Rennie, I wish I could hit the 170's in 2.5 weeks! However, I think it will be more like 12.5 weeks. I figure it will take all of this month to get somewhere into the lower 180's and then hopefully by the end of next month I'll see the 170's. :carrot: But I like your positive way of thinking! :D

Katiecatherine, by 80 days, if you really give it your best, you're going to be a whole new you! :cheer:

PrairieQueen, I can only imagine how wonderful that pizza is! Yum! :drool:

Woohoo! Half a lb down today! :carrot: And today is Carb Day! I just might make spaghetti and meat sauce tonight! :hungry: The hubs is not happy that I bought whole grain pasta, but he's going to have to learn to love it if he wants to eat pasta at home ever again, lol! I mean, I'm compromising and leaving the broccoli and cauliflower out of his sauce, soooo... :lol:

Week 18: High 190.5, Low 186.5
8/30--190.5
8/31--189.5
9/1--188
9/2--187
9/3--188
9/4--187
9/5--186.5 Carb Day

Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 eggs fried
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Lunch:
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Snack:
A piece of Nestle GS Thin Mint candy

Dinner:
Whole wheat spaghetti and meat sauce
A slice of garlic bread (unfortunately, not whole grain)
Mio water

Today's Exercise:
2-mile walk around track, 3 sets of 12 reps each on 2 ab machines

Mary, how do you know your Fitbit died? Sometimes they quit working but it just needs reset.

Rennie, I remember you telling me to rinse the sharataki noodles well, and I did that. There was no smell. I also put them in a frying pan for a bit, but there was something about the texture that I didn't like. I tried them twice, to be sure I was not having an off day, but I still hated them.

Chickadeee, there used to be one woman on the Atkins forum who was an absolute expert on it. Her name was Kim, and her member name was Jerseygyrl. (not Jerseygirl1) Kim no longer posts. I have a feeling that she went to another low carb forum. But her posts are still there and she has great information.

Katie, you've hooked up with a great group. Lots of support here, do stick around :) You want to see your waistline and I want to not see a round stomach with lots of junk below it. I think my stomach alone weights about 15-20lbs, smh. We'll get there :)

PrairieQueen, I'm a chatter box so when I'm on here I'm on here :D. I also get off when most people are having breakfast or brunch so lots of time on my hands when I'm too tired, since I'm always tired ;) Your pizza sounds delicious :drool:

Jacqui, I think you could do 6.5lbs in 2.5 weeks. You have done/are doing very well. :) My husband won't try anything. It drives me nuts. I think if he ate more of a variety when he was younger that he would eat more now. My Mother's husband is like that also, drives her nuts but she doesn't fox certain things anymore because he doesn't like them. Broccoli and cauliflower in pasta sauce, sounds interesting. Take a picture please. Another 1/2 pound ... I'll tell ya, you're gonna be in the 170's sooner than you think :hug:

Carol, it took me a while to like the texture also but now I'm use to it. You know what I'll never get use to? Turkey bacon (yuk). That stuff is like rubber :D Wow, I use to read Kim's post, she was an asset. I know her followers miss her very much.

weight this morning down .5 to 174.2 ... day was good until my favorite co-worker/friend gave me the piece of cake that I missed on yesterday. She gave it to me at 3:55 this morning :) I didn't eat it until after my lunch which was 3 strips of bacon, 2 eggs with cheese, covered in 2/3 cup grits. Oh breakfast wasn't great but I was running late. I had a nutri grain bar and a fiber one brownie with green tea and water. Dinner is gonna be boiled turnips and either chicken with onions, salsa & cheese or a burger with cheese on a low carb tortilla (if I can get my son to make them for me :crossed:)

Yay, I finally googled how to fix the settings so that I can see the pictures that are posted via photo bucket ;)

:wave: All
Welcome Newcomers!
I'm having a few bumps getting back on track, but almost there. Too many obligations & working a looong OT stint first day back. Such is life. Too chicken to face the scale but at least the clothes still fit. It sure is nice to have unlimited access to vegetables.

