ChickyCola Journey Phase II The Low Carb Journey

13 weeks on the program

2010-03-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

I have been on Medifast for 13 weeks and it's been working! I'm down 48 lbs according to my home scale and 44 according to their scale. I'm very happy. I find the program is very simple to follow, which for me is key. Also having the weight loss frame of mind is so important.
A few things I learned over the last three months are: water is everything! If you dont drink your water (at least 64oz a day) You will not loose weight...and keep it off. You will loose a pound or two, but it will pop right back on and you will get frustrated.
Another thing is something I always knew but it gets reinforced all the time, Frame of mind is the other major key. Your brain will play tricks on you, it will make you feel hungry, it will convince you of strange things like...i need a cheat day to get over this plataue. It is so important that you are really in the mind set of you are on a program and are going to stick with it cause if you look for opportunities to cheat, you will find them.
I'm heading to weigh in. I've had a good week, I even forgot my food one day at work and between a friend who was on the program and myself I mananged to come up with 2 meals and did my lean and green at lunch. It felt really good to make it through that day without cheating even though I had a prime chance to!

21 pounds in 30 days

2010-01-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

Well I have to admit I have some hope now. I have a lot of ladies at work that are on different programs. Some are doing the HGB shot and some are doing jenny craig, medifast and weight watchers. It was hard to choose. I really thought I'd go with the HGB program but then realized I'd hate going to the Dr every week, having to ask off etc...what a pain. Plus I'm not a huge fan of hormone shots. But I did need help as I'm failing miserably getting going and staying going alone.
I decided I wanted something easy, something that had pre-packaged food, something I didn't have to think much about. So that took me to one of these centers.

Medifast is one I choose because the approach the obese in a way I always kind of though about it, an addiction. They put you on their pre-packaged food for the duration of your loss to your goal weight, then transition you to real foods, basically teaching you how to eat again, and then your on a year maintenance program with them to help you handle every type of situation that might come up.
Pretty good so far. I started at 254 and had my weigh in on Saturday at 230. This included having the freedom to each what I wanted on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years day. During both Christmas week and New Years week I still managed to loose a pound both weeks...
So I'm pretty excited and have a date of June 20th to reach my goal weight of 140. That would be a total of 114lbs in 6 months.

I'm Back!

2009-12-30T11:34:00.001-08:00

I have finally found my way back to try to loose this weight. After topping out at 250, Dec 6th I went to consult with a weight loss specialist and started a new program, I'm down to 232 and that is including being able to eat at my friends Christmas Eve Party and having a nice Christmas dinner.
I'll tell you more about it after New Years!
Sorry for such a long absence!

Trying it again

2008-09-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm back but I'm going to do this differently.

I've totally given up on the low carb. I just couldnt seem to get going again and was spirialling further and further down. When I topped out at 229 again I confessed to my husband that I just didnt even want to try anymore. And he said OK, but when you are ready to go again let me know so I can be there to help.
I considered his words and did some research. About a week later I told him I was ready to do thing differently.... and I started talking to him about my discoveries.

I've looked at some low calorie diets and foods and decided I could do this easier. I might not loose weight as fast as low carb, but I could eat more food and possiblies.

I've created an account on Calorie Count Plus, very similar to fit day, and started looking up food.
Right now I'm in a nice little routine of Oatmeal in the moring, a lean cuisine meal at lunch and a small dinner, trying to fit a salad in there, and using fruit for a morning snack and Popcorn for an afternoon snack and a scoop of icecream for bedtime snack...and can you believe it...I'm staying under or just at 1200 cal. As of this morning I'm back down to 220, and seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Insanity

2008-07-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

It's crazy.... I know how to do this...I really do. I've done it before, right so what is the problem?!

I'm holding steady at 215. I just had a major health scare because I went to my DD softball game on a lovely 113 degree day and unable to avoid sitting in the sun drank as much water as I could, while pouring water on myself and DD during field changes...anyways long story short I ended up with what I assumed was Heat Exhaustion. So I pumped the water and tried to stay cool over the next few days but after the third day of such and intense headache and the inability to sleep, which NEVER happens to me, I headed to the DR office. Well my BP was 210/150. He was gravely concerned so he gave me some BP meds and had me lay down until my BP came down, then he sent me home with rest and no heat, not even swimming pool instructions for the weekend. Upon returning to his office on Monday he thought he heard a murmur, something that he had never heard before, and being my Dr for 10 years he sent me to a Cardiologist. I went there on this last Monday. Needless to say I had two weeks of major worrying and a few bouts of crying scared for the unknown, however I'm happy to report that I have a very strong heart with no detectable problems. I follow up with my GP on Tuesday and hopefully he will consider working me off the BP meds since this is probably a result of the heat exhaustion/stroke that I got at the softball game. whew but definitely an eye opener! and I know I MUST get this weight off.
SO what do to? What would be the best way to approach this? I've been considering going off the Atkins because the harder I try to get on board, the faster and harder I fall off.
I've gain great power over the last year because I have discovered and admitted to myself and all that I am a binge eater. I feel that has given me great power because now I recognize when it is happening.
Right now I'm trying to stick with good live foods for my meals, a little something I learned from doing the 21 lbs in 21 days diet. I've been eating lots of fruits and veggies, doing salads for lunch and a light dinner. I need to pick up on exercising again, now that I've been given the all clear to move again... I don't know what to do... what do you think?

