Losing weight the hard way..

I decided to start eating right again and exercising. I actually started Jan 2010 with making a few small changes. I quit drinking diet Pepsi which I drank ALOT of... and switched to drinking mostly water.. then I added in exercise and calorie counting... which went really well. I started at 186 and made it down to 164... but went of vacation to Michingan in April and really couldn't get back into the swing of things.
I went back up to 179-180 lbs and decided time to go back to the eating right and exercising so far I have been doing quite well. I have been bouncing from 179- 177.2 for the past 2 weeks. I try not to put to much thought into the scale. I feel better and I have lost an inch off my waist.
I just bought the book "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone. It should arrive sometime next week. I have been staying below my 1440 calorie limit and doing the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred as well as running on the treadmill some evening. So far I have ran 4 times this week.

Staring weight 179lbs on November 8th
Goal weight 145 lbs