I kept my promise to myself and worked out yesterday, but as one friend pointed out, one would have to run almost an entire day to burn off enough calories to make up for what I ate over the weekend!

Today is another day and so far I have eaten only my standards ... deviled eggs with dijon mustard (instead of mayonaise) and some some nuts and raisins. I am heading home from the studio now and the weather is absolutely beautiful I'm told. (I haven't been outside since I arrived here well before dawn!) I plan to do a little weight training, maybe take a brisk walk, and then plan a dinner that has far-less calories than I enjoyed over the weekend.

I am still getting wonderful e-mail from many viewers who are continuing their weight and fitness programs. Some of you are following my meal plans and I had an interesting question today from Kristina:

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Are your meals (breakfast, snack, lunch, & dinner) interchangeable across days? For example, the lunch for day 7 is not something I can eat, but I love the lunch from some of the other days. Are the nutrition and calorie counts approximately the same across days so you can plug one breakfast in for another?
Thanks, Kristina

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I answered:

They are not exactly interchangeable, but close. I really built each day's eating plan adding and subtracting from breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks to try to come out to 1,200 calories each day.

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I should also have added that the nutrition question is not one I actually dealt with when I was putting my eating plans together. I had lots of people who would write and call to tell me I was having too much fruit or not enough protein on a given day. There are so many good websites that help you to figure out the proper nutrional distribution as well as calorie counts. One good one is www.mypyramid.com. I used that one and continue to use www.thecaloriecounter.com often in trying to stay on target.

So I'm off now to start my workout!

Weekends, especially when not spent at home, aren't good for staying on my eating plan.

It was hard to sit at the breakfast table with someone having bacon, eggs, home fries and toast. I had ordered a bowl of plain yogurt with fruit and I really did try to ignore the scrumptious smell of bacon wafting across the table. Finally, especially after the fruit turned out to be tasteless, I gave in! I ordered Huevos Rancheros, which wouldn't have been that bad but it rained the whole day Saturday and I couldn't get outside to exercise.

Staying on my "calories-in, calories-out" plan, today I have to exercise enough to burn off Huevos Rancheros, Lobster Roll, Truffle Linguini, Eggs Benedict, Lobster Roll again, and finally Shrimp Fajitas and Margaritas. It was quite a weekend!

I'm on my way home to start a workout that's going to last the whole afternoon!

I'm still struggling to stay on the 1,200-calorie plan. I think that now that I'm not "weighing in" I've lost the "accountability" to everyone who was watching, and now it's just me being accountable to me.

Although is has gotten easier to eat less at meals, my biggest problem is grabbing the "wrong" snack in between meals. When I was planning my menus ahead of time to share with viewers during our morning news, I knew in advance what I would be eating for every meal and snack. I was calculating the calories before I ever sat down to eat. I think I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner under control. Snacks are my downfall!

My favorite (and the easiest) snack for me has always been nuts and raisins. It's healthy and not that bad eaten with some control. My challenge right now is to try to eat smaller portions. Someone suggested putting only the amount I'm allowing myself (based on calories) into small plastic bags and eating only the alloted amount. I'll try that.

We're starting to get some very good suggestions for fitness routines, which we will be sharing with you over the next few weeks.

Have a great weekend.

It's lunchtime. I'm hungry. Instead of eating lunch though, I'm going to try Tom Kierein's plan: no exercise, no lunch. I was telling him this morning that I have the "Pavlov's dog" syndrome -- when I see the front of my house, I immediately think "food." (It was a bell ringing, you may remember, in the Pavlov experiment.)

For many of us, there are visual and audio triggers that kick us into the "hunger" mode. When I'm tired, as I often am when I reach home, I go straight to the refrigerator sometimes without even taking off my coat! Tom says he has his lunch as a reward for running or walking beforehand.

Our consultants for our "10 pound" segment suggest that one of the first things one needs to do when launching a new eating plan is to identify and change your "hunger triggers" unless you are one of those people who only feel hungry when you really need to eat! So many of us find we eat for the wrong reasons. Many of us actually confuse hunger with thirst, and would often be satisfied with just a drink of water.

You may have heard us on the news this morning asking you to share your "fitness plan" with us by writing to us on our Web site: fitness@nbc4.com. We are hoping to hear how you cope with keeping the weight off, particulary your fitness regimes.

