I'm finding it totally addictive, after a few days. My daughter is using it on her iPod Touch, and we compete to see who can get the better ''letter grade'' for the day.

Most days, my nutrition ''pie chart'' shows over 50% of my intake was fat.

I am ignoring the sodium reading. Since the app doesn't have home-cooked versions of many dishes, you have to select a commercial version, and those are typically higher in sodium than home cooking would (should) be.

I've set my ''target calories'' quite low, and so far Calorie Count is helping me (almost) stick to it. I'm actually down a couple of pounds over the past week.

Yee haw! One hour of leaf raking is 345 calories burned. However, I'm up to 865 calories taken in, and I haven't had dinner yet, so we'll see. Honestly, I think it's giving me too much credit for activity. Maybe I should switch to sedentary, or move around more.

It's like having a contest with yourself.

I'm not logging any activities, and classified myself as ''sedentary''. The app's value, so far, is in helping me understand what and how much I'm eating, and I want to focus on that for now.

One learns all sorts of trivia from counting calories. A 1/12 slice from the 9'' shepherd's pie we made last night has 3 oz ground beef, 1.5 oz mashed potatoes, and 2 oz pie crust, for 230 + 40 + 250 = 520 calories. Woah. I think I'll start making my meat pies with thinner crusts . . .

Got a B- for today. That slice of pumpkin pie did me in. Also my sodium intake is over the top.

Pie crust AND mashed potatoes? I never had it with a crust.

This is really eye-opening.

Link?

caloriecount.about.com

You register then start tracking. The iPhone app syncs with the website. Lpinkmountain told us about it, and I'm so grateful, I'm figuratively sending her a cheesecake!

Another good one is FitDay. I prefer it because it's more analytical and provides more in-depth vitamin/mineral tracking, which is important to me as I'm currently a vegan.

Just throwing it out there as an additional tool. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: FitDay

I agree that Calorie Count over estimates the sodium levels, but it is a good tool to give you a GENERAL idea of how you're doing, and where your big fat, carb, calorie and sodium items are, as well as what foods have what good stuff in them. It has sure motivated me to up my fiber and vegetable intake, and I thought I ate a lot of veggies and fiber! Honestly, I am at such a bare bones level of food . . .

UNFORTUNATELY, my scale is absolutely STUCK on 140. It simply WILL NOT budge. I did splurge a bit over the holidays, (ate some desserts), but am back on track. I am on a low calorie, high protein, low carb whatever diet and still not one ounce of weight loss. My exercise while staying with the folks has been sporadic--some walks but that's about it. I've always considered myself to be somewhat active, but now I have to say I must be beyond "sedentary" because I appear to burn practically no calories during the day . . .

Maybe add some healthy fat. Coconut oil is said to help boost metabolism and it tastes great. I add it to smoothies. I still don't think you're eating enough.

Also, you could try going completely raw for a week or two. The weight flies off - I lost 10 pounds in one week and felt amazing. Since you're already a vegetarian it'll be easier but it's literally just raw fruits and vegetables and tons of greens, nothing cooked. You'll get more than enough amino acids for your protein requirements.

A good rule of thumb is to aim to lose 1-2% of of your body weight each week. Any more than that and you risk losing muscle along with the fat. You want to hang on to as much muscle as possible. Muscle burns calories even when you're inactive. And muscle mass is good for your body too.

They say not to weigh yourself every day, but that is a rule I have trouble following. I weigh myself every day, but only log my weight once a week.

Lpink, I'm sorry I sent you that figurative thank-you cheesecake. It's my fault.

I am not very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of metabolism and so on. What is the reason why eating more or adding a particular kind of fat would cause one's body to lose weight?

My body appears to behave pretty straightforwardly. If I eat to a caloric deficit of X calories a day, then on average each day I lose X / 2400 calories. Not literally each and every day, of course. My weight seems to fluctuate by 2 lb from one morning to the next. But over time, that's how it averages out.

I suspect the reason is that I am quite a distance from where I should be, whereas you, Lpink, are closer. People tell me that losing weight gets harder as you have less to lose.

Well, I'm far from a scientist but I've done a lot of research. The vast majority of fats are composed of long chain fatty acids, which require a lengthy digestive process. However, coconut oil is one of the few that is made of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA)which is digested completely differently. It goes directly to the liver to be metabolized and results in a burst of thermogenesis and energy, which increases metabolism.

