Today was another good one. Total cals-1555 and exercise was 60 min step class at the Y.

I am pretty happy about hitting 139.5. Now it is on to 135. WooHoo.

Marie-It sounds like you are back in the groove with your calories. Keep up the good work.

Congrats to all, you're doing great! And TERA, it's fabulous that you're in the 130!!! Way to go!

Thanks Marie and Webwoman for the kind acknowledgments. I am pretty psyched about a new decade. It is not official for me until I am there for five days though so it may be a bit before I can recognize it as real. In fact I am already playing with "fate" since my calorie total today was 1880 due to some less than stellar food choices. I still have a ways to go towards choosing to live a healthy lifestyle. My excuse is that I have a cold that is making me a bit miserable but that is a very poor reason indeed and I need to ignore my cravings and take better care of myself--especially when I have a cold.
Sheesh!

Marie-.4 is just a blip. Do not let it upset the apple cart. You are eating within your calorie range and it is going to be okay. I am glad to hear that you are handling the cookie situation like the good trouper that you are. Hang in there, it won't be too much longer.

Went over by one carb but otherwise did good. Calories were only 1308.


Breakfast
Strawberry Smoothie

am snack
PB2 Mocha

Lunch
Roast beef sandwich on one slice WW bread
dill pickle slices
celery and carrot sticks

pm snack
PB2 Mocha
1/2 apple and PB2

Dinner
V-8 juice
spaghetti and meatballs (lt sauce, small about onion soup mix, 4 meatballs (from frozen)
1/4 large cucumber

Eve snack
PB mocha
pecans, unsalted 1/2 oz.

Good choices maryea! Just string a few of those days together and the pounds are going to have to pack up and leave.

I have been doing okay lately. Still sticking around 139.5, almost time to move the ticker. I have my meals planned for the day so I feel pretty good about it. Not a lot of exercise lately with this cold but hopefully I will be turning the corner soon and feeling better.

Marie, don't have much time this am but wanted to let you guys know that my weight dropped down 2.4# so guess it probably was the dye and perhaps sodium. We ate Chinese a few times recently plus had some bacon here at home. I'm thinking that all that together plus my over snacking some days probably did it. Didn't track yesterday as got busy and messed up early in the day...know I went over but apparently not too badly. Of course my sig is still a joke but at least I'm still less than I was when I started MF even though just barely.

I did pretty good today. My husband wanted to go out for brunch today but of course I am all about losing weight these days so I had coffee while he had quiche lorraine and tomato basil soup at La Madeleine. For once i kept my mouth shut though and let him eat what he wanted. I did go shopping later and bought size 8 jeans at The Gap. So cute. Now that was my kind of fun.

maryea-Have you considered focusing on carbs instead of calories? I am guessing if you keep the carbs in line, the calories will end up low as well. On the other hand, a person can be very bad with carbs and still stay low for calories, right? Maybe I am all wrong here so I hope I have not said anything insulting.

Marie-good for you for choosing to eat healthy food instead of cookies. I am still working on weaning myself off the sugar. I am doing better but still eat my treats everyday. I mostly just have dark chocolate once a day. When all of the chocolate is gone, well, we'll see. That is a ways a way.

Ate lunch out today and then tonight after our 50+ class we had snacks as usual. Tonight though they were mostly healthy. The only cookie I saw (I think another one was there earlier but thank God I missed it!) was a coconut shortbread type. I had two little pieces of it, not sure how many calories. I also had a few nuts and teeny piece of some kind of quick bread. Other wise I had abt 2-3 spoonfuls of an amazing salad...it was made of apple, pineapple, red and green cabbage and onions! And they mixed it with a dressing composed of a large array of different things...olive oil, red bell pepper sauce, ginger sauce were a few I noticed but there was about ten things. It was SO good, I asked for the recipe but she said she just threw together with what she had, so no recipe. It didn't taste oily so don't think it had much oil in it, but not sure of the calories in the other ingredients. Found similar salads online but they all included mayo which did not have. I also had little pcs of various other veggies...broccoli, cauliflower, radish etc. and about 1/2 T Ranch dressing. Oh, and one thing that looked like a green bean but tasted like a cracker? Not sure what it was but was tasty. I didn't count that and the salad because wasn't sure how to calculate but otherwise today I ate:

Otherwise I ate:'
breakfast
Soy banana smoothie

lunch
Mcdonalds small hamburger
1/2 small fries
1/2 apple pie

pm snack
1/2 lg apple with 2 T PB2

later snack:
PB mocha

Dinner (late)
what I described above

Eve snack
PB2 mocha

I estimate I went over by 200 calories but it could easily have been more.

Terapet - GFY on reaching 139.5!! I know how good that must feel!!

It would seem like just focusing on carbs would do the trick I agree. In fact when I first became a diabetic I really tried that. But with carbs being EVERYTHING except protein and fat, it's not so easy! I'm not saying it's impossible...I mean look at Rie, she does it...but I get SO hungry and I'm home all the time where there is always food around and I tend to stay up til at least 11 or 11:30 every night, often later. My really hungry time is from dinner on. I make myself stop eating about 9 or 9:30 at least.

I love veggies and when counting carbs you can eat quite a lot of most of them...not corn, potatoes or beans, and kinda have to watch some like carrots and broccoli but mostly you have to eat a lot of veggies to worry about them....but still even I can only eat so many veggies. In fact I ate so many of them for my lean and green meal while on MF that I actually eat less now than I did before! I don't often eat bread so that's not much of a problem. I'm not a big meat eater (protein).

Really what I ought to do is cut out my mochas or only have one a day. I just crave the things so much. But every day when I look at my days eating, I feel like most of my extra calories and carbs come from my mochas. But I've also noticed that if I cut back on something I really like I tend to make up the calories with something else. I realize it's just a discipline problem...I'm honestly not trying to make excuses. Somehow I have to learn to live with not being full or satisfied and maybe I'll get used to it in time. I have a very large appetite...my dh says he doesn't see how I can eat so much. For years I got by with it, but I can't anymore.

Todays cals-1575, exer-60 mins step class at the y. I seem to be stuck at 140.5 lately. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow will be different. I don't want to see those 40's anymore.

maryea-I love vegetables also. I eat lots and lots of them everyday. Do you think if you ate more of them you would be less hungry? You could fill up on lots of veggies at meals and snack on fruit in between. Perhaps you could add back your lean and green meal.

Ter - Since MF I can't eat many veggies....I still get at least 3 serv of veggies and 2 fruits a day but I can't eat 1 1/2 cups at a meal any more. They ARE filling so maybe I'll get back to it in time but right now I can't. I can't eat as much meat/fish protein any more. either. I love beans but they are also carbs. So what does that leave...except for eggs which I can only get myself to eat now and then, pretty much carbs. I know i have to have more discipline but forcing myself to eat more veggies or meat/fish would only make me sick right now. Another problem is that I have also restrict fats because of the diabetes (prevent insulin from taking glucose into the cell) plus my triglycerides are still somewhat high. Also I have to watch sodium because of my BP and my cholesterol although it's stable on meds right now. Too many things to watch..it gets pretty exhausting just trying to be that careful and I get tired of it all I guess. But I keep plugging away at it at least to a certain extent.

Maintained my weight so didn't do too badly yesterday I guess. I did ok on the calories today at 1565 but my carbs were still high. My bs is not bad though and my A1C is still pretty good although higher than when I was on MF. If I can gradually lower my calories perhaps this problem will take care of itself? My problem is my snacking that's pretty clear when I look at my eating diary. Too lazy to type it here but I track it already in Lose it!

Did my usual at the gym today plus went to a stretch class I hadn't been been to for several months.