Wow. This diet is amazing. I've lost SIX AND A HALF POUNDS and I'm only on day three, phase one. I've gone from 163 to 156 1/2.

I've never done a carb-controlled diet before. Tell me...will my resolve waver at some point? I feel totally strong, totally in control. I was afraid to run (thinking I'd bonk due to low glycogen) but I ran three miles today no problem. I can't help thinking at some point I'm going to get crazy cravings and fall off the wagon. Could this feeling possibly last? I felt strong like this in the first week of weight watchers too, but I was a lot hungrier.

All you long-timers...does this get harder??? thanks!! MM

Hi moon mirror (great name)

It only got harder for me when I cheated, and had to go in to detox all over again.

There is a moral there...

thanks clove (my name hints at my pagan fantasies)

Yes, I get the feeling that if I had just one cookie, or one handful of popcorn, the game would be over for awhile. good tip.

Pagan fantasies? I have those sometimes. Have you read Marion Zimmer Bradley's books? Good fantasy feeding stuff.

No, but I'll sure write down the reference. I may never be a magical garden witch, but I can in my dreams

I can't even get an herb garden to grow let alone a magickal garden!

I think herbs are hard. Mine get eaten by bugs ('cause they taste good, I assume) and I live in a very favorable climate. I don't use any poisons (I'm a crunchy bohemian type if you haven't noticed already) so some of my plants go to the bugs if they don't grow fast enough.

I do grow bushels of tomatoes, though...with a few squash and cucumber plants thrown in. Its great when you're trying to eat healthy to go out barefoot in your sunny garden and pick fresh vegetables.

I cant grow tomatos. Just cant do it. Last year I finally mastered the pinching out thing and the whole lot got blight.

sounds like you're quite the gardener, though? (reading the wednesday chatter posts, full of garden goodies)

My tomatoes love the sun, if they aren't in the sunniest spot in the garden they get pissy and don't produce for me (as in how dare you relegate my spot to the shade).

Y'all girls garden on. Not my cup of tea. When I was growing up we grew everything we ate. Including our beef and pork. We had about 6 different gardens that us kids worked all summer long. If it could be grown in Ky we grew it I think. Now I am a city girl all the way and do not even want to think about growing a garden. But enjoy the stories. I've even to the point now of not even having house plants. It's all artificial greenery for me. MM ain't nuttin like garden grown maters. Especially between 2 slices of bread with mayo!

interesting bamiegirl...

seems with a gardening past like that you'd either hate it or love it. I suppose being forced to do something as a kid seems to cause "escape mode" as an adult.

I grow herbs in the summer and cherry tomatoes on my balcony - since I live in an apartment I do container gardening- I love walking out onto my balcony and snipping some fresh herbs for that evening's dinner - sepecially fresh basil

It is also nice to have a little green oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle

moonmirror - why can't you have your magikal garden - find some plants you can grow and run with it! I always remember the smell in our garden in the evenings as we sat in the backyard under the stars in the summer -my mum had planted night scented stalk (or night blooming Jasmine) and the smell was amazing.

When I get my own house with a yard I am definitely going to plant some night blooming flowers

too cool mauvais...night blooming jasmine...

My garden is small (a long corridor, sunny on one end and shady on the other) and the shady side is canopied with plants...my daughters call it their "secret garden." I have creeping mint around stones, mountain rue, pennyroyal, and moneywort greening in there...I am SO ready to develop it more, I don't know why I haven't been out there yet. I want more creeping mint...flats and flats of it. It is a tiny-leafed bright green soft groundcover that smells sweetly of mint when you press on it. I want to cover enough ground with it so that my girls could lie down in it and look at the stars.

Also...for magickal plants...The Thyme Garden (they have a website) sells about any seed you can imagine. They have a whole section called "The Moon Garden..." I'll bet your jasmine is in there.

Ahh. garden daydreams.

Oooh...sounds like a nice garden. I will have to check out that site and I have one for you ....www.witchcrafted.com - A guide to pagan gardening - it has a lot of sections including zodiac gardening and herbal gardening

Congratulations on your weight loss. I have been on SBD for about a month now so can't comment about long-term weight loss. Weight loss in the first week is pretty rapid, the second week a little slower but I find that if I stick to it and get lots of exercise and drink plenty of water I can still drop about 2-4 pounds a week. I don't tend to have cravings for sweet food or carbos anymore but if I do they are fixed with a herbal tea, diet drink or sugar free desert. You shouldn't regain your weight loss unless you go back to your old eating ways but remember a lot of it is just water weight loss at this stage.

I find the fast weight loss extremely motivating. I am fitter because of all the exercise and find that my walks are getting easier because I am shifting less weight. I really miss my vegies and water if I don't get them at a meal. Last weekend we went to pizza hut and I got two plates of salad and really enjoyed eating them (then I fell off the wagon and ate some pizza and icecream ).

Keep up the good work!