Getting Back on Track

2008-06-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, well it’s been too long again. I’ve been suffering from the “I don’t wanna’s”. I don’t want to diet, I don’t want to be fat, I don’t want to exercise… you get the idea. Not a great place to be nor very productive. So I’ve used up all the excuses, I’ve got a job again and established a reliable routine, went through the 15 birthdays we have had from April through June 5th, 5 of which were in celebrated in my home complete with cake and ice cream. And now I’m faced with a trip coming up in 2 months, one that I really don’t want to be 217lbs or more.
My DH has been staying strong he has been slowly moving down and is holding at about a 95lb loss! I’m so proud of him. He has been strong through my weakness and he has been encouraging to me through these dark few months.
But I’m ready again. I started back on track June 2nd, my birthday. We celebrated it on Sunday and Monday I started back on low carb. I was at 217lb and saw some weight gain from my weekend transgressions on Tuesday and Wednesday, this morning I woke up and was back to 217. I’ve been pretty good with the exception of some carb smart ice cream at night. I know I will have to wean myself off that to be successful, but for now I’m using it as a focal point, I hope by the end of next week I’ll be able to back away from it.

I’ve not be participating in many of the Low Carb forums that exists. I belong to lowcarbfriends, livin la Vida Locarb, and Camp Carbaway. The one I have liked best so far has been Camp Carbaway, to my shock, but I think it was really created to get away from some of the LowCarb negativity that has surrounded some of the other forums and the anger surrounding the Kimkins Crap. Believe it or not, Camp Carbaway was started by one of the former Kimkins supporters who has had an incredible amount of hate directed toward her. I joined knowing that but I wanted to see for myself and I have encountered a really really great bunch of people, completely supportive and it really doesn’t seem that there is any finger pointing or blame shame game going on, which I have seen in the other forums.

Anyway, my time has been getting sucked up by the new schedules. Sometimes I feel like I don’t get a chance to think until 8pm at night. I up at 5:30 and boom boom boom, get kids up, dressed and out the door to school then to work, off work at 4:30, home with kids by 5:15 eat, bath visit for like 30 minutes then my son goes to bed at 7pm and my daughter follows at 8pm….whew. So I’ve been working at getting a lot of the food I need ready to go so it’s just a matter of grab and go. We cook up a bunch of chicken breast on the grill on the weekend. I throw them in the freeze, one to a sandwich bag so I can just grab one at a time. My favorite has been a chicken breast cut in half long ways, with some laughing cow cheese sliced thin and put in the middle and some cheddar cheese sprinkled on top. Maybe a dab of ranch, Yum, like 3-4 carbs depending on how much ranch.

Happy 2008

2008-01-25T12:24:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I've not posted in so long, like over a month! I was just so very very busy over the holidays. We had a great Holiday! The best ever for me! I had off from work the Thursday before Christmas until the 31st and I TOTALLY enjoyed it. I tried to be good but definitely relaxed my diet, decided that I would get back at it again after the 1st. I was pretty proud of my 50lbs since July. I figured I might gain back 10...and was trying to be OK with that. So as of January 2nd I was only up 5 lbs... not bad...I was please so I got back to it...and failed, and failed and failed. I ended up restarting about 3 times unsuccessfully. It was really hard to get back on track after so much cheating, and I guess not gaining a really big number wasn't enough to scare me back on track...so after my new size 16 jeans got tight at 208.8lbs, I got scared and got back on Track. That was only last Saturday the 19th! I planned a fast for that day. I originally was just going to do meat only all day, but I didn't trust myself. So I reverted to a liquid fast, water, and an Atkins shake if it got too bad. I made it until 5pm with just water and one shake, when DH and I talked about what was going on with me, because of course I didn't keep him in the loop of my shameful spiral. He asked why I was doing the fast, thought it seemed more like I was punishing myself and I agreed. I felt like I was punishing myself for not being able to control myself. I decided to break the fast and have dinner. I had a chicken breast and some cheese.

I've been cheat free since Saturday and got down to 205 even again, now onwards. I've joined a challenge at my support forum to loose 10 lbs by Valentines day, well I join that like 2 weeks ago so I don't know if I will make it.
I told DH I need to get away from some of these Low carb products like Carbquik and s/f candy. I think they are triggering me to cheat, or binge.

DH is doing great, he has decided to try to get to 220 by July and he is at 245, I'm sure he will make it. I would like to get to 150 by July, and I'm at 205...will be hard but if I can stay on track I think it is possible. I secretly kind of hope that such a prolong cheat will help my metabolism kick back in to gear...and I will see a little bit more rapid weight loss.

On a happy note, I've noticed my hair is finally feeling thick again. I do not think I'm loosing nearly what I was. The biotin seems to be helping. :D

Getting excited for Christmas!

2007-12-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas is going to be so great this year! I can't wait! *giggle*

I'm doing pretty good this week, 2 sessions of aerobics and 4 nights of walking/running so far... I'm managed to get back down to 199. Hopefully tomorrow (weight in day) I'll be maybe 198?

DH made it to 250 this week. He so rocks! He has lost 78lbs in 6 months!

Back and Forth

2007-12-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

I just can seem to stay on track. I don't know where I lost it but somewhere I did and I went off plan for the last 3 days. I had a piece of Carrot Cake on Tuesday and a brownie on Wednesday, Yesterday I had a Carmel apple empanada...and today I'm up to 201. UGH! I suck.... I'm trying to get back on track today. It is so hard to have lost that 40 lbs so quickly (in 2 months) and then be struggling so hard for 1 pound a week...and not even be successful on that. My day to day diet consists of 2 eggs for breakfast, chicken or a hamburger for lunch, and chicken or some other meat for dinner, green beans or spinach. Maybe a scoop of carb smart at bed time and with that diet...I do not loose...I'm stalled.... so I get frustrated and cheat...and I gain 3 pounds in 3 days.... it doesn't quiet seem fair.

