HAPPINESS IS A PLACE BETWEEN TOO LITTLE AND TOO MUCH.

I read this hint somewhere yesterday and decided to incorporate it into my meal plans...begin each dinner meal with a vegetable...either soup or salad.
It will get you off to a nice start to the meal, will provide another serving or two of vegetables, and it will take the edge off your hunger so you can eat a smaller portion of the more calorie dense dinner meat or pasta and still be satisfied.

I began last night's dinner with a cup of Italian Wedding Soup from Campbell's Select Harvest line. (Try them...lots of different flavors and way low in fat and sodium!) A cup of hot soup takes a while to eat and knocks off some of that 20 minutes it takes for your body to register that you are full. It also gave us a little time to talk and enjoy the meal. All too often, we rush through dinner to get on to the next event...often just The Husband heading to the deck with the dog to enjoy a few minutes of cigar smoking and enjoying some fresh air!

We went on to have a new recipe of pork loin cooked with peaches and a nice sauce over basmati rice that I had put in the crockpot early in the day. It was really good and we both left some of our moderate portions on our plates because we were feeling full.

We sometimes have a little pre-dinner snack if it is going to be awhile before we eat. The Husband eats lunch at 11a.m. and comes home hungry! One of our favorites is a glass of tomato juice and some raw vegetables with Laughing Cow cheese wedges.

I think most of us watched Monday's Oprah show and one of the things I brought away from it was Bob Greene's assertion that those of us with weight problems are always looking for "The Cure" and sometimes feel that the battle is over once we lose weight but the truth is that we will have to deal with the problem the rest of our lives whether or not we keep the extra weight off.

I've always felt in my own battle with weight that losing the weight is probably the easier part. Being overweight at least provides motivation for doing what needs to be done, but once the weight is gone, the weekly reward of seeing those numbers go down on the scale is gone too. Maintenance is like marriage after the honeymoon period...you have what you worked so hard to get and now you have to learn to live with it!