Thursday - week 25

Still trudging along on the BFC.  Sticking to the diet almost perfectly!  Like a few other people on here I've decided to try the Fast Track starting this Sunday to see if that will get me past this ridiculous plateau I'm on.  Hello body - you are not done at 172lbs, now get moving!!.  I could never have "no carbs" for the long term, but I'm sure I can probably do it for 14 days.   A few years ago (maybe more like five) I did the Suzanne Somers diet which was very similar to the Belly Fat Cure.  I lost weight on it. The only problem was I couldn't stick to it long term, and once I started eating "regular" I eventually gained back the weight.  Her diet had you eating meals that were either all carbs, or all fats/proteins and you could never mix grains with fats/proteins.  She also had a list of "funky" foods that you could never have and that was pretty much things like nuts, yogurts, dark chocolate, milk (she never mentioned almond milk as an alt.), and stuff like that.  Plus you had to give up caffeine- what!!  To be honest it was a little too complicated and I didn't like not ever mixing anything.  You couldn't have a sandwich, cereal with milk, any grains with your dinner. Then she started putting out her own food products that were seriously expensive - I never bought any.  Anyway I did it for about six months but I could not commit to it forever.  But the premise was good and the idea of getting out of sugars was good.  That's why when I saw the BFC it looked really appealing to me because it had the same ideas but looked easier to do and maybe something I could do forever.  I do like it much more because it lets me eat things I like and when I want to make something easy like Uncle Sams for breakfast, or a sandwich for lunch I can do that too!  I can't always cook every meal!   The Fast Track sounds a bit like the Suzanne Somers diet in that I must choose a fat/protein meal with no grains.  I just have to do it every meal.  I think I  can do this for 14 days.   Hopefully this will announce to my body that I am not in maintenance darn it!  I still have 22 lbs to go!!

Monday -September 26th

I have been really bad this past week in tracking my foods.  I've still been eating pretty much the same as I have been so I sort of know what the daily totals would be like, but still, I think tracking is a good idea and I'm back to it.  I had a really nice time on our short, overnight Lancaster trip.  We left right after my son got on the school bus Thursday morning.  Since we only live about an hour and 1/2 from that part of Lancaster we got up there fairly early.  We spent all of Thursday shopping around at the little craft shops.  I love all that kind of stuff and it was so nice having no boys with us acting bored out of their minds.  My husband actually likes shopping too so that is nice.  I have to say we never ate any really good food while we were there.  We stopped at a family restaurant for lunch and it turned out to be mainly a buffet type place which I don't like.  The small menu part was all sandwiches so I got a sausage and saurkraut sandwich and told them to leave off the roll and just put it on the plate.  It was OK.  That night at the dinner theater my parents wanted to see they also had a buffet!  It was pretty bad!!  Some kind of meatloaf gel-like thing, creamed corn, carrots and peas mixed, and a tasteless chicken and broccoli casserole thing.   Blah!!  Skipped the veggies, except the pre-served salad, and ate the two meats.  At least there was no chance of overeating!!  The play was called "John loves Mary" and was a farce about a WWI veteran bringing home a wife for a friend that saved his life in the war, but the friend turned out to be already married.   I think my husband and I were the only ones in the theater under the age of 65!  It was nice to to this with my parents though.  The next day was breakfast at the hotel. My dad can't pass up a deal and the hotel included a "hot" breakfast.  This turned out to be round sausages that were cooked about two hours before anyone got up, and some kind of egg beater eggs.  Another round of shopping followed, and we got some nice lanterns with those wax electric candles that are on timers.  They come on by themselves for five hours and then turn off by themselves for 19 hours and then keep repeating that pattern.  So cool!  On the way home it poured down rain and we got stuck in a ton of traffic.  We had to pick up my son at Towson and we were about an hour late!  Oh well.

  I stayed away from the scale all the rest of the weekend and finally just got back on today - 172lbs again!  What in the world!  It's so weird how long I seem to last on one number.  I think I'm going to try that Fast Track challenge that is happening in a week or so.  I might start on it a little early too, just to see if that shakes things up. I know I couldn't do no carbs forever, but I think I can do it for one or two weeks.  I might switch my probiotics to a different brand also.  The ones I'm using right now are not capsule form, which Jorge says is the better kind.  I might try this one which I found on sale at Walgreens.

