Ate my whole portion of food I brought for lunch. Can I last until dinner today? I didn't measure, but easily double my lunch size yesterday. I will be super happy when the day comes that I don't want to finish my food!

Well, I did good all afternoon. I am starting to feel a little hungry now, but think I am good to wait until dinner. I'll be checking back in on Monday!

Hey Desirae,
great start for you!

Yesterday was a stressor for me, so I switched into a low carb day. If we can avoid jumping out of ketosis, it will be great. It's funny because, when stress days come, it's not about being hungry, it's about indulging in fun foods to make me feel better. So I definitely need some of the great keto friendly foods around that will feel like a splurge. Today I feel great and calm and ready to be on plan. Have a great week-end and try to be good!

I hit my first goal in my signature!

Congrats, FinallyFree!!!.. looks like Zero Carb might be just the right thing for you... I've been investigating ZC for the past couple of days & have just about come to the conclusion that I'm gonna try it... I think it's amazing to learn that we don't really need to eat veggies...

desirae_nicole, I did IP about 5 years ago & lost 70 lbs. in about 6 months... since then I've put back on about 40 lbs. & recently started thinking about doing IP again... but the thought of all those salads just turned me off... I like salad sometimes, but not 2 big ones every day!.. that's why I'm considering Zero Carb...

hugs, y'all.....

Hi Aunt Sheshie,

Thanks for the Congrats,,,,Jump in here with us. Don't worry, this is a no salad zone. Just us Meatchicks.....

Way to go Finally Free!!! I love hitting a new 'decade'. When I get to my next one I am rewarding myself by going through all the bins of too small clothes I have stored in a spare closet.

Sheshie - welcome! It was nice to have IP to really get some weight off. I had been low carbing before joining, but was allowing too many cheats. The IP program helped put me back in that 'no cheat' mentality. I just called my center this morning (before they opened) to leave a 'break up' voice mail on their machine. "It's not you it's me!" hahaha.

There are 2 things that caused me to want to give IP a break...

(1)The cost (about 100$ a week when you consider the vitamins). If I had been losing 2-3 pounds a week it might have been worth it, but my average was under 2 pounds.

(2) I wanted to cut all the sweeteners and extras that I know are in the IP foods.

I told my clinic that if I don't get anywhere on my own they might see me back in January.... We shall see.

I stayed ZC all weekend. Felt easy! I feel like generally my energy is better, but still enjoyed a nap yesterday. I'm not feeling any bad effects. I was pretty much in or close to ketosis mode when I started though.

My weight is lower - 153.8. It looks like I had a big drop this week, but it's really due to a huge gain I had after a carb overload I did during the Labor Day weekend. I am actually back to the lowest weight I got to while on Ideal Protein. So any loss after this will be true loss!

I'm getting a scale that does body fat percentage this week and I'm going to start a real basic bodyweight strength program in the next week or so. I'm excited!

Wow Congratulations,

you have done great over the weekend! and thanks for the congrats on my reaching my goal! I am settling in right now.

I am having trouble figuring out how much food to bring to work. Yesterday I didn't have enough, and supplemented with my Ideal Protein left overs (so low carb, but not zero). Today I think I brought too much! Probably better, but I tend to finish all my food, so I'll have to be careful to listen to my body on if I'm hungry enough to eat it all or not.

, y'all, for the warm welcome... I was gonna start ZC yesterday, but my mom called & wanted to go to Shrimp Fest at Red Lobster, so I succumbed... their cheesy biscuits are just too good, not to mention the shrimps of all sorts... anyway, I have a bunless bacon burger planned for lunch... not sure what for supper... since I thought I was gonna do Ideal Protein again, I had bought some whey protein, so those will probably be my tweak sometimes for breakfast... a few carbs, but nothing overboard... I'll use them 'til they're gone, then switch to eggs, etc., for breakfast...

Congrats for your successes!.. I'm looking forward to some of those myself...

hugs.....

Aunt Sheshie - one last Lobsterfest! We don't have Red Lobster nearby... I haven't been tempted by eating out yet really. Going to do lunch with the hubbie today but I told him I wanted to go to a BBQ place where I could just pick up a pound of beef. We have skipped eating out for a few months. Hubbie doesn't seem to mind, he has a night with friends every Saturday and enjoys eating his junk then.

