Hi MarcyL,

If I had the answer to your question, I'd be a very happy gal. I flunked maintenance, and am so NOT happy with how much I weigh, how I feel, how it feels to eat too many carbs, or too often in a day.

I do know, that for me, part of this is my personal issue of using food for comfort, and that until I "solve" that, it will continue to be an issue.

Congrats on NOT regaining all you'd lost, and welcome back.

Thanks Patriciakr!
Well I am going to do what Eno did. She was SO successful! I plan to post my food log EVERY DAY! Here is what I ate yesterday and unfortunately today I am up 2 pounds! GAK. Pretty sure it is water as my legs are as big as blimps. I was on my feet seeing patients all day (I am an OB doc) so hopefully it will disappear.
Yesterday's menu and today's so far:
Breakfast: Hamburger and tea
Lunch: Chicken slaw and green beans
Dinner: Pizza, salad, spinach, 1/2 pecan roll, beets, M & M's.
Breakfast; Spinach, hot dog.
I am drinking diet soda all day. Hopefully I won't have to give that up.
Thanks for all your help. I love this community.
Marcy

MarcyL, awesome that you are an OB (I am a retired high risk L&D RN).

Honestly, you may want to rethink the diet soda. The Heller's were not fans of artificial sweeteners, and I did find I seem to react to the taste of sweet as if eating a real sugar of some sort. I can get cravings from fruit tea (sheesh!).

I learned to love unsweetened flavored seltzer - love the bubbles, and enjoy flavors like lemon-lime, blackberry citrus without any cravings as a result. I even find the coconut seltzer to just be a treat

With time, you will find how to adjust your program to work best for you. In my past success, what worked for me was calp, not eating after 5 pm, and a daily calorie limit of about 1500 - 1750 calories. This was how I lost 216 pounds over 4 years.

Wow Patricia! 216 pounds. That is amazing. CONGRATS on doing it once, and you can do it again. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. When I got down to 218, it was CAD all the way. I was probably eating 3000 calories a day, with 2000 of them being the RM. And drinking diet soda and tea with sweetner and coffee with heavy cream and sweetner ALL DAY. I am really active with my job, plus I breed and train dogs. Unless I can eat a bunch of desserts, I just don’t think I will stay on plan! I am going to try keeping really strict with the other carbs at CM and hope I can get away with the sweetner. L I got discouraged when I got stuck at 218, probably for about 6 months, and of course used that as an excuse to eat carbs all day. I LOVE carbs. So now this morning I am at 243 again. Better than 245 yesterday. I do think it was edema in my legs. I am having bilateral knee replacements May 8. Luckily all hospital food is so bad (to me anyway after eating it for 35 years) that I always lose weight in the hospital! Then other people will be feeding me and that will also help as I will be too embarrassed to ask for 5 desserts a day! Ha! I am off to water aerobics as with my current orthopedic issues that is the only exercise I can currently do. I am going to continue to post what I eat. That makes me accountable and hopefully not boring folks too much!
Yesterday lunch: meatballs and cheese
Yesterday dinner: salad beets zucchini carrots steak baked potato a few french fries and better than sex cake
Today breakfast: steak zucchini spinach butter tea coffee cream sweetner

MarcyL,
Food logs are the bomb, they have really helped me in the past. I wish you all the best with your knee replacements.

I almost went that route (bad knee issues...bone spurs, bad arthritis and more), but was very high risk for having the surgery done at the time (due to my weight at that time). The surgeon I saw was awesome, told me that many of his patients managed their pain by their weight. When I realized the pain that had essentially disabled me for several years at that point, was potentially within my power to alleviate, I began that 4 year push to lose it all.

He was right, I got off the Relafen I had been on for about 3 years (too long!!!), ditched my cane, and while I will never jog again, it has been sooooooooooo much better re any pain. Still unstable, still sounds like broken glass crunching away in one knee, but they work

You might want to consider starting a journal here, I find it very cathartic!

Patricia, glad your ortho issues improved with weight loss. Mine has been bone on bone for 10 years. Time for the knife. Thanks also for the support and encouragement! All suggestions and recommendations are appreciated even if I don’t immediately incorporate them.
Ok, in Eno fashion, here is my food report.
Yesterday lunch chicken wings
Yesterday dinner Tuna salad, (real mayo OF COURSE!) cabbage salad beets flatbread strawberry crepes.
Weight this morning: 240! Yay! I also did water aerobics yesterday.
Having friends over for dinner tonight and I am making my famous peach curried pork chops.
Breakfast today: Coffee with cream, ham, eggs.
Planning to just grab a handful of nuts or pumpkin seeds for lunch since I will be having an early dinner:
Dinner planned: Curried pork chops, rice, salad, more green salad (since I am probably not having another vegetable) jello salad home made cookies and ice cream.
Tell me about the journal. Is that on this website?