What kind does everyone else use?  Any recommendations?  That's about it for today.  I have to run and take my dog to the Vet.  He started his heart medicine last week and they want to re-check him today to see if it is the right dosage and all that.  Hope everyone has a great day! 

 

Wednesday 9/21 - week 24

There really is nothing much to report this week.  I'm stuck at 172lbs.  It seems to be that once I lose a pound or two I must than stay at the new weight for a few weeks before I'm allowed to go further.  Why this is, I have no clue!  I don't do anything differently, stay true to the 15/6, and don't cheat.  It's just the way it is with me. Lose a couple, wait, wait, wait, wait, lose a couple, repeat.    Like I said before I have noticed quite a difference in my clothes getting too big which makes me feel great, even if the scale isn't moving that quickly.  It's weird.  So,  I haven't been on the blogs too much the last day or two and it looks like I've missed a barrage of postings!!   This week has been so busy, with our business, vet visits, and assisted living visits. I have an elderly Aunt and I am responsible for her.  It's a long story but because of her diabetes she ended up having her foot amputated and than had to go live in an assisted living.  I take care of her bills, and personal needs and I try to see her once every one to two weeks to see if she needs anything. Things were rocky between us for awhile, but it's gotten a lot better this past year.  Today was her birthday, so I went to visit and bring her flowers. It was nice.  Tomorrow my husband are going to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to meet my parents at a dinner theater up there.  It will be the first time my husband and I have ever gone away overnight together without any of our boys coming with us, during a school week. In fact the times we've gone away together by ourselves in the last twenty years can easily be counted on one hand. It still feels very strange to me even though I actually only have one kid  left in public school - and he's in 11th grade!   We will be back on Friday, so its really not that big of a deal, just very unusual for me.  Lancaster, Pa is also Amish country and while we are up there I hope to check out some craft stores, and fresh vegetable stands to see what I can find.  I looked up the dinner theater menu for tomorrow night and there is really only two things on it that we can eat, a chicken broccoli casserole, and some kind of meatloaf.  The rest of the stuff is basically, potatoes, rolls, corn, ravioli, baby carrots and a desert buffet.  My dad thinks the food at these places is to die for and I'm thinking my husband and I will have a big, late lunch somewhere good and then go to the dinner theater not that hungry.  Plus we will have to bring dark chocolate with us to avoid the desert buffet!  Good grief!  I hope the play is good!
Hope everyone else has a good rest of the week.  I think I'll go catch myself up!

Saturday 9/17 - dog stress

Nothing new in the weight department today.  I really appreciated everyone's comments and encouragement on my last post.  I still might try the fast track in a week or two to see how it works, but other than that I'm not going to change anything else I'm doing.  I feel like I've gotten to a point where I'm eating so much healthier than I used to, choose only healthy carbs now when I have them, and only get sugar from basically my vegetables and dark chocolate in the evening.  I think the weight will come off even it takes me another six months to lose the last twenty.  Even though the scale is slow, I've really noticed a difference in my clothes.  I used to wear a size 16 pants and right before I started the BFC I had even bought a couple size 18's.  I'm 5' 6" and even before I was married and had kids (almost 23 years ago), I wore a size 12, maybe some of my clothes were a size 10. I was in shape then too!  Unless they are making sizes different these days I have no idea how people are getting into size 6's or 4's.  Anyway, it's getting cooler here now and I went to try on my jeans and they were too big - yeah!  I decided to just buy a cheap pair at Walmart for now since I'm still hoping to lose more weight.  I bought a size 14 and believe it or not, they not only fit but I can fit two fingers in the waist while I've got them on!  My shirts went from a size 1X to a size L.  So in general I am doing pretty well, I just have to stop being in such a rush and give myself time to lose the weight in a healthy way.

