Greetings all! Brand new to the board and soooo excited to find others that follow The Schwarzbein Principle. I just wanted to share my story and get encouragement and tips from others. I actually started TSP the first time in 2000. I followed it religiously, shopping every day at a health food store on the way home from work and preparing everything fresh. It took a great deal of time. As many people have mentioned (and it does say this in the book) I did not loose weight for at least several months. During that time I did however notice other changes. My skin, hair and nails were looking great, I had much more energy, my mood was better and I was sleeping through the night. I hadn't done that for at least 10 yrs. The interesting thing was that people who saw me infrequently started asking me if I was loosing weight. Since I wasn't I didn't really notice but my body was actually getting stronger, had more muscle tone and looked much better. I was surprised by this because I wasnt really exercising since I had a rather physical job. Well, since my initial success I have moved, (nowhere near a health food store), got breast cancer and have been dealing with that and had an injury which resuled in two herniated discs. Between the tamoxifen (a pill form of chemotherapy breast cancer patients are often on for 5 yrs. after the initial treatment), and the steroids they put me on for the herniated discs I have ballooned up in weight and am very unhappy. The drugs make it extremely difficult to loose weight so I have decided to go back on TSP because I really do believe in it as a way of life. So I'm cleaning out my cupboards and frige, re-reading the book and preparing to start TSP for the second and final time. It takes a great deal of patience and effort but as she says you didn't get unhealthy in a day, it took years, you can't expect to get healthy quickly either. (Definately not a direct quote but you get the idea). So I hope to hear more from you all and get tips for fitting this great way of eating into this crazy life that we all lead.