MarcyL,

The peach curried pork chops sound beyond yummy...is this a recipe you share? If so, would love to have it.

Do you want feedback/opinions on your food log, or just to share? I don't want to comment/step on toes if you are not looking for that kind of feedback.

I am ashamed to say I don't recall what the directions are, but the journal is a feature you can use here on this site. You should see under my posts my name and that I have a journal button you can click to go see my journal. I will have to let you ask someone else where to find the option to create/name a journal for yourself.

MarcyL, I did a quick visit to tech section here, and here is a link for you:
How to start a journal

Hope this helps!

Yes! Journaling makes wonders. It's key when you are starting CAD or any LC life span diet plan. Hi Pat. Long time!

Bf. Eggs, bacon fried in bacon grease.

Hi again.
So of course yesterday’s menu changed. And I ate RM for more than an hour (guests who brought appetizers—-grrrrr) so I weighed 241.4 this morning. Back to the pool today.
Yesterday had chicken wings for lunch. That was legal.
But then friends came at 6 pm and brought mini pita bread (yet another thing like Blue Bell Ice Cream and Suzy Q’s that it would be better if I didn’t know about....) with cream cheese artichoke dip, corn chips, and this other dip that had pulled smoked pork, craisins and cream cheese. So if I had just eaten a bite of each dip that would have been ok probably, but NO I ate a mini pita and some chips. Start the clock at 6 pm. And then we didn’t finish dessert until about 8 pm. So now my weight is up a pound, of course. Plus I didn’t have the menu I planned. We had tri berry pie and ice cream for dessert.
So reset today!
Breakfast: Eggs scrambled with sour cream, chives, mushrooms and sausage. Coffee with cream.
Heading off to the rec center for water aerobics in a few.
I plan to just yak here and not use a journal.....hope that’s ok with folks.
Here is my peach curried pork chop recipe, glad to share, and unlike my ex motherinlaw, I will not leave out any steps or ingredients! Smile!
Brown 4 pork chops lightly in a little bit of olive oil and set them aside, they do not have to be cooked through.
Put the curry powder into the oil still in the pan—using as much as you like according to your preference—and stir to brown for a few minutes. When aromatic, add 1 cup chicken bouillon and 1 can of peaches in syrup to the pan. Mash the peaches slightly after mixing all together, place the pork chops on top, cover and simmer for an hour or so, until the pork chops are tender. Serve with rice. I take the lid off the pan for the last 10 minutes or so to let the sauce reduce. They are yummy!

OH! And feel free to comment on my food log. I am open to all suggestions, considering I have gained back 25 pounds, and REALLY REALLY REALLY want to get below 200! :-)
Please just don’t get offended if I ignore some suggestions!

Thank you for sharing the recipe - that sounds yummy. Reminds me (in a very tiny way) of how I make my coconut curry chicken (that is cm). I use coconut oil (extra virgin) in a pan, cook skin on chicken thighs that I sprinkle heavily with a good curry powder, just put a glass lid on the pan and let it go, turning once, until I get the right temp with a probe thermometer. If done right, you get crispy skin with the flavor of both coconut and the curry.

My one comment was going to be as much as I love nuts, and feel they are healthy, they are not cm, so I would not have them except at rm. One of my fav desserts when I am solidly on plan is homemade greek yogurt with a splish of vanilla, and nuts mixed in, no sweetener of any kind, or if have the carb room, 1/2 tsp. of a good maple syrup. Yummo!

Both your chicken and your yogurt sound delicious. Thanks for the tip about nuts. I have been on Atkins so many times that I think of them as a “legal” food. I always lost tremendous weight on Atkins, but could never keep it off as the idea of never having sweets again was too daunting and once I started carbs it was a pig fest. Doing well today so far (although I did eat a handful of peanuts before reading this!). I don’t seem to do as well planning here as others do—especially Eno—and no one could argue with her success! I buy legal stuff at the grocery store, but for RM things need to be more fluid for me. Especially for dessert. I am GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL! I just need to work out the plan for me! Thanks as always for all suggestions! I have ham and salami and cheeses and mushrooms and spinach and eggs in the fridge. No whining and no excuses.

Dinner was Salad, tostada, chili relleno, a few refried beans, a few corn chips, jello salad, berry pie with ice cream.

242.4 this am. Mexican food! Tuna salad (tuna, mayo, celery, scant onion) and 1 slice low carb bread (maybe also not legal? 2 grams carb after subtracting fiber?) toasted for breakfast. More later.