Tickle and Mari's ATKINS CHALLENGE...Finding our CCL

[maribelle]

Ok...your wish is my command! I ATE BANANA BREAD AND OREOS!!!!! Bad me bad me bad me. (((yes I was embarrassed)))

I was tired...and I was sad because I was looking forward to some time with DH, and he had had a bad day and a toothache and went straight to bed. I think thats alot of my problem. Boredom! I was doing some analyzing, and I realized that I may be having the "Seven Year Itch". Its not like I want to cheat or anything...(lmao at the image)...but its like I realized that this is it! Things aren't going to change. This is my life! Does that make any sense? Maybe its a little of the little green monster too, since my SIL is just finishing up on this BEAUTIFUL house they had built out in the country on a lake, and my other SIL got a pool, and my other SIL just had a baby... EUREKA!!! THATS IT! I've just had my eyes open! Thats what this is all about...BOREDOM! With my house, my food, my life...even maybe my marraige a little bit! I think thats why I keep going to sweets, because its differant, and for a few moments, it makes me feel better. HMMMMMMM I don't know if the challenge forum is the place to post all this enlightenment, but Tickle...you've REALLY helped me! Now I know from what area the enemy is coming from, I can defeat him! I feel such a huge wave a relief!

THANK YOU TICKLE!!! :hug :hug :hug

[tickletussler]

:hug :hug You did it!!!! I'm so proud of you!!!! :hug :hug
You admitted it, you're working yourself out, and you have another day to try once again

A lot of times I cheat when I don't want to - when that happens, I recognise that there is something else that was bugging me. Tabekat helped me realise this when I posted that one "Ugh, I posted again" post a few weeks ago. Everyone else was giving me advice, support, whipping my arse for cheating, but Tabekat went past all that, told me I needed a hug, comfort and she gave it. When she posted, I realised, "THAT'S IT" and her post was the post helpful and useful post out of everyone's.

That's why I kept saying to you, to keep trying, to find ways to get through it, because in that process, you will realise it's not all and only about the cheat and satisfying it - it's about what what led you to that cheat

Stuff everyone else! It doesn't matter where you did it, the fact that YOU've made your enlightenment here, it did something to you by saying it out loud (or writing I should say) and it gave you something to move onto for tomorrow.
WELL DONE Marion :hug

I'll catch you again in the morrow

[maribelle]

Lookin' forward to it! Thanks Ari! You're the best!

[tickletussler]

Hey Marion, it's just before dinner time and I SOOOOO don't want to eat dinner ie make/cook another dinner. I'm starving and really want something to eat, but I really want something crunchy - not veggie crunch, but more chips, pork rinds crunchy. So I have opened the pork rinds.

Thing is, right now I don't feel like making dinner. I'm tired, I'm cold, no, I don't have any particular craving, i just want something really easy, tasty and crunchy - something with a junkfood feel, you know?

If you had said that to me, i would've given you either a good lecturing and reminder of why I shouldn't eat it, OR lots of TLC, encouragement, whatever to tide me through.

But I just WANT SOMETHING JUNKFOODY CRUNCHY!!!!!!!!!!
I can't very well just eat 2 bags of pork rinds and no dinner can I?
*sigh*

Ok, the night is still early, I'm on ADBB, let's see how the night pans out for me. I'll post you what I've eaten so far today, and let you know later what I eat btwn now and later.

Brekkie - 2-egg omelette with 2 skinless sausages
Lunch - leftovers from dinner: osso bucco with 2 brussels sprouts
Snack - 4 cups spicy pork crackling
Dinner - ?
I planned stirfried tofu with broccoli, tin of tuna, chillies, garlic & sesame oil... but I don't feel like eating that.

so for now, I'm going to head to the shower whilst I think about how I'll solve this dilemma - maybe it'll go away after the shower

*sigh*

[maribelle]

:hug :hug :hug :hug I so know that feeling! This winter was the pits for me on this diet, because I wanted COMFORT food when it got cold and I was tired. But Pork Rinds are ok! They are a he11 of a lot better than grabbing a bag of chippies, or popcorn, or pretzels. Your words:

I don't know if I should be saying this, but I reckon your menu does look good. THINK ABOUT IT, there are not refined carbs right? All the foods you have eaten so far are all foods that you would include back at some point in your OWL rungs. I reckon dear, if we do "cheat" we shouldn't be so hard on each other if they are "Atkins-acceptable" foods we binged on, coz I reckon it means we're going on the right track, you know?

