Hello,

I'm 5'9" and 201 my goal is 165...is there anyone out there with a similar body type that could tell me a good plan to follow? I don't think I qualify as active. I work two job, one sitting in front of a comp all day, the other is retail where I do some running around, I did recently buy an eliptical but so far only use it for 15 minutes 2-3 times a week.

Also if someone could let me know how I subscribe to a thread or board that would be a great help!

Sasha

**EDIT**

Also I currently drink 2-3 cups of coffee every morning...I need this to get myself going in the morning!!! How can I work this in with the diet? I was having my coffee with fat free half&half and sugar...i just bought some splenda packets..how do you have your coffee and stay on plan?

Thanks!!

I'm your height and my high weight was 219, but I wore a size 18 at that weight. I wear a 12 now. My goal is 159, I want OUT of the 160's.

It took me two years to lose those 50 pounds, as I am not a big exerciser, either. I did it by cutting back on calories, and staying away from high fat and sugar.

However, I do have a "cheat" day once a week or so. I have a cup of coffee every morning. I recently switched to sweet and low from splenda. I feel like splenda made me feel bloated for some reason. Instead of the fat free creamer, which is loaded with sugar, I switched to the SUGAR free. It is low in fat and has NO sugar, which seems to make me keep the weight on. As far as my diet, I have a low fat cheese stick or two and a high protein meal bar for breakfast. For lunch I eat a tuna cup, a prune single, tomato juice, low carb yogurt smoothie, an apple, basically a combination of protien and low sugar carbs. My breakfast and lunch add up to around 700 calories.

For dinner, I eat a big salad with lots of raw veggies and lettuce. Watch out for the low fat salad dressing, again loaded with sugar or HIGH FRUCTOSE corn syrup. Then I have a piece of chicken or fish.

I don't eat after 6 p.m. If I feel a little hungry at bedtime, I consider that a good thing.

Cutting out any foods with Hydrogenated fat and High Fructose corn syrup made a big difference with me.

Once a week, I eat whatever I want for dinner, however much. I have found I don't want as much as I used to to be satisfied.

My exercise is walking. I try to walk at least a mile a day, and that's about it.

Slow and steady.....I haven't gained any weight back (other than a 5 pound fluctuation) and it has been 7 years since I was 219.

Good Luck!!

Thanks Leslie!!

Walking a mile a day sounds like a lot of exercise to me!! What kind of salad dressing are you using? I'm been using low-fat ranch.. From what I estimate you are eating 2 Dairy 2 fruit 3 veg 2 protein and the eq of la lites everyday. Is that right?

Sasha -- I have almost the same current weight/goals as you AND I live in Boston!! I joined Healthworks gym and LOVE it there. They have great classes and the environment is really clean and upbeat with a great decorating scheme.

PM me and maybe we can support each other!

I stay away from Low Fat dressing because they usually add high fructose corn syrup to compensate. I prefer the "light" dressing. I really like Paul Newman's light vinigrette, and the light honey mustard. It has less fat than regular dressing, and no high fructose corn syrup.

Hi artsnsmarts!!

I tried to pm you but I haven't had enough posts to be able to do that yet... Thank you for offering support! Are you following a LA Weight Loss plan on your own or are you going to a center? What kind of plan are you on and how is it working so far? Sorry about all the questions I'm just really curious!

I was actually able to find my old menu booklet which turns out to be the gold plan. I think I'm pretty close to the weight I was was I first tried LAWL two years ago so I will stay with what I have.

Sasha,
I think that gold is a wise choice for you because you have all the program materials. The color coded plans are still good and being used by many people. All that happened was a shift in plans that divided the corporate (color coded plans) and the franchise (numbered plans). Good luck to you.

week 42
LAWL franchise center
Plan 2 with lites
total lost 51.5 lbs.

Princess Sasha, I'm just an inch shorter and weighed almost identical to you when I started LAWL and I was put on purple to start. I think the main difference between purple and gold is the portion size of the protein. You get about 2 ounces more of everything on Purple. I think they switched me to blue (because I had taken up exercising) at about 185, but it would have been gold if I was not exercising. I've been on purple and gold, and I would recommend starting with purple and then switching to gold if you stall on purple. Perhaps someone has the exact portions of purple on here somewhere? If you want to go gold that would probably be OK too, since you are not very far above that 185.

Sasha.........I agree with Barbara and Lynn. I am doing the old purple plan right now, so hopefully I can answer any specific questions you have. I just gave the protein sizes to another girl last night on a different thread. Here is the link:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125608
I think Barbara is right about starting with purple. You don't want to start off with too few calories. Good luck, and welcome

edit: I drink way too much coffee. Splenda will be your friend, but not too sure about the creamers. I would think there is something out there that you can use that is low fat/low cal that can be used like a condiment. Otherwise, you can probably just use 1/4 c. of skim milk and call it 1/4 dairy. Someone else will have a spledid idea and chime in, I'm sure

Sasha, I also am a caffiene addict and the plan does (or at least did) allow 2 cups a day, and I almost always go over that (and still managed to hit goal, though whenever I stalled I suspected all that coffee). Of course I've always drank my coffee black, so I never had any problems with it adding any exchanges. Try the skim milk and splenda and see if you can live with that.

Sasha, I have all of the program information on the purple plan. PM me with your email address if you want the details.