Gee whiz, LTS,
I am already at: NO dumplings, NO gravy, NO baked potatoes, NO French fries, very little pasta and rice, maybe two slices of bread/day, herbal teas (no sweetener), no juices, distilled water...

OK, its the chocolate and ??? I'll keep working on it. I do feel more hopeful now that I was kicked into checking my weight. Last time (5-6 years ago) I was up to 170 bare naked! So this is much better. Also I came to the conclusion that 140 is as low as I am going to get at this stage of life. I ACCEPT that.

SO, this thread has already helped!

As for the declutttering- Our LR looks like a warehouse and I cannot put Rob's antique's in the tent. When he is less stressed, I will ask that he remove the three unsittable Victorian chairs to a different venue. And another time, I will suggest that the antique washing machine, broken spinning wheel, and more be removed. Then ....

On the other hand, he has been very sweet about welcoming my furniture, in the last month, into what is now OUR home. He has never shared his home with an equal partner, only with temps, children of friends who were attending University. ( After about 18 months of increasing togetherness, we brought a truck load of my stuff from the west coast of USA to Montreal in November. A fun, and exhausting, trip.)

So I am pecking away at my boxes of papers - finding neat stuff and reminders/notes to myself of things I want to write about - and had forgotten. Also throwing away papers which no longer have any meaning or value while being careful since I once did that with a vengeance - and great regret later.

Kat: Yes, I do miss the country but in thinking about that, I realized that what I really miss is autonomy. It is hard for me to be dependent on someone else - removing the excess furniture, for example. So, as soon as I get my car back, there will be, "I'm really not happy that you did not discuss it with me before taking off with..." Then tomorrow (Thursday), I will make sure I have custody of MY car, get the snow tires on AND get a small shovel to live in MY car for the duration of the winter. It was sweet of Rob to shovel out my car this morning ---so HE could use it!!

In the meantime, I will look around and see what I have the energy to declutter today.