Question! What kind of (bathroom) scale do you all have at home? Mine is about 3 years old, only weighs in .5 pound increments, and frankly I don't think it's all that accurate, so I'm thinking about getting a new one. Thanks!

Fiona

Hi there! I have never been part of a chat forum before but I thought, what the heck it couldn't hurt. I joined LAWL on 7/26/04 and so far I have lost 14 lbs total. I am a 5'7" female that now weighs 144 lbs. I joined LAWL after being a WW member for many years. When I joined WW I weighed 225, and left weighing 158 and then joining LAWL. I was getting very discouraged with WW I couldn't lose my last 25 lbs, my goal weight being 133. I have had goodl luck thus far with LAWL and any input any of you may have would be wonderful! Thanks so much!!

I'm a newbie too - just barely a week - but everyone has made me feel right at home. Welcome Alicia, and we look forward to sharing your weight loss journey with you!

Fiona

p.s. my tip for the day is this: Don't leave your Caramel LA Lites bars in the car to melt and then try to firm them up in the freezer - they turn teeth-chipping hard really, really fast!

Hi Again Everyone,

Fiona: I just had to chuckle about your friend. I needed that laugh today - thanks!!! Oh, and I have a standard digital scale, which only shows increments of .5 pounds. However, I find that's it's pretty accurate, since I weigh 1.5 to 2 pounds less consistantly on my scale at home in the morning when I first get up, as compared to my weigh-in at the center later on the same day. For me I don't think it's worth it to invest in a more accurate scale - I just tack on an additional 2 pounds to the weight I see on my scale, and that's the worst I see later on in the day when I weigh-in at the center. If the difference wasn't so consistant I might think about getting a new scale, but I can pretty much deal with adding 2 to any given number

Beachlover: Glad to hear you are enjoying your vacation - I wouldn't worry too much about the 1.6 lb. gain while on vacation - I think that's pretty reasonable, and will come off very quickly. Looking forward to having you back, and have a safe trip home.

Kristi: Your chicken dinner sounds very good - let me know how it goes. Wish I had some recipes to share - but I'm too new at this, and still learning from you all.

Sammy: I'm sure you'll be down to size 8 soon too!!! I can't remember how tall you are. I'm 5'7" and my size 12s are now very loose, I need to take out my size 10s and see how they feel. Everything in a medium now fits well. We'll all get there because we're all here for each other!!!

Alicia: Welcome!!!! It's great to have you here - I'm new myself to both LAWL and this forum. I joined LAWL on July 15th and thought my 13.4 pound loss was good in that time period, but you did even better losing 14 pounds since July 26th!!! That's wonderful. Which plan are you on? Many of us here, myself included were also on Weight Watchers. I lost 30 pounds six years ago on WW and kept it off for five years. I decided to try something different this time - and after a rocky start on the program (I gained 3 pounds before I lost anything - but that was due to the fact that I didn't know the LA Take-Off Drink has grapefruit in it which I can't have because it makes me retain water) I'm pleased with the results, in fact if I counted the 3 extra pounds I had to take off after doing the first two days of the plan, I'm down 16.4 pounds, but I'm not counting that Anyway, good luck with the program, and it's great to have you here.

June

Kristi,
That's a good question!! I'd be interested to see the answer myself. I've also taken a look at some of the recipes in the LAWL cookbook (which btw is now being offered free to anyone new that signs up for the program and brings in the internet coupon from the LAWL site) and have noticed that sometimes cornstarch is part of the recipe but isn't counted as anything - I meant to ask about that today at my weigh-in, but it slipped my mind with the turmoil at the house.

June

Kristi- I thought I would use a bouillon cube but first or second ingred. is salt. So maybe no-sodium broth would be an option? I was surprised about the carmel bar. I had one and it was not at all what I thought it would be I was really disapointed! The rice krispy type pieces in mine were hard and the carmel was not "stringy" like I hoped? Maybe mine was old????

