Hi everyone! Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

QOTD: Does your life style change include excluding certain food items for life? If not what is your plan to incorporate them back into your diet? If you have exclude certain foods forever what are they and why?

Yes, I'm excluding soy because I'm allergic to it, and my doctor and my naturopath have both recommended a low carb diet because of some other medical issues I am having. My hubby and I were both doing LAWL, and it's a very good program, but even the lower starch versions were causing some problems for me. I've started to see improvement within days of changing to a low carb program, so I think it is the right choice for me. I feel much better and tend to eat much healthier on a low carb diet. In addition to meat and eggs, I eat tons of vegetables (my latest favorite being raw zucchini slices), a little cheese and full fat dairy, and eventually I will incorporate some melon, berries and nuts back into my diet. I also have a big tablespoon of coconut oil in my coffee each morning.....may sound gross, but it's really pretty good. Anyway, I'm losing weight, I'm not hungry all the time, and my energy is increasing.....I won't argue with that!

I know that I can't go back to the way I was eating up before.....being able to eat sweets and pasta, bread or potatoes isn't worth how I was feeling as compared to how I've begun to feel now.

Last night I went to a party and I employed a new strategy for me. I made and took some chocolate banana bread for others to enjoy (I hear it was very good), but I also fixed a big veggie tray with some dip so I would be sure there was something I could eat. I figure being prepared is the best way for me to avoid temptation. It turned out someone brought shredded pork and they had BBQ sauce on the side for those who wanted, so I just had the plain pork and veggies

I did have a diet soda last night. I go through spells where I don't drink any at all, and when I do drink them it's not more than once a day. But I think the aspartame is very unhealthy so really I think I should just give it up altogether.

I'm up again this week. I really don't understand what is going on. I averaged 1400 calories per day, plus I burned over 6000 calories from exercise over the course of the week. I should have lost 2 pounds, not gained. I did have ham (probably the saltest I've ever eaten) on Sunday, so I could just be bloated from the sodium, but still.

To try and push through this stupid stall I've been in, I think I'm going to try something drastic (well, it is drastic for me). Starting tomorrow I'm going cut as much sodium as possible from my diet. No diet soda, no prepared food, no salty meat. I'll eat Kashi ceral for breakfast, then have chicken breast, rice and veggie (not canned) for lunch and dinner. Hopefully that will help. I desperately want to get out of the 150s before I go on vacation. I may have to consider dropping out of the challenge if I don't start moving in the right direction soon, as I would hate to hold the team back.

I do have a NSV to report, despite my ongoing war with the scale. I went swimming for the first time this year yesterday, and I discovered that my body makeup has totally changed. I've always been able to float easily, I could even put my hands behind my head and cross my legs and just float along for ages like I was on a float. But when I got in yesterday, I sunk! Like straight to the bottom of the pool!! Of course that makes it a bit more difficult to just relax in the pool (going to have to get a float now), but I think that indicates that I've definitely got more muscle mass compared to fat than I did before.