One month to do it - 30 days. I'm at a plateau, it seems. I suspect it's because of my irregularity of eating - a "mini-yo-yo" phase.

Are 3 pounds too little for anyone else to feel challenged about?

I'll be mighty p.o.'d at myself if that goal turns out to be too much to expect of myself.

God knows I've got plenty more blubber to trim off, even if I have come along 40 pounds since January. A glance in the mirror confirms that. But I'm not doing this for looks anyway, so even if I notice nothing in the mirror, I don't care.

I just want to see some different, lower numbers - numbers that I know belong to a healthier me. And I want to see PROGRESS toward those numbers, at a reasonable rate.

I weigh in on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Even if my scale says >215 tomorrow, my starting weight is 215 or lower. So my goal is either 212 or less - that is, 3 pounds lower than tomorrow's reading if it's below 215 (FAT CHANCE!), or, MORE THAN 3 pounds if tomorrow's reading is over 215.

I want...LIBERATION, INDEPENDENCE (from this "plateau") by Independence Day. Anyone else in?

OK, I'll just talk to myself awhile here...

Scale said 215.5 four straight times. My math teachers taught me to round numbers like that UP to the next whole (even) number.

I'm not gonna do what my math teachers said.

Based on the 2.5 donuts, slice of cheesecake, and several ounces of leftover, re-heated manicotti, all of which I ate after 7 p.m. last night, I'm going to ROUND DOWN and just say I'm starting at 215.

That's about 2 pounds less than I thought I would weigh today, based on the booze, more cheesecake, and other "goodies" I took this week.

So it's 212 by 7/4 or 3-2-1, 50/30/20 FOOD LOG!

The most recently home-baked cheesecake disappeared quickly enough, but there are plenty of ingredients for making more. Plus, the wife discovered a recipe for cheesecake with this most recent try, that she wants to repeat soon. She baked a couple of loaves of zucchini bread yesterday. I behaved well, considering how good that bread is - only 1.5 slices, only buttered the half-slice.

She also prepared ground beef-&-rice-stuffed bell peppers, topped with cheese. I ate the biggest one - love those things, especially after I've cut them open and sprinkled some kind of hot pepper sauce over the filling! :drool: I fixed the salad - never recall having the combination of slivered almonds and dried raspberries for topping my salad. But that was an enjoyable salad-eating experience.

I think I ate half of a Heath bar yesterday, plus two hunks of some breakfast coffee cake my daughter baked.

I write all this because I am getting very close to deciding to keep a food log.

Trouble is, if I'm going to keep a food log, I risk failure to keep it accurately, especially while I'm pigging-out. So then I am failing in two ways instead of just one (just eating crap, that is). I don't respond to "logging" perhaps in the positive way others do. For me, it's just a drudgery - I do enough tedious record-keeping at the office. I am going to eat what I am going to eat. I'm either on-plan, or not.

Like take yesterday - PLEASE! I don't want to pig-out like that again for a long time. (But I know I will, and probably soon.) I ate good stuff, but I also ate a ton of junk.

Despite the stupid eating yesterday, this morning my scale said I was in the neighborhood of 213 pounds. Will wonders never cease?!

No, they won't cease. Including negative wonders. Status quo weight - a genuine challenge!

Negative wonders: weight = 214. I didn't make it, and I am pissed. At least I am old enough to know how to avoid being self-destructive while pissed. So no, I am not going to over-react and plunge into some manic, panicky, Spartan campaign of deprivation and bodily abuse.

CAUSES (NOT EXCUSES!) OF FAILURE: inconsistent nutrition; eating too many carbs and fats, and too many calories overall.

I started my food log last Sunday the 26th. I have a lot more to learn yet, about planning my eating. But I'll get there.

We all have setbacks at some point, and some people give up after a setback. That's not how we do things here at JSF.

-John Stone, from his remarks of today.

'Nuf said.