Diane, I know what you mean. I hated my body when I was 14, 19, 26, 32. If I had only known, I would have loved every minute!

Well the headaches are over and I think my body is through rebelling. Diana says that I have been cranky, but she still loves me. With all the stuff still to do around the house, I don't think I am going to have to go out for exercise anytime soon!

Hope everybody has a great weekend!

7 1/2 pounds in 2 weeks. :woh:

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by ChatKat.:
<strong> 7 1/2 pounds in 2 weeks. :app: :app: :app:

Don,

Glad you have passed that awful part of beginning all over again. Being good to yourself certainly takes getting used to!

Thanks Kathy. It is hard being good again. I didn't realize how much of a carb-aholic I really am. When I limit my carbs, I don't get hungry, but when I have too many, I seem to be hungry all the time, and then I overeat. <img border="0" alt="[c]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" />

Kathy, that really is terrific. That kind of result always gives you that lift you need to walk that extra half mile. For me, that and the dog's otherwise cranky behavior.

I am losing at a snail's pace, or less.

Diane, good your dog will walk. Mine just stop to read their pee-mail so they aren't included on my walks.

Lost 10 lbs in six days!!! I can't believe it. I had to get on the scale three times, but it's true! :banana: :banana: :banana:

Kathy--maybe yhat's why I wrecked my rotator cuff. All that yanking on the lead at the trees.

Don--wow. I think that's a record!

Way to go Don!!! :app:

I am down 1 pound and was happy about that, but 10 is awesome!

Don, Way to go!

Diane, Don is the weight loss champ around here. We can't compare our gleeful 2 lbs a week to his 5-6-7 and now 10 lbs.

As to dogs and leash pulling, ouch!

Well, I got tested yesterday. My friend had a party and I got asked to bring Gazpacho Soup ( for 25 people), which I made from scratch. She makes homemade tamales, torillas and bbq's carne asada. I hung out at the dish containing the raw veggies and sipped the gazpacho. I can eat soft tacos and I had two. Oh and one short glass of wine! Not easy but it was fun!

Oops - the mysterious double post!

You are all doing GREAT!! As soon as we return from our trip I know I will have to join you...Weight Watchers here I come.....Keep up the good work while I'm away :app: :app:

Doris,

Glad you are joining in! We need all the support we can muster around here.

Thanks all! Two words come to mind. WATER WEIGHT. However, I will still take it.

Doris, glad you are going to join in. We need all the support we can get.

Kathy, I think I am also the weight gain champ! It is time for me to stop this yo-yo thing.

Some things that I have come to realize:

I have a carb addiction. I am a carb-aholic and I need to really control this.

I have to have a goal. I gained back some of the weight because I had no goal. My goal now is to lose before my daughters wedding and before going on SAND. My long range goal is to be at my ideal weight by the time we go on CROSS. I will probably need an intermediate goal between now and the time we go on CROSS, as well as a goal for after we do CROSS.

Weight loss is all a matter of percentages. A person that only has 20 lbs to lose and loses 5 lbs in a month is doing much better than someone that has 100 lbs to lose, and loses 15 during the same period. That is part of the reason why the pounds come off slower as you get closer to your ideal weight. So, when I lose a bunch of weight it does not compute the same as when y'all lose a few pounds. Y'all are doing great and I applaud you for it! Keep it up, even when it gets tough and you don't see results that you would like to see, knowing that it just means that you are getting that much closer.

Got so excited today. I love tortillas, but they are no way Jose on my diet. I stopped in the store and was going to get lettuce to do a lettuce wrap with my roasted turkey and found these low carb tortillas with only 4 net carbs instead! WOW! Oh, and they were good too!

Don, Not sure if you have Health Valley Products but they make a vegetarian chili that is really good, low carb, and wrap it in one of those low carb tortillas and you won't think you're dieting.
Really good lunch

Sounds delish! I will have to check it out.

Just an update! I lost another 4 lbs this week. So, in the past 13 days I have lost a total of 14 lbs. The plan is to lose 3 lbs per week all the way up until SAND!

I want to go from looking like this...



To looking like this...

Hey Don - way to go!

I am down total of 10 lbs. and I am bringing my nutritionist on MUSH with me just to keep me on track! (uh oh!) :eek: :eek: :eek:

My goal is to be pretty active and keep my portions very small but eat whatever I want

Gee, I ought to lose 5lbs just from schlepping my suitcases!

Best of luck with your weigh loss plans. You can do it by eating less & moving more. Easier said than done, especially on Regent.

When our son went to college in 2000 I felt fat, frumpy & middle aged (if your life span is 106.)
As empty nesters I no longer kept tempting foods in the house & lost 15 lbs. I am no longer fat, frumpy nor am i middle aged.

Don you are doing great! I haven't lost any pounds this past 2 weeks, but the inches must have come off as I got into my smaller sized jeans over the weekend.

Those of us on TUSH are very fortunate as all the food/drinks are calorie free!

I am in the lose nothing phase. And I mean nothing. At least no gain.

I will walk the stairs, I will walk the stairs. I will eat only one salt stick per meal...weight lifting of suitcases....geez....I gotta get them closed first!!! Lots of DANCING!

Kathy, you are taking your nutritionist with you??? Wow! Talk about dedication!

Yes - she's also one of my dearest friends and she's Mushing with us. Gonna try to get her to book CROSS while we're on MUSH.

Kathy: Private practice nutritionist or thin friend nutritionist? I have many of the latter ;) ;) ;) I know many LA folks bring their "helpers" on trips but have to pay for them!!!

