3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/)

- Ideal Protein Diet (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/ideal-protein-diet-236/)

- - The Maintainers. Vol. 4 (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/ideal-protein-diet/252221-maintainers-vol-4-a.html)

Matolmama - what a star! Congratulations on your huge accomplishment.

Pxl - I know what you mean about feeling fat when you're up a little. Happened to me last weekend. I gained a few pounds after a weekend of bad livin' and felt like my old heavy set self. What a relief to put on the six skinny jeans and realize a few pounds can be managed.

Lone loser - I absolutely HATE doing phase 1 days now that I've been in maintenance for nearly 5 months. I do the same thing as you... one day of phase 1, weight gets close to where it should be and then do strict maintenance. Phase 1 is just too painful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TracyAWC (Post 4230712)

I make a tofu quiche that the whole family loves - it's made with a pie crust but my latest thought is that I bet it would be great with a zucchini crust...

Thanks so much... will try this week.
Today I'm trying a Chicken Noodle soup made with Shiratake Noodles, mushrooms, cilantro, shallots and lime.

Back Down to Goal Weight

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking for several weeks but I decided to post today about getting back down to goal weight and what I've learned from it. I'd been up anywhere from 2-4 pounds from goal weight since December and had made several half-hearted attempts at phase 2 to get it back down. I weighed myself a couple of weeks ago and noticed that I was up 6 pounds and that my two smallest pairs of jeans were beginning to feel a little tight in the waist. I decided I just had to get serious about getting back down to goal, so I went back to phase 2 for a week. I'm delighted to report that I lost all 6 pounds (and 1% body fat) and both pairs of jeans fit great again!

I learned some important things. First, I learned how important it is to keep monitoring weight and fat percentage on the home scale regularly (once a week works well for me). I write this down so I can go back and look later for patterns. Two, make sure and at least try on every pair of pants (especially the smaller ones) at least once every two weeks to make sure they still fit. These are big changes for me because in the past, I used to avoid weighing myself or wearing things that were getting too tight because I just didn't want to face the weight gain. I also avoid buying anything with an elastic waist (other than work out pants, which I take off right after the workout). I now realize that wearing "expandable" clothes deprives me of some important feedback about changes in weight that I really seem to need.

Like so many of the other maintainers, I allow my weight to fluctuate only by a few pounds before I take action. If I notice that my weight is up by 2 or more pounds on two consecutive weigh-in's, that's my cue to go back to phase 2 for a few days or a week to get it back down to goal. Now, I realize that I have to really do phase 2 exactly, otherwise it will not work, which paves the way for 2 pounds to turn into 10, 20, or 30! I also found that writing down what I plan to eat at least one day ahead during phase 2 helps tremendously.

I want to thank everyone who participates in this thread, too. Reading this thread every day has also been so helpful in terms of keeping me motivated to maintain. It's so comforting knowing that we are all in this together!

Karen

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2RIDEROLLERCOAST (Post 4203971)

A year ago this week I decided to do something about my weight. I hadn't weighed myself for at least 1 year if not more. At work an amazing man some of you may remember Couts, he was the ever shrinking man. I asked him HOW, I then found a clinic near my house and made an appointment and the rest was history. My first weigh in I was so ashamed of my weight I weighed in at 241. When asked what was my goal, I had thought hard about this and I didn't ever remember being 140 so that was my set date. I thought the food tasted a little weird but after a week I started really liking knowing exactly what I was eating every day. Loved that I could have chocolate and chips and puddings. What a diet... and that first week what a shock 11 lbs I was hooked... as the weeks continued it was 4 lbs here 3 lbs there and so down my weight went. I spent a lot of time on this website as it was so helpful having people there that were doing the same thing. As my first 25 lbs gone, the changes were amazing, my face was thinner I was looking for different clothing to wear. 50 lbs came and went decided I needed a new hair style there went the long hair in a ponytail, to shoulder lenght bob. Next 75 lbs there I celebrated with a tattoo of both my dogs' paws one on each calve, and the proceeds went to charity of a rescue organization. After that my weight lose slowed but I continued I wasn't giving up. I began to yo-yo one week I would gain weight the next I would lose, then I would gain and again lose. It seemed like I was in the 170s for ever.. finally I hit 165 and was so excited. There I struggled some more, it is a hard time when everyone is telling you that you look great you don't need to lose anything more. I knew that I looked okay but I still was set to my goal. Even my coach began to say maybe you shouldn't go any further still I persisted. I went through a bootcamp for a couple of weeks, then I did phase 2 for 10 days, still yo-yoing back to phase 1 and lost a little so back to phase 2 I went and then I went to phase 3. That is just a weird thing to eat fruit, yogurt and bread with butter or my case peanut butter. You get so full but know you are doing things properly. I finally lost in phase 3 I was so excited. We decided that I wasn't quite at my goal, but I would go into maintenance anyway. Nov 21 I went into maintenance weighing 146. 95 lbs lost in 10 months I was looking forward to what maintenance would provide and how I would handle it. They let you loose with a little advise about carbs and fats and they should never be together as two kids that always fight... and off you go.
To celebrate my 95 lbs lost I donated 95 lbs of food to a food drive put on my a local radio station.
Finally as a celebration my dear friend who is a photographer did a photo shoot for me, this being my late Dad's birthday so it couldn't have been a better day to celebrate life and knowing that I will be healthier.

