Ha ha, thats a good idea. And with all that money you put in that jar, buy something extra sexy to wear on that wedding night. Put of picture of it in the jar with the money. That would keep me motivated. :-) Congratulations by the way.

Now that's a great idea!

Back on the amount of weight loss thing ... I've only lost about 20 pounds, but I look like I've lost quite a bit more because I've gained a fair bit of muscle :D

Me Again!
 

Nelie and Sam,
I was on LA Weight loss for about 5 months. They give you two "rebates". Once you hit goal they put you on a "stabalizier" program then into maintenance. After six months IF YOU MAINTAIN YOUR WEIGHT they refund 25% of the program price. At the one year mark you get another 25% back. They are one of the most expensive programs I've run across. Because I had so much to lose, my program (Before bars and supplements) was around $820.00. With bars and supplements it ran me almost $4,000.00 for a two year program. That included the program, two years worth of their "special" bars and the first three month worth of suppliments (6 suppliments total). I've stopped going because they really didn't live up to their end of the bargain. If it was just a matter of losing the weight I'd probably be OK. I could write an entire dieting bible with the knowledge I have crammed into my head over the years. Where I needed help, was with the head games I play on myself. I'm an emotional eater and the one on one counseling they offered sounded great and from the beginning all was well. They are very supporting as long as your dropping, but if you stall out or have a bad week they don't really help you work through the problem they just try to figure out what else they can sell you. From what I can tell they do really well with people that need to lose 20 or 30 pounds but once you get above that I just don't think their set up to deal with folks like me. I need to drop some where in the neighborhood of 150 to 160 pounds so I'm back to doing it on my own. Hope that answers some questions and please keep in mind this is my experience, there are probably others out there that live and die by the LA Weight loss doctrine.

And hey 11Shirley11,
As far as the incentive thing I have stopped using the size of my pants as incentive. Instead I use weird stuff like walking a mile with out feeling like I'm gonna die unless there's a paramedic waiting for me at the end with a tank of oxegyn. Or playing with my nephews (One's 6 the other is 18 months) without needing a cardiac jump start afterwards. By not worrying about the size of my toosh I'm having better results than I have had in a long time. It amazes me every time I put on clothes that are just a little bigger. I used to pray to the diet Gods that I wouldn't split a seam and now I'm praying I don't walk completely out of my pants.

:dancer: Funny story. I didn't realize I was going down all that much until one day at work I actually walked out of my slip. I had on a dress with a half slip and I had gotten up to go somewhere and halfway down the hall I felt my slip start to slide and I figured no big deal, I'll just detor past the bathroom and see what the problem was. Before I could get there the slip came off, I'm a good 5 yards away before I even realized it was gone. One of my coworkers asked if I'd lost something, thinking I would be mortified if they just yelled down the hall "Hey ditz, you lost your slip!!". They couldn't beleive it when I turned around and just hit the floor laughing. It was so funny. I laughed all day about it and the next morning I hopped on the scale just as a curiosity thing (I only weigh in once a month) and realized total weight I was down 15 pounds. I know it's hard but the less you think about the drudgery of dieting and the more you think about the odd little bonuses that crop up the easier the weight loss thing is. At least it is for me.

Hope that helps at least a little.

20 pounds down and, well alot to go.

Start: 304
Now: 284
Height: 5' 5 1/2"