Veggies Times Two

Thought I would update you on how the diet’s going. In a word, S-L-O-W-L-Y. But I better shut up and stop complaining. Because I am losing weight, and that is more than I have done in the past few years! So far I’ve lost 20 pounds since the end of November. Yahoo!

When I came up with the idea for the “Me Diet,” I almost immediately thought, what are you going to do if this doesn’t work? What if you get too hungry or too bored, then what? So I wrote down a little plan. Which included adding in more vegetables.

So far I’m not too bored, but I am starting to get a little hungry. Not stomach growling hungry, more like “out of fuel” hungry. So I have added in more vegetables. I usually have some kind of vegetable with my protein shake. And I’ve tried upping the ante at dinner time by having at least two vegetables, or a combo of veggies. I asked about “complex” veggie recipes recently. I remembered that Georgie had quite a treasure trove of vegetable recipes. I’ve tried a couple of her combinations, and bookmarked a few more. I’ve also realized that most of the time I can’t be bothered with complex recipes. I’m perfectly happy with plain and simple.

Here are a few of my recent vegetables:

Asparagus and butternut squash. You gotta love the pre-cut veggies that are now available. I got this squash in a bag on sale for $1!

Brocolli Slaw! I love this stuff. I’ve had it in several different salad combos. Its also great in stir fries. This was an Asian style salad with pineapple and chicken and Paul Newman’s Sesame Ginger dressing (35 cal/serv!)

Here I added it to some romaine lettuce and other stuff. I had a wonderful salad at a restaurant recently that had several different fruits in it, including strawberries and watermelon!

(There’s not that many walnuts in this salad–they just all got into the picture!)

Here’s how I often have my vegetables: just boiled with some Mrs. Dash seasoning. Its quick and easy, and I cook up a big pot so I can have it warmed up for several different meals.

I usually cook more than one serving of vegetables at a time. They keep well in the fridge, and so are available for the days I don’t feel like cooking. Fortunately I like vegetables, so it is not hard for me to eat a variety of them. They have so many nutrients. Its a good thing, as our friend MS would say.

I have also been eating potatoes a little more frequently, thanks to another sale–5 pounds of red potatoes for $1! Who could resist? I usually have a small one or half of a medium one, baked. Again, potatoes have a lot of nutrients in them. I usually have them with some spray ‘butter’ or topped with part of my dinner (meat, cottage cheese, or mushrooms and onions. Yumm.) Don’t avoid potatoes. Avoid the caloric POTATO TOPPERS.

I generally have a lot of salad fixings around. A salad is  quick to fix when you have all the ingredients ready. And it takes a long time to eat–so very enjoyable.

My favorite (and only) raw vegetable that I munch on are the baby carrots. They come in handy, especially when I am cooking dinner. Especially because I have to feed the dogs before I get to eat…

Adding in a few more vegetable servings during the day has really kept me quite full!

That’s about it for today. Don’t forget, there’ll be an new AIM (Adventures in Maintenance) post up on Monday.

A Little Chat about Weight Loss and Clothes

As you know, I’ve been losing a little weight. I have a range of clothing sizes in my closet. One day I was wearing my “these are just a little too big” pants around the house, and I changed into my “these are just a wee bit snug” jeans before I went out to a meeting. Honestly, I felt a little schizophrenic that day. Because when I am wearing the loose ones, I feel good. I recognize that I have lost weight, and I feel ‘thin’ for a little while. When I am wearing the tight ones, yes, it is nice that I can fit in those again, but I feel ’fat.’

I think there’s a place for both types of clothes during weight loss. I hear some bloggers say that they will only wear their super tight clothes as a constant reminder that they need to lose weight. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wearing my loose clothes and enjoying the fruits of my labor. Its pleasurable to be able to feel the weight loss in this way.

On the other hand, I also hear bloggers saying they are not going to buy any new clothes until they reach X weight, or even goal. They sometimes complain that their clothes are practically falling off of them. That’s not right! Its unnecessary. Right or wrong, in this country, where we buy way more than we need, there are always practically new clothes available in the thrift store in almost every size. I am not even a good “thrifter.” I am impatient and get bored easily. But I can usually breeze through a thrift store and find an item of clothing or two that fits my new size (bigger or smaller :} )

Wearing clothing that is way too large or way too small is not self-respecting. And self-respect is something I hear a lot of women seeking to lose weight say they lack. Wearing clothes that fit and make you feel good about yourself is a simple and cheap way to start working on that.

