@ Harold: You do deserve it. Your conviction and dedication to your health was tangible and contagious and your willingness to help the rest of us and have a consistently good attitude was inspiring :) @Marita: I'm in S. California. I try to eat meat in the morning. Leftover steak or chicken and my carbs for the day. Lately I've been eating a veggie burger for breakfast. It's easy, quick and delicious. Oatmeal and cereal don't stick with me long enough. I like my egg breakfast too: Four egg whites: 64 calories 1 C Spinach: 7 cal 1/2 C chicken (or steak/pork/whatever leftover meat I have from dinner the night before!!): 116 cal 1/4 C tomato: 8 cal 1/8 C feta cheese: 50 cal 1/8 C onion: 8 cal Total: 253 calories I saute the onion in some spray olive oil (0 cal!!), then put in the spinach and chicken until warm and just barely wilted, add the tomato and egg whites, and fold until cooked. Then put the feta on top (I use Spike seasoning) and let sit for a few minutes until the feta kind of melts. That leaves plenty for a slice of toast, some fruit slices, etc. And it's a LOT of food for so few calories. But meat chunks, cheese chunks, bread chunks in the morning are good too. It gives me good energy and fills me up, and I can kind of much for a few hours on that. I don't eat at home, I can't eat in the early morning, so I pack my breakfast and eat at work. This morning it's two scoops of chocolate protein powder 260 cal with one frozen banana 80 cal and 1/4 cup plain yogurt 38 cal. Total 378. Kind of a lot, but it's in two containers so I can ration it out for a meal/snack. I love fish too. Costco has great frozen fish (mahi, salmon) and I can just defrost one piece at a time. They also have good salmon patties- quick protein, low calories. Wodka, I can't imagine losing my home, community, way of life let alone dad and sister. I'm so sorry for your loss. I have empathy... I gained 10 lbs from July 09-March 10 after losing 28lbs from Feb 09 - June 09 with HWW :). I blamed it on the heat, losing my grandpa, family issues, etc... So, I've taken pro-active measures. I joined a gym (combating the heat issue) and am focusing more on strength than weight loss this time. Strong body, strong mind. I'm glad you joined us!! Use that $40 for a gym membership (and still have $$ left over!) or join some club that makes you feel good about yourself. It's easy for me to care about me and take care of me if I'm feeling good emotionally :) Have a great day everyone!!!

From a website: Our ancestors - for thousands of years, ate all day long. A bit of food here, a bit of food there. The last 400 years we decided to eat 1, then 2, then 3 big meals a day. The problem is our bodies are not "programmed" to eat 3 meals a day. You eat, then do not eat again for hours and the body responds by storing body fat because your body literally thinks you are starving! Include the foods we eat daily - highly processed foods that we digest in less than 1 hour - we are hungry all the time! So we eat, and eat. So how to eat now? Eat portion foods. A portion is a small hand-full of food. Every 2-3 hours, eat one portion. As you go along through the weeks, you will re-teach your body that your are not starving, so the portions will get smaller and smaller. You will never be hungry again. What to eat; fruits, vegetables, nuts, and ONE protein serving. Again, our ancestors ate very little protein. A can of white chicken breast, small can, in water, will give you all the protein you need each day. Throw away the water. Try different foods to see what you like, and do not. Fast food? Get the kid-size burger, kid-size coke.

Good Morning, It is good to hear that everyone is doing well. Harold, if I don't get busy you will be zooming down past me so fast I'll get vertigo! I'm going to Walmart today and will try to find a pedometer while I'm there. Maybe that will get me out of this LONG holding pattern I've been in. I miss the time I spent here. But, right now life is soooo busy. I have been to a Dr's office 11 times this month. Most of those were taking Aunt B. Twice was for Son(sinus)and me(ear infection/shingles). 3 times with Aunt B I was also treated for either ear infections or shingles or both. Stress city here! I am trying to find an affordable sitter for Aunt B that can come in at least a couple of times a week so I can escape and have some ME time. It would be HEAVEN and I could at least go walking. If the new meds don't start helping more with the dementia/Alhziemers we will have to give in and find a nursing home. She has started to get mean (not physical yet) and since I'm her primary caretaker, I'm on the receiving end of her verbal wrath. My body is responding to the stress by getting sick and staying sick. The DR has already told me I can't do this much longer. The end of the tunnel is coming, but I can't quite see the light yet. Weight-wise I am at least satisfied that I'm still under 160 this week. Food temptations are strong and the only exercise I get is running around trying to keep house, do laundry, errands, etc. I have felt so crappy,health-wise, that I haven't taken the time to prepare healthy alternative snacks and meals for myself. I just do what I have to do to get something that everyone else will eat on the table so I can get the kitchen clean and fall into bed. I have enjoyed trying a few new recipes, but most aren't exactly what you would call healthy... LOL... I always go into a cooking/baking mode when fall arrives. The only good thing about that is, I take a lot of it to my sick neighbor. DH, DS(who never gets full), and Aunt B clean up the rest pretty quickly! I know this post is long and sounds really negative. I don't want it to BE negative. I love her and will never regret this time I've been able to keep her out of a nursing home and spoil her a bit. She never had kids and loves it when the Gkids are here. We've had some great laughs and, as much as her health and dementia will allow, she has been very happy since we brought her here in June. The day she has to leave will be a sad, bittersweet, day. I've been so busy that if I've checked in here at all it has been very short. Y'all are my cyber family and I just wanted you to know that I AM GOING TO LOSE SOME MORE WEIGHT and to take a minute to sort of fill in the blanks of this LONG STALL. SO.... I was 159 when I weighed this week. No loss, but no gain either. For that I am thankful. Keep up the good work, everyone. It gives me hope. Hugs, Betty

'Tis the season for computer crashes, it seems. Harold, congratulations again. You're a weight-loss machine. Ivamae, you're doing well too. I'll update your numbers. I was 139 last weigh-in. Then over the course of the week, I did get back down to 137.5, but it didn't stick. My official weigh-in for this week is 138.5. Not thrilled, but even small improvements are OK. I have gotten my food journal back out and I'm writing down everything that I eat again. I had stopped doing that, and when I did, I think I let myself get larger portions or nibble a little more and that has stalled me out. I have also put up a chart on the fridge for all the world to see. Each day for the next 2 months has its own little box. Every morning, I write that day's weight in the box (again, for all the world to see). At the end of the day, if I've done well (not eaten anything I shouldn't have AND kept my calories below 1300), then I get to color that day's box purple. If I cheat, then the box has to stay white. The idea is to generate a field of purple, not a checkerboard. I think the visual challenge, posted on the fridge, will help to motivate me, and the visual of each failure will help me stay real about whether my diet is really working for me, or if I'm not working for it. Jasmi, now that you've identified what you did last week, I'm sure you'll turn your ship around too. But as little as you are now, it may take a long time to continue to drop pounds. You don't have far to go! Don't give up. I'll bet you look great already.