OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

[blue996]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Mitzi...you look incredible! Your before and after pics are my new inspiration.

[TitianWasp]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Julie - trust me. The last pounds take for...ev...er!!! I have lost 3 pounds in 3 months, basically - and posted all over the place trying to find the reason/cure/magic bullet. The only thing that seems to be working is cutting the heck out of my calories (down to about 1300) and keeping my carbs around 50, and even then, it's still slow. Really slow. Going-postal slow.

But, again, I am not starving, I am not fantasizing about fettucine alfredo and birthday cake - maybe this is the price we pay for being able to eat butter. At the very end, it just takes a long, long time. I think maybe we get addicted to the fast, easy losses early on and it's a bit of a shocker to have things come to a screeching halt.

Keep it up, keep tweaking (if for no other reason than to keep it interesting). Everyone has a formula for the remainder of their weight - finding it is the key.
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And on that hypocritic note, I gave in big-time last night. I was really hungry at breakfast, so I had a large (atkins-friendly) omelette with cheese, ham and mushrooms. Up there calorie-wise. Lunch was a perfectly acceptable grilled chicken caesar. I looked at my calories/carbs and started thinking about dinner. I needed to get my carbs up considerably (they were at 13 at that point and I was aiming for 50/60), and decided to have a lean cuisine when I got home - low in calories and almost 25 carbs.

Boy am I dumb.

Let's call last night the perfect storm. A point in time when 3 separate catastrophic forces come together to create one explosive conflagration that wipes out everything in its path (as well as a good portion of my kids' leftover hallowe'en candy). Stress (from the interviews), PMS (self-explanatory) and exhaustion (two sick kids waking up repeatedly during the night). I was doomed from the start. 5 or 6 fun-sized candybars, cream of tomato soup and 1/4 of a grilled cheese sandwich followed the lean cuisine.

I will not eat a large breakfast again. Lesson learned. I will also not touch another lean cuisine. They can sit and rot in my freezer until my kids go to college. Today I ate my 1 egg egg-salad, and my 1oz serving of cheese and my 1 coffee with splenda. Drinking my water, back on the horse, another day.

[julirama723]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Mitzi--I know what's supposed to happen in pre-maintenance, and I guess it's happening now...except I'm NOT in pre-maintenance yet! I was going to begin pre-maintenance when I hit 160 (because I wanted to get to 155 or 150) and slowdown that's happening to my body now is NOT by choice! That's the frustrating part. If I were eating 100g a day and eating higher rung foods to slow down the weight loss, then I would be fine with that. But I'm eating tons of veggies, working out, and averaging 50g a day.

And my weight is constantly fluctuating, but I think that has more to do with gaining muscle, rather than just losing weight. If I think about it, I have been getting incrementally smaller this whole time, but it seems to be taking forever. I guess I just thought I had a long ways to go still...when I look at all of these other people that are in pre-maintenance and how small/thin they are! I know, I know, I shouldn't compare myself to anyone else because we're all built differently.

Titian--I think cutting my calories that drastically would put my losses to a halt. I exercise 6x a week, pretty intensely, and my daily caloric needs are something like 2800 calories. So I try to stay between 1800-2100 calories/day. Who knows, maybe I need to eat MORE calories? Arrrgh.

Thanks for your input on this, folks. I just wish I knew if I were doing something wrong. If it's just going to take time, then I'm fine with that...but I hate the nagging thought that I'm doing something incorrectly.

[*Emma*]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

I'm in the same boat so i cant offer any help...


Heres todays menu

B - 2 cherry tomatoes and a table spoon of tuna-mayo

L - 1 cup cherry tomatoes, 2 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup cucumber 1 tin of tuna (minus the mouthful i had for breakfast, lol) 2 tablespoons mayo

D - Steak with, 1.5 cups asparagus & 1.5 cup mushrooms, all sauteed in butter

Cut out onion as advised by mitzi and other than that i dont think i can get my menu any more clean than it is, *sigh*

This leaves me at

1421 calories

61% fat 5% Carbs 34 % protein

I need more fat and carbs, right? or should i leave it at that?

[mitzimarie]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

This leaves me at

1421 calories

61% fat 5% Carbs 34 % protein

I need more fat and carbs, right? or should i leave it at that?

Yeah, Emma... I think that I would try for a little more carbs and fat, to offset that protein a bit. That's just me, though... you know how paranoid I am about excess protein.

Then, again... 34% really isn't that much higher than 30%. But your calories are a little low, too. So, do you have something yummy that you can eat?

[*Emma*]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

got a pack of cherry tomatoes in the fridge, i guess i could munch on some of those... i wonder how that will change things....

