I’m losing about 2-3 lbs a week on this diet. Which is good. Now and again we go out, have a drink, try to be at least judicious in what we get. Then get back on the strict diet. Jane’s losing at about the same rate, a little slower, but losing. And we have done the whole Nutrisystem, Mediterranean, portion control, Atkins thing—Atkins was the best, but past a certain weight, it wasn’t working. So we got with this one.

Those of you who’ve been following this sage know the story: we do home-cooked South Beach, which is pretty simple in essence: you have, at each meal, a protein, as much as you want, and must-have 2 cups of non-starch veggies. At breakfast, this is a problem, but you can have v-8. Jane opts lately for green beans. For breakfast. But it works. You get two low-carb snacks, involving veggie plus cheese, peanut butter, hummus—but about a tablespoon or so. And you get a dessert after supper, with Splenda.

We end up cheating by skipping snacks, because we get busy. Or because we’ve had it with the veggies. BUT, we lose.

The program is supposed to include whole grain now, judiciously, maybe one piece of bread. You retreat back to strict induction if you gain a pound. We’ll see.

But yay us. By what I’ve told the program, I’ve lost 11 lbs, but I actually started heavier than I admitted, by 5 lbs. So it’s really about 16. I’ve dropped 2 points of Body Mass Index, and a full size of clothing. Jane’s right with me.