As of today, almost three weeks into the plan, I’m down three pounds. I was hoping for more like six, but really, all I was doing was hoping. That is to say that for some reason I’ve gone off the reservation on exercise. Where once I happily hiking and “ohm-ing” three or four times a week, now I’m lucky if I make it once or twice. So seriously, I need to start taking exercise, well, seriously. I’ve made a plan. I’ve come up with a schedule and it is going into effect on Monday. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday yoga at 6 p.m. Wednesday evenings I play on the New Hope Naturals Softball Team which means a little running around and a lot of beer, so that’s a wash. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are for long hikes or bike rides with one day in there for rest. I like it. As for fullness, the LuraLean has worked better and better. What I have to concentrate on is that I’M FULL (I’m still guilty of the “I have to finish everything on my plate” syndrome). I’m trying to slow down and pay attention. It would probably also help if I started taking smaller portions. Yeah. I have a friend who, when we go out to dinner, immediately scrapes half her dinner onto another plate so that she has to consciously reach for the other plate if she wants to eat more. I’m thinking of adopting that practice. Any other suggestions out there?

In other news I was talking to Dr. Jim Joseph, author of The Color Code and featured speaker at Nutracon 2010 who is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on healthy eating and weight management and he was telling me all kinds of great things about what to eat and how to get the most out of your daily caloric intake. Things like wild fish (NOT farm raised) lots of red things as in peppers, strawberries, raspberries and tomatoes, walnuts, blueberries, purple grape juice, blackberries, kale and dark chocolate. Now you might think that dark chocolate would be something that I would celebrate, “Yeah, dark chocolate, Hallelujah, something I really like is on the list” but no, not really. I actually don’t like dark chocolate at all. I think it takes like tobacco. But I went to the store anyway and bought a bag of organic dark chocolate chips and some fresh organic blueberries and raspberries. At home I got out some small cupcake tins, filled them halfway, some with blueberries, some with raspberries and then melted down the chips. I poured the melted chocolate into the tins then chilled them in the fridge for about an hour or two. I figure they are somewhere between 100 and 150 calories a pop and filled with antioxidents……… Yum. You heard me right, Yum.