Originally Posted by Karen1234:
Welcome back to all of you who have been away!
This has been a good week - I am 100% OP and have finally kicked my cashew/nut addiction - hubby helped by not buying any this week too! I weighed myself this afternoon at home and was 1 lb less than my usual morning weight. Now, typically I am 2-3 lbs higher in the afternoon so this was a very pleasant finding. I don't know if it was a fluke or what but I can't wait until morning to find out if I've really lost about 3 lbs :0) I am happily approaching the 40 lb board and really want to get there by this weekend so I can sign that thing and move on. I am so excited to be so close to <200 lbs and in "onderland" It will feel so good to be there and to fnally be rid of the 200 and something lb mentally frustrating and physically exhausting weight I have been carrying. Realizing this has me more motivated than ever to get there, I am so close!! There are 2 great promos going on at the center this month. 1) lose 12 lbs in June and get either 2 or 4 weeks of program free. 2) Weigh in on "wacky wednesday" June 24 and get 1 mo. free. Now that's motivating! I only purchased 17 weeks (by their goal of 72 lb loss) and will probably need another 8-9 weeks of program to reach my real goal of 100 lbs so this would be a great way to do it w/o paying more, that would be great. Between that and the need to go bathing suit shopping, I am really motivated. I did a little "preliminary shopping" this weekend. We'll be travelling to Seaworld and their new water park Aquatica at the end of July/Early August so I wanted to scout out suits early. Unfortunately, Bathing suit shopping is still tough, especially for the chunky thigh girl who can never seem to find the right bottom that is still "cute" and not "mommy like" as my husband always says. It was still better than it was 36 lbs ago though :0) Anyways, I finally decided to just wait to purchase a suit until it is closer to that time. Hopefully I'll be in a smaller size by then and there will still be some left!
Hope all of you are having a great week. Stick with it, it's worth it!

Wow! I wonder if all of the centers are doing the same promotion?!
That 40 lb board is just around the corner and it's callin your name! I can't wait to get that much wieght off of my body. I am heading for the 20 lb board, just 2.5 pounds away.
I would say that buynig a bathing suit would be the ultimate motivation. Not sure I can even think about getting into a swimming suit. although my girls are asking to go to some of the fun swim parks aroung our area :o ! Once you are a smaller size I am sure there will be a bigger selection of suits to choose from ~ seem slike when you are a larger size it's a ~ get what fits~ type of situation.
Best of luck to you!

Originally Posted by Jace1234:
Hi everyone! Happy June! i have a job where I am lucky enough to get my summers off...hmmm...what kind of job could that be...LOL! Anyway now that I am not at work I just feel that I have been struggling to stay OP...I dont know if it is the lack of structure or all the extra running around for games, swimming, etc. I just seem to be doing great OP for a few days then fall off the wagon so to speak. I am still doing the supplements and lots of water which has kept my weight pretty steady or a loss of a pound or 2 a week but I was doing so much better when it was work all day (only take OP food to work so no choice to cheat) then by the time I got home, made dinner, did baths and homework and bedtimes for kids all there was to do was go to bed...anyway, I so want to lose a lot this summer so I can wow everyone with my loss when I do return to work, i was hoping some of you had some great advice for me, I am getting down and mad at me! I also am going to be taking some continuing education classes starting next week which is making me really nervous so some of this could be emotional snacking too...hohummmm I dont know...any advice? (I hope I dont sound whiney, I dont mean too!) thanks you all, I dont know what I would do without all of you!

A few suggestions... pack a cooler in the car of pre-mixed HNS, snacks, etc. I try to fill out my food diary for the day before I leave the house ~ I feel obligated to stick to what I have written down and not go off program. I also highlight in my diary the times when I go off. This is a motivator to keep me on task because I can really see the days that I didn't loose. I highlight the next 3 days after a day where I went really off program. That's the number of days you have to be 100 % before you start burning fat again. I keep copies of my program everywhere. This way I can't use my thinking errors or cop-outs for going off program. You have to set your day up for success, no loop holes or grey areas. Hope these help!