The bottom line, from my research, is that coconut oil produces almost exclusive energy while other fats produce body fat and some energy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Source

Thanks for the sympathy. I've been on a diet and BF lost five pounds! It's something to do with pre-menopause or something. My body is just hanging on and hanging on to fat. Actually I'm starting to loose some of my discipline. I'm eating close to 13-1400 calories a day, that's not a starvation diet. I should have lost at least a pound by now. I'm eating high protein low fat, so I'm doing all I can. I'm about to toss in the towel and just focus strictly on exercise.

I'm the opposite of an expert. But my thought would be that you've basically found what your particular caloric balance is - it is whatever amount you're eating now. Does that seem reasonable? Given your height, age, activity level, metabolism, and so on? If it does seem reasonable, then perhaps the thing to do is to break the balance - calorie intake, calories burned, maybe some of that coconut oil? I'll bet if you just ''go for it'' with exercise and a more stringent diet - just for a few weeks- you'll see that needle move and the progress will feel great.

My diet dinner. 8 oz white roughy, simmered in about 4 oz milk with some sliced scallions and 1 pat butter, then thickened to a sauce with a bit of cornstarch, plus salt and pepper. About 400 calories. Not super low calorie, but didn't break my bank. Add about 100 cal for a roasted and cubed yam. Yes I am weighing everything. Can you say compulsive?

I've found that a lot of, if not most of the vegetarian protein sources are also high in fat and calories. It's frustrating. Lpink, how are you doing a high protein, low carb diet as a vegetarian? I've wondered about how to do that for some time.

Johnliu, Caloriecount has a section where you can enter recipes, and it will analyze recipes for you. It's been a very long time since I've actively participated in that website, entering things, because it takes up so much time. I can't remember where the section for doing that is located, but there's a tab titled recipes. You click on that, if I remember correctly, and then you can click on a section that says your recipes, or something like that. I have to run off to work, now, so I don't have time to look for it for you. It's there somewhere, though.

Sally

Thank you, Sally2. I'll check that out. There's some dishes that I make frequently, it might be worth the time to enter and save those.

- okay, I put in two recipes. They were nutritionally graded C- and D+! Oh well. My approach remains - I'm going to eat anything I darn well please, as long as I stick to my 1,200 calories/day, I'll lose weight.

Keep in mind that website doesn't distinguish between good fat and bad fat. It doesn't matter whether it's olive oil or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or saturated fat, it counts them equally. That's my main complaint about that site. However, it is quite helpful in doing just what it supposed to do - count calories. I've thought about entering in something like deep fried butter, if I had the recipe for it, just to see if it would give out an "F".

Sally

I found that if you click deep enough, it does give separate measurements for ''fat'' and ''saturated fat'' but no more detail than that.

I've started saving more recipes there - it is a handy place to store them online, in addition to the caloric and nutritional information.

It is getting a bit tedious to enter the food but I still find it interesting. What is most eye opening for me is the amount of sodium in my diet, and I don't even enter what I shake on.

I didn't enter yesterday because I ate quarter of a bag of Baked Cheetos and a mountain of Nilla Wafers. Oops.

I like the "analysis" section, where you can see whether you're high or low in different vitamins and nutrients and what foods it came from that day.

Processed and packaged foods are often really high in sodium, it is hard to avoid. I've mostly stopped eating those, and am doing almost entirely scratch-cooking.

Snack foods, cookies and the like are killer too. All that kind of stuff is very dense in calories. 20 Cheeto puffs is 160 calories, same as 10 Ritz crackers, 15 potato chips, 15 peanut M&M's, etc. But I do really like Cheetos - the classic Puffs - so I can't have any in the house at all. No way I can only eat 20 puffs - usually, once I start, it's the whole bag . . .

Still, I think it might make sense to have one "free day" a week. A Cheeto day, as it were.

Ru-roh - looks like today might be my Cheetos day . . .

The link below explains a couple ways to estimate basal metabolic rate (calorie burn if you were sleeping or resting all day) and from there your daily calorie burn. From least accurate to most accurate. The most accurate method requires body fat % which a $40 scale can give you.

http://www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate.html

Rather eye-opening. My basal rate is about 1800 cal/day and my daily burn if ''sedentary'' is about 2150.

Gosh, used to be I'd plop down in front of the TV and polish off most of a ''family size'' (20 oz) bag of Cheetos. That's, like, 3000 calories. Then I'd have dinner . . .

The site then goes on to discuss guidelines for the appropriate caloric deficit, i.e. not a drastic one. It is interesting.

