I have kept a daily record of my food and exercise choices since I began the Carbohydrate Addict's Lifespan Program (CALP) on March 3, 2008.

I will be updating my journal to include my daily entries and will be including everything from the beginning, as time permits.

I am living real life and dealing with the stress that life dishes out. I can not control any health problems that may be affecting myself or others, but will handle them to the best of my ability. I am no longer in control of the choices my young adult children make, even though I do offer my advice, whenever I feel it is necessary. I am in control of how I want to live the rest of my life and I want to become the fit, healthy, and active person that I can see in my future.

I have no doubt that following the guidelines of CALP allows me to remain in control of my food choices. I am never hungry when I follow the program and there is no deprivation, since I can eat whatever I want.

This is my second time on the Carbohydrate Addict's Lifespan Program so I thought it would be a good idea to keep a journal this time.

The first time I tried this way of eating was ten years ago. I was able to lose over 40 pounds at that time and knew that it was a plan I could stay on since it was very easy for me. I became overly obsessed with the scale and when I experienced a stall in my weight loss, I decided to change plans. The new plan allowed me to drop 10 more pounds but I failed when I could not continue to follow it.

When I began my program this time, I was close to my highest weight of 236 lbs., because I know what clothes I could not fit into. I don't know my exact weight since I had been avoiding the scale and did not want to make it the focus of my journey this time around. I did choose to take my measurements five days after beginning the program so I would have some sort of record though. I made the decision to keep a record of my progress by taking my measurements at the end of each month.

According to this program, an option is to be introduced every two weeks. I began my third week with the GTF Chromium Option.

Two weeks later I was getting ready to introduce another option of exercise into my program. I ended up coming down with the flu and I was unable to follow my eating program for a couple of weeks. As soon as I was able to eat solid food again, I got right back on plan. I gave myself another four days before I got started on Walk Away the Pounds. I had made the decision to alternate cardio with strength training and began working out on my Bowflex machine the following day.

My husband and I spent the Easter holiday with my family. After only three weeks on plan, my mother noticed my weight loss. Not long after telling me that I should keep it up, she told me to try her chocolate covered strawberries. It was so great to tell her that I would try them with my dinner instead of "I can't because I'm on a diet". By the way, I was able to eat two of them and they were delicious.

I did end up stepping on the scale two months after beginning my program because my clothes were becoming too big for me and I was curious to know what I weighed at that time. On 5/06/08, my first official weigh in, I weighed in at 218 lbs.