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

Hi Ellen and welcome! I have counted points using the Weight Watchers method, but never actually joined the program. I was able to lose to within 3 pounds of my goal weight. Then I got off the program and haven't been able to make myself get back! I have only gained 6½ lbs back, so that makes me around 10 lbs more than I would like to be and I think all 10 lbs are in my stomach! I hate that!!! I always had a flat stomach until I hit around 47 or 48 and then the weight decided it liked my stomach area. I didn't do any exercising while counting points, but I have started an exercise program of my own the past week and plan to keep it up. Hopefully I can get toned up and build some muscle so that I can get rid of the ab flab! Buglady, thanks for the nice words about my website! I just put info there that really helped me while I was counting points. If you come across more helpful info just let me know and I'll be happy to add it to the webpage. My biggest problem is that at age 55 I still eat like a teenager. I love junk food! I guess I'm really fortunate that I haven't gained more than I have considering my eating habits. MaryAnn (who just finished off some ice cream and a few cookies, and feel like it all went straight to my stomach!)

Try buying pricier tuna that is canned in its own juices (not water or oil) and then not draining it, just mix up the meat and juice together. One brand my DH who is on a low sodium diet likes is Rainforest. (25 mg sodium per serving in a 2.5 or 3 serving can, so even if he scarfs the whole can down at once it's still OK). The cans are about 4 bucks each, though. We get them at Hanneford markets. Most low or no sodium tuna is pretty bland, but that particular brand has a very good taste. I think they offer a regular sodium level one, too, but we haven't tried it. I use some lemon juice in it, and if I'm being amibitious and it's going to be eaten in one meal (no left overs) I'll scrape off some fresh lemon zest. (Day old lemon zest can get bitter.) Fresh pepper is good, too, along with finely diced celery. Are you trying to avoid the bad fats and calories in prepared mayo? Homemade mayo can be made with only good fats, and if egg yolks are in your diet, you're good to go. Oil, yolk and a bit of lemon juice and that's it, plus a bit of salt if you like. I use an immersion blender in a small straight-sided canning jar and whizz it right up in the jar, use what I want of a one-egg batch and store it with a canning jar lid on it. (I rarely finish up the batch before it goes bad, and aside from the tinge of guilt I feel throwing out spoiled food, I can always justify to myself when I use oil and an egg yolk, that I not going to actually eat all of those cals and fat, anyway.) Homemade mayo is so much better than any prepared product, it's in a class by itself, and after the first batch or two, seems to take no more trouble than, say, brewing coffee from scratch vs. instant. Something I made the other day with tuna was a gigante bean and tuna salad. Gigante beans are a great potato-y bean, that holds up well in cold salads. It was like tuna mac salad, but much better for you. (I did use homemade mayo and chopped pickles, though.)

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.