We just had our first weigh in this morning and I've only dropped a half pound. This is a disappointment to me. I could easily gain that half pound back at any time today.

Since the beginning of this competition I've changed my eating and exercising habits. I eat fruit every morning for breakfast rather than my normal bagel or blueberry muffin. I have a salad for dinner every night and at lunch I usually check out the menus from local restaurants to find out if they have lower calorie meals (I find it really helpful that they post the nutritional information).

Applebees has a Weight Watchers Menu from which I had a Tango Chicken Sandwich and an Onion Soup. A total of 520 calories and very bland tasting.

Chilis has a guiltless grill menu with some delicious items on it. I've had their Guiltless Tomato Basil Pasta for lunch and for dinner last week tried their Grilled Caribbean Chicken Salad.

I find PF Changs Vegetarian menu to be rather tasty and have some meals that are lower in calories then any others I found. I love their Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps with only 370 calories and they work as a whole meal.

When I'm feeling like a snack during the day I've been turning to my apple snack packs or Ill grab a Special K Bar or my favorites, Quaker Quakes Rice Cakes.

My biggest pitfall of the week was probably the Father's Day get together where I ate some chips and dip. That night I stuck to the low cal plate at Pranksters Too in Scottsdale which is a burger patty (no bun), cottage cheese, salad and fruit. Unfortunately this was the only night I wasn't able to meet my goal of eating before 8 pm.

I've also made great improvements on my Diet Coke addiction, limiting myself to one a day (I have to for now or I get migraines) and drinking 8 glasses of water a day and 1 Diet Arizona Green Tea (0 callories) a day.

As far as exercise goes I've gone to the gym 4 times since last Wednesday and plan to go every day this week. As I mentioned I'm also getting a workout grouting my floors at home and painting door trim (my arms are killing me)

So, I feel I've made some good lifestyle improvements, but I'm impatient and like to see change immediately so we'll see how this goes. I usually get so frustrated when I dont see a difference and can't keep with it. Wish me luck.