Wendy Chant Code Crackers Week of Aug. 4, '08

[academicengineer]

I couldn't believe it when I logged in. Already 12 pages! Wow, we are talkative, huh?

I'm on Week 5, Day 1. I've lost right at 11 pounds. My overall goal was 20 lbs, so not too bad for 5 weeks. I haven't been able to exercise as much as I want to...I'm going to ramp that up.

I can't believe that I've made it this far without cheating or falling off the wagon. I've rarely, if ever, done that. For me I think it works because it is so defined. I was on WW for a long time and had good success when I had time to pre-plan out my weeks. But...usually....that doesn't happen for me more than a few weeks in a row. The way the types of food are already laid out for each meal for each day helps me sooooo much.

Last night, I made dinner for some friends whose son has been in the hospital for about 6 weeks. I made my fav Lasagna Florentine. Completely NOT on schedule for a B day dinner. I made a batch for my family too and was not tempted...but envious. So, I came up with something that kind of hit the spot and thought I'd share with y'all.

I'll call it....

"Chicken & Spinach Thingy to Trick Taste Buds Into Thinking They Aren't Missing Out"

1 to 1 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach (fresh would work but use a lot more)
1 seasoned grilled or baked chicken breast (3 oz), cut into small pieces
1/4 cup cottage cheese (I hadn't had this as a snack yesterday)
5 or so cherry tomatoes, sliced/chopped
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
some chopped onion, if desired
1 tsp. EEVO
salt/pepper/seasoning of choice

Heat oil in skillet
Add spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes (and onion)
Saute until shrooms and tomatoes are tender
Add chicken and cottage cheese
Stir until all mixed and cheese is melty.

It was really good and even though it didn't have any cream of mushroom soup, or cream of chicken soup or sour cream...it was a good option. On a carb up day, this would have been awesome over some pasta.

I guess if you had cottage cheese earlier in the day, you shouldn't have it for dinner. Actually, it might not be "really legal" to have it for dinner, but I had less than a full serving just to add some cheesy creaminess.

Hope all is going well for everyone!!

[Quandria]

Originally Posted by jabswifeforever

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"] If I restart tomorrow that would make two up days in a row. Would that be bad?? Because thats the only way I can still have the up days on Saturdays where I need them and then once I get to 7 & 8 I would have the cheat days where I need them too if I do the switch now. Please let me know if 2 up days in a row is acceptable. Thank you.[/COLOR]

I would do the switch, and make tomorrow a baseline day instead of a carb-up day. I don't think you want two carb-up days in a row. That's my advice anyhow, if you're rearranging the schedule you probably want to follow the rule that says have a carb-down day before a carb-up day.

[Quandria]

Originally Posted by don'tbeadork

OK, so I went ahead & did it!
I just sent the following e-mail to the editing department of McGraw-Hill:

Nicely done, I like your wording; perfect!

[onceNforall]

Originally Posted by dtk

Hi Marymc and everyone else . As much as I use the computer this site confuses me lol. Anyway thank you so much for guiding me to the right place. I have been reading all the posts you have written and enjoy the information you present. I have been reading the book page by page , I have to say that I have never enjoyed a plan such as this. I really think when we can see that indeed our body does not care what we put into it we can start to make better choices ,it's so interesting how we let food rule us ,but no more. I'm 50 now and want to be as good as I can be for the rest of my life ,I want to see and be a part of my children's, children's children's lives,God willing. Well anyway one of the questions I asked was if besides water we can drink other drinks such as crystal lite if it is not on the plan. I am in my 3rd week and doing well love the fact that my clothing is getting bigger. I live in Western New York and After a Long winter our spring is a gift opening all around us. I started walking in the winter and then running in the spring I was up to 1 and 3/4 miles everyday ,but the weight was slow to come off,and you guessed it ,it was because I was still not eating the best way I could ,that is why when I started this plan and lost weight right away I became very excited. Now that summer is here I still walk ,but don't seem to have the energy to run ,I really think the heat drains me ,so I am even more grateful for this life changing plan. I won't be so long winded ,but wanted to introduce myself.I wish everyone awesome success to succeed to the best we can be.

