:dancer: I took the kids to walmart tonight and the kids asked for mcd's. I was actually thinking of getting some Taco Bell, so I ate a baked chicken breast and green beans before we left. The temptation was there, but I went through mcd's drive thru and didn't get anything. Then drove right past Taco Bell and didn't stop! I thought I would give in and just get something, but when it came down to it, I realized I didn't even want anything. I was full, and there was no reason to eat, so I didn't :dancer:

This is literally the first time I've been right there at a fast food place, money in hand, and didn't get anything. I am so unbelievably happy right now. I haven't lost a bunch of weight, but I am at the point I can pass up temptation if I really am not hungry. I thought this day would never come.

Meliss, good to know the report was not on you. Take a deep breath and relax some now.

Ice, YAY on the pound! It may only be one, but it's a step closer to your goal. Let us know how you like the yoga. What's in the book, that's what I'm wondering? I have a gazelle and I love it. Mine was the cheap one though, only $80 and holds up to 250 lbs. I was a bit over that when I started on it and was fine. If you're saving up money and want something quicker, you could get one of the cheaper things you listed and then do that until you can afford a treadmill. Watch for sales too, those things do get marked down sometimes. Have you looked at walmart? We got a big weight thing, just like the fancy ones advertised all the time, but it was walmart brand and half the price.

Laura, that sucks to make all that food and not have them show up. You could freeze it and use it for little meals when you're in a rush I guess.

Theresa

Congratulations Theresa!! That is a biggy and you should be thrilled with yourself. I can't wait for the day when food isn't important to me. I have more control than I used to and I have stuck and got back on even when I fell off which is new for me. I would mess up and then a year later go geez I gained another 30lbs better start something and change this. I know a large part is because I have all of you here and I can come and cheer, do a happy dance or whine and cry or yell and scream. I am finally feeling back in control today and was completely OP. I suppose I will get on the scale tomorrow and see what the damage is.
Melissa

:crossed: hopefully there will be no damage melissa.

I just realized that I will probably not make my Thanksgiving goal :cry: 18 pounds in about 5 weeks would mean 3-4 lbs. a week and I just am not losing that fast. I've slacked enough, on the ball, no more 3 weeks of sitting the same because I'm not trying enough. I CAN DO THIS I CAN DO THIS I CAN DO THIS.

Theresa

theresa.. you are doing great regardless of whether or not you lose x pounds by x date. if you stick with it and let not getting fast food, etc., become a habit, eventually, the pounds will come off. btw, passing up taco bell is hard, so wtg!! i always tell myself, "just 150 cals for that taco, why not?" but it adds up!
ice, i wish i could give you my gazelle. i have been thinking of getting rid of it because i have a gym membership now. but the shipping would be more than the cost of a new one. :mad: well, hopefully you can get something soon (maybe yours won't squeak like mine ;) )
another good day on the calorie front for me. i just want to get through the rest of the night without eating the other half of the biscotti i got earlier at starbucks. i am low on calories, i could have it if i wanted.. but i want to resist, just because i can. why have 70 more cals if i don't need to? i tried to pass it off on my sil, but as a fellow calorie-counter, she didn't want it either. it's so nice to be able to kick it with someone and complain about restaurants not giving calories for stuff and bathing food in butter, and trading tips about healthy cooking. everyone else i know irl just doesn't get it. they're all like, "eat the cookie, come on! ain't gonna kill you!" grrr.

I'm so glad everyone is back and we are all getting OP again. I feel so much better when I am OP. I even can tolerate the way I look when I am OP. When I am off, I feel fat and horrid and I hate my clothes and everything. When I am OP I just feel better.
Yesterday was a yucky day and I finally ended it by going to sleep at 9:30, which is very early for me. I have been staying up very late to finish knitting a blanket for the baby shower for my DIL tomorrow.
I will stay OP at the shower tomorrow. That will be easy. The cake will be a big sheet cake from a big box store, full of food dye and chemicals and easy to pass up. I didn't protest when the other grandmother said she was getting it. I was selfish and said ok, cause I knew it would be easier for me to not eat.
Laura

Great Laura, let her get the cake! Works perfect for you, glad you're back OP as well.

Melissa, my gazelle sqeaks too, but I've noticed it's only when I am over 250. Now I'm below that point it squeaks less. I think because 250 is the max weight, so when over I was stressing it out :?: anyway, I'm going to see if it stops when I get well below this mark, if not I might have to find something else to do at night :( I love the thing, but the squeaking is too loud when the kids are in bed.

The scale was down TWO POUNDS this AM!!! I am so excited, and I'm going to move my ticker even though it's the day after WI. I had gas yesterday all day, and it's gone today so I'm going to take it. SORRY there is no nice way to say that, is there? :o I'm going to use that 2 lbs. as motivation...I have to keep it off until next WI.