Now you know how we say this diet is easy just strict? It is so true, I enjoyed a few "fun days" and was so afraid to gain weight I didn't totally do more than a extra snack after my first fun day... well long story short with Christmas and all I did gain weight I am at about 160 again and have decided that I would go on phase 1 again for a couple of weeks to reset my pancreas. I have to figure out what makes me gain weight... I know it is either bread, peanut butter or dairy. Probably the peanut butter as I LOVE peanut butter.
All I want you all to remember that maintainence is hard but once you figure out what your body cannot tolerate you should be good... or like me go back to phase 1 to see if you can lose those lbs again.

Those who struggle and don't seem to make it a week without cheating or giving up, please please for your own good don't cheat it just sets you back. I didn't cheat until the end of my yo-yo cycle and it didn't help me at all. I have gone to potlucks, out for supper, to a funeral, through Christmas and through some sad times and a lot of good times and I am here to say This Diet works you just have to be ready to do it. The keys I found are drink your water and more, have a good support system, and don't worry about what others say or how much calories, how much carbs etc you are eating, you have time to worry about that when you get to maintenance. Set goals, big ones and little ones, and pamper yourself when you can.
I want to thank all that have supported me here.
My friends, Arti for giving me clothing from size 16 - 5, Leslie for not trying to get me to indulge when she did, Emma who started around the same time and was so nice to have someone to talk to. Tracey for the wonderful picture, Rene for the man that lead the way... and so many more that encouraged me along the way.

Now I am on a new leg of this journey/marathon I find myself looking back going wow I came a long way. I may never reach my goal but I made a promise to myself not to ever get that heavy ever again. I am enjoying life more. I started running with my Red Dog. This weekend was a goal long in coming, Red Dog Rebel got her Agility Trial Dog of Canada and I am so proud of her. It was a sad day though as 2 weeks ago I said goodbye to my first Agility Partner and furry Friend. I know that Jewel was barking and cheering us on as we competed today.
Have a great weekend everyone and I hope this has encouraged those that need encouraging and just shows that this diet works and if you do start gaining weight you know how to lose. Keep up the good work all!:dancer::dancer:

That was a beautiful story! Thanks for sharing it!
Chloe

What an incredible story thank you for sharing it. I have not cheated been on this for 8 weeks now, I find it very easy and the weight is coming off quickly as of today it is 31.5lbs and 2 more days to reach the 8th week mark. Very happy with this way of eating and living I hate to say diet because this one will be my life time way of eating.:carrot:

Quote:

Originally Posted by matolmama (Post 4230903)

i updated my progress photo today. i so don't feel like this person yet....

Good for you!!! You must feel AMAZING!!! A new you for life!!!

Dear 2RIDEROLLERCOAST, Thank you for sharing your story! Very inspirational and motivating. I loved it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by karenfromtexas (Post 4232012)

Bravo! I'm taking action right now. I'm about 5 lbs over the top of my range. Definitely time to take actioe before I'm 6lbs above my goal and I have one more pound to deal with.

pxlkitty - I hate that I can still feel fat even though I've reached and surpassed goal. At the moment I have TOM and I'm sure that's part of it and the other part is just that I've never been this weight and my mind hasn't wrapped itself around a size 6 yet. Hoping that time will get me comfortable with that and hoping to adopt the same 3-5 pound threshold of action you guys all have

Maile- happy to send the recipe! It's kind of long so I'll pm it to you. If anyone else is interested lemme know!

I posted this on another thread but I'll post here too - I've been working out with weights 2x a week almost since I started. I also tried doing cardio at first so my losses stalled and I stopped. Figured that now I'm in P3 and ramping up for P4 I should get moving so I started couch to 5k yesterday. I don't run - never have - so I'm hoping for a good experience and figured telling people might keep me more accountable :)

Have an awesome day all!

Pixl and Pauley: It is amazing how you can feel fat and still fit size 6 jeans. I feel fat when I am too full or when the scale is up 2 pounds.
Pxl: You can do it!!! You are right about stopping at the 5 pound range.

