***Brittani+Positive Reinforcement=Great Health!***

[brittanilh]

I have been trying very hard for 1 month (it will be 4 weeks 5/7/07) to stay clean, no cheats and dedicate myself to LC WOE. So far, I have stayed LC but with a few LC cheats along the way (LC bark, fudge, ice cream which is my worst downfall!) Everytime I see a new LC treat recipe I take it upon myself to expirament and I truly have to quit doing that for awhile! I have been trying so hard to stay away from the treats and most of the time I do well. I notice when I am bored I have the hardest time reminding myself that I do not need to eat to relieve boredom! Most of the time, I can resist, and other times, I can't. For the most part I have done well. I am down 10 lbs in almost 4 weeks, and when you look at that a month later, it seems like much more than you thought. I have been reading other people journals and really like the idea of making myself accountable so that is why I decided to start one of my own. The encouragement and support here is amazing and I'm hoping that it will help me through the tough times.
Here was my menu today (Once again, I had a LC cheat - I have GOT to stop that!)

Beginning Weight Today 152.8 lbs

B - coffee w/ cream & sf syrup, 1 sausage egg cheese muffin
L - Ceasar salad, 8 oz steak, ice tea w/ sweet N low (I prefer Splenda but they didn't have any at InterUrban where we went to eat)
S - coffee w/ cream and sf syrup and 1 cup LC coffee ice cream
D - will probably just have a protein shake since I ate that horrible LC ice cream!

I really need to quit on the coffee & cream for awhile but it's hard giving up EVERYTHING that your used to. I'm going to start making baby steps, though, because I very much want to progress in this new lifestyle!

It's 5pm on Friday and time to leave work so I have to go now, but I'll be back to update and add tomorrow. I really like this journal idea and can't wait to surf and read some more of others. Hopefully, tomorrow will be an honest no cheat great LC day! I have high hopes!! For me and for my new LC life!

[brittanilh]

OOOOOkkkkkkk..... I weighed this morning and I'm 151.4!!! Yayyy!!! I feel good about it and I'm cery excited to see a change once again. My best friend laughs at me, she thinks that it is very humorous to watch me get excited over 1 lb. Anyways, today is slow and boring. I am taking Sociology online (college course) and I SO procrastinated! I have 12 chapters and a 2 page essay to do bu the 18th of May. Shame on me! I will never take a Web class again! I don't have that kind of 'Get R Done' in me when it comes to the books! I have not stressed at all today about my eating, which is good. As a matter of fact, I was so obsessed with reading my homework I didn't get hungry or eat a thing after breakfast until about 4pm. (I did have about 3-4 cups of coffee w/ cream and sf syrup though), and now I'm eating a great big salad w/ cheddar cheese on it...Yum. I'm going to go play darts tonight with my DBF and maybe win some money! No alchohol though, and I'm pretty tough when it comes to that. I played darts last night as well and drank about 3 bottles of water while we were there so I'm trusting myself. Anyways, here my stats for today and I'm so glad tomorrow is Sunday! (Get to sleep in for a little while!)

Beginning Weight - 151.4

B - coffee w/ cream & sf syrup
S - Egg sausage & cheese muffin
L - 2-3 cups salad w/ ranch
D - Baked chicken, green beans, salad w/ ranch
Water Water Water Waterrrrrrrr

[brittanilh]

I soooooooooo didn't do well yesterday or today.... Sometimes I think, This is sooo hard, I'm never going to be able to do this. Other times I think, this is easy and look how good I'm doing! Well, I'm going to get my act together again RIGHT NOW! I can do this!! I do well when I'm on track, and I just need to do it and stop slipping up! It's a lifestyle and I need to continue to remind myself of that. I think I get so wrapped up in 'lose the weight, lose the weight' that I forget this is a way of life. Why be in such a hurry when the end result of my new WOE will bring me to my ultimate goal? I'm not even going to tell you what I ate today, but I am going to start fresh right now and get my butt in gear. I CAN and I WILL do this!! Hopefully tomorrow I give you a much better report!

[brittanilh]

Another day down, and for that I'm glad. I did well last night, and was so full from my 'cheating' on LC ice cream, that I just couldn't eat any dinner. I did end up eating a flax muffin w/ butter right before bed and that was all. Today, I'm back on track. I have had my usual dose of coffee, w/ cream and sf syrup (yum!) For lunch I had a McDonald's salad w/ ranch and 2 1/2 stalks of broccoli. For dinner I am going to have tacos (Yum, again!) and maybe a protein shake for snack if I'm hungry. I'm working on getting back into ketosis. I haven't looked at the scale in a couple of days and I don't plan on looking until at least Monday, although I would like to put it off longer, and I may. My sociology class is going well and I am caught up on everything except my paper that's due Friday. I do have an outline ready though, so the rest should be a breeze. Well, just wanted to catch myself up on accountability. May strong willpower and good choices bless me today!

