Amy's Gonna Get Healthy!

[GoingToMakeIt]

I have so much I want to say... I think this is the best outlet for me. Cause I can get really long winded... and I ramble.

Anyway, my name is Amy. I am happily married with two amazing and wonderful children. When I was pregnant with my youngest I was 300lbs. I am currently 262.6.

I started Phase 1 yesterday, and I'm really excited. I've been looking for the right motivation and right mindset to get started, because I seem to have diet commitment issues. I used to be one of those people that said, "nothing worked for me." But then one year I joined weight watcher's, was on it perfectly for 3 months. I lost my job, and instead of making the effort to keep eating right and logging my menu's and what not, I took the easy route and, well, failed.

I tried to restart weight watcher's later, but I failed within the week. I think I wasn't mindfully present or somehow didn't make the internal emotional commitment required to start.

This time, I prepped. I got a weight loss partner... although I haven't heard from her... I bought a digital scale, measuring tape, books, lots of veggies and other necessary groceries.

Although, I've mostly bought the "dieting" stuff for me, the more I read and cook, the more I realize I need to be serving these kind of meals to the family, but that process will be a bit more gradual.

I made a chili that was kind of a variant of some of my favorite flavors, using guidelines in the recipes forum. I was shocked at how wonderful it tasted... and normally chili makes me a little queasy, this one went down easily. I also made a quiche, just to try, and that was amazingly tasty. I couldn't believe my diet was so limited because I didn't buy a couple of green peppers, red onions, or celery!!!

My exercise plan is not exactly... well planned. I have problems with exercise, but I am working on it. In the meantime, I'm getting more active and playing with the kids.

I didn't want to come across critical of WW, in fact, I think it prepped me for this stage. I chose SB because I have health issues that every once in a while calls for high dose steroids - as a result, I'm diabetic. I respect that SB seems to be a very intelligent and well thought out diet.

I have a couple of shorter term goals -

Lose 10% - which is 26lbs. I've read so many places on how that much helps a diabetic.
Have a perfect Phase 1. Or really darn close.
Stay on SB past 3 months (personal thing, I stuck to WW for 3 months, wanna to beat that time...
Introducing more vegetables into the general family diet.
Become more active! Investigate different exercise opportunities!

Everybody have a fabulous day!

[GoingToMakeIt]

I see other's have included their menu... so shall I!

Yesterday
b- 2 eggs, ham that was low fat, but I blundered on the label... it was honey baked or something... so 2g of sugars, doh! tomato juice
s - tomato juice
l - bean, veggie, ground turkey chili - awesome!!!
s - cottage cheese & celery (low fat c cheese... not really tasty)
d - lf chef's salad type thing... lots of lettuce and veggies... and tomato juice
d/s- mozzarella stick

[GoingToMakeIt]

Well, guess I couldn't escape the headachey/tiredness part of phase 1. Classic.

b- quiche/tomato juice
s- cucumbers/lf ham slice
l- chicken salad/tomato juice
s- celery/peanut butter
d- turkey and cabbage dish/ black eyed peas/tomato juice
s- mozzarella cheese stick

hope i don't get tired of the tomato juice...

[GreatWhiteNortherner]

Keep at it!! The headache goes quickly and then you begin to feel like you could do this forever!

good luck to you, Amy, and don't worry about the rambling! Have you noticed the number of pages some of us have?? And eventually, you get to rambling on about just about every little thing! This forum is a great sourse of info and a great outlet!

Donna

[aabramajtys]

Hello--Of course i was attracted to your journal because I liked the statement for myself too!
I did SB a while back and was doing great until i picked up another diet book, and started combining, hopping, whatever--that was a mistake. My husband finally just told me i should just pick one and stick with it. Liking the simplicity (either do or don't eat it, very little measuring, and not to the oz. at that) and the foods you add on 2 (love Dark chocolate, SF FF pudding is yummy) and WHOLE grains--i find I can't eat the normal gummy white crap anymore--I decided to commit to SB.

I've been on it since October and I think I've dropped about 15 or 20 since I started back up again.