And that wasn't even a cheat you did!

Do you eat dairy? I used to LOVE eating those plain pork rinds with 2 Tablespoons of bacon cheddar dip, or french onion dip or maybe some cream cheese :yummy . Even Cheese and Salsa can be ok at your level of the game, as long as its within limits. I did find though that taking the amount I wanted to eat out of the bag, and then putting the bag away before I went to eat was safer, since when having the open bag in front of me, I just couldn't stop eating them! You can also nuke them with cheese on them.

Another treat is to crumble them on a salad in place of croutons. Sometimes you just HAVE to have that crunch. I don't know if you have them in Austrailia, but here in the grocery section they have slivered toasted almonds in flavors like garlic and parmesian. I put 1 T. on my salads, and YUM.

Ok, so, I got carried away on the advice. Sorry :no . You've just been such a comfort to me, I wanna be a helper to you too! You did fine!

The low hit again for me last night, right after a supper of nothing but steak. So...I got out of the house. I went to the store to get water, and I kept thinking of things with Splenda in them, but I just kept telling myself, "its not worth the stall, its not worth being sick." So I bought some strawberries, came home, and had 5. They were SO good, just sweet enough! And I was rewarded this morning by losing a pound! :icondance It has REALLY helped to be able to put a name to the problem, because now I feel all renewed! Like "I CAN DO THIS"! I haven't felt that way in a long time! We're gonna reach goal, Ari! We really are! You just a bit sooner than me, lol! :hug

[tickletussler]

Hey Marion, thank you for all your warm and fuzzy caring! :hug

Later has arrived, I'm really tired, I don't even really feel like giving anyone a hard time tonight or even giving advice, just don't feel like posting.

But you will be pleased to know that I have survived a near-cheat!

OK, I ended up eating something like 5 cups of pork rinds - a bag of it. The ones I get are spiced with chilli, soy, spices and flavour enhancers, made in Thailand. They aren't plain, but they taste good. I'm even wondering if the ones I get here are the same as you're talking about? They kind of looked like deep fried pieces of fat - all white, puffed up, very light, has a junkfoody feel - similar texture as those chinese crackers you'd get in the chinese restaurants - except it says "pork skin" on the ingredients. I can't find them plain here, but they're pretty nice as they are.

After eating pork rinds, I was restless. I finally moved onto the dinner I had planned - except I didn't have the broccoli, I had something called garlic shoots. I have no idea what the carb count on this is - tried doing a search in the net, and they seem to be also known as garlic scapes - whatever that is. The pictures looked the same - I'll see if I can find pictures of those again.

Anyway, I've ended up eating nearly 3,000 cals, but I don't care at the moment - I didn't eat a cheat food! :yes

You do know that I'm glad you survived dinner too? You had your steak, and you went for your walk. Then you had your strawberries and avoided any cheating - you're great, you know that? WE'VE DONE IT TOGETHER MARION - both of us survived a cheat-free day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:hug :hug :hug :hug :hug :hug :hug :hug :hug :hug :hug

[maribelle]

That's right!!!! We did it!!! Hurray for us!!! And its just the beginning!

Today's plan:
B. mexi eggs (taco meat, 2 eggs, little chopped onion and tomato, 1 T. cream cheese)
L. 5 oz. leftover steak fried with tomato, green pepper, and onion
S. baked chicken with flax seed gravy, green beans.

(1744 calories, 112 fat+60%; 25carbs-11 Fiber=15 carbs=3%; 156 protein=37%)

[tickletussler]

YAY Marion - thanks for the encouragement yesterday, I'm much better now I've had decent night's sleep. I've been staying up way too late to catch up on the excitement of ADBB - some nights till 3am :no, so last night I managed to have around 8hrs sleep for a change!

Your menu's lookin' good - more veggies, but you're doing well!

