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OK--did great yesterday! All plain food. All plan food, too, of course. Oatmela, steel cut, cherries, almond extract. Potatoes, boiled, normandy mix frz vegs. Rice, 2 cups, stir fry mix nuked.

I weighed at 3:25 (tried to get up for F1) and it was 171.8. It does not count, but woo hoo! I couldn't sleep last night, and it felt for all the world like my body was busy losing weight. I don't know how to describe it any further--it was buzzing, fizzing, wired. I just had this sense that they body was saying--hey! time to reduce! It's like I had caffeine--but I hadn't--and had drunk a lot of water--which I really hadn't. I got up twice to pee. I couldn't sleep until midnight and couldn't get up to watch F1 with DH. At I got up at 7 am and weighed 172.0.

I did 20 minutes of recumbent bike--that thing may pay for itself someday after all! I am timidly thinking about asking on the exercise forum about beginners' exercises to reduce my stomach and waist area. I'm afraid I'll be bombarded with useless suggestions to take walks, go bicycling, or do crunches. I can't do the out-of-doors, and I am too weak to do crunches, that's the whole point. I'll think about it more before I do that.

Oh well. Today is the car show and air show. Possibly looking at Lowe's and Home Depot for the bathroom fixtures, too. Bring notebook!

172.2 this morning! I have stopped writing down my Monday weigh-ins, because I felt once a week was enough, but pretty consistently Monday was higher than Friday, so I stopped to keep myself from being discouraged. However, this Monday is an exception! 1.6 pounds down from Friday's depressing only-.2-pound loss. Cool beans!

So yesterday was great--oatmeal for breakfast, and then I nuked 2 little potatoes and brought lots of baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, and snap peas, so we could go to town for the shine & show and the air show. DH was hungry, and when he stopped at Popeye's, I thought, well fine, it's fast food, so I'll just bring in my veggies and have a glass of water. I checked out the sides offered, and they have corn on the cob! I asked if they came already buttered, and they said I could get one without butter, so I did! The water dripping off gave me confidence that they had no oil in the cooking water--it looked clear and no sheen. So a good find! $1.59 for a medium-sized cob--I could have gotten 3 and not cost a "meal deal" price! Cheaper than a side salad at most FF places.

Came home and was moderately hungry--needing more starch-- so I made a pot of brown rice, had one cup with a tiny bit of salt, then one cup with a tiny bit of sugar, and then I stir-fried the Costco stir-fry vegs and had that over yet more rice. It was great!

I did 21 minutes of Wii yoga and step this morning. Busy week ahead!

Thanks, Deb! It's really encouraging to have you and others stop by and encourage me!

And this morning--Wednesday is hunp day, right?--drum roll>>>>>>>>>>>>171.8! Woo hoo and happy dance!

I did great yesterday, oatmeal & cherries at b'fast, freshies at lunch (tom/pea/carrot) with the last of my boiled potatoes, and leftovers for dinner (I was starving and didn't get home till 7, but I still ate 2 bowls--ravenous!)

Exercise this morning was 13 m of yoga & 1 step session. Felt good! I need to leave for work about an hour earlier every day, so I have to go now. I have leftovers from the leftovers for lunch, I'll take tom/carrot freshies, and I'll make more potatoes for dinner if I get home early enough. If not, I'll have rice and stir-fry frozen veggies.

Gotta go.

Your doing really good, love your attitude. Keep on keepin on

OK real quick post before I get dressed for work! 171.4 this morning, gads! I noticed (remembered?) that I also have not been having beans, along with not having sauces this. past few days. I wonder if they also slow down my loss.

I overslept half an hour today so exercise did not get done. Gotta go now and make lunch

Wonderful Wonderful

Quick while I'm logged in I have to record my weight and exercise: 171 even!!!!!!!!!!

I'm almost over the hump, then! I secretly thought of the hump as 8 pounds either side of the halfway mark, and so I have about 6 pounds to go to be off the hump and truly on the downward side of the mountain! I am psyched

I did 17 minutes of Wii, mostly yoga with one Hula Hoop (personal best score and heavy breathing!) and one advanced step.

