Wednesday, September 29, 2010

P4 D13 plus

Another week has gone by and both Mike and I are doing great. We actually had pizza and ice cream this weekend and I weighed in at 167.4!! Lost two more lbs. Mike lost another pound also. I can't express how much our maintenance plan is working for us. We are eating food...no restricted diet just watching what we eat and making sure we exercise. So all in all we are doing great. Of course, my next goal is the 150's so only 7.5 more pounds to go by the end of October...so I will feel and look good on the St. Thomas' beaches!!

Another friend has just started the diet on Saturday and as of today lost a little over 7 pounds already. She is so excited! She sounds like me. I laugh with my friends about talking about this as if it was a new baby! LOL.

I had to clean out my closet this weekend because we are renovating and 3 bags of clothes are going to Goodwill. Some I have not worn over a year and some I just figured I won't wear again. Right now, my skirts are hanging (barely) on me and I have to make a decision of when to have them taken in. Certainly don't want to start with a brand new wardrobe - nor can I afford a brand new wardrobe. Plus the winter is coming and we all know between holidays and weather, that additional pounds get put back on..so I am afraid of doing any thing with the wardrobe until January...so I can see where I am.

Still rockin'!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

P4 D12

Yahoo! I stayed in the 160's and weighed in this morning at 168.4! Don't know why I am starting to lose weight but like I said it is probably because my eating habits have continued to be good. We both went to the gym last night so that helps burn more calories! Not trying to lose weigh - meaning I am not "dieting". Very excited that I am staying in the 160's. Mike gained .4 from yesterday but still is doing very well. He is laughing that he is building muscle that is why he gained weight! Love it!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

P4 D11

Well, today was great news. I finally got into the 160's and weighed in at 169.2! Hopefully I will stay in the 160s. Mike also dropped more weight down to 243.4. He is now within the 2 lbs his LDD. So I am very excited that I finally got there. I know that we are supposed to stay within 2 pounds +/- of our LDD but watching what we eat and exercising is helping us lose some more weight. Now if I can only lose 9.3 more pounds before 10/30 so I can be in the 150's!
We both are going to the gym. Mike is bing a die hard and going every day this week (and maybe every day going forward). We will see. I am going almost every other day. I am hoping to get into great shape not only for St. Thomas but just because I want to.

I told Mike I have been doing something wrong ..last night at dinner I had a martini and lost weight...I need to have a martini every night so I can lose more weight. LOL.

More later!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

P4 D4-10

This now has been the end of the 10 days on P4 and we can't complain too much since we can eat what we want - and expect the consequences of what we eat. So during the week, we did very well and we were glad to see our weight stablizing. However the weekend hit and we went to out to lunch at TGI Fridays on Friday and then dinner on Saturday night. So now I have gained 1.2 lbs for the week but still have not gained more than 2 lbs since my Last Drop Day. Mike, however, has been snacking and he is up 3.6 lbs above his LDD. He knows he has been snacking and that means more calories. So tonight we will do a large steak for dinner. He cannot go without anything all day so we are just watching what we eat today and then have the steak so we can both hopefully drop the weight.

Mike also got his blood test back for his thyroid and the doctor wants him to to continue to take the synthroid. So he also started that this week. I am curious as to whether his weight gain is because he is back on the synthroid but we will see. When he was on it before, he couldn't lose weight or stabilize his weight so I am questioning it but going with the doctor (for now). :-)

We also have started back at the gym and doing that every other day. We both are doing good so there is no effects to our body since we were on the diet. We are not toning, etc so we will 1) stabilize the weight and 2) get ready for St. Thomas. We have 40 days until that so hopefully some of the toning will kick in by then!

People are laughing at me when after they ask about my weight loss, I get all excited about it and start talking non-stop. I am starting to catch myself and just give them my blog address so that they can read all about. Since my blog has all the links, they can decide how they want go.