Hi DKT....I live in western NY also (Rochester). Welcome aboard neighbor!!

[marymc]

Oh, no... probably shouldn't do that! There has to be another way to work it out, huh?

Originally Posted by jabswifeforever

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"] If I restart tomorrow that would make two up days in a row. Would that be bad?? Because thats the only way I can still have the up days on Saturdays where I need them and then once I get to 7 & 8 I would have the cheat days where I need them too if I do the switch now. Please let me know if 2 up days in a row is acceptable. Thank you.[/COLOR]

[marymc]

Debbie that was Margaret (and Lisa I think?) not me!! I'm the LAZY one remember??!!

Originally Posted by Debbie in VA

Mary Mc, I am so glad you wrote them--we can save a lot of editing time by letting them know of the errors and confusing parts we are finding--and maybe you'll get a free, signed, new edition, whoo-hoo!

[marymc]

academicengineer - Oooooooooo, that sounds good too!!!! Ya'll, keep 'em coming for sure!

Curious though... why didn't you swap your Carb Up Day for the dinner??

Oh, and congrats on your 11 pounds - you're on the other side of halfway to goal!!!

Originally Posted by academicengineer

Last night, I made dinner for some friends whose son has been in the hospital for about 6 weeks. I made my fav Lasagna Florentine. Completely NOT on schedule for a B day dinner. I made a batch for my family too and was not tempted...but envious. So, I came up with something that kind of hit the spot and thought I'd share with y'all.

[libster]

Wow, the chicken spinach thingy looks awesome. It definitely made it into my cut & paste save document!!! Excellent & creative way to overcome temptation.

Thought I'd share my dinner(W2 D3) a revised salmon croquette,(Atkins), my family's all time favorite meal--
yesterday's cold grilled salmon(1 6 oz steak), 1 egg, chopped onion, chopped cilantro, lemon, s&p in bowl. mix (actually, thought I was so smart by putting oatmeal in the blender for flour to replace soy flour in orig recipe, til I remembered, no starch tonight!!! It was a flourless experiment.
-shape into 2 patties. Sautee in med hot oil. squeeze of lemon over.
It was a fantastic success. Soooo good .Probably could make a yummy Fage/dill sauce(when can we use Fage anyway). My husband is a Fage freak so we always have a bucket in the fridge! Mary you've mentioned it a few times. Just not sure when to use it.

Also made the sesame broccoli--Holy Crap! Never has broccoli tasted so great!
Toasted seeds in dry fry pan then took off heat added stuff(had to use balsmic for soy. No oil. Like candy so good. I just can't get over it!

Marty Sweetness, I love the things you make. Keep the recipes comin'.
You have a gift, thanks for sharing.

[libster]

Mary--I shed a tear when I read about your mom. I had to give my mom permission to go too. She had all 5 of her grown children around her and I think she just didn't want us to be upset. I really haven't talked much about it. Too hard. She too, had a hard life but had such a great humorous strength.
It was glamorous to smoke in the 50's when she started. So Hollywood.

I'm glad to hear you were able to quit. If you were able to wrestle that addiction, this should be a cakewalk!

Marie, so sorry about your mom, too. My analogy has been that half the color left my world with her passing. I never knew it til she was gone.

I have a wonderful family and great kids and never take that for granted but your mom's your mom.

Thanks for your kindness, fellow crackers.
l

[academicengineer]

MaryMc, I didn't switch because I'm really trying to keep the days in the same order for now. I know that we can move around for "life" events...but I'm nervous about doing that right now. Plus, I have my monthly Bunco meeting Thursday and since I started on a Tuesday, it nicely worked out that Thursday is a D day for me. Sooooo....that will be awesome that I won't have to be as picky about what I eat that night. Yay!!

libster - i will have to try your salmon AND broccoli recipes! There are so many good ideas on this board!!! I would never be doing this WOE so well without being able to read all of your posts!