You're SOOO right about the mind set thing--a couple of things helped me with that.
--There's really no such thing as comfort food-- it's a fallacy. If you need comfort, call a friend, draw a bath, hug your babies, read in insprational book.
--A belief in a devil was giving me a very convenient scapegoat. When I stopped giving power to this concept of the eveil man downstairs, I no longer could blame my choices on anyone else--including coworkers, husband, weather--why would I want to give them that power??

--Life is for living!! SUGAR was merely a set of CHAINS that was holding me down and keeping me from LIVING! Sick of the sluggishness, moods, incontrollable eating, I had to get that crap out of my bloodstream. Once out, it was as if a fog lifted and I could honestly, LIVE again.

So, I'm feeling hopeful this time--no, I just know I'm going to do it this time. And the wonderful thing with south Beach is that if you gain a couple back, you just pop back on to Phase one again (like I did today after the New Years.)

Anyway, I hope that something I said might help you even if just a little! I'm loving how I feel--if you can just focus on the feeling and live life, you'll be allright!

I'm at 35 pounds lost so far, BTW.

[GoingToMakeIt]

Thank you Donna and aabramajtys for the encouraging words and advice! I am going to need it.

Starting Day 4 here. I have something of a residual headache, but I hope today will be a bit better.

I feel like I've been making stupid mistakes! First day, I had a slice of low fat ham... unfotunately it was honey cured (oops!)... and then the second day, I put peanut butter on celery, but it was not the natural PB... eek! and then yesterday, with my first snack, I put some balsamic vinagrette on some cucumbers... and then I realized I went over my fat allowance on the day, cause b, l, and d all had oil used in their preperation... urgh! I will learn, I suppose...

I've tapered down to one caffeinated diet coke a day. I do like the flavor de-caf diet, so that does help. I really should be drinking a lot more water, I think. I think I did better yesterday, as I didn't wake up with a "hungover" feeling.

I heated up a quiche I pre-cooked on monday, and boy did it have A LOT of moisture in it. I don't think it interefered with the taste, but my eyes were repulsed by it. I sopped up as much as I could with papertowels... but ... it wasn't very pleasant.

I need to get some natural pb. I miss pb. Yesterday was kind of rough, cause I saw commercials for different foods -- mostly sweet foods, and alton brown did a cinnamon roll show, which looked awesome... but now, as I sit here rambling away... I realize that I do *not* really want any of them.

So, I can do this...

I need to pick up some veggie varieties. Probably some zucchini and squash or something. I'm okay with tomato juice so far - to fill in where I'm lacking in veggies during the day.

My brother bought me several packages of ground turkey, which is awesome because he's really supporting me in my diet, and it's a lot easier to stay the course when you have stuff on hand like that. I've found it defrosts quickly when put in cold water.

Today, I think I will try to find something cool to do with one of my boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and my frozen broccoli. I'll do a recipe search.

Anyway, yesterday went like this -
b-Omelette with beans & veggies
s-Cucumbers (balsamic vinagrette) with cheese stick
l-turkey burgers & salad & tomato juice
s-tomato juice
d-chili (yummy!)
s/d-cheese stick

[GreatWhiteNortherner]

I think you are doing amazingly well! Don't worry about the little tiny mistakes. Point is, you recognised them and are doing things to correct them. Just think of the big picture....... think of all the good things you are doing to change your diet! So you slipped with a tablespoon of peanut butter.......... so you had one thin slice of honey cured ham/??? You have completed 3 days of completely changing your eating. So you not think this is going to make a huge difference?? OF COURSE IT IS!!!!! Pat yourself on the back for not getting discouraged and for sticking it out!!
Now, I am off to get some coffee... my little cheat.. I cannot give up the caffeine, nor do I intend to. And it has not made any difference in my weight loss!

Donna

[GoingToMakeIt]

well, let's just say crud happened. Tears were shed, just some cruddy crud.

Despite the crud, I maintained on the diet. I had a small impulse to go nuts, but I remembered the encouragement people left in my journal... more specifically the lie that there is comfort from food.

After the last few days, I'm actually feeling pretty good... I'm not going to blow the progress I made so far.

It's a long road and bad stuff is bound to happen, but over indulging in food is not the answer.

The interesting thing is... I didn't crave anything sweet... I felt like I wanted something sweet, but no cravings...

