Ro - the fact it never varies would make me suspicious. Guessing it works the same as a glucose meter - strip, reader, lancet, blood...and don't get me wrong, as someone who has low-carbed for over 12 years, I know being in ketosis produces optimal weight loss results...but I've also learned that there are a hundred other factors - and we are all different :) I don't think I would be very concerned about being in ketosis - generally you remain in ketosis as long as you are eating less than 50g net carb...some are more carb sensitive though

Fasting bg was 80 again this morning

Today I am mixing it up with both artificial sweeteners (RTD) + fat...Tomorrows experiment will be a true P1 breakfast (protein pancake with wf syrup - no fats) to see what my body does. This has been eye opening and very fascinating for me - it is one thing to tell yourself / know in the back of your mind how certain foods effect you - it is something completely different to see it on the screen!

Steady on the scale this morning - had some serious sodium last night & made turnip fries - my rings aren't flopping around.

When I started this diet, I thought to myself, I would really love to lose 50 lbs. Never, ever thought I'd get there

...But, today, at my WI

Down 1.8lb

for a grand total of 51.2 lb

:cp::cp::woohoo:

Now, excited as I am about that, I still have a ways to go....
but today, I am celebrating! :yes:

Your daughter is doing amazing!!!!!! Tell her not to be frustrated - it took forfreakinever for me to move down in sizes. For me, it really was months- I think it was probably 4 months before I felt comfortable in the 14's. Granted when I started I was easily an 18 but also squeezing my self in to 16's...UgggLEE- It was pretty frustrating- but once it started, then it was a couple of weeks to go from 14 to 12, now my 12's are getting loose and the black pants I have on in the picture from the other night are 10's- however, for me- my 12's and 14's are easily 10 years old- so the reality is likely that the 10s (which are new) are probably the equivilant of my old 12's.

WTG BLUE!!!!!:bravo::cp::hat::dancer::hyper::congrat:

HIS - glad your daughter is doing so well - and yes, the pants falling off WILL happen soon enough ;) Hopefully you have a couple pairs of jeans you can 'thrift' to her as she drops sizes

Interesting - 2 hour post RTD / coconut oil & bg = 75! A little low so I had 1/2 a Quest bar pre-gym...and a lot lower than yesterday with eggs / coconut oil. Calories are similar (RTD is actually slightly higher) but 2 hours post yesterday bg = 116...& I was hungry

:carrot::carrot::carrot::carrot::carrot::carrot::c arrot:YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Blue - YAY!! I knew it would happen for you this week! That's such a milestone number, no matter how far you still have to go. Kudos to you.

I HIGHLY recommend Combat Bars from Muscle Pharm - Peant Butter Cup - it is baked unlike any protein bar I've ever had. I would say it is a cross between Reese's and 100 Grand Bar. This would be healthier alternative to Oreos and it would be great energy for your running.

Ro, where can you purchase these? My closest GNC has very little in the way of bars, except for Quest.
________

I've come to the conclusion that on the days (well, evenings) that I work, I'm just going to have to do a modified P1 instead of P2. My normal daily schedule is breakfast around 9 am, lunch at 1 or 2 pm, dinner at 6 pm, snack at 8 or 9. But on my work days, I leave the house at 6 pm, which means I have to eat dinner way early, like 5 pm, and I'm just not hungry then, so cramming in 8 oz of protein and 2 c veggies just isn't do-able. Last night I just had a protein pudding before work and felt a lot better. I only work two nights a week, so I don't think it will hurt me to do P1 (with a P3 breakfast) twice a week.

I had a binge last night. :( The night shift crew had brought food to share and it was in the break room, and someone had made chocolate bark. And I couldn't stop at one piece. UGH UGH UGH. I wasn't even hungry when I put the first piece in my mouth. So I think I will have to avoid the break room for a while, at least through the holidays when there are likely to be goodies in there.

I'm running 2 miles of sprint intervals this morning, and then off to do some shopping for wedding decorating supplies.

HIS - I get mine from GNC. I spoke to the manager there and was instrumental in getting him to order these as well as all the Quest products. They are now selling well so he is grateful to me for sharing this insight with him. So, with the discount that he gives, I pay $22 a box (I believe 10 are in a box). He keeps them on the shelves for me as I don't trust myself to stock up at home because they are just too good :-)

If that doesn't work for you, then I have seen single bars at Vitamin Shoppe (and you could probably get them to order them for you also). Lastly, you can order from Amazon, but you will pay about $10 more. My brother just found this out. He was so proud of himself getting them and not paying shipping because of his Prime membership, and I told him that I get them for $10 cheaper than he is so I told him to let me buy them for him from now on. He is dieting up until the holidays so that he has room to gain a few pounds through the holidays. It was tough for him because he is a carpet installer and needs his strength/energy, and he said these bars have worked wonders for him as I had him replace the Nutri-grain bar he was eating for breakfast with this.

In regards to the "meat" thing, on days I am going to be away from the house at dinner time, I do 1 of 3 things depending upon whether I have access to a microwave:
- if I have access to a microwave, then I'll have the IP chicken soup with 2 c cauliflower added in for my dinner along with another packet for 2 protein portions to equate to 8 oz of protein. This is quite filling. And, because I had a big lunch, I save my Snack for the evening.
- If I have access to a microwave, I make my 4 oz turkey burger ahead of time with my Quest bun made with multi-purpose powder and bring my WF Thousand Island and other toppings and keep in a cooler pack until I am ready to microwave it to heat it up. I'll heat up on defrost so as to not cook the burger any more than it already is.
- If I don't have access to a microwave, then I bring my cookies - 2 of them to replace 8 oz of meat protein. I actually enjoy these more. Or, I will bring 1 cookie and 1 bag of chips - either Quest for IP BBQ Crisps.