Originally Posted by noahsmama:
Here you are:
http://mrcrecipes.blogspot.com/

Thanks Noahsmom! I appreciate you! I lost 2 lbs this week after fighting another plateau! Seems like i will NEVER get to Onederland, though. I had wanted SOOO had to get there before vacation,but may not happen. That is three pounds away and i only have one week. AND next week my Aunt "Flo" will be visiting, so I will probably not lose... I don't know what to do??? I am doing the same thing i always do.. I have not wavered for one second. I thought doing the two mile power walk would make a difference, but this week my back was bothering me so i had to lay off, and THIS is the week I lost again. Weird? I have fallen into this pattern of one plateau week and one lose week..I added Corti-trim and got some Carb and Fat blocker to take on vaca. Anyone have any advice to knock me out of this stupid pattern?? I would so much rather have a steady loss.. I basically eat the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch.. The French toast for breakfast, Lettuce and cott cheese and pineapple for lunch, and some kind of meat (turkey, chicken, fish, etc and green beans/melba or 1 piece 40 cal bread for dinner. I am doing found supps a day and MRC-6, Enhancer, and Flax three times a day. I am losing , but it sure seems harder to lose this second thirty pounds!!
:?::^:

Originally Posted by janett41:
Thanks Noahsmom! I appreciate you! I lost 2 lbs this week after fighting another plateau! Seems like i will NEVER get to Onederland, though. I had wanted SOOO had to get there before vacation,but may not happen. That is three pounds away and i only have one week. AND next week my Aunt "Flo" will be visiting, so I will probably not lose... I don't know what to do??? I am doing the same thing i always do.. I have not wavered for one second. I thought doing the two mile power walk would make a difference, but this week my back was bothering me so i had to lay off, and THIS is the week I lost again. Weird? I have fallen into this pattern of one plateau week and one lose week..I added Corti-trim and got some Carb and Fat blocker to take on vaca. Anyone have any advice to knock me out of this stupid pattern?? I would so much rather have a steady loss.. I basically eat the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch.. The French toast for breakfast, Lettuce and cott cheese and pineapple for lunch, and some kind of meat (turkey, chicken, fish, etc and green beans/melba or 1 piece 40 cal bread for dinner. I am doing found supps a day and MRC-6, Enhancer, and Flax three times a day. I am losing , but it sure seems harder to lose this second thirty pounds!!
:?::^:

Janet, you're doing awesome!! Don't get discouraged about not making onederland by your vacation. Goals are supposed to motivate us not discourage us and make us feel like a failure. Look how far you've come...you've lost 34 lbs. and you're almost to onderland!! You are also one of the few people I know who have stayed on plan 100%! You know you've done the best you can so what else can you do? Be happy, no be ecstatic :carrot: that you are going into this vacation at least 34 lbs. lighter than you would have been before!!!

Originally Posted by Karen1234:
Welcome back to all of you who have been away!
This has been a good week - I am 100% OP and have finally kicked my cashew/nut addiction - hubby helped by not buying any this week too! I weighed myself this afternoon at home and was 1 lb less than my usual morning weight. Now, typically I am 2-3 lbs higher in the afternoon so this was a very pleasant finding. I don't know if it was a fluke or what but I can't wait until morning to find out if I've really lost about 3 lbs :0) I am happily approaching the 40 lb board and really want to get there by this weekend so I can sign that thing and move on. I am so excited to be so close to <200 lbs and in "onderland" It will feel so good to be there and to fnally be rid of the 200 and something lb mentally frustrating and physically exhausting weight I have been carrying. Realizing this has me more motivated than ever to get there, I am so close!! There are 2 great promos going on at the center this month. 1) lose 12 lbs in June and get either 2 or 4 weeks of program free. 2) Weigh in on "wacky wednesday" June 24 and get 1 mo. free. Now that's motivating! I only purchased 17 weeks (by their goal of 72 lb loss) and will probably need another 8-9 weeks of program to reach my real goal of 100 lbs so this would be a great way to do it w/o paying more, that would be great. Between that and the need to go bathing suit shopping, I am really motivated. I did a little "preliminary shopping" this weekend. We'll be travelling to Seaworld and their new water park Aquatica at the end of July/Early August so I wanted to scout out suits early. Unfortunately, Bathing suit shopping is still tough, especially for the chunky thigh girl who can never seem to find the right bottom that is still "cute" and not "mommy like" as my husband always says. It was still better than it was 36 lbs ago though :0) Anyways, I finally decided to just wait to purchase a suit until it is closer to that time. Hopefully I'll be in a smaller size by then and there will still be some left!
Hope all of you are having a great week. Stick with it, it's worth it!

Good for you in beating your 'nut' habit. My center is doing an inch loss challenge, and the winner gets a gift basket and Metabucks. Getting the extra weeks for free would be awesome.

I too am going to be in Orlando the first of August. My daughter lives there and my 8 yr old is going to stay with her for the month of July. I'm looking forward to having some fun playing in the water too!