We would like to share your stories on the air during the morning news. We're hoping that our attention to the issue of health and fitness may spark the interest of our viewers and help everyone get into good habits. Your story just might be the one that gets someone to join the "bandwagon."

If you watched this morning, you got to see Washington D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams share his fitness routine with us. He says he feels great and continues to find ways to cut down on his "fat" intake while keeping a regular exercise program five days a week.

He mentioned that he does most of the cooking when he and his wife dine at home. One thing he says he's particularly proud of are the low-fat pancakes he likes to make.

I asked for his recipe and here's what I remember him telling me:

LOW FAT PANCAKES

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Combine the dry ingredients
mix in buttermilk
then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Cook on a hot non-stick griddle or one sprayed with shortening


The Mayor suggests making your own syrup by boiling strawberries or blueberries. There are also low-calorie syrups available at most stores. You decide what to do about the butter!

I have no idea how many calories the pancakes have ... just don't go crazy!

I can't believe it's already April. I haven't had a chance to write on the blog lately because I've been busy with "Fitness in the Fast Lane." We have some interesting people coming up to show and tell all about their diet and fitness regimes.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, April 5) Mayor Anthony Williams will share how he keeps fit with his busy life. He hopes to inspire other citizens to take heed and start their own workout programs -- even if it's a simple walk through the neighborhood.

I have been trying to stick with my 1,200 calories a day. Today was not easy for some reason. I brought my favorite mustard-deviled eggs to work for breakfast, but wasn't satisfied with just that. I ended up eating the cheese and fruit too (and that was supposed to be for lunch!) Not to worry -- I continue to follow the "calories in, calories out" creed, and with that in mind, I'll just have to do at least an hour of running tonight to burn off the chinese food I ended up having for lunch.

As long as you remember that whatever you eat, you're going to have to pay for it with exercise, you'll be OK. I think at some point, every time you open the refrigerator you see a Stairmaster. That's one way to lose your appetite.

It's just the best feeling having clothes that were tight two months ago slip right on without any tugging and pulling. That's as delicious as a chocolate chip cookie! Why didn't I think of that this morning when I ate that great big chuck of chedder? Oh well ... I'm off to the treadmill.

I continue to try to watch my calorie in-take and I had planned to try to get in a run yesterday but I kept coming up with excuses. Exercise really is something I have to make myself do. Maybe it would be easier if I could do it before work, but, alas, that would mean starting at 2 a.m.!

I have had a lot of good e-mails from many of you, and we are trying to share them on the air in the 5am hour. Here are some I thought I would share today...

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Barbara,

Get off the scale and lose the stress of weigh-ins. The scale is a woman's nemesis and erodes daily morale. You know by now what it takes to stay within reasonable shape: nourishing foods with lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and protein. Don't forget the calcium. Minimal empty calories. Daily exercise. For heaven's sake, enjoy the chocolate chip cookies. Next time, have 8 instead of 4! Know by the fit of your clothes, not ounce by ounce on the scales!

Karen Stansbury
Germantown, MD ,

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I know Karen is right about avoiding the daily weigh-ins. It's a habit I think a lot of us get into. For me it kind of serves as a reminder to "stay the course" but Karen's right about it also being stressful. I don't think I'll take her advise about the eight cookies, but I will try to make my clothing the "test" rather than the three scales that stare me in the face every morning!

Here's another e-mail I received today:

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Barbara,
Hi! Thanks for sharing your menu plan and doing this segment. It has been very inspirational. I am doing your diet with another friend of mine. I have been following your menu plan for 15 days and I have not lost a pound. I am starting to get discouraged. I walk on the treadmill 4 times a week. I did not think I had a slow metabolism but I guess I do. They say the older you get the harder it is to lose. I will be 40 in May!! J Can you explain the “calories in� “calories out� When I do the treadmill I go for 30-40 minutes.

Thanks for your time!!
Eileen

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I remember the first week on my eating plan I really felt it wasn't working either ... and it did take a while to start feeling like I could see some changes in my body. I actually started seeing more changes in the way my clothing fit (as karen suggested in her e-mail today) than I was seeing on the scale.

I think exercise is a real key! I have found a number of Web sites that will give you a way to calculate the calorie burn for various physical activities over a certain period of time.
One that I just looked at is: http://www.healthstatus.com/cbc.html

I think three times a week is a good start but you may need to increase that number in order to start seeing some changes in your body.

