Lost- My Theory as to what's happening to Desmond

This theory comes after viewing the Desmond-Centric Episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes"

I think Desmond keeps getting caught in a series of time loops- and what we saw in the episode was him jumping from one loop to another by finally exercising his free will over the fate he'd accepted up to that point.

Loop 1
Over and over Desmond lived the loop between waking up after falling in his apartment, meeting with Mr. Widmore, deciding not to marry her, joining the military, joining the yacht race, ending up on the island, meeting the Losties and turning the key.
This loop went on for who knows how many repetitions- until he finally decided he was going to change things and ask Penny to marry him.

Transition from Loop 1 to Loop 2:
This transition starts when Desmond meets the weirdo-woman in the ring store. I think on all other occasions of the loop, Desmond almost buys the ring and then decides not to. By trying to actually buy the ring he "breaks" the loop. Maybe this has happened before- the fact the woman is there to push him back on his familiar track seems to indicate it has. But from this point onward- we know Desmond isn't going to just keep spinning his wheels in the rut he's created for himself.
After meeting the woman however, Desmond has fooled himself into thinking he's still stuck. Then, when he is in the bar the second time and he sees his soccer precognition coming true- he decides he can in fact change things. His last words before the altercation starts are exactly that- "There's still time for me to change things" Then he gets whacked in the head and his consciousness skips out of Loop 1 and pops into Loop 2.

Loop 2
Loop 2 starts with Desmond post hatch explosion and goes to some as yet revealed point in the future- probably Charlie's death. In Loop 2 new things are in the works that have never happened before (Or at least haven't happened outside of what I think is now a second loop). Penny actually finding Desmond may be part of this loop- or maybe she won't be able to actually find him again until he successfully negotiates his way through Loop 2 in the same way he couldn’t experience Loop 2 until he did Loop 1 correctly.

Why Desmond is seeing the future:
Loop 2 has probably happened to Desmond a few times and so he's saved Charlie before several times in the same way and he gets flashes of it just like he got flashes of the future when he was in Loop 1. Under this theory, every time Charlie dies- Desmond hops back to the part where he's naked next to the hatch and tries again.

But since the point of this whole plot line is to illustrate the fate vs. free will argument. I figure Desmond is going to have to keep pulling Charlie's butt out of the fire until he can click into a new Loop 3- or stop the time looping entirely.