[jkmfrog]

hi! I've missed checking in with you all on the challenge. things are still going ok with my eating plan. I'm not going to try and post all my menus the past week or so - the only cheat I've had was a peanut butter cup a few days ago - skipped breakfast and was desperate for something at the office. Anyway, I've been absent because my future mother in law passed away on Saturday (see my blog from Friday for more info). I've been running back and forth between home, hotel and D's parents house for the past week. The whole family is here which has been great, but we are all very very sad and still in shock that such a wonderful person is gone.

I'm hoping you all will continue your challenges - I'm sticking with my plan and working hard not to use this as an excuse to cheat. She would have wanted me to be healthy and happy.

Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you as often as you can, be good to each other, mend past hurts before its too late.

Jen

[Shannon]

Oh Jen, I am so very sorry for your loss. My heart truly does go out to you and your family. I know it's a tough time, just try to be good to yourself - sometimes in times of grief we forget to do that.
love,
Shannon
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url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/weight-loss/whDwhiA/]

[/url]

[jkmfrog]

I'm back. Going to try and do daily posts again. D's family is slowly recovering from the shock, and their loss is sinking in. They are all strong resilient folks (get that from their mom but are worried about what their dad will do now that he has lost his wife of nearly 40 years.

I'm not sure how diligent I'll be about posting daily, but I am trying to get back to normal, since I'll need to go back to work next week. Several of the kids, D included, are going to be off work for a while helping with their dad and the household affairs.

Ok. Stuck with low carb throughout the week. Down another pound, maybe sightly more - gosh I need a new scale, this one is hard to read. I've been skipping a lot of meals - partly the schedule and partly just a lack of appetite. So far it's not been a problem, but I would not generally reccommend it. And you can see that I'm not really losing any more weight over the week by cutting calories/meals.

Thursday:
B= eggs, sausage patties, grapefruit
D= chicken salad, roasted eggplant salad with feta cheese, 2 Wasa crackers, breadless bread pudding

exercise= no
vit/supp= Am only
water= about 40 oz

[jkmfrog]

ok so apparently the reduced calorie intake did have an impact this week, or maybe I'm burning more cals with my brain, because I certainly did not get any more exercise this week than usual - in fact I think I may have gotten less...down total of two pounds this week.

Friday's menu:

B= breadless pudding
L=turkey burger with cheese, olives, eggplant salad
S=tamari almonds, fresh pear
D=small beef short rib stewed with mushrooms, SF chai and LC almond biscotti

Water= about 50oz, still missing some intake here. gonna try to get that up a bit
vit/supp= AM only
exercise= nope

[jkmfrog]

Still at it. I'm sticking with this and its been easier lately - not that I've not been tempted, but now that the weight loss is evident and nearly everyone knows I'm doing this I feel even more empowered to just keep at it. I've added a few more carbs here and there, mostly some more fruits and made winter squash last night. Funny, but I'd rather have squash than bread. Sunday was a little high on the treat factor - cookies, biscotti and pudding - if I'm going to eat out of emotion, I'd rather it was LC than not.

Here are the recent menus:

Saturday
Brunch= salad with chicken
S=LC biscotti 2
Dinner= meatballs and sauce, dinner salad

Sunday
B= sausage
S= havarti cheese, LC biscotti 3
L=beef rib meat and mushrooms, LC choc chip cookies
D=chicken thigh (used George's tequilla marinade), baked delicata squash rings, LC breadless pudding (thanks again George - i love this one!)

Monday
B= breadless pudding
L=pork roast and green beans
S= 2 biscotti and slice of cheese
D=leftover beef short rib with mushrooms, 1 LC cookie and cup of SF chai

[jkmfrog]

Tuesday:

B=breadless pudding
L=chicken legs and squash
S=2 LC biscotti and slice of cheese
D=beef short rib and cauli-mac and cheese

These menus are all starting to look alike, I'm eating a lot of leftovers now that I'm mostly cooking for myself with the DF spending a lot of time with his Dad. I've been trying to make different side dishes to go with them so I don't get bored (whitch I do easily with food). Tonight I'm cooking up some burgers from the freezer and making a salad.

