Good Morning Everyone,

Kristi: Congrats again on that loss!!! I hope your dinner went well.

SY: You're doing great - you are so close to goal - I know you can do it!!!

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I am down one pound this morning on my scale. I'm pretty sure it's the real thing because TOM finally came. I am hoping to get to the center tomorow to verify - but we had a little bit of a problem here and I am going to have to see if I can get things taken care of - so not sure I'll be able to leave the house tomorrow. One of the kids overflowed the main bathroom during the night and the water came through the ceiling into the kitchen ((( I'm so bummed - we are going to need a plumber and a painter at the very least. I'm hoping the damage isn't worse than that - I'm not budget for any major repairs at the moment ((((( Hope everyone else has a good day.

June

Hello everyone!
I have been reading the last few weeks of posts and am so encouraged especially by Kristi and her weightloss. I started LA last Monday the 16th and suffered through the two day take off with a start weight of 156 and was down to 152.6 on Wednesday. Went back to weigh in on Friday and was up to 153. I drank half of my water before weighing in which I think was the problem. I am on the gold plan and find myself hungry and zapped of energy. I stick to the plan pretty close and am hoping for a loss in the morning. Did everyone else seem to have a slow start and how does everyone deal with the lack of energy? The turkey reicpes sound so good I can't wait to try them! It seems depressing to have to try to think and plan that far ahead. I don't like fish so I am already feeling the turkey/chicken blues. I know this is lengthy but any thoughts or other food ideas from other members would be soooo great!
Thanks sammyboy

Hi Sammyboy, and welcome. I have not had any lack of energy since being on LA so I don't have any comment on that, in fact - some days I have so much energy - I can't get to sleep at night. I don't drink caffiene products and the only caffiene that I can think of that could be causing me would be the chocolate on the outside of most of the LA Lites? What do you others think?

Sammy, what are you stats?

If you don't like seafood, all there is is chicken and turkey that are low in fat. You can have beef and pork, but small portions. Maybe adding a frozen dinner here that there would do the trick so you don't get so bored with chicken/turkey. You can basically make the ground turkey taste like anything you want. I make turkey tacos (by adding spices like chili power, dried onions, scallions, garlic powder or fresh) and put it over lettuce, you can add some spices and fennel seeds to make it taste like sausage, have it in a plain burger, make a 'turkey' loaf, my sister has added orange juice and some spices to make it taste like an oriental dish. I do the same with chicken by cutting it in very small pieces. You can have eggs so you could make an egg salad, you can have 1% cottage cheese and add some chives or scallions. Does that mean you don't like tuna either? That would be another option. After your on the plan a couple weeks, they will give you a Carb Craver listing where you can add some pasta, and other carb items. My only other advice is that look at the labels when choosing ground poultry. They have ground chicken in the store which tastes great, but they have 9-13 grams of fat (and it would probably be better eatting a steak, LOL). The ground turkey I get only have 5 grams - it's the lowest I can find locally.

Kristi, thanks for reposting the suggestions. I'm getting in all my water lately. So that is a good thing, and will continue to measure all my portions. I brought in the empty water bottle (50.7 fl oz) that I got at Big Lots and refilled it at the water cooler here at work. Now I know how much I'm drinking.

June, I hope you made out okay with your plumbing. If you have water damage, it may be covered under your home owners insurance (as far as the repainting and the water stains that may be on your ceilings). I went to a friends party once, and the same think happened. Yikes...

Good Morning Everyone,
The plumber won't be able to make it to my house until early tomorrow morning - so I weighed in at the center this morning - down 1.6 pounds from my last weigh-in on Friday - so that's a total loss of 13.4 pounds in about 5.5 weeks on the program. I'm hoping to get down about 4 more pounds by September 9th.
On the homefront, my husband unclogged the toilet, but I still need the plumber to come replace some parts, so I just turned the water off to that toilet - luckily we have 2 other bathrooms. The painter is coming tomorrow too - he's probably only going to be able to remove the water stains on the ceiling with Bin tomorrow and prepare it to be painted - he'll have to come back to actually paint it because the Bin needs to totally dry before you can paint over it. I just hope that's the extent of the damage - luckily the painter I have is actually a general contractor and he's done a lot of work for me (including completely remodelling the bathroom in my master bedroom last summer) so I trust he'll give me the correct opinion as to whether or not the plumber and paint is the extent of my damages. Wish me luck - I'm going to need it - it's been very stressful.

SY: Thanks for reminding me about the homeowners - I hope the total cost doesn't get high enough to actually have to use it - but I'm glad you mentioned it because my head wasn't with me and I wasn't even thinking of it. By the way that was a lot of great advice you gave Sammy!!!! I absolutely love your turkey loaf recipe and I look forward those meals. Oh, you asked about the chocolate on the LA Bars - it doesn't quite have the same effect on me in terms of keeping me awake at night - but I do notice that it tends to make me a little hyper during the day - I thought it was because chocolate was never really a part of my lifestyle - but after hearing what you said, maybe that's not it at all. I stopped drinking caffeine products entirely as well. Occasionally I'll have some Green Herbal Tea - but there's no caffeine there. You're doing really great SY, and you are such an inspiration - I'm sure you'll be at goal in no time.

