I loved reading everyone's comments! So much good advice!

For me the light went on when I went to these websites, recommended by my new fantastic lady doctor, who has changed my life; I learned a whole new way to shop, to cook, to eat, and my energy has come back, the weight is going down and I feel better than I have in years.

Here are the websites, from the National Institutes of Health, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, recommended by the American Heart Assn and the American Diabetes Assoc:

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/cgi-bin/...umber=1&diet=1

This above link is a virtual reality portion test. It will blow your mind, just as it blew mine and what a wake up call it was!! I think the advertising industry has mind-warped us into supersizing everything!!! It made me realize how I was eating way, way too much and too large of portions of everything! Just changing portions has helped us lose weight, hubby and me!

Create-A-Diet just for you http://www.nhlbisupport.com/chd1/create.htm

This link lets you see how many calories you are eating and why you are probably gaining weight and how to lose it!! Basic metabolic math = exercise less, burn less, weigh more, gain weight OR exercise more, burn more, lose weight, and firm up. Exercise boosts your metabolism higher for 2 - 3 hours, so it burns more calories than in your normal resting life state. Burn more calories than you eat = lose weight.

http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/menuplanner/menu.cgi

Interactive menu planner lets you pick and plan meals. After a few practice tries planning just a day's meals, I could clearly see what I had been doing wrong, in trying to eat healthy, low fat, low sugar and high fiber diets - I had been eating way too large portions and not watching the actual ingredients and calories. No wonder I weighed 300 lbs!!!

Good old Dr. Phil said it right: "You can't be overweight and unhealthy unless you live a lifestyle to support it." How true! And I was supporting it bigtime from the look of what was in my fridge and cupboards!!!

First thing was to purge the kitchen and cupboards of everything that was unhealthy: cookies, candy, ice creams, butter, full fat cheeses and cottage cheeses, yogurts that are full fat, salad dressings that are full fat, and all the meats that had fat on them, all the fried foods, the sauces, gravies that were high salt, high fat, all the pickles with tons of salt, and so forth.

Then, I learned how to read labels carefully and how to cook with Splenda, and still have delicious healthy desserts (in correct portions) but with NO sugar, no fat or low fat! I even found no sugar ice creams or low fat ones, (and I do go to Artic Circle for a cone once in a while....I'm not perfect yet!) ... and life got better in just a week or so!

I bought skinless chicken and lean meats, and barbecued on our gas grill or cooked in our skillet with only a tablespoon of olive oil. (but the low fat grated cheeses still suck, sorry... ) There's even less fat in those spray cooking oils... and boy, have the flavors in those gotten better over the years!! I love the lean barbecued pork - with the grill smoky flavor on it.

I made my pastas from the whole wheat brands (which raises blood sugar less and stays with you longer), and made my own spaghetti sauces from low salt or salt free tomato puree, diced tomatoes, garlic, seasonings, onions, etc...(not near as much salt or sugar or fat as any commercial brand and tasted better.) I learned to use the egg whites and toss the yolks away in my recipes, cutting fat and calories that way. There's plenty of egg yolks already in even whole wheat breads, dressings,etc, so I had to watch adding any myself. (one egg yolk has more cholesterol than I am allowed in one day's eating on my 7% saturated fat limit diet!)

Even the fast food industry is starting to cater to healthier life styles = Wendy's will soon be the first fast food chain to use oil that produces no trans fat in fries; they also have low fat sour cream, reduced fat and sugar salad dressings, and many fast food places are going that route. When we eat out, we eat smarter now.

For us, the key is eating at home, rarely eating fast foods, and when we do, we watch carefully what we eat. All those places have nutritional guides they will give you so you can see the fat and sugar in everything they serve. When you see that most of the unnecessary calories and fat come from the mayo, sauces and frying, you get smart pretty quick!

I used to get tired easily before I started riding my bike. When I started doing that, added swimming a couple times a week and home exercises, I found my energy coming back - no fatigue now.

My body is different from anybody elses, but most all of our bodies work the same way: slow to adjust to new changes in life styles, stubborn about addictions and impatient to reach goals (mentally). Do I have cravings? Yes, but for pickly, sour things now instead of sweets. I would kill for a huge bowl of cucumbers in vinegar anytime!

Yes, I do eat chocolate = York Mini Patties now come in sugar free and are exactly the same as the full size kind in flavor and texture. I indulge in about three of them a day = only 110 calories!! Fat free, too! Dark chocolate is actually good for your heart ....but no way can I eat as much of it as I'd like to anymore -- it's a treat for special occasions.

Let's face it - doing what is right and good for us is HARD...and it takes time for our bodies and minds to come into alignment together.. our bodies balk, complain, ache, get pooped and sore,

The journey to health is worth it, believe all of us when we tell of our experiences, how much better we feel doing exercise through biking and other sports...we are powerful women, of all sizes..., all shapes...., progressing towards our own individual and unique levels of perfection.