Hi Theresa! Welcome! I hope to reach my goal by December 2006 so I understand about longterm goals. I've been shedding about a pound every 10 days or so by adding a lot more activity. I retired in January and that has helped me a lot. I used to have a desk job and was a workaholic on top of that so more than 40 hours per week. Add a long commute and I didn't have much time left over to have much of a life except relax so I could go back to work again. I've lost 25 pounds since January 2, 2004. Your questions: - How much have you increased your activity? A whole bunch on most days but I don't track it with regularity. I now have the luxury of gardening. Also, cleaning house can really be a workout and I didn't really have time to do this before. If you work at an office job, I think you may need to face reality and try to plan some type of regular physical activiy. This was something that probably really caused me to gain the most weight. I should have realized that some form of "working out" if I wasn't moving much on the job was absolutely necessary. I didn't want to believe that. Now I do. - How do you handle breakfast on the run? My breakfast is 1/2 to 1 cup of yoghurt (brand White Mountain which I have learned to love but didn't initially. This stuff helps your digestion also. I don't use the fat-free or low-fat stuff. I try to avoid artificial food whenever I can.) I also add 1 to 2 ripe avocados (depending on how hungry I am) along with my cup of yoghurt, I eat these with a spoon right out of their shell. It makes breakfast very quick and easy and almost gourmet since I love both of these. This can be portable if you put the yoghurt in a containter with a lid and don't leave it in the heat. This helps me to hit the ground running and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Been having this breakfast (most days) since I retired in January . - Do any of you use Leanne's meal planner from FlyLady? Does it help? I have thought about Leanne's meal planner but haven't subscribed. I did try some of her test recipes and liked them. My husband and I are vegetarian so though she has options, it wasn't quite a good fit. Also, part of my retirement is trying to learn to cook good food largely from scratch where I can. I know everyone doesn't have this luxury. Sometimes I wonder if cooking from scratch has helped me lose weight? I've heard that smells can be very satifying. I find that I don't really over eat at the meals that I prepare, only ones that I eat when I go out to dinner in a restaurant. Strange? some significance there, I think. - Please tell me what keeps you going. I need to keep going too! I do feel so much better. And it is wonderful to see my weight on the scale drop. I'm going to have to be more rigid about things probably before too long but not having easy access to a vending machine like I did at work has helped tremendously. I love Snickers and haven't had one since January. I have prayed as has already been mentioned. Never hurts to pray, whatever your religion or meditate if you're not religious. I plan to do some regular swimming since I love that even if it is healthy. Find something you really enjoy so it will feel like you are pampering yourself even if it helps you lose weight. - How do you "unlearn" bad portion sizing? This is my toughest problem. I finish everything on my plate when I go to a restaurant. Restaurant portions are getting bigger and bigger, if I don't succeed losing all that I want to lose, this will be the reason. But one funny thing I have learned is that nuts really help me lose my appetite quickly. I have bought all kinds, brazil, walnut, cashew pieces, pecans and almonds. Not the salted kind and not peanuts since I itch and think I'm allergic to them (and they aren't really nuts but are "legumes"). Anyway, if I find myself wanting to eat something after I should be full, if I have a couple of handfuls of nuts, it seems to really help the ole "hypothalmus gland(sp?)" shut down. Mine seems to tell me I need to eat all the time unless I really struggle to counteract these messages. Raw is best if you can get them. I like the raw walnuts the best but I vary them because diversity is usually good in most things. I buy them at "Whole Foods" grocery, a health food store not too far away. Walnuts are also supposed to help lower cholestoral. Even though their calorie count isn't that low, I highly recommend. I seem to lose weight on those days I eat the most nuts, strange... Another trick I've found is that a piece of fruit about 30 minutes or an hour before dinner will keep back the munchies really really well for just the right amount of time. Otherwise, I may eat too large of a "snack" and then eat dinner too which is just too many calories. Also, I try to keep from becoming famished because terrible things happen when I do. Bananas are a real treat and I've eaten two of them before to keep from eating unhealthy. I try to always have bananas around since they are such a treat, even though they are one of those fruits you are supposed to be careful of. Much healthier than ice cream and they don't seem to be as addictive to me as snickers :). Sounds like you don't have as much to lose as I do. All I can say is please, please take care of it now. It is so much worse if you let it continue. Have as your goal to quit gaining at least. Then worry about losing. Don't bury your head in the sand like I did. But also don't beat yourself up. It seems like the easier I take this, the better I feel and am not so negative about this losing weight thing. I'm also taking a bunch of vitamins. Not sure how they affect losing weight. One supplement I take that may be related, I think, is Chromium Picolinate. (not positive so I don't want to get into a serious discussion on which vitamins are best:) Everyone is different of course. Hope that some of my personal information can help you. Bottom line, take care of yourself, nurture yourself as best you can and I think it will help you hang in there for the long haul. --Alice

Depending on the water conditions, # of people in the house and plumbing-appliance requirements a correctly sized softener will treat your hardness but if the iron content is high additional equipment will be required. You needn't plumb a separate faucet for untreated drinking water. Treating your water problems will extend the life of your plumbing, fixtures, appliances, clothes, and save you money on soap and detergents. My water is 30 grains hard and my water heater is 15 years old... average life around here for a WH is 1.5 to 2 years.

