Jo, thanks for sharing your journal comments. What amazes me about you is your level of near total commitment from Day 1, and your comment about not cheating or being tempted. That of course explains your immense success in many ways, and that is such a key to success that we all can learn from.

My journey has been so different. I'm a strong, committed, take-charge person so all other areas of my life, but NOT with the eating. My struggle with losing a mere 45 pounds (I'm at this since 2000) has all been one of "trying" to control my desire to eat certain foods, mostly sugar type things. I lose, I regain, I lose, I regain, I give up for periods of time. It really angers me that in 14 years I haven't dropped all that weight. If I divide that 45 pounds by 14 years, all I needed to lose was a frigging 3.22 pounds a YEAR. A YEAR!! Break it down farther and it's 0.26 pounds a MONTH over that 14 years. Yet my mindset and emotions about this stupid food didn't permit even that. So that REALLY makes me mad at myself, especially when looking at your immense success in less than one year.

Which brings me back to my belief now that MOST of weight loss is in your mind and how you think about it. And this aspect of weight loss is what I work on most, now. I know Atkins works, I know exactly "how" to do the diet and "how" to lose the weight. It's the other stuff that has always stopped me from more success. So my attitudes are what I work on now, and frankly, I'm really tired of the emotional battle. As Nike says, "JUST DO IT." And keep the emotion out of it! That's my motto.