Rennie, woohoo on the big drop down!!! That is so wonderful! And I <3 you too!

Mary, I agree, that pic was nasty, but as long as the fruit tastes like chocolate, I'd happily close my eyes! Imagine the desserts that could be made with that!

Bewildered, actually I'm an all-or-nothing type too, and I may have overdone it tonight while exercising! We will see tomorrow! If my RA doesn't flare, I'll consider it a win, lol! I have no doubt I'll be holding water weight though, but hey, that will come back off! Wait, what? You're surrounded by hunky, flirty men? How'd you luck out on that?!

Carol Sue and Obie, where y'all at?!

Rennie WTG on the scale drop! Your Bkfst desription made me chuckle, well just this: 'nasty McDonalds coffee' (hope your stomach settled down!) Thanks for the good wishes and high 5!

chickadeee Hope you are catching up on your rest. I thought of you today when I saw 2 new chickadees at my feeder. Actually I think of you each & every time I get on my mini-stepper, thanks again for that!

Mary, Those salmon patties sound great, even if they crumble into salmon hash! I've had Yerba Mate and imho you aren't missing much! But I'm biased... Btw, the dressing was kinda bland after all. Back to the drawing board!

Bewildered I agree with you 100% about this being a long term way of life! Glad you got some relief from the OTC med. Nice hunky men surrounding you--- That's interesting re effect of bright lights on you. I'm like that w sudden loud noise.

Jacqui I had to rest just from reading your workout! You have come a long way in a short time!

Carol Sue Miss you!

I felt hungry a lot today. Maybe it was something else masquerading as hunger. I'm trimming some fats from my diet now to make room for a carb or 2. My brain and body are not in synch with carbs--body likes low carb, brain needs moderate carb just to function & feel normal. It's weird, I assumed it all works together.

B omelet/broccoli, mushrooms, sauerkraut, tapenade, whey shake/coffee
L salad, beans, chicken, evoo
D turkey chili, cauliflower (pretending it's mashed potatoes)
S chicken breast, bite of cheese sample at WF so skipped the carb snack
70 oz vanilla cinnamon cold tea/stevia
Exercise 20 min mini stepper

Have a great evening, or night for the Easterners!

mars- I have heard that you are supposed to dissolve the herbs in the vinegar first b/c if you put the oil in first it will just cover up the good flavor. Keep at it! The patty stuck together. can't wait to have the other one tomorrow!

Jacqui- I would be in a heap tomorrow.

Ok, so my hubby came and got me so I could help him pick up a car he was buying and we were going maybe 40 minutes from home. My mouth was hurting so bad (like itching 2" radius around my mouth) and I started wondering if I was getting shingles again. Then I took a sip of water and my tongue started itching. I didn't even know tongues could itch! I had soaked my water with a mango (no skin) overnight and I guess I am allergic! I couldn't even take a benadryl since I had to drive back so far. When I got to my town I popped some benadryl and slept it off. It still doesn't feel 100 percent!

Did fine on my plan today. I wish I could tell my body to start dropping weight. Maybe tomorrow I will have some scale movement in the right direction again.

OMG Mary, that sounds scary and miserable! I'm glad you made it home ok and got relief! Btw it can take a while for the inflammation to resolve, incl water retention, something to keep in mind when looking at the scale tomorrow. But maybe it will all be resolved by morning. You have sure earned a whoosh!

Thanks for the dressing tip--I'll try it.

OK, Kale is good for you, Kale is good for you.

See the picture, what would you do with all this Kale? And there is a lot of it. (we have been using it, but can not keep up with it) The deer will not eat it until after frost, so they will not be any help.

Ideas! (do you think there is Kale soup)

(this is the first year for us with raised bed gardening and I love it so far. But did learn we over planted the beds.

Kale

What a beautiful lush garden chicakdeee!!! My skin does not react well to kale, but before i discovered that, I used to make kale chips. You can eat up a lot of it that way, just some cals from evoo. Basically you remove the big strong veins from the leaves and toss them with a teensy bit of evoo and any seasoning you might like--I liked garlic powder. Bake on a cookie sheet at ??? maybe 375, and i forgot the time, but it's not long at all. Maybe 6-10 minutes. They will turn from crisp to burned very quickly so you would need to keep checking until you learn the timing for you oven.

I loved them!

Morning All!
Scale is going in the right direction, 166.8, still up a bit from last week so I have my work cut out for me.

I have heard that starvation mode is a myth. The drop in metabolism is slight. If it were true, anorexics would be fat. If you feel satisfied on 900 cals a day, don't make yourself eat more. Unless you have an underlying medical problem, like Jacqui with her hypoglycemia, your body will tell you when you're hungry.

Bewildered, I don't eat my PB off a spoon. I use a knife! LOL

I don't like celery either, but if I cut it in thin stix I love it dipped in hummus. I started doing that since I learned that it is very good fiber, both the celery and the hummus.