So in other news I got some bad news about my dog this week.  We have two dogs, Buddy & Marley.  Marley is three years old and is a yellow lab/retriever mix.  Buddy is an Australian shepherd/beagle mix. Buddy will be eleven this March.  Anyway, in the last three weeks Buddy has developed a cough that sounds like kennel cough.  I took him into the vet this week and they told me he has a heart murmur.  The vet wants me to take him to a canine cardiologist that is about 45 minutes away.  She told me their workup would be about $450.00 to diagnose his heart condition and find the right meds for him.  Geesh!!  I love my dogs but I have two kids in college and that is a lot of money!  So after much thought (and kids making me feel guilty) I decide to do it.  I call the cardiologist yesterday and they say it's not $450 it's $600!  Well that is just too much for only a diagnosis.  I started looking around for other vets in my area that might be able to figure out my dogs problems without him going to a cardiologist and I finally found one that sounded hopeful. This vet told me she could do all the diagnostic tests the cardiologist would do except for a heart sonogram.  She sounded super nice and talked with me on the phone herself for about twenty minutes. She even said she could see him the next morning, which is this morning.  I hope she gives me some better news and I'm able to give Buddy another couple years with medication.  I love dogs, and have always had them, but I do hate this part.  The part when they get older and such hard decisions are needed.  Wish me luck!

Buddy & Marley

Thursday Sept. 15 - 23 weeks

I was just counting up the weeks I've been doing the BFC and realized I've been on this diet for 23 weeks now!  That is just about six months!  I am now at a definite 172lbs.  My scale goes back and forth a pound or two during my daily weigh ins, but this week it has been at 172lbs most days.   I really upped my fiber this past week and have eaten an average of about 35grams of fiber a day.  To go along with this I also drank at least a 1/2 gallon of water each day.  Thought I'd have a big loss this week, but instead I just solidified my 172lbs.  That is still great, but I wonder why I can't get those 2 to 3 lb losses/week everyone else got in the beginning.   Thought fiber was the key, but now I'm thinking it's not.  It could also be a hormonal thing.  I've read that in less us women have our hormones balanced it is harder to lose weight.  I'm one of those women that went through early menopause, when I was 48 actually.  It just runs early with the women in my family.  So maybe that has something to do with it.  I know I use to lose weight fairly easily when I was younger.  I've toyed with the idea of going to see a naturopathic doctor just to see what she/he says about my overall hormones and health, but still not sure I want to get into all that when I do feel fine.  Someone I know suggested it could be Thyroid related, but I think I would have some other issues besides slow weight loss if my thyroid was out of whack.    Oh well, I guess I'm just not going to have those dramatic 1-2 pound losses a week that other people have.  Overall I'm still losing and feeling healthier and that is what is important!

Like Pattie I also got the new Fast Track book and read through it the other night.  Jorge outlines a 14 day eating plan that he stresses you should follow EXACTLY to insure the big weight loss he says you can make in two weeks. But then he says you can swap lunches or dinners for others on the 14 day plan if you don't like the offering for the day.  I'm sure everyone would have to swap something at some point because we don't all like everything that Jorge likes, correct?  Then after we swap and don't lose a ton of weight would we then think, "Oh it's because I didn't follow the 14 day plan exactly".  In my opinion it's almost an out for him.   The 14 day plan is basically eating without grain carbs at all.  Plus you do not count your carbs or sugars at all for two weeks.  Fiber is gotten basically from green vegetables and nuts. He also wants your good gut bacteria to be optimum and even suggests drinking a cup or two of chicken broth in the evening (yuck!).   I might try doing a two week period of  totally proteins and vegetables at the end of September. Or maybe alternate one day Fast Track, one day regular BFC - I'm not sure.   I take probiotics but don't think I can do more than that to get my "gut" perfectly aligned.   The next few weeks I'll be out of town twice for a day or two and I think it would be too hard to stick to all proteins & veggies while your traveling.  Still mulling it over.

 On non-diet news, we had a severe thunderstorm last night here and I'm actually surprised that there are no trees lying in my yard after that lightening show!   I talked to my son that is living at college and he is doing ok. Thanks to everyone that asked about him!  He said his two roommates like to have a couple of shots around 9:00 in the evening and then they usually go out until 1 or 2 in the morning.  My son had to tell them to at least come in quietly and not turn on the overhead light at 2 in the morning so he could stay sleeping.  They seem to be doing better about that.  No news yet on him getting un-tripled.  I think things would be nicer for all if there were only two guys in a room.   This weekend we are picking him up and after a neighborhood party on Saturday we are going to go see my parents that live in West Virgina for the day on Sunday.  They live in a nice little area that has woods and a lake and my son said he was really looking forward to going somewhere peaceful like that for the day.  I'm not sure how peaceful it is since my parents bicker constantly, but I guess for the boys it will be nice since they spend most of their time there hiking and hanging outside.

