Is the one that you can sustain, that is managable, that doesn't freak you out with baggy skin or too many new clothes you can't afford and only need for three weeks, that gets too much attention you don't know how to handle...

In other words, it's a WOL. What can you live with? I didn't get fat overnight; a week or month or two or three before I'm at goal, which would be thinner than I have ever been as an adult, isn't going to change much either way. Five weeks isn't very long--the real answer is who will stick with the program all the way?

I've had to make a lot of adjustments to my total caloric intake, as well as learn trigger foods, along the way. If you'd told me in the beginning that three eggs was enough for breakfast, I might have quit. After several weeks with slow-to-no progress, I became more willing. Ditto for the diet drinks, which I can't drink at all.

I have the rest of my life. I'm in my mid-fat jeans. I may give away my most-fat jeans--not 100% sure I trust myself yet. I'll get there. So maybe it's Christmas and not Halloween. Not like they're going to kick me off this forum for not losing any faster.