I am not allowed to take Ibprofen because of my heart disease, but I have found that Tylenol Arthritis helps me.

Rennie, Here's what I'm doing wrong. I'm sticking every morsel of food I see in my mouth!! I visited the bathroom quite frequently yesterday, so maybe things have improved. LOL At least I can laugh about it.

Mars, since my eyes are hypersensitive to light, I love the gloomy days. I really need an eye exam. Maybe I'm developing cataracts, or something worse. I think I damaged my eyes since I never used to wear sun glasses. Now they are a must.

Chickadeee I'm coming to your house this afternoon for a big bunch of Kale!! I never had it so fresh as picked from a garden. It would be so tender compared to the prickly stuff in the grocery store. The baby kale is ok. There for a while I was steaming it to wilt it down for lunch every day and eating it with garlic and onion, topped with crumbled Feta Cheese. All my pains went away! I got away from doing that because I'm the only one who eats it and since I had to buy a big pkg it went bad before I could eat it all. If I could have it in my garden I could go out every day and pick some. There are tons of recipes for using it. I have seen it put in bean soup. That's another thing I would be eating all by myself. I need a new husband. LOL

Jacqui, thanks, but no one can help me. I know what to do and how to do it. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and believe me, it's a lot of flesh.

Hi Carol Sue! Great to see you here!

I gotta weight in, no pun intended : starvation reaction is not a myth, imho. We are hard wired to survive famine, and the body knows all kinds of tricks to conserve energy, including slowing the rate of all those chemical reactions in our cells that yield energy, ie metabolism. That's not to sya anyoe wil gain wt from undereating, just that the rate of loss can dramatically slow down. Starve long enough and sure, the body will consume itself and weight loss will happen.

Anorexics are not fat but many of them do actually die of starvation. Under 1000 calories will not kill you, but it's highly likely to make you binge, once you stop dieting. It's well -known and probably well-documented somewhere that many if not most people with bulimia were formerly anorectic. Anorectics who survive often go on to develop binge eating disorders.

Many of us have disordered hunger cues. I am one of those people. Leptin and all those other hormones that work to tell us when we've eaten enough can be out of whack from genetics, yrs of dieting, underlying illness, etc. I listen to my body but take it with a grain of salt, lol. I had powerful urges to binge once I phased off a 950 cal/day diet that I had followed for 7 mo. Those binge urges dogged me for 18+ months until I finally realized I needed to eat more. The result was a 20 lb gain, just from the binge-restrict cycle that I fell into in maintenance. Now that I eat enough, those urges have quieted down. But they still rear up whenever I restrict, even if by accident.

Just my 2 cents!

good morning all!

Chickadee- I am not sure what all you eat, but kale chips as someone mentioned are pretty good. There are also kale salad kits at the grocery store with the tougher parts removed. The best thing I have ever done with it is to cook with white beans and smoked sausage. I made white beans in the crock pot, then stirred in some sautéed onion and kale and sausage slices. If you can't do beans then maybe try sautéing with onions and sausage?

I think my scale is crazy. I woke up and my weight loss for an entire week was 1/2 a lb. What? So I kept trying and eventually got a 4 lb loss. It's It drives me nuts. It is very sensitive to what square in the bathroom it's on, how your weight is distributed. I have never figured it out. You can weigh, go pee, then weigh..and gain 2 lbs. UGHHHHH. Maybe I should buy a new one.

Thanks Jacqui I'm trying to mindful of my what I am putting in my mouth. I really need to talk to myself to see if I really want it or could I substitute it for something else? And if I do eat it will it cause a trigger/binge? Hopefully your exercise didn't cause your RA to flare

Mars, I saw them making the coffee and I asked if he put the splenda in it and he said yes, but my husband said had I not beeped the horn at them for taking so long the coffee may have been fine. When I ordered I asked were the coffee and fries already ready, the lady said yes. Then after I paid she said it'll be about 3 minutes while we make you some fresh coffee Thanks re: my stomach ... it settled while at church last evening thank goodness but was crazy for a bit again this morning after I got to work, smh

Oh my Mary, you are brave. I would have been afraid to drive with an allergic like that. I'm glad you got some relief when you got home, safe and feeling better. LOL, I put my scale in the same spot every day for that same reason. but because I obsess over it I can't leave it there or I'll keep taking my clothes off to get on it. I know crazy.

Chicky, thanks to Carol Sue I believe, I love kale chips. so so good. I can only eat it cooked with other greens (collards, mustard or turnip). Wish we lived near, I'd surely help you with it How did you rest?

