Welcome to the Protein Power Pals daily thread. All are welcome who are using, considering or curious about this WOE. We also welcome friends using other LC WOEs to drop by for some friendly conversation and a large glass of water.

Since I missed posting menu yesterday, I'm posting Thursday and Friday's menu / stats today. Weight was down to 175 lbs Thursday morning - is at 176 lb this AM (salty Mexican food last night and too many carbs yesterday )

Thursday Menu:

Total calories: 1886
Fat: 119 gms 1069 cal 58%
Sat: 37 gms 330 cal 18%
Poly: 43 gms 384 cal 21%
Mono: 31 gms 279 cal 15%
Carbs: 46 gms 126 cal 7% ECC: 30 gms
Fiber: 16 gms 0 cal 0%
Protein: 161 gms 646 cal 35%

Breakfast:
4 egg-beater omelet with 2 ozs lean ham and 1 oz 2% cheddar
12 ozs coffee and 8 ozs sugar-free breakfast drink with 3/4 T pysillum power

Lunch:
2 cups spinach salad - full-fat version

Dinner:
9 ozs lemon pepper chicken breast (skinless)
1 cup Brussels Sprouts
1 cup LC mixed veggies - stir-fried in olive oil

About 64 ozs water & 12 ozs coffee


Here is yesterday's menu - I'm still in light ketosis this AM ???.

Total calories: 2237
Fat: 127 gms 1145 cal 24%
Sat: 59 gms 529 cal 9%
Poly: 23 gms 207 cal 12%
Mono: 38 gms 341 cal 16%
Carbs: 91 gms 320 cal 15% ECC: 80 gms
Fiber: 11 gms 0 cal 0%
Protein: 180 gms 720 cal 29%

Breakfast:
4 egg-beater omelet with 2 ozs lean ham and 1 oz 2% cheddar
12 ozs coffee and 8 ozs sugar-free breakfast drink with 3/4 T pysillum power

Snack:
4 ozs swiss cheese

Snack: 1 cup cottage cheese

Dinner (Finally got hungry - shouldn't have gone to the Mexican place):
7 tortilla chips with uncooked salsa
Taco Salad - chicken - ate the bowl

About 60 ozs water & 16 ozs coffee

Good morning to all and nice to have Orang here salt or no salt
Yesterday wasn't a great eating day, ate a really delicious bagel at work (my sup brought breakfast) and had some Russel Stover lc candy that gave me major runs(tells you how much of it I ate)so I have some work to do this weekend.
I didn't even keep fitday stats. :hangs head in shame:
But I did have an amazingly filling b'fast.Recipe I got off of "Atkins by the Book website-2 eggs, 2 oz cream cheese, 1packet Splenda, 2 T flax meal, cinnamon. I know it sounds like Mock Danish but adding the flax meal made it more breadlike and boy did that keep me going for hours! I may try half a recipe to see how long that holds me to keep the cals and fat down.

Hi, Renee! So this weekend is the calm before the storm, huh? Hope things go ok on Monday.

I've been so busy with the new job, mostly because I'm trying to impress the heck out of my new boss at first. He's a great guy, and just turned 30! I'm going to be 49 in a couple months, and it's definitely a weird feeling. I could be his mother! We have an extremely good working relationship, though, and I have loads of respect for him. Even at 30 he's probably the best manager I've ever worked for/with. (Although I'm not technically a manager, I've been promoted to the management team.)

This weekend I plan to work with Fitday (the full version that you buy) to learn the advanced functionality. Elaine had emailed me some screen shots of her menus, and her screens contain quite a bit more information that is shown on mine. If anyone is thinking about purchasing the full version, I say go for it. It's much better than the free online version. The only drawback is that I used to enter foods during the day while I'm at work. Now I can only do it at home. And that means planning ahead, which although hard, is probably better anyway. There is a way to copy your data and then use it on another computer, but I'd rather just use it at home and pre-plan.

Didn't weigh myself this morning, but I'm feeling about the same. I seem to be losing my butt, though. When I stand sideways to the mirror, my butt seems definitely flatter. Hmmmmm. This is how it happened both times before when I lost a lot of weight. I didn't actually lose pounds very quickly at all (in fact, last time I did formal Atkins Induction, I lost only 6 pounds in the first two weeks and then NOTHING for more than 2 months), but all my clothes started getting looser, and first in the butt. So maybe I'm onto something here by upping my fat percentages, lowering my carbs, and getting enough protein.

