Here are some other ideas to try - Wear a pedometer or step counter: this has made a big difference to me. It motivates me to move more so that I meet my self-imposed daily step goal. When I don't hit my minimum of 10,000 steps then I move more the next day to compensate. If you're the competitve type, get family & friends to also wear one and then out do them. Keep a food diary: seeing it written down helps make you aware of every bite. It makes you really see what you are eating (like those crusts from your kid's sandwiches or the 15 Hershey kisses) and what you're not eating (like enough fruit or water). Eat mindfully: Really taste, smell and appreciate the appearance of your food for deeper satisfaction, and possibly, fewer but more satisfying calories. Join a weight loss group: Many find the combination of spending money and the semi-public accountability to be helpful. I've used Wt Watchers but there are many options. Or start your own with friends & family. Charge dues & let people earn the money back if they are successful. Don't sit when you can stand. Don't stand when you can walk. Don't walk when you can run: In other words, GET MOVING. Everyone agrees that it is hard, hard, hard to find time to exercise if you don't really enjoy it. But it is so important to exercise for strength & flexibility & endurance. Find something you can tolerate and do it. Make. The. Time. Do it for you. It's your health and future. Take charge. Today. And if you slip up, start again with the next meal or next work-out session. Don't wait until the next Monday. Or 2 weeks before your class reunion. Start right now.

Mary, If you purchase a property that is now owned by a lender because they worked out a "short sale" with their mortgagee there will be no consequences to you as a buyer. If the lender has a beef...it's with their mortgagee. Many "shorts" are negotiated to be non-recourse & dach...I'd sure recommend you try hard to accomplish that. I'm not a REA but have a good idea why you're not seeing the words "short" and/or "foreclosure" on the MLS. 1.) The lender always has a fiduciary duty to the mortgagee. 2.) If it's REO, it's no longer a foreclosure so there's no reason it would be advertised as such. 3.) To advertise a "short" would, IMO, violate the fiduciary duty thing & potentially leave the lender exposed to a liable suit...not something a good lender would ever risk. What you are likely to see advertised is "bank owned" or "lender owned" or "relocation company owned", etc. Nobody potentially gets hurt by those choice of words. Auctions... No, they most likely do not have a price listed in case someone wants to purchase it outright. If there were to be a normal sale it would be between the mortgagee & the potential buyer but NOT the lender. The lender is required to present the property to the public via the auction process since that's the standard for "fair market value". Not all states allow phone bids. Most of the states where I've conducted auctions for lenders the potential purchaser had to be on site registered & with a bidding number in hand in order to be qualified to bid. If a successful bidder fails to close within the specified timeframe they can be held liable for breach of contract. It's best to have all of your ducks in a row before bidding at a foreclosure auction. Frequently, I bid a property in at what we had outstanding including unpaid interest, fees, taxes, insurance, etc. but not always. In down markets, if I had an active bidder & we reached within 10% or so of my target amount I'd let the property go. I also did dozens of absolute auctions where I didn't bid at all so technically the property could have gone for $1.00. Those were in cases where I knew there were problems that could potentially be costly for the bank. An example, is one home (build in the 1930's) that was used as a gas station in the 1950's. I chose to auction absolute rather than risk an EPA fiasco. That property sold for around $30K & I was grateful to get it! Don't remember what our loan amount was but it was certainly more than $30K. /t

Ah, weddings. My son is getting married in June and they've planned it as a late afternoon ceremony on the beach next to a lighthouse on the Eastern Shore, followed by a reception in a maritime museum on the same property. It's very appropriate for the couple; she is a Coast Guard academy grad who recently left the military for a job at a major cruise line and he is a federal law enforcement agent at a maritime national park. Her family is local to the MD area although the couple lives here in SoFla. Hopefully the weather will cooperate but if not she's going to move everyone into the assembly space. Very fond of my future DIL but it's an interesting experience being the grooms' parents; we've not been consulted or informed much about plans other than told if we ask. No wedding attendants, and evidently no desire for any variant of rehearsal dinner--I offered to host extended family for a nice private dinner or even do a cocktail reception the night before the wedding for all the guests but the kids haven't taken me up on it so I"m following the MIL 3-S mantra: show up, sit down and shut up :). I keep telling my (only) daughter that she better let me organize a big fat wedding someday LOL. And ardent feminist that she is, she keeps telling me not to count on it!

Hi Cactus - No, this is for everyone! I didn't see your post. I'll go look through and see if it was somehow caught in our filter accidentally. I agree that our FAQ sections need some clean up after the addition of multiple topics on threads. I'll speak to our product team about this and see what we can do to prevent this issue moving forward as well as how we can clean up what is there now. I appreciate you bringing it up!