[caption id="attachment_414" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Down 30 pounds in 28 days"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DSC_0044.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-414" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DSC_0044-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

Four weeks down.

Thirty-one days to go.

We weigh in every Monday morning here at Rancho Cortez has been very satisfying, and after my first 28 days, I have dropped 30 pounds. Even better, I have lost an inch and a half off my neck and two and a half inches off my waist.

I don't want to get carried away with happiness. I still weigh 242 pounds, which is very heavy for me. I need to get to less than 220 before I start feeling good and under 200 before I start feeling proud of myself.

There's no way I can lose 43 more pounds here in Texas, but there is a chance I can get below 220 before I start for home.. The thing is, even though I'm eating between 1,200 and 1,500 calories a day, I don't really feel like I'm on a diet.

It's really more a question of making changes in my lifestyle. I haven't had any milk in the last four weeks, and I've only had red meat (in small quantities) four times this month.

Those are things that are going to have to become permanent, and so is the idea of eating differently. The center for Health Promotion &amp; Wellness at MIT has come up with a <a title="Hunger Scale" href="http://medweb.mit.edu/pdf/hunger_scale.pdf" target="_self">Hunger Scale</a> that is really wonderful to use. With stages from 1 (so hungry you're ready to collapse) to 10 (so stuffed you're ready to collapse), the idea is that you should eat small enough amounts often enough to maintain yourself at around stage 5 (enough fuel to keep going, just starting to feel satisfied) and 6 (fully satisfied but not stuffed).

That's where I have been for almost all of the four weeks. I have actually skipped some meals and eaten a 100-calorie snack instead, and it's very rare for me to be so hungry I bemoan the fact that dinner is still an hour away.

I feel extremely optimistic about maintaining this as a lifestyle. If I can exercise once a day as well as going for a short walk each day, and eat like this, there's really no reason I can't be healthy for the rest of my life.

And doesn't that sound wonderful.