[taragettingthin]

Annie, 2 appt! That's great!
I didn't get to do any workout yesterday but we walked around famers market and the downtown for about 1.5 hours, and then I did some workout on my own during commerical break...altogether about 15-20 minutes. So hopefully that counts.

Today, I'm going to work out when I get home before going to sleep.

Getting moving def is great. not only for losing the weight but remember it's good for your health.

[kara d bride2b]

Hey everyone!
Annie, I'll be thinking about you with your lunch tomorrow. I hope you can find something to eat there that doesn't hurt you too badly. I bet that is frustrating. I know exactly how you feel, my fiance' can eat whatever he wants and he has a LOT of that stuff at our apartment. I have felt the temptation, but I am like you, I haven't given in to it yet...I think your trying to think about the effects it will have on you is a great idea. So far I have just not even thought about eating it. One night he was eating something (can't remember off hand what it was) and I wanted it, so I went and grabbed some peaches and a big (2 C) glass of milk. I usually am thinking about his food when I'm hungry, so I try to battle it by eating something I like that is on plan.

Awesome about the trainer appointment!

Tara: I think you did fine this weekend-the very small amount you ate is not going to hurt you, and since it made you realize you want to not do that anymore, that's even better. I always told myself-this is a marathon, not a sprint. So you know that at some points you will end up doing stuff like that, but that's just life, you know. You did very well though.

So I'm glad to hear that you all did so well.

I'd love some advice from you guys, any of you who don't mind giving it.
Well, I ate meat for the first time since I started June 8th. We barbecued chicken (it wasn't actually barbecue chicken, it was just seasoned chicken breasts). I had that and made some butter beans and one of my sweet potatoes. I even treated myself and had a Coke Zero. It was like a real meal!!! Then my stepmom called. She is on Nutrisystem. She is one of those people who really likes to criticize what everybody else does and put what she does on a pedestal. Well, she asked what I had made for dinner (she likes to act like I'm a horrible woman because I don't cook every night for Ryan when I'm dieting). I told her what I'd had, and she started criticizing it for all the starches. She was like "Are you sure you can eat all those starches and carbs?" I was like, "Yes, I'm sure." I mean, pretty much all she eats on Nutrisystem is carbs!!! And besides, I am eating on plan and I have only had 3 sweet potatoes since I started this diet!!! Did I do something wrong with my eating that you guys noticed? Or did it seem Fat Smash appropriate? I mean, I doubt I would've lost the weight I've lost if I'm not allowed to have the carbs. I think she's one of those people that thinks that carbs are the devil, and if you eat them at any time, they are terrible. I haven't eaten any white carbs since I started. OK, so enough about that-please just give me some advice here and tell me if you think I did ok. As far as I know, I didn't do anything wrong!!!

Thanks guys for your continued support!!!

Kara :-)

[ManDy29]

Kara... I did fat smash a few months ago, and just started back so I would have to dig out my book to be sure, but to me I see nothing wrong with what you had. Keep your head up don't let people get to you. I think it's hard for people to understand how this diet works. Like you told me its all about teaching yourself the right way to eat, portion sizes and better choices. You are doing great... Keep at it!

Ladies I am having a rough day, it all started last night. I am having one of those days were you should have just stayed in bed, absolutely nothing is going well, and any other time I would be consuming as much chocolate as posible. I am such an emotional eater, but I must say so far I have resisted all temptation. I will spare you all the details, but it started last night with a VERY upsetting phone call from the ex, then my computer died, I think the computer works, but the monitor doesn't. Then my cell phone stopped working and then today on the way to take my son to the library I got pulled over for no seat belt and also couldn't find my ins card, so now have two tickets and have to go to court. UGGGHHHH! Ok I have vented, thanks for listening, lol.

I hope everyone is having a much better day!!!

[kara d bride2b]

Thanks Mandy! I hate to hear that you're not having a good day. Try to keep your chin up, and tomorrow will be a new day. I know that everybody is going to have bad days, so I know you can't just make it all go away, but you're doing really good to not go to the emotional eating. We are all thinking about you, and you have some great friends here that will be here for you to talk to and vent to when you need it.