2007-12-03T19:44:00.001-08:00

THIS IS soooo cool! I love my puzzle pirates game and they started this new thing and we can display our pirate ranks on our blogs.... Pretty cool...Come join me on game...click and join, you can play for free! Janice

Made it through the Holiday Weekend!

2007-11-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday! DH and I made it through Thanksgiving successfully! We had Thanksgiving at our home this year, first year ever! We had 18 for Dinner. It was Awesome. I had basically four groups of people coming and I broke out the meal so everyone brought something. We made a smoked Turkey and Sweet Potato casserole, Carrots and Green beans, Deviled Eggs and Rolls. My mom came and brought Mashed potatoes, Rainbow Jello, Corn Casserole, Zucchini, and crab tarts. My BF Donna brought a roasted Turkey, stuffing and gravy, and my Cousin K brought 3 totally awesome pies. I also made a butterscotch pumpkin cake and the best ever low carb pumpkin bake. We had tons of food and NO STRESS! It was great, everyone came and brought a piece, we set it all out, grabbed paper plates and silver ware and dug in. The food all tasted great and the company was out of this world. I loved it! DH and I both did really good, we just stuck with the Turkey ,green beans, deviled eggs and I had a touch of gravy. The pumpkin bake was very satisfying. I thought I would be able to just skip dessert, but it was so much better to have this, and it was so yummy!
I actually lost weight! Saturday I had gotten down to 196, but today I'm back up to 199 which I believe is a result of a very salty roast we had for dinner yesterday. Not stressing, I know what to do.
I joined the newest challenge at the LLVLC website and I was down a pound on Friday for the weigh in, and I'm sure that I will be down at least another pound this Friday.

Hope Everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

ONDERLAND

2007-11-16T06:53:00.001-08:00

FINALLY! It has been a long hard struggle but I finally arrived at onederland today. I woke up and weighed 199.4! WOOT!

Quick Post!

2007-11-15T13:03:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to quickly post and apologize for not posting lately. I've been swamped with work and home stuff, plus the rush of Thanksgiving and start of Christmas shopping! WOOT!!
Good news is.....drum roll please.... I am at 200.00 this morning! I was hoping to post and say I was in ONEDERLAND, but it will be sooooo soon. I am feeling good that I have myself back on track and heading toward a goal...DH has been keeping steady and is now down like 65lbs! OMG... I am so proud of him!

I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year so it will be a busy busy week. I will try to update this soon!

Happy Thanksgiving! Good Luck with Black Friday

Back on track

2007-10-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

I did pretty good getting back on track last week. I lost and gained and lost...lol highest I was last week was 206 and this morning I am at 202 so Yeah Me! I've not gotten motivated enough to start using fitday again but I aspire to.

Hubby is just so far ahead of me, he is at a 268, a 60 pound lost. I'm so proud of him. His goal was 50 before Christmas and he is totally making it, he had to change that to his current goal of 250 by Christmas which I'm sure he will make.

I'm still working on my 50 by christmas goal, I'm sitting at 45 lbs so I'm sure I will make it.

Our menus tend to be repetitive so I don't really post them. But if you are interested we do a lot of Eggs and Chicken (my boss swears I'm growing feathers). I bring 2 eggs and have mayo at work so I do a 2 egg salad every morning. I usually bring left overs from dinner the night before for lunch then we usually do some kind of chicken for dinner. We have a nice steak and green chilies every Thursday and DH has wings on Saturday and I have Alice Spring Chicken that I make at home on Saturday.

Did I tell you we added weight training to our exercise? 3 times a week I lift weights. I'm up to 15 lbs on my biceps and 12.5 on the butterflies and 25 on the chest pulls. I hope it will help with the really bad bye bye arms I have! LOL

On a personal note...I got blinds! Yeah. We created an addition on our home last summer and I never completely decided how I was going to decorate the new room. (I'm a terrible decorator) It is our eatting area, yes, with a family of eight we needed to make an addition to have enough room for everyone to sit and eat together. We painted the room a really nice blue with a lighter blue on the ceiling. My DH and BIL made us a huge table and made bench seating on one side with storage. We have enough room for 10 to sit at the table comfortable. I dreamt of making it tropical themed room. I love the blue and I bought a red curtain for the sliding glass door, but that is as far as I got. I wanted to do do accents with hybiscuts and had a wild idea about painted bamboo shades! LOL anyway we have decided now to have Thanksgiving at our home and I decided, that after a year and countless birthday parties, it was time to finish this room. So I started with just some basic blinds (took down the temporary paper ones). On to stage two, some other window dressings and possibly some wall decorations. Hmmmmmmm.... taking suggestions!

Recovery

2007-10-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

I don’t know what happened but the Kimkins controversy really has come to a head with the news stories and law suit being filed. Suddenly all the message boards are quieter and the exposed and truth blogs are quiet. I think maybe everyone is going through a little depression after the climax kind of thing?
For me it has been an unhappy last two weeks. I'm back up about 5 pounds and fighting back again. I just kind of had a melt down last week and decided I was tired of being good, tired of dieting, tired of it all. I am back today because I definitely don't want to stay in that place. It's not a nice feeling. Hubby intervined with...what are you doing?! "I need you to be on board with me, I want us to be doing the same thing" is what he said to me... I told you he was special and awesome ;D
So I'm back on board today for real, had my egg salad for breakfast and Alice Spring Chicken for lunch. Tonight is L/C enchiladas. No Cheats and I'm good to go home and exercise....the recovery is beginning.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire! Watch out Kimmer...they are on to you!