Hey, are you onto OWL yet? I was just wondering how I'm going to get a wriggle along - maybe I could move to Nuts, but I'm still debating doing that or going ahead and doing a mad dash for my CCLL

You know that tofu, tuna, garlic scapes mix I did for my din? That felt VERY much comfort-food like - warm, stewy, tasty, and a big bowl of it at that - plus those crunch pork rinds, that did the spot :yes I hate being succumbed to emotional food-thingies, and not looking forward to finding out what TOM will do to me this month - last month, I discovered for the first time that TOM DID affect me and I went for massive emotional eating without realising it. So fingers crossed, will get through it this time!

Those flavoured slivered almonds you were were talking about - they sound nice! They sound so nice I'm likely to eat all of them straight out of the packet instead of sprinkling onto salad LOL I have't seen them yet, but maybe it's not such a good idea to look?

The low hit again for me last night, right after a supper of nothing but steak. So...I got out of the house. I went to the store to get water, and I kept thinking of things with Splenda in them, but I just kept telling myself, "its not worth the stall, its not worth being sick." So I bought some strawberries, came home, and had 5. They were SO good, just sweet enough! And I was rewarded this morning by losing a pound! :icondance

I'm SOOOO happy that you got through this :joy - really happy when I first read about it, and reading it again! You're defeating it!!!!!! YAY :hug

Ok, better go do some now I think

[maribelle]

GOOD MORNING, ARI!!! (Although for you its good night, I think!) I did alright yesterday. I think I moved on to OWL without telling myself. I just couldn't keep induction up anymore. I've been trying to do it for a full year, and I think it was too strict and thats why I kept screwing up. The added veggies, although still under 25 carbs really helped yesterday! I especially enjoyed the green beans with supper. So I guess that puts me on the fruit and veggie rung. The low didn't hit last night until after I should have been in bed, and I think it was related to the two cups of decaf coffee, and the screaming of my neice and nephew.

SO glad you feel better! Its amazing what a good night's sleep can do. My mom used to tell me when I would get bent out of sorts, "just go to bed, Marion! You'll feel better in the morning!" I never agreed with her at night, but always felt better in the morn. And as far as the emotional eating goes...FOOD IS COMFORTING :yes . We all need that comfort once in a while, as long as we don't go back to being dependant on it. It was legal comfort food...thats the best kind! It feels like a warm fuzzy hug!

I did add 1/4 fuji apple, and 3 strawberries yesteday too. I think it helped. They were spread out over the day.

TODAYS MENU:
B. 3 eggs, 2 pc. cheese omelet
L. "Maribelle's SeaFood Chowder" Scallops, clams, heavy cream, broth from the scal. & clam, butter, onion, garlic. (all portions very limited)
S. Fried tuna on a salad with tomato and 1 T. Almond Accents, 1 T. mozz cheese

(1883 cals: 129 fat=65%; 21 carbs-2F=19 carbs=4%; 141 protein=31%)


Hope you have a WONDERFUL day today...or night...or both! :hug

[tickletussler]

EEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! I forgot to post in here Marion - only remembered when your journo posted up as "new"

Those pork rinds are baaaaad for me - I've been up 3-4 pounds for the last couple mornings (I put 2lbs in my journo, but realised I've gotten these metric-imperial conversions wrong again!) Seriously think it's water retention because I've been really good with my eating last week and I definitely think it's those rinds. Unfortunately i just bought another 6 bags again yesterday - must limit to 1-2 cups only instead of the whole bag, otherwise I'll just have to stop buying them!

On Friday, I didn't eat lunch & dinner at home. Decided to eat lunch out with colleagues, and went to see "Mr & Mrs Smith" in evening, so we popped into the Chinese restaurant next door. Remind me to limit my eating-out at Chinese! So this is what I ate:

B- simply not hungry
L- salad with lettuce, celery, egg, bacon, bean sprouts, cucumbers in Caesar dressing
D- deep-fried (prob flour-coated) pork ribs in Portuguese sauce (thickened with flour by the looks of it). Tofu & mustard greens topped with salted cabbage (tasted sweet, so most likely had sugar in it)

On Saturday, we both slept in till really late, surfed the net, read in bed, had naps, so really we didn't eat anything all day. We met up with some friends for a birthday at a canteen-atmosphere family restaurant that was supposed to serve really nice seafood & crab dishes, but turned out to be disappointing. Btwn fiance & I we shared 2 blue swimmer crabs, 6 prawns and 2 racks of ribs. The crabs & prawns were sprinkled with paprika and the ribs tasted the same - probably had sugar in it too. "Garden salad" was measly. For dessert there was birthday cake, and I had to have a few bites... ok, that was naughty, but boy! It was :yummy ! It is nice to look forward to it once I reach Maintenance. I KNOW for me the occasional sweet tooth in the future will be ok for me. I know I have learnt moderation :yes no matter what anyone else tells me. I didn't feel like eating the cake, and when I did, I did enjoy it, and I also knew when to stop - that's the important thing, isn't it?

