Haylo - congrats on surviving TO -AND- being down two pounds. That is AWESOME!
Mandy - that was the point that I was trying to make -it's something about not looking at ourselves critically (as I ususally do in a home mirror). . . I think part of the process is to make that mental shift - give ourselves credit for changing ourselves to be more like the way we would like to be! And those glimpses show us how close we've come.
Beverly - I guess I would say that all of us choose what we wear based on what we weigh and the way we want the world to view us. No matter what we weigh. And at some point, we have to choose what we eat based on how we want to feel and what we weigh. Because, what we eat does affect our bodies - has to. And, I also agree that the what I weigh does affect where I go, and that is a hard thing to change. But it is worth it, and it does get easier in time. The one thing I have not been able to face are things that show my legs - shorts, capri's, a bathing suit. That is the goal for the summer - my friend in Dubai put her foot down - I have to have a suit. It is a hard thing to do, but truly, do the people who look down on us because we are carrying extra weight really matter?
And, I'm glad that you are getting something out of the 6WBMO, and feel more control.
Morning Chicks!
Just a quick hello and I have to do some 'work.' As you know, that is not my favorite part of my job.....
Julie - Good for you, getting a new bathing suit. You deserve that and shorts and capri's! I have a couple wrap around coverups for my suit and I really like them since I carry (more than I want) some weight in my thighs. One wrap is short and one is long. Geez if you had time prior to your trip you should just come to MI. I could take you to our beach, where you would see women and think "Did they look in the mirror?" Another place I would take you would be to a biker rally....the old biker babes in leather and halter tops that outweigh all of us (put together) would have you feeling pretty foxy! But I agree, we do need to change the way we think about ourselves. Our weight is only a number - like age........
Okay I'll be back later....
Julie, I have not been exercising. I work full-time and until recently part-time too. I go to school at night; I graduate with my degree next month! And, I have two kids, plus my fiance' has two kids. Needless to say, I am a very busy woman; and I haven't found the time to get to exercise.
BTW, I love buying new clothes now that I have lost weight! I am trying to hold off until I loose the last 5lbs to go buy my summer clothes. I am so bad about waiting to buy new clothes that today I have on a pair of 10s, and I have them rolled up in the waist so they don't fall off.......
I haven't been the size I am right now since before I got pregnant with my daughter in 1990. She will be 14 in August. Strangely enough, I left the hospital after having my son weighing less (126) than I did before the pregnancy (135). He will be 16 in November.
Mandy, I have been going to LAWL for exactly a year on this past Monday. I didn't even know they would put you on hold. I will have to ask if they insist on my buying more weeks. I know if I follow the plan for awhile longer that I can loose the last 5lbs. My weight loss has just slowed down so much here lately. One of the counselors also told me that you still lose weight in stabilization, so we will see what they come up with when I go back to weigh in. As for the Gold Plan, what are the portion sizes for beef, chicken, fish, pizza, and etc.? I think some of them are different on Gold than Purple.
And, about the time zone, I am on EST. I'm all the way on the East Coast in North Carolina.
I was doing very well being POP last night and then i ended up staying late at work, boss needed something right when i was leaving that took over a half hour, then i was running late for my support group, so i stopped and ate quick. So how do you prepare for that? Maybe i should have ate after the meeting? But then it'd be late, like after 8:45. Oh well, today is another day.
I have an interview tonight for a pt time at that Knit Cafe, it's a dream job, but not sure how it'll work out. It's a little far for me and it has to be worth my while. It's an ideal job, but i need to make money too. Going to take some of my work to show them.
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days and have spent the last 45 min reading. Boy, ya'll are a talkative group. LOL Thank you for all the welcomes and the kind words.
I went to WI yesterday and was, get this UP 0.1 lb! *sigh* I was disappointed but this week is my TOM so I'm not surprised. I sprung my questions on that poor girl and made her a nervous wreck. I asked couldn't she give me some guidelines like how they categorize their food groups like, so many calories is a protein, so many is a starch, etc.. Like I said before in my own opinion there is no methed for their madness. In one place a HB bun is a starch, then on the CC it's a protein. I am a nurse and teach portions and food groups all day most days but everything I know is wrong with LA. Like ham is not listed on the program yet it's in the cookbook. I told her I had 4 excellent low fat cookbooks and I could create more recipes if they could give me some information. Her reply was that I needed to stick to the program in my red book and not try to "combine foods". Then because of my weight gain, she looked at my diary, and I had made Veg beef soup one night. She asked me how I made it. I told her with 1 lb very lean gd meat, lots fresh veggies and two small potatoes and a 1/2 cup corn but I made a 5 qt pot of it. Then she asked me what liquid I used. I told her some water and a large container of low fat low sodium beef broth. She took my red book and thumbed through it and told me I couldn't have it cause I couldn't have beef broth and that's why I had gained weight. *sigh* Anyway, I told her I had talked with another counselor last week and she told me which brand to buy and plus the broths are in the cookbook. Well, I think I made her mad, cause, she wanted to know WHICH counselor I talked to and exactly HOW I was to count the broth. UGH!!!!!!!!!!! I left so frustrated and will probably not ever let her be my counselor again. Oh, and I asked her how long she had been doing the plan and she told me she never had and that she had just finished her trained earlier this year and knew what she was talking about. As the kids say, "Well, DUH!!" I don't think so!
