I finally weighed again yesterday at school and then got on my doctor's crazy scale. If the crazy scale is consistently wrong, I'm down 2 1/2 pounds from last week. Not through really virtuous behavior, mostly because I've been too busy to eat and too tired.
I'm in Onederland - I think. I'm going to try to find an accurate scale today. It's driving me nuts. Way too cold here for me to walk this week, but we have a two-day warm up coming, and I'll be walking! There's literally no room in my tiny house for a treadmill...rats!
I probably won't make 9 more pounds in two weeks and won't make my challenge goal. I'm proud, though, of how close I'm going to come. To all of us still on the challenge (how many people have we lost? A dozen?), let's double our efforts for the last two weeks and do our best. If you're still on the challenge, please post. I miss hearing from you!
Congratulations on Onederland, Sandy!! I can't wait until I get there.
I'm staying in Pennsylvania, and my eating habits have been...okay but not great. I picked up some spinach, salami, whole wheat bread, chicken and green beans the second day I got here but I haven't really been eating it. Last night I had an 8-piece chicken nuggets from chik fil-a with a spinach/italian dressing salad made at home instead of fries...not amazing but a better choice than I could have made.
That being said I've been sleeping a lot and not eating much so I've probably lost, but not really due to me being "good". I don't know where a scale is here so I'll weigh when I get home. Good luck everyone...whoever is still even checking in.
Linsy, best thing ever for not many carbs: Hardee's hand-breaded chicken tenders with the homemade Induction- friendly honey mustard salad dressing on the "Recipes from 'What's for Dinner?'" thread. YUMMY! I hope JerseyGyrl doesn't read this post; she'll give us both a smack-down!
I stick with the three-piece order, so the carbs aren't crazy.
I don't know where everybody else is...super-busy or not playing anymore? I'm glad you're here, though! Yay, US!
Last night I went to Applebee's and got the grilled smothered chicken breast and it was really good. The people I was with got a cheese-dip appetizer and I didn't touch it, I got a salad with ranch and picked off the croutons. I'm actually really proud of myself that I'm not falling off the wagon too hard.
Today is weigh-in day, but I'm staying in PA an extra week so I'll weigh when I get home next Monday. I need to check back and see what my beginning challenge weight was so I can see if I made the goal. Good luck!
My strategy for the last two weeks is LOTS of salads, cutting back on the cheese (which I've eaten three times a day all of my life) and LOTS of water! I'm drinking the water in the form of hot tea - green tea! Good luck to you, too. Stay warm!
I'm not going to make the 30 pounds by Christmas goal, but I might make 25 if I have a really good week this week. I plan to weigh the 23rd or 24th since I don't think there will be a scale available on the 25th. I'm proud of myself for staying with it, not giving up and losing 21 pounds so far.
My strategy this last week: Drink 6 - 8 cups of green tea each day, lots of salads and think positively! And lots of spinach!
Good luck to everyone still on challenge...and not. I'll weigh the 23rd probably. I don't think there will be a scale available on the 24 and 25th. I'm going to Charleston, SC - one of the most beautiful cities in the world - for Christmas.
Last edited by sandyfanny; 12-23-2010 at 08:37 AM.
I don't know my exact Christmas challenge starting weight, but it looks like my first weigh-in I said I was down 4 pounds from 266, so I suppose I'll consider 270 my official starting weight. I think that's accurate enough, but I wish I knew exactly what it was.
If my official starting weight was 270, that means I've lost 22 pounds, but I also haven't weighed in 2 weeks because I'm staying in Pennsylvania.
Funny story about that, the friend I'm staying with is really skinny, and so is the rest of his family. He's 125 pounds and 6'0! Well, he was curious about how much weight I've lost since I've gotten here so he put their scale in the bathroom so I could check. I stepped on it and the scale said "E". I was like, "your scale is broken!" and he's like no...look. He stepped on it and it said his weight. I realized that I'm too heavy for his scale to even KNOW MY WEIGHT! lol! It was a little bit embarrassing but he knows that I'm heavy and that I'm trying to lose weight so it wasn't a big deal.
I'll weigh when I get home...hopefully I'll be able to just make my Christmas goal.
Also, Sandy, you're doing amazing. Good job sticking with it, I haven't been eating the best (only 1-2 meals a day, and I've eaten a lot of sandwiches with whole wheat bread...I feel awkward cooking in someone else's house.) I'm going back on strict Induction as soon as I get home.
Linsy, if you really can't stand it and want to know what you weigh, go to the grocery store. Ask for the manager or the butcher and ask him if he will let you weigh on his scales. They'll weigh anybody and they're accurate. I think I might do it this week since I don't have access to accurate scales anymore. (I only know a range of inaccurate at my doctor's office)
How do I know about the grocery scales? My husband used to go weigh at the grocery store when he weighed over 350! He lost 100 pounds on Atkins.
Regardless of what we end up with on the Christmas challenge, we've done well and I'm super proud of us for sticking with it. Yay, US!!!
Next up? The LOVE MYSELF challenge for Valentines Day!
Wow, I didn't know that! I'm going home tomorrow, though, so it's not a big deal. I almost wish I could stay in PA for Christmas...a snowy Christmas for once! I've never had one of those in California. I need to go home though...I stayed an extra week already and I'm probably inching closer and closer to overstaying my welcome .
A much better week than I hoped for...I'm down four pounds from last Saturday! What changed? I stopped eating cheesecake muffins (two at a time), ate less hard cheese; I've gotten a little exercise Christmas shopping too. I don't have any Atkins desserts around, so I haven't been eating after dinner...except for a cup of cocoa made with half and half and water almost every night. (Yes, I know cocoa and half and half aren't allowed on Induction).
