Happy Birthday! I have no clue how old you are since I'm new here, but I hope it was a great day for you.

Hello Jayseem! Congrats on being retired. What a fun time of life! I wish you the best on getting your health under control. It will be vital to enjoying the coming years. Glad you linked to the article. I truly hope you'll benefit from it. I'm big on understanding why all this low/no carb stuff works, even though scientific jargon often goes over my head. I just need more visual type explanations and plain English descriptions. Gary Taubes's book is definitely scientific, but the article is very easy to understand.

The bottom line for me is, despite all we've been taught, we do not need ANY carbs in our diets and one of the most important things you can do is break your sweet tooth. Even with artificial sweeteners - really! This is ONE of the keys to losing your constant hunger. And here is why - the second your brain understands that what you are bringing to your lips or what you are contemplating eating is something sweet - it tells your pancreas to secret what's called anticipatory insulin (there's another more technical name for it, but as I said, I prefer simple, explanatory terms). This first shot of insulin is preparing your body to receive something sweet to protect itself from and deal with the blood sugar that is about to rise. Whether or not that glucose follows is irrelevant - insulin levels are up and you are storing fat. Period. Granted, the insulin will secret yet again in a second wave if what you ate truly did cause a rise in blood sugar, so caloric sweeteners are certainly worse, but secreting any insulin at all is bad, bad, bad for anyone wanting to lose weight and get healthy. Also, what goes up, must come down - and when it comes down (blood sugar) you will again be HUNGRY and you will want sweets yet again. Also, please note that artificial sweeteners DO have carbs. Many can list 0 on their labels simply because of serving sizes. The Splenda you can bake with is a perfect example. I'd have to google it again, but it's something like .6 carbs per serving. When you multiply that by the amount needed to bake with, you're carbed up!

Breaking a sweet tooth is hard to do, believe me, I understand. If you drink coffee, take out the sweetener bit by bit and take it with whole cream only - then work that down to just a teaspoon or so. For soda and sweet tasting beverages, I have no easy way except, stop drinking them. This would be the first thing I'd tell anyone to do who wants to stop being hungry and thus, lose weight. Drink water, unsweetened tea and sparkling water.

I've got to get going to the gym, but I'll check in later with a few links to articles that will explain this better than I can and lend credibility to what I'm saying. I'm just a girl from Bellevue, I know. So listening to me could be questionable in your minds, but none of what I just shared is a big secret. Scientifically, it's sound, trust me. It's not even controversial - it just is. Any diabetic can tell you about anticipatory insulin.

Happy Friday!! It's jeans day at work! Yippeee!!

Thanks everyone, I did have a good day!!

Hi Everyone!
Wow, CB you really do the LC to the extreme. I would think you would completely fade away. So you are saying that even though you are at goal weight, your ongoing weight loss plan is nearly zero carb and no/very little artificial sweeteners? I admire your ability to stick with it.
I think I did good on LC yesterday. But today my eggs and bacon didn't fill me up, so I already had a whey protein drink besides. And now I have a stomach ache. Tums doesn't tell if they have carbs are not.
However, the alarm went off this a.m. and I just couldn't move my body to go exercise. Dread would be the discriptive word. But also couldn't go back to sleep. So I went in to work early and used the exercise bike for 15 min. and clocked in a little early, so I can leave early. Got lots to get done tonight - if I have the energy. Really feel like having a nap.
Anyone watching the game tomorrow? It's pay per view I think. I'll probably try to find it on the radio.

I'll be watching the game with my brothers at a bar-n-grill tomorrow - hopefully we will start off better than last week.

On the feeling hungry. Every morning, I make a big cup of tea with 2 tea bags, one black tea and one green. I add a tablespoon of coconut oil to it!! This actually helps me feel full -- and it's good-for-you OIL!! Coconut oil is expensive, but I buy it by the gallon at netrition.com. One bucket will last me several months.

Pit: What did you eat last night when you went out?

General Tso's chicken, fried rice, crab rangoon, chicken teriyaki (on a stick), almond chicken, green beans....shall I continue? I forget the name of some of the other dishes.

hi there one and all Sorry again for the long absense lot's going on and all.

So how's it going?

Huskers are playing and I will be watching!