P.S. Important recipe information! When you try a new recipe its always good to run it through the calorie counter yourself. Especially when it seems too good to be true. I routinely do that. So imagine my distress when I double checked the calories on the two recipes I recently shared (the Shut Up Brownies and the Banana Muffins) and then I got my bag of oat bran out of the freezer and noticed that stats on it were significantly different than what calorie count (and my little calorie book) give oat bran. It changed the calories in the brownies from 80 to 110, which is still a good deal IMO. So just double check the calories in your oat bran if you are planning to try these recipes. The oat bran I actually had was 390 calories per cup. The oat bran I used in the calorie counter was only 240 calories per cup.

AIM: What’s different this time?

Our first AIM (Adventures in Maintenance) question of the month is: what was different this time? Between the ages of 13 and 30, there were a number of times I lost fairly large amounts of weight. Each time, I not only gained the weight back, but I added on a few extra pounds. If statistics are right, this is the experience of 95% of people who lose weight. Its heartbreaking, really.

SO WHAT WAS DIFFERENT THIS TIME?

Honestly, it was a bloomin’ miracle. The end.

What? You think there was more to it than that?

Well, here are the three factors that I think have had the biggest impact on my weight loss and maintenance:

1. One of the things I told myself right from the start was “What you’re doing now isn’t working. You must do something different.” This proved to be valuable advice to myself.
2. Another factor was that I knew it had to be a lifelong change. I actually knew that for twenty years before I had the gumption to act on it. 
3. Maybe it was being humble enough to accept that I needed some help. (see #1–it wasn’t working to try to do it all on my own. I needed to do something different.)

So, let’s see. How did these three factors play out in my finally having a successful long term weight loss?

“You’ve got to do something different.” I finally gave in and went to Weight Watchers with a friend. It required me to be humble enough to admit that I could not do it on my own. Over the years the “something different” has applied to a number of things: the types of foods I choose to eat, the amount of food I choose to eat, when I choose to eat, and of course, the amount and type of exercise that I do. I have had to learn to be flexible. The body is a complex and ever-changing thing, and I must learn to adapt to its needs as time goes on. (That’s a whole ‘nother post about aging and weight loss!)

I needed some help. Along the way I sought help from a number of friends and experts. I was very skeptical of any information provided by Weight Watchers. So I did a lot of reading and research on my own (who knew–the vast majority of the information provided by Weight Watchers was true!) And when Weight Watchers was no longer working for me (and doing it all on my own was not working either,) I started working with a personal trainer. I had already changed my entire way of eating, but I learned even more from her about eating truly healthy nourishing foods, and I changed the way I was eating again. And of course, the whole blog world has brought me new friends and support, and has been a great resource for new recipes and foods to try.

It had to be a lifetime change. Like I said, I had known this for a long time. That’s why I WOULDN’T try to lose weight for a long time. I didn’t think I could give up the foods I loved so much. I really loved all those foods. But funny thing is, I loved the new foods that I tried along the way. And even now, when I have pared my foods down once again, I still love the foods I am choosing to eat. My mom and sister and I were talking about this recently. My mom made the statement about me “and she really knows good food!” And my sister said somewhat wistfully, “But somewhere along the way, your tastes change.” I knew exactly what she meant. That was the fear that kept me from trying to lose weight for so long. I didn’t WANT to stop enjoying those lovely foods. But here’s the rub: so what if your tastes change? If you still enjoy these new healthier lower calorie foods just as much as the old foods, is that such a bad thing?

In a nutshell, I think those are the things that have helped me to stay on this lifetime of  ”adventures in maintenance!”

To read more about “what was different this time?” be sure to check out my friends and maintaining experts:

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Lori @ Finding Radiance

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, Shelley, and Cammy, former weight-loss bloggers who now write about life in maintenance. We formed AIM to work together to turn up the volume on the issues facing people in weight maintenance. We publish a post on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. Let us know if there is a topic you’d like us to address!

 

So How’s That Diet Going?