Kristi: Keep up the great work!!!! You're going to make that Labor Day Goal. Then you and SY will have to keep good notes on stabilization - if I get there by the holidays I'm sure to be picking your brains about it.

Sammy: Welcome!!! I do think that the increase you saw on the scale was due to all the water. You should try to weigh in at the same time of day each time you go to the center, and also try to where the same clothes - make them your "weigh in clothes." I was on the Gold Plan for one week before they switched me to the Red Plan, which has an extra 1/2 protein, one more starch, and one more vegetable. The dairy and protein portions are also larger. They switched me up to the Red Plan because of the amount of excercise I do, which requires more food to stimulate the metabolism. My loss for the week on the Gold Plan was only 1 pound, when I moved up the the Red Plan my average weekly loss jumped to 2.2 pounds per week. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that the quantity of food on the Gold Plan is small, but it's not a heck of a lot larger on the Red Plan. I've never felt "stuffed" - but I don't feel like I'm starving either. I think that's part of the program - to get you to top eating before you feel "stuffed."

Well, have a great day everyone, and send good vibes this way - I need them!!!

Big Hugs,
June

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!!!

WOW, I was only gone for two and a half days and it feels like a week! I have to say, this weekend did NOT go so good. On Saturday, with the wedding and all, I fell back into my old habit of skipping breakfast, and didn't put ANY food into my system until nearly 2:00. Plus, I didn't bring my water bottle so by 3:30 I was totally dehydrated and nearly fainted right as we were wrapping up the wedding party portraits (lots of standing, hot lights, barely any food, no water... ) I've been doing really well at getting in my 64 oz. every day this week, and clearly my body has decided it likes that. So then dinner....I did OK, not great. Had breast meat turkey, probably not the whole 7 oz. on plan...lots of fresh fruit, pineapples and strawberries....cheddar potatoes but only about 1/2 a cup, I restrained myself! Skipped the dinner rolls...but I had two pieces of wedding cake, two glasses of champagne and three or four cocktails, I lost count. BUT, I figured, it's not every day my only brother gets married, and I'm pretty sure that I DANCED off most of the calories! I don't think I've danced like that since my freshman year of college - my whole lower body HURT the next day.

Sunday DH and I slept in til nearly 10:00 (hooray for grandparents to take the DD off our hands), so I just grabbed my bar and we took off to the grocery store! Whew, it's so much easier planning meals when there's actual FOOD in the house, and DH was so supportive and passed up all the stuff that he knew I couldn't resist (like Cinnamon Toast Crunch!) AND was there to tell me NO when I would have given in to the temptation! We had a terrific lunch of grilled steak (how I love my George Foreman grill) and salad - I know I'm going to get called on having too much beef this week, but oh well - and a yummy tuna pita pocket for dinner. The only thing I had trouble with there, was how on earth do you eat 6 oz. of tuna with only 1 T of mayo??? bleah....I added a tiny extra squirt, probly about a teaspoon. Also didn't drink a lot of water most of yesterday - had half a can of Red Raspberry Diet Rite (someone told me it was really good, and it's made with Splenda instead of NutraSweet - it's all right, a nice change from water) - but then about 8:00 I started getting a headache and was feeling really parched, so downed about 24 oz. of water in 30 minutes or so, and felt much better. I think I'm going to find getting my water in on the weekends the biggest struggle of all.

So! Enough about me and my weekend play-by-play.

Sammy: I've been doing LAWL for just over a week now, and I've never felt hungry or lacking in energy - even with going cold turkey on my 3-can-a-day Mountain Dew habit. You didn't say how much weight you want to lose, but maybe a change in plan is in order?? Be sure to tell them how you are feeling at your next weigh-in. I'm on the purple plan, which is 8 oz. chicken, 7 for turkey, 5.5 for most beef. I don't really do pork or game, and I don't eat seafood either except for canned tuna, so I feel for you on the chicken/turkey Wheel of Boringness.

Kristi, June, Sy: GREAT jobs, all of you, on your losses this week! I weigh in in about an hour and a half (lunch break) and I'm kinda nervous to see how much damage this weekend did.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone, just a quick note so I can keep caught up with everyone.

Fiona, your right - your brother only gets married once (or let's hope so) and you did your best given the situation. If we were perfect we wouldn't be going to LAWL, right? Keep up the movitation.

Kristi, I know what you mean about the sabotaging, but if your up - I doubt a few drinks would have done it, it's probably the lite soy sauce. That would do it for me!

June, thank God I have never had to use our home owner's insurance, but a friend of mine has used her's several times. Once for the toliet situation, once because they didn't clean out their fireplace and the house filled with smoke, and for another reason that slips my mine. I think it depends on your agent as well.

Sy

Good Morning (almost afternoon!) all!