I also haven't worked out for 2 weeks. Last week . . . well, you know what last week was like for me. Then last Sunday morning I woke up and couldn't lift my right arm more than a couple inches to the side or twist it at all. It was like I somehow injured my rotator cuff. I've been putting heat on it every evening, and little by little it's gotten better. No clue how I hurt it, because (as I said) I hadn't worked out in a week. I'm still going to give it a couple days, and probably start back with the workouts on Tuesday.

Elaine, thanks again for the tip on the Bowflex. I've been calling, but they must be overwhelmed with calls because the line is always busy. The thing is so sturdy and well put together, I just don't see how it could possibly cause the type of injuries they mentioned. I'll keep trying, though. They say they'll send the repair kit; I just hope they send me one (I bought my Bowflex second-hand).

Well, I'll check in again later. Time to play with Fitday.

A belated welcome to all the new faces! As others have said, you've caught us at a pretty stressful time. Must be the alignment of the planets or something, but everyone seems to have loads of stress in their lives right now.

OK, everyone ready? How about a nice big group hug?

Elaine:
The recipe sounds like something I could use for the hubby's travelling menu - thanks for the tip.

Marnie:
So good to see you - I've missed you.

I understand the fear re: what happens if I can't workout - I am living a can't workout period right now. Things are more flabby and far less toned - clothes don't fit like they did - but I know from past experience that within weeks of re-starting exercise, things will look much better (it isn't your imagination)

Elaine, I just spent some time in Fitday and got it figured out. I didn't know you could divide into meals, etc. Cool!

I also looked at the menu you sent. I'll tell you my observations, but they're just my opinions based on what has worked, and not worked, for me in the past. I know you have to keep your carbs higher because of the thyroid thing, but do they have to be quite that high? The day you sent me you had 60 grams of carbs, which was 30% of your total intake. Your protein was right where it should be (120 grams, 24%), but your fat intake seemed low to me at 37%.

I think I might try tweaking the percentages a bit to get more fat and fewer carbs. Maybe around 40 carbs. Is that doable for you? Also, do you find that some carbs are better than others for you? Do you "do better" when the carbs are from veggies as opposed to fruits or grains? I've been eating more dairy lately, and that comes with carbs. How do dairy carbs affect you?

Anyway, these are just my ramblings. I don't know if they'll work for you. If you do tweak, give it at least 2 or 3 weeks to see how your body reacts.

Good morning everyone! Looks like everyone does need a group hug ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((group hugs)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Orang- My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family at this time and I really hope things go well for you on Monday!

Ewinpa- Was that recipe off the Atkins.com site? It sounds good!

Bawdy- Glad to hear things are going well at work for you!

Dawn- Welcome to the group! I'm also diabetic and I'm finding that as I go on here my levels are slowly going down. I'm hoping as weight keeps decreasing that it will go down even more.

Charran, the Fitday website doesn't let you split the meals, the software they sell does. The recipe was from a site called "Atkins By the Book".By the way, I DID make a half recipe, had that around 8 and am just now getting hungry for lunch. I may be onto something.

Bawdy, sometimes I put stuff in the Fitday website at work and then copy it into my home one.It's a pain but at least at the end of the day I have total numbers.
Thanks for the headsup on the carbs. Some fruit bothers me, I've never been a veggie eater so this is tough for me. I still like grains and have found incorporating a little wheat product like an Atkins Bagel, Thomas Low Carb bagel or some pinhead oatmeal (Bob's Red Mill makes it-more like Irish oatmeal, not the Quaker stuff) doesn't make me feel as deprived, so I am going back to adding the little bit of hot cereal as my work AM snack. I really miss that in the cold weather.(The bagel I had at work was an Asiago cheese /white flour thing, that's what made me carb woozy yesterday)Maybe I'm doing South Beach?????

My local LC store sells some of the stuff from Synergy's website. I passed up free pizza at work Thurs and instead am going to have a lc Synergy pizza crust(these come frozen, they look like big pita breads and don't have soy as the leading ingredient) with some lc sauce and some reduced fat cheese and turkey pepperoni for lunch.

I think I need to just change some things and not focus on losing weight. Then it will probably happen. Being in the challenge group at work is helping me .

Mornin' ladies.

Elaine, that recipe sounds great! I need something new to do with my boring flax seeds.