Hmmm, just curious. In what food group are Cheetos?

And if said Cheetos are baked, fried, toasted, dunked in coconut oil, do they then become a healthy diet food? And do the pounds fall off if one eats many bags of them? And do you get skinnier the more bags of coconut oil Cheetos you eat?

Could be a revolution! What's the stock symbol?

I don't know, but am thinking about some tempura Cheetos. Deep frying an already deep fried food might seem pointless - but not if we wrap with bacon!

I think the Baked Cheetos were listed under the Garbage food group. It is astounding how many calories are in junk food, the kind of stuff that you eat mindlessly or eat while you are deciding what to eat next. When I see the final breakdown of calories for a day, a huge proportion falls under Cheetos.

Imagine how many calories are in those Caramel Covered Cheetos that pop on on the CF from time to time. Cheetos, sugar, corn syrup and butter. And I bet you can't eat just one!

Mmmm, so good and crunchy. Imo, not pointless at all. Exactly on point. The more we fry, the healthier we get. And the more we eat, oh, you get it. My pants are getting loose already.

Tempura recipes? Made with a widely available but pricey nonetheless, tropical oil? Perhaps, rendered, crisco-like tropical fat, some fine flour, egg white, water, spices? Gee, I am out of tempura ideas.

Yes, bacon-and outside of the bacon, a dumpling. And each layer should be deep fried, no?

And what should the frying medium be?

Dedtired, You are serious? There is such a concoction called Caramel covered Cheetos? Here, on the cf? From time to time? I may sound holier than thou, and actually I do, but that is over the line. I was jesting about the tempura but in real life? 20th century? 21st century? IQ's over soup eating caramel covered Cheetos? Actually making them? And admitting to the outside world? Sharing the recipe? Unashamedly? tsk. Serial.

From the CF. POsted twice by my good friends!! Hee hee.

Caramel Cheetos�
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup margarine - yes, for this one you must use margarine
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 - 21 oz. pkg. Cheetos� - crunchy kind

Mix sugar, margarine and corn syrup in pan. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and add soda. Stir until light in color and foamy. Spray a roasting pan (deep 10 x 14) with Pam. Put Cheetos� in pan. Pour the mixture over Cheetos� and stir, coating each piece. Place in oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Immediately, pour onto wax paper, or cookie sheets, sprayed with Pam. (This is the hard part.) VERY QUICKLY spread out as thin as possible. If not quick and spread out as thin as possible, you will get a big hard glob. After about 5 minutes, pull/break these apart even more and loosen them from the wax paper. If you don't, you'll have wax paper stuck to them when you go to eat them.

Arrgh, now I have Cheetos on the brain. Cheeto sauce over tortellini, Cheeto-breaded fish 'n chips, Cheeto salad, it's gross and tempting at the same time.

Must . . . distract . . . myself . . . With real food.

I have a pack of beef short ribs in the pressure cooker with soy sauce, rice wine, star anise, garlic, ginger, pepper and some water. With a mess of carrots ready to go in later. Dinner in an hour!

My weight loss is stalled. Despite being pretty good on my diet, I can't break through 190 lb. Possibly my metabolism is defending itself against a too-low caloric intake. I might have to - gasp - start exercising. Let's see - crunches and curls while watching the Cooking Channel, or freezing my buns off on a bicycle at 38F? No contest.

First time below 190 lb this decade! Woo hoo!

The short ribs sound delicious and ok with a bit of sauce and trimmed meat. "A mess of carrots", and count them exactly, are very high carb and counterproductive to weight loss. Diabetes awares would be one half cup of carrots, steamed, plain. More than one or two whole carrots is high cal too. Is there a low carb sub for the deadly carrots? A cruciferous vegetable steamed and added to shrt rib sauce for a couple mins., just to sauce the veg. Not as sweet nor sturdy as corn, potatoes, onions, roots, but
better diet wise. "A mess of carrots" does not create a true plateau but is a cal/carb no-no. A mess of romaine, a half mess of broccoli/caulif will keep you on track.

Good luck.

Great news. Cant argue with success, John. You are doing so well. Deliciously and dietetically. And gentlemanly. You win. I fold.

Dedtired, what a recipe. Yep, it's real. I cannot say any more nor should I.

Westsider, no need to fold. You're right, carrots are high in sugar. Especially if you sprinkle them with brown sugar and roast, as I am wont to do (yikes). It's good to be reminded of that.