[Psalm 79]

Hi Brittani - I have not seen any posts from you recently and was just wondering how you are doing. I've been missing your sweet face!

I have read your journal and just want to point you to this thread: http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/sh...=1#post8680459

It explains a lot of the problems I had been having, too.

I just wanted to tell you that I have not cut the coffee with cream out at all. As a matter of fact, if anything, I have increased it, and I am doing even better...probably due to a higher fat level now.

The only "treat" that I have now is LC Iced Coffee with cream that I make with liquid flavored Stevia...and I have several of these a day. I dropped all of the artificial sweeteners (except for the saccharin in the Tonic water. Saccharin is a crystalline compound that is unrelated to carbohydrates, is several hundred times sweeter than sucrose, and is used as a calorie-free sweetener.)

There's a lot I could say here, but just wanted to encourage you that if having the coffee is what you need to do for now to keep to LC, I see no problem with it.

If you need to talk about some of these things, PM me if you need to. I hope to hear from you soon.

Annie

[brittanilh]

Okay, I'm back after my breif hiatus **slapping hand in disappointment** I have decided to get back on the ball. I've come to realize that we are all human and we will make mistakes. I'm not going to *quit* because I made a mistake or a choice that I shouldn't have made. I'm going to continue to try to be a healthier and more active me!

My restart says 7/9/07 but to be honest it seems as though every day is a restart day for me lately. I do so well all day and then at night, BAM, I ruin the whole day. Another thing that is SOO incredibly difficult for me is getting in all the water that I know I should be drinking. I also have not been excercising at all except for the usual housecleaning, laundry and mowing the yard twice a week (although mowing the yard to me seems like a hard manual workout!). I have been drinking way too much Diet Cherry Pepsi, but I think I only have 2 or 3 left so I'm going to pawn those off onto the kiddos. I haven't been eating enough veggies, which is going to change effective today. I experiment way too much with recipes that I find on here and I think that's part of the problem. I feel like I need to eat clean clean clean, but it's very hard to do so I have decided to do a little "lower carb my way." I think if I start making the healthy choices, the rest will follow.

Yesterday, I did ok until last night. Again. I started out with the creamcheese muffin things that I made and they are very good and very filling. For lunch I had 2 slices of LC deep dish pizza which was really yummy too. Then for dinner I had a big salad with ranch and that really filled me up. But my boyfriend called and he and his daughter wanted Braum's ice cream so I went. I decided I didn't want to suffer while they ate their ice cream in from of me so I bought a half gallon of their Carb Watch ice cream, and of course ate too much. Now, today, my tummy hurts and I know why. I shouldn't have eaten that ice cream. No more of that! It's not worth what it does to my stomach! So far today I have only had coffee with cream and sf syrup because my tummy hurts but I plan to eat a good lunch and dinner and hopefully get all this water down. I'm going to be completely honest in this journal so any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much Psalm, for thinking of me! It means alot to me!

Here's my menu for today:

B - Coffee w/ cream & sf syrup (my tummy is still hurting!)

L - big salad w/ ranch (cucumbers, green onions, bacon bits, shredded cheese)

D - I'm not sure, probably cauliflour and baked chicken with a side salad and ranch

S1 - (If I'm hungry) protein shake made with yogurt, protein powder, cream, water and ice

S2 - (If I'm hungry) mozarella cheese stick

I weighed in this morning at 156 and some change, so this is what I will base my beginning weight as.

[Psalm 79]

Brittani!

You are making me here from ear to ear!

It's SO good to see you again.

I sent you a PM.

Take a look at the other plan, and let me know what you think.

Annie

[brittanilh]

Well, it's Tuesday and I am just now finding time to visit and catch up. I had a very exciting weekend to say the least! My boyfriend proposed on Saturday and we picked out the bridal engagement set on Sunday and now we are busily planning the big day which is set for February 16th! Words cannot express how excited I am! I want to jump up and down and scream like a little kid! So, that being said, I have alot to do! My boyfriend and I both want to lose 30 lbs in time for the wedding which would put him at 140 and myself at 125. The serious hardcore 'I want it' has now started! I weighed in this morning at 155.4 and I think it was because I ate a pretty salty steak last night. It was so good though! My goal is to lose at a minimum 1 lb per week, which I think is completely reasonable and achievable. OMG, I can't believe I'm getting married!! I'm going to try to remember my menu from Saturday on.