I think I've broken my plateau problem and figured out exactly how I will eat for the rest of my life, all at once, and it feels so wonderful. I love the South Beach plan but can't follow it exactly for several reasons, and I've stumbled around finding nothing else that works for me. The counting calories was just leading to binges because I felt deprived when the cal got low. SO, I made up a modified SB program, using the basic principles but substituting some to make it fit my life. I won't do it like in phases as they do, this is just a way I know I can stick with long term, it's so ME.

Breakfast: unlimited protein, minimum 1/2 cup veggies

Snack 1: string cheese, nonfat yogurt, or 1 cup cottage cheese

Lunch: unlimited protein, 1/2 cup beans, minimum 1-1/2 cups veggies

Snack 2: string cheese, nonfat yogurt, or 1 cup cottage cheese

Dinner: unlimited protein, minimum 2 cups veggies (1/2 cup beans optional)

Snack 3: string cheese, cottage cheese, or yogurt

I have one this for the past 2 days and have come out just under 1500 calories, and the carbs have actually been higher than the protein, that surprised me, but veggies and yogurt has a lot of carbs, so it's not like I've cut them out, just getting them from healthier sources. Do you guys think this is okay? I feel so good with this, always full and content and not robbed. SB rule is that if you are hungry you didn't eat enough, so that works well for me. I don't have to feel like I can't have an extra snack, I just go for a cheesestick or a thing of yogurt maybe, long as it's OP and there is no running out.

Here's what I had yesterday:

B: 2 egg omelet with cheese and half a large cucumber sliced on side.

S: 8 oz. nonfat blueberry yogurt

L: large salad with fresh veggies, cheese, beans, and LF turkey lunch meat, ranch dressing.

S: 8 oz. nonfat peach yogurt

D: large baked chicken breast with worcestire sauce, 2 cups green beans seasoned with red peppers and onions

S: 1 cup cottage cheese with lemon pepper seasoning

That chicken breast for dinner is what allowed me to pass up Taco Bell. It is so filling when you eat the protein with a bunch of veggies. It's amazing how full I feel all the time.

Okay, does this plan seem okay to everyone? I feel good on it, but I want to make sure there's not something I"m missing.

Theresa

Well the damage was 4lbs but I started TOM today and I know some of it is water. I am just going to have to come up with a strategy to overcome the week before I start so I don't have to do this every month cause that is old. I am definately not going to make my goal this month but I am not going to beat myself up and just move on making a new one next month.

The only thing I can see Theresa is the lack of grains and fruit in your diet. Fiber. That coupled with all the cheese is begging for constipation in my life and it is not any fun. I have never done south beach or atkins. You are good on veggies though and that will give you some fiber but not much fruit either. You may want to take some suppliment of fiber maybe.

I am glad to see we are all back on the wagon and isn't it kind of funny how so many of us were all having trouble at the same time? I thought it was interesting. I am off to start laundry and get that pumpkin cooked and make some muffins along with a bunch of other stuff. The work around here never ends I tell ya.
Melissa

I found it interesting as well that we all hit the problem spot together. Maybe it's because we all started out at the same time? Some of our TOM seem to be at the same time as well, I should be starting any day now. I actually thought it would be today, but so far no sign.

On the diet, I don't eat the cheese everyday. I won't have one most days actually, I use the string cheese just to shove in my purse if I am in a hurry and know I will need something. Mostly I'll have yogurt for snacks in the day, and I like cottage cheese with fruit cocktail in the evening...yum. I will also allow fruits for snacks if I want it...I thought about that this AM as well while cutting up an apple for the kids. I just didn't think about fruit when I wrote that out, but i definitely will allow that for snacks. I have not had a problem with constipation, I think that is why SB recommends the 1/2 cup of beans with lunch and dinner. I love warm beans in a big salad, yummy.

As for grains, I have never been one to eat breads of any sort unless it's like pizza, I just don't like bread. Sometimes I would have pasta or spagetti, but for some reason I can't eat that without overstuffing msyelf, I just can't stop with it. I think maybe the sauces have sugar in them, that is a major trigger and I'm learning finally to look in the ingredient list of canned and bottled things for it. Anyway, I have never been big on grains to begin with but maybe it will have to be something I think about in the future. I was just worried about getting enough carbs, but in the yogurt and veggies I am actually taking in a bit more carbs than protein, or it's about even, so I think I'm covered there.