Good luck, and I do hope you get to feeling somewhat better today.

[annierew]

Mandy - I was definitely having one of those days on Friday. It was just crappy. I still ate out of emotions, but I made sure that it was something on plan. I figured I'll deal with the emotional eating issues once I can get the healthy eating figured out. Baby steps, right?! Definitely feel free to vent to us anytime.

Kara - I think your meal sounded right on plan. I do have some people who do other diets tell me that you can't lose weight eating all those foods. I think what makes this plan so great (and I've tried so, so, so many others) is that it teaches you to eat naturally in the real world. I did research on a lot of the plans before starting this one and found that Nutrisystem has so many preservatives. So, technically, it's not better. Everyone has to figure out what works best for them, and obviously, this is working best for you. PLUS, you are allowed to have carbs in real life. You just have to choose the right ones.

As for me, today I had my meeting. Things went fairly well. She ordered us salads, which were premixed with dressing and had cheese and nuts. Overall, knowing the restaurant's menu, this was probably the best choice, but it still wasn't the plan. Plus, they have the best flatbread, which I really shouldn't have eaten. I did it anyways. Oh well. It was so worth it, and I was able to walk away. Interestingly enough (maybe it's a coincidence or not) but I have been starving the rest of the day. I just can't get myself full. I'm beginning to wonder if it has anything to do with the white bread?! On the plan, I definitely feel full after eating or drinking water. It's not doing the trick today. Hopefully tomorrow will be back to normal.

Have a good night, girls! Mandy, I hope things are better for you tomorrow.

[taragettingthin]

Kara, I agree with everyone else. Also, like you said, this is marathon, not a sprint. I'm sure there are people out there who succeed in low-carb diet and stays on it for very long time, but I really doubt it will be doable to do so for the rest of one's life. Right now, we are learning healthy eating habit, and it's like a baby step. When babies learn how to walk, they fall but they don't give up. People laugh at them sometimes (because it's just so cute) but babies don't care. They stand back up and go at it again. Then they eventually walk, and run, and so on... Right now, we are taking baby steps and trying to learn. People may laugh at us, telling us we don't know what we are doing...but in a long run, who do you think will win?

NutrySystem...is good if you are loaded with money and really learn how to eat..but since someone else is cooking for you, you don't learn how to really prepare food. Maybe you will get used to the portion, but since it wasn't you who really prepared it, once you stop doing it, you probably will gain a lot of it back..since you didn't really learn the healthy eating habit.

My ex's mom started talking about low-carb diet and how she's going to go back to it because that's how she lost last time. I was really close to tell her "yeah, you lost last time and you gained it all back and 15 more. Do you see anything missing?!" She takes a medication that allows her to eat less. And she has to eat low-carb anyways because she's border line diabetes, or something like that. However, she actually still eats more than me. The family's vegetable for dinner is half small bag of frozen veggies. (pea, carrot, corn mix). I've never seen them eating fresh vegetable.. Their mashed potato: the instant one...they add butter while cooking, and eat with more butter while eating. The kids actually don't eat the real mashed potato because "it's nasty." She drinks soda all the time and says "well, I always drink diet one so it's okay." They eat out at a fast food at least 3 times a week. And then when she is on a diet, she literally cuts them out all but always talks about it and when she loses weight, she goes right back to what she did before. Then she gains it back and then says it's hormon, not her diet. Then she told me couple weeks that she bought 7 secret or something like that...where you are just supposed to stand and squeeze your body or something. I told her she should just return it..because it's not going to work. She then said that she wanted a quick fix where she doesn't have to sweat or work out. She then bought some mango something juice that's supposed to "increase metabolism." If it was that easy to increase metabolism, why would there be fat people in the world? :P

So I'm going to sit back, lose my weight in the right way with eating healthy and working out, and watch her lose and gain it back....while I'm losing. You may wonder why I'm not telling her, but she's a proud person, and is never wrong...because she lost some weight last time this way, she will lose again no matter what other says.

When driving away from the house, I was laughing and thought to myself "Good luck with your DIET. I'm changing my life style because this is NOT a diet, but something I'm going to stick with for the rest of my life."

