I've hit a plateau and so haven't been excited to post. I'm holding steady at 32 pounds - up one then down one each week. I can't complain about the program though because I haven't been following it. It's all me. I stopped writing it all down, stopped counting points, etc. Even the exercise has lagged. I can look back at the past 6 weeks and know that I just got too comfortable with where I was! It was so good to be fitting into clothes and even buying a few new things. The success should have motivated me to keep working but instead I just sat back and enjoyed it.\ I had a couple weeks of business travel then a family vacation since I last posted too. That really made it hard and I missed a couple meetings because I was out of town. I guess I should be glad that I didn't gain a bunch of weight during that time! But the good news, for me, is that I got serious last week and feel much more on track. I started back with the homemade and point-conscious soups on Tuesday. This morning I did a 2 mile walk around a local lake, stopped at a farmers market on the way home and stocked up on good veggies, then came home and worked in the garden for a while. (After that I lounged in the pool for 2 hours, finished a book I haven't had much time to read, and am now on my way to a neighbors for late-afternoon mojitos! Didn't want you to think I had turned into a saint or anything!) Finally back with the program, I'm working hard to drop another 13 pounds by the end of June. On the 4th of July I want to be able to say I've lost 45 pounds. I think I can do that if I stay serious. Congrats Happy Girl on reaching goal and staying there! Kate

Very true. I can lose 5lbs in a week. Loss of inches is more significant than loss of lbs anyway. A person will gain nearly .5 just from drinking 8oz of water. If you weigh yourself in the morning, you will weigh less than in the afternoon. Your DH can worry all he likes about you ballooning up like so-and-so, but that's like worrying you'll turn into an alcoholic because you had two beers after dinner instead of one. The weight isn't the real issue. It can't be. And if it is, pardon me, but your DH is an idiot. If you're that concerned, walk an extra 1/2-1 hour a day. Drink more water. Eat more leafy greens and whole grains and the 5lb will drop off in no time. But the stress of worrying about it is more damaging to your health than the actual weight. I would be worried more about the remarks he is making to you to make you lose interest in your sex life. That's a detriment to your losing weight too. Sex is a great workout!

I wish just once I could experience that dieter's "high". Seriously. I just recently came off a 3.5 year quest for weight loss and extreme fitness. During this time, I trained for and completed a 5-day bicycle trip averaging 100 miles per day, a half-marathon (I don't like running so not doing a marathon), and a summit attempt on Mt. Rainier. OK, didn't summit, long story, but made it a good way up. All of these activities required a LOT of exercise including both strength (heavy free weights), aerobic fitness, a strong core, etc. A typical week included a minimum of 15 hours of exercising to a maximum of about 30 hours, depending on how long my hikes/bikes were. I also had 70# to lose. Less weight is certainly easier to carry both on a bike and up steep mountains. Especially when you're also hauling gear. I did Weight Watchers and, after 4 months of diligence, including weighing everything and inputting it into MyFitnessPal so I was tracking calories, nutrients and points, and lost a total of 4#. I then tried a series of other plans averaging about 3 months on each plan to give it a fair go prior to switching it up. These plans including the Fuhrman Eat to Live, The Leptin, 5:2, Durkan, just plain eating low-fat vegetarian/sometimes vegan meals, green smoothie fasts, low carb. You name it, I think I tried it. I felt great and could have probably done an Iron Woman competition at the fitness level I had attained. Oh, I would have been in last place but I think I could have completed one. And my attention to my diet's nutritional components also made me feel great. At the end of these 3.5 years of extreme effort and meticulousness, I lost a grand total of 15#. Before you say that I built a lot of muscle which weighs more so I must have lost a lot of inches. Well, I went down a pant size. So, no, not a big inch loss. I took a break and am having a hard time getting back on track. I miss being as fit as I was and I feel myself getting weaker and losing endurance and that bugs me a lot but that much exercise just isn't sustainable for me right now. I have too many other obligations that I was neglecting in order to work out that much. And since I worked that hard and didn't achieve my weight loss goal, I just don't know what I can do to lose the weight I still need to lose. I really don't. And it's difficult to muster the commitment to try again when nothing worked before. And, yes, I have had medical tests run. While my thyroid is on the slow side of normal, it's still in normal ranges. Consequently, everybody seems to think I'm lying about what I'm eating. Heck, I went to weighing food with a digital scale because it's more accurate than measuring spoons/cups. I'm not fudging my intake. And I don't even understand how some people can eat so much. When I eat in restaurants, a fairly rare event, I typically take half of it home for another meal later because I'm stuffed just eating the first half. Even when I was gaining, it was thus. Frustrating. Those of you who have had success, great. But don't presume that what you did works for everybody.

THANKS for this thread and all the posts related to it, I read it early this am and it has been on my mind since. Fall of 2009 DH one day said come first of Oct I am going to loose some weight, I thought about it...told him next day I would go along with a diet....I needed to loose 20 pounds.....I lost the 20 ...then realized I needed another 20 off. Eight month later I had lost 42lbs and he had lost 55 lbs. i did the cooking...planned the menus....lot of veggies, fruits (fresh and no sugar canned) almost no bread...stopped baking all the sweets.....counted calories....weighed once a week....Sunday dinners were healthy but with beef steak, pork, or chicken. Once a week we treated ourself to a meal "out" from a reasonable healthy menu. We continued our exercise routine at The Y....we were never hungry..this all worked for us... When stopping I had my weight down to 144 lbs..DH down to 182...he looked great...I looked sick....for my height it was 10 lbs to much, face to thin and it showed up the wrinkles..lol...really aged me.....so I put 10 back on...155 and I was happy...gradually another ten went on.....and since Christmas another five...OUCH.....DH has only put on a total of 6 to 8 lbs...and you cannot tell it....he says he knows it.... So the story is ......I am back to the diet cooking and DH is going along with me. Hopefully by the middle of summer I will be back to goal of 155.....it is a matter of exercise, diet, food portions, a life style change and dedication.... I constantly read any and everything on diets.....I keep a food/calorie count and exercise daily journal.....anything that will remind me, "too much food is not good."