Hello kj67,
First of all, congratulations on the weightloss so far and welcome to the forum..you've come a long way baby! Your body has been in weightloss mode for while, so the last 23 pounds will not come off without a fight! I think you are being too optimistic to set your goal for 1 November..that would require over 10 pounds/month and while at the beginning, we can all see that rate, after your body is in weightloss stress, that's probably not going to happen in a healthy way...(I've been at this journey now for 14 months, and believe me, I'm struggling to get off my last 40 pounds to my goal weight!)...a healthy sustainable weightloss (and that's what we all really want...not to have to lose it again) is 1 pound/week, so you might reconsider the self-imposed deadline! To lose it, you might consider adding some resistance training to your cardio..muscle burns more calories than fat and also helps your look better too. I do daily pushups to build muscle...it's not as much as I probably should, but it is helping me along.
I think you'll find this forum to be helpful...I did! Come on over to the "Weightloss diary" and start a thread...you'll see many of us there who are on our journey's just like you!
Sarah