Another non-update. *Updated* (haha)

My 4 stalkers...I mean, followers...are, I'm sure, waiting with baited breath for this update. Here's the news:

Still no contract. We countered on Thursday morning (I posted that). They came back yesterday at about 2pm. Not budging on the termite inspection, and insisting on closing on 2/23. I *thought* I had said ok on the termite inspection. Either DH didn't get that, or he failed to mention it to the real estate agent...because it was back in. But whatever. We said ok this time. I made sure of it. I think. I only somewhat understand real estate speak.

We *did*...for SOME reason...ask for closing on 2/25. What difference does 2 days make? I don't know, unless our mortgage person can't get done by then. So...we are still waiting. I think they got the offer before closing on Friday (I signed it by 3:30...sent to Mike to sign and send to agent). Hopefully, we should hear back again on Monday. Probably at 4pm. That seems to be the pattern here.

*Update*- We got an email from our agent tonight. Evidently, we aren't arguing over 2 days. They apparently wanted 2/25 for closing. This is what happens when I get things 3rd hand. So we basically accepted their terms. Which means, we are expecting a full contract on Monday. Oh. My. God! Yay!!! I was starting to lose hope and had actually been looking at other houses just in case this fell apart. But the agent sent us a "closing checklist" of sorts...a list of things we still need to get together between now and then (3 weeks. Oh. My. God!). We still have some questions, but things are falling into place. We are about to be home owners.

Well, mortgage owners...

Update...kinda

We got the counter offer/addendums yesterday. Eh.

Here's the deal:

1) $1000 earnest money. No biggie. We expected $500 or $1000. Done. (As a bonus, we got our tax money this week, which is what covers all of our closing costs.)

2) They won't pay for the termite inspection. Ok, not happy, but we can do this. We found a home inspector that includes the termite inspection for $300...which is what we were expecting for just the home inspection anyway. Ok. We'll take that.

3) The Biggie: 20% down. Um, sphinctersayswhat? Why do the sellers (granted, it's a bank) CARE what we put down. We are not financing it with them. It's none of their business. They will get a check for the full amount (minus our closing costs, which they did agree to) either way. We *think* that the person doing the contract was new, didn't know what she was doing, and thought we were financing with them. If, for SOME reason, they decide to stick with this, it's a deal breaker. We won't...can't...do 20%. But our real estate agent and mortgage broker have BOTH said that they can't insist on that, and it should get changed. We will see. I'm optimistic, but cautious.

Sort of. Did I mention I have a shopping list going? And I look at the pictures all day and plan out furniture arrangements and decorating schemes? Yeah. I'm a bit obsessed. LOL!

We did, however, submit our earnest money this morning, with our counter-counter offer. Basically, the same thing. They did try to change our closing date from March 3 to Feb 23 as well. I'd prefer March (because then our first payment is due in May), but can deal with Feb (first payment in April). And we tried to put it back to March in our offer. We will see what happens. I'm just ready for step 2: either moving forward on this one and the inspection, or starting over (please, don't let me have to start over!).

Oh...and one awesome piece of news: So, the taxes were listed as Fulton County at $1500 a year. Ugh, but ok...the house is cheap. Even with that, it's still only $600 a month payment. But those were 2006 taxes, so we looked into it. As it turns out, it's City of Palmetto that we owe, not Fulton County. And we owe $406 a year. Not $1500. Dropping our payment almost $100 a month. SCORE! Also, $50 will get the electric and water set up for the inspection, and count toward the $200 to get them turned on when we move in...and all are paid to the city: electric, water, sewer and trash. Cool. I think. At least it's only 1 bill for all of it.

So, I think that is all of our news so far. Will update more as we hear more.

So much going on!

Ok...it's been awhile since I've updated. Here's the news:

1) We were approved for the house I previously posted, but we had to get the trailer sold before we could do it. In the meantime, we kept looking at other houses, because frankly, the taxes were high on that one, and it wasn't close to things like restaurants or grocery stores. I like to be near civilization. Call me weird if you want, but I detest "country" living.

2) We went to Disney! Had a blast...I'm still tired and sore. It was also colder than we expected (60's during the day, but down to the 40's at night!), so I came home and have been sick since. But I think everyone enjoyed it. We are going back in May for our anniversary, but just planning to chill by the pool and eat...and maybe go to the spa. No parks this time around.