No JoAnna, Carol's going to play. I will just have my usual Jewish guilt since she's joining us for probably 15 or 20+ meals :mecry:

Kathy, if she signs up for CROSS, will she join us in the Le Cordon Bleu class? LOL

Just another update. Weigh in was yesterday and I am down another 4 lbs this week. So the total is now 18 lbs in 20 days. :woh:

My immediate goal is to lose 38 lbs more in the next 14 weeks before our SAND cruise! That is 2.75 lbs per week, which I think is a much safer rate of weight loss and very a realistic goal. It is going to take discipline!

Wow Don, that is great. Can you refresh my memory? What is your overall strategy?

Congratulations Don. I agree that the slower the loss the better. Five months for me to lose 27, and I don't expect to lose the remaining 15 until around New Years. It still goes, but is less likely to come back, because there are no drastic up/down seesaw changes.

Thanks all!

Wendy, I am trying to eliminate bad carbs out of my diet completely. In turn I am eating smaller portions, drinking enough water to float a ship, taking vitamin supplements, and will be back on an exercise program within a couple of weeks. For me, it is what works. I know that I have a carb addiction, and when I have too many bad carbs (the ones that are full of sugar or break down and become sugar) it spikes my triglyceride and glucouse levels too high and I tend to overeat. If I control the level of carbohydrate intake, I can then control my appetite, going with much smaller portions without the hunger.

Cruises are a killer for me and it is where my discipline just sails away and leaves my diet in its wake! I just have to recognize, that I can't endulge in all the breads, potatoes, and desserts onboard and expect it not to affect me.

Hi All,

This is a great thread! In October 2005, I decided to take control of my health. Since then, I've lost 62 pounds. I'm a bit embarrased to say that I still have at least 20 more pounds to go, but I'm getting closer! And, my health has improved so much!

This has been my method/strategy: I downloaded Calorie King software. I write down everything I eat every day and track all my steps with a pedometer. You can also track your weight and measurements. It has been VERY helpful.

I wear a pedometer every day and my goal is to take between 10,000 and 12,000 steps per day. To do this, I take a 45 minute walk in the morning with my dogs. In the evenings, I do one of the Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds in-home walking DVDs. I like the 3-mile with weights or the 4-mile w/out weights the best. You get quite a workout! Len even joins me sometimes on these "walks." It's fun and the time flies by!

I eat 1400 to 1500 calories per day and that includes five servings per day of low-sugar vegetables and fruits per day. (I have a chart on the fridge that tells me how much of what I can have. I always shoot for 15g or less of carbs per serving.) Then I select lean meats and fish, etc. For me, I really have to control the carbs.

This plan's worked well for me so far and I hope to stay on course, even while on the Mariner at the end of the month!

Andrea

I hear so much about CARBS and I really don't know exactly what they are. I know enough to stay away from "white death" , sugar drinks, and cookies, cakes, pies, candies and pastries.
Can anyone help me?

Well, what you called the white death are refined carbohydrates, which I also try to avoid.

All fruits and vegetables are mostly carbohydrates, as well as grains. What you want to emphasize is complex carbohydrates--ones that are more difficult to digest, often contain more fibre, and therefore don't send your blood sugar going up and down. Some diets insist you avoid fruits with a high sugar content, and talk about the "glycemic index", which is a measure of how much a particular food will affect your blood glucose levels.

I'm not a dietician, others can chime in here. I stick to whole grain bread (not just "whole wheat"), but try to limit the quantities. Items with a high glycemic index like potatoes or pasta I try to save for a rare treat. I avoid sweet fruits like pineapple (I'm not a big fruit person, anyways. although fruits like melon and apples are very good for you.) Concentrate on high-fibre fresh vegetables (tough to do when you have a husband who doesn't like veggies, but.)

At the moment, I am honouring this more in the breach, since we are feeding our 25-year old son who has come home for a while, and getting anything on the table at night is a challenge, and often includes pasta, since he's a vegetarian.

Wendy and Andrea:

Thanks for the explanation about the carbs and the endorsement of Sansome's DVDs. The DVDs are great.

I've been up and down (mostly up)for the last 10 years and am really starting to feel the effects of carrying around too much weight - bad back, lethargy, etc.

Thanks for being an inspiration.

Tina

Oh boy, we all need inspiration! I have been packing it on now for a while, and can't seem to get control of my appetite. I eat fairly well during the day, but then at night, convenience food kicks in, and I an ravenous. We're both working our fingers to the bone right now, and don't have a lot of time to cook, so we order pizza at least once a week, go out for Mexican about once a week, it goes on. When we do cook it's often pasta, since our son is with us right now, and he's a vegetarian, so no more stir-fries with chicken breast (I'm going to get some tofu this weekend!) I also have the temptation of snacks at the office, I'm usually good about this, but those granola bars beckon at 4 o'clock in the afternoon!

I think the key is still the activity level. I've been laid up with an injured foot, but am back to my normal walking speed now, but haven't started doing any of my other exercises. Exercise is addictive, but lack of exercise is addictive too! :(

Wendy is right on. It is called carb or sugar spikes that you want to avoid. The faster that a food turns to sugar in your system the worse it is. At the top of the list are pastas and potatoes. Also, how they are prepared is huge. The more broken down a carbohydrate is the faster it turns to sugar and elevates glucouse levels causing spikes. For example a raw carrot takes longer to digest and therefore distributes sugar into your system at a slower rate and more evenly than one that is cooked, which in turn takes longer to digest and distribute sugars than carrot juice.