I don't know much about cooking tasty vegetables, beyond preparing them with ridiculous amounts of butter, cheese, nuts, etc, or larding them with sauces. I've always been mostly a meat cook. I wish I knew more about preparing veggies, and had a wider repertoire. Any vegetable-savvy calorie counting recipes would be more than welcome. I promise to make them!

In the meantime, you know how you get cravings? Sometimes I get a craving for barely cooked tuna. Here's the diet dinner tonight (and lunch tomorrow):

Marinate steaks in soy sauce, honey, salt, pepper. Plus wasabi if you have it, a little bit of hot chili sauce otherwise. Remove from marinade, press more pepper into the surface. Sear on hot cast iron pan with smoking olive oil, about 30 sec each side. Heat off, remove tuna, let cool a bit, and slice. Meanwhile, pour the marinade into the hot pan, let it boil and bubble and thicken, then pour it over slices. I have no idea how many calories of sauce that is, but the tuna isn't much. Something like 120 cal per 4 oz.

We stirfried some mushrooms, zucchini, and onions as well - but I slopped aioli sauce over it - I just don't have the hang of tasty AND healthy veggies.

As far as liking vegetables, (or any other "healthy" type of food), I think one's palate can be adjusted. I say this because I have managed to do it to some extent. I've watched my sugar and fat consumption like a hawk for about 25 years and most rich desserts do not taste good to me, they taste "gooky" if that makes any sense. For example, caramel covered chetoes sound awful to me and I'd have no trouble resisting them at a holiday party. (No offense intended to those of you who love them! I'm just commenting on MY palate, not criticising the food.) It took me a while to wean myself from sugar and it is something like an addiction. At first there are cravings, but they eventually subside. After that, the struggle is just to keep it up, and not succumb to this or that sweet fatty thing that is around. My mom gets so offended when I am constantly refusing stuff at her house. For her Depression generation, sweet means comfort and luxury. For me it means jiggly hips!! Same with saturated fat.

I'm not preaching vegetarianism, but those fatty cuts of meat like bacon, sausage and marbled beef do not appeal to me. I don't like their mouth feel or the way they go down. I think to retrain your palate you have to retrain your brain, start associating those gooey, sweet, fatty foods with sickeness, sluggishness, ill health, bad skin, poor digestion and a lumpy figure. On the flip side, revel in the antioxidants, vitamins and fiber that fruits, vegetables and whole grains provide. I had a salad last night with romaine lettuce, artichoke hearts, cauliflower, red pepper and peas, with low fat ceaser dressing. I enjoyed it so much, all the flavors and various colors and textures. You can also retrain yourself to eat whole grains. I've eaten them for years, I find refined grain products almost inedible. For that I would say start with small quantities. Stop being afraid of taste and texture, because grains and vegetables are loaded with both! Please understand that this is not a criticism, just suggestions for those of us struggling with eating low fat and healthy.

My big struggle is to bring down my portions. I was eating 5-6 servings of whole grains/starches and I'm trying to get it down to no more than three. Also limiting my fruit to 1-2 servings a day, not three. That's where the Calorie Count Web site has helped me, realizing how small a portion really is.
My other weakness is CHEESE. That's one addiction I cannot seem to break. One thing for sure, although it does have a role, lowfat cheese is not a good substitute in most recipes. It's OK for snacking and if you want the texture in something, but it doesn't have much of a flavor impact, even the sharp cheddar stuff.
I've started to use more fake meat products. I usually don't buy them due to cost, but I'm trying to up my protein to starch ratio. I eat some meat, but don't like any beef and most pork products.

Lpink, your choice of foods really sounds healthy, and tasty.

Perhaps I can train myself to eat more vegetables too. Actually, I like several vegetables a lot. Grean beans, mushrooms, carrots, corn, artichokes, brussel sprouts, potatos and yams, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and related, spinach, corn, gai lan, bok choy, peas, lettuce, avocado, beets. Seems I should be able to get into the habit of eating them more often. Come to think of it, there is a whole half-shelf of vegetarian cookbooks in my house - all pristine pages and unmarked spines - almost all gifts. I think its time to open them.

Whole grains are definitely not my thing, but it hardly matters right now because I'm hardly eating any grains at all. Have almost completely cut out rice, pasta, bread, pastry, etc. I like fruit and nuts too, and am still eating those.

As for you, portion control is the main thing I always have to watch, learn and re-learn. A ''portion'' used to be as much as would fit on a 9'' plate - and I'd have two!