2007-10-03T08:42:00.001-07:00

Kimkin Exposed! Check it out!!! The News has picked up the story!

Part 2 of Kimkins Exposed!

Part 3 of Kimkins Exposed!

Still Struggling

2007-10-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone! October 1st already! WOW! It's truly amazing how quickly the month of September has flown by.
I guess I should start by saying this last week has truly been a struggle, emotionally and dieting too. I wonder how many of you that read my blog are overweight and struggling with the emotions around being overweight.
I feel like everything in my life is perfect except my physical self. I have a great job, a loving husband, 2 wonderful biological kids, and the sheer pleasure of having my AWESOME nieces living with me (triplets) who are almost always the biggest helpers and cheer leading team one could ask for. So because that is all good, my burden is my physical self. I'm fat, and although I've lost 45 lbs since July, I'm still fat and still trying to lose weight. It's a slow process, which I've had wonderful success at early on, but the last two weeks have stalled. And the stalls are demotivating. I try to tell myself not to let the stalls get me off track and the quicker I get back on track the faster I'll break these stalls, but opportunity for temptations raises often in my house and this week has been another week of failing to resist those temptations.
I did pretty good all week, remember I had gained back 3 pounds putting me back at 204. Last week I tried staying strict, wanting to get back into ketosis so I could get back to loosing. I did have some weight loss here then a little gain there, never much in either direction. (I have been indulging in the carbsmart ice cream with some s/f chocolate sauce on it (about 5 net carbs in total). I've wondered if I needed to cut that to get the serious weight loss back.)
I started weight training on Friday so I am expecting a little stall/gain in the hopes that I'm building muscle.
This is the CRAZY birthday week in my house, mind you DD birthday was on 9/18, the start of this stall because I had cake and ice cream. Now I have my B-i-L birthday, (the triplets dad who also lives with us) today, my DH birthday on Friday and my DS birthday next Monday.
Also with the weather turning nicer here and the start of the fall season the girls and I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies yesterday, which I did end up eating 2 or 3! I totally felt that crazy carb rush like I could sit down and eat the WHOLE batch. I made myself take the kids outside to play and planted my fall flowers, which did help some. But I'm feeling bad and guilty still, struggling with the F-it attitude that says screw it for the week, I'll just start again next Tuesday. Do you know what I mean....then I have this counter fear that if I do that, I'll never start again.
Previously DH and I talked about birthdays and agreed we'd celebrate birthdays by participating and having a small piece of cake and some ice cream. But stalling after DD's birthday makes me not want to do it which in turn made DH feel bad because he was looking forward to cake and ice cream many times this week and not having it be "CHEATING"
OH I don't know, is this too much rambling? Sorry...I'm just venting trying to get over this. WHY can't I just be normal??! Birthday comes along, have cake. Back to dieting. I guess I really am obsessed with loosing weight. I feel as if I have laid so much of my happiness on loosing this weight that any set backs just wreck me and I find it so hard to get back to a good place. If I don't have those results immediately then it's not working or something is wrong. I am back down to 202 today, and that is not good enough for me. I wanted to get back to the 201 I was at on the 18th. And now I'm going to be going back up again because of birthday cakes. I guess I feel maybe a little out of control, because if I decide not to have cake the DH is not going to have any and I don't think that is fair. It makes him upset to not have the cake because he was looking forward to it. But he is doing really great right now, he is down 52 lbs! I WANT to have cake, heck who wouldn't!!, but I don't think I need to have cake for his brothers birthday. I'd rather save my cheat for HIS birthday on Friday, or my DS birthday on Monday, but in the meantime I cheated with cookies...it all makes no sense!

I think I need a time out! LOL

DH just called, he has lost 53lbs as of this morning....YEAH!! I think I'm just going to force feed him my cake tonight! LOL! Just Kidding! Have a great Monday!

********************
UPDATED 12:55pm 10/01/2007
I have just been banned from the Kimkins website. Not for anything that I said there, or did there. I've never said or did anything negative on the site, but because they tracked my ip address somewhere else and decided they did not like the places I had been. Shame on them for invading my privacy. It actually makes me want to throw up to think that I've been violated like that.... ew..*gag*

MAN OH MAN!