Keep up the good work!

Originally Posted by Jace1234:
Hi everyone! Happy June! i have a job where I am lucky enough to get my summers off...hmmm...what kind of job could that be...LOL! Anyway now that I am not at work I just feel that I have been struggling to stay OP...I dont know if it is the lack of structure or all the extra running around for games, swimming, etc. I just seem to be doing great OP for a few days then fall off the wagon so to speak. I am still doing the supplements and lots of water which has kept my weight pretty steady or a loss of a pound or 2 a week but I was doing so much better when it was work all day (only take OP food to work so no choice to cheat) then by the time I got home, made dinner, did baths and homework and bedtimes for kids all there was to do was go to bed...anyway, I so want to lose a lot this summer so I can wow everyone with my loss when I do return to work, i was hoping some of you had some great advice for me, I am getting down and mad at me! I also am going to be taking some continuing education classes starting next week which is making me really nervous so some of this could be emotional snacking too...hohummmm I dont know...any advice? (I hope I dont sound whiney, I dont mean too!) thanks you all, I dont know what I would do without all of you!

I think when our routines change, it isn't as easy to stick with everything. I found when I first started the program weekends were frustrating because I would get busy and not stay on schedule. That's my goal for each weekend is just to watch the time and make sure I eat and have the HNS when I should. I also found by sticking to my timing, it was easy to stay OP.

Don't fret about your classes. You've been through a ton of classes already, remember? I'm currently working on my degree, so I understand the apprehension. You'll do fine.

Create a picture in your mind of your first day back in the fall and how you will WOW everyone.

Hey everyone. I joined MRC 2 months age and have lost 19.5 lbs which i'm really proud of! But my weight loss seems to have slowed down a bit and it's somewhat frustrating. I went from losing 3-4 lbs a week to 1.5-2 a week. Did anyone else experience this? What did you do to help give you that boost again? I wanted to be at -25 by today because that's my half way weight and today is my half way date but it just didn't happen. Any tips would be much appreciated! :)

Originally Posted by Lori123321:
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to all the new and new again people!
Just an update on the job front, did not get the extension on my current contract. Had an interview today which went well. The pay is good and the benefits are excellent. So my fingers are crossed!
Jace, I know what you mean about trying to stay OP when you are off. I have been bad, a little here, a little there. The other night I had mashed potatoes, took my fat and carb blocker. Tonight I met friends at a brewery, they were giving out free beer! I was starving and tried to find something MRC friendly on the menu. I ended up with Lemon Chicken and subbed salad for all the sides! I was lucky that I have friends with no boundarys. They ate all the croutons and half the chicken. It was well over 4 oz! Then they drank my beer! But forgot the fat/carb blocker until it was too late. So I am dreading weighing in tomorrow.
Did you know that a 6 month old puppy can chew through a cable wire and a laptop charger? Yup, my little golden retriever is lucky to be alive! Going to the store tonight to find a charger. :comp:

Lori, I had to laugh when reading about the trouble your little puppy caused. I'm glad he is ok. I didn't get the best night of sleep last night because of my 6 month old puppy! We just started not closing his kennel at night in our bedroom. We have a cat who can open doors, so somehow we missed getting our door locked last night. We woke up to a plant that not only had been destroyed, but dirt was in our room, up the stairs and of course in the living room. We have a french mastiff and about 65 lbs. Needless to say, he has lost his freedom at night for now and we will try again later.

Originally Posted by janett41:
Thanks Noahsmom! I appreciate you! I lost 2 lbs this week after fighting another plateau! Seems like i will NEVER get to Onederland, though. I had wanted SOOO had to get there before vacation,but may not happen. That is three pounds away and i only have one week. AND next week my Aunt "Flo" will be visiting, so I will probably not lose... I don't know what to do??? I am doing the same thing i always do.. I have not wavered for one second. I thought doing the two mile power walk would make a difference, but this week my back was bothering me so i had to lay off, and THIS is the week I lost again. Weird? I have fallen into this pattern of one plateau week and one lose week..I added Corti-trim and got some Carb and Fat blocker to take on vaca. Anyone have any advice to knock me out of this stupid pattern?? I would so much rather have a steady loss.. I basically eat the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch.. The French toast for breakfast, Lettuce and cott cheese and pineapple for lunch, and some kind of meat (turkey, chicken, fish, etc and green beans/melba or 1 piece 40 cal bread for dinner. I am doing found supps a day and MRC-6, Enhancer, and Flax three times a day. I am losing , but it sure seems harder to lose this second thirty pounds!!
:?::^:

Hang in there, Janett41! I seem to remember hovering right above 200 lbs for a few weeks, and I think Namaste did, too! It probably has something to do with a mental block we set up in our minds--that it is such a huge milestone! Give yourself permission to cross that line. Also, though, you might shake things up by changing your breakfast or lunch to include different kinds of protein or maybe a less sugary fruit. (I'm not passing judgment on pineapple, but to me it seems like it would have more sugar than some of the other choices--but I'm not a nutritionist!) You have really come a long way, and I think you'll find that you are going to have a lot more energy on your vacation with those 30+ lbs gone that you have already lost.

Originally Posted by Jace1234:
Anyway now that I am not at work I just feel that I have been struggling to stay OP...I dont know if it is the lack of structure or all the extra running around for games, swimming, etc. I just seem to be doing great OP for a few days then fall off the wagon so to speak. I am still doing the supplements and lots of water which has kept my weight pretty steady or a loss of a pound or 2 a week but I was doing so much better when it was work all day (only take OP food to work so no choice to cheat) then by the time I got home, made dinner, did baths and homework and bedtimes for kids all there was to do was go to bed...anyway, I so want to lose a lot this summer so I can wow everyone with my loss when I do return to work, i was hoping some of you had some great advice for me, I am getting down and mad at me! I also am going to be taking some continuing education classes starting next week which is making me really nervous so some of this could be emotional snacking too...hohummmm I dont know...any advice? (I hope I dont sound whiney, I dont mean too!) thanks you all, I dont know what I would do without all of you!

Emotional snacking...yeah... I think once I realized I was reaching for foods not because I was hungry but because I was dealing with something that was beyond my control, it really helped in putting the brakes on that. It sounds like you are already mindful of that, so I would encourage you to just stop and ask yourself whether you need a snack or not...and if you do need one because you are hungry today, mix up an extra HNS or grab something with lean protein, like a little turkey meat. Having said that, though, I am starting "math camp" next month, and I am going to be in the same boat you are, minus the kiddos!

As for busy days, I find they work best when I have prepared food on hand. I try to keep Boar's Head turkey meat in the fridge all the time, and I also like to keep carved rotisserie chicken in the fridge, which makes it easy to throw together a meal in a pinch. The key for me is taking time to make all the food easy when I first bring it home. I just threw away a two week old rotisserie chicken--I never took time to carve it, and I didn't take time to eat it! What a waste! When I do take time to carve it and put in it a bowl, it is easy to pull it out of the fridge and weigh out an appropriate portion. If I bring home fruit like strawberries, I try to wash and slice those immediately, too, and keep them in a produce saver bowl.

Thanks everyone!
 

Thanks for all the GREAT tips, you all made me see that there is no excuse for the cheating and i need to take responsibility for my weight loss. I jotted down several of your ideas. One good thing about my upcoming classes is that there is no food other then what you bring so I will only take what I am to eat OP and for two weeks there wont be any area for sneaking things that I shouldnt! Do any of you know if we can have deli type meats, all I have looked at are so high in sodium but that would make an easy lettuce wrap to take in my lunch...please let me know and thanks again girls!

Originally Posted by ashley460:
Hey everyone. I joined MRC 2 months age and have lost 19.5 lbs which i'm really proud of! But my weight loss seems to have slowed down a bit and it's somewhat frustrating. I went from losing 3-4 lbs a week to 1.5-2 a week. Did anyone else experience this? What did you do to help give you that boost again? I wanted to be at -25 by today because that's my half way weight and today is my half way date but it just didn't happen. Any tips would be much appreciated! :)

Drink LOTS of water. Also, I take All Day weight loss which seems to help me too. (When I stay 100% OP that is) Good luck and congrats on all the weight you have already lost! WOW!