Hey Marion, have you tried finding your CCLL? I know you're going up the rungs, staying on 25g, but have you tried finding your CCLL first and then going through the rungs?
I'm asking coz I wanna find my CCLL and then fall back and do the rungs as the mods suggests, but I can't work out how I'm going to increase one carb level weekly as DANDR suggests, and stop when the weight slows or stalls. I mean, because I am not far from goal, I don't lose weight real quick, so how would I know I was stalling or that it just takes longer to get to a certain weight - you know what I mean?

Fuji apples - are they what are also known as nashi pears or is it persimmons? ensive do you know it took me months just to work out arugula was the same as rocket here? LOL I reckon there are much nicer veggies in the northern hemisphere!

:yummy :yummy :yummy Your seafood chowder looks yummy!!!!! I did at Atkins-based fish chowder - same ingredients as yours, actually maybe i skipped on the onions, but added lots of herbs, and that was fantastic! And super low-carb too so i ate double the amount LOL Your fried tuna sound delish too!

Oh, don't ask me for the carb/cals on my menus for the last couple of days - I ate out for all meals so have no idea what the carb count is! But I did try and stick as close to Atkins-friendly foods as possible

Cheers.

[maribelle]

I'm sorry the sodium from your pork rinds made the water stick to ya a little. Might also be that TOM is starting its sad but necessary cycle again? Sometimes it seems like when we find something we really enjoy, thats the thing we have to limit! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH human nature! :no But the good news is, you learned from it, and you moved on! Thats the brightest side of human nature. You can still enjoy them, just not as many at a time. Sounds like you had a fun relaxing weekend. Mine is about to get turned up a notch...I have to go bbsit for my in-laws, and there is NO discipline in that house. :yikes


Thats not a bad idea...I could try to figure out my ccl. I'm kinda very satisfied at this stage though. It's put just enough new food at my fingertips to reenergize me. Fruit has never tasted so good! I don't necessarily know how you would tell the differance between a stall or CCL, but I think I remember Dr. A saying that when you reach that level where you start to put #'s back on, thats when you drop back down to the level right before, and thats your ccl. Does that make sense? I'm always confusing myself.

I read in your journal that you're feeling a bit burnt out on the ADBB. I'm SO hoping its not because of me and all the encouragement I needed. It really feels like I've found a friend in you, Ari, and I wouldn't want to burn you out. You'll never know how much I appreciate the comforting words and encouragement you gave. :hug :hug Hope your weekend continues to be really relaxing.

Menu:
B 2 Sausage patties, 2 eggs, 2 sl. cheese
L. 8 oz. hamburger, little onion, 10 grapes
S. 3 brats, garden salad

2292 calories, 176 fat= 70%; 37 Carbs-7fiber=30=136; protein=24%

3rd day SPLENDA FREE! Feeling better!

[tickletussler]

Nah, it's not you Marion :hug it's me hanging round ADBB too much. Barbs kindly reminded me that I didn't have to respond to every post I saw! LOL

Hey, what are brats?

[maribelle]

Bratwurst...1 carb per serving, and one of my favorite yums!

2 more pounds down!!!! I guess my body was really ready to move on, and thats what its been trying to tell me!

How was your day? I have this time grid thing, and I think its trying to tell me you're at about 8:30 PM now. Its so strange to think my Sunday has just begun, and yours is about to end. Mine shouldn't quite have begun yet, but I had a few hungry kitties who decided they couldn't wait anymore.

