Good morning! It's a sunny morning in Maine, but flippin' cold!

Finally weighed myself this morning after a couple weeks of shunning the scale. Still at 166, though I suspect I was higher than that during those weeks of not weighing.

Yesterday I made Dana Carpender's Peanut Butter Brownies. They didn't turn out like she said they would, but they were not bad. Even DH said they weren't bad. The recipe called for whey protein powder. All I had was Carb Solutions vanilla, and every time I substitute that for the regular stuff, things don't turn out the way they're supposed to. Guess I'll have to break down and buy the real stuff.

Also, the brownies weren't very chocolatey. It calls for 1/2 cup of Splenda. Next time I think I might substitute 1/2 cup of SF chocolate syrup (not the Davinci kind of syrup, the thick ice cream type of syrup). I also might double the peanut butter part of the recipe. I worked out the numbers, and doubling these ingredients only makes a minimal change in each serving (like 1 carb).

For dinner I tried a recipe I got from the recipe board here. You combine 1/4 cup Ranch dressing with 1/8 cup half-and-half and 1 egg. Dip boneless chicken breasts into this (wipe them off a bit), and then dredge in a combination of parmesan cheese with pepper, paprika, a bit of cayenne pepper, and oregano (no salt). Bake for about an hour. It was quite good, and DH said it was excellent. It made 6 large breasts.

I really like recipes that don't take much effort. Keith, are you listening? There are a lot of things you can make without spending all day in the kitchen. For one thing, notice that I made 6 breasts (about 6 ounces each). That's enough for lunch or dinner for both of us for a couple days. Today I'm going to make a Guinness beef stew, maybe in the crockpot if it thaws out in the next hour. I contacted Guinness once and they said there were only about 6 carbs in a 12-ounce serving. The recipe uses just one bottle, so that's negligible. Even twice that much would be negligible, seeing as how this will make probably 8 servings.

Well, I need to go do my workout now. I haven't done that in two weeks either, and I can sure feel it. I tend to "store" my stress in my upper back and neck. I even woke up with a bad headache this morning because I'm so tight. An hour with my dear Bowflex will fix that right up!

See you later!

Bawdy, that sounds like a great chicken recipe, might try that myself tonight

OK, did a 4 mile WATP yesterday and finished the day at around 1800 cal. 48 gms carbs.
Bawdy, I did the calorie plan on the Fitday sw and it tells me based on my stats and metabolism and workout profile, I should restrict 483 cal a day and eat 2130!!!Is that crazy? I'm not trying to eat that high.

Morning ---
Question time

After reading the forum now for a couple months do you agree that many people have unrealistic expectations and are unintentionally setting themselves up for disappointments and possible failure or is it just me? Curious as ever.

<To clarify I’m not speaking about anyone on this list>

Elaine, I did the Fitday metabolic thing, too. I entered 170 as my weight on January 1, and set my goal for 150 on June 30. To reach that goal, it said I should try to eat around 1692 calories a day. Now we all know that calories don't work the same way on a low-carb plan as they do on a high-carb plan. (We do all know that, right?)

I tried to link an article on Protein Power and calories from the PP board -- eatprotein.com -- but it's not working. Go to that site, click the "Your First Stop Is Here" forum, select to view all posts, and then click the "Protein Power and Calories" thread.

I took the Fitday recommendation as a suggestion, though even before I did the calculation I was trying to keep things around 1500.

Hi, Blu! I always get a little chuckle out of the "Blu" part of your name. When I was a kid, we had a 45 (this was way before CDs, kids!) of the song "Lavender Blue." It had a skip right at the beginning of the song, so whenever you tried to play it, the singer would croon "Lavender Bl, Bl, Bl, Bl." (Guess you had to be there!)

To answer your question, I think that some people do have unrealistic expectations, especially at the beginning. I know when I first did Atkins Induction and lost 6 pounds in the first two weeks, I quickly figured out that I could make goal in something like 2 months! WOW! I absolutely believed that I would continue to lose at the rate of 3 pounds per week. And I got that idea from Dr. Atkins himself who paints such a rosy picture of the weight loss on his plan.

So yes, a lot of people think they'll lose steadily and quickly. I read a post the other day from someone bemoaning the fact that she had a stall already in the first two weeks of Induction. Duh.

There's a difference between confidence and over-confidence. When I got down to 152, I was adamant that I would NEVER EVER gain the weight again. This was a WAY OF LIFE, not a diet. I never intended to eat carbage again EVER. Best laid plans and all.

