Oh boy! Thanks guys for your interest! I started out eating around 20 carbs and eat between 20-50 now depending if I'm in weight loss mode of maintenance mode. I did post all of my menus each day for induction in the beginning of my journal if you want to get and idea of what I ate each day there.
Gee, my secrets? Let's see . . . .
1. Lots of water - 100 plus oz per day.
2. Exercise HELPS! Unfortunately I'm not a regular exerciser due to time constraints (2 kids, hectic life, out of the home 12 hours per day, etc.). When I do exercise it's minimal -- 20-30 minutes of light resistance training, crunches and toning exercises every other day or so. I'll go on a exercise kick for a couple of weeks and then quit for months. I do walk a lot (2 miles per day??) and I make an effort to do extra little things when I can to make up for my lack of formal exercise-- like park at the back of the lot, take the stairs instead of the elevator, mow the lawn for the hubby, etc. I bet any money that if I did stick to the exercise everyday I would have hit goal by now.
3. Pure and natural foods. Not a lot of bars and franken foods. I try to stick to the least processed foods the majority of the time.
4. Lots of fat. Everything dripping in butter, blue cheese dressing, sour cream, oil, etc. Avocados too! This is not a high protein diet , it's a high fat diet. I do best when 70-80% of my cals come from fat.
5. Vitamins/supplements-- I feel better when I take them everyday and it seems that when I go into weight loss mode it's always when I'm remembering to take my vitamins. Nothing fancy-- Costco multi, 1000 Mg vitamin c, Mag/cal/zinc and potassium to prevent leg cramps. I dabble with other stuff occasionally but those are my regulars.
6. Veggies are really important. Don't miss them!
7. Not all carbs are bad. Fruit does me good and I can still loose eating an apple or peach each day. If I ate that many carbs in grains or franken foods I stop losing immediately.
8. Don't overdo it on the nuts. They don't work for me as an everyday snack. I don't loose well and I become obsessed and addicted to them.
9. No snacking/munching. 5-6 small meals does not agree with me. I can't stop eating when I start. I do 3 meals and a snack on work days. On weekends I tend to lean towards 2 big meals per day. I tend to stick with the same types of foods each day. For instance:
Breakfast: Usually light-- 2 oz cream cheese plain usually. I add some sausage or bacon on weekends. I used to eat pepperoni and cheese everyday. It was good, I just got burnt out. I also didn't think it was the healthiest having processed pepperoni everyday.
Lunch: BIG spinach salad with all the good salad veggies, a sliced chicken breast covered in Blue cheese dressing OR dinner leftovers (meat and a green veggie chopped up and nuked with a ton of butter melted over it) OR a bunless double cheeseburger with grilled onions and tomato and a pickle on occasion. lunch is usually my biggest meal of the day.
Afternoon snack: a string cheese or two.
Dinner: Meat and a green veggie. I add extra butter to my veggie serving on my plate and try to dip my meat in something like salad dressing or sour cream for the added fat.
Wow I've never put it all down like that before!
This may not be what works for everyone but this is how things seem to work best for me. I guess we each have to do our own experimenting and tweaking until we're happy with our routine.
Well, thanks guys! I hope it helps!