[libster]

the sesame broccoli is in the book. just did the balsamic for lack of soy. And so much easier to toast in a dry fry pan. stir constant with spatula tho. darkens quickly at the end.

[Mischief1]

Originally Posted by Carly080408

Life is good.

Hang in there ladies. We will all get to our goal if we just hang in there and keep pluggin away. I love the humor on this board too..somehow it makes the whole idea of dieting and losing weight easier if we can laugh along the way. We have such a nice group of people.

Ain't it the truth!

Connie

[Shelly3899]

Ok, so I am on day 5 of week 1 and I am dizzy and weak. Did anyone else go through this? I have been like this most of the day. I thought maybe the fact that I haven't had caffeine in over a week was to blame, so I drank a diet coke. All that did was add jitteriness to the mix. I ate the same way today as every other day and have had PLENTY of water, so I know that's not it. I skipped the salad at dinner and just had grilled chicken and broccoli. I wasn't very hungry anyway, and the thought of another salad about made me gag. Any ideas why I am feeling this way? Brian said he isn't feeling that great either and said he doesn't want to do this "diet" anymore. I told him we only had 2 days left, and we were definitely at least going to finish out the week. I didn't go through all of this for 5 days for nothing!!! Do you think our bodies are drained due to the lack of carbs??

[onceNforall]

Originally Posted by marymc

Deb, personally I don't agree with her on that. I'm not gonna do the 4 carb downs and then start my Friday at day 8 (Week 2 Day 1) when I restart. Those carb downs are not much different from the regular M-Th schedule - I think it changes 2 baseline days to 2 carb down days, right? - so in order to stay properly on the weekly Monday thru Sunday rotation, I'm gonna pick up at whatever that actually would be, which is what, day 12 I guess? Otherwise it will totally screw up the rotation, and I know I'll manage to mess that up, and then the Carb Up Days won't be on Wednesdays and Saturdays anymore either. To me that doesn't make sense, so I'll have to agree to disagree with that. I know... such a rebel.

I think what Jerri was saying, was that if you "screw up" and want to start over, you do the 4 carb down days and then start with day 8. If you complete all 8 weeks of the program and want to lose more the book suggests that you definitely do week 7 and 8 (maintenance) and then start with macro patterning again which would be week 2. That's how I interpreted it.

[DivaHerself]

Originally Posted by Shelly3899

Ok, so I am on day 5 of week 1 and I am dizzy and weak. Did anyone else go through this? I have been like this most of the day. I thought maybe the fact that I haven't had caffeine in over a week was to blame, so I drank a diet coke. All that did was add jitteriness to the mix. I ate the same way today as every other day and have had PLENTY of water, so I know that's not it. I skipped the salad at dinner and just had grilled chicken and broccoli. I wasn't very hungry anyway, and the thought of another salad about made me gag. Any ideas why I am feeling this way? Brian said he isn't feeling that great either and said he doesn't want to do this "diet" anymore. I told him we only had 2 days left, and we were definitely at least going to finish out the week. I didn't go through all of this for 5 days for nothing!!! Do you think our bodies are drained due to the lack of carbs??

When your body is changing over from using glycogen for fuel to using fat for fuel, it has to make a whole new set of enzymes -- and it takes a few days for it to catch up.

[Shelly3899]

So how long until I feel "normal" again?!

Originally Posted by DivaHerself

When your body is changing over from using glycogen for fuel to using fat for fuel, it has to make a whole new set of enzymes -- and it takes a few days for it to catch up.

[marymc]

Dunno... I didn't experience anything like that at all. Are you sure you are getting the appropriate amount of protein over the course of the day? Sounds like you're running out of gas so to speak (from the book) because the proteins are like gas is to a car - they make your body "go."

