i get taught my mostly naturopaths who use western, eastern, and holistic medecine intigrativly. so it's pretty broad spectrum. the teacher i'm refering to is a medical genius. i would put my life in her hads without blinking and eye. i mean not that native american medicine couldn't compliment or anything, but i would exhaust a few other thing first.

Well I gave up artifical sweenter for lent...

I used to drink HUGE amounts of diet pop and use it in my coffee tea, etc. I slowed down my diet pop intake for the last few months. Anyway, it has been 3 weeks or so now since I have had at the artifical sweetner and let me say cravings were WORSE at first. I just diet pop as a treat in the evnings, something sweet so I started looking for something else to replace it with. Fruit juice, regular pop, cookies, chocolate, etc and it was horrible cravings!

The first week I was off it I lose 2 pounds, I very rarely lose that and then I lost nothing for the last two weeks. Looks like I will lose this week.

SO what I have I leanred so far? WELL I MISS IT! give me back my diet pop! but at the same time, I know it is bad for me. But I have decided all ready, when lent is over I will go back to diet pop as a treat but I am going to try and avoid it in other areas.

My mind maybe change if I see some HUGE increase in weigh loss in the up coming weeks, but as it stands now im filling that void with other usless calories.

ready2shed...wish i knew you were coming...but i have to work tomorrow...off saturday..but probably might avoid the chaos..i've done it years in a row...sort of done with the Savannah st. patty's day chaos....but enjoy. (maybe that means i'm getting old LMAO). I might go down for a wee bit...but we'll see how i feel after my crazy week is up. ENJOY!

I just did a search and found this thread because it occurred to me today that maybe I'm using too many sweeteners and that that could be contributing towards me being unable to shift the weight easily. I've always had a very sweet tooth, can't resist chocolate and cakes, anything sweet and I'm happy :)

For about 15 years I've been using sweeteners but over the last year or two the amount I've been using has increased. I use Canderel (don't know if that's available in the US).

The ingredients listed on their website for 1 canderel tablet are:

Ingredients: Lactose, aspartame*, acesulfame-K, leucine, cross-linked CMC, flavouring
*Contains a source of phenylalanine

I used to only have one sweetener in tea and two in coffee but over the last year or so have increased to two in tea and three in coffee. I drink loads of tea every day and a couple of coffees (maybe the odd latte or cappucino during the week too, in which I also put three sweeteners).

I'm not sure if I can face tea without any sweetener at all but will give it a go. Coffee though I'll have to have something in, but maybe raw sugar as someone has mentioned.

I'll be very interested to see if it helps with my weight loss. If anyone else here has experienced a difference or has any more advice on this I'd be very interested to read about it :)

I was raised on sweet and low.When splenda came out I changed over , now
I use half suger , half splenda and just cut down on my usage. I also like the
flavored water out on the market the kind that has no calories, no sodium,
no caffeine, what the heck is in that stuff? I'm new here and just started posting .This site is so encouraging , just wanted to say THANKS!!

Eleanor ~ I changed my entire way of eating Dec. 29, 2006 (12 weeks ago) I have had good steady losses ever since - I've lost 39 pounds so far in that time frame. I truely attribute cutting all sugars (real and aritificial) OUT. I check all labels - if there is a sugar in one of the first 4 ingredients, I am not eating it. Period. The ONE thing I will eat that has sugar in it is 70% or more dark chocolate....and that is only occasionally. The first week it was tough - akin to detoxing my body. BUT, once that first week was over, I felt like a new person. I no longer crave the sweets like I used to, it is like a miracle to me. So - for those who want to use the chemical sweetners, go for it, but me, I have never been better off in my life. I'll never use them again. Choose what is best for you and go with it!

Thanks :) You've done so well losing 39 pounds in 12 weeks!! Well done! :)

I'm definitely cutting out the sugar. I've stopped with the Canderel as of yesterday morning. I think I can get used to tea without it but as for coffee, I think I need something in that but as I only have 1 a day, it wouldn't be so bad to have some sugar in it (raw, if I can get some).

I'm definitely going to generally though cut out sugar and no way am I having sweetener again. When I lost the weight easily years ago I wasn't using sweeteners.

I'm wondering whether the fact that I've been using them the last few years whilst I've been unsuccessfully trying to lose the weight, could mean that for me they are stopping me losing the weight. It's a long shot but I'll try anything that might help.

I've been walking relentlessly every day now and am about to start my fourth week, with hardly any weight change at all. I know that I look slimmer, and that I've got to allow for muscle increase etc but I'm willing to look at every angle of what I eat and drink to assist this weight loss process.