Saturday
B - Coffee
L - TGI Fridays, I had the Mahi Mahi with a side salad
D - No dinner, but we went to a dart tournament and I had 2 pineapple & malibu mixed drinks (I know I know!) No more of that!

Sunday
B - Coffee
L - TGI Friday's again! I had an 8 oz steak with side salad and sliced cucumbers
D - Swadley's BBQ, I had a chopped brisket sandwich (yes, I did eat half the bun **slapping hand**) green beans, a couple of DBF's okra

Monday
B - Coffee
L - Taco salad sans the tortilla bowl w/ salsa
D - T-bone steak on the grill, broccoli & cheese, side salad

Ok, that was what I have eaten the last 3 days, and the little cheats are going to stop as of today! I can't think of a better motivation to finally get this extra weight off! Well, besides feeling better and being healthier, that is! I hope, I hope, I hope that my body works with me and I can do this. I have yo yo dieted for years and I know your body reacts to that strain.
HERE HERE! To another successful low carb day!!

[Psalm 79]

Brittani - I am SO happy for you.

Your wedding is 30 weeks away, so your goal looks good.

Congratulations, Brittani. You are such a sweetie.

Annie

[brittanilh]

Annie, thank you so much for coming by and seeing me! I think I would feel pretty silly if you didn't! I would feel as though I were talking to myself! lol! Thank you for the congratulations! I am very very very excited! I am hoping that 1 lb per week is not too much ask of my body. I think it is pretty reasonable.

We have started looking at where to hold the wedding. We have 3 places we want to look next week, so I am about to call and schedule appt.'s to look at them. We want to do an all in one kind of deal so there isn't so much for the families to do. It would be nice if everyone could show up, have a good time, eat and mingle, and leave without having to clean up or worry about anything. I was asking the lady I work with here what is the difference between a brides cake and a grooms cake and do we have to have both and she laughed at me like I was crazy! I've never even been in a wedding much less planned one! She couldn't believe I didn't know. So far that's all the interesting news I have so far. Here was my menu from yesterday and my weigh in, which speaking on weigh in's, I'm going to try to quit doing that every day but it is soooo hard!

From Tuesday! 7/24/2007

B - Coffee w/ HC & sf syrup
S - mozarella cheese stick
L - chicken ceasar salad w/ ranch instead of ceasar dressing
D - Taco salad w. chives, SC, salsa, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes & 2 big glasses of ice tea with 2 splendas
S - I guess this is a snack! I made cream cheese muffins last night and I licked the spoon

I didn't drink NEAR enough water yesterday, so I have already started working on it this morning. I have my first 16 oz water cup almost down and I'm about to refill and start on my second 16 oz cup of water. My goal is to get at least 64 oz down today and slowly increase it.

So far today (7/25/07) I have had:

B - Coffee w HC & 1 splenda, 1 cream cheese muffin

L - I'll be having leftover taco salad with everything mentioned above.

Weigh in this morning was 154.4!

Another successful LC day down! Yippee!

[JHudson04]

Congratulations on your engagement and on your successes with LCing! Nothing like an impending wedding to motivate you!!! Good luck and keep us posted!

Jodi

[brittanilh]

Originally Posted by JHudson04

Congratulations on your engagement and on your successes with LCing! Nothing like an impending wedding to motivate you!!! Good luck and keep us posted!

Jodi

Thank you so much Jodi! I plan to post every day to keep myself accountable! It seems to work well for me. I'm so glad you stopped by!

