Hi Everyone,
I for one am starving and about to calculate how many calories I've had and what is left for snack. Today has been kinda rough. I've had a slight headache, and I've been hungry all day. I may need to pick something more feeling for tomorrow. I am glad, you're feeling better about your hair, Irishfairy. Mine is cut in a kind of tapered bob slightly shorter in the back then in the front. I am always trying to let my bangs grow, even when I had it longer..I never make it for long. They drive me crazy!
GrammyL, yes..I've tried South beach more than once. It works for a while untill I get tired of the same ol same ol..and, I felt like I' was giving up too much for too little weight loss. I did buy some of the wraps and frozen pizzas which were yummy..but, the south beach forum folks gave me such a hard time for that...They think you are doing it all wrong if you arent doing all the cooking yourself...heaven forbid you buy anything processed. I got tired of them beating me up for every wrong move I made...the ironic thing is most of them have been on south beach for litteraly years...I dont know about you guys, but that says to me its NOT working...right? I think the great thing about counting calories is the fact that nothing is off limits...the diets with the forbidden foods are the hardest to maintain. Last week, I had mcdonalds chicken mcnuggets for lunch 3 days in a row...a 6 piece meal is only 250 calories..add one pack of sweet and sour is 50. I felt like I was cheating, and I wasnt! You just have to know when to stop...easier said than done sometime, I know. I did start my workout this evening....30 minutes on the treadmill and some weight lifting, sit ups..I may buy an ab lounger for my workout room, also..Well, you all have a great evening...time for my snack...

Elvislvr ~ Now why would South Beach make the meals if they didn't fit in with the plan? The bad thing about some of these programs is you have to follow it 100% in order to lose. The program I was on for a very long time allowed me to lose a lot of weight but in spurts and the the reason why was because you had to be 100% committed in order to lose and I wasn't able to do that for very long. The plan didn't allow for any processed foods, it was no salt other than natural occurring and I was restricted on choices. Now don't get me wrong there was enough to choose from but eating out was always a hassle and would cause my weight to go up fast and we eat out often. I lost a lot of weight on that program but gained a lot also. I would lose 20 gain 10, lose 10, gain 5, that type of thing. I was inching my way down but it was just frustrating to put that much effort into following it and lose that slow. Just like you said with the SB for you.

I am going to start ordering the kids serving size if places will allow me. I have watched enough programs on TV and looked at enough calorie counts for menus myself that the kids portion is actually what us adults should be having. There are even times when the kids portion is more than we should even have. I looked at Ruby Tuesdays last night and it seems like the kids burger and fries was over 900 calories. OUCH! Most of the other kids meals were reasonable and most of their appetizers weren't to bad if you just ordered them for your meal. There was one adult meal that was close to 1800 calories, can you believe that. A days worth of calories in one meal.

I changed my ticker because I was down 2 lbs this morning. Must have been some bloat but I am not counting on that happening tomorrow. LOL! I can't wait to move my ticker because it drives me crazy seeing the numbers that hard. I am hoping for a steady decrease for a while. I am tired of the 170's and I want to get into the 160's and I know that means dedication.

I have been reflecting back on what I have been over eating on and it is carbs. Big down fall pizza. I don't care what kind of pizza it is I can't stop once I get started and the next thing I know its all gone. So its something I need to avoid for a while.

Another thing I changed in the last week is eating after dinner. I have to stop this. DH is a snacker and he grazes from the time we finish dinner until we go to bed. I used to do the same thing but broke the habit because I noticed I lose better if I just skip that. I used to save calories to snack at night so I didn't go over my calorie count but it still did allow me to lose. I actually hate the rule of not snacking at night, you know how experts say don't eat after a certain hour, but it is a rule that I need to follow unfortunately. I am envious of those that don't have to follow that rule.

lara: dont feel bad I am having a hard time too. Last night Dh's parents made us dinner then went out and bought me a peanutbuster parfait from dq...710 cals!!!!! I was going to only eat half...then I looked down and it was gone. I didn't gain any weight but decided to make this a 1200 cal day but then my sister brought donuts and I ate a dutchie...250 cals!!! I am batting 1000 now

Morning Ladies

I booked myself a spot in the Thursday evening spinning class at my gym. I'm both excited and nervous. Nervous because I'll be joining a class where the people have all been training together for a while now. It's like starting school a week later than the other kids . I'm looking forward to it though, it's an hour class and will be a good way to get some cardio in.

Tonight I have my assessment at the gym where they will measure my body fat, weigh me , measure me and put together a plan. I'm meeting with the guy who used to supervise me when I was a member before so I know him and I'm looking forward to meeting with him again. It's been over a year since I closed my membership and I've managed to put on all the weight I lost when I was a member before! Oh well, like Tinky said, back on the horse I climb.

Grammy - congrats on the 2lbs! You've lost so much already well done! Mexican food and chicken wings are my demons, if I had the metabolism of a 16 year old (yeah, don't we ALL wish we had that ) I'd live off both.