I’m so glad you asked. Its going splendiferously, thank you! Today marks 3 months since I started the me diet. I’ve lost 13 pounds. Go ahead, do the math– less than one pound a week. I DON’T CARE. I am thrilled. I am more than thrilled. Over two years ago, in this blog entry, I made a declaration that I was no longer going to try to get back to my 100 pounds lost. I was going to maintain at 168, since that was where my body seemed to end up most of the time. Almost as soon as I declared that I gained 10 pounds. And that’s where I stayed for two whole years, plus another 2 pounds to top it off. So when I started this me diet in November, I made a couple of mini-goals. I didn’t share them with anyone because I really didn’t have a lot of faith that I would lose any weight. One of my goals was to get back to 168. On Saturday I weighed 167. I am supremely happy.

When I started, I had this plan to use protein shakes for an early lunch and a quest protein bar for my afternoon coffee break. I thought I would tire of that pretty quickly, especially the protein shakes. Because I always said I didn’t like drinking my calories. But I found out I do. I love the convenience of them, but most of all I love that I feel good and I am not hungry and I don’t even think about “what’s next?” for a while. So along the lines of making changes that will be a “lifestyle change,” I think smoothies have earned their rightful place in my repertoire.

So onward and downward. I am definitely not suffering. I am having real life days. Days where I eat lunch out with friends, and sometimes I eat a little more carefully so I can have a special treat at the end of the day. Its a good lifestyle.

Maintaining and Weight Loss

Well that covers it all doesn’t it? I can hardly believe that its been eight years since I started this last journey of weight loss. And it doesn’t seem like its coming to an end anytime soon.

When I am in Haiti or Nairobi, it seems absolutely ludicrous that I or anyone else would spend a minute of time thinking about food. What’s the best food to eat, and at which time? Should certain foods be eliminated and which ones should you eat for the fastest weight loss? I’m telling you, it seems ludicrous. And yet, here I am, home for a week, and this topic looms large in my mind. I can’t help it.

So. I wanted to be sure to share a brilliant quote by my friend Lori. I swear, some of the best stuff is found in the comments on blogs, and I am always afraid it will not be seen by enough people. On Lynn’s blog entry about “The Mental Price of Skinny,” Lori commented,

“real maintenance is not clutching to weight with white knuckles, but learning to live with the ups and downs that come with it.”

And that seems to be what I am doing right now. I have done the clutching and the white knuckle thing. I have been embarrassed that as a “successful maintainer” I have been not so successful at maintaining the 100 pounds I lost. I have tried to lose some of that weight, and only succeeded in gaining a little bit more. I have eliminated certain food groups, and I have eaten mindfully. I have refined and changed my diet over the years so that now I eat mostly unprocessed food (that’s a good change!) And all that time I observed myself, and made note of what worked for me and what didn’t, sometimes IN SPITE of what the ‘experts’ said.

This Me Diet thing seems to be working. If it stops working, I will try not to panic and white knuckle it, but will try to roll with the ups and downs, maybe tweaking this or that, and continuing on this never-ending journey that we call maintenance.

Lori also posted a link to a very interesting podcast. A couple of experts were talking about recent findings in weight loss. Of course I found it very interesting, because their findings seemed to validate my self-observations.

Paraphrasing, they said:

• Calorie for calorie, fat does not relieve hunger that well.
• Protein is the best calorie buy for hunger relief.
• For the satiation factor, a low fat/higher volume of food works well.

I am definitely paraphrasing here, so check out the podcast for yourself. But these were points that I had observed in myself and so tried to incorporate them into this new diet plan.

I originally lost weight on Weight Watchers. Whether that was their goal or not, what I learned was that I could eat a bigger volume if I would eat a very low fat, high fiber diet. After I left W.W., I was encouraged to try adding in some healthy fats. There is no doubt about it, fat just makes food taste good! But I tend to get carried away with fat.  (Some of you might recall my love affair with walnuts.)

I knew the information about protein, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. Adding the two mid-day meals with 20 grams of protein in 170 calories has made it easy to NOT think about food so much during the day. Its important to me that these are foods that I truly enjoy.

And finally, when I thought about my breakfast choices, I made some changes. I LOVE breakfast. I had quite a variety of nutritious breakfasts that I enjoyed, and most of them came in around 300-350 calories. Nothing wrong with that. Except that I noticed I was often over-full after eating them. So I started cutting some of them back, and developing a new breakfast menu that was lower in fat, but still high in volume. Most of them come in at less than 200 calories. And this seems to be working perfectly for me.