I did forget to eat my snack between lunch and dinner. That wasn't good, but I just picked up at dinner. The perfect phase 1 goal is kind of diminishing... maybe just staying on phase 1 should be the goal...

b - quiche/ decaf dc
s - tomato juice
l - chili & cucumbers dc
s - just plum forgot
d - big salad and some devilled eggs
d/s - cheese stick

I actually am extremely proud that I didn't give into grief and past bad habits. I'm on this lifestyle for life now... got to get used to making the right choices... and I can actually wake up and think, despite the bad stuff... that will pass as it always does, I didn't give in to self-indulgence.

Of course, the strength credit belongs to God.

[Thistimeforme]

its ok, everyone hits their down times, and there is no such thing as perfection, but you can always do your best and the fact you were able to avoid comferting yourself in sweets means a whole lot. *huggles*

[GreatWhiteNortherner]

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off... or so the saying goes! Crud happens.... to all of us. Good for you, for getting past it!

Donna

[GoingToMakeIt]

Okay, even though I didn't post yesterday, I am still right on track. The Cowboys loss was just sooo heartbreaking but not suprising.

We did some shopping to supplement the groceries, which wasn't too bad. Oddly the grocery bill is probably around the same. The hubby and the kids are enjoying having tv dinners (I remember hating tv dinners as a kid, so I don't get it.) I figure I will allow this for now while I'm getting used to the diet. My eldest is just 7, but she's already picking up on some of the salad/veggies stuff. I think giving her the tools to make proper choices for her diet may be one of the best motivating tools ever. My son is just turning 3 in a week, his requirement is that food must be portable. If it isn't, it will be.

Anyway, still feeling low about circumstances. I will probably spend the day with friends.

I'm tracking my daily consumption in a spreadsheet for reference... if a problem arises, I will post it and try to figure it out that way, but for now, I think this is good.

Getting tired of omelettes, so I'm going to try some of hte mock recipes for something a little different. Also, I need to pick up I can't believe it's not butter stuff, and maybe pick out some entrees to try... figure out different ways to have fun with chicken and ground turkey.

[GoingToMakeIt]

First weigh in tomorrow morning!

[GoingToMakeIt]

Holy cow... I lost 7 lbs... wow!

AF is also due on the 11th... so... double wow!

bigger update to come later...

I guess I am doing it right!!!!

[GoingToMakeIt]

Okay, so, I'm obviously incredibly thrilled. This week wasn't exactly easy, mostly cause of the cruddy feelings between day 3 and 5, but I'm feeling really good and the double take I did reading the scale was absolutely worth it.

Best $3 book ever!!!

Anyway, this morning I tried the Mock Danish (recipe at http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/for ... hp?t=12283 the bbcode and html aren't working for some reason) and it suprised me how good it was. I actually jumped. The cream cheese was soo rich tasting. It still had a minor after taste, but I use imitation vanilla. I've always been a sucker for sweet breakfasts, so this definitly addressed that want.

I watched a birthday cake decorating contest last night with my daughter. Not once did I desire the cake or sweets or anything. I consider that a MASSIVE victory. My son's birthday is coming up and I told myself that I could have one small piece. Honestly, I don't really want it... ha!

I went to Central Market (organic foods, HUGE variety), yesterday for a number of things, one of them was natural peanut butter. They had several home mad nut butters, so I decided to try some cashew and almond butter... sooo good. I chose the cashew butter (which tastes amazing alone, and great on celery). The almond butter is a bit more expensive, but one day I will get some of that.

I got some ricotta and am looking at different recipes to use that in... I also got some more frozen broccoli and spinach for the days when I don't feel much like making a salad. I do need to pour myself over chicken recipes and find a way to make chicken that's not too dry (I know, probably am overcooking it) some sort of something or the other.

I'm feeling good, ready to start week 2 of phase 1.

My hubby said that he felt a difference when hugging me... I dunno, I think it's a bit soon, but maybe...

[GoingToMakeIt]

AF started last night... it always drags me down.

Another good day yesterday, but I didn't feel like eating my meals... I really wanted my snacks but not the full fledged meals... it was weird

'cept for breakfast. that was a darn good one...

I still prepared and ate what I could, but at the same time didn't want to force anything.

Perhaps a change in meal plans... hrm...