I'm going to say that whatever I'm doing now, I had better keep it up. Since I started my weight loss program last week after New Year's eve (my last orgy of eating), things are going very well. When I began, I was at an all-time high of 217. And that wasn't just after that night, I had been there consistently for a few weeks. I have now gotten down to 210. I know you always lose a bunch the first week, but what has been encouraging has been that it has been consistent day to day, not just a big drop after the first couple of days as my body cleaned out the works.

The keys to my success so far are no mystery: eat right and work out. I have found that for me, a slim fast, a banana, and maybe an egg or some pita chips for breakfast will easily last me until lunch. I know some advice is that you need to eat every couple of hours with little snacks. That just doesn't work for me. I never think to eat the snack (although I do bring them just in case I get hungry), and I'm not hungry. I usually eat my lunch early enough that I don't think it matters a whole lot. I have switched back to eating a sandwich for lunch rather than just a chicken breast. The bread isn't the best thing ever, but I am not downing a ton of carbs all day, so I think it is in enough moderation. Lunch is enough to last me, and I have been including fruit it in. I have been pretty consistent with going to the gym every day, and I have also walked on my treadmill on the weekends. My goal is to do at least something active 6 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Watching football is a good time to walk on the treadmill because Jaime doesn't want to watch it anyway, so I can do that downstairs while on the treadmill. My last thing that is working is to have a bowl of soup before dinner. I have never been a huge soup eater, but since I have done that, I haven't overeaten at dinner at all. Incorporating more veggies has also been a plus.

So right now I feel that I can sustain this. If I keep it up, I will be on track to hit my goal of being under 200 by the end of February. I haven't been hungry and have not felt deprived. Probably my biggest hurdle is drinking enough water. I track all of my progress on the website http://www.myfooddiary.com . You enter what you eat and your exercise and it tells you if you are under or over your calories needed for the day. It does all the charting and everything so it is good to track my progression. It gives you feedback on your ratios of fat, protein, carbs, etc and all the vitamins you get from your food. Probably the hardest thing is to get under the sodium limit. The amount you are "allowed" is quite low and very hard to achieve unless you are a vegetarian and never eat anything that is already prepared. Just eating the soup basically blows my limit. Sodium, like sugar, is in everything nowadays. I don't sweat it much.

Work has been stressful lately. I go through cycles of liking my job and hating it. Right now I am in the latter. I hope that will change soon.