(this was a response to some lovely comments left to me, but it became very long, so it's its own post now~)

thanks everyone for your comments and encouragement. it means a lot that i'm not in this alone!

i like the idea of protein powder as a meal "enhancer" (not substitute) but the whey gives me gas and i can't tolerate fake sugars. i bought some egg white protein powder but the shipper sent it back before i had a chance to pick it up, and now the company won't mail it back out to me. i have never found egg protein powder at any of the retail places nearby. so, hopefully someday i'll be able to try that. do you have any suggestions around that?

I started this program 5 weeks ago, I was a little skeptical at first, but the 14lbs I have lost so far took care of that. I work at a woman's gym and have been promoting this website. Everyone asks what am I doing and I refer them to the webpage. This is the best program, because its not a "diet" its an eating program. I love the excercises that I can do along with the weight machines we have available in our gym. In 12 weeks I am going on a trip to florida and feel great about what I have lost so far....

I have had trouble logging in the past week or so, which is probably good for you all so I couldn't bore you all with my whining about my "discomfort". Finally tried from Firefox instead of IE and got right on.

I am now over 200 lbs - EEK! But I am not worried because I know I can lose all of that fat and more once the baby is born. I have been working out sporadically the past few weeks because of the "discomfort" (CRAPal tunnel, heel pain, mid-back pain, shortness of breath, blah blah blah). I think part of the problem is the heat, 95+ for a few days last week, and the smoke from some fires. I know some of y'all had snow last week, so I feel a bit bad for complaining.