I've recently started eating flaxseeds as well. I bought ground flaxseeds but now I'm not sure if they are roasted or not...I'll have to check later tonight when I get home! I did a little search regarding your question on whole flaxseeds and found this website:

http://www.flaxseedshop.com/content/Whole-Flax-Seed.asp

Looks pretty informative, so I thought I would pass it on!

Good answer I found:
While whole and ground flax have the same nutritional content, your body gets far more benefit from ground flax. That's because the goodness in flax is wrapped up in a hard, shiny seed coat that's hard to crack, even with careful chewing. Grinding or roasting flax breaks this seed coat making all the nutrients easy to digest. Flaxseeds are easy to grind at home using a coffee grinder, food processor or blender. You also can buy ground or "milled" flaxseed in most stores where whole flax is sold.

I am now afraid that when I go to England on Saturday I will go crazy! I love being more lenient on weekends, but am strict about getting back on track week days. A week away might be dangerous!
I will have everything ready to go for phase 1 the day I return. I normally focus on low carb, even if splurging on wine with it, but I know the fish and chips will get me!

Enjoy your fish & chips Mom2cs! Whenever I indulge when I'm away I still try to keep it very very low carb the next (a la Phase 1) to combat the indulgence. Found it helps keep the head in the game as well.
I had a great lunch today that I really enjoyed. It is a recipe from my book.
Cucumber Cottage Cheese Salad (Sounds weird... but I loved it!)
1 cucumber diced
1 large tomato seeded & diced
1 T garlic powder
1 T dill weed
Mix these together then add
3/4 Cup Cottage Cheese
Salt & pepper to taste
The garlic does give it a bit of a kick but I'm a dill nut and this salad was awesome!
Patns- do you have a food processor? Or maybe just toss the seeds into the blender first and blend them a bit. They keep much better in whole form but it seems you are right that to fully reap the benefits they need to be ground...
2ride- Seriously, between the stress of your job and your disrupted sleeping patterns- these can both have such a detrimental effect on weight management. I really hope for you that now you have opened the new area that things will begin to stabilize for you.

Good afternoon everyone! I've been MIA for a while. I guess I just haven't had too much to say. Still plugging along in maintenance right at my goal weight. I'm still tracking daily in MFP and passed my 7 month mark a few weeks ago. I'm not always making the best food choices, but apparently I'm doing enough to maintain (along with the jogging).

I am interested to hear how the public speaking engagement goes, as that is my #1 fear as well. I keep getting asked to speak at conferences and keep refusing to do it. Fortunately, my boss has not fired me for the refusal yet. I applaud you for doing it in spite of your fear!

Mom2 - I found England to be a pretty good place to diet. It will be interesting to see what you think, but I found the food pretty unappetizing. That was not a vacation that caused weight gain for me.

I am sure enjoying watching the transformation of Wuv. Amazing. Just amazing.

Thanks for the info on the flaxseed Goodeats and Cap. It reinforced what I did know before. The seeds do need to be broken down. I did have a coffee grinder at one point, I need to look though the cupboards and see if I can find it.I cleared out so many things when we moved a few years ago.
If I don't find it I will have to buy a new one tomorrow.

I had always bought flaxseed preground but I can't believe how good the roasted whole ones taste.
I put them in the whey protein shakes and it tastes like I put peanut butter in them. They will taste just as well if I grind they ones I have.

I hope the hard copy of the carb sensitive book gets here today. I really like the recipes I used so far but it is hard getting them all using my kindle.

I have gotten down to the weight my doctor wants me to get to. I will be 65 this summer. I have been very overweight all my life, I got from 204 to 160
5 years ago when a naturopath (sp) told me I had to give up wheat. I was not able to get below 160 (at 5'1") no matter what I did. So I am thrilled that I got to 130 on IP.

My doctor picked that goal weight for me because he says research shows that people at the higher end of the healthy weight range live the longest. He said that as you get older it is best not to be at the lower end because if you suddenly have a health issue it is best to have a little bit of girth to fall back on.
Hubby is also not too keen on me going lighter because my 88 year old mother has been steadily shrinking for the past number of years and is becoming more and more frail. So he too thinks it's better to have a few pounds extra as we get older.

But I really want to get down a bit lower because I still have a big roll right around my middle which makes it difficult to get a good fit with clothes. I was wearing size 14 pants when I started and have only gotten down to a size 10. I say "only" because I am always amazed to see people posting their sizes on this board. People not much taller than me and around the same weight are wearing much smaller sizes. I need size 10 with my belly but then have excess fabric flapping around the rest of me. But the big problem is most summer things come in the S-M-L range. The medium is 10 - 12 which is too big; the S is 6-8 which is too small.I can't believe how fussy I have become about things fitting well. I used to just grap whatever fit around me in the morning and be off to work in a minute. Now maybe I cahnge 3 times trying fo a fit that is comfortable.