Sorry for the long post...but I thought many people on here would need this... Good luck for the rest of the week.

[kara d bride2b]

Tara, that was very profound and true. You are right, I do feel like I'm learning how to eat healthy because I eat REAL foods. Before I started this diet, I would always go to processed, fake foods for snacks instead of eating a piece of fruit or a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Now that I know those things are out there and have tried them and love them, I don't think that I'll ever need to go back to the old way that I ate. I will NEVER drink a regular coke again...I do know that. Those are very wasted calories. I don't even need to drink soda at all, but I do like having a diet one every once in a while...like last night when fiance' was drinking a beer with our BBQ and I had a Coke Zero-it gave me the feeling that I was cheating when I really wasn't.

As for Nutrisystem, you are absolutely right. I actually have done Nutrisystem twice in my life, and I lost 50 lbs on it at one point, but I gained it all back both times, and here I am. My stepmom is doing it because she saw how much weight I lost when I was on it, but she isn't thinking about how I gained it all back, I don't think. And you are right-it is such processed food, you do not learn healthy eating habits and healthy snacks, and it is very expensive. My stepmom doesn't even really eat anything in addition to her food, like fruits or vegetables. She eats only the food on the plan. And when she goes off the plan, she goes off BIG time...and that's what I used to do because the portions are SO small and you don't feel like you're eating. At least with this lifestyle change I feel like I'm eating enough.

You are so right about your ex mother in law. She sounds a lot like my stepmom in that when she gets off her temporary diet, she goes back to pigging out. You will definitely be watching her lose and gain, lose and gain, while you maintain a healthy and happy life doing what you're doing.

I really enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing that with us. It always helps to read things like that-not that we're reveling in other people's weight loss downfalls, which of course we aren't, but when people try to tell you you're not doing the right thing because you aren't doing what they are doing, it's sometimes nice to vent about it with people who have had similar experiences.

Have a great night, all!!!

Kara :-)

[annierew]

Tara - That's a great story to share. It really does put things into perspective. I'm happy with my choice and know that it's for me, no matter how long it's taking.

My sister put it into perspective for me the other day. (By the way, she's a size 2/4 but is extremely healthy and works out all the time). She said that she never saw me do any other diet that made sense to her as well. She's planning on doing the detox for a few days to jumpstart her back to her healthy ways. She said with the wedding, she has been eating junk and was trying to figure out how to get back in the swing of things. She also said that she noticed my weightloss throughout the year, but she also noticed that I didn't always stick with the plan. BUT when I did go off plan, I didn't gain the weight back, like I did with every other plan out there. It made me feel good about my choices.

Good news! I just got back from my first workout in a looooooooong time! We realized the last time I was there was 5/6. In the past that wouldn't have seemed as long, but I was doing three times a week, so that was pretty bad. But I'm back, and I have another appointment on Friday. Hopefully I can get more activity in this week. That is my focus this week. Last week was to get back into eating healthy, this week is the activity. Next week, well, I still have to figure that out!

[ManDy29]

Thanks for the encouragement, and the hug was defintely needed Kara! I am determined today will be better. I took my computer to best buy last night and the geek squad guy, who was an older man who says he's been working on computers for, well forever, said "WOW, I've never ever seen this before".... LOL did I expect anything less ... So I am computerless for possibly up to a month. Which will not be easy but since I am a full time college student, but I'll work it out. The night did seem to get better from there... mostly.

I agree completely with what everyone is saying about this being a lifestyle change as opposed to a diet. That is what made me so excited about this plan. It's whole goal is to teach you how to be healthier, teaching you how to eat properly, eventually basically allowing you anything you would like, and also teaching you the importance of exercising. Teaching you how the two go hand in hand.

