hehehehe, my sage is looking pretty good, want me to send ya some?

Brenda, it's so cool to see your smiling face on your avitar, it makes me smile back

That's the key. Every plan will work, but ONLY if you can live with it\stick to it over the long haul. Sometimes ya have to look for a while and really do some research to find the WOE that works for you.

falon, when's it gonna warm up there girl? *shiver* in sympathy!

Tenn



Jackie, I bet you'll be surprised at how many inches you lost! Keep us posted.

Morning everyone!

Tenn - yeah, send me some sage. My husband isn't betting he'll be gone today. But one way or another, he's leaving my house on Sunday if he keeps procrastinating.

Falon - Isn't today yucky? I just want to go home and curl up in bed with a good book. I hate never knowing whether I need a short-sleeved blouse or a sweater. It's sweaters today!

Jackie - I'll be waiting to hear those results. That's exciting! Can Curves also test your body fat with calipers? Sometimes you will see a reduction in body fat % even though you don't see pounds gone.

Robin - I hope everything goes well with your gym buddy. I started taking BP meds when I was 18 -- the doctor says mine is genetic rather than from lifestyle and I just have to deal with it.

Brenda - I hope your fingers feel better soon. Would soaking them help?

Tammy - hey there -- let's get moving! Left, left, left, right left.

Lilybelle - I'm glad to hear you are doing better. In another week or so, you are going to see a giant whoosh on the scale.

Sherry -- You are welcome to say whatever you want and you don't have to shut up ever. That's the nice thing about a support group -- we can't personally attack each other, but we can have differences of opinion and discuss and share and learn from each other. I really do hope it works for you.

Falon let me ask you something just out of curiousity. Do you believe that one teaspoon of sugar will trigger an addictive response and that you wouldn't be able to stop eating carbs? Or do you believe that it is more that perhaps a brownie or something that has a lot of sugar and starch in it would do that?

I know that some of us have eating disorders and we eat to hide or escape from pain. To me that might be closer to an "addictive" response than simply having an intolerance for particular types of foods. I do believe too, that excessive carbs all at once, has a physical reaction with our bodies, that it increases blood sugar and that affects us by making us feel "good", but that when the blood sugar drops, that causes an adverse affect, and makes us hungry. I'm not denying any of that.

What I am saying is that there are moderate carb diets that people go on which work also. Of course with them you have to limit fat. I think both work. Her diet is not about eating all the bready or sweet stuff you want, in fact she says that French deserts aren't as sweet as American ones, and in fact they are often simply fruit with perhaps a small amount of sweetening added. Last night I did one of her recipes and it was pears poached in wine, lemon juice and a small amount of sugar. They were interesting and good, and didn't trigger any binges.

Plus the meal by being consummed in courses was of necessity slowed down. (and because of this I believe we ate less). We had soup, then salad, then our steak, mushrooms and vegetables, and finally the desert. There were some carbs with the meal, the small amount of bread we had with our soup, and the small amount of sugar with the desert. But it wasn't excessive and it didn't trigger any binges.

I'm not trying to insult anyone here. I believe in low carb. I know it works. But once in awhile we begin to feel so deprived that we begin to resent this way of eating. We (or perhaps I should just say that I) begin to feel frustrated and as though I'm doing this much work, giving up all this and I want instant results, why? Because I don't really believe in my ability to deny myself forever. That for me causes an all or nothing attitude that I've seen in others as well. When I'm good, I'm very very good, but when I'm bad I'm rotten. Therefore I have been forever looking for a little more balance in my life. Something moderate that I believe I can live with.

This isn't about eating starchy or breaded or deep fried foods. In fact it is about enjoying a variety of foods, particularly more and varied kinds of vegetables. She even has a "strategy" for enjoying deserts in a restaurant. I kind of liked it. She said you can order one and "share" it with someone, but if that doesn't work, her solution is to order, and while others are eating you enjoy one or two bites, eaten slowly and savored, then lay the fork down and tell a story as the others finish their desert.

Yeah, I know, a lot of us couldn't (or feel we couldn't) do this. We've been conditioned to clean our plates, and of course, desert is the one thing we WANT to finish. Still I think by trying to think the way she describes, that it might work for me. I usually don't order desert in a restaurant, because I'm usually too full or stuffed by then. But her description of how to eat shouldn't allow being "stuffed".

Anyway, I like what I'm reading. I've never believed in the idea of actual "addiction" with regard to carbs. At least not for me anyway. I do know that I have gone into an unthinking mode where they fill up too much of my life, or a chocoholic mode where I consume too much chocolate, but to me that word addict in relation to these foods doesn't really apply. I can eat them in moderation if I am paying attention and thinking about my choices. If I'm just eating without thinking, then perhaps I wouldn't. But each of us is different, and it may not be so much a "carb" addiction as a sugar addiction, or a starch addiction. Carbs after all include healthy foods, they include fiber, they include ANYTHING that isn't fat or protein, including sugar alcohols etc.

I think sometimes the belief that we are addicts stems from the fact that when we deny them all, we get to a point where our cravings overwhelm us and we eat too much of the thing we've been denying ourselves. We try all at once to "get it out of our system". Then we go back into denial for awhile until the next time we need to succumb. That kind of behaviour LOOKS a lot like addiction, but maybe it is just the natural balance that our lives are seeking. Maybe there is another way to find that balance. That is all I'm saying.

Well, I think it can trigger it in some people, but for myself.. probably not. I do want to point out something though... Why do we believe by not having a bit of sugar, that we are being deprived? I'm not refering to fruit, but to refined sugar. This is something that i'm working on personally. When I feel I want something sweet, I look at why. Am I watching something on t.v. that looks so good, I want something a bit sweet? Can I curve that craving by doing something else... yes. I have been doing this to stop making the mousse with splenda in order to get all artificial stuff out of my system.