I've been eating less in general...too busy and trying hard to come as close as I can to my Christmas Challenge goal. I'll be really happy with 25 pounds, though. I'll take that every time...it's really less than 2 pounds per week, but it adds up so nicely!
Linsy, are you home safely? I hope so. Are we the only two left on the challenge thread? Islandchick's still with us, isn't she? Yay, US!
I just got home! I'm a bit sad to be home, I miss the person I was visiting but I was there for 2 weeks so I can't really complain. That's a week longer than I originally intended to stay.
My friend is really adamant about keeping me on my diet, because it's important to both of us. So we went shopping and bought some spinach, salami, whole wheat bread, diet soda, green beans (which I didn't eat) and a bag of pre-cooked grilled chicken. I pretty much lived off of that for an entire week, while also eating out a few times and eating the meals his mom cooked. My friend is ridiculously skinny and he hardly ever eats, so I ended up kind of mimicking his eating patterns and eating when he did, which was like 1-2 times a day, maybe a snack.
One thing that was amazing is that I can feel satisfied on so much less food than I thought I could. One night his mom made roast, and I got half the amount I would have gotten at home (I didn't want to be gluttonous and my friend hadn't eaten yet). I finished thinking I'd be hungry, but I felt fine. I didn't feel SICK after eating, which I usually do when I stuff myself. I'm going to start eating less because I don't need as much food as I thought I did.
I LOST 9 POUNDS IN 2 WEEKS!
I met my Christmas challenge goal!! I have lost 31 pounds since I started, which means I hardly made it. I'm guessing that I'm going to gain a couple pounds of water weight back since I traveled all day yesterday and didn't eat a thing, but not enough that it will mess up the fact that I made the goal.
Linsy, your weight loss is AWESOME!!!! I'm so proud of you...and you learned something really important about yourself...you don't need as much food as you thought you did.
You've given us all something to think about. You ate like a thin person (your friend) and behaved like a thin person, and your body responded so positively to less food in general.
Those of us who are on Atkins because we have lots of weight to lose are probably overly concerned about FOOD. We're always thinking about what we ate, what we're going to eat, what we're not going to eat...instead of treating food as what it is...just fuel for our bodies. Atkins doesn't really address that aspect of weight loss and weight maintenance. Your post has given me something to consider besides
how awesome your weight loss is.You're our official 30 Pounds by Christmas Challenge Winner!!!! WOO HOO!!! Go, Linsy!
Thank you so much Sandy!! You're extremely close too--You also deserve a huge CONGRATULATIONS!
I definitely didn't eat enough while I was visiting my friend, and I don't want to continue eating like that but I am going to cut down on my food intake. Smaller portions, etc. I now know that my body feels fine on less food so there's no need to stuff myself. Tonight, for example, I made a salad, was careful about what I put on it, and didn't finish it. I'm not hungry at all and that was a while ago.
By the way Sandy, if you're tired of ranch dressing or whatever salad dressing you use, look into Italian dressing. My friend's mom makes it and I don't think I'd ever had it until I stayed with them. It's SO good! You can buy the dry packages of it at the store and it even comes with a bottle to make it in. You bring it home and follow the instructions which require you to add some oil, vinegar, and water then shake it up to make fresh Italian dressing. It's 1 carb for 1/8 of the packet, and you could probably get more than 8 servings out of how much it makes. It's SO GOOD!
It looks something like this:
It's cheap, too. I don't know if you like Italian dressing but if you've never bought this kind it's great and I'm not even sure if I want to use ranch dressing anymore after eating this. The oil in it is also a good way to get more healthy fat in.
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement, Linsy, every step of the way. You lost 15% of your body weight! I lost 11% of mine. Go to the refrigerator and pick up a 1 lb. package of butter. Then imagine carrying 31 of those with you every step; I'll imagine 25. That's what we were doing at the end of August!
No wonder walking in the afternoon heat was so hard. I'm very excited about our losses. I'm going to continue to work hard. I need a challenge, though. Let's start our 15 pounds by Valentines Day LOVE MYSELF challenge January 1...are you still up for it? I hope by the 1st I've reached my Christmas Challenge goal of 189. I'd love to be out of the 190's.
Thanks for the tip and pic of the salad dressing mix. I'll try it. Olive oil is so good for us, and I'm always up for cheap and tasty. I'm leaving tomorrow for Charleston, SC to spend Christmas with my daughters - can't wait to see them and Santa. Have a beautiful Christmas.
Trust me, I appreciate the support so much too! If it wasn't for this forum (the Atkins section and the other sections too) I definitely wouldn't have the weight loss knowledge that I have and probably would have crash dieted and given up months ago. This time I'm in it for the long haul and I feel great.
I'm sure getting out of the 190s will feel amazing--like you're "officially" in onederland and getting further away from 200. I can't wait until I'm under 200 pounds. I'm definitely still up for the Valentine's day challenge by the way. I'm up for any challenges!
One way I gauged my weight loss was my suitcase that I took on my trip. It was 40 pounds, and I realized that was only 10 pounds or so more than I had lost--it was extremely heavy and I couldn't even lift it without a LOT of effort. It's unbelievable that we've lost at least that much weight off of our bodies.
I hope the other girls from the challenge are still going strong. I think we've lost some of them unfortunately. The Holiday season is a busy time for everyone, though, so hopefully we'll hear from them soon.
Merry Christmas, and have an amazing time with your daughters!
Going to be close...
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The Holiday season is a busy time for everyone, though, so hopefully we'll hear from them soon. 