It is late on a Friday afternoon so I don't expect to talk to you all untill Monday so I hope the weekend was great.

Good morning all. My DH gets to go to the game today, so I'm home with the kids. I would care a lot more if it were nice out, but I'll be glad to be home and warm!! I'm sure my kids will invite friends over to play and I'll be able to get lots of house chores done today. I'm actually glad for that because, although everything is neat, the house needs a good cleaning.

I guess I just got sick of food ruling my life. I got sick of being hungry all the time - got sick of binging - got sick of thinking about food and my next meal every day, all day. I wanted to be free of it. There is nothing worse than feeling so hungry that you shove food in (for me it was salty, then sweet, then salty then sweet, over and over again) even after you ate less than 4 hours ago. I would beat myself up over what a loser I was and how weak I was. All this on low carb!!!

Cats, your goal should be to eat a meal that keeps you full for 5-6 hours. If you didn't eat enough eggs and bacon, then eat more. Add lots of butter to them and be sure to pour the grease from the bacon back over the eggs, it's delicious. I would need about 4 eggs and 6 strips of bacon to keep me anywhere near full for 5 hours, I think. even that might not be enough. Eggs just don't seem to fill me up. Eggs have about a carb each though, and in an insulin resistant person, that could still affect your blood sugar, so that could be why you're hungry so quickly.

I agree with coconut oil - it's a saturated fat, so that's a good one to fill up on. I might go make some tea right now PV, that sounds good!

Do any of you read Dr. Barry Groves? I just discovered him and I like what he has to say.

Do all of you see LC eating as only a weight loss plan? Of those of you who are married, do your spouses eat LC as well? How about your kids?

Hey All.....HUSKERS ARE BOWL ELIGIBLE !!!!!

YAHOO !!!!!

Thank you for the suggestion CB. I manage to stay full for about 5 hours on 3 eggs & 3 bacon (when it was 2 it was really thick & fatty). But I have to eat by 6 a.m., so it's 6 hours until lunch. That's why I frequently end up with a protein shake around 10 a.m. Do you think it would be better to eat more at breakfast & not do the shake? Staying full from lunch and dinner are the hardest for me. Suggestions?
The fat thing - LOL - I, of course don't mind the fat, but I cooked breakfast for SO yesterday and I put the bacon directly on the plate. He grabbed paper towels and started blotting the grease out of it! I just had to chuckle.
I'm single, so I can pretty much eat what I want. Although whenever I'm having company I have to restock with bread, pasta, etc. I usually know to send the leftovers home with my company.
Last night I had lettuce w/ranch dressing and about 1/2 of a large T-bone steak. (Hadn't had much to eat prior to that) But I just couldn't take another bite of steak. However, about an hour later, my stomach was really rumbly and I felt very hungry. I didn't know what was going on with that. Ideas? I've had it happen before, that I'm hungry shortly after eating steak.
Yeah! That was a game Saturday wasn't it?! I was in Lnc at ToysRUs and planning to make another stop & head back home, when DD called to see if I wanted to find someplace to watch the game. She had me head straight there, which was a good thing, as we were the last one's to get a table until 1/2 time, when 1 more group of people was able to get seated.
Then Sunday the Chiefs nearly managed a win. It was an exciting game anyway.
Let's see - I try to see LC as a way of life; but I am pretty strict during the week and cheat a bit on weekends and can maintain. But right now I really want to loose 10 lbs before Christmas, then if I can hold at that, then take another 10 off in Jan/Feb. That would get me to where I need to be. I get down less than that and I look sick (and loose all curves).
SO mentioned the possibility of a cruise, so that's why this belly has to go!

Hi All,
Things are finally settling down, I hope for real this time. Can't wait to catch up with you all..

So it will be 2 days I report in now

I need to lose 10lbs by Jan 5th or so. I believe I will just do my best to L/C it all the way. Man am I going to miss the morning cookies!!!

Go Huskers!!

Hey if they win out what bowl might we go to?

NYAH NYAH..........Pit and I get tomorrow off 'cuz of Veteran's Day!

How 'bout you Scotty and Kiki?

DH does, but I don't. Life in retail....

HMMM....for some reason I thought you worked at Offutt.