Ah, dairy. I love cheese, but even previously, wasn't eating it in quantity.

On the protein - aren't tofu and egg whites the standard non-meat routes to a lot of protein quickly? I like both.

How is your scale - is it budging?

lpink, do you eat beans? Great protein source. I used to use canned beans exclusively but I've started cooking my own and they're great. I made an awesome white bean and rosemary soup the other day. It tasted like cream soup but it was low fat and dairy free.

The problem with eggs and tofu as protein sources is that many vegetarians/vegans don't eat them, and of course tofu is controversial in large quantities. I don't eat eggs or dairy, and limited tofu, but I get most of my protein from greens and vegetables. I believe that people are taught that we need far more protein than we actually do. As long as you get enough of all of the amino acids, you'll be ok. Just look at the huge, muscle-packed gorillas and other herbivores! Nature provides.

Cheese was the hardest thing for me to give up. But my ethics won't allow it anymore so that helps. As an added bonus, my skin cleared almost immediately, I feel much less congested and I lost 5 pounds without exercising much at all. In fact, it's been so cold that I have been huddled inside watching movies :D. That's the benefit of being a vegan - it's very hard to overeat as your body generally doesn't want more than it needs.

I eat beans every day. And I credit my daily soy intake for not having much trouble with hot flashes (so far, knock wood). I use cheese and eggs sparingly (at least I TRY to use them sparingly). But still my scale has not budged. Well, at least I'm not gaining weight, and yesterday I thought I might have lost .25 lbs, lol! My scale isn't that accurate though!

John, I love vegetables but stopped eating them much as a side dish because they are kind of a pain to make. But now due to dieting and having a BF who loves veggies and needs more to eat than me, I'm back to eating more side dishes and salads. Also BF helps me eat things up. I stopped buying a lot of fresh veggies because they would invariably end up rotting in the back of the fridge. Also, frugal-me had a rule to not buy any produce over $2.00/lb. But I've decided it's worth it to me to have more healthy, low fat choices in the fridge. Especially now that I'm not as worried about them going to waste. Luckily I live three blocks from a farm market, although it is only open Th-Sat. That's where I'm going on my daily walk today!

Your scale is remarkably stable. In the past six days, my scale has gone from 190 lb to 186 to 189. That's pretty normal for me - wide swings in weight.

Say, did you ever look into the Omron scale/body fat analyzer? There is a fancier model too, which measures weight, body fat %, visceral fat %, body mass index, and muscle %. I haven't used that one. I'm not trying to pitch this product - there may be other ones that are better - but I recall you were looking for a new scale a few months ago.

Starting Saturday we have 3 weeks of houseguests, and I also do some business traveling, so staying on diet will be difficult. But my trip takes me near one of my favorite Japanese restaurants, that's a good thing.

Wow it is hard to stay on diet when traveling.

In the hotel this AM - eggs benedict and grapefruit juice, 630 calories. That's like, half my daily target.

My secret business travel diet weapon is Japanese restaurants. Last night - tuna and scallion hot pot, seared beef with pureed radish, spicy tuna roll - 500 calories. And delicious. Unfortunately, I also had beer.

I always failed miserably trying to lose weight,when I got married I could not cook.now look out.when I say to hubby where do you want to eat?he says my place.Thats how I gained it,then having 3-10lb babies.Well then my health went down hill fast,I was told I was gonna die at 40.So all my life I lived thinking I was gonna die at 40,that took a tole too.Now Im 55,in need of a kidney transplant.But they want me to lose 50lbs.So to get this drastic measures are needed.I had the lapband surgery,Im not gonna say its easy,its not for the weak,but I have 20lbs to lose yet.Unless a kidney just happens to come along, I could have it now.

I have finally managed to lose somewhere between 20 - 25 lbs. since April. I must have hit a plateau for awhile, because I couldn't lose anything. Now I'm losing again, but boy, this time of year is a killer as everyone knows. I don't know if I'll succeed in losing any more weight before Christmas, but here's my plan of attack. I'm going to make only the Christmas treats that my entire family loves. Unfornately, that will eliminate a lot of things that I love. Instead - and I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know if I can really do it - I'm planning to buy seasonal things like comice pears, pomegranates, clementines and see if I can "indulge" myself with those. I already bought a pound of wild Alaskan smoked salmon at Costco - high in sodium, but I don't eat much salt anyway and if I limit myself to one serving a day, it should be fine.