I weighed in this morning and was down 1.6 lbs!!! I know it is a little but I was terrified I was going to be up again as the weekend was so hard. It was my first weekend on the plan and it was a challenge. With three young boys and a very skinny husband it was hard to stay focused! My goal is 31 lbs from 156 to 125. 125 may be a little to little as I am thinking 130 would probably be something I would settle for. I would like to be down to 140 which would be my 1/2 way point by the first week in October. Not sure if that is going to happen as that would be 11 more lbs in four and a 1/2 weeks. I talked to the counselor this morning and she was surprised as everyone else about the lack of energy. It is my TOM so I am thinking that may be the problem as well as with the hunger. She did tell me different veggie combos to use for dinner to help with the hunger as well.
Good luck at weigh in fiona, and keep your heads up everyone! I know I am going to look forward to a better week with a clean slate and a good loss. I do have to share a yummy dinner thought from last night. I cooked ground turkey then added zucchini, green peppers and chili powder, cumin, garlic, onion flakes and morton light and a little water. It was like a hamburger soup and it tasted good and was filling!

I don't know if it's up, down or the same, cause at my first few appointments they didn't tell me my weight, only my loss (and at the first one she said down "about two pounds") but at today's weigh in I was at 214.4. I'm betting it was the lack of water and erratic eating habits over the weekend, so I'm going to be extra good today and tomorrow and hopefully Wednesday's weigh in will be better. I feel like I'm getting all my mistakes and hard-earned lessons out of the way the first week, so things can only go up (except for the scale, which must go DOWN ) from here!

Kristi: WAY TO GO!!! That must feel just great!!!

Sammy: 1.6 is GREAT!!! I've heard from a lot of different sources that people with less weight to lose won't start off with the huge losses that some people with more weight seem to experience. That dinner sounds delicious, too. I'll have to put ground turkey back on our shopping list - I didn't even think of it yesterday, 'cause we've got 3 pounds of ground beef to eat up, from before I started LAWL.

Hi Again,
It's good to hear from you all.

Fiona: I agree with SY, you did very well considering the circumstances. Today is a new day and a clean slate - I'm sure you'll be fine since you are back on plan and the wedding challenge is past you. Good luck with weigh-in - it may not be as bad as you think.

Sammy: Congrats on the loss!!! You're doing great. Looks like we have the same goal and probably about the same weight right now (153.4 this morning). I seem to do better with mini goals - I'd love to be down 4 more pounds by September 9 - I think psychologically that breaking into the 140s will be good for me. We can cheer eachother on!!!

Kristi: That's great that you are back into your size 8's!!!! The loss in inches on this program is very good - I've also been trying on clothes and I'm back into the clothes that I wanted to be able to wear next month when school starts - so I know how excited you must feel.

SY: I think you're right about the soy sauce - I think that something like that would affect me as well. I had a problem with the light salad dressing on the 2-Day Express when I first started. Between that and the juice I retained water.

I'm sure I'll be checking back again - like I said - nerves are shot today!!!

Have a good afternoon.
June

P.S.

Kristi I wish we lived closer too - everyone here already seems like family.

June

P.P.S.

Fiona: Looks like the weigh-in went fine. You're actually where you thought you were before the wedding weekend - so perhaps it's best you didn't know exactly what the number was. Just start from here and go with it!!! You'll do great. And I agree with you - people with more weight to lose tend to take it off more quickly in the beginning than people with less weight to lose. Like I was saying, in my center there is a woman who has been losing 3 pounds each week - but she came in weighing a good deal more than I do and so had much more weight to lose to get to her goal - but she's still chugging along and doing great - and the results are showing.

June

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My friend Terry started LAWL last Friday, and had her first weigh in today after a day and a half of The Juice. She was 2.5 pounds UP, and was about to throw a major fit and walk out on the rest of her program, when the counselor noticed that she had gotten on the scale still holding her purse. So her actual weigh in was .5 pounds down, and this after having a last pre-diet meal of cajun chicken fettucine alfredo. So I guess she's satisfied with that.

Fiona

p.s. June: you are right, the weigh in wasn't so bad, once I looked at the whole picture. I'm down 1.8 for my first whole week, with LOTS of cheating. So hopefully I'll see some good stuff happening this next week, with NO cheating!

Hi all. So great to hear from so many new people. I'll catch up with all of you when I get home from vacation. I went to LAWL here in N.C. and I'm up 1.6 so I am really trying to get that off. Will go back to LAWL on Friday and maybe when I get home do the juice fast. I bought Luna bars at Wal;Mart and they are good. TTYL
Beachlover

Kristi- I'm jealous about the size 8's but so happy for you! I don't remember when I wore an 8!

Fiona-Hang in there! I know how you feel as I felt that way when I went in for the first time after I had started the plan and was up. It is discouraging.

June-I think I am at the same point as you! I can't wait to start trying on smaller clothes! I am still just thankful that I can now breathe in my clothes that I have been wearing all summer!

Good luck to everyone else! I weigh in again on Wednesday and start my "week" over then so I can have beef again!

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!!