I finished in second place! Thanks for all you support and encouragement!

I had a blast writing the recipes and the stories for the food blog. The competition ended Friday night and I was notified today that I finished in second place! I am very happy and excited about that! I would love to have won but ran out of time and recipes at the end. It was fun doing all those posts and I have a good start on a future cookbook? We'll see!

Many of you made recipe contributions and for that you have my eternal gratitude! Some of those recipes I remember from my childhood (Snickerdoodles) and others are more complicated and more recent (Red Fish with Crab and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce) and others are just simple (Thousand Island Dressing). They are all fun and I hope you'll try some of them soon.

I am still posting and editing. The Videojug.com folks have been very nice and helpful during the entire process. They have asked me to try my hand at doing some instructional videos and I'm going to give it a go. I have the camera but I don't know how to edit. I am vowing I shall learn to edit very soon. Now I just need a new dress, new hairdo, new kitchen, new pots and pans.....

30 Pounds gone! I'm almost there!

Tuesday I went to the doctor's office to weigh in and be measured. I was floored when I got on the scale and the assistant kept pushing the weight down and down. I had lost a total of 30 pounds! I was very surprised since my scale showed me two pounds heavier. Go figure!

It's been, and continues to be, a simple process but not an easy process. I eat out often and that makes a little more difficult. I have discovered that most restaurants will do whatever you ask. They are almost always very accommodating. The Copper Heron makes a plate of egg salad, chicken salad and tuna salad for me. It's not on the menu but Bill always tries to accommodate. Last night Wayne and I had to go to Altamont Springs and decided to eat at Carraba's. Being an Italian restaurant I was afraid I would find it difficult to make an appropriate selection. I asked the waiter to leave off the tomato sauce from the halibut and replace it with bruschetta. He did and and it was wonderful.

I have 18 more pounds to go. I know I'll reach my goal and hope the weight loss doesn't slow down as I near the end. Once I'm where I want to be I am going to transition to a mostly vegetarian program. I love vegetables, grains and nuts so it should be easy. Complex carbs are okay. I am slowly reintroducing some of the complex carbohydrates now. Just a little though. I dont' want to lose the same three pounds four times!

Thanks for all the support I have received from all of you. I really appreciate it. I am truly blessed of God to have so many good and supportive friends.