First off, thank you to all of you who posted notes of support to my last blog entry. It's nice to know I'm not alone in this "starting over" mission of mine. Having support is a big part of feeling successful. :) I spent the weekend "cleaning house"-- figuratively and literally. I still have some things to do but I'm happy with the progress I've made. There are no more stacks of empty boxes in my spare room and I've begun to identify clothing and other misc. items to sell on eBay. I spent some time shopping around on the internet for a place to post photos of past soap designs in order to generate interest in my fledging business. I may end up doing a blog on another site since this one does not allow advertising or selling of products. I also bought a new day planner in order to track my fitness goals and other assorted "life changing" goals and plans. The biggee, though, is that I re-joined weight watchers tonight. I have been "unofficially" doing the program off and on for a couple of years--- meaning that when I buy food at the store, I consult the label and mentally calculate how many "points" there are per serving, but I haven't attended any meetings or made sure that I strictly followed the plan's core "rules." I've also tried various other "fad" diets-- Atkins, Suzanne Somers, South Beach, the Formula, Sugarbusters, etc-- hoping to find the right one for me. Weight Watchers is the most realistic one for me. I don't have any "prohibited" foods and I don't have to buy any special foods and I can pretty much enjoy whatever I want as long as I keep within my daily points range and stick to the basic rules: 1) five servings of fruits/veggies per day 2) 2 servings of low-fat dairy per day 3) 48 oz of water per day 4)limited portions of whole grains 5)scarce amounts of sugar and alcohol Pretty common sense stuff. As I sat in the meeting, I surprised myself by how much I still remember and how much more informed I really am. I just got lazy. Such is life. I also drank 100 ounces of water (so far)today. If you put your ear to my stomach, you can hear the ocean. :) A co-worker and I are challenging each other to drink as much water as we can per day. So, I bought a 64 ounce container and drank it plus another 24 ounces before I left work. I thought my bladder was going to explode before I got home, though. On the downside, a couple of co-workers overheard me talking to another co-worker about my fitness and food plans and they felt the need to offer their advice, which ended up sounding like criticism more than advice. For every supporter I have, I seem to have one critic. I just shrugged them off and said that this is what works for me. One woman seems to think that because she's lost 60 lbs on Atkins in the past year, she's the diet expert. I listen to her advice, then I also hear her talking about how she has to take laxatives and fiber pills in order to "help" additional weight loss. I don't want to do stuff like that. It seems like cheating. Cheaters never win. So, phase 1 of my mission is well under way. :)