Well, I'm down "some weight" since last march and it feels great. Good for you CM for recognizing the need for healthier living and eating.

Somethings to definitely watch out for are processed foods (these include all deli meats, packaged stuff such as Krap Dinner and Shake N Bake to name a few - basically anything that comes in a package is bad as it's loaded with sodium and sugar), sauces such as bottled BBQ sauce and soya sauce (loaded with sugar and sodium), canned soup (loaded with sodium), you get my drift. Read the labels.

Try a baked potato with cottage cheese, then top off with sliced green onions and pepper. Yummy.

Another misconception is to eat lots of fruit - which I do. I have not been losing weight lately and I discovered it's because of all the fruit I'm eating - loaded with sugar, mind you it's a much better form of sugar than what you get using white sugar. I eat lots of veggies too and cut way back on meat consumption. I still eat beef but only about once a month. I cook chicken on the bone and with the skin on, and remove the skin after cooking. I don't know, I just find the chicken tastier. I also love, love, roasted veggies. Take some big chunks of red, green, yellow peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, and another veggies you want, put them in a big bowl. Olive oil, garlic and fresh or dried herbs are spinkled over the veggies, spread in one layer on a baking sheet and bake 350 for about 20 min. Makes a great easy low cal side dish.

Stevia??? It's a natural sugar substitute that was recommended to me by both my cancer nutritionist and diabetes nutritionist. I tried it and didn't like the taste of it at all - threw out the whole bottle. I pretty much don't use sugar on anything, including hot and cold cereal.

Sorry to ramble - I'll come back and post if I think of anything else. Gotta get back to work.