Community blogger Muriel Watson writes: Starting Weight- 326   Current Weight- 264.0

Community blogger Muriel Watson writes: I  have not only lost 30 pounds but also lost 3 inches off of my waist.  I have had to buy new clothes.

Community blogger Alan Foster writes: Starting weight 225/ Current weight 205

I suppose I should be happy I’ve lost 20 pounds. For the most part, I am. However, it’s becoming such a chore to try to stay at the current weight and even more a chore to try to lose more weight. I’ve stuck to my Lean Cuisine lunches with no problem but the food choices I make on the weekends and evenings are apparently negating the calorie reductions I achieve during the week.

Over the last week, I’ve neither gained nor lost any pounds and the constant frustration of not seeing regular weight loss is testing my patience. Perhaps it’s time to switch to a weight maintenance plan. Not trying to lose weight may actually result in losing some. I remember years ago some sage advice to my wife and me as we were unsuccessfully trying to conceive our second child. We were told to stop trying – and it worked. Obviously, we didn’t stop “trying” but we stopped focusing on it.

Inasmuch as I’m not going to stop watching what I eat, I think I’ll not focus so much on the losing weight, but maintaining the weight. Who knows, I may “conceive” a few more pounds lost.

Community blogger Muriel Watson writes:

Community blogger Muriel Watson writes: First of all, I would like to apologize for not writing for so long.  I have had a family emergency which involved one of my children.  The situation is now better but we still have problems to work out through God's grace.  I hope you will understand and just continue to pray for my family.

Community blogger Alan Foster writes:

Starting weight – 225
Current weight -205

Over the last two weeks, I’ve started another effort to eat less.  My workplace has a small kitchen area with a refrigerator and microwave.  Each Monday, I’ve brought in enough frozen Lean Cuisine meals to have for lunch each workday.  These meals are actually quite good and usually less than 300 calories (not that I’m counting).  With the stash of green tea that I keep on hand, I have a week’s worth of lunches for around $15.  The frozen meals come in many varieties.  I haven’t had the same thing twice in two weeks.  In about 5 minutes, I have a nice hot meal that’s lighter on my food intake and my wallet.  That sure beats the same cold sandwich I’ve been bringing from home each day.  Now if I could just get one of my co-workers from bringing in the hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

Teri Boggess, former N&O sports copy editor, writes:

Losing weight will get me a tax deduction.

Well, not directly, but close enough.

Shrinking my waistline has resulted in many of my clothes being simply too large.

I had to face that reality when I was showing a visiting cousin downtown Raleigh and found myself walking along the Fayetteville Street sidewalk trying to look inconspicuous while holding up my very favorite cargo pants.

I have since borrowed back my favorite belt from my husband's closet. A long time has passed since that belt fit, and now it does - second notch, too.

So, as the season changes, I'm looking at my fall and winter clothes. Some local charities will be getting donations of the garments that can't be altered.

Even an unworn pair of casual shoes will go into the box. I had really been looking forward to wearing them this fall, but now they're just too big.

Now, I have a bit of a shopping quandary.

The other day, I stood in front of a sales rack marked down a hard-to-resist 70 percent and thought about next summer and needing new shorts.

And then I thought about not having a paycheck at the moment. So, I passed on the sale.

I'll buy only the clothes that I must have for whatever job I find in my post-newspaper life.

And next year, I'll spend some of my tax refund on shorts for summer.

A size or two smaller, of course.

Alan Foster writes: Beginning weight: 225 / Current weight: 206

Over the last week, I was faithful in recording all the food I consumed and my exercise activity…that is, until the weekend.

In recalling what I ate over the weekend, it’s quite obvious that I eat much better when I’m frequently looking at a written list of what I’m consuming each day.

To add credibility to the benefit of this food/exercise journal, I lost another 2 pounds last week while finding a little motivation to keep the journal for seven days instead of 5.

Maybe I’m on to something. We’ll see what the scales have to say about it next week.

Alan Foster writes: Beginning weight: 225 / Current weight: 208

After a week of preparations at work for Hurricane Irene, I can’t look back and say that I was very mindful of what I ate last week. I also can’t say that I spent a lot of time exercising. Fortunately, I didn’t gain any weight, but I didn’t lose any either. This week, I’m going to try to write down everything that I eat. I remain against doing any calorie counting, but I think that if I record what was eaten, I can look back and see where I could eat better, thereby reducing a few calories. While I’m at it, I might as well record what exercises I do for the week. Now if I could just keep the food list shorter than the exercise list…

Tahira Nyabinghi writes: Jan.1 230lbs  -- Aug. 1 170lbs My family is taking a notice of my slimming figure; so much that my daughter is beginning to look at me funny.