Cool... I didn't buy into the whole south beach or atkins craze either, but I did cut alot of the excess carbs out of my diet when I first started to get on track. Just switching from regular to diet soda, cutting back on my junk food intake, and making stir fry without rice for a few months helped me go from 280 down to 220. I've put about 15 pounds back on since then, but I was very bad this christmas and I havn't been active. Once it warms up a bit and I can get back on my bike, I hope to get down to 200 over the summer. I've got a goal to ride 2000 miles this year... so long as I don't hurt myself like last year, I should be able to do it easily.

Do you exercise (aside from the belly dancing) or do you mostly diet? I find it hard to diet properly when I'm really active, as I need the carbs and protein to get the energy needed to ride the long distance rides. Heh... in fact, my main justification for doing those big rides the first year I started was that it was the first time in history I had ever heard it was a GOOD thing to eat a Twinky ;)

Rich