I am wearing an 8 on top. I have always had to wear petite sizes for proportion because I have very narrow shoulders.
I have stuck to the IP plan since August. The weight has really come off the top end of me but doesn't seem to want to budge around the middle.

For the past three months I was really still following phase 1 but the weight has just not moved. So I have actually maintained for 3 months on phase 1. I did have a very scary venture into phase 3 so don't plan to go down that path again.

Anyway, I am very interested about what will happen with the carb sensitive plan. At the very least it will be change for my body.

Mom, funny you mentioned the fish and chips! I am going back home to Nova Scotia for the first week in June. My mom has finally agreed to move to assisted living which she surprisingly really likes. I have to go help my siblings clear out her condo. She has not gone out since she moved but says she wants me to take her for some new clothes and fish and chips when I get there. She is from England originally and Nova Scotia is a fantastic place for fish and chips. I keep telling myself that I lived there for 50 years and didn't have fish and chips everyday so don't need to now.

I will watch to see if you avoid falling deeply down that hole while in England. But you have far more lean muscle than me to fight off the gain from fish and chips.
Good luck!!

I hope everyone is have a healthy and happy day.

Pat

Pat, I am heading to nova scotia in the summer! I will have to focus on unbattered fish...finding veggies will be the tough part as we are going to a small town in cape Breton. Everything comes with potatoes! My mom was raised there, do that was how I ate all my like.
Funny, I was always thin until after my kids were born. So either age, pregnancy or both really did something bad to my metabolism!

Ha, we are likely related. I am from Cape Breton too but all my family is in Halifax now.

I have had a bad metabolism all my life. I started to gain weight when I was 8. My mom went back home to England for a visit and I didn't like the food the housekeeper made and I survived on apples. As you said elsewhere, little sugar bombs. My mother almost didn't recognize me when she came back.
My daughter is leaving for NS tomorrow. She met the love of her life and he is from Glace Bay. She is going to meet his mom.
I had to laugh because we have an eastern European last name now due to hubby. I always told her she would latch onto a Scot just to get a name like my original last name. That's what happened and dad is not too pleased.

Mom's short term memory is not good now. Maybe she will forget about the fish and chips!
Keep us posted about the trip to England.

Pat

I posted these handouts I got when I started Phase 4, on another thread (Phase 4 - Transitioning), but thought they might be helpful here as well. Since I can only upload 5 at a time, I had to break it up into two parts. LOL! I always feel like I post two-in-a-row comments. Sorry to be a thread hog

The recipes weren't too exciting but at least you get the idea of a fat meal versus a carb meal. I really liked the snack ideas shown in the sample week menu handout. 3 cups of popcorn!! Remember these are suggestions and you should still go slow to see how much you can handle.

If I ate three cups of popcorn I would be up the next day!
I much prefer nuts, cheese, eggs, pepperoni...
No gain
I don't know why carbs hate me do much after never thinking about any of this my entire life and never exercising. Now it's 1-2 hours a day and very restricted...
I do enjoy some wine though!

Pat, it is probably just your body "shape" and it could be that you need to find a designer that caters to your shape. I am about 8 pounds heavier and right around the same height and I wear a 4. However, I would be what you consider "curvy". I have a very small waist (26.5") and larger hips and butt (36").

I have found that Ann Taylor (&Loft) and Banana Republic fit my shape the best for pants. I cannot wear ANY pants from Gap or Old Navy because there is way too much room in the waist for me. So it might just be a matter of brand too. Also, I always look for "curvy" cuts of pants if designers make them.

Oh, and as an FYI for any other curvy ladies out there, I have found the most amazing jeans for us "apple bottomed girls". It is called PZI Jeans and believe they are only available on line. They are the most flattering and comfortable jeans I have ever owned.

I totally agree with you! My carb meal (dinner) is just another fat/protein meal for me and it seems to work just fine so far. I'm also with you on the wine!!

I am also curvy-although I am a lot taller than you guys! I. An never find pants that fit in the legs and waist. My thighs and calves are big...but extremely muscular. They will never be small.
I love banana republic too. The gap perfect trouser is also good. Both have wider leg pants. I have some Ann Taylor's as weel that I like-I can often fit a 4 there which makes me feel good!
Body shape can be so funny. I wish I had skinny legs and ok'd wear all those cute straight legged capris, but I never could, even when I was 17 and weighed 110. Bad leg genes

I just received this book and I only just ordered it on Tuesday the 15th! I thought it would have taken much longer since it was international delivery. So exciting for a person that has no patience whatsoever

GEAW- That is awesome! I ordered mine and they are saying it will ship the week of the 29th. I am hoping it will ship before, but either way, it beats waiting until August

Mom- check out PZI Jeans. They even have short, regular and tall lengths and they really are made for those of us with bigger legs and rears. I always loved the knee high boots trends, but my calves NEVER fit into boots I also can't wear skinny jeans, my calves don't fit into them.