South Beach Dieters Group Meet Here!

[cruiserforlife]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the warm welcome.I guess I should really read the book,huh?
It's strange about that Xmas party where I gained 4lbs,I didn't eat anything bad,it was just the sugar in the alcohol I'm guessing.
I weighed myself this morning and I'm back to my pre-party weight but no more.I guess I'll just keep plugging away and see what happens.

I do appreciate the advice though,that's what I love about these boards,I have always learned so much!

[ColoradoJuli]

Good afternoon all -

Wow! The morning went by so fast. I have been really busy booking moves and working the NSF side of the business. I haven't even stopped to eat yet. (I know bad girl, bad girl)

I ate pretty good yesterday. I found out some stressful information yesterday and it turned my stomach so I didn't eat much yesterday and what I did eat was good. Today I plan on eating good again. I want to be as good as possible before Saturday comes.

Somebody mentioned making sugar free cookies. I meant to ask how they were made. Did you use Splenda and did you adjust the recipe any? I would love to make some sugar free Chocolate Chip cookies for DH he loves them. I would feel better about him eating them.

Well...I am off to do more work. Have a good day.

[WeirdEyes]

Juli, I'm the one that made the sugar-free cookies. I actually bought a tub of cookie dough already made up from my niece. I buy several tubs around Christmas because it is easier than making my own dough...not cheaper though. The cookie dough is made with Splenda though.

[QUOTE]It's strange about that Xmas party where I gained 4lbs,I didn't eat anything bad,it was just the sugar in the alcohol I'm guessing. [/QUOTE]John, yep the sugar in the alcohol can get you good! I normally don't drink much and when I went on my cruise, I drank several alcoholic drinks a day. I gained 5 lbs!!! :eek: On my cruise two years ago, I drank about two alcoholic drinks the whole cruise and I only gained one pound. Good luck!! :D

[ColoradoJuli]

I am curious if anyone knows what a good amount of carbs is per meal. Or what number should I try to stay within? I haven't seen that written down anywhere and I was curious.

[cruiserforlife]

Shelia,

Well I'll tell you,I plan to do some serious drinking on our cruise so I'll just have to make up for it in other ways.Here's what I eat normally,tell me if you think this is good or bad:

Morning:

Eggbeaters w/slice of bacon
Small V/8 juice

Lunch:

Green Salad w/crumbled feta cheese,& non-fat dressing

Afternoon snack:

One String Cheese (single)

Dinner:

One Chicken Breast of small Filet Mignon or Fish
Green Salad w/feta & avocado & dressing

Tons of water throughout the day!

It's not that I am not losing weight,just not as much as I think I should.
Been doing this for 3 weeks now and we exercise daily.Working in an occasional fresh piece of fruit now and then.Any idea of what I'm doing wrong or should alter?I'm figuring I should just keep riding it out and see what happens.I'm not drinking any alcohol now but don't plan to do that forever!

Take care guys and good luck!

[WeirdEyes]

John, your menu sounds good for Phase 1. When you move on to Phase 2, you can add some fruit and good carbs such as brown rice, etc. Also, you might want to add some sort of bean to your meals for energy if you are feeling sluggish. Beans are very acceptable on Phase 1. Also, you need to eat a snack mid-morning to keep your metabolism going. How much weight have you lost so far and how much a week?

[WeirdEyes]

[quote name='ColoradoJuli']I am curious if anyone knows what a good amount of carbs is per meal. Or what number should I try to stay within? I haven't seen that written down anywhere and I was curious.[/QUOTE]Juli, I don't count carbs so I can't help you. I know when I was on Atkins, I could only have 20 carbs per day on the induction. I think it then moved up to 30??? Tami, help me here! ;)

[cruiserforlife]

Shelia,

I have only lost about 10 lbs total and have been doing this for just over 2 weeks.My stomach area feels like it has gotten smaller and I'm sure it has,my pants fit somewhat looser but like I said,I expected more because I am rather hard on myself and have made such a radical change in my diet.We used to eat pizza at least a couple of times a week and with leftovers,that's a lot of pizza.Also starches and some desserts and of course,wine with dinner 3-4 nights a week and usually a couple of after dinner brandies.With as much as I've cut out,you'd think I would have lost at least twice as much.I sometimes have some lean turkey or ham for a mid-morning snack and like to crunch on some grapenuts as well.What kind of beans do you recommend?

Is my scale broken?

Mystery to me but I'll continue to plug away because I have amazing willpower and when I start something,I can get pretty stubborn.I like to torture myself a little bit (not in a bad way!) because I feel everyone has it in them to do whatever they want be it weight loss or whatever.The hardest part for me is getting started but once I do,look out.