3) So...this is the biggie. I said we kept looking at houses? Yeah. We found another one. $67,000 for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom on just over half an acre. It's about 3 miles from where we are now...just on the other side of the McDs, DQ, Subway, 2 gas stations, etc. And it's $67,000. It just needs carpet (bleach stains) and paint (it's all peachy pink). And it's $67,000. Seriously. I think we hit the jackpot, here. So we put in an offer. We haven't sold the trailer yet, but we can carry both for a while because, did I mention, it's $67,000? Yeah. We should hear back today or tomorrow on our offer. It's bank owned (obviously...why else would it be so cheap?), so we are expecting addendums to come back, but our agent saud she expects that they will accept the offer. We have a tentative closing date of March 13 right now.

DH and I are both a little panicky...but it is a GREAT price for a nice house. It last sold for $118,000, so we are going in with almost 100% equity from the start, which is nice. Of course, I have a mile long shopping list of thngs we need. Some can wait until we sell the trailer (anyone interested? I'll post the link in a second...), others we will need pretty fast (fireplace tools, blinds).

And the trailer. A couple calls for info so far. One person was going to look at it, but never called back. It it listed online (http://www.mhvillage.com/Listings/Listing.php?key=348020) and has come up in searches over 900 times so far (listed Friday, I think?), but has only been clicked 45. No calls/emails from there. And my craigslist add got flagged. Bastids. I haven't put it back there, yet. So, if anyone knows someone in GA in need of a place to live cheap...

Oh...and I know this is a diet blog, but well, I haven't been doing jack in that department. We have been eating out almost constantly. I haven't tracked anything. I will be starting over (yet again)...umm...probably when all this house stuff is done. Because until then, my stress level will be a 15. Out of 10.

The waiting...is the hardest part....

Don't mind my singing. Now you will be stuck with that song in your head like I have for 2 days. Glad to not be alone. :o)

We officially applied for a mortgage yesterday. The person called me at about 4:30 to tell me she hadn't had a chance to work on it yet, but would call between 8 and 9 last night. She didn't call. I don't know if she just got sidetracked, or we just suck that bad. Could go either way, really. We do suck. We know this. But we decided to give it a shot anyway. And the mortgage person just got back from vacation. I understand that. She has other files that are closing this month. So I don't know what to think.

And it's driving me INSANE. Seriously. I know it's not a far drive, but AHHH. And between waiting for this, and 2 days, 15 hours, 7 minutes and 50 seconds to Disney..."I'm too EXCITED to sleep!" So I haven't. Since last week. Ok...not true. I did take a sleeping pill on Saturday and passed out.

But today is my FRIDAY!!! *happy dance* Tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment for "root planning and scaling." Sounds as fun as I expect it to be. They are going under my gums to clean. I expect to be sore Thursday, but by Friday, I should be (read: BETTER BE) fine.

Here is the general Disney plan:
Friday, Jan 16:
Arrive ~4pm, check into hotel. Settle, swim, tour. Dinner @ Rainforest? (take ferry to Downtown Dis)

Saturday, Jan 17:
Hollywood Studios (9-9-extra magic hours am)-Aerosmith, The Great Movie Ride, Tower?
Epcot (9-7 Future World, 11-9 World Showcase)-Soarin, Mission Space, Test Track?, Figment, World Showcase for Dinner?, Spaceship earth, living with the land?


Sunday, Jan 18:
Animal Kingdom (opens at 9)-Yeti, Dinosaur (knocked off glasses*), Safari, Kali river rapids?, Primeval whirl, Tough to be a bug
Magic Kingdom PM (open til 11-extra magic hours pm)-Pirates, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Jungle Cruise

Monday, Jan 19:
?? Downtown Disney/Disney Quest or Blizzard Beach or Universal

Tuesday, Jan 20:
Leave by noon?

*Just a note on this ride. It's beyond cool...but rather dangerous if you wear glasses. LOL! I leaned over to tell DH something, and we hit a bump...and my head knocked off his glasses...which we almost lost in the dark. So...no talking on the rides. There is also no partying, but I can't find the freaking picture. Stupid new phones.

Anyway. After searching for 20 minutes for the picture, I forgot what I was talking about. Enjoy your day. I need to get some work done for a change.

Happy freaking Friday to you too

What a day, already. It's 9:30 am, and I've had enough.

First, I wake up at 3am, and toss and turn until I finally decide to just get up and at least try to make a buck or 2, since I'm up anyway. Get out of bed at 4. Log into to ChaCha. I get 5 questions, then get booted. Log back in, get 2 more then nothing for another hour. At this point, it's 6 (I didn't' say the 5 I got were fast). I go back, shower, dress, make coffee and little frozen sausage biscuits. I'm tired, but for a change I'm on track to be on time for work! Yay, me!