I ran a couple of 5K's in the fall - not really my bag of tea, but it's kind of fun and does get me moving!

Congratulations, virginia. That is an inspiring story. Smoked slamon, yummy.

Bulldinkie, please let us know how the Lap-BAND goes as you adapt to it. It sounds like you've lost a lot already!

Another issue I wanted to ask about. Has anyone had trouble getting enough of certain nutrients, when on a constrained diet? Calorie Count says I am not doing so. Thus I've been taking vitamin supplements.

Well, if you're talking about that Calorie Counter assessment, I really like it, but it is only a general guide, and probably based on a "one size fits all" function. However, I am coming in consistently very low on fiber which is odd since I always thought I ate a lot of fiber. I'm trying to fix that. Basically I think I'm coming in low in fiber because I'm just not eating that many calories. I'm also low in calcium but I knew that and have been taking calcium/magnesium supplements with a vit. C chaser for years. They make a huge difference in how well I sleep and help me avoid "restless leg syndrome." Other than that, I take a multi-vitamin and acidophilous every day. That's plenty IMHO. Most vitamins are not stored by the body, so you're just peeing away money by taking a lot of supplements. BF swears high dose B vitamins give him energy, but they just give me weird dreams. I'd rather take my fish oil in the form of fish. I guess I should do flax, but I don't at this point. The best thing is to freshly grind the seeds but I'm not organized enough to do that.

I also come in low in iron, but the body stores iron so you don't have to have adequate intake every day. Too much iron is toxic, so I just have some iron pills which I take every once and a while, with a C chaster for absorption. Calcium blocks iron, and iron is absorbed best on an empty stomach, and my thyroid medicine blocks calcium too. So timing and absporption are important with taking vitamins. I take my calcium at night, my multi and acidophilous with lunch, and my eye vitamins and iron if I'm taking it, before breakfast. Oh yeah, I have macular degeneration so I take Lutein with some other antioxidants. Probably futile. My mom has it so it is probably genetic. I don't have the worst kind though.

My digital scale came yesterday, yay!! I've gained 1.5 lbs. but that's because I fell off the wagon over the weekend and we went out for very nice Chinese last night and I was starving since I didn't eat lunch due to running around Christmas shopping. I swear, I have to be so good ALL the time or I immediately gain weight. I can diet and diet and NOT loose ANY weight, and then I splurge for a day or two and I immediately gain a pound.

I bought some more exercise equipment, one of those fitness balls and a jump rope. I'm going to focus on trying to up my daily exercise. I've been having trouble with hunger and cravings lately and I'm always cold, my metabolism needs help!! I almost always eat three meals a day, small ones since I'm watching calories. A 350 calorie breakfast, 400 calorie lunch and dinner meals a day and a 100-200 calorie snack. It's really not very much food but I only burn 1500 or so calories a day with my sedentary lifestyle. Dieting just slows my metabolism down even more. I think my problem is definately not getting enough exercise.

BF bought me new exercise shoes and a groovy sweatsuit and jacket for Christmas so I have no excuses.

A Planet Fitness just opened near me. It's so cheap that I think I will go there and, if nothing else, walk on the treadmill. I am such a slug in the winter.

I have a good five days of major food temptation ahead of me, so I need to be strong to resist it. I know I can't resist all of it, so I hope I don't end up any worse than I am now. I just found out that my Ex lost 45 pounds and that is driving me crazy. I got secret pleasure from seeing his fat gut -- aren't I mean?

Lpink, that sounds good. I suspect you are ''cracking the code'' and are on the right track. dedtired, if you like the treadmill, note that lightly used exercise equipment is always on craiglist, for way less than it cost the seller - $75 to $250.

As for me, so far I have not lost weight during the holidays, nor have I gained weight. I was hoping to be really ''good'' but the lure of almond rocca was too much - plus the alcohol calories consumed during one stumbling drunk evening. But our houseguests are gone and almost all the candy is given away, so I'm trying to be good again.

How are the dieters all doing as we begin the new year? Bad or good over the holidays? Any new efforts in the works?

I fluctuated over the past month (in a 5 lb range) but basically am flat since mid-December. Which suggests that my calorie counting overlooked the holiday nibbles. Almost all that stuff is outta here - just a bit of almond rocca left - and this is Soup Month.

I managed to not gain over the holidays and I'm considering that a success. Let's start a new thread, I'm sure there are others on the wagon now too!