Potty Training without Any Gimmicks

Potty training has been on my mind since Zoë turned one. As a mother who uses cloth diapers and has a child who HATES taking the time out of her day to have her diaper changed, I am eager to get her out of diapers and onto the potty. About a month ago, I was at the park with Zoë and one other mom was there. She had a 2 year old and asked if Zoë was potty trained yet. She told me about this 3-day Potty Training thing that she did with her son, so I checked it out.

It talked about feeding your child salty foods to encourage thirst and therefor the need to use the restroom, but that didn't sound all that healthy to me. The mom who had introduced me to the idea had also mentioned how she had to give her child "nutritional" beverages to increase liquid intake...another thing that didn't sound healthy to me. Zoë only prefers to drink water, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible. 

I finally buckled down a few weeks ago, found a bunch of training pants in Zoë's size (which was harder than I thought it'd be since the common size for training pants is 2T and Zoë's already small for her age), and got to work. We have the Baby Bjorn potty in white. I wanted it to be the same color as a normal toilet. (I guess I was a little paranoid that if I got her a different kind of potty she might not ever want to use a normal one. I'm aware of my silliness.) The first few days, we managed 1-2 successful trips and as the days passed, our timing and her willingness got better. After about a week, we had one day with only 2 accidents (mostly because went about 30 minutes prior to her usual time) and I was so excited! 

Then the next day happened, and she did NOT want to sit on the potty at all. She'd cry and cry, but I knew she needed to go. Of course, as soon as I'd let her off, she'd say "pssssss" and sure enough she'd peed. It got to the point where she was starting to hold it for longer periods of time to avoid being on the potty. I was crushed. We had been doing so well, but I didn't want to traumatize her by forcing her to be on the potty. So, we're taking a break now. I'll bring it back at the start of the new year.

Do you have any tales, terrors, or tips about potty training?