2007-09-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

OOO I'm so angry this week! I gained 3 lbs! It all started on the 18th when I had a piece of cake for my DD's birthday. DH and I had planned on it for a week. We did our carb blockers and I had a small piece, TINY maybe 1" x 2" and about 2 tablespoons of ice cream. I didn't even finish it. I ate maybe 3/4ths of it. OK, so no big deal I expected to stay still in my weight or maybe even gain a few ounces. So what happen? GRRRR!
The next day at work my boss brought in pistachios...I LOVE pistachios and know that 39 kernels is one serving and it is about 5carbs. The problem is the salt makes me stall... anyway, I ate some of her pistachios, and that along with the night before cheat sent me over the edge! I ate a bunch of pistachios, I stopped counting, just ate them. I gained a pound that day.
The next day I felt guilt that I ate so many of her pistachios and went out and bought her somemore to replace them, and I bought myself some also. Gained another pound that day.
It is like a frieght train and I couldn't stop it. I tried to recover this weekend and did pretty good, but still gained another pound for a total of 3 pounds (Assuming the left over weight gain from the nuts and cake).
My frustration is this: I didn't cheat that bad! I only had a some nuts and a tiny piece of cake. Is my metabolism that bad off?
I tested last night and I was no longer in Ketosis so I had another piece of cake (yes I still took the carb blockers). I figure I have to start over Monday anyway and I have been resisting THESE cakes anyway (DD bday cake and a "Bonus" Cake from a KFC meal on Saturday) They tasted horrible by the way, I didn't finish them.
SO today I am back on Induction, that is lean proteins, very few veggies and fiber, staying under 20 carbs. It should take 3 to 5 days to get back to ketosis. I'm back at 204.5.
The good news is that I can still see the whole picture. I started this 11 weeks ago at 247 lbs. I've made some big changes to my WOE and my lifestyle. I'll make it to 140 BEFORE July 2008!
I went shopping this weekend to cheer myself up, got a pair of black jeans, size 18 and they are a little big :D I also bought an outfit in a size 16! YEAH! it's a little snug but not terrible, I was excited.

46 pounds gone!

2007-09-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, I had a big jump this week. Was it because I switched up to an Atkins diet from doing the too low calories/fat Kimkins diet? Could be.
DH has been a little frustrated because he has been bouncing down then up so he is down 2 lbs then up a pound, then down 3 and up 2, then down one and up 2, see, crazy like. I told him it might be because he was really low on calories and he is a bigger guy than me, he needs to eat a little more than me, He was down below 800 calories a day. So he is doing Atkins with me now too. I think that he is happier, he really likes the waffles and I got my order in finally (took 2 weeks from netrition.com) and made the low carb rolls (2 net carbs). I made a batch last night because we made hamburgers last night (regular ones not the dove ones lol!). I thought I could use the roll as a hamburger bun, well, the roll was much smaller then the hamburger so I ended up cutting the hamburger in half. In the end, I couldn't taste a thing. I caught this nasty cold over the weekend and I lost my voice and apparently my sense of smell and taste. It was almost a waste of carbs to not be able to taste the roll. I added garlic powder and cheese to the mix to taste kinds like those rolls you get from red lobster. Anyway hubby said they smelled good. He is saving his roll for today I think cause he didn't try it last night.

Well the kimkins controversy is raging on. So many people have been banned from or left the kimkins website. Most of the admin crew has been banned two fold since I've been there, meaning we are on our third set of admins since 08/13/2007. One lady is setting up a class action lawsuit against the site for people that have been banned to get their money back.
There is all kinds of crazy rumors that kimkins is attaching some kinds of tracker to your ip address that is tracking you going to other websites and banning you if you participate on Lowcarbfriends forum or Jimmy Moore's living la vida lowcarb forum. Is that even possible? I mean the technology? Wouldn't that violate someones rights? Kind of like wire tapping no? I find that I am fascinated by the whole thing though. It's like a soap, I don't want to watch, but I can't help but watch.

I'm spending most of my time on Jimmy's Forum. It is much more laid back and I'm not worried about posting comments that could get me banned so Thank You Jimmy for setting up a place that is safe for us to have an open discussion about low carb diets, ANY ONE of them!
I tried the Low Carb Friends forum for a little while but they are heavily into scrubbing or deleting comments, so just be aware of that there. (They deleted my comment that said "If we could invent low carb popcorn, we'd be millionaires" in a reference to the drama going on with the kimkins site...I guess they felt it was offensive) I'm not into being censored, so I think that was the last posting I made, or rather tried to make there.

If you were a fan of Becky(aka Lilbit), Christin (WW cover girl) or Deni please visit their blogs OR come visit them on Jimmy's Forum.

Finally count: DH is down 47lbs and I'm down 46lbs in 10 weeks :D Will post our measurments soon... tomorrow is measuring day.

The Dove Meat

2007-09-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it. We ground up the Dove meat and mixed it with sausage formed patties and grilled them on Sunday night for dinner. My official opinion was that it was good. I think mixing it with the ground sausage was good. There was no overwhelming gaming taste that I expected. We grilled them up with Cheese on top and ate it like a hamburger EXCEPT, no bun, cause I'm still doing low carb.

Speaking of Low Carb, some of you might notice that I removed the reference to Kimkins in my header. I've just been GLUED to the lowcarbfriends and kimkins forum over the last week with the current controversies. AMAZING, it's like a soap, what's going to happen next. Is Heidi Diaz Kimmer or not?! I have been reading the blogs of the admins (linked at the side of my blog) that have been banned with open eyes and mind. Lilbit's blog particularly is very eye opening and believable. I guess that is the key, when you are open and just lay it all out, it is believable. When you hide behind pseudo names, withhold information, and refuse to acknowledge the controversy and respond to your paying members concerns by banning them, it tends allow more doubt to creep into peoples perspective of you.
ANYWAY I have been doing the Kimkins diet, and participating in the forums, however there are several aspects of the Atkins diet that I miss. Namely the ability to subtract the sugar alcohols and the fiber from the carbs, i.e. counting net carbs. I think Atkins helped me to be successful before because I could have those little cheats legally and not gain weight.
This weekend I made low carb waffles and had it with BUTTER and Sugar free syrup. It was most yummy!! Hubby was thrilled to have something other then scrambled eggs. (he had me make him batter and leave it home for him to make waffles for today!). So according to the kimkins diet that was completely illegal, that would have been 12 carbs just for the syrup. BUT using net carbs to count it would have only been 2.5 carbs per waffle, and believe you and me, one was plenty! I was stuffed full afterward! Hubby and I need to discuss it, but I think I might be leaning to going back to more of an Atkins diet. Besides, I am not sure how I feel associating myself with someone who can't be honest with themselves, let alone others. In the mean time I'll be watching the drama with interest. *Wish they made low carb popcorn!*

