Why plan?

I like your Alice quote...what a great point it makes. You can really tell the difference between the "go-getter" types who seem to know exactly where they are going and how they are going to get there. I think sometimes the rest of think those people are just magically that way and it's effortless for them. But we know now that those people work hard and think out their plan of action and commit to it. Just like we have to with our WOE now. We are carving our pathway back to healthy lives, one little carb at a time!

Very true! Makes me think of the line "Failing to plan is planning to fail!"

It's hard to reach any goals when you don't have any to work toward. Amazing how very important goals are for keeping us working and motivated.

So many days I plan to get up and OUT early next day - and I poop out for one reason or another. Today I got up and OUT, telling myself how proud I'd be of myself in just an hour if I did what needs to be done, taking trash to the dumpster and picking up mail at the p'office. Today is the first time since 1/31 that I left the house. Mobility is so bad that I fear falling. But I psyched myself up to manage it. Got up and OUT the door, carrying trash. Got in and out of the p'office. So hard to walk. So scary. I just kept telling my terrified self that I AM SO PROUD OF YOU and words to that effect, to get me all the way back to my car. Then onward to the next stop. Considered my usual 'reward' of illicit carbs (a double-patty cheeseburger without sauce) and then considered how proud I'd be if I got home without ANY fast food to louse up my LC program for the day. I did it!!!

Could not have done it without the support of this list!

So I planned a good plan. Then I carried it out.

I'M AWFULLY PROUD OF MYSELF TODAY. I really AM!!!

What plans do YOU have for Feb.29 - Leap Year Day?
There are interesting traditions attached to that day: http://marriage.about.com/cs/holidays/a/leapyear.htm

Calendars fascinate me. Just look at how many ways there are to tally events. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_year lists a variety of calendar systems and I am aware of a Mayan calendar that ends in 2012. What does that mean?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar for some amazing info on calendars and on how time is viewed by different cultures. Blows me away!

http://www.levity.com/eschaton/Why2012.html discusses why Dec.21, 2012, is a day of reckoning by the ancient Mayan calendar. Well, on Dec.21, 2012, I shall be 68 and as trim as I can manage on a LC4Life plan - as I plan my 69th b'day for Feb.2013. I'm thinking I'd like to be dancing a tango by then. Yeah, tan-GO!

What are YOUR plans for that date? Shall we still be nattering at each other on this thread then?

There's a New Me at the controls today.
Yeah. Weird, huh?

I'm hopeful this New Me will strike out and build a serious LC plan. I'm thinking GreySheet Rules (a LCHF version): Chewing mindfully; NO GRAZING, NO MATTER WHAT! Period. I'm flabbergasted at the starch in my backbone!
Tough Love? Maybe so.

Greysheet works best if you do the whole Program i.e. getting a sponsor, working the steps, following the suggestions. The 'support' is critical. Why not avail yourself of it so you can be successful? It's not just about the food or the number on the scale...it's about arresting the disease of compulsive overeating and growing one's spirituality.

Also, a sponsor will give you the actual Greysheet, showing what foods and quantities are allowable, as well as encouraging you and supporting you in your Greysheet plan. Sorry to say, protein powder is NOT an allowable food. Also, oils are limited to 1 tablespoon of fat with lunch and 3 tablespoons of fat with dinner. None for breakfast.

You can get more information on sponsors, phone numbers, meetings (both phone ones and 'real-time' ones), etc. at their website:

http://www.greysheet.org/

They also have a yahoo group that is wonderful:

http://<br /> http://health.groups....yguid=98695702

You do have to join to be able to read posts in the Yahoo Group. You can also ask for a sponsor there.

I have witnessed your struggles and triumphs the last few years, Zer. Why not commit yourself whole-heartedly to a plan (without exception, no matter what) so that you can reap the joys and benefits of whatever plan you choose? I see you as splashing in the shallows at the edge of an ocean of possibilities, unsure about swimming out. Come on in - the water is fine.