Sooo... Today is day 9!!! YAY!!! I'm excited. My son and I are about to head to my sisters and go swimming... I'm hoping to get in some laps too while I'm there so I get some cardio in. I am so nervous about weighing in tomorrow, I hope all the discipline has paid off. Last night we were out of town to take the computer back so we had to eat out, I didn't eat on plan but I tried to pick the healthiest thing on the menu and I couldn't even finish what I had ... but then my son's chili cheese fries were calling my name, lol. You can't turn down an 8 year old when he says here mom try these can you?... LOL So I had a few bites, but that's part of what I have to learn it's not the few bites of chili cheese fries that add back the 20 lbs, those things are ok. I have to lose the all or nothing mentality. Last time I did this someone had mentioned a book, Why French women don't get fat" (or something close) that helped them better understand this. I never could find it anywhere then, I think I'll look for that again...

I hope everyone has a great day!!!

[annierew]

Mandy - That's really funny that you mentioned that book. I was just talking about it with someone who follows that plan, and it's working really well for her. There are lots and lots of similarities, especially in the thinking. Basically, from what she told me, is that in France, they go to the market each day and purchase natural foods...like the natural cheeses, fresh baked bread, fresh fruits and veggies. The thinking is that if you eat food in it's pure form (not processed!), then you are a full much easier. They don't really do the diet or lite versions of anything, but because they get the natural taste of food, they are satisfied faster and in turn, eat much less. I think that it's a good plan, if you aren't trying to lose lots of weight (like 20 or more pounds). But, it does sound like when we get to the later phases where we shouldn't eat so much and should eat fresh. Hope that little lesson helped and I explained it like it was explained to me!

[ofnobility1982]

Well tomorrow is my last day on Phase III. I will be entering Phase IV which is pretty much this is how you will eat for the rest of your life phase.

On another note:

I just came back from a couple of days in Orlando. I made sure I got my work out in before I left. I spent Sunday evening at Downtown Disney and Monday at Universal. Despite being surrounded by funnel cakes, greasy burgers and fries, ice cream, soft pretzels, I resisted and chose the restaurants which had healthy choices.

I guess between the will power and all the walking it paid off because when I stood on the scale today I lost 4 more pounds.

No more can I let vacation be an excuse to eat unhealthy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm a woman with a mission.

My total weight loss is now 29 lbs.

[annierew]

Of Nobility - Congrats! That's so great to hear someone going through it and saying that it works. Congrats!

[kara d bride2b]

OK, I had just written a long post about how stressed I was, and then it deleted it...does that not just ADD to stress??? LOL

Mandy that sucks about your computer. I hope you get it back soon. I'm dealing with engagement ring replacement problems-I sent it away to be repaired and they are pretty much not able to figure out where my ring is-there's no phone number to call to talk to the repair people, just an email address. And the people on the phone keep telling me that I can file a lost claim after 30 days to get the full price back, but I really would just like my darn ring-I've got a band here at home that MATCHES it. But even if I can't get my ring back, I hope that the lost claim doesn't take forever and that we can get something that is comparable to the ring that Ryan got me. I'm really worried and all I want to do is eat my emotions away. This is the first time really that I've felt tempted to just go off the program. And I can't even have my rice today because you can only do the brown rice every other day on Phase 2, and I ate rice yesterday. So that SUCKS.

ofnobility, way to go on your vacation!! That definitely gives all of us that are still early in the program a chance to see how successful the program can be!! Way to go!

OK all, I'm going to find something to eat that's on program before I go off the plan...LOL.

[taragettingthin]

Brown Rice Every Other Day on Phase 2? That's going to suck for me! Sigh...

[annierew]

Girls...my new copy of Fat Smash says nothing about the brown rice everyother day. I'm going to see my cousin who has my original copy this weekend, so I figured that I'll compare the books and see what has changed. Hmm. I'm going with the newer version, since it seems to give me a little more options! I like options.

Kara - I'm so sorry to hear about your bad day. You're definitely holding up better than I would be under the circumstances.

I'm having a crappy night as well; the bank decided to cancel my bank card on me...for no good reason. Now I'm trying to deal with that while it was supposed to be my errand night. One of the things was to go grocery shopping, so I could be ready for tomorrow. Should be an interesting day to see what I can find around here that's on plan. Let's hope things start looking up for all of us! They say things happen in threes, so with Mandy, Kara and I, I think we should be done!

Good night everyone! Tomorrow's another day, and hopefully a better one!
P.S. I did get to the gym today, so that's a good start!