Hi everyone. I am a newbie. Since beginning this program 2 weeks ago, I am feeling better than I've felt in a long time. I am recently retired. The first 6 months of retirement were very scary for me because I did not have any structure to my day. After 35 yrs. of teaching, I'd decided to take 1 yr. just to relax. The problem is that I now had the luxury of caving to my feelings of exhaustion and lack of energy. This caused me to waste many days sleeping until noon and feeling absolutely depressed when I should have felt so happy for the opportunity to relax and enjoy my days.

Anyway, after a 4 day hospitalization for Asthma, I decided that something had to change I took out Kathleen's books which I'd purchased a few months back but hadn't opened. Okay, sure enough, I am definitely the target audience! For the first time in my life I'm understanding that the alcoholism in my family, the alcohol I have avoided my whole life long, is still manifested in my relationship with sugar. Wish I'd realized this more fully at a much younger age. But, at 58, I'm confident that there is still time to turn things around and enjoy my life.

Anyway, I have been eating breakfast every single day ~ something I'd never done before. I make myself a little veggie omelet some mornings, have pb and a muffin sometimes, whatever ... I get my protein in. I'm also doing well with sticking to 3 meals a day. And Kathleen is right: if I do that I am quite content. But, I totally see how this could be easily sabotaged if I returned to my past habit of sometimes not eating a thing until 2pm and then eating non-stop and non-discriminately until bedtime, when I would crawl into bed and barely get any sleep until morning when I'd be totally exhausted and then sleep until noon. Ugh! Anyway, that's turned around beautifully.

I keep my food journal. Never liked doing that before. It's growing on me. A couple of times I've even written my feelings between meals. Like how I worry that the long-term might get me. But, slow and steady is working for me right now.

So here's my concern. Although I'm feeling successful about developing some new habits, I think I may be eating too much. When do I start paying more attention to that? Right now, I'm just trying to get my routine in place. But, can I put too much olive oil and vinegar on my salad? Are 6 Triscuits okay? Can I have 2 rolled slices of turkey and cheese? Last night I ate out for the first time at Chipotle. Burrito Bowl of black beans, brown rice, veggies, pork, cheese, salsa ... I think that's okay. But, there was a lot, and I ate it all.

Lastly, is it okay to have a Danon Light Fruit Yogurt (80 calories) at the end of a meal?

I know this is very long, but I so appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Yesterday I had a doctor appt., and all of my "numbers" were markedly improved. PLUS I had lost 6 lbs. I have been trying to be successful for many years and never was. Now, I'm thinking more clearly and feeling soooo good. I just don't want the ceiling to come crashing down!

Thanks for listening!