Ok, Menu
B. 2 oz. sausage, 2 sl. bacon, 2 eggs, 5 melon balls
L. 2 brats. salad w/ 1/2 Roma tomato, 3 onion rings
S. 8 oz. steak, 1 1/2 cup asparagus

I noticed I missed a couple of questions you asked. Fuji apples are a mild, semi sweet, firm fleshed apple, yellow and red in color, and its from New Zealand. They also had Gala and Braeburn from NZ, but the Gala is too mushy and sweet, and the Braeburn is too tart! And I'm not sure I'm going to try to find my CCLL yet. I still have 150+ pounds to lose, and I don't want to slow it down yet. Its kinda like I finally found my nitch again, and I don't want to blow it. But I'll cheer you on as you find yours. Have you moved on to the nut rung yet? I had macadamia and almonds last year when I added them in. They were so tasty, it was hard for me to stop. Another item I had to portion out and put away.


Hope you are having/have had a beautiful day, and that your refreshed and ready to start the week tomorrow. Catch ya later!

[tickletussler]

YAY to Marion!!!!!!!!! Congrats on the weightloss. Have you added it into JimmieJo's pound count?

bratwurst sausages right? I thought most sausages had carbs in the form of flour or rice? 1g carbs sounds really low

there is a 17-hour difference between Sydney and San Jose/Dallas. Don't quite know where you are geographically, so you could say it's just after 10pm right now - probably another couple of hours more than what your grid says? You know what's weird? It's flying to the US and finding that we've lost nearly 2 days. But on the trip back from the US to Sydney, you leave and arrive on the same day!

I need to go out and buy some macadamias tomorrow. I've managed to stay away from those rinds for a day or so now, and i was relieved to see I was back to the same weight - ok, maybe ½ pound more, but I'm relieved anyway. Those pork rinds are evil! They sound like junkfood, they crunch like junkfood and they make me retain water like em *hehe*. I absolutely love pistachios and I don't think I'd be able to restrain myself - perhaps not such a good idea to buy them. I mean there is an element of truth in the saying that the foods that you really like to eat are often the ones that could cause you problems

I don't think I've ever heard Kiwis talk about Fuji apples. Don't you think it's weird how each country gives it's own name to the same foods? For example, what you know as red onions, we call them Spanish onions. What we know as "danish pastry" or "apple danish", is called "Vienna bread" in Denmark. Go to Vienna, and they call em "Spanish rolls"

Regarding finding your CCLL - I remember Megs doing some posts on it - she said, to increase carb levels weekly and find our CCLLs. Once that's done, then we can drop back to the carb level that we liked. Her analogy was that if you find our CCLL really early on, then you know what your max boundaries are. It doesn't mean you have to eat at your CCLL - it just gives you some sort of security knowing that for example, if your CCLL was 50g, and one day you cheated on some oreos and your day's total came to 35g instead of the 25g you wanted to be at, then you know that you are still gonna lose even though you stuffed up on your oreos - know what I mean?

Considering I didn't go to bed till 6am (it was so fun chatting in the journals!), so I slept till 10:30am, bummed around, made lunch for us, went back to sleep for the afternoon, made dinner and I'm back. So can't say I really did much all day. It was a beautiful 64degF today. I'm still waiting for our winter to get colder. Looks like it came late this year

Ok, before I ramble on too much more, here's what I ate on Sunday:

L - ½ cup garlic scapes in 4-egg omelette cooked in olive & sesame oil
D - 8oz of pan-fried tiny shrimp :yummy to start with. For mains stirfried pork slices with buk choy, broccoli and 1 cup sliced fennel
Other - 1.5tsp flax seeds and 8tsp psyllium husks
CARBS 20G CALORIES 2,456+ 76%fats/3%carbs/21%protein

[maribelle]

CONGRATS on losing that stinkin' water!!!! Yeah, sodium is the next evil next to sugar! They must DIE!!! Ok, so we'ld die without a little of each, but oh well!

Menu as usual sounded good...but much differant from mine! :yes I love seeing what new thing you ate.

You gave me food for thought over the CCLL, but I need to plan it out now, and research it in the book a little to see what my next move will be.
I am two time zones East of San Jose, but only one from Dallas...this whole stinkin' time zone thing blows my mind! I mean, how can anyone really be in the next day? You're airplane time zone thing blew my mind for the day, and I'm gonna be a trifle stupider for the rest of it from trying to figure that out! LMAO!
The differant names for things in differant countries is interesting...but one thing will never have a name change...VEGEMITE!!!! It'll always be all yours, baby! :yes

NOW GO TO BED!!! On the boards till 6 AM???????? Sheesh woman! See ya in the morning!