bfatnomore – Congratulations on the loss and hang in there with the temptations. Just keep thinking about how far you’ve come and how much closer you are to your goal!!

Lynnay – Great losses!! Keep up the great work!

Texasgirl – Glad to hear that there is a new, supportive staff and that you are going to get started.

Lesset – Congratulations on your great start with pre-conditioning.

KeepingOnandOn – Hang in there with finding something for breakfast. You’ll find the things that will work and get your day started right. Also, great job on the WI!!!

siverbelle – Sounds like you did a great job at the party and resisting all that temptation. On top of that you were rewarded with a great loss!!!

JSTUCKLY – 2 lbs is great. You are getting so close to your goal weight.

Gma to 4 – Hang in there and get back on track!! Now!


Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement after my WI and measurement on Monday. It is encouraging to hear about how sized changed for all of you and I loved the paper towel roll analogy. I’ve hung in there and plan to have a great WI again later this week.

Thanks all of you for the swift kicks in the @ss! I needed that as a reminder of the effort I've invested in all of this, as the last thing I want to do is sabotage myself. My husband is on a week long fishing trip in Montana, so that may be the trigger for the cheats. He's usually doing all this with me. Who knows...

Anyway, I actually had an OP dinner tonight and even experimented a bit. Used some leftover green beans, added 1/8 cup each of garbanzo and kidney beans, some chopped green onions and bell pepper, a small amount of fat free italian dressing, some sea salt and pepper, and one packet of Splenda. It made a very tasty three bean salad.

Maybe I just need to try some new things that will still be OP, as I think I'm just bored with the same old things. I get in a rut with the food and end up eating the same meals again and again.

Judy
Gma to 4

Good for you for hanging on through a birthday party! My first real challenge came about 2 weeks into the program and my office had fajitas catered for lunch one day. Oh, man! I can't tell you how much I wanted one, but I brought my salad, added the fajita chicken, and it worked out okay. It does get easier. I know I've been complaining about lots of little cheats lately, but really, it does get easier.

Look at you go, girl! You really are close to your goal weight!

Wow! You are off to a great start. And I'm so glad you added a photo. You are so beautiful!

Personal Update-After following Finz's good example, I upped the water yesterday to 128 oz, and this morning I was back to my pre-Ike weight. Yea! I also had my second yoga class tonight. I used a thicker mat this time, and it was much less painful than last week, but I still have a lot of stretching work I need to do on my own between now and next week. Have any of you yogis ever had a mat turn slippery midway through a class? How do you prevent that?

Wow - I can't believe how much I've missed while I've been traveling!!

Congrats to all the losers

Rdy2Lose - congrats on the 2 lbs!
Lynnay - Wow!! 7 lbs. That's great!
ShineOn - Maintenance - that's wonderful.
dla sounds like you've been doing a great job staying OP - congrats on the loss
lesset01 - 3.5 lbs is great!
silverbelle - 2 lbs is great - I think the trip to the birthday party impresses me more! It would be tough to avoid all those tempting treats!
jstuckly - 2 more pounds - congrats!!
Gma 2 4 - You've done such a great job to get as far as you have. Try to make one more OP choice each day - you'll be rolling along in no time. I'm jealous of the milk - didn't realize just how much I would miss it!
keepinonanon - 3lbs is an awesome loss!

Ok - so I'm on day 2 of travel. Day 1 went pretty well - got lucky and there was breakfast on my morning flight, which was a cheese omelet...how lucky is that?? Lunch wound up being a Cinnamon Crisp and Crunch bar and HNS - my flight was late and I barely made it to my afternoon meeting. Dinner was a salad with grilled chicken from room service...I ordered without dressing, but it came already dressed. I was starving so ate it - but know that even though it was a vinagrette it wouldn't be OP. Today my toughest point was lunch - the customer I'm working with wanted to get sushi for lunch - which I love! So - I got plenty of protein...but very few veggies and no fruit...also didn't get my HNS. UGH!! My first off plan meal....I looked at the sushi menu forever trying to work out a suitable meal but couldn't do it. I'm guessing that as far as off plan meals go sushi isn't the worst choice, but I'm still bummed. Oh well - dinner was back OP - grilled chicken sandwich (without the bread), veggies (instead of fries). Actually dinner was a big step forward for me - I'm not typically one to ask for things prepared a special way or for substitutions - but today I did so that I would know that dinner was back OP.

Hi everyone,

I am 5 days into preconditioning and will attend my food class on Friday. I weighed-in today and had a loss of 1 lb--a little disappointing but understandable as my PC instructions weren't drastic. I am very anxious to get a menu and start dropping the pounds.

I have been reading the discussions and am so inspired by your successes. I don't think I could do MRC without this website! Thanks to all of you who share your advice and struggles so freely.

As for my story, my weight has been up and down since adolescence. Every time I get to a good weight, I am unable to maintain it. I am currently fighting baby weight! I weighed 207 before I had my son (14 months ago), but have hovered around 185 since he was about 8 weeks old. So, I'm carrying about 20 lbs of baby weight and I was a good 20 lbs overweight before I got pregnant. My goal is to lose this jelly belly and get to a healthy weight by the end of the year.

I am currently taking a MV, Flax, MRC-6, All Day Weight Loss and Relacore. I question the Relacore but figure I can use all the belly fat help I can get. I am considering MSM as I've read so many positive things about that here. I have read many, many posts on supplement advice, but would still appreciate other thoughts on this topic.

Kim

Hi Everyone,

I don't post much more of a lurker but I wanted to share with you guys. Let me intro myself I'm in Jacksonville, FL Third time OP They say 3rd time is a charm. I'm really using all my resources this time. I've lost 16 lbs. since staring program in July. We had a cooking class I shared three reciepes from this thread and also if you look I posted what we had which was pizza sauce and chicken stuffing. The chicken stuffing is fantastic.

