I haven't been eating so well, not really pigging out, but feeling the difference in the way I am eating.
hopefully, I will get back in the groove by tomorrow.
hugs
tracyg

My target for today was 158.4.
My weight this morning was 158.2. YAY!
My goal for next monday is 2 lbs lighter, 156.2 lbs.

During my first few weeks "on plan" I didn't attend any social meals
or parties, but there were 4 in the past week and I did OK
at all of them. I've had to decline all sorts of foods put in
front of me. Or in some cases, even harder, I've had to
taste each dish to be polite and then sound convincing
when I say I've had enough and don't want more. That's a
big hurdle for me and I thought it was going to be harder.
I guess after cutting my calories to 1250, which was much
harder than I expected, everything else seems easier by
comparison.

I've gotten exercise every day this week that it was
logistically possible (6 out of 7 days).

When I look at the numbers, it seems so harsh that I only
get to lose 2 lbs for such an inordinate amount of work.
Gaining those 2 pounds only took the blink of an eye. But
when I feel or see the effects of 14 lbs lost, I'm very
motivated to keep going.

By next week, I plan to be 1/3 of the way to my "thin" weight.

Determined,
Lisa

awsome! Good for you! Glad to see your success.
As for me.... I'm very mad and disappointed in myself. I completely lost it today. Binge city...it's been like 5-6 weeks since I have done myself in like this. Feel like a complete failure. Still, I refuse to let it destroy me. Tomorrow is a new day and I will be right back at it. I have to stop eating emotionally....between the issues with my dh which are an ongoing thing, and then some hard stuff that I had to deal with with my closest friend, and then throw me into a social situation...and that was it for me...stick a fork in, i was done.....and it wasn't even mindless....it was rebellious, I don't care, I'm gonna do this...ugh! Ok, enough said. Tomorrow is a new day and I will get back on track.
sorry to be a downer, and i feel badly for letting you guys down
hope you all had a better weekend than me.
hugs
tracyg

I've decided to change up my plan:
I love to eat and a few years ago I reduced my carb intake and lost about 10 pounds pretty quickly. Now I know there is a lot of controversy about a low carb diet but I feel led to eat this way because I really like food and I know that reducing my carbs is something that I can do.

What do you ladies think:???

Trace, you haven't let anyone down ... we all have these times when it all caves in! My weekend has not been nearly what it should be; I had about 1650 cals. today, and a TON of salt (after losing some control Friday, as well) so I really doubt that my scale will drop tomorrow! But tomorrow is another day ... and we're starting another week, and we WON'T let one or two off-days wreck our plans, girl! So you hang in there, and together we'll make this next week GOOD!

Good for you, Lisa! Glad it's going well ...

GotWork, if you know a low carb plan worked for you in the past, and you find it the easiest route, I'd go for it. Actually, the latest studies show low carb to be as healthy or healthier than some other plans so, if it works for you, I'd say go for it, and I wish you the best!

Chat with you guys later *today* after I sleep some, then visit Mr. Scale!

Olivia

Today's weigh in is 244....that is a 3.5 loss from last week I did gain a pound back from when I was sick. Thats going from eating soups and drinking lotss of other liquids to a normal diet. Next weeks goal is getting that scale to say 243 and mean it......good luck ladies can't wait to see how you all did

I started my 2 week induction today and I am super psyched. I read the first 11 chapters of the Atkins book and I feel like this WOE could really fit into my lifestyle. I won't have a chance to weigh today, I have a final paper due at 3:30, but I am planning on going to the gym. I'll see how this LC WOE is working and I will weigh next monday.

Tracyg: you need to take the focus off of the food. its easier said than done but the obsession does much more harm than good. find something that works for you rather than things that don't. I spent 3 hours looking at diet books and plans at Borders on saturday and my motivation just clicked. get away from the house where there is food in abundance. drink tea, water, anything but soda, look at what you aren't doing that you could rather than what you are doing that isn't working. i'll be praying that you gain strength and consciousness when you are amidst food that is not healthy.

