Since the last issue, Susan has continued to work with Dr. Warren at Physician's Healthy Weight Center (PHWC) and has continued to meet her goals and lose weight.

"My biggest challenge this time was Easter," says Susan. "I love chocolate! Cadbury eggs, caramel-filled chocolates, chocolate eggs, and those little sugar-coated eggs are my favorite things in the whole world. It's tough when some of your favorite sweets become your nemeses. Amazingly enough, I've been very good and only had two chocolates for the whole holiday."

At the end of February, Susan and many other residents of New Hampshire faced an unforeseen challenge when a windy rainstorm knocked out electricity for five days. "I felt like I was becoming completely primitive. When we lost electricity at my house, all I had to cook on was my little camp stove, so sticking to my diet for five days was almost impossible. My refrigerator turned off, and that knocked out most of my food supply, so I was really limited in terms of what I could store in my house and make for a meal."

Susan also had difficulty adjusting to the loss of power since it interfered with her daily routine. "For my exercises, I usually dance. My husband Bill is such a sweetheart, he made me a DVD with Lady Gaga and Ke$ha music videos to dance to. I've given up on Richard Simmons and am totally addicted to these girls. My routine usually consists of getting up (with the help of my alarm clock), exercising, eating breakfast, going to my desk, and then I eat my lunch while I work. But because of the power, I had no alarm clock, I couldn't cook in the microwave, I couldn't dance to my DVD, and my computer was off! I even had to rent a hotel room to take a shower and make myself presentable for the Cinderella makeover story!"
Despite the troubles Susan faced with the chocolate and the loss of power, she still lost weight. She currently weighs 142.6 pounds, has 40.8% body fat, and has a BMI of 30. She lost over five pounds in the month of March, and couldn't be happier. "Yikes! I can't believe it. Since the end of August, I've lost a total of 20 pounds. That's twice the loss rate of what I did the last time I weighed in at PHWC. I've been trying to figure what I did differently this time. I know that my protein intake is higher without adding more calories. Beth (the nutritionist at PHWC) is great for meal ideas to get the most protein for the calorie buck. The change over the last month could be partly burning more calories with Lady GaGa then Richard Simmons – sorry Richard, but she's got some great moves!"

Physicians Healthy Weight Center has offices in N. Hampton (64 Lafayette Rd., Ste. 2), Dover, NH (next to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, in the Doctor's Park) in Building A, 17 Old Rollinsford Rd), and will soon be located in Salem, NH(14 Stiles Rd., Suite 104), as well. To reach by phoning call 603-379-6500 or visit their website at www.physicianshealthyweightcenter.com

For more articles by this author or articles on different topics visit the Applaud Women Library.