DH comes out. He doesn't say anything for a minute, then says "Let's talk to M (real estate agent) and have her list this place, and we will use this to pay off the 2 bikes, and lets get the house." He's still not thrilled, but willing. YAY! Oh...did I mention we went to look at a house last night? And we were expecting lots of work needing to be done because of the price, but there is NOTHING that we can see wrong with it? And it's a HUGE house, big yard (front AND back!), nice neighborhood... Anyway. More on that later. So, this is one mark toward an ok day. I mean, we still have to get approved...but at least he agreed to it.

So we finish getting ready. We walk out the door. The truck isn't where we left it. As in...it was on the parking pad, it's now on the grass. Ummm... We look at each other. I ask DH if he decided to go somewhere last night after taking his ambien...he says no. We call the cops, then go inside and look at the security cameras (for those that don't know, we have 4 cameras outside that save to the computer that we installed after my scooter was stolen in Feb-they've come in handy more than once). So we look at the cameras. Evidently, a repo truck pulled up at about 4:30, looked at the truck, and decided to take it without confirming the VIN or tag. How do I know it was an error? We made the payment last week. And it's not due until NEXT week. That, and 10 minutes later, the cameras show him pull back in, drop the car in the yard (not the driveway...the grass, where we found it) and head off further down the street. Couldn't tell who he actually was after...but needless to say, he left no indication (aside from moving the truck) that there was an error. *censoring a series of profanities*

I get on the road to work. I'm in the left lane, behind a van going about 70-ish. I'd like to be doing my usual 80, but I deal. Well, evidently, the guy behind me ISN'T so patient, as he comes speeding up toward my back bumper and only slows when he is about 2 feet away, if that. Mind you, I'm already pissy. And I'm a bitch when I drive anyway. I hit my breaks 3 times real fast. Dude backed off. I was hoping he'd buy my car for me. *another series of profanities*

So, it's 9:30. I finally made it here. I've had all I can deal with today. God help the first person that even looks twice at me.

Oh...and on the house. Last night we went to look at this one, and one other. The first, our agent sent us just before Christmas. List price at the time was $114K. It's 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2300 square feet on 1 acre. Seriously...what's wrong with it? Oh..."Full renovation to be completed 1/8/09." Ok. So they are doing something, but what are they leaving? Right? But we finally decide to take a look. And, oh by the way...the price dropped $5K since she sent it to us. So really, what's wrong with it? We walk in...couple carpet stains. Eh...I can deal. Cover em with the couch. Wow...real tile floor in the kitchen. New Stove and dishwasher. Needs a fridge and washer and dryer. Ok. No biggie. We have the washer and dryer...fridge is easy. Go upstairs. Couple more stains...still, nothing major. Showers are a little dirty, but nothing a little bleach won't hurt. Master bedroom...WOW. It's huge. And there are 2 little cubby cabinet things that are attic space, but easy to get to. That's nice! Bedroom 1 is...PINK and green. Little girl colors. BRIGHT. But $30 in paint can take care of that. Bedroom 2...evidently, they had 2 daughters, because this one is PINK and purple. Again...$30 in paint and done. #3 was a nice neutral white. All three were nice size. Pass through bathroom was cool. So really...what's wrong with it? Aside from little stuff, none of the 3 of us saw anything. Agent says we can probably offer $99K for it and she thinks they'd take it. We decide to still check out house #2.

#2 is the complete and polar opposite. Now, she had warned us about the broken windows, because they dropped the price 32K because of them, though the estimate to repair was 3200. So we expected that. And it wasn't in HORRIBLE shape, but it has no appliances, and it just had a totally different FEEL to it. We weren't big on the neighborhood. There was actually TOO much space (formal living room, formal dining room, family room...we don't need all that). And it had some fantastic 80's stuff about it...sunken den, fence between den and kitchen. The only semi-cool thing was lots of little cubbies that we know the cats would climb up onto. But really, I'm not buying a house for the cats. I love them dearly, they are my children, but they get what we pick and they will love it. So even though this one is $30K less, it needs at least $15K in work all together...and we just didn't like it as much.

Today, I will be calling the agent to see about selling our trailer. We wrote up a potential Craigslist ad for it yesterday:

Mobile Home For Sale! Must See INSIDE!!!