So those are my thoughts for this Thursday morning!  I hope everyone is having a great week!

Sunday week 22 1/2 -Fiber!

Things seem to be going pretty well so far this week.  I've been weighing myself everyday and the scale is now going between 172lbs and 174lbs every day.  For some reason I always have a 2lb flip flop thing that goes on.  I don't have one of those scales that measures point increments.  Mine just goes to the closest whole number I guess.  I've been sticking to my daily regiment of Uncle Sams in the morning, a wasa cracker with protein on top for lunch, a cup of decaff  and 1/2 cup pecans in the afternoon and then a protein with a veggie dinner.  I know some of you were concerned that I might not get a good fiber count this way, but the weird thing is I'm actually getting MORE fiber this way.   According to "my fitness tracker" for the last five days my fiber for the day has been,  42g., 29g, 38g, 29g, & 42g.! How have I been getting such high numbers?  Here is a sample day of where my fiber comes from:

Two cups of morning coffee with tsp. of Benefiber each = 6 fibers
3/4 cup of Uncle Sams w/ 1/2 unsweetened Almond milk = 11 fibers!
3 Wasa Crispbreads loaded with cheese, a tomato & basil & spinach leaves = 7 fibers
1/2 cup of raw pecans for snack - 6 fibers
Lemon chicken over Romaine lettuce salad w/1 TBS whole flaxseeds on top = 5 fibers
1 square of Lindt 85% = 2 fibers

Grand Total for the day = 37 Fibers

I'm finding it much easier to reach my total fiber count with the Uncle Sam's cereal.  Also, even though we are NOT supposed to watch our calories at all on the BFC, I'm finding that having the cereal in the morning instead of eggs & sausage and stuff is keeping me at a lower calorie count, which for me, may be helping me lose. It at least got me past month long plateau!   We shall see as I continue onwards!  Hopefully this fiber information might help someone.

On the non-diet side of things, I had a really nice night out on Friday with my husband.  The boys were doing there usual thing of having friends and girlfriends over and I just said to my husband, "You know, lets just go out and have dinner and see a movie by ourselves tonight".  And we did!  While getting out at the restaurant my second  oldest son called and said, "Hey do you mind if I bring Sammie home for dinner with me?" (Sammie is his girlfriend and this is his usual thing to do 1/2 hour before I'm serving dinner).  I said, "It's fine with me, but just so you know I'm not home.  Dad and I are going out to dinner and a movie so you'll have to cook Sammie dinner yourself, or see if Jason (oldest son) made enough for you guys too"  I hear this hesitant, "Uhh...Ok".   I have to admit it was kind of fun doing that to him.  All of the men in this family are too reliant on me to take care of their every need!!   I feel like hired help sometimes (without the pay).  Anyway we had a nice night out and  ironically saw the movie "The Help".  lol!    I liked it, but the surprising thing was my husband REALLY liked the movie!

Hope everyone has a good day on this sad day in our history!  I remember 10 years ago running and getting all my boys out of school because I wanted everyone home with me because we didn't know what else was going to happen.  What a horrible day.  My heart still goes out to all the families that lost so much.

Sept. 8, 2011 - The scale moved!

Even though it is a gray, rainy day here again, I'm in a pretty good mood.  I told you I'm weighing myself everyday now and the scale has been alternating between 176lbs and 174lbs, well yesterday it said 175lbs.  It's never fallen there before.  My scale is like one of those game show things where the numbers jump back and forth before settling on a number.  Today the scale settled on 172lbs!  What!!  It did settle there but I still got off real quick before it could change it's mind, lol!  We'll see over the next few days whether that is going to be a new number or not.  It's not really the number that makes me happy but the fact that the scale moved downward at all.  Maybe, just maybe, I'm unstuck!  This week I've been trying to go back to basics, by following the handwritten journal I made way back in April.  My days have been going something like this:

Breakfast-2 cups of Coffee with heavy cream and two tsp. Benefiber.  Just yesterday and today I added a tsp. of coconut oil  to one of the cups.
About two hours later I have 3/4C (measured) Uncle Sams with 1/2C(measured) almond milk & a little stevia.