I wish you all the best, Zer. I never meant to hurt you and I do apologize for my lack of tact and judgmental attitude.

S.

Ah, a lady whose program and success inspires me. Thanks!

Interesting comment from someone who may well have had a hand in having me barred from a LC support site. Good luck in making amends, if you intend to try to un-do the damage done - if you WILL try 'fessing up to the folks who dumped me abruptly, as being unfit to participate in that LC support list. That was a bad time.

Setting goals, month by month. Is it helpful? February is drawing to a close. March is just about to blow in as a lion. What plans are we laying to be lions and lionesses with our LC plans for March?

I'm wondering what I might achieve as a goal by April 1 - b'day of The Inamorato and a day that I generally like to plan something I can be proud of doing, so I do not wallow in What Might Have Been (sigh) and get morose as Eeyore in my regrets at not inspiring The Inamorato to dig deep and come up with sufficient manly virtues to take me away from my single life. Yes, I wanted All That!

Realistically (to shift from WishVille to Reality), I suppose I might hope to see more than a 2#/week loss. At my size (427#), I can drop much more if I am faithful.

Shall I set a goal for April 1 and just drive like a LC maniac to get there?

What do you think I might aim for? Is 410# a realistic goal for April 1 for me? If so, then I might see THREEdom by April 15 (tax day). What a nice gift for me, eh? Talk about offsetting potentially bad vibes with good LC vibes!

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Setting a goal for April 1 just might help me dodge carby temptations day by day.

Oh really? Then why this next comment?

I did nothing. I did not know you were banned until I read it here.

I know I said some naughty things in MY journal (that were later removed by me with remorse), but my sole intention was to 'jump start' YOU into really taking charge of your w/l journey. I told the TRUTH, though rather heartlessly.

There is a solution, if you choose to avail yourself of it.

My wish for you is to have everything you want and need.

I will pray for you, whether you accept my attempt at amends or not. What matters is I know I was wrong and I TRIED.

Probably true. A person disappears from a support list - and no one knows why. Happens all the time, I suppose.

As a person who was 'disappeared', I did/do not know who/why and I am shocked that such a thing can happen.

That leaves me wondering, so when someone offers amends and has 'gone off' on me, I'm inclined to think... what I think.

That said, I shall move forward, seeking support where I can find it - and shucking critics as I seek support. Sigh.

Robt.Burns said it well: The best laid plans...gang aft aglay. But at least with a plan I know where I am heading, so I can climb right back aboard when I slip off plan or fall off the LC wagon. That's an improvement over the years - decades - when I had no plan and only a vague idea of what I hoped to achieve. I am so hopeful now of gaining my stated goals!

As I write today (3/26), I see that I am dreaming, planning. Figure that might be worth adding to my BLOG's "Why Plan?"

Shooting for 410# on Saturday morn, just 3 days away.
From 413.2 today, my goal is to hit or break my 410# mini-goal and show it in my signature on Saturday. Wish me luck. Wish me fortitude in bypassing all the carby challenges we ALL face from day to day as life 'happens' to all of us.

Here's hoping we all set - and meet - our goals this week!

Let's plan. Let's dream. Failing to plan is planning to fail!
Last edited by Zer : 03-26-2008 at 07:36 AM.

- - - 03-26-2008, 07:23 AM - - -
Stats: 5'10"; 64; 508/413.2/199
WOE: Atkins+ALGittleman
Start Date: 432.4(2/8); 426.2(3/8)

Dare I plan on kicking THREE-dom to the curb in 2008?
I'm feeling so good from this morning's hot slosh that I can imagine doing all 100# of THREEdom by NewYear's 2009 - and then busting my way into ONEderLand late in 2009, after kicking 100# of TWOterVille to the curb in 2009.

What a dreamer, eh? After more than 30 (or 35?) years of gestating at more than 400#, after piddling around with LC/Atkins for years. What a lot of ooomph in a hot slosh!