Mobile home with 2 master bedrooms and 2 full baths available in Sweetbriar Mobile Home Park, very close to I-85. 25 miles to downtown! Easy access to Union City, Peachtree City and Newnan.

Home has 2 large bedrooms that each fit a queen size bed with room to spare. Each bedroom has it's own master bathroom with separate shower and garden tub. Many renovations and improvements done! Open floor plan features living room with laminate wood flooring. Kitchen has new counters and new floor (to be completed prior to sale), and features a custom island cabinet with breakfast bar. New Electrical panel and additional outlets throughout. Dishwasher and refrigerator replaced in 2007. Washer and dryer hookups. Situated on large corner lot.

$20,000 Sorry, owner financing not available.

Lot rent is in addition to purchase price and is buyers sole responsibility to qualify with Sweetbriar Management or make arrangements to move home at their own expense. Seller does NOT guarantee acceptance by Sweetbriar, nor will seller sublet current contract. Estimated monthly rent (at the discretion of Sweetbriar-check with them for actual amount): $325/month, due on the 1st.

Wish us luck...we are gonna need it.

A bunch of randomness

Less about diet (though, that will be part of it)...more about a bunch of other stuff.

1) Buying a house.

This has forever been my dream. Seriously. I've wanted to buy a house since probably high school. Now is a great time. Both DH and I have good jobs...and even a supplemental income to help pay off some of our credit cards and maybe save up a little bit. It has at a very minimum kept us from actually USING the credit cards since we started.

But we can't agree on what we want. Hubby wants at least 1 acre, and would really prefer 2-5 acres. He doesn't want neighbors really close. He does want to build a log house. In fact, his ultimate plan is to move our current trailer onto a piece of land and build a house on the same one.

I see all of that as my own personal hell. I can deal with the one acre, but honestly, the bigger the yard, the more yard work we have to do. Even if it's a wooded lot...there is still upkeep there. I want a cute little subdivision where we can make friends with our neighbors and have block parties on warm summer nights, and have company over at the holidays. Ok. I live in a dream world. But my goal is to find a place like where my aunt lives. Because they did all that. And I'd rather find a house that may not be all we ever wanted (it is, after all, our first real house) but that we can afford now and sell in 5 years when the market finally gets back to normal and THEN we can build the log house we have always dreamed of...without having to have a trailer on the property for temporary quarters.

2) Traffic

Just a general vent. I hate morons that can't drive in the rain. And they re worse when they have had a 4+ day weekend and are just coming back to work. I almost got hit 3 times. Assholes.

3) Sleep.

I need it. The cats have been driving me nuts for 3 nights in a row. They have food. They have water. I don't get it. They are getting locked out tonight.

4) Diet.

Ok...it has to be part of this. I did alright yesterday. Fantastic on Saturday. Yesterday, we decided to have finger foods when SIL and BIL came over for lunch. But that was all we had for dinner...so while not great, and I snacked all day, I really didn't eat MUCH of anything. Today, I tried to look up calories for dinner (Stouffer's Veggie Lasagna-we are being lazy), but it wasn't in Spark. I'll try to find it on the Stouffer's site in a few. Lunch is the leftovers from Thursday that I never did eat this weekend. And a bottled Frap. Breakfast: CAWFEE! I stopped at the machine in the gym (no-I didn't actually GO to the gym. I walked through the one on campus, specifically to get coffee) and got a White Chocolate Mocha. YUM.

5) Disney!

10 days. Can't. Wait. I think I'm going to start packing. I'm THAT excited. Oh-and my vacation actually starts 2 days before that, since I get the excitement of dental work on the 14th. Not so much excited for that, but I need to get it over with. Hopefully they didn't lie when they said by the next day I should be fine. I worked that day into it, so I have 1 full recovery day, but I am getting a little nervous. I was fine the next day when I had my wisdom teeth out, though. And this is just a really rough cleaning (they are numbing me for it...). Yeah, I might be a little sore, but that just means more ice cream, right?

6) ChaCha and KGB

Have I mentioned how glad I am I found this? Or actually...someone referred me to it, but still. Because of this, we finally are taking a trip with minimal worry about money. If we weren't taking family and unsure if they were going to have their share (or how much of it they will have) we would be SET. Since Sept. 21, I have made over $1400. Not bad, considering I sit there and play on the net anyway. Might as well make some money doing it, Right? And that is what we are using for paying off our credit cards.