The Stevia I use

Snack:  about 1/2 cup of Pecans and water, water, water (I stopped drinking my ice tea w/ stevia and switched to only water and the coffee all day)

Lunch: 3 wasa fiber crackers w/ one slice divided up smoked turkey, garden tomatos (they are almost gone), slices of fresh mozzerella, spinach, fresh garden Basil, and little olive oil & salt & pepper.

Wasa Lunch

Snack:  Cup of decaff with stevia and cream

Dinner: One small piece homemade eggplant lasagna (remember my eggplant!), diced cucumbers with oil & vinegar.

After Dinner:  One decaff coffee with cream & stevia one piece of Lindt 85% or one chocolate coconut cookie.

Cookies, recipe here: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/cookies/r/choclatecoconut.htm

 The only thing I've been changing up is the dinner. I usually have a protein and a green veggie every night, but had to use the eggplant from my garden last night.  I've also been drinking a ton of water.  My cup is about a 12oz serving and I must have about six of them a day.  I've decided to lay off the coconut bread for awhile even though I know it's Belly Good (and great tasting)  I think it may have been too much for me.  When I get down further I'll put stuff like that back in.

After Amber's post I did some research on the coconut oil, and it's supposed to have umpteen health benefits for us,so I decided to try to incorporate it into my families and my diet and much as possible. 

Was trying to show that coconut oil is solid unless heated up, like shortening

So I took a picture finally so you can see where I'm at right now.  Excuse the pre-shower look here, but I had to set up the camera to take a self-timed picture and do it before everyone got up!   I don't like pictures of myself that much especially with no make up or shower but...,here you go.   Still have at least 22lbs to go!

Me at 22 weeks

Hopefully the "rainathon" will stop soon.  Four straight days is enough!  I want to get back outside before the cold weather comes!   Hope everyone is having a great day!

Sunday Sept. 4- Labor Day Weekend

So it's Labor Day weekend and we have nothing going on!  Boo!  I thought about throwing a little backyard BBQ but honestly, I didn't have the desire or energy.  I have so far spent the weekend running errands.  I picked up my son from college for the long weekend (to give him a bit of a break from his party roommates), I went shopping with my other son for appropriate clothes for his upcoming student teaching practicum,  and then my husband and I spent most of today at Home Depot (his home away from home) looking for a new front door for our house.  Have you ever heard the story of the shoemakers kids that have no shoes?  Well, we are the Contractor's house that has no improvements.  We didn't order the door yet because I don't want it sitting in our livingroom for months until he has time to put it in. There is a new window for our living room that had been propped up next to the closet in our living room for three months -seriously!   I finally stuffed it in the pantry last February and that's where it's been ever since!  When my husband makes the time, we'll go get the door we picked out, and he can put that and the stupid window in at the same time!
 
On the brighter side, with school having started this week it's beginning to feel a little bit like Fall, and I love Fall!  I love the smell of woodsmoke in the air, I love the cooler air at night, I love when all the leaves turn their beautiful colors, I love the leaves crunching under my feet when I walk, and I love homemade soups and breads on a chilly evening.   Oh whoops, cross out that homemade bread part!    Anyway, I've been weighing myself everyday and haven't seen any loss. In fact it's kind of weird, some days I'm 174 and then another day I'm 176, and then back to 174 again...,back and forth like that.  Never 175 though - weird huh!  So, I decided to go back to my original little handwritten journal I was keeping when I first started the BFC.  I lost the first twenty pounds fairly quickly and I wanted to see what I was doing differently back then.    The only changes I could find were these:  In the beginning I was eating the Uncle Sams cereal with unsweetened almond milk for breakfast.  Plus back then I was taking a Flax seed oil supplement with my morning vitamins.  Other than that I haven't changed things up too much.  I switched from the Uncle Sam's because it didn't keep me full until lunch, plus I thought there might be too many carbs in the cereal and the milk together.  So I might just try going back to that cereal for a while to see if that makes a difference, plus I bought another stash of Flax seed oil pills.  If after a week that doesn't make a difference then I might try that Fast Track menu for a week and see if that gets me moving again.   I guess I will keep trying tweaking things until I find the right food choices that work best for me.  I hope everyone is enjoying the last of their Labor Day weekend!