3 lbs in three days so far.
I should also add, I am following the Wendie Plan in terms of how many calories per day I can eat. So far, it's working not just for me, but my entire family. My youngest daughter lost six pounds this week, and she was away at an overnight camp for two nights/three days with her school and ate well, I might add! She had to lose a total of 23 pounds- she lost one pound last week, six this week, and has 16 pounds to go. I am so proud of her for sticking to this and eating well.
You'll never believe what I did, though, to help both her and I, who are carb addicts. I bought a lock for my pantry area, and only my husband and I have the keys to it. The kids pick out what they wish for their meals at each meal, then I lock it all up so we don't over indulge. Hubby lost five pounds this week as well, he said he was tired of looking for his keys to get a snack and just grabbed the carrot sticks in the frig- he praised me for doing this, saying that it's made him conscious of what he's eating at night as well.
My older two children have said that locking up the food has been a huge help to them as well. My oldest daughter has lost 6 pounds in two weeks time, and she has to lose another 15 pounds to get to her goal weight. (she's fifteen and a half). My son, who is 13 and 1/2, has also lost 6 pounds in two weeks time. As a family, we've lost a total of 30 pounds- woohoo!
Also, I bought notebooks and pens for each of us, and we use it as a food journal. We keep track of every calorie we eat, and the kids were amazed at how much they use to eat versus now. Funny thing, they are all very active, in sports from late August until mid June- imagine how much more weight they'd have to lose, if they didn't play sports? In the summer, we do lots of swimming, hiking, biking and walking, so I expect my weight loss to pick up in a couple of weeks, from picking up more activity.
Oh, and because we eat meals like Smart Ones, Lean Cuisine, Chef Boyardee mini microwave meals and lots of veggies and salads, I find I am not cooking at all, LOL. I love to cook, but that's what got us into trouble in the first place, heh heh. So, for now, this is working for all of us, and I do plan on using the grill soon for our meats and veggies, but for now, we are using calorie controlled frozen dinners.
I do plan to cook on Sundays, which is our biggest amount of calories we can have for the week on the Wendie plan, and it will be something we all enjoy and can splurge just a little on that day. This weekend, the kids decided they wanted pizza from the sub shop the next town over. Last weekend, we were at my sisters and had a BBQ, so we had steak tips and Spinach Tortillini salad. The weekend before, my daughter had a Home Ec project she had to do- she had to cook a meal for the whole family, with an main course, appetizer, bread, and dessert. She made my Asparagus Lasagna, popovers, caesar salad, and my Mom's recipe for Apple Crisp.
Needless to say, we all enjoyed the meal she made very much, and everything was delicious.
We all ate lettuce, celery and spinach during the day with no salad dressing. I told the kids I was going to do that, so I could enjoy the meal guilt free, and they and hubby followed suit, LMAO. I told them they didn't have to, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't over do the calories, as I really want to lose the weight. I was shocked they all did this with me, but I couldn't be more proud of the support from all of them as well as hubby, who only needs to lose maybe another 15 pounds.
As you can tell by my signature, I have a lot to lose. Although my kids are overweight as well, they could have just cut back as well as hubby, and still enjoyed the things I use to cook before. I told them I was going to cook for them, but follow my own diet and would not eat the same as them. They all decided to join me instead, and told me what dinners to pick out for them, snacks, etc.
In my pantry, I have the 8 variety packs of small boxes of cereal, mini bagels, weight loss oatmeal, 100 calorie packs of cracker, chips, cookies, Smart Food popcorn, as well as the Chef Boyardee mini microwave meals and Campbell's On The Go Soups, to which are from 80- 120 calories each, and fun sized Snickers bars, Milky Ways, and Musketeers- around 70-80 calories each.
They are allowed two 100 calorie snack packs a day or one 100 calories snack pack and a fun size candy bar, as I don't want to deprive them, but I also want them to eat half way decent on this diet. We also have frozen pizzas, bagel bites (they love pizza- I'm lucky to eat it once a week, LOL) and the frozen meals I mentioned before. We've been using Z Trim in our veggie dips, salad dressings, mayonaise, cream cheese, and margarine spreads- that helps cut down the calories and fat in half, with no difference in the taste. My kids have been eating lots of veggies and salads lately, as they enjoy the dips and dressings they can have on them. They've always been healthy eaters, thank goodness, but they love their snacks, too, LOL. Plus, we ate way too much of the healthy stuff along with the junk. Portion control sized goodies and meals have been a humongous help to us keeping within our calorie range!
Sorry, I didn't mean to write a book here, just wanted to let everyone know what's been working for us. Good luck to all, and let's keep supporting one another! I appreciate all the support I've gotten here, and I learn something new everyday just logging on to this board.