Hi All!

Welcome to Week 4! I forgot to weigh in this morning, as I was running really late, but promise to do it first thing tomorrow morning and report it here.

My goal this week to watch the late night eating. I have a tendancy to snack later at night, and I would like to get in the habit of not eating anything after 8:00 pm. Just liquids after that.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Chach

Hi, Chach. That's a good goal for this week; I hope that you won't mind if I borrow it. EVERY problem that I had this week was after 8:00 pm. Except, we're hosting a dinner party on Saturday, so that will need to be an exception.

Good weekend, everyone! I'll post results of my weigh-in tomorrow morning.

Dan

Dan: Share and share alike! Now that the water intake is under control, we are good to go on this new one! I understand hosting parties. I have a Pampered Chef party to go to tonight and I hope they are done by 8:00 so I can eat!

I'll post my weigh in tomorrow as well. I have such a hard time remembering to post on the weekends. Maybe that can be my next goal??

Have a great weekend everyone!

Chach

Did my weigh in, and I maintained for the week. That is ok, since I had several lapses during the course of the week, and I think that I was probably up a few pounds at one point. I also did not exercise nearly as much as I should have.

Unfortunately, my goal of hitting 200 by 3/13 is falling out of reach. I would need to lose nearly 4lbs/wk, and the only way that would be remotely conceivable would be a heavy, duty Atkins approach. I am not sure that is such a good idea. I could probably do that for 7 weeks, but I can't do it for the rest of my life, and I think I'm better off taking some more time and losing the weight by adopting a lifestyle and diet that I can maintain long-term.

One of the problems w/ having lost a lot of weight and still having quite a bit more to lose is that my wardrobe is limited. I do not want to spend a lot of $$$ on clothes that I hope will not fit me in a couple of months. I had wanted to get stuff for the cruise -- I really don't have enough appropriate stuff to bring.

I am starting to think that 215 is a more realistic goal -- that is about a pound a week. If I hit it, that would make me 50 pounds ligher than I was at my last anniversary, when I was at my all-time high. That's nothing to sneeze at! I am considering "readjusting" to that goal, but want to give myself another week to try to get back on track for the original aim of 200. At some point, though, I'm going to have to invest in some clothing!

We are having a dinner party tonight. We just got new furniture and a rug for the dining room, and this is the inaugural event. I'm planning a greek salad, leg of lamb, couscous, and a curried lentil-carrot dish. Yep -- I'm the cook in the family.

Chach: I honored the 8:00 pm food cut-off last night. I had a minor craving, but it went away after about 20 minutes. I snuck off upstairs so that I wouldn't be near the kitchen. I'll be serving dinner tonight at about 8, but I'm modifying that goal for the week for just tonight - - not one bite after the guests leave!

Lucky: Hope all is well.

Good morning everyone.
Happy Saturday to all.

Well I did not lose any weight this last week. In fact I gained a couple pounds. Because I don't get to move around very much at work, I have started mopping the big dock floor, where the trucks dock and load and unload all the freight. It is a big open area and I am puffing by the time I am done. Makes me look like an ambitious employee, but I really need to move around. This last week my boss bought me a cd player to have at work, so I took some fast past music and used that when I was mopping. I probably could jog around in there also. We shall see what this next week brings.

Well Chach that is a good goal for the week. I have been trying to do that for the last couple of weeks. That and water. I am not winning the water battle. But we will start again this week. That and resisting the muffins that my boss keeps bringing for me everyday. A coffee and a muffin from Tim Hortons. Have I mentioned how well I am treated at my new job? So have you been knitting up a storm this last week? How is the little guy? Any new business away from home planned for your hubby? Hopefully he is home for good for awhile.

Dan have you tried the South Beach Diet? I was surprised at how well it really works. I do think that it is a much better approach than Atkins...(only my own opinion as I know people have had great success on Atkins, but I can't stick with that plan). If you were to follow the SBD you could still come pretty close to your goal of what you would like to lose. And with you being the cook in the house, your whole family could benifit from it. (Your kids exempt of course from the withdrawal of fruit for the first two weeks, and they could eat the whole wheat bread that you can't eat for 2 weeks.) And the thing that surprised me is that you lose your cravings for sweets and things you don't need. I used to be addicted to cookies. I haven't bought or made cookies since the end of November. Just something to look into.

Oh I can't wait to be able to shop for a new wardrobe. I hung a pair of jeans that I use to be able to wear, (size 12) on the back of my door so that I can have some motivation. We shall see if this approach works.

Now about the babies. They are doing well. They will be coming home from the hospital sometime next week. Thankyou all for your thoughts and prayers. They are such little fighters, as they were not expected to live but they fought through it and must have had some help from upstairs. Now to get them healthy again, as they are still under 7 pounds.

Well I should be able to post more this week now that all is well in our world.

Have a great Saturday.

Kathy

Hello Kathy and Dan,

I am sorry I didn't get a chance to post on Saturday or Sunday. The weekend just gets away from me.

