Hey Joe, thanks for stopping by my journal. Since you said I'd given you some good ideas, I just wanted to expand a bit, since I found a great way to do my chicken breasts!

For spices, get some Lemon Pepper, and Italian Spice, as well as onion and/or garlic powder. Set chicken breasts up for grilling, frying or baking, whichever you prefer - spice the top side first with a little bit of the onion/garlic powder as a base flavour, and then season liberally with the lemon pepper and italian spice! I like my food with a lot lot lot of flavour, so maybe you don't want to coat them like I do - even a little bit of thsoe two goes a long way! Anwyays, cook the chicken half-way, flip and reseason, and let them cook the rest of the way.

Just a warning, while cooking, the chicken smells a little bit like marijuana (or so my mom says), but it definitely doesn't taste like it!

Thanks for the tip Beagle. I haven't made it to the store yet so I definitely will add a bit more to my shopping list. The store may have to wait til tomorrow, but if that is the case, I'll survive.

when you do start your diet youll be craving things. I know i did. Being from the south we like our gravy on top of our gravy. one tip is reduce a can of beef or chicken stock. It well never get thick due to the lack of fats and starches but it will help when you want that something extra. oh the whole can is like 40 calories if you get the low fat kind. Just get the lower sodium kind, as the stock reduces the salt taste will go up.......... just one tip to get ya by on that first week. oh dont forget to add your herbs and such while its reducing to give it that down home mamma did it touch..........

Good Luck, Cannon. I love good food and this place sounds great if you want yummy food. If it gets really difficult and you are feeling weak, I suggest that just have a bite or two of it if you can do that. It may help your attitude while surrounded by all the temptation. I start to get bitter if I can't eat

Well I know my diet doesn't actually begin until 1:30 today, but I did begin my walking progam at 6:30 today. I hate to admit I only did six blocks because I know I could do more than that even a year ago. However, it felt right. I wasn't out of breath or in any real discomfort, but I was sweating and definitely felt the workout. Next week I'm going to try and up it to 7 blocks and by the end of the Summer I want to be doing 2 miles.

For breakfast I had a can of pineapple and water. Pineapple wouldn't be my first choice because I like having protein as part of breakfast, but I really didn't have anything else in the apt. I'll go grocery shopping this afternoon. I've started on my bottled water and I'll be calling Ice Mountain this morning.

I have worked out and tried to lose weight at this time for the past few years, but this feels different--it feels like I'm in it for the long haul and that's good. My short term goal is to drop below 400 pounds by Labor Day. I know people are going to say I'm nuts for setting such a large goal, but I do know from past experience that when you are very very heavy you lose a lot of weight at the beginning of any diet. My mom always called it "Water Weight". That's why I think I can lose 65. I'd be happy with 40 or 50 to be honest.

good for you... starting slow and building up is the way to go... 6 blocks is further than you walked yesterday... so YAY for you...

cannon thats what my mom called it as well. Is it? I dunno but it helps when we have to lose alot of weight. It gives us that little extra push knowing that it does come off.

The only real problem I see with that, and you've got the excuse cuz there was you hadn't gone grocery shopping.. .but that's not enough food... I've found that the reasons why i have failed at diets is that I just get hungry and eat the wrong things... so if you start the day off with eating the right things - and enough of them where you aren't getting hungry - success...

Canned fruit is a good staple to have on hand... I love canned mandarin oranges (hate real oranges) but reading labels is important -they sell them in both syrup packed and water packed wtih a huge difference in calories...

Yeah, my choices were pineapple, ice cream, a chicken sandwhich, or beer. I promise to do better with my next choice. It was packed in water and only had 120 calories. I will be eating 6 meals a day rather than 3 so I'm only looking for stuff to keep my full until 10:00 or so. I will be eating healthier after a shopping trip.

until you go shopping its going to be tough to get good meals. just a warning seems when you go shopping for the first time for healty food it can get crazy expensive. The fruit was a good choice though.

Wow Lee, where were you $133 ago? Seriously, I've gone out and purchased nothing but healthy food before. There is no trick to it. The problem for me is the commitment to eat it and not let it rot while I chow down on fast food and take out. Some of what I got are staples, but a lot of it is fresh stuff and I know that if I don't eat it in the proper time, it's going to go bad.

And this brings me to my first doubts of the diet--about 5 hours into it. I reallize that often when faced with a task I could fail, I'll withdraw from the task. The problem is when you do that, you automatically fail. Grocery shopping today there was a nagging voice going "Who do you think you're fooling? You'll never eat any of this stuff. You're just going to buy takeout when you can't find anything to eat in the fridge".

I will drown that voice out eventually. My current promise to myself is that even if I somehow do blow this diet--I'm not doing anything until all the food is gone. I didn't really buy anything I don't like. I really didn't. For dinner I had shishkabob. Tomorrow I have a fresh salad for lunch and then Bennigans for dinner where I'm going to have a Turkey O'Toole. In the mid-afternoon I'll probably make one of Maleficient's smoothies and do yogurt and an orange for breakfast. This isn't suffering.

Today I went to the movies with my brother-in-law. We saw X-Men 3 and I enjoyed it. I did get a large popcorn because I wasn't thinking and just ordered the cheaper combo. It was before my diet so there can be no guilt associated with said popcorn. When I got down near the bottom (probably more than a medium) I folded up the bucket and tossed it across my row in the theatre so that I'd stop eating. I also threw out 2 candy bars that my sister had brought me as a souveneir. I am trying not to be neurotic about food.

In other news, the water cooler is coming on Thursday---glug glug glug. I can't wait. I also sent the scale back and expect a new one in about a week.

Your doing good... jsut keep your head up. At first it can be so easy to cheat and doubt yourself.. but after you loose your first 10 lbs... u get that counter thought... "I can do this.. see what i did" Honestly.. first month I was like.. ya.. right.. like this will really work.

I dont buy food from a healthstore.. I think a groccery store has all I need for foods... I jsut went shopping for the month (except for fresh fruit) and it cost me $100.. and thats for a months worth of food. Rice, chicken breasts, wild salmon fillets, tuna, soup, tea, low cal dressing, fresh vegies, frozen vegies, and a ton of healthy things Only thing I will need during the month will be restocking fresh fruit and vegies.. but I got tomatos, mushrooms, carrots, a head of lettuce and a watermelon to start with.

I dont think you need to buy from a healthfood store... regular markets have alot of foods you need at cheaper prices. But thats just my opinion

I went to the local grocery store and although I bought healthy-it was all normal things. I did get some nice cuts of meat--picked up shishkabob and 2 swordfish steaks. I bought a ton of fruit and I got a 3 pound box of skinless chicken breasts too. I also went heavy on the sauces and spices and flavorings.

those sauces and stuff are good - they add a lot of flavor- just watch the sodium in them-- (I'm cheap - and actually find it cheaper to make my own marinades... with better ingredients and no preservatives or excess salt.)

Depending on how much freezer space you've got - a lot of stuff can be kept in the freezer as well - I'll buy the family packs of chicken breasts, then trim them and stuff them into baggies and into the freezer...

But I have a bone to pick...
You littered? bad boy... but good for not finishing the popcorn

I did indeed litter. It was unintentional though. I did throw out my soda cup and even alerted the usher that my brother in law accidentally spilled some cheese when he was clumsy with pretzels. I just forgot about the popcorn--that was probably a good thing.