things I assiduously avoided for years, all the while consuming lo-cal, chemical-laden, tasteless diet food with ingredient lists that read like a novella.

Today for lunch, I am going to eat a sandwich of avocado, watercress, bell pepper, sprouts, cucumber, lemon hummus, and a sliver of onion on nine-grain, whole wheat bread.  Scrumptious.  The total:  a mind-blowing 390 calories.  I know, I know.  Waaaaaaaaaaay, way too high, right?  Just unthinkable.  For years -- literally, years -- a sandwich like this would have been verboten, something as foreign to me as eating cat poop.  I would instead eat something with 100 calories.  Something artificial, and not satisfying.  And then I'd be so hungry, I'd have to eat another 100 calories of whatever it was.  And then another.  And another.

Yesterday, I made the sandwich I just described, and something wonderful and miraculous happened:  after I ate it, I was sated.  I was okay.  I didn't need to go back into the kitchen for anything more.  I had a banana for breakfast, this sandwich for lunch, and an Amy's burrito for dinner.  Total for the day:  820 calories.

My weight is down two pounds since January 1:  I'm at 101.  Progress....