I was going to hit the farmers market today, but it's too bleepin' cold. I think I'll just cook my spaghetti squash, rather than try to break Bawdy's record.

Kristine, I'll have you know that I cooked up that squash on Thursday morning! For you new folks, someone had asked a while back how long spaghetti squash keeps after it's been cooked. I said I didn't know, but judging from the one that had been sitting on my counter, I knew that raw ones stayed fresh for months (probably 3 to 4). Then there were all the snide remarks about after so long I should have been able to teach it tricks. I replied that it had already mastered the commands Sit, Stay, Play Dead.



Anyway, it's quite tasty. My favorite way to eat it is slathered with butter and drizzled with SF maple syrup. Even DH loves it that way.

Did I mention that I finally got my hair cut on Wednesday evening? Let me tell you about my experience.

The salon was in the trendy part of town. I walked it and it was like a huge loft, with salon chairs scattered here and there and large mirrors propped up on easels (weird angle for viewing, if you ask me). So we talked for probably 20 minutes, and I was pretty sure I knew what she was going to do. I stressed that I liked a straight, sleek look, that I wanted my bangs kept long (still touching my eyebrows), and the sides over my ears. All in all, I told her I didn't want much cut off at all.

She asked me if I wanted a glass of wine. I'm thinking, "This place is all right!" But declined.

So she's washing my hair and asks me if I work right in Portland. I said no, I work in Westbrook near the Maine Mall and I live up in Norway. Then she starts cutting my hair in the back. No problem. I never even look at my hair back there, so whatever she does is fine.

So then she starts on the sides, and says to me, "So do you work here in Portland?" Huh? Very slowly I said, "No, I work in Westbrook near the Maine Mall." She asks where I live. Is this woman listening to me at all?



All the while she's cutting and cutting. The layers are getting shorter and shorter (she ended up cutting off half my hair). Then she starts styling it. My bangs tend to curl to one side, and she styles it like that. I tell her no, I like them straight and I fix them myself. Two minutes later she's got them styled so they curl to the side again. I again fix them and say that I REALLY prefer them straight. Two minutes later, and guess what.

And then, if the hair doesn't do what she wants it to, she cuts it more! THAT'S WHAT 6-YEAR-OLDS DO WHEN THEIR HAIR DOESN'T LAY RIGHT, NOT HIGH-PAID STYLISTS! And, she kept asking me if I wanted my bangs shorter!



Then she starts putting glop in (that icky waxy stuff). I tell her not to put any in because it weighs my hair down too much. Not this stuff, she says, and puts it in anyway.

By the time I got home, it was literally plastered to my head, and the hair is so thin on one side that it doesn't cover my ear at all. I headed right upstairs and dunked my head in the sink.

DH comes up and when he sees me he says, "This can't be good" and turns right around to go downstairs again.

I managed to get it looking ok, but not great. DH, however, says he really likes it, and means it. Huh?

Last time I go to that salon again!

Trouble is, yesterday it looked not bad when I went to work, and everyone at work said they really liked it.

So I just got cleaned up today (going to friends for dinner), and it looks amazing. Grrrrrrr!

Just when you think you got it all figured out. So now what do I do? I really don't want to go back, but she apparently gave me a really good cut.

I don't know whether I'm happy or angry!

Bawdy, hair rage is never fun. You have my complete sympathy. Yeah, now do you go back to her? I would try her one more time if the cut winds up looking good. If she really bothers you, check out the other stylists in the place. Watch what they do and how they act.If no one else cuts anyone's hair in a way you admire or if they are all too weird, then bolt.

I finally found a stylist I like, the trade off is I have to go into Center City Philadelphia and sometimes pay outrageous parking if I am not lucky to get a $2 meter. Luckily, she is so good I haven't had a bad cut yet.She is the owner and has styled hair in CA and Europe,etc.She's not a kid and knows how to treat people. This is her 4th salon. She started 3 others and sold them all to other stylists she hired.This one's her baby. She does a big charity event for City of Hope every year. I met her through a friend at work.

I forgot to add when I made that breakfast thing I put on some SF syrup. You could probably put SF jam or something on it too. I added some vanilla extract this AM, that was really good too.

OK-I just finished a 3 mile WATP tape a few minutes ago.Boy am I hurting today. The fibro is acting up. It's so cold here, only about 20 something outside.