Dear Doc,

Well, I must be doing something right. Because I've lost five pounds.

I know that isn't much to some people, but for me it's a minor miracle. Particularly since I've spent the last week starving not with physical hunger, but an emotional hunger spawned from stress, depression, who-knows-what-else. And I've been trying to feed that hunger with foods that were absolutely not good for me. I knew it wouldn't help, and it didn't. But I couldn't seem to stop myself.

So when I stepped on the scale the other day and realized that I must have done something right along the way, my inspiration was back. Since then I have cheerfully passed up things like you wouldn't believe, and when I've said, "No thanks, I don't want any pie/cake/chocolate, etc." I actually meant it. Because I don't want to rediscover even a half ounce from that hard-won five-pound loss. Five pounds, you must be gone forever.

And then... tonight happened.

I have been feeling exhausted lately. Not in a "I'm tired,  I need a second cup of coffee," way, but in a "I can't possibly get out of bed because that will take all the energy I have" sort of way.  It's frustrating when you want to accomplish things, and you just simply can't. It's got absolutely nothing to do with laziness, believe me.

Simply put, chronic illness is a bitch.

And tonight, I had about a million things to do because I've been putting off the things I haven't been able to do. Feeling overwhelmed, my mind turned to ice cream.

No, not just ice cream. A root beer float. With extra "float."

So I went to Culver's in between errands. And I ordered a large diet root beer (I've been told by a reliable source that Culver's and A & W root beer is the same) and a cup of whipped cream.

The girl at the window only gave me a little bit of an odd look as she passed over my cup of whip.

Whipped cream, I think, is my new favorite thing. It has very few calories, very few carbs, and if you have a good imagination it can pass for the creaminess of ice cream.

(Yes, I know. It has chemicals and no nutritional value. I would like to say I care, but right now... I just really don't.)

So, if you see a woman walking around Target, crushing several cans of whipped cream to her bosoms and cackling maniacally... Don't be alarmed. It's just me, trying to turn that five-pound loss into ten.

Your whipped patient,

Heather