I hope I'm not being silly, imagining that I can 'do' all of THREE-dom (not yet reached, but within sight - and maybe within reach as I see a week of committed LC eating between this Wed and next Wed-4/2) in just nine months. Nine months is time to gestate a baby, to bring forth a full textbook from manuscript to bound book.

Can I hope to lose 100# in 9mos, to reach 299# in 2008? Wonderful to think of entering 2009 at 299#, just in time for a new driver's license that I'll be getting pix for in 2/2009 (if I pass my driver's test at 65 and if the 1989 Plymouth passes state smog tests for fumes in 12/2008).

Nine months to pass through THREE-dom's 100# and to reach 299#? Maybe....it's worth a try.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Let's PLAN!

I do believe you can do it, Zer... Or you'll at least be darn close to that Three-dom by 2009.

Regardless of what else my LC day's menu might be, each successful LC day starts off with 40g of protein in a hot slosh! This is how I arrived at this plan, a plan that I just posted for someone who cannot face breakfast and who is unable to stop eating/grazing all day long, to her distress.

Breakfast...breaking a night's fast...so important to nourish cells!

Not too long ago, I used to wake up dreaming of what to scramble/fry for a big meal reminiscent of the way my dad cooked his own breakfast that I'd share if I got up and hung around looking hungry as he fried bacon and cut raw potatoes into the bacon grease and then fried up some eggs to top the whole mountain of food heaped on his plate. Yes, I ate that way, in memory of early mornings with a father I did not really know well as I wanted to. I ate mountains of food sizzled up first thing. Got biscuits when I ate breakfast out. I loved breakfast. Used to eat a side of buttery grits when I could get grits. Gawd, how I adore grits. Used to.

Then I got started dieting and found the idea of food first thing was revolting.

So I rarely ate before midday. And I ate too much food at one sitting. Or I ate office carbs in lieu of breakfast and then ate too much food at lunch, more food as I grazed office carbs, more food on the way home from work. Ghastly, huh?

What I started doing lately - as I grew to thinking of food as fuel for my cells - was to stir up a hot slosh for 40g of protein first thing in the morning. It fills me up and seems to give me a feeling of COMPETENCE that surprises me and delights me. How great to feel COMPETENT - and just by stirring up a bit of WPP in hot water. WPP? Whey Protein Powder from ALGittleman is what got me started using WPP, as I read up on how a body works and why a body might not be as functional as nature intends a body to be. ALGittleman is a nutritionist who follows Atkins with some tweaks for health reasons.

The idea of a cold shake in the morning leaves me cold, as does the idea of listening to a blender noise. All the charm of hurling myself into a cold shower or a cold stream. None!

So my morning kick-off is a hot slosh - 2 scoops of vanilla WPP+espresso crystals+cacao (raw cacao powder from MountainRoseHerbs.com) all stirred up with HOT water that is then melting a couple of Tbs of VCO (Virgin Coconut Oil) for all the great stuff that VCO offers, plus the incredible satisfaction that oil offers. This makes 16oz of hot slosh that keeps my motor purring all morning.

Maybe you will want to try this, to see if it helps you get past ravenous?
- - - - -
Stats: 5'10"; 64; 508/416.2/199
WOE: Atkins+ALGittleman
Start Date: 432.4(2/8); 426.2(3/8)
- - - - -

I can see for myself that LCFriends' support network is one that promises to help me achieve my goals of good health in a lighter-weight body in time for my 65th b'day. About time!!!

My body is so weary, so tired of toting all this fat, this BIGNESS (414#) around everywhere I go, walking slowly with a cane, struggling to move, each step an agony on a hinky hip that threatens to give out. I'm breaking my body! Surely I can do better than this!

