Thanks so much for the words of encouragement! That means a lot, especially since I'm just starting out. I'm halfway through my second week and things are still going well. My only bad news is that my electric scales went out so I haven't been able to weigh since Monday. The good news is that since I bought them less than a year ago, they're covered under the manufacturer's warranty and in the process of being fixed. I've been so excited that I've wanted to check my weight each day, but know that it's probably not a good idea since it naturally fluctuates--but I'm hoping that I see a pretty nice loss once I have the scales back. Even if I don't see a drastic difference, I can tell that I'm losing inches. . . has anyone else actually felt as though they're literally "shrinking"? Today I was wearing the smallest pair of comfortable work slacks I have and I had to stop every few paces to pull them up. *lol*

I've been exercising more lately as well and I think it's been helping. I have a major sit-down-at-your-desk-all-day kind of job which has contributed to me getting really out of shape over the last four years. I bought a tredmil and promised myself I'd get some use out of it. Each night I've been increasing my speed by .1 MPH and walking at least 15 minutes. I know that probably doesn't sound like much of a workout, but I feel as though a little something is better than nothing. :-)

Thanks for the suggestions on getting my mom involved. I think she would enjoy checking out some of the recipes too as we've been working on our own concoctions lately to make dinner a little more exciting. The other night we had crockpot chicken cooked in heavy cream, Worcestershire sauce, a couple cloves of garlic topped with melted Swiss cheese! Believe it or not, it was delicious!