Thanks, Lisa

Deb, have you posted any of your recipes in the recipes forum so we can steal them

Not yet, but I will. I just have to export them to text so I can take them off my laptop and sneakernet them to my PC. I don't have a PCMCIA NIC yet so I can't network the two computers. I will soon, though (post and get a NIC).

;-Deb

Hooray!

I have posted some recipes in the recipes section. I still have a bunch to go. Most of my recipes are single-serving, cooking-style adaptations of recipes from The Schwarzbein Principle and a few of my favorite cookbooks.

I hope you like some of them.

;-Deb

Thank you for posting those, Deb. It's difficult to find single serving recipes -- so I'm especially grateful

Following Schwarzbein plan as in the book.. Maybe later will modify it. Some things like my Thyroid meds, Premarin, I am staying on until I can find a doctor that will change it to a more natural approach. Have a great day everyone!! Sas

Welcome LD!

Hello all of you SPers!

I have been lurking here for sometime now, and I have decided to join up and keep a journal.

I'm on my way out right now, but I wanted to say hello and let you know I look forward to sharing SP ideas with you all and learning a lot from you, too.

I started SP in February and have lost about 22 or so pounds and about 10 inches. Follow it pretty strictly and love it!

Well, thanks for letting me into your club. Talk to you later this week.

Your friend, TheBetty

Congratulations on your weight loss and welcome.

It was very nice of you to welcome me, made me feel, well, welcome.

I'm hoping to have some time to make another entry in my journal here this week. My goal is to try and make entry at least every other day, and to include my meals.

Also, I need to update my weight loss. I suppose I will figure out how to do that, probably some where in the profile button area, huh?

Looking forward to getting to know you all a bit and getting that much needed support. Have a great week, all!

--TheBetty

Hi everyone,
I'm back after a weekend vacation from SPing that's turned into a monthlong absence... any thoughts on how to get re-motivated? I've been managing to do better in the past week except for the candy my assistant keeps on her desk - every day I say I won't have a piece (or 6) and every day I break down and have some! Then I kick myself and feel bad, which doesn't help. I have always had a sweet tooth and it's been really bad lately.
Part of it is that I've tried so many diets over the years and have never stayed on any of them for any length of time (which maybe wasn't a bad thing in terms of damaging my metabolism)... my past experience tells me that changing my eating habits isn't something I succeed at, but I really want to change that.
I'd welcome your thoughts and suggestions on what has worked best for any of you - journal? diet buddy? hitting yourself over the head with some crisp vegetables? (just kidding about that last one).
Wren

Just from my own experience. I have had pretty good success following the plan closely. Once a week not everyweek I have a cup of ice cream. Ice cream and strawberries cookies and cream etc. I always use breyers pure fresh ingrediants. I follow sp pretty closely with a few exceptions. I use nutra sweet and sometimes bottled salad dressings. I am picky on which ones though. I have lost 30lbs in 9 weeks. I try to exercise every day. Dr. Schwarzbein said the cravings would go away and they have for me. I used to eat a ton of pizza. Last Sunday my official cheat day I had a half a slice of square and one cheese stick. I don't recommend this but carbs have no hold on me anymore. I was extremely careful for the first four weeks. I drink a ton of water everyday and only drink pop (diet) on Sundays. Another area I deviate is coffee. It is a sweet treat for me. Nat posted a story about a woman doing bfl who lost a ton of weight and is now competitively lifting weights. Her name is rosemary. She ate six times a day and whatever she wanted one day a week. I think that is a good plan. I try to never let myself get hungry. Peanut butter and celery. Raw almonds and a half an apple. These work really good for me if I am starting to get hungry and am in between meals. I hope this helps.
Jerry

Hi Wren,

It is one day at a time. Sometimes one hour at a time. Try putting a jar of nuts next to the candy jar and reach for that instead of the sweet. This is a hard thing to do. You have to break the addiction again. You can do this. We can all do this. it is hard the first few days. Keep your self busy and have plenty of good substitutes at the ready for the temptation phase. Good Luck

Welcome back Wren!

Chewie: As always, you gave wonderful advice. I think it's important to be just a little bit lenient with yourself every now and then. Otherwise you really do feel restricted and too many restrictions make you feel small. Declaring an official cheat day doesn't sound bad to me at all. In fact, I was reading on another post that this may help weight loss! It sort of shakes your body up! But it's also important psychologically: You prove to yourself that you are in control and can go back to the right way of eating the next day. Very very important! It's so hard to stay in control with carbs. I used to polish off half of a 20 oz bag of pretzels like it was nothing! Since I was doing WW, I would figure out that 24=2 pts, and I'd count them out, except I'd count out 24 of them 5 times! My sister and I were just discussing this the other day: We used to have a parade of snacks at night in front of the TV on weekends. What a horrible habit! I still like that little sweet on weekends but it's my desert from dinner, and that's it! I can stop because I'm not starving for more food!

Wren: About the sweet tooth: Man, that sounds familiar!!! We just got some new tenants in our office, or rather, they're sharing our offices with us, and as a welcome gift someone bought them a box of chocolates and of course they passed it around. It was tempting, especially since I haven't had chocolate in months! But I took a deep breath and said, "No thanks, I'm trying to stay away from the sugar." I have two reasons for this, one because of the insulin effect, the other for the good of my teeth! According to my dentist I am super-sensitive to cavities. I won't go into how much sugar I would eat before switching to SP, but I expect my next checkup to be much improved from my last!!!

After all that rambling, my suggestion is, have you tried fruit? My theory is if you need that sweetness, how about getting it from the lesser of all evils? Even if you go over your carbs a bit for the day, it's worth it to stay away from the candy. Berries are cool because they give you that "pieces" effect. If you whip up some cream the night before (add cream cheese and a little bit of vanilla if you like, like I do), then it'll be a real treat. You can pop your co-workers' eyes out with all that real cream!

HTH,
Tal

Tal,
Tnanks for the compliment. I really do want to help and certainly don't want to hurt. The only experience I have is mine. I did lose 70 pounds my senior year of high school but I ate once a day, smoked, and ran and worked out. I also drank about 15 cups of coffee. I have never had the success I am having right now before. Proper sentence? I work with a guy who weighs close to 400 and he thinks I am suffering. Boy is he wrong. I don't think I have ever ate so well before in my life and continued to lose weight. I lost 4 lbs this week alone. I have no idea where they went. I really was shocked when I got on the scale. I was hoping for 2lbs and I was down 4. I am really still in a state of disbelief. I wonder when I will feel comfortable about saying I am going to weigh 198 in the near future. Your way ahead of me percentage wise. Do you feel like yea its really happening this time? Talk with you soon.
Jerry aka the mighty Chewbacca.