Sorry to hear about the binge, but I have no doubt you didn't cause any damage, especially with the running, and sure you will get right back on track. The key is to move past it and not dwell - if you get right back on track, you won't even remember you did it in a few days. I had a bit of a binge last Monday and got right back on track and didn't then even think about it and lost 2.7# for the week. If I had let it perpetuate by making other bad choices, it would be a very different story today.

Happy Veteran's Day!
The news never stops, so I am at work, but at least around NoVa, traffic will be amazingly light today :)
Still not in the habit of doing the morning testing and I was thrown off routine this morning since DD10 didn't have school...and I was really curious as I had a larger-than-average evening snack.

Today's experiment has me dipping back to P1 breakfast - black coffee & a Quest PB mug cake with cinnamon & WF syrup - 131 calories. I will be curious to see at 10am what my glucose levels are and if my theory about af sweeteners holds (ie - I am sensitive to them - or at least WF products / spike & dip)

NSV - went to Kohl's last Friday for a pair of boots & got my first "S" ladies shirt (Simply Vera) :D Granted, I think Kohl's women clothes runs a little on the big side anyway, but I'll take it!!!! I also picked up some super cute tanks from the 'teen' area - clearance! $5.00!!!! (and M) Gives me more incentive to work the "guns" and try to tighten up some of the bat-flap (which HAS improved already)

Btw - the armpit-dips were back last night...I have to shave blind b/c holding my arm up makes me think I looking in a black hole :lol:

Hysteria- I found the first time on P1 that I could not do any of the artificial sweeteners (WF, Mio, Crystal Light...). Any time I would have these products, I would stall out and as soon as I stopped using them, I would lose again. I also found this to be true with soy products, so I had to stop using those as well.

So, I had a (planned) cheat meal on Sat. night and I am still paying the piper. Ugh. Weight is up by .8 at my mid-week check, so I am crossing every finger and toe that my weight will be back down to 154.6 by Sat (official weigh day).

The funny thing is, last week I had a huge loss and I didn't feel like I had lost any weight. Now I am up (just a bit) and I could have sworn that I would have lost this week because I feel and look smaller. Very strange.

I know that this is a difficult time of year to be fully compliant and even be dieting, but something is better than nothing. Any weight that I can lose from now until the end of the year will be gravy, because I definitely have other planned cheats on my radar. I figure this, I am already down almost 11# and that is weight I won't take into the new year and I will be that much less I have to tackle in January.

But right now, I am hoping against all hope that I can at least get back to where I was by Sat. :p I have been 100% OP, so that is really the only thing I can do, is keep staying OP and plugging along.

Jenny - I have a soy intolerance I discovered in January so have been 95% soy-free this whole journey (and doing it on my own with alternatives)...and I was doing fine for the most part until the end of September & then BAM! I started having issues with my blood sugars & finally went into the Dr's 10/29, thus I started P2.
I had a couple episodes pre-TOM through the summer, but this was ridiculous...I've heard of people developing sensitivities though...

BUT, that said, it doesn't look like Quest / stevia / WF syrup are an issue. I tested perfect 2 hours later.
Went to the gym - gassed up with 1/2 a Quest bar and had a great workout.
Obviously 1 test could be an outlier, so the poking will continue.
I find it interesting the Premier Protein shake / coconut oil coffee had my glucose at 75 2 hours post meal & but Quest protein products have me 20+ higher...thinking it may say something about the quality of the product.

Since I am working from home tomorrow I think I may experiment again and make a regular Quest "shake", as opposed to turning it into an edible product (mug cake) just to see if there is a difference - maybe in the way my body digests liquid fuel as opposed to solids.

Dr's appointment is Friday and I am spread-sheeting my numbers for her to look at and we will decide if I need to do a full work up.

Oh - and slightly weird NSV - random guy walked up to me at the gym and fist-bumped me - said he had been gone 7 months and "you're kicking ***!" I was totally taken back - I don't know this guy from Adam :lol: but smiled, said "thank you" and went back to my stretching. I haven't been going to the gym on a regular basis for probably close to 2 / 3 years lol

I was over near my GNC today (it's 30 miles away from my house), so I stopped in there since I needed fish oil anyway. They didn't have these bars, but they had Combat Crunch bars. I bought 4, and 4 Arnold "muscle" bars. The calories are scary high, but I think I will try using 1/2 or maybe even 1/3 of a bar before a run, for the carbs/protein.

The Vitamin Shoppe was on the other end of town and I didn't have time to get over there today. I still have more wedding shopping to do this week, in a different city, so I'll look while I'm there.

I also noticed that GNC carries Quest powdered coconut oil, and MCL oil, which, according to the label, can be added to the Quest baking mix for better tasting results. About 60 calories per serving, all fat, no carbs. I wonder if it's worth using it instead of EVOO?

Beth that's awesome - Scenarios like that are super validating for all of your hard work!

Those are the ones I was referring to.
Because of the calories, I am waiting to have them in P3/maintenance.
I didn't figure it was an issue for you as you are there plus the exercise.

I plan to incorporate those when I get to maintenance. Quest's cookbook provides recipes for them. I am anxious to start making things from that cookbook. It is truly ketogenic - much higher fat % in the macros than IP phases.