I got a new scale that does body fat measurement. I used it today and it's weighing me a pound less, I'll take it! haha. So I'm 152.4 today. I was 153.4 on the old scale. My body fat percentage is at 37.5%. I was over 40% last week on the Ideal Protein scale, so it seems to be measuring down as well. But I am watching that percentage more for movement, not absolute accuracy.

I think I am on track to hit the 140's by my birthday, Oct 1. But, I am going to start working on some body weight exercises for strength. If I add some muscle and don't lose weight I'll be ok with that too. Really, as long as I'm not gaining I'm happy. My mood is great lately and my energy is pretty decent too!

Never before have I eaten that much shrimp & probably never will again... still, it sure was good & I got to visit with my mom, my brother, & my uncle... so it was a good decision... BBQ sounds like a good plan, especially if you can get a lot of meat & pass on all the trimmings... it's really hard to eat out, most restaurants a lousy with carbs...

I had one of those Tanita scales that showed body fat %, but when I moved, I left it in the old house... not sure why... maybe I'll get another one someday... I'm not really interested in knowing exactly how much I weigh, I'm less of a lunatic if I just pay attention to how my clothes are fitting & how I feel...

If you're 152 today, I'm sure you'll make it into the 140s by Oct. 1... maybe even the lower 140s... most of the weight gain when you start working out is from your muscles retaining water & they release that pretty soon, I think, once they realize you're gonna continue to work them... you're doing great!..

My bacon burger yesterday for lunch was sooooo good... today I grilled a couple of little steaks, but they weren't as tasty as the burger... I've bought lots more ground beef, some pork chops, turkey chops, fish of some kind (flounder, I think), ham, bacon, & some cold cuts... my freezer is the fullest it's ever been!.. still strange to not be having a salad or some kind of veggie, but I'm sure I'll soon get over that feeling...

Well I'm slinking back and saying "Today is the first day of the rest of my Diet" Yes, I slipped into the PB jar and a few other places. I'm now refocused.

It looks like you all are focused. I will say concerning going out to eat, I have found it to be easy with this plan. Chillies has some great wings and just ask them to hold the sauce. A lot of places have great burgers, just let someone else eat the other stuff on the plate. Or bring it home for DH to eat later. BBQ places are great and Gengis Grill, if you have one in the area. Breakfast places, but watch the omelets, some of them have added carbs.

Looking forward to our scales going down. I'm just a little afraid of looking right now.

Aunt Sheshie - How was your first day? I appreciate your optimism for my weight loss, but would be surprised if it goes that fast.... I usually average 1.5 to 1.75 pounds lost a week, but not sure what to expect on this zero-carb. I must say I was 152.0 this morning, so it does seem to be dropping. I like to remain skeptical, we will see who is right!

Finally Free - it happens... was it emotional? were you feeling like your eating was too restricted? Not planning? I'm a daily weigher and try and keep it up through the slips ups. Look at it as just a datapoint more than anything else. I have an app that generates a trend line and shows when I should meet my goal. The trend took a turn for the worse during my last slip up but is heading in the right direction now.

Lunch out was good, but after didn't go well. I ordered a pound of meat and ate about 1/3 of it for lunch. Brought it to work with me to snack on later, but dang boredom eating means I ate nearly all of it within 2 hours. I felt awful and was quite nauseaus around 6 pm. I laid down for about 20 mins and was mostly recovered. I didn't eat the rest of the day. I stayed zero-carb.... but I need to be more mindful of actually being hungry. The over eating didn't hurt my weight (since I'm down) but I know I would feel better if I stopped when I am no longer hungry.

I'm considering going more moderate keto once I make it through all the ground beef I cooked up this week? I hate questioning my methods all the time, which is why I was happy to pay for Ideal Protein for 2 months. I knew it was working and I didn't have to think about it. But Hubby isn't working and the costs were starting to be too much. Sigh.

First two days were wonderful... today, day 3, I'm ready to eat the pages of the book I'm reading... carb cravings make me think strange things!.. hanging in there, tho, bacon burger for lunch, maybe some buttery shrimp for supper...

Thanx, FinallyFree, for the restaurant suggestions... I know there's a Chili's nearby, but don't know about Genghis Grill... I'll have to look...