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I had one of these "kits" when I was 10. My best friend Cathy had a baton.

She had I would get together on my front lawn and pretend we were Olympic 'ribbonists' and 'twirlers'. Then one day, she made me mad, so I shoved her baton between the grills of the sewer grate in front of my house and watched it fall into the storm water below.

She didn't talk to me for three days after that. I honestly can't remember what she did that made me so angry. I see her next month for a lunch date. I should ask.

Monday, I stood on the scale and 277.2 flashed back at me. Now hang on, don't gasp. I used to weigh 318. Okay, now you can gasp.

Go on. It's okay.

Oh, and the trolls can make all the fat jokes they want, I pay it no mind.

It takes a lot of courage to tell a bunch of strangers about your diet journey. For many people, it's a personal matter. I'm more open. Although it's not easy to tell people how much you used to weigh.

The last recorded weight for me at the doctor's office was 318 on August 18, 2011.

But I don't focus on numbers. I've been on this journey way too many times and have travelled up and down the scale that I've learned to not let the scale be my Lord and Saviour.

So, that's where I am at right now. Still car-less (which is why the weight is dropping off), still sugar-less (my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, a condition he inherited in December 2010) and walking 25 kilometres a week (not by choice, the kid has to get to the sitter's and I need to catch a bus). I eat between 1200 and 1800 calories a day, try to maintain a 40-50% carb to 25-35% protein to 20-30% fat ratio and consume less than 25 grams of sugar daily ( <- br="" challenging="" everything="" in="" is="" it="" seems="" sugar="" this="">
I'm not an emotional eater. I don't blame genetics, or my parents, or stress, or television, or fast food, or my sedentary career (even though these are factors, they're not excuses). I'm an impulsive eater. I get something in my head and I need to eat it. Before my husband was forced to make the lifestyle changes he's made, we were each other's own worst enemies. We were food buddies. We ate our way across Canada together, I like to say. But all good things come to an end.

I'm always afraid I'm going to jinx myself if I write about my weight loss and it's a fear I need to overcome. The only person who can jinx this success is myself.

One of the tools I've been finding helpful, coupled with forced exercise, is this app I downloaded called MyNetDiary. My husband finds it sucks on the iPhone but it works great on my Samsung.

What I really want to get my hands on is a FitBit. A woman I know via Facebook credits her 150+ weight loss to using the program (along with a rigorous exercise regime that puts my walking to shame). I find there's value in feeling in control of what you put in your mouth.

I'll update again in a few months.