Hi Scissors and everyone else too! What a crazy week. Quite a few day trips out with friends. It has been challenging because we had a few meals. I try to choose salad and soup normally. One day I was really hungry at lunch from all the running around and ordered a veggie burger. It was so good and so filling I was still full at dinner so I had a couple of small apples and yogurt. I agree that 5 pounds can be a lot to many of us. It is for me too because I am not a big woman. Once I am settled into making lifestyle changes for the better it is a slow journey for me. At least this time round I am enjoying my changes. I feel so much better taking care of myself, enjoying my meals and snacks. I learning to really love foods that are new choices for me. Low fat cottage cheese is one of them. And using more spices when I cook to change things around. What's a new habit that is making a difference for you? Daily soup is new for me. It really helps curb my appetite and gets more protein and fiber in my day. Beans, pulses, seasonal veggies, spices - so many choices, so many flavours. Did you know that having a soup, even a light soup, helps you eat less? It can also help add more nutrients to your daily food choices? I'm happy to share and hope those out there lurking will consider joining me. Let's keep with our goals. If you have a hard day, try to get a time out somewhere and give yourself a break. Slow down if you can while you eat and take the time to really taste and enjoy your meal. Life can be so fast paced that meals get rushed. Rushing through a meal people tend to eat more because it takes about 20 minutes for the food to register in our bodies. Have some "Me Time" today. Don't you deserve it? I believe so. Join me and put one foot forward. We can do this. Take things one step at a time, one step forward. Don't give up on yourself. Take all the time you need to reach your goal. I'm in this for life - are you? Cheers, Peggy

Hey Teri!!! It's great that you took some time from your hectic sun-tanning to do the survey!! LOL ......are you talking from experience, with your answer? ;-)

Another Sort of Learning (James V. Schall) 1988 In this book with the unorthodox subtitle, "Selected Contrary Essays on the Completion of Our Knowing or How to Finally Acquire an Education While Still in College, or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found", Father Schall has written a delightful collection of essays for people like me who made it all the way through college without managing to get a truly liberal education. The book talks about gathering books on diverse subjects for a personal library. There are essays on reading, education, teaching, philosophy, sports, politics, history, and prayer. After each essay there is a short list of the books such as, "SchallÂs Unlikely List of Books to Keep Sane By", "Books You Will Never Be Assigned", "Eight Collections of Essays and Letters Not To Be Missed", "Ten Books on Grace and Thought", and "Five Books Addressed to the Heart of Things". True bibliophiles will love the lists. Schall states in the book: "Education, philosophy, science, politics, history, revelation - these are the themes that I have considered here in various ways. I have often talked of Plato and Aristotle, of Augustine and Aquinas, of Chesterton, Pieper, and C.S. Lewis. I have done this to underscore their importance. And I have repeated favorite book titles worth emphasizing in different contexts. I wanted to suggest that anyone with some diligence and some good fortune can find his way to the highest things even if such higher level concerns are not formally or systematically treated in the schools, even if they are in fact denied there or by our own friends or culture. Indeed, I would suspect that there is a certain basic loneliness in our relationships to the highest things. I am not a skeptic here, but we should not expect too much from our formal educational institutions in this regard. "Throughout these pages, I have talked of 'another sort of learning.' I have talked about why we should read, what we should read, books we should keep. In a sense, we can tell a lot about anyone by looking at what books, if any, he reads, at what books are on his shelvesÂ."

Do the book club offers include lots of gifts to entice you to join? Here in Sweden prospective members are lured by "gifts" that have nothing to do with books, and I must confess that I fell for the latest offer from one of these clubs. I got three books for next to nothing, a leather handbag with matching wallet and an afghan throw. I cancelled as soon as I could, after three compulsory books, because most of the books are either translated from English or are self-help books. I read English language books in the original and get by without help from books.