Although the tank is underground, some of the pipes leading to the pump are not far below surface, though even there the difference in temperature from morning to afternoon will not be large. But the pipe above ground and the pump and the meter in the box above ground are cold. Remember how the warm water coming from your hot water tank is only tepid for a while until it warms up the pipe? While that gas is still chilly from the above-ground equipment cooling it as it passes through, it takes up less space, so you get more per cupful, which is how the meter works. Probably a good idea to use a pump that has been sitting filled with gas for a few minutes, thus letting the cool ambient morning air get a chance to cool the piping down while it has gas sitting in it for a while. I know that a number of people that I've heard express an opinion on the subject say that they don't fill at a gas station that is having a delivery, if they can avoid it, as they feel that sediment and crap, plus any water that has been sittig at the bottom of the tank, gets stirred up and may be carried through the pipes to their car's tank - which they prefer to avoid. It seems to me that gas dropping in a slow stream into one's tank might be less turbulent and splash less, producing less vapour. I note that as I fill my tank, which I'm inclined to do as quickly as possible in cold weather, I note the smell of gasoline while I'm pumping ... which indicates that a substantial amount of vapour is being expelled from the tank beside the filler nozzle. Whether that is simply vapour-laden air that is being displaced by the gas, or super-vapourized air due to additional turbulence as the fresh gas rushes into the auto tank is debatable, I guess. It's smart to keep your tank nearly filled for another reason, especially if you live in northern areas. As the air cools, it drops moisture - on the grass, we call it dew, but in a gas tank we call it a pain in the butt. It gathers at the bottom of the tank and causes it to rust, over time. It gets into the line and filter and sometime blocks it ... but if the weather is freezing, it sure as heck blocks it! For that reason the northern gas delivery people add some antifreeze to the gas during winter months and many motorists add gasline antifreeze to their tank. Keeping a small amount of air in the tank means less condensation of water as ambient air cools, to add to one's list of potential sources of trouble. Being stranded at 40 degrees below is no fun! Especially if there are no warm houses nearbvy ... and one is wearing low shoes to trudge through snow. Best to stay in the (cold) car. People trained to travel on the Prairies in winter carry lots of warm clothing, blankets, etc. in their cars in winter. Do I detect a smidgeon of hot air flying around here, in addition to gasoline vapours? ole joyful

Yes, I did Kat. Didn't want to come home, usually on vacation you want to get home after so long, well, not this time. The most peaceful thing I did was swimming in a natural hot spring. The ocean pouring in through a gap in the rocks and warm spots of water. We swam and I floated on my back, so peaceful except when I thought about what was swimming in there with us-lol. I also spent nearly every day walking around coconut island and the Japanese gardens in the morning, and took a book to read in the shade of a big tree. One fun thing we did was go to the lava flow at night. We had gone during the day earlier in the week and couldn't really see anything but heat rising off in the distance, even though we were only 75 yards from the flow. So, we went back at night hoping to see the glow from the lava, but it wasn't flowing that night. So, my friend, Esther, decides to drive to the crater (Kiluea's). It takes us a while to get there and it starts pouring rain and the wind picks up. So, the temp drops and it's raining and windy when we get to the crater. Esther is very tiny and was wearing shorts so she stayed about 2 seconds to look at the crater. I stayed longer and tried to take a picture, then decided to take a movie of it. Then I had to run to the bathroom and ended up in the men's room! I have no idea how I did that because I looked at the signs outside, and there were urinals when you first came in but I didn't see them. I just had to go so bad. Then a man came in and used one of the urinals. I wonder if he saw my purse on the floor and what he thought about the "guy" with with red and yellow flowered purse! LOL! We also went to the Hilton on the other side of the island. The place is so beautiful, lots of oriental statues everywhere, a boat and train take you from one end of the resort to the other. We ate at a restaurant for lunch overlooking the dolphins. After spending a few hours there we went to a luau overlooking the ocean in Kona with the sun setting behind them. Beautiful.