All we can do is to keep on keeping on. When a baby begins walking, she doesn't try it once and then give up because it didn't work. She tries over and over and over and over again as many times as it takes until she finally does it. We need to be like that.

I abhor the attitude of "I failed" and "I was bad." I hate when people say those things because they sound so fatal and final. "I was bad and I ate bad things and I failed and I'm a fat slob and I don't deserve to be thin and healthy."

Does the baby think that? "I was bad and I fell down and I'm nothing but a blob and don't deserve to walk." Would you ever think that of the baby? Of course not.

This is a never-ending journey, folks. We'll always have to watch what we eat. If we go back to eating all those carbs again, not only will we gain everything back, we'll probably gain more back. Know why? Because we've now corrected the insulin sensitivity problems we used to have. Our bodies now function correctly when faced with carbs. We were insensitive before, which is why we could eat many more carbs back then and maintain (or gain slowly), all the while throwing our systems more and more out of whack. Now that we're more efficient, our bodies don't need all that extra insulin to bring the blood sugar down to a normal level. I may not be explaining this exactly right (I'm no doctor, you all know), but you get my meaning.

At least that's my opinion. Bawdy "The Philosopher" Wench gives up the floor to the next speaker.

PS: Ellie, if you want me to send you the revised pic of you and the hairstyle, either PM me your email address or give me permission to post the pic here as an attachment. You're just so dang cute!

Gm all!

Blu- I don't know that people "intentionally" set themselves up for failure, but I do believe certain things happen that they don't foresee when they start this program! I was just reading part of one of the Eades books and the authors state and i quote here..." If you're a woman, you can expect to lose an average of 2-4 pounds per week- usually a little faster at first. That means that in 30 days, on average, men following a corrective low-carb diet can realistically expect to lose 12-20 pounds of fat and women about 8-16 pounds." They go on to say..." At 15-20 pounds a month, simple math tells you it will take a couple of months to drop 30 or 40 pounds, five to six months to drop 100." Now lets say you were a person who was just starting this plan...welll...that sounds too good to be true...100 lbs. in 6 months! WOW! So you start the plan believing that they are telling the truth, just like they have told the truth about how good and healthy the low carb diet is...how it will correct all your medical problems, like high blood pressure, high cholestral, high blood sugar, etc etc. The first week or two usually go quite well and you lose up to 10 lbs and you REALLY start believing what the book says. You think...at this rate...I will lose 100 pounds in 6 months! However, then for most of us, something happens...the weight loss slows down...or it even stops...and we start getting discouraged! What is happening? The good doctors told us we'd lose!!!!!! Have we at this point set ourselves up for failure? Perhaps. Was it intentional? No, I don't think so! People want so badly to believe what they read. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not bashing the Eades. I think they have some very sound medical advice, have done wonderful research, and presented a plan that CAN correct many medical conditions. I am personally using their plan and have been feeling good on it.But... should they talk about this kind of weight loss? No...I don't think so.( I don't believe that ANY plan should tell you how much you're going to lose). But it does "sell" the plan better than if you said...You'll lose lots at first but then you will slow down and maybe stall and perhaps not lose anything for months at a time! I mean, who would want to start a plan like that? Most people start this WOE to lose weight and when that doesn't happen like they thought, they get discouraged. I think that after you've been on this plan for an extended period of time, you start to see that the benefits are not just about weight loss..there are many wonderful things that start to happen...but some people don't give it enough of a chance, because they start feeling like they've failed or this isn't working, and they give up! I don't want to offend anyone with this post and I don't think its a problem that JUST the Eades have. I think this problem is rampant in the "diet" industry! ( And this whole post is just IMHO)

Bawdy- You are absolutely right! This is a matter of learning and maybe for some of us, doing it over and over again ( I guess that not only am I a slow loser, I'm also a slow learner...lol). But for each time that I come back, I learn something from my mistakes and hopefully in the future I will not do those same things again! I hate those people that say...Oh when you stop low carbing, you'll regain all your weight. Well hellooooooooooo....if you stop ANY plan and go back to what you were doing before, you'll regain all your weight. It's not just lowcarbing!

Ewinpa- I'm trying to play with calories. I KNOW that if I eat as many as they say I should have, I gain weight. I just need to figure out how much to cut to get some weight loss going, but not go too low to stop it from happening! WTG on getting that exercise in. I'm hoping (keeping everything crossed that I have here) that I can get back to the gym this week. So far the ankle is still sore, but maybe a miracle for tomorrow? I'll still go and do at least an upper body workout though!