So I guess what I started out to say is that sometimes weight loss is PART of maintaining. That’s just life.

My Brother is Losing Weight

My brother has been losing weight lately.  Irritating.

Not really.  Its not the typical case of ‘men can lose weight so easily.’  He has really worked on losing weight this time. I say this time, because he has undertaken to lose weight (and succeeded) in the past as well.  He has had some extremely stressful life events in the past two years and had gained about 28 pounds.

My brother is not like me.  He was what I would consider a naturally thin person the first half of his life.  As he got older, he gained a bit, but only to be a ‘naturally’ normal weight person.  He has lifted weights seriously since he was a teenager.  In his twenties I used to ask him if he didn’t think cardio was important, and he would reply “I’m never doing that.”  Now, in addition to his weight lifting routine, he runs religiously on the treadmill at the gym.  And, the last way he is not like me–he is not food obsessed.  He has always been a very picky eater.  So sometimes his food choices are limited. He likes the occasional sweet, but it is not the be all and end all of his day.  And, although he has made a few healthy changes in the past few years, he still eats some processed food (i.e.  frozen pizzas. yuck.)

So when he announced to me the other day that he was down another two pounds, I quizzed him about what he was doing.

He doesn’t count calories.  He doesn’t do any food group eliminations (i.e. paleo or primarian.)  He doesn’t worry about the addictive qualities of the fat/sugar/salt combo.  I know.  Irritating. He doesn’t even have a support group that he goes to.

What he does do is this:  He eats a low calorie diet VERY CONSISTENTLY.  He is fairly regimented in what he eats mostly because he is a picky eater, and secondly because he works and he has to have meals that are easy to fix and to pack.

Every single morning he has a protein shake (protein powder mixed in milk, not the fancy concoctions that I sometimes come up with.)  Then he has a piece of string cheese mid-morning. (I checked these out–6 grams of protein for 80 calories.  Not bad)  For lunch he has a natural peanut butter sandwich on stone ground wheat bread (not diet bread,) some tomatoes or baby carrots, a glass of milk, and a dannon or yoplait low-cal yogurt.  Every day.  He has those same two meals.  Wow.  For his afternoon snack he will have one piece of fruit.  And then for dinner, he usually has a regular dinner, which usually includes some sort of wheat product (bread or pasta) and many times includes some type of processed food.  NO snack after dinner.  Even though he doesn’t count calories, I do.  I counted roughly 1500 calories a day.  And then on Sunday he has a ‘free day’ where he can eat whatever he wants.

The thing is, in analyzing this, it will work for him.  Because for him, this is a way of life that he can continue.  I can’t do it.  I know I can’t/won’t eat the same thing day after day.  And when I try giving myself a free day, that does not work either.  I tend to go overboard.

I quizzed him to see if there was anything I could learn from him.  I took away a couple of things.  CONSISTENCY.  Day after day, he kept up his low calorie eating regimen.  Even when he had weeks where he did not lose any weight, he did NOT GIVE UP (ah, does that sound familiar?)  He started dieting in late January or February, and he has lost 17 pounds so far.  Do the math–that’s not even a pound a week.  Two, CUT DOWN ON THE SNACKS.  In fact, my brother says this is the main difference in the way he is eating now compared to how he usually eats.   He has two snacks, but they are 80 calorie snacks, not 200 calorie snacks.  And three, I bought a mega pack of string cheese at Walmart.  Very convenient and tasty form of protein, and fun to eat too!  For comparison’s sake, one string cheese has 6 grams of protein for 80 calories.  My Hillshire Farm’s Deli Ham has 10 grams of protein for 60 calories.  Very tasty, but not as fun as string cheese.  What?  No one thinks the ‘fun factor’ in food is important?

Well, I thought it would be interesting to hear about a ‘success story’ from a different kind of loser.  I love my brother, and it sure is fun to have someone to discuss exercise with (he’s not that much fun to talk ‘food’ with, since he says yuck to most of what I talk about.)  Here’s a picture of us back in 2006.  That would have been about a year after I started my weight loss journey!

I Went Shopping Today

I had to get some dog food before I leave on my trip, so decided to make a day of it.  First stop Costco, for the dog food, and then ended getting a lot of extra household supply-type stuff.  Basically no food, except goat cheese and laughing cow light, the Chevy’s salsa, which I love, and those little bowls of pre-cooked brown rice.  They are just right for me.

