Hello everyone! I am back and More motivated then ever this time trying low carbs instead of calorie counting. While I was losing on counting my cals for me it gave me too much wiggle room and i ended up spirling . I've stuck to low carb for two weeks so far and I feel wonderful!

The reason I am starting this thread is to share a small little victory. After 5 years of not weighing myself I finally did it and I feel like this will encourage me more than ever now that I finally know where i stand and how much exactly I have to lose. So here I am a 25 year old female 5 9' 1/2 starting at about 220. Now I didn't weigh myself at the begging of the low carb thing I only weighed myself last week so I started my tracker at 230 even tho that may be a lie. Anyways I am kind of pleased to see that I only put on 20 pounds in the last 5 years because I was fearing A LOT more considering my eating and drinking habbits (esp in the last 2 years).

Ok now the frustrating thing.... I work in a resturant and I am always being tempted with FOOD but i've done really well and havent touched a thing i am not supposed to, but when staff meal comes and they make sauteed chicken with mashed potatos some demi glace and mushrooms ussually and sauteed vegitables. I always ask them to not flour my chicken and to not give me mashed potatos, and since they are my buddies I figured it's not a big deal...but they ALWAYS flour my chicken everytime. Or they tell me a little bit of flour isnt going to kill me. So last night the girl who works on the line was making dinner so I asked her if there was any flour or sugar in the sauce and she told me no, then got all snippy and said ...."you know if you don't excerisize every single day this diet isn't going to work...."... I felt so insulted!, just because they work in a kitchen they think they are all the great dieticians. Anyways I felt put down for like 5 seconds then I felt more motivated than ever....AND I weighed myself again this morning....Lost 6 pounds this week! 214! Take that kitchen monsters.

Can you eat at home before going to work and bring a snack for "staff meal" time or eat half of the chicken and your veggies, leaving starches?

Are there no other options or does everyone have to eat chicken, veggies, and potatoes, or can you choose something else? I've never worked in a restaurant, so I'm not entirely sure how it works!

I eat before I come in at 4:30 but by the time 11pm comes around I am starving And i know it is horrible to eat that late but it's just the kind of bad habbits the restuarant buisness fosters Sauteed chicken isn't what we always have, but most of the time that is what they give us, if it's not that it's some kind of wrap or sandwich that I can ussually get without the bun. I think I may have to start bringing my own diner in, which I wanted to avoid because I didn't really want to bring a lot of attention to my diet because I ussully get a lot of nay sayers and I find the more I talk about it to my friends the more I lose steam. I just don't want the whole..."What is that? Why ya not eating staff meal? huh? huh??".... hahaha such nosey people

First, good for you for really getting yourself into eating low carb. One thing I wondered when I read your thread was whether you're doing low carb or no carb. (Not sure it's even possible to do no carb.....or healthy for that matter!). I'm assuming low carb and that you've set a threshold in terms of the number of carbs you allow yourself each day. Obviously I don't know how the kitchen is preparing the chicken dishes; i.e., are they dredging chicken in seasoned flour so that the flour would be measured as part of a cup or is it measurable in terms of a teaspoon or less? If you know that you're going to have some flour added at this meal, then save some of your carb count for the day for that time.

You mentioned that by 11 at night you were starving and probably tired. I imagine that the kitchen staff is in the same boat -- and I doubt if they want to get into cooking a "special" order or else everyone is going to want something changed. Obviously, you're in a much better position to know if the amount of flour being used is significant or not. But if it trends towards the not significant, it might be easier to just save up some of your carb count towards that meal knowing that some carbs that you normally wouldn't incorporate into your own cooking will be used. Just a thought.

If they are making the chicken with flour, I assume it's the skin that's being floured, so why not just peel the skin off and eat the chicken and sauteed veggies? That sounds like a great low carb meal!

Do you have any break time in your shift? I know restaurants can be HECTIC, so I assume there isn't much time to eat in the middle of it all. Taking the breading off and eating the vegetables works. Or, you can just forget all the naysayers and bring something fabulous that you would like to eat. No worries, THEY will lose steam asking you a million questions. After a while, nobody would even notice.