My husband and I started this diet 8 weeks ago today.  At this point he has lost 40 pounds and I have lost 25.  We both want to lose at least 100 pounds.  This week we finally started exercising.  I can do 30 min. on the treadmill and then I do some light weights and other things in our gym.  We are there about an hour.  We have finished the first 3 cycles and chose to go back to cycle 1.  My hubby lost 20 pounds on cycle 1 the first time, then 10 pounds on cycle 2, and then 5 pounds on cycle 3.  For me it was 11, 8, 4...We are back to losing more again on cycle 1.  We have found ways to go with our family out to eat, but stay on the program.  It is much easier this time for a couple of reasons.  The hubby is doing it with me and that helps....also I am retired and since I don't work I have more time to cook and that has helped sooo much.  By the way, the cookies that are in the book....we love, love, love them.  The hubby said he would go back to cycyle 1, but he was not giving up the cookie a day. LOL  It's ok.. he is still losing and since we are exercising at least 30 min. a day, I think it is ok.  He also loves the chicken parmesan I make using the eggplant recipe.  I just substitute the chicken for the eggplant.  We also really like the BBQ sauce recipe.  We also have a local Italian chef who bottles his marinara sauce and Italian salad dressing.  They are both low in calories and carbs and taste great, so we use them.  Thank you Nic.  We also love the chili.  We eat lots of salads with grilled chicken.  We have tried adding the beef a couple of times, but it just feels so heavy when we eat it.  The first week was hard because of the sugar withdrawl and we both had headaches.  Drinking the lemon water and green tea has been sort of hard.  I too feel like I am drinking so much in the morning and it doesn't count toward the 8 glasses of water a day.  Someone else said they had a hard time figuring out what to eat on the cycle 2 going back and forth from 1 to 2.  We found that difficult at first, but it got easier as we were into the cycle.  The structure of the 1st cycle feels safe and it is hard to start adding the other things into the diet.  We found the flat buns in whole grain and make turkey burgers with those.  It felt so good to hold bread and eat a burger.  I am just so excited that we both have been able to lose this weight so fast.  Together my hubby and I have lost 65 pounds in 8 weeks.  We are going to NYC in late Aug to the US Open so we can't wait to be the thinnest we have ever been in NYC.  We are both hoping to have lost over half our weight by then.  I am sure he will have, but hoping that I will be there too.  If he continues to lose at the same rate, he may have all of his weight off.  We shall see.