On to Marshall’s and Ross, where I planned to look for some tops for my trip.  I have enough pants, but thought I might be a little short on tops.  I tried on 10 tops at one store and 8 tops at the other.  Only ended up with one that I really liked enough to buy. As I stood in the dressing room trying on top after top, I consciously did not allow myself to engage in ‘negative talk’ about my current weight, the size I was wearing, or the state of my body.  I was not discouraged that I didn’t find more to wear.  I am just very picky about paying retail prices for things that don’t fit that well or aren’t flattering to my particular body type.

When I got home I checked the blogs, and Lynn had posted!  She was recently featured in a segment of 60 Minutes Australia.  It was a very interesting piece, because they started out talking about a study that was done in Melbourne that ‘proves’ that your weight is genetically predetermined and so it is pretty much impossible to lose weight and MAINTAIN that weight loss.  Lynn’s part was showing that it was possible to maintain weight loss long term with “hypervigilance” both in food choices and exercise.  They also featured the doctor who is part of the NWCR study, which of course has 10,000 people who HAVE successfully lost and maintained their weight loss for a number of years.  A big part of the segment was dedicated to a plus-sized woman who won Australia’s Got Talent.  She discussed her journey of trying many different diets, trainers, etc, and finally coming to just “love herself” the way she was (they didn’t mention it, but it sounded like “Health at Every Size.”)

I guess I just want to say that I can see both sides of the equation.  I’ve been at my current weight since before I went to Africa, so that’s been about a year and a half.  Its 20 pounds (plus or minus one or two) up from my lowest weight.  Sometimes part of me feels like a failure still.  That’s when I remember all the evidence about how hard it is to maintain weight loss.  And yet, if I dwell in that camp for too long, it can kind of boomerang on me.  There’s nothing wrong with being hypervigilant about my food choices, and nothing wrong with exercising a lot.  Lori made such a funny, but true comment in response to the 60 Minutes piece.  The doctor from the Melbourne study had made the statement that to exercise that much was “obsessive-compulsive.”  Lori said, “An hour of physical activity is obsessive-compulsive? Why does no one say watching an hour of TV a day obsessive compulsive?”  LOL.  That is so true!

On the other side of things, sometimes it DOES seem weird that I think about healthy food all the time, talk about it endlessly.  Worry about what food to take with me on a trip vs. just  dealing with what I can find when I get there.

And back on THE OTHER SIDE of things, I don’t think the current weight I am maintaining is because of genetics.  I think its because I am indulging too much.  Sometimes when I take a little bowl of walnuts and raisins to bed with me, when I’m not really hungry, I think about that.  I don’t know why I can’t resist it, but I don’t really think its a genetic or hormonal thing.  I don’t even think its an emotional thing.  But since I can’t identify what it is, maybe it is a physical thing?

Ah, so you can see I have as much concrete information about weight loss maintenance for you as most of the experts do.  I’ll just tell you that the best advice I can come up with, and it has been something I have kept in the forefront of my mind for the last 7 or so years, is to look at what the successful people have done and imitate that.  So when they said that most of the people in the NWCR ate breakfast, I learned to enjoy a good breakfast.  When they said that most of the people exercise for an hour a day, I took exercise seriously.  I worked up to over an hour of exercise a day.  Now, I don’t know if I get an hour every day, but it is close.  They said that most people weigh themselves once a week.  I have gone back and forth on this.  Currently I weigh myself twice a week.  And lastly, they said that most people watched less than 10 hours of TV a week.  So I threw my TV out!  LOL, that’s not exactly true.  I don’t actually remember reading that fact before.  I did get rid of my TV for different reasons, and I think because of that I do stay a lot more active.

I also think its not bad to keep the increasing body of evidence regarding the extreme difficulty of weight loss maintenance in the back of your mind.  Sometimes (okay, a lot of times) I think women are striving to get to an unrealistic weight.  By unrealistic I mean that they are not heading towards that weight with the full knowledge of what will be necessary to MAINTAIN that weight.  And in the meantime, they are very unhappy with themselves.  That’s no good, is it?  I recently saw some pictures of me as a little girl. I remembered that time so well.  I was, umm, well endowed at a pretty young age.  I remembered having to get that awful ‘old lady’ yellow swimsuit with the built in bra.  I FELT SOOOOO FAT.  What I saw in that picture was a VERY SLIM little girl.  Oh my goodness.  The mind games we play on ourselves.  Its just no good.