Here is the Waffle Recipe from the Low Carb Friends website:
4 Large Eggs = 2 carbs
1/4 C. water = 0 carbs
2 Scoops Designer Whey Vanilla Protien Powder (this is approximately 23 cup) which = ~2 carbs
1/2 tsp. baking powder = 0.6 carbs
1/4 tsp. salt = 0 carbs
2 tsp. canola oil = 0 carbs
2 tsp. vanilla = 0 carbs

How To Prepare: Mix liquid ingredients in one bowl. Mix dry ingredients in seperate bowl. ( I don't use the full 14 cup of water, I just add enough to the entire mix to keep it moist, it makes thicker batter and better consistancy for waffles ) Mix all ingredients until blended well. For fun variety, one can also substitute different extracts for different flavors. Also, add chopped nuts, but remember to add the carbs. I grease my hot BELGIAN waffle iron with butter, it adds flavor to die for. If you serve this with SF syrup mixed with melted butter, it is unbelievable. If you serve this with eggs and bacon, 1/2 of a belgian waffle will suffice! Therefore you've endulged on waffles for less than 2 carbs!

40 lbs!

2007-09-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

WHOOOOOO Doing the happy dance! Today I woke up 40lbs (207) lighter then July 9th 2007. In just under 2 month I've lost 40 lbs. I'm proud. This weekend I cleaned out my closet of all the 2x and 3x clothes I owned. This morning I went to put a pair of jeans on that I thought would still be ok (they are a size 22) and They fell right off without unbuttoning. WOOT!

Dove Meat?!!

2007-09-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been a week since I last posted, I guess with the holiday weekend I just lost track of time. Hope you all had a good vacation. My hubby went hunting and took my DD with him on Sat, and Sun. It is DOVE season in Arizona. I've never had Dove before. I guess I will in the next couple of weeks as hubby is a very accomplished Dove Hunter. I was successful in avoiding anything to do with the birds that were acquired, however DH told me he will cook them up next weekend..and guess what! Dove is low carb and low fat, whoooopeeee! I will give a full report, I'm a bit nervous about this, but I'm game to try...ha ha...get it...game, game bird...ok well I tried to add a little humor to your day.

Hubby had gotten down 42 pounds and I could no longer deny him his requested "reward", which was a Mexican meal, so we set the day for Friday Sept 1st. We prepared by deciding what we were going to order, he wants a Marylou. We agree to split it and no more than one basket of chips. We both took some carb blockers (block up to 40 carbs) 1/2 hour before we left for the restaurant. I also looked up on fitday some of the things I was expecting to eat so I could figure out how badly I was going to blow my diet. Well, I found out that one chip was 1 carb! HOLY COW! One 16" Tortilla is 53 carbs! I know that the meat and red sauce is actually very little, maybe 1 carb and the Cheese will be 1 carb also. So to split this meal is 27 carbs + 1 for EACH CHIP! I've been staying below 10 carbs a day, and I'm going to eat twice that in one meal! WELL, off we went to Manuels. We got seated and of course we knew what we were going to have so we ordered right away and they brought our chips. Somewhere along the line I decided I was going to have no more than 4 chips. So DH takes the first chip and I teased him a bit about how he was feeling getting ready to eat it. We were SALIVATING! Really...the anticipation of the tastes were amazing! I took a Chip and broke it up into a few pieces to make it seem like more. We tried to eat them slowly and enjoy them. I tried not to bring up the fact that I check out the carb counts on the chips, but I couldn't help it, and spoiled a little of DH's fun I think. We did pretty good, we didn't finish the basket and I stuck to my four chips. Lunch was served, they had cut the Marylou into four pieces so DH and I each took a 1/4 and again savored the flavors. We also had a side of Refried Beans as kind of a what the heck move. You know what... DH and I could barely finish our 1/4 pieces. I got so full that I ended up not even eating the Tortilla except for a few bites. I was pleased with our lunch and felt good that I didn't over do it. As a result I didn't gain any weight from it! YEAH for Carb blockers!!

So the weight loss has continued and I am down to 208! Pound by pound I'm getting there. I've averaged about 20lbs a month. If I can keep this up I should see about 150 by Christmas. I WOULD SO LOVE THAT, but I know it is unrealistic. The weight loss will get harder as I continue, and the less you weigh, the harder to loose weight.

I did do some research on the Tuna issue. I LOVE TUNA, but "they" do not recommend you eat more than 1 to 2 cans a week so I stopped. It's so sad, It made me so happy for the week I was tuna dependent. I am trying canned crab to see if I would like it the same and I don't. Eggs are great for the morning but I need a staple fall back for lunch and I don't want to do too much lunch meat because it has a lot of salt it in, or at least the ones I've tried taste really salty.

Well anyone that is doing a low carb diet know that sometimes it's low in fiber too and that can lead to some "potty problems". We did experience this a little and while at the health food store mentioned it to my friend health food store clerk. She was quick to direct us to Magnesium. She said it actually helps the absorption of Calcium and basically...it makes you go. We bought it and have no complains since. I've been feeling very regular and I love this stuff. Way more gentle than the Oxypowder which had me going 13 times before noon one day, of course that is suppose to be a cleaning.
Well, that is all today. I'm please with my progress and will keep going forward. Thanks for reading!!