I maintained this week. 250.5 was my weight, so I am okay with that. I haven't really put a lot of effort into it this last week, so I deserve not to lose, and thankfully didn't gain.

The eating after 8:00 isn't really a problem for me this week. I am keeping busy with a new Gamecube game we purchased and also knitting. Just gotta stay focused.

Dan, good job on keeping the cravings at bay. I think it's a good idea you had to re-address your short term goals. I am buying new clothes also and it can be expensive. I've been fortunate enough to catch some good sales. I went through my closet this weekend and donated a bunch of clothes to the women's shelter. The ones that I loved but were too big I finally got rid of. Now I have two sections--ones that currently fit and ones that are too small. I will hopefully be able to start moving the tight ones over to the fitting side!

Kathy, glad the babies are doing well. I hate it when things happen to our little ones. We'll keep them in our prayers. Sorry you gained some back, but it looks like you are back on track.

Off work early to take my son to the dentist for his follow up and see what they want to do. The one tooth hasn't turned gray or anything, so maybe he didn't kill it. Then, most likely, I am going to get some shopping done at the grocery store. I need to get some food in the pantry again!!!

Take care and good luck this week.

Chach

Hi, all

Kathy - - that's wonderful news about the babies. I'm glad your nephews are coming home soon!.

I have tried SBD. When I first started losing weight last March, I originally followed Atkins. I lost weight very quickly. Over time, my diet morphed into something different. Then, over the summer, I read the SBD book, and I realized that it was very similar to what I was actually doing. Specifically, I was allowing myself far more carbs than Atkins would allow - - I was not in ketosis, but I was careful to stick to high fiber stuff and to mix proteins w/ it. That helped keep the binges in check. I also would take an occasional meal (or day. or weekend) off and then go to a stricter, low carb diet for a few days until I had lost what I had put on during the break. THe main difference between what I was doing and SBD was SBD's 6 meals/day. I had done that on another diet I was on 3 years ago. After that, I went on South Beach.

Except, I never really adopted the part of the diet that involved the lower cholesterol and saturated fat - - I continued w/ the red meat ala Atkins.

And, over time, the "breaks" got longer and more frequent. And, the weight began to go back up.


Which brings me to the present. Presently, I am following South Beach. All of it. Except that I didn't do the 2 week first phase; perhaps I should do that for a bit since I had gotten so far off of it.

I've been doing well avoiding the night-time feeding and keeping up with the water. Can't wait to find out which of Chach's good habits I'll be picking up next week!

Be well

Dan

Hi All!

Dan, glad to hear you are doing well with the water and late night eating. I slipped a little last night. I wanted something crunchy and it was 9:30 pm. I ended up eating just a handful of Wasabi coated peas. (They are dried.) I know I shouldn't have, but I ate dinner at 4:00 pm and was getting a bit munchie. I was drinking my water and ended up going to bed around 11:00 pm.

I did a huge grocery order yesterday. Spent almost $300. I stocked up on healthy snacks and some good breakfast supplies. I also got a bunch of lunch meals for myself. I have the luxury of being within walking distance from my house to my job. I go home almost every day for lunch, which really helps with eating well during the day.

I didn't know that my goals were going to be good ones for everyone. I just know that I have some big issues to work on, and tackling them one at a time is easier than doing about five of them at a time! I'll have to think of a good one here in the next couple of days for next week.

Hopefully our weigh ins go well this week!

Chach

Hello everyone.

I did pretty well last night. Honestly, I was so tired I was fast asleep at 9:00 pm, so there wasn't much time to snack.

Today is pretty good also. Got up early enough to have my egg whites w/cheese and half a bagel. I'm getting ready to eat my apple and refill my water jug--Dan, did you refill yours??

Hope everyone is doing well.

Chach

hi, all

Past couple days have not been so hot. Haven't logged on or journaled, and I've been eating things that I shouldn't. There has been some extra stress at work, and that hasn't helped.

Today has gone very well, and I think I'll be okay for a nice stretch. I coach my son's basketball team, and that is usually fun.

I've decided to switch back to a harder core low-carb approach for the next month. When I was doing so well before, that was how I did it. I said to myself everyday, "I don't know if I can do this for the rest of my life. But, I can do it TODAY." That seemed to help, and that is my mantra going forward for now. I really want to make a significant drop in weight before March.

Weight in at 225! Down 2 lbs, which I consider a major accomplishment, because I am pretty sure that I was up a couple at mid-week. That puts me 10 lbs for the month (when I decided to get back into gear) and 40 lbs in the 10 mos. since my all time high. I hope to do even better in February -- I'm not ready to abandon my goal of 200 by 3/13 yet, but every week that I fall to make the pace, it gets harder and harder.

I am continuing w/ the very low carb approach and have been fairly successful on it. This is my 3rd day. Boy, it comes off quick this way for me! Maybe I can make that goal if I can keep it up.

Hope everyone is doing well and is having a good weekend as we move into Week 5!

Chach - haven't heard from you in a few days. I'm going to go ahead and open a new thread for week 5 - ok??

Hope everyone is well

Dan

I'm setting up the new post right now!

Chach