My weight kind of got away from me over the last year -- I shot up from 165 to 180. I was under a lot of stress, two sick offspring, one struggling in college - one had dental surgery and complications. On top of that was early retirement offer from the company ... burned up a lot of sweat over that I was going to take it and then with the stock market and pension drops, I think I started eating too much under the stress. I turned early retirement offer down at the last moment, which has both plus and minus factors.

When I rose to 180 pounds I panicked, and I've been working from December on, trying to get weight back down where it should be.

Upped my weight lifting, keeping at my walking and throwing in some interval training, one minute of skipping every hour.

I'm trying to keep myself -- in hungry state at least two hours a day. I don't mean extreme hunger or being famished or anything like that, but just a state where I have a healthy appetite. My goal is not to let myself get too hungry and overeat, nor do I want to a feeling of being full and totally satisfied all the time. Just trying to eat enough to be mostly satisfied with hunger returning hour or so before meals. I'm trying to get into at least 2 hours a day when I can burn body fat ... through a combination of exercise and eating less.

It seems to be working ... I down from 180 to 176, in two months ... and that was through Christmas turkey and all that. Now, if I can just sustain losing a pound or two pounds a month, I'll hopefully get my weight back where it should be by summer. I bought one of these newer electronic scales, that measures to the 1/2 pound. I was trying to get one to .2 pound, but was sale on the 1/2 pound unit. My weight surprisingly varies around up to 4 pounds over a week 2 pounds above average, sometimes 2 pounds below, but by taking 7 day moving average, and 30 day moving average one gets a pretty good sense of one's weight.

Interesting plotting on the graphs, I've found that my weight loss has been fairly steady, seems to be dropping just a bit each day. I have had two short periods, when I lost at much faster rate. I don't remember doing anything special on those days, but my weight suddenly dropped and stayed down. It sort of like all of sudden my body, decided to burn off some fat and down goes the weight. The new scale seems a good investment, one wants an accurate measurement, it amazing how encouraging it is to see a small drop.

I must admit even losing these 4 pounds making me feel much better ... increasing my energy level. It helping to build will-power. I have had a few breakdowns, I was at luncheon last week on course, ate two brownie cake things, loaded with sugar. It didn't seem to impact me much, I just cut back on supper and bed time snack, and returned to normal meals the next day.

I'm also picked up eating more breakfast. I might increase it again. usually eat about 300 calories for breakfast, but if I eat a little more say 400 calories, that probably help me stretch to lunch a little easier without getting really hunger by lunch hour break. I tend to get a pile of calories in my supper meal, one big meal of the day, and this one I think I have the most potential to cut calories off. So, I'm working on eating less at that meal. I walk to and from work, and its 3 kilometer hike ... so I'm often pretty hungry on the leg home.

Wow! What's the problem here? haha... You sound very inspirational to me! I especially like your one tip about not over eating. I used to work at a health club while in college and always remembered one of the trainers tell me that especially when going out to eat to always leave a little hungry. That's why there are leftovers! The walking to and from work is also an excellent idea! Just a few extra steps a day can make a world of a difference.
Keep up the excellent work!
Breathe Easy!
Marguerite (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)