Originally Posted by Shelly3899

Ok, so I am on day 5 of week 1 and I am dizzy and weak. Did anyone else go through this? I have been like this most of the day. I thought maybe the fact that I haven't had caffeine in over a week was to blame, so I drank a diet coke. All that did was add jitteriness to the mix. I ate the same way today as every other day and have had PLENTY of water, so I know that's not it. I skipped the salad at dinner and just had grilled chicken and broccoli. I wasn't very hungry anyway, and the thought of another salad about made me gag. Any ideas why I am feeling this way? Brian said he isn't feeling that great either and said he doesn't want to do this "diet" anymore. I told him we only had 2 days left, and we were definitely at least going to finish out the week. I didn't go through all of this for 5 days for nothing!!! Do you think our bodies are drained due to the lack of carbs??

[DivaHerself]

Originally Posted by Shelly3899

So how long until I feel "normal" again?!

It's different for everyone, but it shouldn't take very long. Are you eating enough?

Which brings me to my next query: I absolutely do not give a damn about dinner. I got my first meal in earlier today, second was on schedule, third was an hour or two late and I have NO interest in eating further. Can I skate by on just four, or should I try to hold out for that late protein snack too? Anybody got ideas? I don't want to fall into the not-eating-enough, but I don't want to eat if I don't need to either!

[Shelly3899]

Yep - I measure it out on a scale for every meal. This is what I had today...

Breakfast:
1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, 1.5 oz. of lean ground beef, sprinkle of cheese
Lunch:
Large salad with cucumber and 4 oz. of tuna, 1tbsp. mayo, cucumber, olive oil and apple cider dressing (1 tbsp. of each)
Snack:
Mocha Protein Shake (I use one scoop of powder and it has 25g of protein), I also added 1 tbsp. of heavy whipping cream
Dinner:
Grilled chicken breast (4 oz.) and broccoli.

Tonight I will have another protein shake tonight 2 hours before bed.

Originally Posted by marymc

Dunno... I didn't experience anything like that at all. Are you sure you are getting the appropriate amount of protein over the course of the day? Sounds like you're running out of gas so to speak (from the book) because the proteins are like gas is to a car - they make your body "go."

[marymc]

Oh yeah, I did get that part, about messing up ... but I guess I was going off of Deb's interpretation of that toward doing the whole cycle again. The book does say when you go to restart the cycle after 8 weeks to do four carb down days in a row first - she calls them "carb deplete light" and then restart the cycle. It's on page 156. It's just not real clear where in Week 2 to start again after those CD days. If you start at Day 1 of Week 2, that screws up the Carb Up days. If that's what Jerri was trying to say also, then I disagree with that, well at least for me! Guess that's what I was trying to say lol.

Originally Posted by onceNforall

I think what Jerri was saying, was that if you "screw up" and want to start over, you do the 4 carb down days and then start with day 8. If you complete all 8 weeks of the program and want to lose more the book suggests that you definitely do week 7 and 8 (maintenance) and then start with macro patterning again which would be week 2. That's how I interpreted it.

[Quandria]

Originally Posted by DivaHerself

It's different for everyone, but it shouldn't take very long. Are you eating enough?

Which brings me to my next query: I absolutely do not give a damn about dinner. I got my first meal in earlier today, second was on schedule, third was an hour or two late and I have NO interest in eating further. Can I skate by on just four, or should I try to hold out for that late protein snack too? Anybody got ideas? I don't want to fall into the not-eating-enough, but I don't want to eat if I don't need to either!

I've played it both ways in this situation and felt better when I skipped the late protein. Just my 2 cents, not sure how that works with the science of the plan.

[libster]

michelle--It happened to me once, but it was obvious. I hadn't had my water. It took til about 4pm til it hit me(like a ton of bricks). I was loopy tired. Drank a ton, almost instantly got better. I know you mentioned that you drink but just checkin cuz it sounds so much like what I went thru. I now never lose sight of my drinking, it's ever so important. I'm not sure if the diet soda would count toward water drinking....anyone?? I'm thinking maybe only water counts for water drinking???? ok w/ Crys Lt or sf sweetener.