A day in the Life with Kimkins

2007-08-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me to post what a day on Kimkins is like for me.
I have a really great job and I work 6:30-3 so, that makes getting extra exercise easier for me. With my other job I used to work out at lunch time at the gym in my office building(when I did Atkins 3 years ago). But I think I like this schedule much better.

I get up at 5:30am and get myself ready for work get kids up and dressed, grab them a quick something to eat to get them to school. They both eat breakfast at school. I drop my son at daycare and my daughter to before school care then off to work. I bring my food into work with me. I usually do eggs for breakfast and either tuna, or some lunch meat for lunch. You can see exactly what I eat on my Fitday Journal.
I get to work and log on do my start up things then get my eggs, I bought an egg slicer for work, makes it much easier. I dont like hard boiled eggs except for egg salad or deviled eggs. I also keep light mayo at work. So I make a quick egg salad and that is breakfast with water. When I get hungry it is lunch time (usually 11:30) and that lately has been tuna fish. I started bringing two cans because I have been feeling so hungry, but I am going to try to scale that back alittle. Again I prepare it by opening the cans and draining the water out at home and just putting the tuna in a storage container. Then I use the light mayo I have at work to mix it up and eat it fresh. I also keep gum at work. I find that while doing this program you get a lot of stinky breath. I have to count each piece of gum as 1 carb, so I do try to limit it to when I cant stand it anymore. I need to try to remember to bring in a toothbrush and paste to work. In the fridge at work I also have some lunch meat Turkey breast, or virgina ham. If I need a snack that is what I grab.
I leave work and pick up my daughter and head home, We get our clothes changed and do one of the carido videos I have. Afterward we go and pick up my son, come home and get dinner. Dinner is 99% of the time Chicken. It's easy and good and low carb, low fat and low cal. Kimkins does have a receipe section and yesterday I make Turkey Meatloaf Muffins. Was really good. I hang with my kids until their bedtime then after they go to bed my brother-in-law watches them while Hubby and I go for our 1.5 walk. (3.0 miles an hours takes us about 30 minutes)
I try to keep my Carbs under 10. I usually do pretty good and hang around 6 or 7.

Kimkins can vary a lot. I do try to stay on the K/E program because I want to lose this weight as fast as I can. I need to see that pound a day or so to stay motivated. You can take it slower by doing Kimkins Classic or the Boot Camp and have more veggies in you diet.
I think it is important to exercise. I try to do it at least once a day.

Kimkins Week 3 16lbs lost!

2007-08-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm down a total of 35 pounds since starting my detox in July, I've lost 16 pounds in the last two weeks on Kimkins. I've been doing OK up until now because I have a cold. I've not cheated or anything...I'm just sick. I've not exercised the way I should have been the last few days.
The weight loss has slowed a bit this week. I lost 7 lbs, I'm not really upset about that though, it's still a great number! I just worry because I have read a few postings about a three week stall and I'm just starting week 3, so I wonder if I will experience this.
I thought I cheated last night. See I've been doing great on the kimkins, but I have noticed I am still going over 1000 calories and also a little high on the fat content so I am trying to find places I can cut back. I thought I'd change my morning from 3 eggs to 2 and cut back on the light mayo a bit. Also I am going to try to do more Tuna and less lunch meat. (BTW: do you know how wonderful tuna is? Low cal, low fat, no carbs...it's the perfect food!) ANYWAY so I did noticed that last night I felt really hungry. I don't know if it was a craving or real hunger, and I felt like it was real hunger. So I decided to have some Pistachios. So I carefully counted out 20 Pistachios (I remembered from somewhere that 40 was a "serving"). I shelled them and ate them, savoring them. They were terrific, i love Pistachios. BUT I still felt hungry so then I grabbed about 10 almonds and ate them up. I felt so guilty. I thought I really blew it, way over cal/fat/carb right. Then I felt kinda angry...I mean come on. How is 30 nuts cheating right. Well I still felt hungry but now I decided that it was emotion more than real hunger so I went to bed. This morning I woke up and had not lost any weight, and I assume I have the salt to thank for that. So this morning I was kind of miserable. I'm sick, and hungry and now feeling guilty for eating nuts. I was relieved when I updated by Fitday and found out that I didn't ruin everything. It was an extra 6 carbs for those nuts, but that put me at 11. As long as I don't break 20 I'm good! So WOOT!

I definitly feel that I am going to make my 50lb by Christmas. I'm thinking that I am going to upgrade my goals. So, I am officially going to try to lose 50lbs by DH's Birthday (10/05) So I have 6 weeks to loose 15lbs. Think I can do it? I do!

