Good Tuesday Morning:

I've been stuck (as you all know) at a weight plateau for sometime now. So I focused on reading labels and going back to what worked before - "cleaning and dancing". I had gotten away from that enjoyable pasttime due to outside commitments. I have greatly reduced the number of fat grams that I consume daily as I have learned that not all calories are equal. Those dreaded fat calories go right to my....well, let's just call it the old fat farm. Lots of protein, fiber and good carbs. I've now expanded my music library to include not only the Eagles, but Matchbox 20 and Hootie and the Blowfish. My neighbors are loving it I'm sure.

OK.......so tomorrow is a big day for more than one reason. It is the "cut off" date for chocolates and I'm SAFE until Halloweeen. From May through the end of October it is way too hot for chocolate in Florida and there are no summer holidays that celebrate dark chocolate. It's now fresh fruit and refreshing sugar free beverages for me!!!!

It's also my 58th birthday. It's time to take a look back at the last year. I'm still trying to move forward and let go of the bad habits that kept me from living and enjoying life.

After my husband's death, I promised myself that I would live everyday as if it was my last. This meant being GOOD to myself, taking care of my health, losing weight (PERMANENTLY) and maybe, on a really good day, help someone do the same. The last year has presented many opportunities to get the word out, including the Today Show appearance and my Diet Channel blog. I also realized that my weight loss story is my new "purpose". I have been given this opportunity to help others and I have a new found passion.

If you've ever been to Mexico, you know that the weather is perfect, the people are warm and wonderful, the beaches are fabulous and the food is, for the most part, fresh out of the sea and very unique. I've had the opportunity over the past two years to visit various locations in Mexico with my personal favorites being San Jose del Cabo and Todos Santos. San Jose del Cabo is a beautiful city on the Sea of Cortez with a very quaint downtown area that includes art galleries, restaurants, churches and fishing. I have learned to enjoy fishing and can add "having caught a 142 pound blue marlin" to my resume.

OK - NO MORE EXCUSES. The chocolate holidays are behind us, the spring flowers are in bloom (tulips are my favorite) and the weather dictates that hiding under sweats and long sleeves will only cause heat rash!!!! Let's take a long, hard look at our short term AND realistic goals. I have always held to the belief that I have TEN POUNDS to lose. Yes, it's true, I have lost ten pounds ten times but I never looked at the overwhelming prospect of losing 100 pounds. Let's look at a ten pound weight loss with a REALISTIC goal of May 15th. This is a little more than a pound a week. To break that down even further, it's about 4000 calories LESS per week.

As I ponder the mystery of the meaning of life and more importantly WHY I can't lose these last fifteen stubborn pounds, I read through my weight loss journals and my daily food diaries in an attempt to jump start my doomed metabolism. Finally, I FIND the journal entry that parts the clouds and justifies the current plateau!!!! Back in October when I was on the Today Show as part of the Joy Fit Club (definitely the high point in my "get the word out and help others lose weight vision", I was in the make up chair (very cool) when the make up artist said to me, "You are SO LUCKY, you have FAT LASHES." There it is...........it's not the fat grams, sugar content or daily carbs intake.....it's the FAT LASHES!!! All the walking in the world won't reduce those babies!!!! OK, back to reality.

While walking through the neighborhood yesterday, I saw one of my neighbors with her right arm in a sling. Of course the powerful and need to know all Taurus came out of me and I asked her what happened. She told me that she was working out in the gym and tried a new exercise that had been recommended to her. Well, you guessed it, she fell and broke her arm. It was so severe that it required surgery (ouch!!) My exercise routine consists of walking - lots of walking. At lunch, during daily breaks at work and on weekends. When I stop at a mall or a store, I park at the back of the lot. I'm usually in and out of the store while the "parking lot vultures" are still circling looking for that FRONT ROW SPOT!!! I decided to walk because at my age, I didn't want to start an exercise program that I would not continue.

OK..........the last time we talked, I was trying NOT to gain the infamous "Twelve Pounds of Christmas". I hope everyone made it through without the old holiday velcro belt!!!!! Now, if I can only hold on until April 30th. Why April 30th? Well, that's my birthday and my annual "cut out the sweets for the next six months" day. The way I see it, the Christmas trees haven't quite made it to the recycling area when the Valentine chocolates hit the market. What's up with the chocolate AND the Valentine lingerie on display IN THE SAME AREA OF THE DEPARTMENT STORES!!!!!! Is that considered effective marketing???And now that we can buy the valentine marshmallow hearts at 75% off - the dreaded Easter marshmallow PEEPS are multiplying quickly (how do they do that?).

My New Year's resolution is to lose weight (again). Let's be honest, how many times have we made losing weight our goal for the new year? Personally, if I ACTUALLY lost weight every year that I promised to - I would have disappeared due to weight loss!!!!! My story that can be found on the web site details my weight loss journey that, unfortunately, came about as a result of my husband's untimely death due to a heart attack. Over the past two years, I have lost 106 pounds naturally. I now have a New Year's EVE resolution for 2007.