[jabswifeforever]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]So should I make it a baseline and then make thursday the usual day it usually is? cause that would make it... Baseline Wed Baseline Thursday Carb Down Friday and Carb Up Saturday and Baseline Saturday and then just do week 4 Mon - Sun how it is written?? Thank you so much for all the help I really want to make this a schedule I can live with and having up days on weds too would make my life easier cause we eat out those days.Cause tomorrow if I could make it an up day gives me more choices on where we can go out to eat. But let me know what will work best. [/COLOR]

[libster]

oop, just reread that you had plenty of water, didn't see that. Sorry!

[marymc]

It says to get a minimum of 4 but she wants you to skip the smaller meals and have the larger ones if you do skip any. I also recall something about not forcing food, but to get at least 4 meals in. I was gonna say protein shake but you aren't a fan of those are you? Maybe it won't matter much for a day!

Originally Posted by DivaHerself

It's different for everyone, but it shouldn't take very long. Are you eating enough?

Which brings me to my next query: I absolutely do not give a damn about dinner. I got my first meal in earlier today, second was on schedule, third was an hour or two late and I have NO interest in eating further. Can I skate by on just four, or should I try to hold out for that late protein snack too? Anybody got ideas? I don't want to fall into the not-eating-enough, but I don't want to eat if I don't need to either!

[Shelly3899]

I have literally been drinking water ALL day today. I only had one diet coke this afternoon, and I have been feeling like this since I woke up. I'm not tired, just dizzy and weak.

Originally Posted by libster

michelle--It happened to me once, but it was obvious. I hadn't had my water. It took til about 4pm til it hit me(like a ton of bricks). I was loopy tired. Drank a ton, almost instantly got better. I know you mentioned that you drink but just checkin cuz it sounds so much like what I went thru. I now never lose sight of my drinking, it's ever so important. I'm not sure if the diet soda would count toward water drinking....anyone?? I'm thinking maybe only water counts for water drinking???? ok w/ Crys Lt or sf sweetener.

[marymc]

That sounds reasonable to me! *You did mean Carb Up Sat. Baseline Sunday though, right?

Originally Posted by jabswifeforever

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]So should I make it a baseline and then make thursday the usual day it usually is? cause that would make it... Baseline Wed Baseline Thursday Carb Down Friday and Carb Up Saturday and Baseline Saturday and then just do week 4 Mon - Sun how it is written?? Thank you so much for all the help I really want to make this a schedule I can live with and having up days on weds too would make my life easier cause we eat out those days.Cause tomorrow if I could make it an up day gives me more choices on where we can go out to eat. But let me know what will work best. [/COLOR]

[marymc]

Well I've always heard that only water is water and the other stuff like diet sodas and such shouldn't be counted toward your water intake.

Michelle, if you've eaten enough, then I don't know!! Sorry.

Originally Posted by libster

I'm not sure if the diet soda would count toward water drinking....anyone?? I'm thinking maybe only water counts for water drinking???? ok w/ Crys Lt or sf sweetener.

[jabswifeforever]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]So keep it the baseline and not an up? Sorry wasn't sure what was good. I know the 2 up days wont be but I guess I wanted to keep it as close to what it should be as possible but if it needs to be a baseline that can be arranged. Up is just easier. (I am craving a veggie delight from subway) Just wasn't sure what you said sounded reasonable. (Sorry for getting confused I do that often my famous quote should be "I'm so confused" I say it many times a day) SORRY FOR MAKING THIS DIFFICULT I JUST WANT TO DO THIS RIGHT AND BETTER. I'll have to check the book again and see if I missed anything as well. [/COLOR]

[DivaHerself]

Shelly, you haven't been restricting sodium, have you? Are you dizzy when you stand up (postural hypotension)?
Lowcarbing lowers blood pressure by reducing circulating insulin -- you may be having a touch of low blood pressure while your body's adjusting.