Rennie Congrats on your downage!

Enjoy that pasta Jacqui! Re Hubs & the healthy pasta :D you go girl!!!!

Bewildered Hope you are having a blast on your return trip & can check in soon. Miss you!

Todays' food has been of the grazing, eat-up-what's-laying-around genre:
B1 baked portabella mushroom filed with jack cheese, a little pesto, tomato
B2 usual omelet with roasted zucchini, whey shke in coofee
S veg chips
L turkey chili, chicken breast, salad
S trail mix

Tonight will be very light. :yes:

Thanks Mars. :) I hope I see a little more down tomorrow :crossed: Now I want some turkey chili :drool: and I am with you where the bumps and getting on track are concerned ... we will get there :hug:

I've had two and a half turnips. I think I will probably wait till tomorrow for a burger since it's so late and I have to go to bed in an hour. Good call right? Drinking green tea and water

Rennie, do you drink your green tea hot or cold? Do you brew your own or buy it already made? I drink it only hot and steep it from tea bags.

How did you prepare your turnips?

I posted the question of where Kim went. 148 people read the post but no one responded. Guess that means it's none of my business! LOL

Carol, I drink it hot, two bags in a cup that probably holds 12ozs of water. I bought the unsweetened powdered stuff but it's so bitter that I have to add a ton of splenda to drink it. So there it sits in the pantry. :) I cut them into fours and boil them. I don't like seasoning on my veggies so I eat them plain. LOL re: Kim. Maybe no one knows. We tend to go MIA at times ;)

Carol Sue and Rennie, I was wondering about the shirataki noodles. I couldn't seem to get past the idea that you need to rinse a fish smell off them, lol! :eek: I guess someday I'll have to break down to see if I might like them.

Rennie, woohoo on being down half a lb! :cp: So for dinner tonight the plan was to separate a portion of the sauce and add the broccoli and cauliflower to it for my spaghetti, but when I went to get the broccoli and cauliflower out of the refrigerator, they had gone bad. (It has been a while since I checked them.) I didn't want to run out to the store, and I'm happy just to be eating spaghetti at all, lol! I've actually never had them in spaghetti sauce before but I've wanted to try it ever since I added them to Manwich sauce. I love them in that! I just steam them quickly in a Ziplock Steam-It bag and add them to the Manwich. I figured I'd do the same with spaghetti sauce. Oh well, next time! :yes: Yay, I'm glad you can see the pics! :D

Mars, the pasta was wonderful! Now I remember why I love spaghetti so much! I used to eat 2 huge platefuls, but tonight I had a reasonable portion, and that whole grain is really filling. Even so, my tastebuds were urging me to go back for seconds! I'm glad I didn't because I'm stuffed! :moo: Don't fret! You'll get back into the groove soon! Yay on the clothes still fitting! :carrot:

Bewildered, Chickadeee, Mary, PrairieQueen, and Katiecatherine, I hope you're having a great weekend! :grouphug:

Speaking of weekends, it's Labor Day weekend, and it completely slipped my mind! We've been invited to a Labor Day grill-out at my brother-in-law's house, and I used today as my Carb Day! :doh: Whatever meat he's grilling will be fine, but I hope they will have a salad or veggies. I already know his wife will be annoyed that I'm not eating dessert if she made it. I suppose I could break my usual Carb Day pattern and have two Carb Days within 5 days and just skip next weekend, but I'll have to give that some thought between now and Monday. I just don't know. Almost 2 weeks is a long time to go without a Carb Day (aka, sweets) for me. Besides, it's college football season, and I need my Saturday Carb Day foods, lol! We'll see. :chin:

Last night as I was walking through the kitchen, I saw some iced sugar cookies that my DH had bought, and the little devil and angel popped up on my shoulders and starting battling:

:angel:: Don't do it! Just keep walking!
:devil:: It's Carb Day! Go ahead! Have a cookie!
:angel:: You'll regret it! Think of the scale in the morning!
:devil:: You ate spaghetti. The scale's going to be up anyway. What will two more cookies do?
:angel:: TWO? Who said anything about two? You shouldn't even have ONE! It's too late!
:devil:: It's still Carb Day, and you're allowed to have however much you want on Carb Day, and you know you want two cookies, so go ahead!