Carol Sue lol I eat my pb off the knife sometimes also Carol Sue, I pull every string/vein from the celery before I eat it. That's te only way I can eat it, the kids shake their heads at me Carol Sue I told you before LOL, my husband doesn't eat a 3rd of what I eat. He's not hard to please but quite boring to go out with to eat (so I go with my daughter and her husband) or the kids if I want to splurge (they eat a ton) You are a mess ---> The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and believe me, it's a lot of flesh. I can say this also my friend but I'm trying not to be defeated :nod:

ok on the matter of under-eating/too low calories ... I can honestly say that I don't know when to stop eating. I don't have a sense or whatever that tells me to stop. I will eat until .... most of the time if I don't plan, I will eat and eat because nothing I eat satisfies me or seems to be what I want. I need to count calories and I have to have some idea of what I want or I will never ever lose an ounce

Week 01: High 175.5, Low 171.5, -4.0

7/10 ~ 175.5
7/11 ~ 174.2 (-1.3)
7/12 ~ 173.2 (-1.0)
7/13 ~ 172.2 (-1.0) only .3 lower than where I started 7/1 and 1.5 higher than on 7/3
7/14 ~ 171.7 (-0.5) LTTOM
7/15 ~ 172.1 (+0.4) TOM
7/16 ~ 171.5 (-0.6) TOM

Week 02: High 175.3, Low 169.9, -5.4

7/17 ~ 171.2 (-0.3) LTTOM
7/18 ~ 173.8 (+2.6)
7/19 ~ 173.9 (+0.1)
7/20 ~ 175.3 (+2.4)
7/21 ~ 174.1 (-1.2)
7/22 ~ 171.7 (-2.4)
7/23 ~ 169.9 (-1.8)

Week 03: High ???.?, Low ???.?,

7/24 ~
7/25 ~
7/26 ~
7/27 ~
7/28 ~
7/29 ~
7/30 ~


Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
1c sauteed squash & onion
cup of grapes
coffee (made at home)
Coke Zero
32ozs lemon water

Snack:
a sandwich bag of popcorn (gluten free)

Lunch:
big salad, spinach, lettuce, pecans, feta, shred parm, crouton (found them in the fridge from another salad) balsamic vinaigrette w/ Greek dressing
another cup of coffee

Dinner:

Chickadeee, here's an article about freezing greens, including kale: http://www.freshbitesdaily.com/freezing-greens/. Also, go to Pinterest.com and type in "kale recipes" and there are pages of recipes: sandwiches, salads, soups, casseroles, pizza, dips, smoothies, all kinds of wonderful things!

Carol Sue, now, this is just my 2 cents worth and you know what's going on and I don't, but just from my point-of-view, you lost weight on the slow carb diet and I thought it was a pretty good fit for you. I know a whole "anything goes" Carb Day doesn't work because of your diabetes, but I thought a designated and limited Carb Day, the ONE day a week when you chose to eat your pasta meal, worked out really well. If cravings are the problem, and again, I don't know if they are, it may be because you are allowing more quick carbs each day. In any event, I hope you get it worked out because just like Rennie is not supposed to be in the 170's, you are not supposed to be in the 200's! You are a ONEderland girl!

Mars, this is me >>> "I listen to my body but take it with a grain of salt, lol." I believe that if you are overweight or obese and are on a diet, the more you lose weight, the more your body will send you messages that you are hungry because of leptin resistance. Some people don't believe that, but there's research behind it. So that's something I'm on the lookout for this time around. Sometimes at night, right before bed, I get "hungry," but either I force myself to ignore it, or I drink water (knowing it's going to make me have to get up in the night to go to the bathroom). Last time I was on this diet, I used to reach for nuts. I don't want to do that this time. I know that trick, lol! That's just a way for my body to sucker me into eating more and more. If I've had a good dinner that hasn't caused my blood sugar to spike and drop, there's no reason for me to eat late at night, I don't care what my body says! It's been fed!

Rennie, woohoo! The 160's! Now you're headed in the right direction! Great job!!!

Mary, yep, if changing the battery won't do it, I think it's time for a new scale! :

Bewildered and Obie,

Yay! 194 again today! I am so pleased I am not holding more water! If you knew how badly my muscles ache, you'd understand, lol! But my RA didn't flare, and I'm maintaining, so I'm happy! I was going to do upper body negative reps yesterday and lower body negative reps today, but forget that! I think I'll be sticking with regular reps from now on!

Week 9: High 199.5, Low 198.5
6/28--199.5
6/29--199
6/30--199
7/1--198.5
7/2--198.5
7/3--198.5
7/4--199.5 Carb Day
Week 10: High 200.5, Low 196.5
7/5--200.5
7/6--200
7/7--198.5
7/8--197
7/9--196.5
7/10--197
7/11--197 Carb Day
Week 11: High 198.5, Low 195
7/12--198.5
7/13--198
7/14--198
7/15--196.5
7/16--196
7/17--195
7/18--195 Carb Day
Week 12:
7/19--195.5
7/20--195
7/21--194.5
7/22--194
7/23--194
7/24--
7/25--

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

Lunch:
2 hotdogs
Leftover black beans
Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Snack:

Dinner:
Loaded cheeseburger salad
Mio water

Today's Exercise:
3-mile walk around the track, 30 minutes on elliptical, 3 sets of 12 reps each on 10 leg, waist, and back machines