I would love to address each of you directly but I have to get to work. Hope everyone has a GREAT OP day!!!!
Smiley - your post made me and Sometimes these counselors just talk nonsense. They unfortunately really have no "nutrition" training, and I'm sure they'd NEVER let you actually talk personally with one of their sacred nutritionists! Good luck, though...!
Michele - good luck with the job, and oh well about the food - we do the best we can do, right?
I like the counselors that have been on the plan, they understand much more than the ones that haven't. All of the counselors at my center right now have been or are on the plan now. There is a beef broth that is in the cookbook that is very low sodium. I think it is Herford or something like that. I finally found it and it is a powder and not in a can. I noticed that even the low sodium beef/chicken broth in the cans are loaded with sodium. It is possible that the extra sodium made you gain some water weight. I wouldn't blame the entire thing on it like the girl did though. I can tell a difference when I consume too much sodium. And, I usually get my TOM water weight gain for 3 weeks, then after TOM it's gone for a week, then starts all over again. Men have it so easy.....
An idea for making your own combinations, try using full portion sizes in your meals. For instance, 8 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup broccoli, 6 baby carrots, 1/4 cup skim milk, 1/2 oz reduced-fat cheese-for a chicken vegetable casserole. Of course, you will probably have to adjust for additonal family members, but that is the basic idea.
Two whole days POP for me! Tonight is my first WI after my indiscrepancies. No matter what I am not going to flip out about whatever I have gained, because I earned it.
Smiley: LOL! I can't believe they made such a big deal and such an investigation with your diary when you were only up 01. You could have sneezed and been down 0.1. Did you tell her that it was close to TOM because if it was me, I would have been up 2-3 lbs - I know it's frustrating, but don't allow yourself to use it as a free for all (food wise) (I do that sometimes when I'm upset that I'm not down when I've been POP). Some counselors are impossible to please (and maybe it was her TOM and she was PMSing ). I agree with you on the portions and food combinations but you will never get a straight answer. The one that is crazy for me, is why can I have 6 ozs of chicken and only 1/2 cup of 1% cottage cheese as a P?
Too tell you the truth, I ask questions all the time and it works out for me because when I leave there, their heads are spinning and they rarely remember to ask me to purchase anything. LOL!
Okay this is cool...I've been noticing the last few days that my bras haven't been fitting "right" - they're being kinda slidy around my middle, I actually have a little irritated spot on my right side where the underwire was rubbing...took me till just now to figure out that the problem is THEY'RE ALL TOO BIG!!! I wish I had an actual ribcage measurement from when I started so that I could compare, but it's the only thing I can think of. Neat!!!
Fiona, you kind of do have a measurement, if your bra is a 38" lets say, that means on the first connection it's suppose to be 38", and maybe 2-3 inches if you latched it on the last connection it'd be 40-41", So you can measure yourself around, under your boobs and that's your size. Make any sense?
Smiley: When I first joined LAWL the counselors (one in particular) were a little cold and didn't really seem to care. After a few snide comments about my weight loss from one of my counselors I decided to take some action. I went on their website and e-mailed customer service and let them know what was going on at my center. That same day I got a phone call from the district manager for my area. She personally went through things with me and answered all of my questions. And of course had some lame excuses why my center manager was acting the way she was. The next time I went for WI everyone was very "accomodating".
I hate to stir things up but I had forked over what was ALOT of money for me (and almost everyone I know). That being said, don't be afraid to ask questions, don't take their sales pitch crap, let them know up front that your not interested in the supplements/LA lites/Meal Replacements etc. You are paying for their "expertise". If you don't feel like your getting the customer service you should then let them know.
Ok, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now, it's time for my LA Lite LOL
Karen, I am with you about buying new clothes - I am still wearing 18's which I am sure that don't add anything to my looks - I have some 16s that fit - I am really trying hard to wait until next month before I buy anything new. I have read also for people in other plans that they continued to lose weight once the portions were increased, so that is something to look forward to! You definately sound like a very busy chick and I'm impressed that you've done so well!
Michelle - good luck with the Knit Cafe - that sounds so cool! About eating on the run - what options did you have - was it only fast food? About eating at 8:45 - personally, I find that really tough - I get so hungry it sends me into a tailspin.
Smiley - you sound like me 6 months ago! Good for you for going armed with all your questions (I used to stick post it notes on the guide so I could remember). However, about the beef and chicken broth - the only kind they recommend, and I think it's only in the cookbook, not in the guide - is the HerbOx low sodium - it comes in packets or in loose granules. So show THAT to the counselor next time. And I can't believe that she gave you a hard time for being up only 1/10 of a pound! Also, in the cookbook, there are sections at the end of some of the ethnic sections that give OTHER selections. However, the cookbook I have is from the older plan and does not have quite the right portion sizes. Just think, after a few weeks you can start creating your own LAWL cookbook. I'm sure that you'll have a ready made audience! The only other advice is what is probably 'teenager' - do what you want, but lie to them!