Busy busy busy lately. Even more so because DH has decided to try the McD way of eating, as long as I do everything. This means more time in the morning--I'm getting up 10 minutes earlier and am still feeling pressed--and daily way-home critiques of how awful the food I could give him was, how hungry he was, how miserable everything is. Even as I try not to feel personally criticized, I am miserable trying to convince him that this way of eating will be better for him and help him. His work situation is bad from a morale point of view, but also--there's no eating or food prep space--the microwave is in the file room, with no table by it, there's no sink--the only source of water is the bathroom and water fountain yards down the hall, so no way to wash any plates, etc., and he has not made up his mind to carry a huge bag with bowls, thermoses, etc., and he has to eat at his desk. Then after dinner, which he likes, he is hungry, and since I have to at least participate in getting him his snack, I am then up and will have one too, which I have no longer been needing.

I doubt that I will lose this week. I am still exercising at least, but to make the food more appetizing for him I am back to sauces, etc. I hope we have some progress. He's lost 6 pounds since Sunday, but was hoping for more, and he's going into his usual miserable depression, to do with work, life, the universe and everything.

I was 171.6 this morning, but with weighing in half an hour earlier, who knows if that's any fluctuation at all? I think I gained because of the party on Saturday--we were invited over and then they called when we were on the way to say they were detained out fishing, so we could come on over and they gave us the garage code. It didn't work, however, and it took them over 2 hours to get there. We weer OK, we sat ont he porch, but by the time they did get home, I was pretty hungry, and FREEZING, and then they had to get the BBQ ready to cook the fish and my veggies, so I probably ate way too much in the way of the hummus and baked chips that I brought.

I've also had about 4 fruits a day, since I got it at Costco for DH and he didn't like the apricots, which are very yummy, and is slow on the grapes. He complains most of the finger foods are too messy for work, including the grapes. He's not even eating the pears at home--and they are the best we've had in years...oh well..

Time for work.

Your doing good. Keep on keepin on

A couple thoughts for your husband...

I cook my husband spicy/saucy meals (beans/rice, sauces, stirfry's etc.) and I myself eat very simply (partially a choice and partially because of many food intolerances). For my own meals, I eat mainly raw fruits and veggies and then i just microwave yams or have an occasional bowl of plain cooked grains. I never eat what I cook him.

For lunch, some things that work for my husband:
home-made chewy granola bars (recipe on the forum)
apples
carrot sticks and cucumber slices
chickpeas in a small container
almond butter and all-fruit jam sandwich on home-made whole wheat bread
1/4 cup raisins mixed with 1/4 cup walnuts

He's on the regular program so his lunch covers his breads and flours for the day. He will eat oatmeal with banana and another fruit for breakfast. He eats a hearty dish for supper plus a warm veggie (lots of rice and bean dishes, split pea soup, black bean chili etc.). I use a lot of dried mushrooms from Costco to add flavor and chewiness (like meat) and I spice everything a lot and use onion and garlic because he loves that.

My husband is 6'3" (used to weight 225lbs, now weighs 183lbs) and was very willing to try this program but it took him a while to feel satisfied by the food. I kept experimenting and I fed him a lot of beans at first. Now, after over a year, he'll enjoy a meal without any beans, but it took a long time.

For additional snacks, he eats chickpeas with chipotle tabasco sauce, leftovers from dinner, carrot sticks, frozen bananas or banana 'ice cream' (2 bananas blended with 1/4 cup soymilk), and the odd can of diced tomatoes (??he gets cravings for them).

If you need recipes, let me know.

Wow, thanks for the thoughtful replies, both of you! I love the man (42 years on Aug,. 31!), but he has been soooooo depressed for the past few years and as I was reading all your really good advice, lfwfv, I was hearing his objections in my head--but I know your advice will really suit him to the "T". He is still in the stage where he's willing to "try" this to lose weight, but he told me he can not envision a time when he would not love a nice steak--and once a month at least. I personally have no problem with never having one again, but I am not going to begrudge him that notion. I just know he will not achieve the health level that I will. (BTW, he's 6'3" and about 260, and when we got married he weighed 178, so we have the Big Guy Husband in common!)

But look at what happens when he decides to join me---my own journal becomes all about him....

Back to me! (as my DD, baby of the family, always says)

Gained about 2 lbs. over the weekend with the wine party--which was so much fun! I actually ate a tiny slice of flank steak, a la Dr. McDougall at Thanksgiving--and I'll bet the tiny potatoes and zucchini that Joe grilled for me had been rubbed in a little oil--but all in all, they had a fresh veggie tray (Costco), and I ate well and had a lovely time. Great wines from Oregon, where all 3 of us couples are planning to retire--they did the King Estates winery tour this summer and brought these back.