Well, I think I've taken up enough space for now...lol Hope e1 has a great restful week-end!

Good Afternoon Everybody!
Bawdy, I am going to try your chicken recipe this week. It sounds great!
Tried the Salmon recipe last night. I is really not a complete recipe: Just placed several pats of butter all over top of fresh salmon and broiled about 3-4 min. then flip and do same on other side (times may vary according to thickness).Then I mixed some Davinci Syrup with crushed cashews (you can use any kind of nuts you want, really) and brushed over top of salmon for the last minute or so of broiling (longer will burn the nuts).
It was pretty tasty! This was my first try fixing fresh Salmon!
"TIP": I have always found that eating salmon several days in a row gives my skin a neat "glow"
Kat

Just a word of caution on the chicken recipe I posted. I did the "normal" thing and dipped one breast (the chicken's, not mine! ) into the wet stuff, and then dumped it in the dry stuff. That ended up making the dry stuff clumpy in no time.

Probably a better thing to do would be to dunk each breast into the wet stuff and pile them on a plate, wash your hands, and then take one at a time and put it in the dry stuff. And remember to not get the breasts dripping in wet stuff; "wring" them out a little.

Hmmmmm. This post sounds a little X-rated!

Afternoon all!'
I am in great distress as my faithfull treadmill JUST DIED ON ME!!!!!!!! It is snowing like crazy out so I guess that I will just have to dig out a tape and get to moving! Elaine, What kind of walking tapes were you using??? BTW, Way to go on the inch loss!!!

I did not get a chance to wiegh my self today, (no not an excuse, MONDAY I have vowed to!) We had to get out and do the chores extra early so we could get to church, I was singing today so I had to get there earlier then usual. Monday I will have to make some calls to see if it is fixable or I will have to dig deep to buy a new one, but like my dh said"it is an investment on your health and weight management so we NEED a good one!" ( I love the way he thinks!) He has always been so supportive, as he is into his 40's HE is now having to watch alittle and exercise! The thing with him is that he just works out alittle, stops drinking pop and WHALLA pounds gone! I am happy for him, but it is SO frustrating that I can sure put it on fast but taking it off is another story all together!

Bawdy, hope the workout goes well! That is quite a bad deal about your chairs, when you are paying for a proffesional service you would THINK that they would be able to do the job! So how is life with Merry? This spring I am hoping that my himalayen cat will breed my persian girls with thumbs so I can have some cool cats on the ranch, I already have a couple of people on my list to call, (I just love My babies!) You are so right about about eating and our habits, alot of people do not realize that this is a way of eating FOR LIFE! not for just knocking off some poundage! I have been to WW and lost then gained, Everyone needs to examine their eating habits and find what works for them!

Kat, your glow must be from the healthy fat and oils in the salmon! I have been using the flax oil, (not as tasty though!)

Blu,We are all work in progress, it can be so hard not to beat your self up when you fail, I usto just binge when I have failed, now I just watch what I eat for the rest of the day, try to work in some exercise, and really get back into the swing of it the next day! This has taken me YEARS to figure out though!

Char, Hope your ankle gets better and that your workout goes well!

Well I have got to run for now! Where are you at today Renee? Has the moisture slowed any??? Hope you will get some hiking in soon!

HELLO to everyone else!

good afternoon all, boy you can sure tell it is the weekend. posts get much longer....hehe

ellie--i want to see the new hair do!!!!

blu-- i deffenately agree that some people have unrealistic expectations, and also unrealistic goals. it was posted somewhere on this board before that being a weight loss foreum we attract all sorts of people including those with eating dissorders. i hate to see those folks who are beating themselves up because they cant get from 110 to their 95lb goal and they are 5'5'' or some such thing. i also agree with how the books set us up for some dissapointment by including the "testamonials" of folks that have lost so much in such a such of time, we all expect that is how it will be and don't realize the people in the books are exceptions to the rules. one of the reasons i like the Protein Power book better is there are far less of these examples, unlike atkins books that are chock full of them. we are all different. will will all loose/gain/change at different rates.

bawdy--i was also looking at that ranch/parma chicken recipe. i have some chicken defrosting right now to try it out. i usually do something similar using melted butter with garlic for the "wet" stuff, and parma and spices for the dry. works really well. i also asked you some questions yesterday, but as i though might happen, was late when i posted and thought you might miss it. i will look back and see what it was.

here it is

i tried making the dobie muffins this morning. they smell good. will try them tomorrow (already ate while they were cooking). boy the batter sure was snotty looking though!!!hehe. how do you like to eat them..butter? sf jam? plain?

hope everybody had a great sunday!!!