I did good on my lunch break. I've been trying hard to listen to my body when it tells me "I'm full." That's pretty hard to do sometimes, especially when your eating a really good meal! I have also determined that if I drank more water I would probably see a little quicker loss and that's something I am starting today. I notice in the mornings I'm really swollen and I'm beginning to figure out that is probably due to not enough H20. I haven't started any major excercising yet. I do the regular house cleaning, laundry and mowing the yard once a week. It's unbelievable how good I feel after I mow the yard which is strange. You would think I'd be exhausted but I feel really good! I mow and weedeat about once a week and it's a hard manual 2 hour ordeal. My fiance and I are in the process of packing (I'm moving in with him) and he wants to start fast walking every evening which I'm glad for. If he's out doing that I'm going to want to be right there with him. I really get excited thinking about putting my wedding dress on a 125 lb body and not being ashamed of what the pictures look like! But I'm also very much excited about being healthy and being able to do more activities! Maybe an adult softball team or something to that effect. I have always wanted to do that but as of right now I can feel my entire body wiggle and jiggle when I run...Yuck! I have high high hopes and I'm halfway through another LC day! Thankfully, the appetite is under control now and I don't feel like I'm hungry CONSTANTLY like before! I'm very glad for that. The water really fills you up too, so I'm off to get another 16 oz glass!

Water water water is my friend!!

[Lulu Belle]

Hi Brittani, and glad to see you back!! We all go through those spells, don't we? Congrats on the engagement! You've got alot of work ahead of you, that will probably count as a lot of exercise!!

[Psalm 79]

Mornin' Sweetie!

It's funny. We did not have a "groom's cake" at our wedding (37 years ago) nor have I been to one that had a "groom's cake."

We started out wanting everything to be very, very traditional wedding stuff...big chapel, costly wedding dress, a guest list that made me shudder inviting relatives of relatives and friends of friends, etc.--money we just did not have at the time.

After about of month of trying to plan, we chucked it all and rented a very small chapel, invited only our closest friends, my mother-in-law made my dress, we had a very simple reception, took off for our honeymoon and had a great time!

Don't sweat this...it's the marriage that's important and the vows that you make to each other before God that matters most.

Do what will make you and your hubby feel great about the day and forget the rest.....make it a day to really celebrate and enjoy...no matter what details you decide on. Enjoy this time.

Annie

[brittanilh]

Annie, you always make me feel better! I can't tell you what that means to me! I always look forward to checking in and reading what advice you have shared! I'm with you on the wedding ceremony. We are going to make it a small chapel wedding with just close friends and family. We are guesstimating about 75 people and even that amount scares me a little. To be honest, I'm more excited about the reception and the Honeymoon!! Marriage is such a HUGE step in life! To devote your life to another person until Death do you Part. But I'm not scared because I know this is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with and I know I am the woman he wants to spend his with. We are best friends and our communication is awesome! I know that even through the hard times we will be OK because we have God, love, and friendship on our side!

So! I went ahead and weighed in this morning just to see and I was pleased by what the scale told me! Here is what I ate yesterday and my weigh in for this morning.

B - coffee w/ HC & 1/2 splenda packet, 1 cream cheese muffin
L - leftover taco salad again (I don't know that I could ever get tired of taco salad!) w/ lettuce, tomatoe, chives, salsa, sour cream
S - 1 cream cheese muffin
D - Texas Roadhouse! I had the 8 oz siloin (couldn't eat it all) house salad w/ ranch dressing, sateed mushrooms (couldn't eat all that either!) and I did cheat a little bit and I ate a whole battered chicken strip with a little bit of honey mustard (I did pick off quite a bit of the batter, though)
S - I really wasn't hungry but I wanted something sweet so I ate another chream cheese muffin

I drank alot more water today that I usually do. Not enough, but much much better! If I had to take a guess I would say 50 - 60 oz throughout the day. When I weighed in this morning and saw the slight loss, I knew it was because of the water.

Weigh in this morning: 153.6!

To another successful day of LC!!!

[brittanilh]

Originally Posted by Lulu Belle

Hi Brittani, and glad to see you back!! We all go through those spells, don't we? Congrats on the engagement! You've got alot of work ahead of you, that will probably count as a lot of exercise!!

Thank you Lulu Belle for the congrats!! I am so glad to be back and I am so happy about the engagement! I am hoping to work on getting quite a bit of excercise in between now and the wedding! Stop by often, I love the company!

[brittanilh]

Well, I didn't do so great yesterday, but the scale never showed it this morning, so I will count my blessings and get right back on track today. I stopped by my fiance's house (he has been sick) and he told me that he weiged earlier in the day NAKED! and he weighs 160 lbs. You do realize that it only 7 lbs heavier than I am! For some reason, this just totally bummed me out. When he decides to lose the weight, he's going to drop like crazy and I'll be lucky to lose 5 lbs a month! I know I shouldn't have let that affect me, but man, I was completely discouraged. So while I was at his house, I ate a couple bites of LC ice cream, but not much because I remember what that crap did to my tummy the last time I ate it! Then I went home and was digging, digging, digging for something to munch on. Fortunately, there isn't much crap food left in my house, so I had a hard time, but I did manage to find the kids old easter basket that still had candy in it. I dug out 2 of those mini size chocolate goodbars, ate those, felt pretty sick about it, and went to bed....I'm so weak...
Anyways, I got up this morning, weighed in and my weight is the same as it was yesterday morning so I'm ok now. I haven't fallen off the boat, and any other time I would have. What a silly thing to get discouraged about, huh?