Welcome Alicia! You have come a long way! Good luck! Everyone here has been so nice and helpful I know you will love the encouragement!

June you are much taller than I!! I am only 5'4. I was fine until I hit thirty then all down hill from there! Oh well, from now on things will be uphill!!

To everyone: The thought of never being able to eat some of my favorite things, chinese food, pizza, zucchini bread just to name a very few! is really got me in the dumps. I am hoping at the maintenance phase we will be able to have all of those things we love and can't eat just in smaller quantities??? I have not heard much about the maintenace phase and I am soo curious!

I had the Lean Cuisine Roasted Vegetable pizza for lunch today - YUM. Wish I'd saved my dairy so I could have added a little bit more cheese, but it definitely hit the spot. I love, love, love orange chicken and General Tso chicken, though, and I don't see those fitting into the plan anywhere, so I will definitely miss them! And TGI Friday's sesame Jack chicken strips. Those are probably my favoritest food in the entire world, and of course DH got a $50 gift card to Fridays for being a groomsman in my brother's wedding (DB asked months ago what kind of GC we'd like). So I'm thinking I'll suggest we use it to go to dinner on our anniversary which is coming up in about three weeks, and I'll just have to be EXTRA good in anticipation of it, and also to not cheat anywhere else at dinner.

I've got a meeting tonight, and have to wash my hair, freshen my makeup and eat dinner in the hour or so between getting home and leaving again, so I'll say aloha for today! Have a successful evening, everyone!

Fiona

Hi Again,
The very little that I've heard about stabilization and maintenance is that they gradually reintroduce certain foods (though I'm not sure which foods) which aren't part of our program right now and they determine a personal program for each of us to maintain our goal weight - at least that was my understanding the one time I asked my counselor. My counselor also told me that when you are on maintenance, you need to stay within five pounds of your goal weight (plus or minus). I'm guessing that there are ways to have "treats" if we give up things in other areas once we are on maintenance - but I really don't know - it would be unrealistic to never have certain foods again but maybe I'm wrong. We shall see!!!

Kristi: 60 mg of sodium sounds good for that broth - I would guess it's okay. Let me know how it works out.

June

Kristi-How did the broth work for you? You will have to share your recipe with us!

Fiona-love, love, love orange chicken as well! I had the Lean Cuisine roast turkey and it was sooooo good! I had it for lunch as it is worth 1 protein 1 starch so I had to add a veggie. Thanks for the pizza tip! Is it limited?

Is anyone else out there addicted to mocha's or fancy coffee? I cheated this weekend and had a decaf fat free mocha which used my dairy and limited to only 4 ounces. I will not do this every weekend as I want to reach my half way point by October!

For dinner I found turkey burger patties and cooked that and dipped it in fresh salsa from my favorite mexican food restaraunt instead of ketchup. It was good but I think it would have been better cooked on the grill.

For anybody on the gold plan, I have class two days a week and one of my classes is in the middle of am snack. Has anybody given up their fruit and just had their bar or is it better to give up bar and eat the fruit?

I'm headed for a drive north of Boston, MA for a 4 hour training class tomorrow. That's about a 5-6 hour drive and have to get my things together.

Welcome Alicia. Hi everyone. Looks like everyone is doing well.

I love the receipes. For a quick dinner last night here is what I had. I had already made the turkey loaf a couple days ago, but wanted something different. So, in a pan - I put in about 1/2 cup of LS FF chicken broth, added about 1 Tbs of McCormick's Chili Powder (seems to taste the best), garlic powder, hot pepper flakes, 1 pk splenda, onion powder. Crumbled my turkey loaf into the pan, and mixed all together. I just put a pinch of corn starch (mixed first in a glass with a little cold water). Placed the sauce/meat over lettuce and within 10 minutes had my dinner ready (I went to the gym and was hungry). Added some salsa. It was really good and very fast.