All in all, I tell people, you have to make a commitment with no deviations if you want to be successful. Mike and I agree this worked for us. Hope everyone reading this is doing great - I am sharing as much as possible!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

P4 D2-3

So P4 will/is the test for real life. I have told Mike since day one that this is a permanent lifestyle change and we are moving forward with P4. As I mentioned last time, Mike had gained 5 lbs by P4 D1. However, the good news is that he lost that overnight and as of the morning of D2 he was at 244.6, which is still less than 2 lbs of his LDD. I lost 1 lb overnight so I was actually .6 oz less than the my LDD.

Feeling good, working hard and not planning for dinner properly, we finally had Papa John's pizza. Overnight, Mike and I both gained .8 ozs but we expected some since we ate the pizza. I have to tell you that I mentioned to Mike that the pizza just didn't taste the same. It just was not a "I got to have it" taste. I am sure that this is because we hadn't had any in 8 weeks but I also believe that my tastes have changed.

For breakfast, we both had omelets and bacon, which I couldn't finish. For lunch today, I had leftover steak and strawberries. Mike had the last 2 slices of the pizza. Tonight we are having spaghetti squash dinner which we have enjoyed in the past. It is a low carb dinner so we think it will be fine.

As for the lifestyle changes, we are still watching our carbs but now eating what we want. I think that weighing yourself every day helps you keep within the weight that you are at now and gives you the motivations to change what you eating if there is any abnormal gains.

Before this diet, I used to bring for lunch the frozen meals. Now that I see how many carbs there are in them, I won't buy them again. Instead, I will pack my lunch every day (with Mike being the cook for me thankfully!). I think that this not only saves money but provides me with better alternatives for lunch. At least once or twice a week, I go out for lunch so I can still make the right choices.

We both still haven't had our ice cream and right now, we are not really craving it. We both know that what we eat will affect our weight and neither of us want to gain it back so we will continue to do what is the right thing.

Mike will hear back from the doctor this week whether he will need to use his synthroid again. I hope he doesn't, that will be the biggest win. He hasn't used it for 8 weeks.

As far as body fat, I was at 33.4 but as of yesterday, I was at 29.9. That is great. Mike's however isn't going down, even though his clothes are getting too big for him. He started at 36.7 and was at 35.2 so some came off but not as much as me.

We also went to the gym yesterday and did pretty well. This was the first time I have been back so my legs got tired early on the bike. I was able to do the weight exercises for my arms and back but didn't push the weight because I wanted to be careful. Next time, I will push the weight up 5 lbs each time so that I can get back to where I was before - and go beyond. Mike, as always, does great at the machines and helps me get better.

So this week will be a great week so have the new bodies adjust to real life and real food. We are looking forward to staying at the weight we are through to January before we start another cycle. I want 10-15 more pounds and Mike wants at least another 20. As long as we keep that as our goal, I think we will be fine. Positive thinking!

Friday, September 10, 2010

P3 D19-21 (today is P4 D1!!)

We have been bad. We weren't supposed to start P4 until today but after a long day's work on D19, we went to a Mexican restaurant. I had chips and guacamole but did good for the dinner by not having any tortillas or enchiladas. However, the manager treated us to a chocolate ice cream dessert. So we dug in!

So neither of us weighed into until this morning and ate really well yesterday. The damage for me was .2 oz gained (I was glad with only that) but Mike over the last couple of days gained 5 lbs. So he is not happy. He started exercising yesterday and today so that his body can get in better shape. We will see how it goes but P4 started today so we will see how it goes.

Steak for dinner!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

P3 D19

Yahooo! Ididn't gain an ounce after eating the nachos and Mike may have gained a few ozs but all I know is that he said he didn't gain more than a lb. Of course for dinner, we had chicken paremsan (without pasta) and a salad. We also had our raw apple vinegar. I am convinced that this vinegar has some stablization or weight loss properties. I remember when I was on the LA Weight Loss diet tons of years of ago, the counselor told me to drink 2 cups of water with a lemon and that reduced bloatiness and help increase the metabolism. Since we have started the vinegar, I have noticed that the bloatiness reduces in the morning. Maybe it helps with metabolism but I don't care. As long as my mind is convinced it helps with the weight loss, I will continue with it.