Today starts training for KGB. Similar to ChaCha, in that people text in questions, but there is 1 key difference. KGB charges 30 cents for each one. ChaCha is free. I signed up with KGB at least to see what the deal is, and maybe do them both, since ChaCha slowed significantly after November. Don't get me wrong-I'm still making my $10/day goal, many times more if I feel like staying on. But it used to be much faster. And it never hurts to have a backup plan. I'll keep you posted.

Ok. I think that is everything so far. I'm a ball of randomness and stress right now. :o)

Day one recap.

I diet too well. Don't laugh at me. It's true. I try to cut back to a "normal" amount of calories-I wind up at a "diet" amount for the day. My goal was 2000-2500. I topped out at 1774. Did I mention I had both skittles with lunch and sangria when I got home? Yeah. So, Even though I order breakfast before setting my goal, and made lunch before that, I still managed to come in 225 under my minimum. This was what annoyed me on WW. I would end the day HAVING to eat 15 points just to hit my minimum. Sounds nice, huh? The easiest way to do that was a handful or 2 of hershey kisses. Great! You might think. In actuality-not so much. Once or twice is fine. On a daily basis-it actually gets frustrating.

So back to my current quandary. I need to spread out my calories more. Would also help if we planned dinner before 5pm. But I know that won't change. So, how to deal with it? This is what has been driving me insane for 3 years now. Why 3 years? When I was single, I only had to worry about myself. If I had 4 points left for dinner (was on WW at the time, obviously), I'd get a Lean Cuisine and sugar free jello. If I had 15 or 20, I'd get McDonalds. I didn't care what anyone else wanted. It didn't matter. But now, there are 2 of us.

How does that change things? Well, I certainly can't just grab a LC meal when it needs to feed both of us. It means we try to cook more. But I hate cooking, and I'm not especially good at it. Unless it's something like baked mac&cheese-which is entirely impossible to make totally low/non fat. Yeah, you can try. But to do it right takes a lot of butter, milk, and cheese. Even if you use low fat versions and whole wheat pasta (which, oh by the way, the DH hates and complains about-but only when he knows that's what it is. Otherwise, he loves it until I tell him), it's still not exactly "healthy". Then there are my other specialties: shepherds pie (mashed potatoes, gravy and ground beef, all in one), baked ziti (again-it's like the mac and cheese). And DH spent 20 years cooking for people-he isn't good at low fat substitutions, and is tired of it most of the time. So we eat out a lot. I try (sometimes) to make better choices. But it depends on where we eat. My "standby" when there is nothing on the menu that I like is chicken tenders. Very few places have screwed them up. But again: not healthy.

Where does this leave me? I have no idea. I've lost my train of thought. Note to self: don't ChaCha and blog at the same time. Those questions make you forget what you are talking about. Oh, yeah: spreading out my calories. I think I need to divide my total by 6. 1/6 for breakfast, 1/3 (ie-2/6, for you non-math people) for lunch, and 1/2 (3/6) for dinner. I know dinner is my hardest meal to control. Breakfast and lunch, I only have to worry about myself. That's one thing about Special K that was good. The bad things were it made my breath stink (the protein bars), and I got beyond tired of cereal. But it allowed me to control what I could, and be able to do almost anything for dinner.

So, with my new meal proportions, let's do some math.

Breakfast should be 333-416
Lunch should be 666-832
Dinner should be 1000-1250

That looks fair and reasonable. I think I've been skimping too much on lunch and overestimating what I need for dinner. Oh...and I just included snacks in those totals. I don't normally snack in the morning, but I do have something around 3 (count it as lunch) and I have dessert (count as dinner).

So I looked at my plan for today:
Breakfast was coffee with creamer and 2 of those little Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits. 505 calories. A little over the plan, but not bad.
Lunch plan is more leftovers: the pasta with the mulled wine sauce (funny story if I didn't write it) and sausage. A mere 179 calories. Umm...even if we move the "extra" from breakfast, I'm still about, oh, 350-400 short here. That definitely needs to be looked at.
Dinner: unknown. I was going to pull out some chicken and make...something. No ideas. We don't have one of our main staples right now: cheese. I seriously don't think ANY of my recipes DON'T use cheese. Even the healthy ones. So I have no idea what to make. And besides-I really don't feel like cooking. But it is only fair. DH works all day today. I'm off. Ok, sort of off. ChaCha doesn't count. And it's not like the questions are exactly flying in anyway. But that's another story.

