Yes, I am one of those New Year Resoluters who set their minds to dieting and really sticking to it this year. Never mind that I hadn't started it by the 10th of January when all of a sudden I was hit with the flu. I had a high fever for about a week and pretty much only drank sodas to keep hydrated. The last thing I wanted was food. I was spared any nausea as this flu was the type that hits the lungs not the stomach, but I guess my body was more interested in using energy to run fever than to digest food.

After the seven days I was delighted to find that I lost 5 pounds. Well, that is good encouragement to go ahead and begin that diet. That next week I was giddy with delight as I lost another four pounds. This is week three and all the giddy has gotten up and gone. I have stalled out this week. I have only lost one pound despite begining my jogging routine this week. I began by just jogging abou 10 to 20 minutes in two sessions last Thursday and now I am up to 5 ten minute sessions a day. I haven't eaten any more calories than I was last week. It is a bit discouraging, but I am thinking that I am putting on some muscle mass at least in my calf muscles that may be why the scale isn't dropping. Plus I am coming up to the monthly time and know that I begin to gain a bit of bloat weight about now. So that is moderating the discouragement with some hope that in a week or two more I will see it begin to drop again.

I am trying out a neat weight loss software called DietPower. This is the fourth day of the trial with fifteen total days to examine it. I really like it so far. You drag and drop the food and exercise involved in your day and it computes your nutrition, calories, exercise caloric use, and each day charts your progres and adjusts the number of calories you need that day based on your goal and what your computed metabolism is. Pretty neat! One thing that helps me is it has a water minder. I am really bad not to get enough to drink. This tracks the water in my food and beverages and keeps me updated on how much more I might need. It even adjusts my needs based on if I exercise and at what temeperature I exercise at.

Another neat site for weight loss and improving the choices of foods you make each day is http://www.nutritiondata.com/. You can register free and it sets you up with a pantry page. On this page you can add foods to your favorite list that you tend to eat. You update the amounts you eat and it tracks your nutrition and calories. It has other tools to help you calculate your ideal weight based on your height and age. It also has tons of neat diagrams and charts that let you discover foods nutriyional quatient and fullnes factor (how long you will feel full). I am visual and this site makes that side of me very happy.

Well, tomorrow will be day 21 on the diet (if you count the flu in there too). My ideal weight is still 55 ponds away; though my personal goal is more like 38 pounds away. I was at my ideal weight in my twenties and I really don't think I was very healthy at that weight. Of course the fact that I was trying to survive on barely more than minimum wage and could barely afford food may have had something to do with that. LOL. I felt the best when I was about 20 pounds more than that when the kids were little. I will wait until I get to my own goal weight and then experiment from there to find the place where I feel the fittest.