Cravings are unusual for me, but I’ve sure dealt with them for the last week or so. I haven’t given in, and I can proudly report that I’m now a mere 1.6 pounds above my low; another 2.4 pounds down this week. I would be thrilled if I can sustain an average loss of around 2 pounds a week.

This is downright creepy.

Now, back to those cravings. Not only is it unusual for me to crave anything, but I was craving sweets — and I had a baby shower to attend; lots of sweets on the table, and thankfully, a few veggies. That’s what I survived on.

While I’m not a sweets person in the least — give me the choice between a chocolate eclair and a soft pretzel with plenty of salt, and you can keep that eclair — but I saw cupcakes topped with a ton of frosting, and I was nearly undone.

What the heck? This, for me, was an unusual experience. I teased friends that I was going to watch them eat cupcakes vicariously because I couldn’t have one, but I could image the taste, the texture, the confectionery goodness hitting my tongue in an explosion of sweetness.

Likewise, I’ve seen food photos on Facebook that have made me wish reaching through the screen and grabbing that food for myself were a real thing, and they weren’t all sweets. What’s up with this? It seems to have passed, now, but for a few days there, while I never felt myself in danger of going off my diet, the lust for a number of foods was strong.

My way of dealing with it? Well… I just didn’t eat the food. Yes, it was that simple, but hardly easy. My toughest day was the day of the shower; the small amount of vegetables available wasn’t really enough to satisfy me, and I felt weird about taking a meal’s worth of grape tomatoes and celery from a shower food table. (So I didn’t.) My husband was next door at a friend’s house; I went there, afterward, and he wasn’t ready to leave — by this point, I could have gnawed the leg off a dining room table. And what did they have, there?

Pizza.

Yes, I can scrape the toppings off pizza and have it (I am a low carber), but these were thin crust pepperoni and cheese pizzas. I would have had to scrape half of a pizza to have enough cheese and pepperoni to actually make a small meal. Eventually, I managed to scrounge and ended up with some turkey slices and cheese, which saved the day, but it was also a reminder that I should be prepared for such occasions.

Believe me, I have earned every ounce of the 2.4 pounds I lost this week, and I’m thankful the cravings appear to have gone away. I have a bigger challenge next weekend, but I have a plan in place — and great hopes of finally breaking through my low weight.