K/E Day 11

2007-08-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

HI! We are still doing great! You just get into a routine and go with it. I am such a creature of habit, eating the same foods everyday doesnt really both me. I have had a few cravings the last two days, and I just remind myself that it's not worth the pounds I would gain back, let alone undo the hard work that I have done so far.
I am in Ketosis, so that means I have really stinky breath! LOL Hubby too...we tease each other about breathing on each other. But it also means that I am burning up the fat stores my body has. I am down to 215 today. That is 13 pounds in 11 days. I also did my measurements on Tuesday and have lost 4" in a week. WOOT! Hubby is doing just as well, he is down 13 pounds also, and he lost 3 1/2" in a week.
I think doing the detox helped me not fall into the "ketosis crisis" (very similar symptoms as detox crisis, nausea, headache, weakness). DH, however, has been suffering a bit over the last two days. Bad headache, weakness, no appetite and looking a little pale at times. He just keeps his water up and takes it easy.
I went to the Dr. yesterday and got my blood work done. He was thrilled I'm doing something about my weight again. He didnt seem too impressed with the 21 days detox, but he is happy that I have lost 33 pounds since I last saw him. I checked with him, is doing 4-8 gm of carbs a day ok...he said yes, but that I should try to up it to 15-20 once in a while. I asked him is loosing .5 to 2.5 a day ok, he said yes! (of course I have it to loose right now) I asked, is eating 60 - 120 gm of protein a day ok? he said yes, but that he wants blood work on me every 3 months to check thyroid, kidney and lipid levels.
SO...Here I am ... 215, and Dr. approved! yeahhhhh.

Today is going to be a struggle though... I left my eggs at home. I have tuna and ham at work, but I miss my egg salad :(

SO to recap, Since July, Hubby and I have both lost 33lbs YEAHHHHH!!!

K/E Day 6

2007-08-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I think that this program is working for us! In the last six days I've lost 8 lbs and hubby has lost 6lbs. We are both finding the pretty program easy to follow, we have been able to keep our energy up and maintain our exercise program, and actually I even did my aerobics everyday this week instead of only 4 days.

I like the Kimkins website. They have some recipes, they have to work on it a bit as there is not very many, but they have a lot of support formuns, a chat function, a blogging area and lots of motivators. For example I have a "Weight Ticker" so I can watch my weight decrease toward my goal, also they have a No Cheat counter (I'm 6 days cheat free :D ) and many other goal rewards.

In Addition there is another website Kimkins pointed me to called FitDay. It is pretty cool, you can enter all the food and activity you do and it will keep track and show you reports about how much you have eaten in a pie graph (ha ha no pun intended), how many calories vs calories burned for a day, how your weight has changed in the past week (month etc...)
I think it is a great tool, another way to stay accountable. You can check out mine if you want.

The crazy thing is I'm planning on taking 12 months to loose this 100 pounds, but if I have great success on Kimkins and loose an average of 5 lbs a week, I could actually loose all this weight by Christmas. I have 90 pounds to go! (I am down to 220 this morning Yeah me!) I'm not really planning on having that kind of success, but I secretly hope I do! That would be wonderful!

K/E Day 1

2007-08-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

OK! I'm ready! We had a great weekend with the kids. We went to the Out Of Africa zoo up in Verde Valley and then up north of Payson to do some fishing. We had Pizza Hut (YUM!) for dinner on Saturday and just had a great weekend. I ended up doing a lot of excercise both days, for no other reason except countless trips back to the car for water, snack, bathroom breaks...etc. So weighted in on Monday morning at 228. Still better then the 247 I started out at, but 10 pounds up from the end of the detox. Not to be discouraged, I set out to start Kimkins. I decided to start out with a week or two of K/E. Kimkins Experiment, which is just lean proteins. This will quickly put my body into a state of burning it's stored fat. Plus I am doing aerobics everyday and a 1 mile walk every evening. I woke up this morning rewarded with a 2 pound loss. yeah me! But even better, hubby is doing the program with me anda he woke up this morning with a 4 lb loss! Yeah him! I will check with him to see if he would mind that I post his weight. I will do some pictures in a little bit.
So all I ate yesterday was some hard boiled eggs in the morning. Left over grilled chicken breast for lunch and another hard boiled egg for a snack and a grilled pork chop for dinner, then last night I had two pieces of turkey breast for an evening snack. Was pretty good. Definetely feeling a little of the carb withdrawl. SO Day one was pretty successful!

I'm tired of Misinformed Criticisms

2007-08-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

I don't usually respond to negative comments, but for some reason the anonymous comment on my last post bothers me. I guess it is because people hear rumors and think it's fact then try to pass it on to others as fact, when in fact it's false. It's kinda like getting those emails that say, Intel is tracking this and if you forward it 50,000 times you will get a check for 3,000 dollars from Intel. *I'm rolling my eyes*

ANYWAY lets talk some facts:
Dr Atkins did not die of "a heart attack from very high cholestrol", actually if you bothered to do a simple search on google you would have seen at the ripe old age of 72 Dr. Atkins fell on ice outside his office in NY and died after falling into a coma.
Dr Atkins, a cardiologist, actually had a heart attack in 2002 that was caused by a viral infection, not a low carb diet.

And as far as Kimkins advertising...I guess I don't know what to say except, maybe it is their way of getting the attention of people who don't excercise and or can't (becaues of weight), but once you start loosing weight, you probably want to excerise.

Kimkins offers 3 plans, a classic, which is 3 cups of (omg dont be shocked) Vegatables a day and all the lean mean you need. There is a quick start plan that you do just lean proteins, and a boot camp that is (there is that v word again) two cups of vegitables and protein in a specfic meal plan along with (omg! here is another familiar word) MANTITORY EXCERCISE!

*sigh* I'd also like to point out how many people said that the 21 pounds in 21 days detox was "unhealthy" and "starving yourself" Good thing I didn't listen to them either....

Hi!

2007-08-04T21:47:00.001-07:00

Thanks for coming by! I'll start posting again soon. Getting ready for Phase II of my weight loss plan. I just successfully completed the 21 pounds in 21 days Martha Vineyards Detox Diet. I lost 29 pounds in 21 days! I intend to lose another 90 pounds to get down to my goal of 130. I just join Kimkins with my husband and we are going to do this together.