Tonight I'm making barbequed chicken, boiled split breasts, meat only shredded up and covered in barbeque and baked a bit. I'm using Carb Options sauce, was the only kind in the entire store w/o sugar or those fancy words for sugar added! Hopefully it'll taste as good as the other ones, we'll see. I'm going to eat mine right off the plate, but have some buns for everyone else. I don't even want the buns, it's the barbeque sauce I love. I almost cried when I thought they were ALL going to list sugar. Thank god for Carb Options.

I feel so good even after just a couple days and it was so easy to get into. This just feels natural to me because it's like a method, not a diet. I just think protein and veggie, and throw it together. So simple and so filling.

Theresa

Beans are an excellent source of fiber and if you are having some fruit too, then you should be great. Tonight we are having sante fe meatloaf, mixed veggies and baked potato. Josh will be with Dad for his monthly trip to mcdonalds for doing good at school so I won't have to worry about hearing him crab about dinner tonight at least. He was in bed before 7p last night-let's just say he was in rare form and it was that or I move to Mexico-ALONE.
melissa

Theresa- I think your plan is a good one. I know protein is the best way to not feel hungry. I don't know SB, but I agree with Melissa that fruit is important. Maybe a small apple for a snack.
I went to a luncheon today at the place where I volunteer. All the rich donors were there and I felt very shabby next to them. I buy my clothes cause they fit and I am grateful to find something decent. I spend as little as possible because I am always hoping to be thinner. These women were dressed in suits and dresses with jackets and beautiful shoes and almost all of them were thin. It was pouring out and they all look so spiffy. When I reach my goal I want a dark suit, with a fitted jacket, and a gorgeous skirt and boots, not snowy boots. but beautiful leather boots. Maybe at next year's lunch I will feel better.
Laura

Laura, though it feels horrible now, that luncheon is fabulous motivation. When you want something bad for you, think of those women and how you felt next to them, that should be something to ease the cravings. Crave that suit and beautiful boots more than you crave the food. You'll fit right in next year ;)

Melissa, I hear ya on moving away alone. I have felt that way a couple times today.

I have this really good friend in Ohio who went on some weight loss pill subscribed by her doctor and lost well over a hundred pounds a couple years ago. Last I talked to her was about a year ago and she said her doctor had taken her off the pill and said she had lost all she was going to lose with it. Well, I heard through my mom tonight that she has gained all her weight back plus some. She looked amazing last time I saw her, but mom said she looks bigger now than she did before taking the pill.

I feel sad for her. She was so proud and happy when she lost all that weight and I was so envious but felt it wasn't the right way, and it is now proven that was correct. I just wonder how it makes her feel, and I want to cry for her. It may take me longer to get this off, but mine is NOT coming back on, that is for sure.

Theresa

I am with Theresa, Laura. I would even maybe go a step further and start pouring over catalogues and cut out the suit and boots you like and hang it on the fridge or your dresser mirror so you can see the goal.

I feel for your friend too. Truthfully, it has to be a lifestyle change in order for it to work. I have watched talk shows where people had the surgery, lost all the weight and then went back to eating bad and it can kill you doing that. It may take me awhile to do this but I am building healthy living habits that will last my lifetime.

I put up 22 cups of pumpkin today, made a dozen muffins-bananna oatmeal(will have to tell you how they are in the am, dinner is in the oven cooking, loaded the dishwasher and the last load of clothes is in the dryer. Man I am ready for a nap. I still have more to do around here-that week of yuck really took its toll around here. Mom thinks it might be salt that I am craving during that preweek and I think she might be right. I have already marked up my calandar with DON"T DO IT three weeks from now when it will hit so I can try and catch it and not go through this again. I think knowing will help alot next time.
Melissa

Melissa-What do you do with pumpkin besides muffins and pie? I've only had it in pies And how do you put it up?
Laura

I make bread too like bananna or zucchini. All I do is cut it up, cook it and then run it through a food mill so I don't have to peel anything. Measure it out in two cup containers, let it cool and toss it in the freezer. I have a pumpkin cookie recipe too although it isn't diet friendly. I think I saw a recipe for pumpkin pancakes too but not sure which cookbook it was. I also use it for those chocolate muffins josh likes. It is one way to sneak some veggies into him, although last night he tried cucumber and some carrot. I almost fell over. Talking about falling over-tonites dinner just about got me. Too too too tooo tooooooooo spicy for me. I still have 4 servings of it lol so I will have to make a sandwich and use some lettuce or something to help difuse it.
Melissa

ps-when using fresh pumpkin, use 1/2 the amount of whatever liquid is called for in recipe.

hey everybody. congrats on the lost pound theresa!
i found this awesome stuff. if y'all like pasta, you have to try these noodles called tofu shirataki. they are just like pasta noodles, but a serving is only 20 calories (40 for the bag). omg, they are so delish! i had them in stir fry yesterday and they were awesome. i have been staying away from stir-fry because of the rice, but no more!