[cruiserforlife]

Shelia,

PS, we sailed the NOS last September so if you have any questions,I'll be glad to try and help.

John

[irislady]

In one of the low carb magazines (can't remember which one) I read that some people just can't go above 40-50 g. of carbs a day without completely stalling their weight loss, and that weight gain returns if they regularly go above their limit without adding fiber and/or exercise. The article made it sound like that carb level is strictly an individual thing. For some people staying below 75 g. is enough, others it's 100, and for some unfortunates it's having to stay below 30-40. I'll see if I can locate the article again since I'm pretty certain I haven't thrown out any of those magazines. The article was about Low Carb life styles and not specifically about SB.

John, when I first went on SB I complained on this thread about how slow my weight loss was going. I was encouraged to stick with it, and sure enough all of a sudden I lost the rest. I'm still grateful to Tami, Shelia, Juli and the others for encouragement to stick with it.

I used to be a fitness trainer for people over 40 when I worked at a health club in Evansville. From that perspective I really feel that those sudden extra couple of pounds gained when we stray just once or twice from a SB style of eating are due to water weight gain and not actually pounds of fat gained. I don't think I believe any more that "a calorie is a calorie" no matter if it's from fat, carb, protein. I do believe certain types of foods (fats, carbs) affect our metabolism just as they affect our energy level and our moods.

I'm not sure what everybody else thinks, but I don't think the slice of bacon EVERY day is a good idea. DH and I watch the fat (especially saturated fats) as closely as the carbs. The result was a significant drop in his total cholesterol (epsecially the bad),& a big raise in the good cholesterol. Also watch the fat and sodium content of the cheese you eat. It can vary from brand to brand as well as from one kind of cheese to another.

Tami, Good luck getting to Franklin. I haven't heard how the weather is up there since it's out of our viewing area. We had 8" of snow on the ground when it quit this afternoon. It started back up again before we could get DGD back home. It took us nearly an hour to drive 14 miles. Ridiculous. At least we didn't have any trouble getting out of our driveway. After we got back home we heard that our county as declared a state of emergency and anyone caught driving without it being an emergency tonight will be ticketed. They're predicting 8-12 inches more overnight, a high of only 19 and strong winds. We're not used to that in this part of the state! A friend called DH from St. Louis, 3 hours west of here. They had partial sunshine and not a flake of snow.
Shae

[cruiserforlife]

Thanks for the input irislady!

[ColoradoJuli]

Shae - I have never heard of a state of emergency for snow. That sounds crazy, but being in Colorado we are used to getting dumped with snow.

Thanks for the input on the total carbs for a day. I was just wondering...

[ColoradoJuli]

Here is a picture of a snow fall that we had a year ago March. We ended up with 4 feet after 3 days of snow falling.

[ColoradoJuli]

Picture didn't work so I will try again. If it doesn't work this time, I give up.

[WeirdEyes]

[QUOTE]I used to be a fitness trainer for people over 40 when I worked at a health club in Evansville. From that perspective I really feel that those sudden extra couple of pounds gained when we stray just once or twice from a SB style of eating are due to water weight gain and not actually pounds of fat gained. I don't think I believe any more that "a calorie is a calorie" no matter if it's from fat, carb, protein. I do believe certain types of foods (fats, carbs) affect our metabolism just as they affect our energy level and our moods. [/QUOTE]Shae, great info! I totally agree with this as I am living proof of it. It really depends upon the person as to how much fat, carb, etc. you should eat. I find that if I eat more than one good carb a day, I stall in my weight loss. If I exercise like crazy, I can have 2 good carbs a day. I prefer to not exercise like crazy so you know which one I normally choose. (I do exercise though.)

John, don't be so hard on yourself! 10 lbs in 2 weeks is AWESOME!!!! Remember that gaining muscle makes you weigh more and with your exercising and dieting, you are definitely gaining muscle. I've always weighed more than most people my height because I have a lot of muscle. However, I look thinner than the ones that weigh less than me AND I wear a smaller size. Keep it up and one day you'll look in the mirror and see that thin, muscular person you've been looking for. ;)

Juli, I hope you don't get too much snow. Why don't you send some down here to Alabama? I'd love to have a white Christmas. :D

[adoptmom]

shelia- on atkins the ammount of carbs you get after phase 1 differs. You add 5 grams a week and see if you still are losing. Some people stick at 25 or so and some go up to 40-50.

Shae- John Co. where grandma is had a snow emergency last night but I figure that by the time I get there around 3pm I should be good. Up here it's hard to tell how much snow we actually got because of the drifting but the plows are already out on the gravel roads so it can't be too bad.

