Don't do cardio on PSMF when you are feeling sick! If you must exercise, do some weight lifting- lowish weights, higher reps.

I ate lean red meat, and had one square of dark chocolate daily
while doing PSMF...lost weight at the same rate. Can you enjoy cottage cheese? I found that a wonderful way to get protein if feeling hungry...many things you can do with it.

Val

Should we tell her about Lemon Curd on cottage cheese?

Oh Nancy... teasing the newbies! LOL How is everyone doing?

I am currently addicted to the Flax-o-Meal morning cereal [(13 carbs, 12 fibre, so 1 net), 12 pro, 6 fat, 130 cals for a 1/2 cup] and let's just say, I am QUITE regular! Oh geez. I have banned myself from the stuff now! I ate it every morning (only 1/2 cup) and a few times as a dessert/ part of dinner. So today I am officially off of the stuff! LOL

My other addiction is Peppermint tea with Splenda. I could drink it all day! I had 3 cups today at work. Mmmmm. At least I will have fresh breath! LOL

I'm teetering on the cusp of VT. I can never get over that edge, and I can never stay there, so I refuse to be happy about it until I do. Bloody scales.

My cat weights 15.8 pounds. Heh! I've been weighing him everyday too. He thinks it is just a new cuddle time.

Well, I didn't do cardio last night after all. I did laundry after my appt and talked on the phone to my mom, sister, Dad and stepmom. My grandmother is passing away, she has alzheimers and has been in a nursing home for over a year now. For the last week she refuses to eat or talk and her kidneys are failing her now. I will drive to see her tomorrow in Ocala - about 2 and 1/2 hours away. I need to say good bye. I've been trying to get rid of this cold and it's almost gone now - so all week I've been resting so I can make this trip.

Back to PSMF- I did my upper body workout at the gym this morning before work and still weigh in at 169. I feel less though. Does that make sense? I've been eating lettuce with every meal - but haven't made a bm in 4 days or more. Maybe I'll see a whoosh then!

Hope so - I would like to see 168 tomorrow. We'll see. I've been good today. had a 1/2 tbs almond butter and 1 tb cream cheese at 8 and not really hungry till now. It's noon and I had 3 chicken wings (not breaded) with lettuce. Been drinking water.

About the cottage cheese, i bought a large container of the low fat kind on Sunday and just finished it yesterday. I could probably eat a whole pound in a sitting. That's not good - and I noticed 5 carbs per 1/2 cup. How is it allowed on PSMF? I definetly think it could be a "problem food for me".

I bought some sugar free life savers at the store and just had two only.

Oh well, Happy Friday to everyone!!!!

Praying for whoosh fairies in all directions!
Melissa

I'm so sorry about your grandmother. I just lost an Aunt to Alz and my Dad suffered from it as well. Both died last year.

Well, I think we're protecting ourselves from that hideous disease by eating low carb. At least, I hope so!

Missa, I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

I have a feeling my cat is around 15 lbs.
Good luck on the VT, Nancy.

I feel the same way about the LF cottage cheese. It's good stuff. I could sit and eat a huge bowl of that stuff if I was the old me.

I just made a big batch of turkey and TVP meatballs under the broiler. I weighed the majority of them, and the average size seems to be around an ounce and an eighth. Those sizes will be easy to portion out. We all agree that pre-planning helps this WOL go smoothly.

If you follow the PSMF plan, I wouldn't worry about the carbs..it is getting sufficient protein macros that are more of a concern, and avoiding hi GI carbs like starchy vegt and hi fat dairy. The only thing one shoudl be able to eat unlimited is low GI veg..I treated cottage cheese with some degree of respect and limited serves to a half cup at a time. I often put that into a protein shake...makes it taste like cheesecake and sticks to the ribs a lot better.

I have been 145.5 the past 2 days..so seem to be cruising at this weight. Have a new injury/pulled muscle-tendon-something at the top of my ankle area so once again can't do a lot of exercise.

One thing I was happy about when doing PSMF is being able to eat cottage cheese again! I really missed it on Atkins. When I was a low fat dieter, I would eat the cottage cheese outta the container and eat about half of it (1 cup) at a time with some red grapes (mmmm something else I miss-- 1 carb per grape!! Ouch!)

Anyway, I too limit myself to a 1/2 cup at a time because it is still carby. I don't want to eat too many carbs!

So, I broke and ate some flax cereal this morning. It is so damn good! I will go off it again this week. I don't want to be running to washroom as soon as I get home from work again! LOL

Cottage cheese is easy...just buy the 1 pint sizes, and don't go through one container more often than every four days. Maybe I should just consider myself lucky that I never had any problems with it.

Hi there,

I've been lurking in these threads for quite awhile, and I think it's time I said "hello"

While I've considered the idea of meat and eggs, I know that in the long run, I won't be able to stay on it long enough to make that much of a difference, plus I feel that eliminating vegetables is a bad idea for me at this time.