What realistic goal might I have for Feb.2009, when I get a new photo for my driver's license (assuming my car and I qualify as road-worthy) and can put a new weight into black and white on that license? How nice it will be - by then - to be in THREEdom, at last, as I've been 400 and higher since mid1970s (with a brief unhealthy WLSurgery that took me down to 200# of malnourished distressed disability that I ate my way out of to a weight even higher - 508.7# being my highest RECORDED weight).

What can I hope to achieve in the 9mos that remain before my next driver's license pic? Nine mos? That's enough time to have a baby! Can I 'give birth' to a new me in that time? Probably can. I'm learning a lot about my body and what it WANTS to manifest in me a healthy daily capability to accomplish tasks.

Sugar is not anything that contributes to me being active and healthy. Nor is flour...or milk...all the carby food that I have used to alter mood, salve angst, push down feelings and drug myself into a stupor so I do not miss having a LIFE! I was a workaholic who did not know what to do with myself outside work hours, so I collected food on the way home, to fill my hours until I was once again due back to work. That's my life as a carbaholic. I had no life, so I ate. That's it.

In 9mos I shall turn 65. Quality of life at that age or any age depends on good health as much as on anything else. I am commiting to creating a healthy life for me! Part of that is learning to fuel up with a menu that supplies what my cells need to function at their optimum capability. Fish and eggs? Yep! I see a lot of fish and eggs in my future. Good fuel for a body! That said, I wonder how best to keep this goal in mind so that I do not drift aimlessly into carby paths as I've been doing for most of my life. I want this life, a life that can be fulfilling and full of fun folks, travel and all the things that I never knew about as a fatty!

Wednesday's plan? More meals, more often!
G'morning, LCFriends...happy humpday! Yes, it's Wednesday morn (6am) and I'm full of 40g of protein and 500calories of hot slosh (WPP+espresso+cacao) with VCO stirred in to bring up the fat level to a suitable Atkins' ratio. Yummy way to start the day.

Today I shall aim at a midmorning (10am) scramble with my organic eggs - first I've bought. I'll still use the available 'vintage eggs' (that are provided) to boil up for eggy salad for snacking. Older eggs peel more easily. I'm upping my egg intake, as I've been reading at M&E thread and other eggy threads about the awesome nutritional value of the Incredible Edible Egg. Yum!

Fishy-mayo meal at 2pm on a heap of shaved celery for CRUNCH and fiber. Last meal at 6pm with some protein, some salad. Sardines for a snack, later on, if I can manage. A full day!

More meals, more often. That's my focus. Smaller meals, more often. Hard for a sloth, as I seem able to delay going off to the kitchen to eat as hours pass and I find myself not so keen to eat as to take my ease. Got to get over that!

Along with managing to get 128oz of water into me at a regular pace, I'm just going to have to work on revving up my metabolism more often. Burning off calories is better achieved by moving more, eating more often. We all know it. Some of us STILL are able to delay moving, delay meals, delay losing in spite of all we read, all we hear, all we see happening as folks lose pounds and celebrate slipping into clothes off the rack. One day, I too will know what size I am, what sizes I wear in this or that brand. Someday!!!

Got to get a rhythm going, with more meals, more often. Aghhh!

Here's to finding my LC rhythm and to making it 2d nature to fuel up every few hours and to hydrate every hour, thus accomplishing what I can to aid my cells in metabolizing my body's fat like mad. I'm eager to see a leaner me, a more agile me, a positively LC me. I want to brag on Dr.Atkins as I display a healthy body that proves that good man's theory. That's my goal!

With that, my LCFriends and much-appreciated supporters, I bid you g'day! Let's make today a RED LETTER DAY as far as hitting all our mini-goals, to get our water slurped and all of our meals in on schedule - every 4hrs (agh)!
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Stats: 5'10"; 64; 508.7/409.8/199
WOE: Atkins+ALGittleman
Start Date: 432.4(2/8); 426.2(3/8); 413.2(4/8)
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Why plan? Because FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL! Without a plan, I stand no chance of making my goal, which is to eat LC protein+fat every few hours to fuel up my cells. I'm pleased with how today is turning out. Not 100%, but GOOD!