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! >>> :devil: I ate two cookies before bed! The amazing part of this is that I woke up this morning fully expecting to see 190 on the scale again, and instead I lost half a lb!!! :dizzy: I got on the scale 3 times! I just couldn't believe it! AND I get to move my ticker! :woohoo:

Week 18: High 190.5, Low 186.5
8/30--190.5
8/31--189.5
9/1--188
9/2--187
9/3--188
9/4--187
9/5--186.5 Carb Day

Week 19:
9/6--186
9/7--
9/8--
9/9--
9/10--
9/11--
9/12--

Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 fried eggs
2 slices of bacon
Mio water

Lunch:
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Snack:

Dinner:
BBQ chicken
Large field greens and veggies salad with walnuts and ranch dressing
Mio water

Today's Exercise:
Took a break today, have a sore hamstring, thought it might help to give it a rest.

Jacqui, why don't you keep frozen califlower and broccoli florettes in the freezer for emergencies? I use them more often than fresh because the fresh rarely gets eat before it goes bad. Just make sure you get the florettes and not the chopped broccoli or broccoli spears.

I think you could have dessert at the party without actually calling it a second carb day. If that's the only carb you eat, it's more of a blip. How much is that piece of dessert really going to matter in the big scheme of things? Or, if you want to stay on plan and not eat the dessert, just say no thank you. Don't let fear of someone else's anger make your decisions. The more you turn it down the sooner she'll get used to it.

Rennie, now it's up to 404 people who have read my query about Kim. LOL

Jacqui D way to go! It's weird with the carbs, isn't it? Just when you least expect a drop...wham! It hits ya. Hope you had fun at your party.

Way to go Jacqui, You've got this girly :woohoo: I'm singing, "170's here she comesssssssss" :D I'm so rooting for you. I need you in this decade. I've (I'm laughing) given up chasing after Mars :hug: so now I'm telling myself, I'm waiting for Jacqui so I can move on alone in my own competition (still grinning/laughing) Don't you all just love me ;) I love the talk you had all had about the sugar cookies, that's so me :D I can' wait to hear how you did at the barbecue tomorrow.

Carol, I don't know what to say about that. Maybe there is someone on the thread that she was close to that you have noticed from their post that you could PM. Just a thought. Prayerfully all is well.

Well I've been a bad girl. Started the day off well. Then the end of TOM cravings hit (gotta call it something) 6 Oreos, 6 Ritz w/pb, a 1oz bag of sour cream and onion chips, a bowl of frosted flakes ...

weight was already up 1.4lbs ... my cooking son made mac n cheese and I ate two servings before bed knowing I was already full, smh

weight today 175.6

Carb day, could it be that your body has to turn up it's burners to burn carbs, so you could end up losing a little more with that extra burn going on.

I am eating BBQ ribs with Brussels sprouts (bearable)on the side. (protein and veggie) for my dinner. And they are yummy.

Yesterday DH and me went bumming, I think I am starting a vintage iron collection. It seems appropriate, it would go with the vintage sewing machines. I love them, so will keep my eyes out for more. ;)

I went grocery shopping today, and then came home picked peppers and spent the day in the kitchen making Refrigerator Sweet Pepper Rings, not the normal sugared ones. And tomorrow I am making Italian Sausage stuffed yellow banana peppers, for dinner and the freezer.

But I promised my self to get some sewing in. The weekends go so fast, and everyone needs enjoyment time. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.