Great job lisa and babenwaiting! I look forward to sharing my successes in the next week.

after seeing 178.4 for several days last week, I am up again to 180.2. Not that this is a surprise. sigh....
oh well. It's a new day. I am off to exercise. Good luck ladies, and congrats to those who had a good week and lost!
Someone commented about getting out of the house and away from the food
(sorry, I can't remember who right now). I actually found that it was the opposite for me. Friday was the first day I was out of the house and out of a controlled environment, and that is when my decline began, saturday and again sunday were times of social things with no control over the foods present. Add the stress of certain relationships and i just let loose. I find that at home, first, I don't let junk into my house, not that I can't find stuff to binge on anyway, but generally, I'd have to o.d. on carrots to gain lol! I do much better at home. I need to come up with some new strategies. For instance summer is a very social time for us, each family in our church hosts a fellowship on sunday evenings...that's right, a barbque every sunday evening....I'm already formlating my plan for that, I am going to be bringing lots of salads, and need to find a 'good' dessert to bring that will be so good that I won't feel deprived of all the gooey church lady desserts lol!
anyway, i have to go and get my butt working out. Hugs to all of you, thanks for the kind words and I intend to be better disciplined this week.

tracyg

Babenwaiting, Losing4Another - Congratulations. Way to go!

Tracy - Rebellion wouldn't necessarily be so bad if there were a way to
do it outside the arena of food. I'm not any good at rebellion, you can
ask people who knew me as a teenager. But I can really respect rebellion
as an outlet and also as an indirect way to "stir the pot" when the
way things are going isn't so good.

GotWork - Congrats on starting your program of choice, and super
congratulations on getting so much motivation. Motivation really
matters a lot.

Lisa

Good morning, ladies ...

Hopped on the scale and I did manage one lb. off so that brings me to 219 lbs. officially. Exercised four out of seven days. So I'll call that a good week ... and plan to work on getting the calories down for the coming week.

WAY TO GO, LOSING!!! So your official loss for this past week was 3.5 lbs!!! for you! That is great, girl! And, Lisa, for you, too. Two lbs. a week off is very motivating!!!

Sockmonkey, meant to answer you in my last post to tell you the QVC crabcakes are absolutely wonderful, and my husband is from Maryland, we used to live there, and we are very picky about anything *crabby.* BTW, I sympathize with you about trying to keep those calories down ... let's do it together this week!

I am wishing you the best with your eating plan, gotwork! Let us know how it goes ... You won't get as hungry with all that protein on the Atkins plan.

Tracy, we'll have to figure out a couple of desserts for all those BBQs ... so tough when you're not in charge of the food. It is hard to eat outside the house when you're dieting (thank God for Chili's and their Guiltless Grill, and my DH and I split dinner at Outback. He's great that way, supportive.) We're all behind you, so don't worry about the weekend, and just think about how well you're going to do now that you're back on track!

Okay, ladies, let's go get 'em (those lbs.) Congrats on everyone's success this past week!

Olivia

Tracyg: maybe a good thing to do is to bring some chicken or salmon to really satisfy your hunger at the BBQs, possibly a couple pounds that you have marinated to taste super yummy off of the grill. Usually salads don't do it and it will allow you to eat healthily while you are at festive occasions where you do feel the urge to indulge a bit. There great alternatives to cakes and cookies could be a fruit bowl to satisfy that sweet tooth. Hey and maybe some of your friends and family would like in on the great healthy things that you brought rather than the foods available at the BBQ. Also like I suggested, distract yourself from the thoughts of those foods lingering at the table, because as long as they stay on the table and out of your mouth, you'll be triumphant over them. Keep your head up and like I said, definitely get your head in a book that will reinforce positive food thinking and body image. The more you fill your head with those things the less you will want to fill up on food.

Back to say, my first exercise session for this week is DONE ... 45 min. brisk walk. How's everyone else doing with the exercise? The hardest part is getting on my shoes and out the door!

A diet dessert recipe I really like, "Hot Fudge Monday" from "Looneyspoons" by the Podleski sisters:

HOT FUDGE MONDAY

Cake -
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
1 - 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup skim or 1% milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Sauce -
1 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 - 3/4 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For cake, mix flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk and oil. Add the mixture to the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix vigorously until well blended (or use mixer on low speed.) Pour batter into ungreased 8 x 8 pan or dish, and spread evenly.

