"Also, get out of the habit of eating." I think that's a big key, right there! Since it's become just so inconvenient to eat, I barely care anymore. Although, right now, I'm splurging on gluten/wheat-free pancakes, mixed with shredded coconut, egg whites(from my own chickens and I can actually eat the whites!), almond meal and topped with fresh local honey and raspberries from the garden! :~) So much of my family's life has revolved around the kitchen. The last house that we built was designed with it as the focal point! Now, with everyones diet so restricted, I'm not sure what we'll do about it. We have, literally, hundreds of cookbooks. Everything from professional, ethnic/regional and even ones from my grandma. With the exception of many of the Asian ones, they're sort of useless now. :~( I've been doing massive amounts of harvesting and freezing all sorts of berries and veggies. I'm going to start making preserves out of beet sugar. (I used some in my coffee and it's actually drinkable now.) I've wanted a large cold storage for fruits(apples, pears, etc), potatoes and whatever else, for a long time and just might put one in. Also, the only good pizza place in town, was wiped out. A motorhome drove through it this summer! :~0 I'm now almost down to what I weighed in high school. At least, as a junior! My coach kept wanting me to move up weight classes, for sports. We used to weigh-in and if I didn't make it, I'd have to go eat and try again. Everyone else was starving themselves to make a lower weight. Eating far more than I needed became a very bad habit and hard to stop, even 20+ years later. Wow! I'd look like a corpse at 130lbs!;~) I don't think that my body would take that. I figure that 190'ish(+-) is around my ideal weight! I'd just be far too thin at anything less. Even the clothes that I bought the last shopping trip are getting baggy. Not that I'm complaining!! ;~) I wondered where my cheekbones went to! "As a bonus, I have the most marvelous tan ever, getting comments...." Never been much of the tanning type! Especially, at my age now!;~) God forbid I start getting wrinkles! All of my friends that spent years tanning around pools, in Palm Springs, look twice my age! :~) Laying in the sun w/o protection, lots of booze and cigarettes will do that to you.;~) Being fa..., ahhh larger, I kept to the shade and fully dressed...thank you very much! ;~) I don't mind a few character lines. I just refuse to look like an old crone, just yet! ;~) Especially, now that I've lost weight!! Scott

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.

I feel your pain! I've decided that weight watchers isn't in my budget either. I almost cried when I realised that I'm overweight now...After baby #1 came 5 months ago. I see a lot of women on base who have babies the same age and don't even look like they've even thought about having a baby, much less have had one. Another disappointment with my plan...I can't take my baby to the gym, so that's out. I think my only option is walking. But I need accountability. Me & working out aren't the greatest combination. Let me know if you come up with something that will fit into a mom's routine! I need the help too!!! My poor hubby...We were looking at pictures from when we first got married and he was like "look how thin your face is". That's when I realised this HAS to go!

I agree that keeping track of your cats' weights is a VERY good idea. I learned that the hard way when, as lfnyc noted, one of my cats lost a substantial amount of weight without my noticing until he was very, very ill. That was when I bought a digital baby scale off of eBay and started weighing my cats every two weeks. I chart their weights in a spreadsheet on my computer so it is always readily at hand and I can see at a glance how each cat's weight has ebbed and flowed since 7/07. Feeding portioned meals to four cats really wouldn't be difficult once you get into a routine. I feed all fifteen of my cats portioned meals so that I can keep an eye on daily food intake and properly manage their weights. I used to free feed, but I am so glad to have switched to portioned, scheduled meals. Now I know immediately when one of my cats loses his/her appetite and can evaluate him/her for other signs of illness or take a trip to the vet if necessary. I won't lose another cat because I didn't notice weight loss or inappetance again. Laurie