Elvis - you might not be eating enough if you're starving, how much protein are you eating? You might need more.

Tinky - I get migraines too and I feel your pain (no pun intended), it takes me a couple days afterwards to recover also and when I get them, all I can do is go to bed and sleep it off.

Irish - congrats about your milestone! Well done on that! .

Hope I didn't miss anybody, today is going great on the eating so far and I'm guzzling water to hydrate myself for tonight. Have a happy Tuesday all!

Irish ~ See those are the kind of people that hold us up. DH wanted ice cream and the little store we went to didn't have any yet but did have some bars. I did have one and it was 250 calories but those are 250 I would normally skip. Then when I sat down to the computer to log DH said what are you doing. I said logging what I ate for dinner and the ice cream. He said why are you logging your not done eating yet. I said I most definitely am. He continue to munch in front of me the rest of the night. ARG! I resisted.

Lynne ~ My DH is Mexican so I know what you mean but I have altered a lot dishes and made them healthy. I usually cook mine and DH's separate. I used to use ground turkey and he had burger. I now use Morning Star starters and he still has his burger. I think my metabolism came to a halt when I was 12 because that is when I started gaining. The only things we have come up with is hormonal and I wasn't as active as I was previously. We lived in the country and the only other person my age within a 5 mile radius moved away.

I drink around a 100 oz of water a day. That doesn't include coffee or tea. So I take a lot of restroom breaks. LOL!

Well I am going to go for a walk and I will be back a little later.

tinky: me, u and grammy are so close in weight!!! thats funny

Irish, you are so right. We are all three racing for the 160's. I was where both of you are right now until my freak out thinking that I didn't need to weigh or log my calories. At least I got my head out of my rear before it got to bad.

Just had my snack and it was MMMMM, MMMM, good. I had 2 wedges of Laughing Cow cheese, 4 Tbsp FF roasted bell pepper hummus on bell pepper. I had a half of green and half a yellow bell pepper. The green pepper was OK but the yellow bell pepper with it on there just melted in my mouth and hit the spot.

You ever had something in your diet that you feel you should get rid of but when you tried you missed it so you put it back? I tried to give up cheese and failed. I really do love my cheese and I go with the lower fat versions and fat free when I can. It still all adds up. Like this morning for my MMS I had 2 low moisture mozzarella sticks (50 cal each) and an orange. I have 1/4 c. 2% cheese on my salad at lunch (90 cal). Then MAS I had 2 wedges Laughing Cow (35 cal each) with my snack. That means I spent 260 calories on cheese. I tried skipping all the cheese last week but I really missed my cheeses. ARG! I did manage to get away from having it at breakfast time. Maybe I will get strong enough to give it up for a full week and see what happens with my weight but I doubt that will happen any time soon. That is why I failed all the time on the other plan I was on because they did allow any cheese and I always ended up caving in and would over do it on the cheese.

Well I am off for the day and I will talk to you all tomorrow.

1lb closer to 160's!!!!! 173!!!!!! and only 3 more days til idol!!!!!!

Morning All,

Well, last night's assessment at the gym was, as I had feared, quite ugly .

My weight was 196 (had expected that, it was the end of the day after all), my body fat 43% (oh.my.god. - this used to be 36%), I didn't ask for my measurements and he didn't offer them, probably though best from the look of horror on my face after he told me what my body fat % was. He had me do a push up on my knees. I couldn't even do 1. I used to be able do do this! My blood pressure was the scary figure: 150 over 92. I have to get this anxiety and stress under control or I'm worried I'm going to end up with a stroke or worse.

I've been off plan for less than a year and all that hard work, over two years work, has been undone in that short space of time. We talked about it and I'm pretty accepting of how I'm so out of shape etc. and how I got here. My supervisor at the gym is very supportive and he's putting together a plan for me. I'm going back tonight to see what he's got in store.

Overall I'm feeling.... ok. The exercise will help with the stress and I'm looking forward to seeing what plan he's put together for me.

Irish - grats on that 1lb!

Happy hump day all.

Irish ~ I am right behind you. I released another pound yesterday. So that makes released 3 lbs so far this week. Keeping my nose to the grind stone despite the stress. I will make it, you will. Your doing a fantastic job.

DD and I got into it again big time last night. I called her what she is and told her to forget my number she is on her own. I am not longer going to allow her to abuse or use me any longer. For her, its sink or swim and I just feel bad for my grandsons and if it wasn't for them the relationship would have ended a long time ago.

OK, I am looking for snack ideas. I am going to give up dairy and I eat some kind of dairy for my MMS and MAS. This is not going to be easy for me because I am a dairy freak as you all know from my post yesterday. Did find a tofu cheese that I like and maybe I will replace one of my cheese snacks with that but just looking for ideas.

Tink, Grammy, thank you SO much for the hugs and support. I really do need it and this is why I came back to 3FC, because I know I can get the support I need here. Have tears in my eyes right now. Thank you. Oh I'm such a girl and TOM is RIGHT round the corner can you tell?

Must get some work done, will post more later.