In small bowl mix together second amount of brown sugar and second amount of cocoa. Sprinkle mixture over batter. Pour boiling water over top, and DO NOT STIR! Bake for 40 - 45 min. until top of cake feels dry. Remove from oven; let stand 5 min. before serving. Cut into six pieces; spoon chocolate sauce from bottom of pan over pieces. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Left-overs can be refrigerated, and heated in the microwave.)

I LOVE this ... 285 calories per 1/6 of pan, and you can add a heaping tablespoon of frozen low/fat yoghurt for just a few more calories.

Hope everyone's having a good one!

Olivia

I have eaten so much today! And I am not worried about it! Whoo hoo... I am not going to tell you what I ate because it might disgust some of you, but it was tasty! Shrimp sauteed in butter for dinner though...doesn't that sound yummy?

I am going to take a cat nap because I was up all night...and then will head over to LA Fitness for a little cardio and weights...have a blessed day.

Hi ladies. I should have guessed the scale wouldn't like me today. I'm up 2 from last week. I ate out last night and felt the sodium effect today. I wasn't able to exercise until yesterday because of the latin dance class I took last Tuesday that killed my hip. It's better now and I plan on hitting the gym everyday.

I sure hope I can get the scale to start going down again. I've been stuck going up and down the same 3 pounds for the past few weeks. It's like my fat has some sort of separation anxiety.

I'm going to stay possitive though. I'm proud of myself for exercising more this past month than I have in half a year. I've also refrained from eating lunch from the school cafeteria at work, and I've been cooking very healthy meals at home.

My only downfall is still when I'm alone at night before going to bed. I sometimes ruin my whole day of effort in just 30 minutes.

My goal for this week... Lose 2 to 3 pounds, fit in at least 300 minutes of cardio, not eat after 8pm.

Congrats to all who lost this week. Keep up the great effort.

Some ideas for fighting off snacks at night:

1) Brush teeth, floss, use really strong mouthwash in the early evening because it makes later food taste bad and because eating would make
you have to brush again.
2) Go to bed earlier. Try never to be the last one to bed and try to
get up early. Except for social gatherings, whatever you were going
to do at night can be done in the morning.
3) Cut carrot sticks in advance so they're ready to be the first snack.
This doesn't work for me unless I'm on a serious diet, but if I am,
I'm so hungry that the carrots are actually a little bit satisfying.
This approach works really well for my mother.
4) Requiring myself to postpone the snack food until after I've had
a banana and then waited 30 minutes. By then my blood sugar is higher
and steadier and I can make saner decisions about the snack foods.
5) Avoid foods that are unusually addictive, especially snacks that
have been engineered to cause blood sugar spikes, such as puffed
foods, melt-in-your-mouth foods, or foods with lots of tiny nooks
and crannies that increase the surface area. Prefer foods with
low glycemic index and lower addictiveness. For me, sweet-sour
foods are extremely addictive too, but deep down we all know
what's addictive for us.
6) Consider requiring yourself to prepare and cook anything you eat
in the evening, as a test for whether you want it badly enough.
(That's hard but making ice cream or potato chips from scratch
can be fun, and you really appreciate each bite, and it changes
how you feel about the pre-packaged version.)
7) My aunt used TV snacks that require time and effort to get to,
like pomegranate seeds. She also would peel a grapefruit and peel
every section individually. Nowadays grapefruits are sweeter and
have enough calories to be slightly satisfying.

Currently, I'm going to bed really early and that works well. I'm
willing to sacrifice some social and entertainment benefits
for easier weight loss. On a previous diet, the "banana+wait" worked
really well for me. But overall, I've seen so much gutwrenching hard
work and sweating-at-the-gym and self-denial ruined and destroyed
by a few hours of high calorie foods, and I'm just sick of the horrible
waste. The difference between being laid back and being strict
really pays off on the scale for me, so as long as it keeps paying
off, that's probably my biggest motivation to avoid snacking.

If and when I hit plateau, I hope you all will be there to hand
me kleenex while I weep.

Determined,
Lisa