Jess, the no eating after 7pm rule came from Oprah’s trainer, Bob Greene in his “Best Life Now” diet. I tried it for a time some time in the last year when I was in school –all those late night drives & one night class, all I was eating was JUNK, and very late with no shot of burning it off. Once I eliminated eating late I started losing. For now, its’ the same, I tend to snack on bad staff late, not apples. However, if I’m tempted, I’ll consider what your saying about popcorn. all that said, I just had my daily allotment of candy –35 jelly beans…. at 7:45pm at night so, obviously, I’m not a real stickler about it. and sometimes we don’t even start dinner until 6:30-7:00, but overall I’m trying to reduce calories by watching my nightly intake.

Jill V.Z., have grace for yourself, you have specific issues that are extremely challenging to overcome, I’m proud of your efforts…. not to mention the fact that you are a full-time student! That in and of itself is a hard time of life to manage regular work-outs! I remember!

I joined Weight Watchers about six weeks ago, and I’m down about 8 pounds. Yes, I lose weight slowly. Always have, always will. My goal is to go from 130ish to 115. That puts me within 10 pounds of where I was ten years ago. Is it true that you are supposed to recalculate your ideal weight every ten years by adding ten more? I don’t think so, but I think 115 is reasonable. Probably still a bit much for a girl who’s only five feet tall, but I’ve never been anything close to a waif! The best part about this all is that I’m doing it without being obsessive! Love that! I do need to work on working out more, but sometimes that’s difficult. My body hurts by nature. Still, that’s no excuse.

Anyway, so proud of you, and you motivated me!

But, I do have to say, 160 for 5′6 is not obese. Any BMI calculator you use will say it’s “overweight” because it gives you a BMI of about 25.8. 18.5-24.9 is the healthy range. I don’t say that to dissuade you of your goal, but to say that I don’t see how that weight can be considered obsese, which is by definition a BMI of 30 or greater.