So wherever you are on this journey,  try to look at the truth that is known.  Work that into your life now.  Try to love yourself now.  Find clothes that are flattering for your body type right now.  Don’t wait until you are some imaginary shape or size.  And don’t wear clothes that are too tight to remind yourself of how ‘bad’ you are or how you want to be another size.  That is not loving and kind.

Tidbits from the NWCR

So you know I joined the NWCR last year.  ”Joining” means you fill out pages and pages of questionnaires about food, exercise, psych stuff, etc.  I filled out the follow-up questionnaire earlier this year.  And apparently forgot to fill in one line.  These people are serious about the accuracy of their research.  Because they sent me  back the page and asked me to fill in the blank line:  ”How many days a week do you put chocolate syrup in your milk?”  Um.  NONE.  So I filled in the blank and sent it back.  And they sent me a mimeographed page from their research findings as a thank you.  I think those people have a shoestring budget.  Still, they are serious about their research, and there is no larger data base of weight loss maintainers around, so we need to glean all we can from them.

We know most of the  basics:

To maintain their weight loss, members report engaging in high levels of physical activity (about 1 hour/day,) eating a low-calorie, low-fat diet, eating breakfast regularly, self-monitoring weight, and maintaining a consisten pattern across weekdays and weekends (interesting.)

Most of us have heard that very few people maintain weight loss.  That original perception came from a study done in 1959(!) and a pessimistic editorial was recently published in the  New England Journal of Medicine titled Losing Weight:  An Ill-Fated New Year’s Resolution.

In this paper, on “Long Term Weight Loss Maintenance,” the NWCR presents some data that as many as 20% of people have successfully lost weight and kept it off for one year.  Hmmph.  We all know one year is just the tip of the iceburg, right?  Still, 20% is a lot more hopeful than the 2-5% we usually see quoted.

Participants in the registry have lost an average of 72 pounds, and they have maintained the minimum weight loss of 30 pounds for an average of 5.7 years.  Wow!  But only 13% have maintained this minimum weight loss for 10 years.  Continued vigilance needed!

Remember when I wondered if continuing to try to lose weight was a strategy for maintaining weight loss?  Yep.  I think so.  ”55% of registry members report that they are still trying to lose weight.”  

They say that most members report eating 1381 calories per day.  Then they say that most people underestimate their calories, so that is probably close to 1800 day.  I agree with that.

Registry members report consuming 2.5 meals per week in restaurants and .75 meals per week in fast food establishments.

Really?  This is one factoid from the NWCR that I will NOT be putting into practice LOL.

Nothing new–the members report exercising an hour a day, and most report brisk walking.  This is encouraging.  Even though it is a lot of time, everyone can walk.  And surprisingly, only 20% report weight lifting, and another 20% report cycling.  Really?  Get with the program, people!

Ah.  Interesting.  44% report weighing themselves DAILY, and 31% report weighing themselves weekly.  Okay.  I’ll continue with my twice a week regimen for now.  Gotta stay average.

Okay, here was the one sentence in the whole paper that was most interesting to me.

These findings suggest that successful weight loss maintainers continue to act like recently successful weight losers for many years after their weight loss.  (italics mine)

Bear with me.  There are a few more things worth mentioning, and I don’t want to write two posts on this.

Another predictor of successful weight loss maintenance was a lower level of dietary disinhibition (what???,) which is a measure of periodic loss of control of eating.  (oh.)

So, the less frequently you lose control of your eating, the more likely you are to be successful in maintaining weight loss.  Okay, noted.

Along with this, people were more successful if their eating was the same on weekends and holidays.  Oh brother, this is a hard one, right?  They make the statement that “allowing for flexibility in the diet may increase exposure to high-risk situations, creating more opportunity for loss of control.”

And finally, a bit of depressing (but its reality) news to end this review.  ”Few people (11%) recovered from even minor lapses of 3-5 pounds regained.”  ay-yi-yi.  Don’t we all know it.      It seems like the biggest mystery in the world that someone can lose 100 pounds, and then for two years continue to ‘try’ and yet be unable to lose 5-10 pounds.