This way of eating has been good. REALLY good. The food is beautiful, tasty, filling and surprisingly easy to stick to in all situations.
Yesterday, on a nice forest trail walk, I got a little choked up about how good I felt! This sounds strange, but I had resigned myself to feeling "old" in my joints and muscles. Now, suddenly I feel so much better. My body feels like it did 10 years ago (Not young exactly, but it's still early in the game on this way of feeding myself). The parking brakes are off my range of motion, the minor constant aches are not in my way anymore. My breathing is easier and my pants fit the same in the morning as they do at night (that's a big deal for me). The "balanced" diet I had been eating my whole life was making me slow, and I get teared up from joy and a little bit sad and sometimes even angry that I wasted this much time feeling old when it was so EASY to fix!
I'm not being antisocial with it. If there is a special reason to eat a certain food that's not normally on my menu, I take enough to participate. It's rare enough that my health is still improving even with all the Christmas feasting going on.
On the topic of simplifying...
I have faith that this path of healthy eating is 100% sustainable, therefore I can confidently remove the clothes that fit 10 pounds heavier.