[jkmfrog]

I'm still hanging in with my challenge to stick with my WOE and get to 185 by mid Dec. Looks like I might be a bit short of weight goal, but I'm still really excited that I have been sticking with this pretty faithfully. I did have a couple of huspuppies on Sunday . Otherwise no cheats the past few weeks.

I've got to get more water in me so I think that for the next week or so I'm just going to focus on upping my water intake.

When this challeng ends (lets say Dec 16) I think I might do a surviving the holiday challenge.

Hope everyone is well. How are things going? Feel free to check in even if you've been bad lol. Promise that Santa will still bring you something!

[jkmfrog]

weighed myself today (before the holiday feast). Down to 190! Half way to my big goal and 5 lb on my next mini-goal. Very excited. Its a good motivator to stick with it the next few days. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am cooking a fairly traditional meal for D's family:

Turkey
Stuffing (regualr and a LC version for me)
potatos
mashed turnips
roasted squash and root veggies (for me)
cranberry orange relish (LC - they'll never know!)

The family are bringing desserts and more sides - likely not much I can munch on, but I am going to bring some sliced veggies so I can have something to dip and put spreads on top.

Friday we have a party to attend and Saturday we are off to a wedding for which I am making the wedding cake (not LC - I could do one of those but I'm making it at the request of the bride and she wants my choc/almond/cherry/buttercream cake).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

[jkmfrog]

Hi all!

I'm going to post a new challenge around Dec 15. I've really been struggling to stay cheat free - too many events where I'm not responsible for bringing food and then I get tempted by stuff not on my plan...no will power despite using all my tricks and incentives.

I've been doing good at home - getting back to basics and playing around with some wheat free LC cookie recipes (macaroon type things, stuff with raw chocolate nibs, almond flour etc.) As you can imagine I've not lost anything since thanksgiving with all the various events. (good news is I did not gain any however!). I found a great piecrust recipe, although its got lc wheat products in it which I sometimes don't tollerate very well so I'll need to limit that to when I really want to make a pie as a treat.

I've bene upping my water intake and since I am trying to cut back on our grocery budget, I've stopped buying canned/bottled sodas and drink mixes. Figure it gives me more incentive to drink more water.

Its hitting me that I'm really going to need to up the exercise I'm getting. As the weight is coming off I've been reducing my calorie intake a bit to compensate for the fact that I'm exerting less buy not carring around the extra 25 pounds, but at some point its going to be too hard to drop the cals below what I normally like to eat. More exercise and getting back to using some weights is no longer going to be optional (ok. not that it should ahve been before - but who are we kidding, I don't like to "exercise". I used to get all my exercise from doing active things I enjoyed - biking, swimming, hiking in the woods around my house, walking to the store - and from working an on-my-feet-running-around job. Now I've got to make more of an effort.

[jkmfrog]

Cross you fingers, it looks like I've lost a bit more, 1-2 lbs, finally, since thanksgiving. I'm wearing a pair of pants for the first time all day that I've not fit into in over 2 YEARS! Tomorrow I will officially weigh in. I've looked back at my journal, and the loss has on average been the same but more erratic lately. No loss for weeks, then 2 lb drop.

I'm not sure its made that much of a difference, but I dropped back to my old low carb no dairy no red meat plan. I'm going to stick with that for a while and see if it makes any difference - I've gone back to eating more nuts and nut butters without the dairy and I forgot how much I LOVE almond butter....mmmmm....also making more Thai food with coconut milk. I've been drinking unsweetened chocoalte almond milk with a bit of splenda heated up as a treat instead of my usual chai. Dang if that don't taste just like hot coco.

Anyway, my goal was to be at 185 by next week and although I'm a bit short of that its been a good exercise to work at not cheating and to check in here. New challenge starts Dec 14th (my first Dec holiday party)!