Carmen, nice to see you smiling again! Good luck at WI today!
Fiona - I've been noticing that about my um, undergarments, too. . .
Metalchic- First off that is so great that you are the same size that you were in 1990. That is so great! I love buying clothes now too. It's so much fun. I remember when I switched from not thinking I looked good in anything to wanting to try everything on and wishing I could buy it all. It's a great feeling. I can't wait until I'm having to roll up my 10's. I can fit in to some 8's and a crazy size 6 (I think the person that sized that pair was on drugs!), but my 10's still fit just perfect. So we have both been on the plan about the same amount of time. I started on March 29 2004. I wish I would have stuck with it all of the time, so I could be where you are right now, but I've only hopefully got about 6 1/2 more weeks.
Here are some potions sizes
Beef: 4oz
Chicken: 6oz
Salmon 4oz
Shrimp 5 oz
Tuna (fresh) 5 oz
Tuna (canned, drained): low sodium or regular 6 oz
Tuna (in pouch, water packed) low sodium or regular 3oz
Turkey: 5 oz
Turkey lunch meat low fat, low sodium, thin, fresh sliced: 6 slices
Pork: 5 oz
Lobster: 5 oz
Eggs, large, whole: 2 (up to 6 per week)
Egg whites: 4
Egg beaters, plain: 1/2 cup
Egg substitute, plain: 1/2 cup
Halibut: 5 oz
Ice Cream, nonfat, NSA: 1/2 cup
Tortillia 6 inch: 1/2
Pasta (cooked): 1/3 cup
Oatmeal plain: 1/2 cup
light bread: 1 slice
Pizza (carb cravers)
1 plain or veggie slice (mushroom broccoli, or spinach), pizza shop style; 7-inch long by 6-inch crust (1 slice of a large 14-inch pizza);pat oil
Hope that helps. If you need anything else just let me know.
Fiona-Congrats! It's always great to notice when your clothes start getting too big.
Haylo-Thanks for trying to make me feel beter. Also congrats on the 2 pounds! I just did take off again and lost 2 pounds also. It's going to be great to eat some "real" food again today. Also, just stick to your guns about the la lites. My center was really good about sucking me in to buying them. Looking back I realize that they really played on my emotions. I didn't really get that they were optional. I just thought if I want to lose this weight I have to buy these bars. Yes I usually just have string cheese in place of a lite. I also buy protein bars (I buy the pria ones) and eat them every now and again. I bought the lites in bulk and used them for the first half of my program. (I bought them for the whole program, but ended up selling them for extra cash) Now that I'm not using them, I'm still losing at the same rate I was before.
Mitchypoo- good luck at the interview. I hope it works out for you.
I was disappointed but this week is my TOM so I'm not surprised. I sprung my questions on that poor girl and made her a nervous wreck. I asked couldn't she give me some guidelines like how they categorize their food groups like, so many calories is a protein, so many is a starch, etc.. Like I said before in my own opinion there is no methed for their madness. In one place a HB bun is a starch, then on the CC it's a protein. 
I am a nurse and teach portions and food groups all day most days but everything I know is wrong with LA. Like ham is not listed on the program yet it's in the cookbook. I told her I had 4 excellent low fat cookbooks and I could create more recipes if they could give me some information. Her reply was that I needed to stick to the program in my red book and not try to "combine foods". Then because of my weight gain, she looked at my diary, and I had made Veg beef soup one night. She asked me how I made it. I told her with 1 lb very lean gd meat, lots fresh veggies and two small potatoes and a 1/2 cup corn but I made a 5 qt pot of it. Then she asked me what liquid I used. I told her some water and a large container of low fat low sodium beef broth. She took my red book and thumbed through it and told me I couldn't have it cause I couldn't have beef broth and that's why I had gained weight. *sigh* Anyway, I told her I had talked with another counselor last week and she told me which brand to buy and plus the broths are in the cookbook. Well, I think I made her mad, cause, she wanted to know WHICH counselor I talked to and exactly HOW I was to count the broth. UGH!!!!!!!!!!! I left so frustrated and will probably not ever let her be my counselor again. Oh, and I asked her how long she had been doing the plan and she told me she never had and that she had just finished her trained earlier this year and knew what she was talking about. As the kids say, "Well, DUH!!" I don't think so!
and 
Sometimes these counselors just talk nonsense. They unfortunately really have no "nutrition" training, and I'm sure they'd NEVER let you actually talk personally with one of their sacred nutritionists! 
Also congrats on the 2 pounds! I just did take off again and lost 2 pounds also. It's going to be great to eat some "real" food again today. Also, just stick to your guns about the la lites. My center was really good about sucking me in to buying them. Looking back I realize that they really played on my emotions. I didn't really get that they were optional. I just thought if I want to lose this weight I have to buy these bars. Yes I usually just have string cheese in place of a lite. I also buy protein bars (I buy the pria ones) and eat them every now and again. I bought the lites in bulk and used them for the first half of my program. (I bought them for the whole program, but ended up selling them for extra cash) Now that I'm not using them, I'm still losing at the same rate I was before.