Well, that little plan I posted back in March lasted all of about 4 weeks. Most weeks, I could meet my goals every day. But when I tried to step them up, I just couldn't do it. And while I felt great about being hydrated and eating healthy, I wasn't losing any weight.

For weeks, I just gave up, and moped about my lack of progress. Then I went on vacation to Hawaii for a week. I thought I was being pretty good food-wise, but I came back even heavier. I was one pound shy of my heaviest recorded weight.

That served as a very LOUD wake up call. Obviously, trying to do it myself just wasn't cutting it.

I have never been on a diet, per se. The word itself makes me cringe. It brings up images of cabbage water or grapefruit or special pre-packaged who-knows-what foods.

But I decided I needed structure. I looked for a diet where I could eat the kind of food I like, and jived with my idea of healthy eating -- high fiber, low fat food, with calorie content in mind. After shopping around and lots of research, I settled on Weight Watchers.

I joined the online-only program, and chose the FLEX plan -- which uses the Points system to track your food intake and exercise expenditure. I have been on it for a little over three weeks now.

At first, I was a little overwhelmed with the counting and figuring out the points. My first day was a disaster. I had blown all my points by breakfast (darn you, bacon!!). The next day, I was within my points, but was utterly starving! I didn't realize how much I usually ate in a day.

By the end of the first week, I had gotten in the groove. Once my usual foods were entered into the system, counting and tallying came a lot easier. And by the end of the week, I had lost a pound and a half!

Since then, I've still been pretty good about staying under my limit. I get extra points that I can spread throughout the week too. I usually use those for the weekends, when I might go out to dinner or travel. I also earn points for doing exercise. Surprisingly, that has been a great motivator in the gym. I want to earn that Skinny Cow for dessert!

So far, I have lost 3.8lbs. It's slower than I would like, but within the healthy range of 1-2 lbs a week, and better than I was doing on my own. I'm sure if I didn't tap into my weeklies, it would go faster. Nonetheless, I am satisfied with this progress. I have seen a number on the scale (a GOOD one this time) I have not seen in a while, and that helps my patience.

In addition, I now have a little competition. Our dear editor Brian just started South Beach. Now I'm two weeks ahead of him, but he has already doubled my weight loss. Argghhh... men!!

We'll see how long that lasts.