[jp4ga]

Originally Posted by ljwc

Have just finished week 1 of the program and have already hit a plateau. Dropped easily during prep but adding the 3 starches and 3 fruits seem to have stalled me. Is this possible? Did anyone else run into this?

Just keep trucking along.... Are you getting the water in? I lost during the 1st week and then it stalled for a few days and then started going down at a steady pace. If I stick 100% to plan it comes off, if I get off plan at all I have a little gain.

[jp4ga]

Originally Posted by vdshelton

Ya know, I bought a spaghetti squash from Wal-mart and it's just sitting there in my fridge. I'm not sure how to cook/prepare it to be pasta like. How do you usually prepare it?

I cut it in half and bake it. It then easily scrapes out of the skin and will look a little like pasta. It is pretty good.

[jp4ga]

Originally Posted by joefla70

Speaking of work, I was very moved by something my boss did for me yesterday. In the past he has expressed concern over my health because of my weight and implored me to do something about it. I know that some people are put off when their bosses comment on their weight, but he did it in a very caring way and expressed his support. I had been planning to lose weight for quite some time, but never really got started. It just so happened that during the summer of last year I got started on my weight loss.

I work at a law firm that has a NY and Florida branch. My boss is based in the NY branch and he travels down to Florida about once a month to meet with everybody in the office and take care of whatever business needs to be done. When he has been down in past months he has expressed his support and admiration for me in weight loss success thus far. He has commented on how glad he is to see me succeeding in my goals. He was unable to come down in December, so our year end performance reviews (and bonuses) did not happen until this month. Well, something VERY unexpected happened yesterday. In addition to giving me a year-end bonus, he also gave me an extra bonus for the weight loss. That completely blew me away. I don't reward myself for weight loss, because my belief is that the weight loss is its own reward. Seeing the number on the scale go down is all the motivation I need. But it was very nice of my boss to do that for me.

It sounds like you have a great boss. I would love it if my boss did anything nice for me.

Keep up the good work. You post is an encouragement to me.

[jp4ga]

I am really having a struggle. I do not know why I always let outside stresses derail my eating habits. I went off plan this week and am now paying the price of a few pounds added back on. I know this eating plan works I just don't know why I let "outside" stuff get into my head and mess me up.

Today, it starts new, it is a new week and the damage can be undone.

[2Chi]

Thats awesome Joe!!

And Jp4ga, I hear yr. a new week is a good attitude. Ive been a mess with this diet crap. I hate losing motivation. For me it comes in spurts.

[jp4ga]

I ended up doing pretty good yesterday and am very prepared for today. I hope you all have a successful day.

This is a journey that is one day at a time.

[BrownEyedVeggie]

Good Morning,

I've been absent for a bit...taking a Quickbooks and Spanish class and getting hit with a virus or some sort of bug.

Kudos Joe on your boss' kudos. That's awesome.

When you fall off the wagon and you don't want it to show on the scale, try a water flush.

Day 1 Increase water intake by 8 ounces and omit one fruit and one starch
Day 2 Increase water intake by 16 ounces and omit one fruit and one starch
Day 3 Increase water intake by 8 ounces and return to nutrition plan
Day 4 Return to normal plan

It doesn't allow us to go off plan often, but helps when going off is unavoidable.

TTFN

[joefla70]

Thanks Jp4ga and 2Chi. Jp4ga, glad to see you get back on track. You seem to have a great attitude... not letting one bad day or week drag you down. Like you, I see this as a journey. Not just one that will end when I reach my goal weight, but one that will last my lifetime. Because the same good habits that I am employing now will help me when I reach my goal and enter into my maintenance. From past experience I know that it is very important that I do not go back to any of my old eating habits when I reach my goal. I will certainly change my plan to be less restrictive once I meet my goal, but my days of junk fast food, late night snacking, etc. are over for ever.

So, speaking of bad days, I am still trying to recover from a bit of over-indulging on Superbowl Sunday. Sunday morning I did my weekly official weigh-in and I was 298.8 pounds. Last week (Saturday) was the first time I weighed in under 300 pounds, so I was pretty excited. Later that afternoon and evening I was eating things I don't usually eat, and a larger quantity than I normally would. I didn't binge or go totally off plan. But I did over-indulge. The next morning I was up to 303! Now, I know that there is no way I gained 4 pounds overnight, and that I was retaining some water from the salt I was eating. But it was still a little bit of a bummer to see the number on the scale go back up to over 300 when I had just got it down below 300 for the fist time. This morning I was back down to 300.7. So, I am close to getting back down to under 300 again. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll get there. I'll say one thing, that is the biggest motivation for me to stay on my plan. If I even think about having something that is not on my plan, or a bigger portion, I immediately think of how that will derail me. While this is a great help to me now, I can't help but be curious what things will motivate me when I reach my goal weight and try to maintain it. I guess the motivation will have to be to not see the numbers go up. Its just not as exciting as seeing the numbers on the scale go down! But, I guess that will have to do.