I'm not quite up for signing on for a full PSMF style plan just yet, but I was really liking what Val had to say about just lowering the fat a bit within an Atkins eating plan. I'd rather leave myself some room to continue to tweak and lower calories along the way than do something really strict right off the bat.

I initially lost about 30 pounds last year on Atkins, but since then, I've been struggling - too many instances of going off plan, and too much of the so-called "carb creep" in the form of cream, nuts and/or cheese.

Over Christmas, I went on a real binge for about two weeks. I ate stuff like shortbread cookies, tons of chocolate and all manner of junk foods. I gained 11 pounds in those two weeks, so that should tell you something about the quantity and quality of food I was eating over that time period. Since returning from Christmas vacation, I've managed to lose 7 of those regained pounds, and I'm working on getting rid of the rest.

Time for me to get out the food scale and start paying more attention to portions and quality of food.

Today is the first day I've been drinking my tea black instead of a huge dollop of cream. I can't stand coffee without cream, so I'm thinking I might be getting rid of coffee for now, and replacing it with tea.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and let you know how inspiring and helpful this thread has been for me as I re-commit to losing fat.

Sara

Hey Sara! Welcome into the fun.

I actually made the adjustment to coffee without cream, much to my surprise!

I made chicken sausages this weekend. They're delicious! I used chicken breast, figs, dried apricots, olives and spices. Although my kitchenaid meat grinder seems to have torn itself apart in the process! I'm a little bummed about that.

On the not-low-fat end of things, I made another pork roast shoulder. Too nummy for words.

I love Val's idea for portion control, did you see it?

Hi Sara, and welcome to our little niche in the forum.

We all agree that a lower fat version of low carbing works best for us. I always had a problem with the amount of fat I was injesting. It just didn't feel right. Since I've lowered my fat intake, my weight has started to move. Finally! I've also reduced my portions, and I'm eating often enough that I don't feel a blood sugar drop.

I had to go out and buy scoop measuring cups. I also purchased a digital scale. I find it important to measure things like pasta, only because 2 oz doesn't look like enough to me. I must keep it on target.

And I do think it's so important to schedule a free meal often enough to keep you from straying away from your program.

Many rules, many new things... and we're all here for the same reason.

Happy Monday, all!

Welcome Sara! Yes, some people, generally men, and younger folks too, can continue to lose on Atkins regardless of how much fat they take in...not me.
And yes PSMF is extremely strict and hard to do. I got into sweet black coffee (very good coffee) for a while on it, so now can use low fat milk, no worries, and have managed to get off of cream. I use low fat subs all the time now as it is a quick and easy way to pare of calories without losing taste. So I do things like dilute the Newman's Ranch dressing with a no carb, no fat dressing. I have increased carbs, provided they are quite low GI...people can lose weight on the low GI diet, but even there calories count, and the fat is strictly watched. So I am now allowed one serve of fruit a day, one slice of high fibre (greater than 3g per slice) bread, etc.

Giving up all the fat was a big sacrifice for me, so one finds compromises and tweaks. I spray fry pans, rather than pouring oil, use subs where I can, lower fat milk, etc.

I still keep nuts out of my house...I find them harder to control than sugar. It is interesting...I have several bags of soft candy and never abuse them. I allow myself one soft mint or caramel and one sf one with one square of Lindt's dark chocolate every night...have done this for almost 6 months and don't crave more than that. I can remember a time when I would have just eaten them all evening. What I am finding now is that the rewards from having a little daily are paying off...it keeps it all under control without having to turn it into something totally forbidden. In my case the latter is the case for nuts which have been a trigger for me. However as I learn this great control I may soon try buying some nuts with a view to doing the same thing. One small handful a day....period. Not going and having a large handful 5 times a day!

Similarly, I just don't buy full fat cheese (which I ADORE) and reserve having it for those occasions, maybe once every 2 weeks, when I am out...and then being in a social situation helps with keeping portion control going.

One thing that I have learned from PSMF is that having a 'free day' doesn't do permanent damage...it is water weight. Weeks of doing it still only puts back maybe a couple of net lbs...the majority is water storage from eating carbs. It is NOT a bad thing to do this a few times a year- it helps to regulate hormones in the right direction and might assist metabolism. So I no longer sweat the occasional few days of overindulgence. It comes back off very quickly just by going low cal for a few days.

Keeping to low carb for me is a health issue more than anything...sugar and high GI foods are inflammatory and promote heart disease, blood pressure issues, insulin issues, etc. But this means under 100 g of 'good' carbs a day..not 20g!

Anyway, it is all a matter of tweaking and compromising and adopting some general principles that are going to work as a permanent eating style...Nancy for example has discovered a bad gluten intolerance, and a caseine intolerance, and so her eating is going to be different to mine, but the calories issue is the same.

Val