Back to dinner. I love this website. Kraft 1 bag, 5 meals. Lots of great ideas, all easy, mostly healthy-ish. Definitely better than chicken fingers. Guess I scour it for something to do. And pull the chicken out.

New year, old me.

Yup. That's right. It's the new year. Welcome to 2009. Time for resolutions that won't be kept, and people to flood the gym for 2 months before giving up.

And yes, this year, I'm doing the same. Well, hopefully for longer than 2 months, but let's be realistic here: I hate exercising. Always have, probably always will. I realize it's necessary for weight loss, though, so...back to the gym I will be going. But first, I'm going to spend some time getting my food straightened out. Because BOTH are needed for me to lose weight (though, my dear, darling, PITA of a husband doesn't seem to get this concept).

The first 2 weeks of this year, I'm going to go kinda easy. We leave for Disney World on the 16th. No sense getting great habits and going hard core only to "blow it" on vacation and start over from scratch anyway. So, we will start with getting my caloric intake into a normal range...ie-stop gaining, but not start losing yet. How will this help? Gradual changes. Easier to handle a drop of 500-1000 calories (I'm guessing-but probably not far off) than a drop of 1500-2000 a day. I found a basal metabolic rate calculator, which says mine is 2247.48 (*cough240cough* pounds, 5'7", 29 twice, sedentary lifestyle). My first goal will be to eat 2000-2500 calories a day until we get home from our trip.

After MUCH debate, I can't bring myself to pay for a weight loss program again. I did Weight Watchers. 3 times, in fact. I did LA Weight Loss. I did the Curves Diet. I did Slim Fast. I did Special K. Are we noticing a trend here? I even did IE, which, I still believe in. And I realize I will be just hurting myself with yet another diet. But at the same time, I can't deal with none of my pants fitting. I'm tired of it. And I need to get some control. Because that's really all diets are: control mechanisms. So, it's back to Spark People I go. Free tracking software, basically. Yeah, they have a few tips, and it will set up a diet for you if you want it to. But this way, I can set mine up and not have to deal with someone else's idea of "detoxing", which just means setting you up for failure right from the start because they set unrealistic expectations. There. I said it. Diet programs set you up to fail by expecting you to cut so far back it's unrealistic for the first 2 weeks. Every plan I've been on does this.

You CAN NOT go from eating whatever you want to being so strict. Your body can't handle it. You get cranky and get cravings and will binge at the first opportunity. That's why diets that automatically set you up so you can "jump start" you weight loss with a 5 pound loss your first week are never good for the long haul. You are so deprived after the first few days, but you stick with it, because the scale is going down! YAY! But the minute that scale stops moving, or, god forbid, goes UP, it's over.

With that said: we are going to try the Lill Diet Plan. One of my own creation, taking things from everything else I have done. Here are the basics:

Week 1-2: Reduce caloric intake to 2000-2500/day. That's it. (est. loss: 0)
Week 3-4: Reduce caloric intake to 1700-2200/day. Go to the gym 1 day a week for 30 minutes. (est loss: <1 pound-2359 calories less)
Week 5-6: Maintain 1700-2200/day. Add 2nd day at the gym for 30 minutes. (est. loss: <1 poind-2617 calories less)
Week 7-8: Reduce caloric intake to 1500-2000. Maintain 2 days at the gym for 30 minutes. (est loss: >1 pound-4018 calories less)

At this point, I will evaluate. Don't want to get to far ahead of myself. I think 1500-2000 will be a good calorie range, though I may drop to 1200-1700, but no lower. And I may add a 3rd day at the gym, but I'm trying to be realistic. The planned exercise is swimming laps. I love to swim. I hate going to the gym, but I do love swimming. And once I'm in the pool, I'm fine.

A note on my calculations from above: all calorie drops are based on my first week and based on the minimums. So, for week 3-4, I estimated a drop from 2000 calories to 1700, or 300/day, 2100/week. Add in 259 burned swimming (that is at a leisurely pace), and that is how we got 2359 less than the week before. It actually works out to just over half a pound a week. At that point, I may still be losing water weight, too (fingers crossed!). All other calculations were based on the same idea.

Ok. That is the basis of the Lill Diet Plan. It's a work in progress. Who knows. Maybe someday I can sell it for millions and be the next Jillian Michaels. Or not. Anyway.

To keep tabs on me, I will be posting my food logs here. If I don't, smack me around, because it means I don't want to admit what I ate. But not admitting it doesn't change the fact that I ate it. I need accountability. Off to add my venti skim chai latte and banana loaf from Starbucks that I had this morning...