I'm getting a lot of mail from folks who agree that exercise is probably more important than dieting for body re-structuring, like this one:

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Exercise is an absolute MUST. It doesn't matter how wise and disciplined we are with out diets. The only way to make it work, and to maintain, is to exercise at least six days a week. Weight lifting is important, but if you can do nothing else, WALK an hour every day!
Heidi
Upper Marlboro

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Thanks to all of you who have been trying to help me get back to my goal. We have some very interesting and informative things coming up for you in the morning in the weeks to come ... some more exercising with people you might think are too busy to have time to stay fit.

I think the best thing about the "calories in, calories out" approach to dieting, is that I don't really feel I stopped dieting. In fact, ever since about the second week of this new way of looking at eating, I really haven't felt I was on a "diet."

Since I now feel I know how to make the adjustments through cutting calories and the table and burning more in a workout, I am not feeling threatened by the two pounds I gained during vacation.

Today I have just had yogurt and fruit so far. I plan to have tuna salad with low-fat mayo and lettuce and tomato for lunch and fish with vegetable for dinner tonight (and of course that glass of wine!)

My biggest downfall on vacation was not the restaurant eating. I think it was the chocolate chip cookies one of my daughters kept making. The aroma was just too enticing! She is now back at school after spring break, and I won't have to fight off the temptation again until summer!

I have added a cup of hot lemon tea to my daily regimen and that really does help to keep me from starving until I can have breakfast after my morning newscast. Someone suggested that in one of the "tips" our viewers have been sending in. I hope we will continue to get those e-mails ... there have been some great suggestions.

I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of viewers lately who have come up to me on the street, in stores, and even on the airplane I flew on to California, to say that they have been dieting along with me. Some have used their own methods, some have used diet books, and some have tried using the "calories in, calories out" approach that I have been describing. I think it has really helped all of us to have the "support" of knowing we're doing it together.

Let's keep it up!

No green beer for me tonight ... not after finally losing the 10 pounds!

I think I'll stick with my "one" glass of wine, even though I'm on vacation!!!! My biggest struggle is going to be sticking to my eating plan until I feel the weight loss is really stable. So far, it has not been. One day I'm up a pound, the next day I'm down. That, of course, is why everyone says "don't weight yourself but once a week at the most." I think the most valuable measure for me has been (as I have said before) the way my clothes are fitting. I'm getting into things I couldn't wear (or shouldn't have) six weeks ago.

My big test of will-power came earlier this week when I went up to New York for Katie Couric's big MOTOWN event. It was her annual fundraiser for colon cancer research. I was starving after racing to get up there in the afternoon and the dinner being served was not my "3 ounce" portion of salmon and 1 cup of broccoli! I got through the meal eating only a little of everything (I did avoid the mashed potatoes) and I even gave my banana split dessert to the person next to me! I was great ... until I got home to Washington at almost midnight. I searched my refrigerator for something sensible and found nothing. I ended up scarfing up on pecans, cashews, and raisins ... what a feast!!! I knew, and I was right, that I would see that show up on the scale the next day. I think the best thing I've learned from this diet experience is not to give up that easily. I took it off my calorie allowance the next day!!

I'm going on vacation next week (I'm still not sure if I will go away or just stay home and relax) and whatever I end up doing I know that I'm really going to have to try hard to stay on target. I'm going to keep the 1,200-calorie plan going for another few weeks. I hope that will give me the "wiggle room" to be able to eat what I want at least some of the time.

I'll be back in touch after the one week away!

I have had a lot of good e-mails from those of you trying to help me get this last pound off. I guess I could cheat and not eat at all for a day. That would probably work at least for a temporary loss, but I'm still trying to stick with the 1,200-calorie plan. I'm stuck!

I don't think I could have stayed with this through the last 5 weeks without so much encouragement from so many of you. I think the good thing about this type of diet is that I really am not craving anything. I feel I can eat whatever I want as long as I take the calories from somewhere else (or work them off!) I have dieted before and when I reached my desired weight, I wasn't sure what I would do next. With this diet, I feel I can just keep on doing the same thing. I don't feel deprived. The "calorie in, calories out" idea really works ... at least it is for me.

Don't forget the Laura Bush interview begins tomorrow at 5:45 a.m.