[joefla70]

Gracias, BrownEyed. Que pasa?

Its funny that you mention the water flush, because I made an effort to drink more water yesterday for that very reason. I didn't even know that would do any good, but I figured it couldn't hurt!

[jp4ga]

Originally Posted by BrownEyedVeggie

Good Morning,

I've been absent for a bit...taking a Quickbooks and Spanish class and getting hit with a virus or some sort of bug.

Kudos Joe on your boss' kudos. That's awesome.

When you fall off the wagon and you don't want it to show on the scale, try a water flush.

Day 1 Increase water intake by 8 ounces and omit one fruit and one starch
Day 2 Increase water intake by 16 ounces and omit one fruit and one starch
Day 3 Increase water intake by 8 ounces and return to nutrition plan
Day 4 Return to normal plan

It doesn't allow us to go off plan often, but helps when going off is unavoidable.

TTFN

I am currently working on a water flush to help correct the issues from this past weekend. Sorry to say mine was not from the superbowl, but from the stress of helping a friend through the death of her 15 year old son. I ate to avoid saying something stupid to her.

[joefla70]

Originally Posted by jp4ga

I am currently working on a water flush to help correct the issues from this past weekend. Sorry to say mine was not from the superbowl, but from the stress of helping a friend through the death of her 15 year old son. I ate to avoid saying something stupid to her.

Sorry to hear about the death of your friend's son. My heart always sinks whenever I hear or read about the death of a child, especially now that I am a father.

[BrownEyedVeggie]

Originally Posted by jp4ga

I am currently working on a water flush to help correct the issues from this past weekend. Sorry to say mine was not from the superbowl, but from the stress of helping a friend through the death of her 15 year old son. I ate to avoid saying something stupid to her.

So sorry for your friend's and your loss.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday was my off plan day. It started at my favorite Indian restaurant and ended at my favorite Mexican restaurant.

We ate at the Mexican restaurant with friends who are also watching what they eat. Dining with them makes finding and making good choices on the menu fun and easy. For example: Wine is a lower calorie alternative to a Margarita. Choose one: Wine or chips or rice-can't have more than one at a sitting. I chose the rice-and only ate a 1/2 portion. After not having chips for many months, chips leave a bit of a greasy aftertaste.

Oh here's another revelation...ketchup is salty. Ketchup is a no no on the plan. My hubby and I haven't had it since August-at least. The other day we dipped (he chicken/ me tofu). We both were surprised to find that neither of us have a taste for ketchup anymore because we found it to be too salty. Too think I used to salt and ketchup my fries. Ewww.

Great strides forward.. Now that I have been eating clean for months, the likelihood of returning to a fried food diet is highly doubtful because I no longer find the tastes of grease and salt appealing.

[joefla70]

Heinz actually makes a low salt ketchup... and a low sugar one too. Unfortunately, I don't think they make one that is low sugar AND low salt.

I've been on an Indian food kick. For the superbowl I made a slow cooker chicken tikka masala and substituted cauliflower for the rice. i just added it right into the cooker. It came out pretty good. I am going to make it again tomorrow and let it cook all day.

This week (like two weeks ago) I remained the same weight, despite doing pretty well on my plan. Hopefully this week I'll see the results! But, I'm still at my lowest weight (didn't put any back on, thankfully) so I'm happy.

[ljwc]

I don't understand how to insert that weight tracker slider thingie. Is there a good guide somewhere? I know that this isn't the subject, but I wanted to use it.

[persnicketypatterns]

Hello everyone! I started the QWLC diet two weeks ago. I lost 8 pounds the first week, and then the 2nd week I didn't lose anything. Today marks the start of my third week. I am feeling extremely discouraged since I didn't lose anything the second week, especially since I added a low impact workout to my regimen.

Anyways, I'll be following along with this thread. I'm happy to have found others who are following the same diet.