Today will be an interesting day as I didn't pack my lunch. My boss usually comes to my office on Tuesdays and then we go to lunch. I am not sure now if he is coming or not. So I may just have to improvise at that the salad bar!

This week we will try really really hard to get to the gym. I have two events I want to get my body in shape for. November is St. Thomas and the December is Holiday Parties. I want to look my best then to show off my weight loss!

I keep running into people who want to hear more about my story. Now I just give them my blog address because it has all the links for the P&I, weblinks, etc that they will need. It makes it a lot easier than trying to explain it all to them.

I have heard back from some that GNC's product is pretty expensive $80 instead of finding something on the web for $20. I didn't trust anything on the web so I went for something that would guarantee a 30 day return. Now that we have done it once, we will see what we will use in January when we do another round. Time will tell. We are just hoping we don't gain any weight over the holidays. I know it is only September but the more we talk about it, the more we can prepare ourselves with the right foods and mentality.

Off to another work day!

So another work day done. For lunch, I had shrimp with a salad but I did have a biscuit. Tonight Mike made pizza with cauliflower dough. Came out very good. Hopefully tomorrow the biscuit and the nachos don't catch up with me! Wish me luck!

Monday, September 6, 2010

P3 D16-18

The last two days, my mom-in-law has been here for a short visit. This of course causes us to eat differently but mostly to treat her out at restaurants since she doesn't get out much.

On Friday we went to dinner at Damon's. Mom ordered spinach artichoke dip. I was scooping the dip and sucking it off the chip. I was not going to eat the chips! For dinner, I had chicken with crab with cheese. Mike had southwestern chicken without the chips. I gained .2 lbs! Mike gained .4 lbs. We thought that was okay - especially since Mike at the chips!
Saturday night, we cooked beef brisket and had salad. Nothing major. I lost .6 lbs overnight and Mike gained .4
Last night was The Grill where I had a salad, fish and steam vegetables. The salad had pears and candied walnuts but I ate them any way. Today, I weighed in .6 lbs heavier. So that was okay - I didn't gain 2 lbs over night!
Today we had nachos so we really crossed over the carb today! Tomorrow we will see.
So as of today, I am at 170.8 which is .6 below my LDD and Mike is at 244.2, which is .4 above his LDD. So all in all we are still doing well.

Tomorrow we will see how much we gained after the nachos! It was in indulgence but we will see how it affects our bodies and weight. Tonight is chicken and salad for dinner so we are still doing our low-carb thing - maybe to counter act our lunch!

One more week on the low-carb but we have started cheating already by adding a few things. Except for the nachos, we have been pretty good. Keeping the carb count below 20 mostly.

So until tomorrow! Cross your fingers it is not too much weight gain!!

Friday, September 3, 2010

P3 D11-15

Another week on P3. This week was more stable on the weight then the last week. We are eating pretty good also. As I mentioned in my last post, we found some low carb or zero carb bread products. I know the protocol says no starches but we have added them to our diets. It has helped us tremendously because we are satisfying our cravings. In addition, the products are adding bulk that helps fill us up. We are not over doing it so we are glad. I am now down .8 from my LDD and as of today weighed in at 170.6. I had wanted to get into the 160's by the end of P2 but didn't make it. Since my LDD weight was 171.8 and I am allowed 2 lbs below (or above). than that means I can get to 169.8 without any issues. Mike is .6 lbs lighter than his LDD. So all in all we are still rocking.

I forgot to mention we have been doing 2 tblspns of raw apple cidar vinegar. We had started that at the end of P2 and have tried to do it every day on P3. Not sure if it is helping but it sure isn't hurting.

I keep bragging about this diet to anyone who wants to hear about it. :-) We both are very pleased of course. My total loss as of today is 17.8 and Mike's is 28.2 in 38 days. You can't beat that!