Midday Friday report: Looking good, like a serious LC'er (at last)!

Not 100%, but I'm pleased. Finding my rhythm, at last, I think. Cooked/Chopt 6 eggs for an eggy-mayo salad that looks like several meals over wknd - as well as 2 today. Yes! Lunch was half a can of tuna in olive oil with 1/4 red onion to spice it up. I'll finish that at 3pm today, with about 2eggs' worth of eggy-mayo salad and a healthy sprinkling of Mrs.Dash Extra Spicy seasoning. Dinner at 6pm: Protein and raw vegies. This is the sort of program that will take the weight off me.

Started at 4am with my usual 40g of protein in 16oz of hot slosh (WPP+VCO, with a spoonful of raw cacao and espresso crystals stirred into hot hot water).

I could eat this every day. Love tuna. Love eggy-mayo salad. Sardines for a snack, if I get the hungries at night. Might just toss this all into FitDay to see just how it adds up. I think I'm low on fat, with 2-3Tbs VCO in the hot slosh and with the olive oil (2Tbs?) that the tunafish is packed in. Sardines are also in olive oil, but I doubt I'll want anything after dinner today. We'll see. Yup.

Saturday is weigh day. I'm hopeful that I'm a few ounces down. We'll see.

If the scale is not affirmative, I still know that I'm on track. The weight WILL go. It MUST go. How can it hold on if I maintain a good LC rhythm like this?

Oh, refilled both 32oz water bottles at noon. Still a little low on meeting my goal, but I can work on that. Always something that can be improved on. Always. Sigh.
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Stats: 5'10"; 64; 508.7/409.8/199
WOE: Atkins+ALGittleman
Start Date: 432.4(2/8); 426.2(3/8); 413.2(4/8)
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A pound of fat is 3,500 calories - either cut from a menu or burned off in additional cavorting. I am aiming to eat at or about 1,500calories a day, so my weight loss will be in scant ounces until I manage to begin burning more calories than I use shifting my bulk around in bed and shuffling off to the loo a few times a day. The math is irrefutable, even if I'm a bit vague on how to compute formulas for my massive weight.

I use a formula (weight x 0.37 = protein grams daily)
so my protein-need formula is 400# x 0.37 = 148g daily

Starting off with a hot slosh, I get 40g of protein for 500calories (1/3 a day's calories/protein, according to some estimates for what a 400# person probably needs to live and to nourish muscles so they do not atrophy or get digested by a body searching for nourishment)

For BMR: 655 + 1740 + 329 = 2724 - 3008 = -284bmr
...um, guess this formula doesn't apply to me or to people my size...
Formula: my BMR = 655 + (4.35 x 400#) + (4.7 x 70") - (4.7 x 64yrs)
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x wt in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x ht in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

So around this point in computation, I get dizzy and just want to eat eat EAT ...and I realize that I've got to stop doing formulas and consider what I can manage by eating fish and eggs with fat sufficient to switch my body to burning off my own fat. Period.

Friday was a good LC day for me. First good day in a long while. Leads me to believe I've found my LC 'groove'. Yay!

Frankly, I think my slow loss or 'maintaining' might be due to slipping off plan and to failing to eat enough protein often enough each day. I sometimes eat real food just once a day, with a few ounces of pumpkin seeds as snacks. Not quite the LC plan that Atkins recommends. I believe Friday was as good a day as I have ever had, in that I ate fish and eggs several times. That's a rhythm I'm sure will bring productive weight loss. Next week will probably show this as a fruitful plan for me, as I am faithful for a week with this rhythm and avoid slipups. We shall see!
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Stats: 5'10"; 64; 508.7/409.6/199
WOE: Atkins+ALGittleman
Start Date: 432.4(2/8); 426.2(3/8); 413.2(4/8)
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