Hi all! I'm from the SWern Suburbs of St. Louis, MO.....I am trying to get my activation key for my real login (MomsL8 - which I use on all forums I participate in), so don't be surprised if you see me by another name. I hopped over here from Zone Perfect after Graeme was kind enough to explain why that forum had been abandoned by serious users. I first began the Zone after trying it on eDiets a year ago. Within three months, I had lost over 15 lbs. I felt WONDERFUL! I took a very stressful job in my small school district as the coordinator of the gifted program. It ended up costing me my weight - I gained not only what I had lost back but 35-40 more from a previous loss that I had successfully kept off for two and half years. I am very upset at myself. But I took a new job in a new school district, and I hope I will have more support. I am still at eDiets, but I do need to get going on my exercise so that I can burn more fat. My metabolism is so slow - I need that exercise in combination with the Zone to speed things along. I am so stretched out from three kids in three years and weight loss that exercise is my release! LOL Anyway - just thought I'd introduce myself and see if anyone else was from my area! Jill

Hi Jill, Im from the Illinois side. 35/40 minutes to down town St. Louis.

Welcome! You've come to the right place. Don't hesitate to ask questins. Ther're plenty of seasoned Zoners here and lots of great advice to help keep you motivated. :D Sue

Hey sweetlovr - I grew up in Illinois - although way up North! LOL Thanks for responding! Just trying to see how many of us in the Metro area there are! Thanks, Sue for the welcome! I appreciate it - and I will definitely be taking advantage of your advice and tips! Jill

Its nice to have someone else from the area. My husband's office is on Page Ave. so he is in St. Louis 5 days a week. Happy Zonin.

Well, sweet - I live in Fenton. I'm also friends wth another gal in West County - we met on eDiets. We meet to discuss Zone and life. She's coming over Friday for some tea or coffee. Someday maybe you could join us! I'm off work for the summer (I teach in Rockwood School District) so I'm free during the week. Page is right up the road apiece from me! :-) My hubby works in Kirkwood, so we stick close to 44. Jill

Sounds good. I would love to be off in the summer. Instead I am in an office 7 hours a day. Oh well.

Hehe - it's not always good to be off in the summer. Means more temptation, AND, you have to deal with the kiddos screaming that they're bored all day! No matter what we do, someone is always bored! I keep asking for them - school starts when??? LOL Jill

Hi, I've been following this thread, and the last post reminded me of something I did one summer when my kids and their friends were younger, and bored. I wrote activities on slips of paper and put them in a big jar. They got to pull one out when they were bored, but the rule was they'd then [b:0a4192a076]have[/b:0a4192a076] to do it. Little did they know it was really my way of getting them to come up with their own ideas of what to do. You see, some of these activiteis were fun, but others were definitely not (like "clean the bathroom", empty the "dishwasher", etc.). It didn't take them very long to figure this out, and stop telling me they were bored. After that summer, when they did mention the word "bored", all it took was a quick suggestion from me to get the jar out,and they suddenly found something to do on theirown! :lol: Sue

Sue: That's funny. We have a job jar already...but I never thought of using it like that. I will try this! Thanks! Jill

Hi to Jill and All - As you can see I'm finally with you here. I'm not new to the Zone or to this website, I just haven't used it in a long time. Actually, I'm not sure if I've ever used the discussion boards before, come to think of it. But I've been floating around this website for a very long time. Since it had been so long, I had forgotten my password and user name, so I needed to rejoin and re-register. I've been zoning since 1997. It is good to meet others who live close by. I live about 15 minutes from Jill in west St. Louis County. Shirley

I see you've finally joined us. But again, it's always best to use caution - here just as well as the other place - for this gets infiltrated by our favorite person now and again, although pretty contained. Welcome Shirley! Jill