Tami

[cruiserforlife]

Shelia,

Thanks for the support!I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and just plug away.I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything with my diet so it's not like I'm depriving myself.

Somethings gotta give!

[irislady]

We ended up with 19.3" of snow at the airport. The most we've had in a 4 hour period since 1918, but not the overall record which was 22". My little Christmas trees lining my front walk have disappeared. Last night they were just glowing mounds of snow. They looked strangely beautiful.

The way people drive down here the police really HAVE to keep them off the roads when it snows. We are definitely more "southern" than "Indiana". The snow emergencies were declared in all the surrounding counties, as well as ours, by bedtime last night. Now the govenor has declared the area a disaster area. Nearly all businesses are closed today, but we just heard that the mall in Evansville will be opening this afternoon for a few hours. 'Course, you will get a ticket if you dare to drive there. Is that dumb or what? (That they're opening the mall). The mall isn't located in a place where people can just walk to it.

We get only 14-16" or so of snow a year on average, so the cities and counties don't have a lot of snow removal equipment. We heard this morning that there were 24 snow plows stuck on I-64! No wonder the local roads are not being cleared.

I think I'm going to stay in and bake some oatmeal cookies with that new Splenda baking mix that is half sugar, half Splenda. It's supposed to give really nice results. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be able to get out and buy what I need for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners.
Shae

[cruiserforlife]

Hope it works out for you Shae!

Looking at bright sunny skies here and 60's-70's...No white Christmas for us!

[ColoradoJuli]

Wow Shae - You really got hit. We only ended up with a few inches. The cold is what is so bad. Our high today is suppose to be 6 degrees!

I have used the Splenda baking mix and it works great!

I'm off to our cabin for Christmas. Will check back in with everyone on Sunday night. Merry Christmas to all!

[WeirdEyes]

John, we are all here to support each other. I'm glad you've joined our group. :)

After I posted this morning, I looked outside and we had snow flurries! We hardly ever get snow! It was pretty while it lasted.

Shae, DH works for GE Plastics and they have a plant in Mt. Vernon, not too far from Evansville. When he goes up there, he stays in Evansville. I've been there one time for a wedding. Anyway, one of DH's friends who lives there called and said how hard y'all got hit. Please drive safe!

I just wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! If you don't celebrate, have a good weekend. ;)

[cruiserforlife]

Thanks Shelia and Merry Christmas to all of you.

Good luck with your programs over the holidays and remember:to splurge a little bit isn't the end of the world.You can always resume your diet on Monday so don't be too hard on yourselves if you happen to slip.

Take care and keep warm,

John

[irislady]

I didn't get around to baking those Splenda blend cookies since I spent a good deal of the afternoon helping DH dig out at least part of the driveway, and clearing an area for the dogs and a place to feed the birds. The extra bird seed brought 5 deer into the yard. I'm glad it wasn't the herd of 13 that we've seen before.

The official total for the 2 rounds of snow was 23". Our therm. showed that we stayed above 0 last night, but Evansville, reported -3. We are supposed to get back to our normal temp. of 44 by next Tuesday. Yeah! I forgot to mention that we had Thundersnow on Wed. night. The lightning had a blue appearance and the thunder was muffled due to the snow. Weird.

Tami, I hope you got to Franklin and back home safely. They said this morning that there had been at least 100 people stranded on I-64, some for as long as 24 hours til the National Guard good get them out.

Shelia, GE Plastics (and its other divisions as well) is a big employer in this area. Our son used to call on them all the time when he worked for his previous employer. Many of his friends still work at the Mt. Vernon plant. Our daughter worked for one of GE's Engineering Depts., but she worked on the east side of Evansville.

John, thanks for the reminder that we can climb back on the SB wagon when (not if) we fall off this weekend. Happy Holidays.
Shae

[adoptmom]

Hi all- Just a quick post to say happy holidays to everyone. Our trip to get Grandma went well despite lots of snow and Granddad got to come home from the hospital this afternoon. Talk to you after the holiday!

Tami

[ColoradoJuli]

Happy Boxing Day to all! -

I didn't do too bad for Christmas, but DH and I have both decided that we are going back to Phase 1 for the next two weeks. Atleast until we go on our cruise. I am really excited to see what I can do over the next 13 days. I know that the first time I went on Phase 1 I lost about 15 pounds. I don't expect that much, but I would be thrilled with 10 pounds! I will keep you all posted.

Anyway - hope everyone is doing great. I look forward to hearing about everyone's Christmas! Mine was very nice and quiet. I didn't eat to awful, but I didn't eat too good either. We don't have anymore plans for the holidays so I think it will be extremely easy to go back to Phase 1. I will let you all know how it goes.

Take care and drink your water!