I have lost a pound of it already today (171.6) so I am doing OK. They had run out of red potatoes at Costco the last time I was there, so we have this 20 lb bag of gigantic baking russets, and I'm nuking one partially and taking it to work along with cooked and raw veggies. I am still working through all the fruit I bought last time--apricots, pears, grapes--so tasty!

Did 21 minutes of yoga and step (and hula hoop!) on the Wii today. We are going to start the remodel of the downstairs bath, and have to move everything out of the TV room to repaint and put in tile floor--so I may be without my Wii workout, and be forced to use the darn recumbent bike, which is OK but is not as engaging--I tend to quit too soon.

Get to work!

Well, the meal at Kinley's last night did not go as planned. My bookkeeper's parents were here from out of town and she was so excited to take us out to dinner, so we went to a place where she had good friends in the restaurant business...she called the owner a week before and gave him my dietary needs, np animal products, no oil in the preparation, and she was assured that it was no problem! So the seven of us show up yesterday, and no thought or preparation had been made. Sides weren't listed on the menu, all the salads were loaded with cheese, nuts, ham, etc., and the lone vegetarian main dish had polenta, some sort of quinoa thing and sweet potatoes with some French word after it. So I ask the waitress (trying not to make this dinner for seven all about me) if I could have the vegetables prepared without oil, no animal products, etc., and she kept saying, "what's your allergy again?"

I had eaten beforehand so I wasn't too hungry when we got there, but after watching everyone else eat their bread and oil, I ate some bread. I sat through them all eating their salads, and finally the main dishes came. Of course it had oil in it. I don't really know if they paid any attention to my request at all. The sweet potatoes with the French name were crosscut fries! Crisp and greasy as anything! The polenta--well, most places pack their polenta with cheese, and I'll bet this is no exception. The tomato stuffed with quinoa had obviously been oiled before it was baked. I have to rant here because I want to say something, to complain to somebody, but NO, I can't!!--I ate every morsel, I am so ashamed of myself, but I was hungry! I had been assured that they would prepare me food! I'm even more annoyed because on my husband's plate, he had steamed broccoli and carrots! I am so aggravated with myself and everybody else. I cannot complain to my bookkeeper--she is so sensitive and would take it as a personal failure, and I can't have that. I can't, therefore, complain to the restaurant, because they are her good friends. I just have to learn for the next time. I might have been more bold in my search for something to eat if it hadn't been such a big group, if my DH hadn't been with me, etc.

Oh well. If we ever go back (DH liked his food well enough), I now know that they have many fresh vegetables that they prepare for each entrees' little filler at the side of the plate. I will ask for steamed broccoli, carrots, asparagus, etc., and see the look on their face then. Damn, I am so mad! She called a week in advance, and they just ignored it.

I hope this doesn't set me back too much, what with last Saturday's party. With our wedding anniversary coming up in a couple of weekends, I know I will be eating out again. I can't make this a thing that happens too often or I will be totally sabotaged.

Did 1/2 hour of the walk at home video with the power bands. It was about a mile and 1/2--I was proud. Reason I had time to do it was because I woke up at 3:20 (40 m. early) and was too mad (about Kinley's) to go back to bed!

What a frustrating experience! I would want to complain to someone also. Glad you know how to manage differently next time so you can look at that meal as a learning experience.

Lisa

I'm so sorry Frozenveg.

I have multiple food allergies and intolerances. I honestly avoid eating out like the plague. But, if I do have to eat out, i don't even look at the menu (besides a cursory glance). I ask for a salad with only the ingredients I want on it...say lettuce, carrots, tomato, cucumber (provided they have it)--maybe vinegar for dressing, and then a baked yam/sweet potato or regular potato (or a couple of them)--plain and I don't eat the skin. I could probably order a couple of steamed veggies too, but always specifying not to add butter or oil at all.

It's often easiest to eat something completely off the menu rather than have them alter a dish to meet your specifications. My experience is that people don't understand my needs and I end up with a gluten-free salad with croutons all over it. Oh brother....

Looks like you did the best you could. I probably would have put some on my plate and just moved it around or said I wasn't hungry. We all figure out our own paths. Keep on keepin on