Ok if i add 4 chicken wings fried in olive oil (to get the fat up, as there aint much protein on them!) and a cup of cherry tomatoes i get this

cals -1960

fat - 65%

Carbs - 6% (41 carbs, 28 net carbs)

Protein - 29%

that sounds better doesnt it?

[mitzimarie]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Yep, sounds better! (As long as too many tomatoes aren't a staller)

OWL can be quite tedious, can't it?

[*Emma*]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Well i found it easy going through it, but now it seems like things are affecting me in a way different to they initially did, very annoying, which i guess is why Dr A says in his book - if it is a true plateau go back to induction, if you start losing again, move up thru the rungs, slower, testing each foods individually

I'm just praying that i have a loss at the end of this week so i dont have to do induction. i really do not want to go down to that.

[julirama723]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Eekgads, if I have to go back to induction again...

[gonnabskinny]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Julie and Emma, I wish I had some answers for you. I know it is very frustrating for you seeing the scale not moving. Hang in there! You both have great attitudes and the right discipline to work through and methodically find whatever it is that is causing the scale to stall.

Well, I am back posting my stuff. I have to get these calories under control. Last week, I was running a couple of hundred above where I should be, and yesterday was really out there.

Breakfast
Atkins shake pre workout
4 oz greek yogurt
1/2 cup strawberries
1 cup of Kashi go lean cereal
1/2 cup of soy milk
2 eggs

Lunch
8 oz of spicy chipotle chicken salad
2 cups of cauliflower
1/2 apple
1/2 oz cream cheese

Dinner
8 oz prime rib
1.5 cups of asparagus
2 cups of zucchini

Snack
1 multi grain wasa cracker
1 oz swiss cheese

A whopping 2524 calories, 171 grams of fat 61%, 144 grams of protein 23%, and 82 net carbs 16%

[mitzimarie]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Pre-Breakfast - Atkins Chocolate Royale Shake

Breakfast - MUP with almonds

Lunch - 1 whole, medium cucumber; 130g jicama; 1 ounce cheddar cheese

Snack - 5 stalks celery; 2 tablespoons peanut butter

Dinner - went out to eat Mexican, had the ultimate fajitas (combo of steak, chicken, shrimp, onions, peppers, cheese, sour cream, gaucamole, pico de gallo)

Don't feel like doing Fitday, since I went out tonight.

[*Emma*]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

yummmm, ultimate fajitas, that sounds goooooood!!!

Okay heres todays plan...

B - 4 cherry tomatoes, so not a breakfst person!

L - 1 cup cherry tomatoes, 1/2 a cucumber, one tin of tuna, 4 tablespoons mayo

D - 6oz Steak with fried zucchini me thinks!

1412 Calories

64% fat
7% carbs (31 carbs, 22 net)
29% protein

room for a snack later if i have time, working a 15 hour shift today.. got a 1 hour break for dinner, we'll see...

scales were at 227.2 today, going down but still not down down.

[mitzimarie]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

working a 15 hour shift today..

15 hours?! Oh, Emma... yikes... hope it goes by fast for you.

[TitianWasp]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

Hey all,

Good day yesterday.
B: 1 chopped egg w/ mayo, 1oz sharp cheddar, coffee (splenda & creamer)
L: Mushroom swiss burger with tomato slices, no bun
d: 2 chicken wings and cup of greenbeans with butter.

Snack - 1oz cheddar with coffee (splenda & creamer)
Nice simple day

Today,
B: 1 chopped egg w/ mayo, 1 oz cheddar, coffee with splenda & creamer
L: Mixed salad with scoop of tuna salad and blue cheese dressing
D? TBD

The company I am most interested in contacted me this morning to arrange the final interview. I am meeting with everyone from my peers to the Director of Tech Ops (they scheduled 2 hours for this marathon). This is next Friday. My fingers are sweating right now as I type. I wish I knew what to expect, whether this will be more technical grilling or more of an assessment of my personality and professionalism. Maybe I will ask Hayden.

[elsy]

Re: OWLERS "Stepping Back" thread

O.k. let me see if I can remember what I ate yesterday:

Break:
2 fried eggs in olive oil and 1 slice of pepper jack cheese
1 tbsp of green salsa

Snack:
2 string cheese
1/2 c. Jicama

Lunch:
2 c. lettuce
1 sm. tomatoe
1/2 cucumber
6 oz grilled chicken
2 tbsp of ranch dressing
1/2 c. cottage cheese

Dinner:
Chicken Soup (5 small drumsticks and 1.5 cups of Chicken broth with lots of diced veggies (celery, tomatoe, cilantro, onion)

And then today I had:

Break:
2 fried eggs in olive oil
1 sausage

Snack:
1 oz of almonds

Lunch:

McDonald's Grilled Chicken Salad with Ranch Dressing

Dinner:
Left over chicken soup (4 small drumsticks, chicken broth and diced veggies)