Originally Posted by janett41:
Thanks Noahsmom! I appreciate you! I lost 2 lbs this week after fighting another plateau! Seems like i will NEVER get to Onederland, though. I had wanted SOOO had to get there before vacation,but may not happen. That is three pounds away and i only have one week. AND next week my Aunt "Flo" will be visiting, so I will probably not lose... I don't know what to do??? I am doing the same thing i always do.. I have not wavered for one second. I thought doing the two mile power walk would make a difference, but this week my back was bothering me so i had to lay off, and THIS is the week I lost again. Weird? I have fallen into this pattern of one plateau week and one lose week..I added Corti-trim and got some Carb and Fat blocker to take on vaca. Anyone have any advice to knock me out of this stupid pattern?? I would so much rather have a steady loss.. I basically eat the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch.. The French toast for breakfast, Lettuce and cott cheese and pineapple for lunch, and some kind of meat (turkey, chicken, fish, etc and green beans/melba or 1 piece 40 cal bread for dinner. I am doing found supps a day and MRC-6, Enhancer, and Flax three times a day. I am losing , but it sure seems harder to lose this second thirty pounds!!
:?::^:

Sorry to hear about your struggles. It certainly feels a lot easier to do all this when the scale is continually moving down.

Sometimes if we eat the same thing everyday our body doesn't seem to react as well as if our diets were varied. The cottage cheese is very high in sodium. Maybe try and vary your lunch even and have the cottage cheese just a couple times a week and it might make a difference. One of my friends at the center was eating cottage cheese everyday as well and when we were talking she said she wasn't losing and that she was retaining water because her fingers were swollen. Anyway, she didn't realize it had so much sodium and once she stopped having it everyday, she started losing again. I was having cottage cheese most days at lunch for a while and once I started having other things, it made a difference. I usually have a salad of 4 oz lettuce and the other four is cucumbers/tomatoes, and either chicken or tuna and that seemed to help me anyway.

Hang in there and you will get there.

Originally Posted by Jace1234:
Thanks for all the GREAT tips, you all made me see that there is no excuse for the cheating and i need to take responsibility for my weight loss. I jotted down several of your ideas. One good thing about my upcoming classes is that there is no food other then what you bring so I will only take what I am to eat OP and for two weeks there wont be any area for sneaking things that I shouldnt! Do any of you know if we can have deli type meats, all I have looked at are so high in sodium but that would make an easy lettuce wrap to take in my lunch...please let me know and thanks again girls!

I think they would prefer you have other sources of meat, but my center said that we could eat Boar's Head branded sandwich meat in moderation. I usually get the mesquite smoked turkey. Boar's Head is a little more expensive than other brands, but it seems to be better quality with fewer additives and less processing. Frankly, I'm less concerned about water weight (sodium) than I am about fat, so I probably eat more of it than I should--but I also have problems with low blood pressure, so if sodium is a problem for you, be mindful of that. I don't know if it is slowing my weight loss down or not, but it definitely is a better choice than grabbing fast food, which is what I'd do on busy days if I didn't have fast meat that could be easily packed.

Originally Posted by lcmaly:
Went in for WI today...was up a couple lbs from last Saturday (which I expected...still losing the weight I gained on Saturday/Sunday from my husband's birthday celebration). BUT...although I was up in pounds...my body fat percentage dropped another 2% since since 3 weeks ago!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it.

I had them take my body comps this time because I've really uped my exercise (went from 200 minutes per week up to ~400 minutes per week) in the last 2 weeks since I'm in Stabilization now. I wanted to make sure I wasn't losing lean muscle mass. In actuality, I GAINED MUSCLE! WAHOO! So that explains why I lost another 2% body fat. The more muscle your body has, the better your body is at burning fat. So now I'm down to 20% body fat (can't believe it still...) and my muscle mass it up to 38 lbs.

ALSO, my water weight was way up (4 lbs since last Saturday...BEFORE the birthday celebration). So all in all...being 3 lbs up on the scale today doesn't bother me at all! I'm making great progress in Stabilization and can't wait to add my dairy at breakfast next week! I'm way too excited about 1 cup of yogurt!

Great job on all your accomplishments! I have a question for you since you have made your journey to stabilization. You mentioned you upped your exercise time, but how much did you exercise before stabilization. I've heard if you exercise too much it will slow down your weight loss even if you stay 100% OP. I haven't had the biggest of weekly losses and I don't know if that's why or not. Just wanting to get your take on it and what worked for you. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by janett41:
I basically eat the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch.. The French toast for breakfast, Lettuce and cott cheese and pineapple for lunch, and some kind of meat (turkey, chicken, fish, etc and green beans/melba or 1 piece 40 cal bread for dinner. I am doing found supps a day and MRC-6, Enhancer, and Flax three times a day. I am losing , but it sure seems harder to lose this second thirty pounds!!
:?::^:

I think you are doing great! Keep up the good work.

It seems that I heard one time that you should change up your menu every once in a while so your body won't get too comfortable. Maybe changing up your menu would up. Might be a good question to ask your counselor.