So I'll just run down all the crap I ended up eating yesterday, get it all out of my system, and move on...

B - coffee w/ HC and 1 splenda, 1 cream cheese muffin
L - leftover steak, sauteed mushrooms, 1 cream cheese muffin, the tops of 2 slices of pizzas (from my fiance's house)
D - cauliflour made with butter, salt, pepper and mayo, Alice Springs Chicken made with olive oil, butter sauteed mushrooms, and cheese, side salad w ranch
S - Yes, there were a few good and bad! 2 mini size chocolate good bars, 1 cheese & breadstick snack pack, 2 cream cheese muffins, 3 or 4 bites of LC ice cream, 3 or 4 sips of Diet Pepsi and I think that covers everything.

On the plus side, I drank a TON of water yesterday. So much that I felt pretty sick after I drank it all. I think it was about 80 oz for the day and I wonder if that's why I didn't retain more water from some of that crap that I ate.

BUT! Today is a new day and I'm feeling much better about things, SO! I will try to get in all the good water and make today a much better LC day!

Water, water, water is my friend!

[Psalm 79]

Hi Brittani - it is so interesting how emotions can affect our eating. I weight a lot more than my precious husband and I hate that. In about 4 months, he has lost all the weight that he needs to...and I will be at this for another year or more.

I do have to say, though, that ANY of the LC "treats" (except for the LC Iced coffees that I make with the flavored Stevia) cause me to keep eating and searching around for something else to eat. I have learned that I NEED to avoid the LC treats like the plague.

I tend to have a problem when my family and I all go out for lunch one day a week. My husband and daughter both work from home, so I kidnap them both and take them to Panera once a week. At Panera, they have a tendecy to pass out "free" cookies - oh, FREE cookies, OH, OH, OH!!!!!

To avoid grabbing for one, I now take a plastic container of cream and the flavored Stevia (like Toffee) and get myself a cup of their coffee, fill a water cup with ice, mix the coffee with the cream/Stevia mixture and pour it over the ice. It keeps the desire to eat the free cookies completely away from me.

Man, do I have to keep "prepared" to make it day-by-day.

We are all in this together...and learning every day.

You are such a sweetie. I am SO glad to see you back here.

Annie

ETA: I look forward to reading your posts, too, Brittani.

[Lulu Belle]

Aren't men frustrating??? Mine complaines about his belly, but won't change his eating , then we hit a hot spell, and bang, he's dropped 20 pounds. Just like that. Why is it so easy for them??

[Psalm 79]

Originally Posted by Lulu Belle

Aren't men frustrating??? Mine complaines about his belly, but won't change his eating , then we hit a hot spell, and bang, he's dropped 20 pounds. Just like that. Why is it so easy for them??

Lulu Belle - The only answer I can think of is different metabolism and higher muscle content...burns more calories.

Sure wish I was at goal. I'm tired of dragging this extra weight around.

Hi Brittani...I won't be on the computer again until Tuesday...see you all then.

Annie

[brittanilh]

I just wanted to stop by very quickly and say ! Things are going well as far as my eating but life and work and kiddos are just crazy mad right now. It looks as though I may not be able to log on and do any major updates for another week and maybe two! I am maintaining so far, though it is very very hard.
Lulubelle! Thanks so much for stopping by and yes, it is completely not fair that my weight loss isn't as fast as my boyfriends! He's already passed me up! I'm trying hard not to let it get to me though and he tells me "I'll be here waiting patiently for you, don't get discouraged!" That kind of thing really makes me feel better! He's my honey!
Annie, I love to read your posts! They are always so encouraging! Makes me want to get off my butt and boogie!
You ever notice how it is SO easy to put the weight on but SO hard to get it off? Seems like you can eat well for 2 months and lose 5 lbs, but if you backtrack and fall off the wagon, you can put that 5 lbs back on in about 3 days! Brother....
Well, I'll be back after the craziness has died down! I have some accountability to assume!

[Lulu Belle]

Hey Brittani, you do what you have to do and take care of yourself.