I have not cheated once.. not once, since coming back to Atkin's. I did go off for 3 days to carb back up, but I didn't have anything other than rice. I didn't have chocolate, ice cream, etc. So, I guess what i'm saying is, if someone is having a hard time staying away from desserts, then this way of eating is not for them. This really seems to be the main point you are making: A little bit of sugar. I get the impression, Sherry, that this is what your main -miss- is. What's wrong with the piece of fruit as your dessert, like the pear, rather than having to add any sugar to it.. tsp. or not? It already contains enough natural sugar to satify the craving.. in my opinion. If a teaspoon of sugar doesn't make a difference, then why add it at all? These are just things that come to mind, but the only main point you seem to be making is a tsp. of sugar, and I just don't see any reason for it.

One more thing. You say that they aren't creating binges as you eat them. Do you think it possible that you are sticking to it the last few days because you are damned determined to make it work? Because we all can do that with any way of eating. As others here have said, anything will work if one puts their mind to it. Anything. I agree that if it is something you feel you can stick with.. kuddos! It takes a lot of work for people to find something they can keep going with. If this is yours -- excellent.

I had four pounds leave and I am changing the locks!!

Seriously though last week I was in a step challenge and got in just under 65,000 in seven days. That is the only thing different than these other weeks so.....

MOVE IT!!! MOVE IT!!! MOVE IT!!! Is my new mantra

Thanks to all. This is a team sucess!!

I think that is the point. If you can do it without cheating once, and you feel like you can do this for the rest of your life, then more power to you!

For me, there are foods that I love and don't want to have to give up for the rest of my life. I want to learn to eat them in moderation, and intelligently so that I'm not constantly denying myself and then going off and bingeing.

Did you notice though that you said "since coming back to Atkin's"? Yes, me too, I've come back to it any number of times. And yes it works for me for as long as I can stick to it without "once" cheating.

But after awhile even without actually "cheating", I find that I'm eating too many foods that are unnatural, sweetened with strange chemicals that I don't quite trust, have chemicals in them that I don't believe are good for me, and I find that with eating too many of these "low carb" foods I find that I tend to stop losing weight anyway.

IF I could do Atkins and still avoid those foods I would, but my desire for something sweet causes me to go to these bad habits, and to be honest, I'd rather have a small amount of real sugar then weird chemically foods that I am not sure what they might be doing to my body.

Atkins works the best for me when I eat clean natural foods, but without something sweet occassionally I can't keep on with it. I find myself leaving and "coming back". I feel like I need a plan that keeps me from going back and forth so much. Or maybe I'm just bored and need to try something new for awhile. I get that way. We'll see.

As I said, whether this will work or not has not been proven to my satisfaction yet. I am approaching it from the mindset of someone who believes in low carb, and I am keeping the carbs relatively low. I'm just not denying them totally.

Tammy!!!! WOOOO HOOOO ^5 AND YEAH!!!! I'm so glad the woosh fairy visited, be sure to pass her along LOL

You bring up an interesting idea with the teaspoon of sugar thing Sherry. No, 1 t. of sugar won't make me binge, but there are some things that I can't stop eating once I start, and I don't know why. I can eat 6 or 8 chips or a piece of bread and not have a problem, but I can't eat toll house cookies and stop - I eat them till they're gone. Weight Watchers calls it "red light" foods, and I do think that there is some compulsion attached to them for me, even though there may not be for you.

well put Tenn I agree.

I suffer with the same thing. My BP goes through the roof when I am stressed. The doctors want to fix it with a higher dose of meds but that's only a band aid, I just want to know how to manage it. I am too around your buddies age

Its tough Tiffany, she's having a hard time with it. She gets stressed out very very easily. One of those folks with a super kind heart, and wants to fix everyones problems. The Dr. told her to double her bp meds until her next appt, and watch to make sure her bp comes down. She has a bp machine at home to keep track.

Oh I agree with you, there definitely are trigger foods. Toll house cookies would most likely be one of them. I guess what I'm hoping will happen here is that I can learn to eat less sweet desert in moderation. By not totally overwhelming my body with sugar, but also not totally denying it all together I'm hoping I can find a low end balance without chemicals. Splenda and Aspartame and stuff like that worries me. Particularly when I know I've started eating too much of it.

I think we in America have a love/hate relationship with food. We tend to have such ambivalent feelings toward it. Nothing proves this to me as much at the women's magazines. I've been laughing for a long time about how I will stand in the checkout line at the grocery store and see some wonderful looking desert on the front of one of those magazines. Whenever I see something like that with something luscious looking on the front, I make a bet with myself. Before I've even looked at the magazine all that closely I just KNOW that there will also be a big front cover mentioned article on how to drop the weight.

How can they do that to us? Tempt us with deserts, and then tell us how badly we need to lose weight? It makes us have this collective guilt about loving food. Most of us wouldn't want to admit how much we "love" food, because we are really afraid that the answer will be "It shows". I think that the reason a lot of us are closet eaters is because of this constant guilt we feel about what is really natural. Maybe if we were a nation of people who know how to keep the weight off, we wouldn't find food so confusing. We would be able to just enjoy it and not live with constant guilty feelings about what we love.

everyone

So very well said!

Morning All:

I have to take Moose to the pediatricians today. He's had swollen lymph nodes behind his ears for several months, but now they are painful, and he woke up in tears. Poor kiddo.

Hugs to everyone. I'll check in later.

Hey Fallon, that doesn't sound fun. Hope everything is ok. Let us know.

to you all. Project for the day.....get the lawnmower running. Borrowed the neighbors mower to get the front yard done, but can't stand having to rely on someone else so I'm off to the store for new spark plug...hope that works.

Hope you all have a great day.