Hi Lissette!
The tapes I use are the Walk Away the Pounds. I have the original set with the weighted balls (my favorite,the one I always go back to ) and also the Express set. I have the one for abs too but don't like it as much. The 4 mile walk is one she did around the time of the WATP Express. You can buy these on Amazon or Collagevideo.com.
I like them because I have joint and muscle issues and these are pretty low impact but you can work up a sweat. I took to setting up a program of ELO music on my computer that I use during the tapes-I like the music better and the tempo is perfect. I get tired of the same audio on the tapes after a while. I also find that doing them to music I really enjoy makes it more fun.
Hope the treadmill is fixable-did the motor go or did the belt just give out?
Elaine

PS Bawdy-re: chicken breast -that's why they call you Bawdy

Charran

I do understand what you are saying, no offense, but I can not say I agree with it completely.

This is just my 2 cents and probably not worth much but….

When I started I weighed 305, I’m 5’4” and medium bone. I decided I would set my goal weight at 125. Then I changed that and decided I was setting unrealistic expectations for myself as that goal weight was unthinkable for me at this time. So I changed my goal weight to 250 because I believed the first 50 lbs for me was a doable thing in 1 year time, that’s a little over 4 lbs a month. Which, I would have been happy with, anymore was a blessing. Then I would set a goal for 25 lbs every 6 months etc. This was “believable” to me. This is a life long commitment, a goal that will always take hard work to accomplish and then sustain it. Since it took me 47 years to gain it I had no preconceived idea that it would come off fast. No matter what a book told me. I know myself very well.

If, I did 100% of what the “book” states doing the Purist approach, which is the one I’m on I could see those numbers. But, I who have lost 35 lbs in 36 days have “not” followed the plan 100% and it will catch up with me and I will stall. It will be my blunder.

As I’m sure you know the Purist Plan Program -- protein 70%, carbs 25 – 30.
1. Avoid all cereal grains and products.
2. Eat only fresh organic fruits and vegetables.
3. Eat only natural meat and poultry products, or game.
4. Avoid all legumes (including beans, soybeans, and peanuts.)
5. Avoid all dairy products.
6. Avoid all processed foods.
7. Avoid all sugars except occasional, very limited use of honey.
8. Avoid all artificial sweeteners except the sweet herb, stevia.
9. Avoid all caffeine.
10. Avoid all forms of alcohol (beer, wine, distilled spirits.)

Mistakes I have made. This is being totally honest with myself.
1. I still drink coffee
2. I do NOT exercise like it says in the book
3. I have ate dairy products
4. I have eaten processed foods.
5. I don’t always check labels etc.
6. I have not readjusted my number for protein etc since I lost the 35 lbs.
7. I did not go to a doctor to verify if I may have some related medical issues before I started this program.
8. I have not always taken my vitamins and supplements.
9. I drink Protein drinks for breakfast once in awhile.
10. I don’t drink until I float.
11. I do not always keep a journal.
12. When I do exercise I walk, I do not do resistance training.
13. Probably more but I can’t think of any right now.

Okay that is enough self evaluation …. <sigh> I had no idea I had messed up so bad….But it was a eye opener for me.

I have made a ton of mistakes on this plan.

Until I can blame a “book” I have to evaluate myself and see my shortcomings.

Weather its PP, Atkins or some other book, it’s just a book. It’s up to me to make it work or not. To gleam from it what I can and then make the correct decisions. I suppose I’m harder on myself than most. For I have to place responsibility on myself before searching out another source. This is my make up.

All the people who say I failed, this doesn’t work etc are then asked to show what they eat, a large percentage of them are told they are eating the wrong foods and most never exercise.

Now…If the person in question has done 100% that the program states, vitamins and resistance exercises etc than I have no clue and I’m truly sorry it didn’t work for them.

acipenser – Yeah, I saw that same post. <sigh> The "testamonials" are for advertisng and most of those I don't read. I had years of experience with "testimonials" in my pervious job and I know not to believe them.

Lissette – I’m glad you did figure it out and have came back to try again you are doing so well. Good luck.

For me I feel sad for the ones “babies” as Bawdy stated that want to give up before they have really given it a chance. For the “adults” they would be able to answer better than myself why they have stalled.

Thanks for responding everyone and have a great day.

does chocolate boby paint have carbs??lol just kidding but it is almost valentines day