I'll write again later in the week. Take care everyone.

Kristi: The roasted veggie pizza is a 3x/week food, and there is one other pizza, four cheese I think, that is 1x/week. Which reminds me...if you choose a 1x/week meal, does that substitute for one of the 3x/week options, or can you still have 3 more 3x meals???

Also, re: bars at snack time - I personally stick to the bar at midmorning and fit my fruit in elsewhere during the day, if I don't have the time/inclination for both.

Sy, your turkey salad sound delish! I'll have to try that - next week, maybe.

BTW, today is DD's birthday - she is FOUR! And I'm such a bad mom - I haven't even gone shopping for her presents yet. (I told her they were hiding - I didn't tell her they were hiding at the STORE!) I'm going to run out during lunch and pick a few things up for sure, and worry about filling in later - as I've also got to prepare for a "beach party" for four little girls this weekend.

Have a great day, everyone!

Good Morning Everyone:

The plumber was here this morning and that work is all done. The painter called this morning and I asked him if he could come tomorrow instead of this morning since I was tied up all morning with the plumber. So after the plumber left, I decided to go weigh in at the center again because I doubt I'll be able to make it there tomorrow with the painter coming. Anyway, I'm down another .8 lb from yesterday, which I think is really good considering it's only one day. So total net loss since July 15 is now 14.2 pounds!!! Once I make that next mini-goal (less than 3 pounds to go) I can treat myself to that pedicure. Hopefully tomorrow the spackling will get done, Friday the application of Bin to the ceiling, and Sunday paint the ceiling. I'll be glad to see that little episode behind me!!!

Kristi: That turkey soup sounds delicious - I will have to try it!!! And thanks for asking about the house stuff - I appreciate it. If it's any comfort to you I think I'm obsesses with both the weight loss and this board as well. I need to e-mail this bookmark to my school e-mail address so that I can check the board on my computer once I start back to teaching. I usually get in early and am sure I will want to check the board first thing in the morning!!! Oh, and I figured it was the soy sauce - no big deal - now you know for the future.

Fiona: Happy Birthday to your DD - hope it's a great day for the whole family and that you enjoy your beach party this weekend.

SY: Have a safe trip to Boston - it's a great city - hope you have time to do a little sightseeing or maybe catch a show. Your recipe sounds great as usual - I will have to try that one as well. You must be a fantastic cook!

Sammy: I'm a recovering Starbucks addict!!!! We have one that is not far from my house, and another that is right near my school. I love cafe latte, and mocha frappachinnos - but I think that contributed to the weight gain over the past year that got me to where I was at the beginning of the summer - so I've given up caffeine altogether for the moment - it's summer anyway - so I've been okay with it. I'm sure I'll need that coffee once I'm back to school - but I am going to try to stick to just plain old black decaf - since there's no harm in that. My students are used to seeing me with either a Starbucks container of Poland Springs bottle in my hand - I can't tell you how many Starbucks gifts I've received from students!!!! As for your question about the fruit, I was wondering how I was going to fit that in at my midmorning snack once classes start - SY suggested grapes - and I think that's a great idea.

Karen and Star where are you? How are things going? Miss seeing you on the boards.

Well time to get going. Hugs to everyone and have a great day. I'm sure I'll check back later.

June

Kristi: TOM finally came on Sunday - so I'm sure that is contributing to the additional weight loss (2.4 pounds since Friday). I'm also taking the supplements, and found that the Tri-Max really helps with water retention issues. Are you taking Tri-Max or Tri-Max Plus at all? The only difference between the two is that the Plus version has St. John's Wart in it - something that I can't have.
June

P.S.
And thanks for the congrats Kristi - I'm so glad this program is working. You are almost at your final goal - I sure wish I was there!!!
June

P.S.
And thanks for the congrats Kristi - I'm so glad this program is working. You are almost at your final goal big congrats to you - I sure wish I was there!!!
June