Karen: I love your post. For some reason pants are the mark of weight change. You are exactly right about avoiding certain pants when you feel like you are gaining. Your idea of trying them on and facing your weight is very good.I also think writing down what you eat and planning ahead are the key to maintenance.

Tracy: Thanks for the recipe. It looks great..I am going to try it...probably with the zuccini crust. Hope adding your cardio works well for you!

Maintain: How was the soup? I still have not tried those noodles.

I have a question: Are you guys still measuring your vegetables and keeping them to two cups? I still am.

Have a great day everyone and thanks for your support.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maile (Post 4233122)

Maintain: How was the soup? I still have not tried those noodles.

Made Vietnamese Noodle Soup yesterday... had 1/2 for lunch at home and will take 1/2 with me to work today. The Shiratake Noodles were great! No carb spike/crash! I made it with low-sodium chicken broth so I had to add sea salt and fresh ground pepper for extra seasoning.

Will now look up more recipes with the noodles and veggies for more lunch/dinner options going forward.

Good morning!
I have been super busy and haven't had a chance to get on here lately! So much to discuss :)

Cajun- the cleanse I did was from Advocare. If you know someone who sells it, I would recommend the 10 day herbal cleanse. Do not bother with the 24 day "challenge" package.

On that note- Once I finished with the 10 day cleanse, I moved on to the 14 day "fat burning" portion. Fat burning my a$$. I have been steadily gaining and finally decided to stop. Now, the 10 day portion of the cleanse was amazing. I felt light and "clean" and had crazy good energy. I would do this again in a heartbeat.

Now, because of the the steady gain, I am on P1. I will probably continue P1 for at least this week and see if I can get things back under control. I have yet to see 135, but the trend was going up and up and up, so I had to stop it and get my weight back to where I feel comfy. If all goes well with week on P1, I just might continue and try to get under 130. We'll see. Which leads me to another topic I wanted to touch on...

Which is still feeling fat even though our new clothes are still fitting. I am definitely experiencing this to the extreme right now. I was in slight panic mode this weekend when I just couldn't take the scale going up any more. I felt fat and I felt like I looked fat too. Mind you, ALL of my clothes are still fitting the exact same way they have. But I just can't seem to disassociate the number on the scale to my mood and feelings. I know it is all part of the learning process and learning to be a new "skinny" person, but for me, it has really been the biggest struggle. I have lived my whole life by the scale and dieting, that transitioning into living normal is very difficult.

Someone mentioned that she was discouraged when she saw how hard we all work in maintenance. I think that has been the light bulb for me. I used to think that I would lose weight and then I would go back to "normal". It never occured to me that maintenance was also work. It is actually much harder than losing. I never understood before what people meant when they said that. I used to think "are you kidding me?!?!? Do you know how HARD it is to lose weight?" But I get it. Totally and completely get it. But, it is worth every single second of work. And I am 100% completely committed to doing that work so that I never have to go back again. It does become routine, like anything else, but it is definitely not "easy".

And finally, my 2 cents on the exercise convo. As most of you know, I am an avid exerciser and did so through out my entire journey of IP. I do Crossfit as my main source of exercise as well as run. While on P1, I kept up my routine of xfit 4x per week and run 2x per week. I also was slowing increasing my mileage on my runs because I was training for an endurance event was running up to 10 miles at a time for my long runs. Whether or not this helped or hindered the rate of my loss, I will never know. Because all I know is that I worked very hard to make exercise a habit and something that I enjoy and I wasn't about to give it up. It is too much a part of my life.

Plus, I always think about that the original diet was created for athletes. And not only that, in the end, aren't we all just trying to be as healthy of a person as we can be? We are creating healthy habits with our food choices, why shouldn't we create healthy habits with exercise too? It is such an important part of our health.

I was thinking maintenance would be easier than this too. Maybe some day it will be. I have this quote to share:

Losing weight is hard.
Maintaining weight is hard.
Staying fat is hard.
CHOOSE YOUR HARD.

I choose maintaining.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pauley (Post 4233445)

sooo true. I felt miserable in all aspects(physically, emotionally, mentally) when I was 159, I feel so much better now, how losing just a few lbs makes a BIG difference! So thankful for IP.

Also wanted to share my weigh in results today. Down 1.75 lbs...wooohoo..happy!

It's been a long time since I enjoyed shopping for clothes. I met a friend of mine today for shopping and lunch, and we had the best time! My husband may not particularly enjoy my rush to replenish my closet and dressers, but I sure am!!! Just kidding, a little. ;) I found a really cute little black dress on sale for $28. It came home with me. However, I always seem to miss the sales at The Loft. Signed up for their email thing today. I hate paying full price.