Shannon! I love Journey, hope you had a blast!! Denise, congrats on the 1 lb loss. Do they have you on pain pills for the shingles? I ate on plan, but avoided the center – didn’t want to leave the house. That’s the advantage of working from home. Karen – you are off to a fast start! Don’t get discouraged when you hit the first plateau (if you do, most will hit around 10 – 14 day mark) – it doesn’t last long. I just viewed it as the ugly dude on my shoulder trying to tempt me to go off plan. Keepinonandon – you are beautiful!! Thank you for posting your picture. You’re going to be really happy you have a good before picture. Silverbelle – great job on resisting the old ways of eating. I’m really excited that you were “rewarded” with a good WI. Texasgirl123 – My Dr said they could have given me a shot in the 1st 48 hrs, but the jourey was still out on how effective it was. Now that I know the signs, I’ll take them up on that if it happens again. I’ve been really surprised at how many people have had them. I honestly didn’t know what they were before I got it. Jstuckly – when are you going to start maintenance? I can hardly wait! Judy – there seems to be a starbucks theme to your backslides seriously, now is the time to be really strict. Stabilization is a pretty short period of time, and from what it sounds like, will be the key to getting you to a weight you can hold. They told me I will be able to have occasional indulgences on maintenance with no problem. Have you tried the frozen chocolate mint bar squares yet? I don’t think I could have survived this past year without them!! Bfatnomore – great attitude. So when are you going to come out of hiding and post a picture? I’m sure there has been physical progress just since I saw you last month. SIGS – look at you! You are 2 lbs from stabilization!! It seems like just yesterday when you joined us. 2kiddos – wow, you’re doing great on the road. Hopefully, the consultant you get when you’re back in town will affirm that success can be defined by making the best choice in the situation. That’s the real long term lesson. Hi Kim & rn5192008 - welcome!!

We’re heading into the “silly season” with lots of food centered events. I can’t believe I’ve gone over the 1 year mark! Anyway, last year we all set mini goals with a second tracker under our main one. It really helped me stay on track. Is anyone interested in a mini challenge – Halloween is roughly 6 weeks away. At 3 lbs per week, you could be down 18 lbs by Halloween. Plus, the mini goals make the tracker move faster – my initial weight goal was 80 lbs and it just seemed like my tracker was creeping along.

Another breakfast idea - if you can find some 40 or 50 calorie tortillas, you can do a breakfast wrap - I fry an egg (break the yolk), zap a tortilla just a tad, put an oz of cheese on the tortilla then the fried egg & roll it up. Can add a little dijonnaise or bacon flavor Walden Farms dressing or whatever to flavor it up a bit.

Ok, my halloween ticker is up! I used the beach background because we leave on halloween for a business conference and mini cruise in Florida. Any maintainers out there? Let me know if a 6 week goal to go through stabilization is realistic. I'm not sure how long that phase lasts.

Love the Halloween goal! 18 pounds would be so great

Question about the food class: will the menu be set up in a way that I can easily go right to the grocery store? Also, will they talk about the various supplements, or is that something my counselor will try to sell me on each week?

I'm in - the last week has really kicked my butt. Between stress, ibuprofen & bad eating I'm retaining a bunch of water. Not cool. I've resigned myself to the fact that I can't get totally serious about this for another couple of weeks (when my daughter leaves - they've been visiting for the past 4 months) - things will be back to "normal" and it will be much easier to get into my old routines with sleep, exercise & eating. But yeah - 18 lbs would have me just about at goal.

Stabilization is ideally a 6 week plan. The catch is that you have to maintain or lose each week - if you gain you have to repeat that week. (Each week you add something to your menu.) So if you maintain or lose each week, it's a 6 week plan. Took longer for me - I think I started in late October, finished on Dec 31. Of course I had Thanksgiving & Christmas in there, not to mention a death in the family. So it was no surprise it took me some extra time.

YUP! I went to Vegas and gained 4.5 lbs. I lost 5 lbs in the next week. I thought I was invinsible. I went to NYC and guess, what???? I gained...drumroll please...... 6.5 pounds! OMG! I thought I could do whatever the heck I wanted, as long as I walked and walked and got back on track as soon as I got home. Well, I AM back on track, but I'm pretty ticked at myself for doing what I did!

Anyway. There's no way I can catch up on 15+ pages I missed, but I wanted to say I'm back, on track and need a good swift kick in the A**!

I'm starting stabilization again b/c I was informed (last week) that I should do the 6 weeks straight and consistent and I have yet to do it right! I'm doing MQ for a a few days to get myself back in gear and then I'll start week 1 stabilization on Monday.

No more trips or special dinners out for me for a while. I WILL DO THIS!! I AM WORTH IT!

I'm in for a mini challenge. I have set up some mile markers I'd like to achieve but some of them seem so far out yet. I have a trip planned out of town Halloween weekend and 18 lbs down would make all the walking I'll be doing that much easier!!!


Kim & rn5192008 - Welcome to this board!! You'll find lots of great ideas & encouragment here.

Rocki - Sounds like you resolved to get back OP and stay there. You are worth it!!!

2kiddos - Sounds like you are doing a good job eating while traveling. It is so hard when things are out of your control. I have two full days of meetings coming up today and tomorrow with lunch provide. I decided to bring my own lunch and pass on the pizza they will provide... no matter how good the pizza looks!

Meemo - Hang in there and do what you can until things get back to "normal" for you.

I will take your advice on my crazy October of 3 trips in 3 weekends in a row! AAAAAGGGGHHH!