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

[DebbietheHugBug]

Hi and thank you :wave

I didn't post my menus cuz I have a link to my fitday, but I'll post here if it helps :nod

Yesterday I had:
B - spinach omelet which included 3 med eggs and 1/2 C spinach cooked in 2 pats of butter
No snack
L - Salad of 1 C spinach, 1/2 green pepper, 2 med HB eggs and 3 (or so) TBS ranch dressing, about 4 oz chicken
S - 1 cloud
D - 1 C broccoli w/approx 2 tbs mayo and another 4-6 oz. chicken

I did have a very tiny glass of wine ensive

Oh, and I drank about 3-1/2 liters of water

Cals 1384 Fat 62% Carbs 14 Protein 29%

Ok, about me. I am 48, soon to be 49 on Jul 31st. I have 2 grown daughters, 31 & 26. My oldest lives in Portland, OR. I remarried last Aug on Friday the 13th.. LOL it's been wonderful! I work in accounting for a company that owns radio stations. We love to camp, gamble, party with friends and relax. We love animals. We feed all the wildlife when we camp. We have 2 cats of our own and a few more that adopted us that hang out in our yard and we take care of them.

I don't have TOMs really. I had my uterus taken out 14 years ago but kept my ovaries that no longer work. I'm in menopause and had been taking Premarin but felt it was making me pack on the weight so I'm using some over the counter stuff that doesn't really work but what the heck?

I'm allergic to chocolate (I know, what's the point in living???) LOL but I obviously make up for it in other ways. My biggest weakness food-wise are chips. I love angel food cake and hope I can find a decent low carb recipe for it someday. I love white wines, my faves being Chardonnay and Reisling.

Anything else? :yikes Thanks for letting me in! I had gotten to the nut rung but started gaining so I thought I'd start over and see if I can do it right this time.

[maribelle]

Menu: Here it is for today:
B 4 1/2 oz. patties, 2 eggs
L "Sausage Pizza" HA FOOLED YA! Its just fried Pork Sausage in a dish
with melted Mozz cheese, sliced tomato, onion, and green pepper
S Meat seasoned with chili powder, salad, 1 oz. cheddar cheese

From FitDay:
Total: 1803
Fat: 133 1200 68%
Sat: 50 449 25%
Poly: 16 142 8%
Mono: 55 491 28%
Carbs: 23 68 4%
Fiber: 6 0 0%
Protein: 124 495 28%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

I'm debating wether or not to have a half an apple too, since that wasn't the next rung.

Debbie, SO NICE TO MEET YOU! Sorry to hear about your health concerns. I hope this diet helps you out tremendously. One thing I've heard helps alot with menopause is progesterone creams available at health stores. Have you ever tried it?
I like Riesling, but not Chardonney...too dry for me. I like my wine to taste fruity and just a touch sweet. I like the really sweet ones too. My dad calls it "Kindervasser" which I guess means "children's water" in German. Chips are not too much of a weakness here, unless I have one. Then its hard to stop. Its just pure sweets for me.

Camping sounds so fun! I love it, but my DH has an aversion to bugs, so there's no hope for us! :raving

About the nut rung...you probably just found your CCLL. That level of carbs that you have to stay beneath to lose or maintain. Were you keeping track? Thats what Tickle and I are talking about trying to find. Instead of starting over, you could just drop back below that carb level, and you should start losing again.

Glad you joined us! Best of luck!

[DebbietheHugBug]

Mari, thanks :wave

Good point about the nut rung. Actually, to be honest, I lose sooooooo sloooowwwwwllllly, that I didn't lose anything during any of the rungs. I was going to move to the veggie rung next week and try again. Maybe take it slower this time.

We haven't noticed any bugs while camping the last few years. Maybe we are too engrossed with the cute critters that scurry around our campground ensive Those citronella candles work real well, too.

[maribelle]

I think Kansas has its own gigantic bug factory! Its true we have mosquitos right now that are a good 3/4 inch big, and they leave nasty welts. Oh well, comes with the territory.

[DebbietheHugBug]

EEEWWWWWWWW :tounge

Sorry to hear that.

[maribelle]

Ok, add a half an apple and a teensy bit of ice cream, and my calories are up to 1900, and my carbs are 29. I know apples aren't on my rung, but carbs are still low...I'll do better tomorrow.

[tickletussler]

Hello Girls!!!!!!!!!! :flowerki:

Me thinks I've missed all the action by sleeping during your daytime, eh?

And don't talk about beer Marion :yikes I absolutely love the sweet german beers (lucky can't get them so much in Australia), and just hearing you talk about them is taking my head back to Europe... LOL :yummy

After all those conditions we gave you, glad to see you are back here Debbie :hug
We use Fitday too, but all the foods we enter into Fitday just look like ingredients, so we try and post our meals into this challenge as perhaps sharing menus can inspire the other to try something new I say, if wine is your legal food, and helps keep you sane on this Atkins journey, then who are we to judge or deprive you of it? If it doesn't make you stall or cause cravings, and it works for you, then it's ok. (Shhhh... don't tell anyone else I said this, don't want some mod coming in to give me a lecture )

Debbie, when you mentioned the nut rung, it made me think. I had an ounce of macadamias on Monday, and massive cravings on Tues & Wed... I don't suppose... ensive
... but ONE OUNCE? that's 11 macadamias... :nono let's come back to this when I get to the nuts rung, for now, I'll forget that!

Marion , that sausage pizza dish sounds :yummy I did envision this large pizza-sized piece of sliced sausage (you know, cut cross-ways) with all the pizza toppings, you know?

Guess what girls???

NO CRAVINGS TODAY - none, zip, nada, zilch LOLOLOL man I was :joy this morning and realised how much agony it was to fight the craving from morning till bed-time. Do you know as I was finishing up with ADBB last night, I ate 1 packet of pork rinds??? And here I was thinking this morning, 'oh no, water retention, bloating, ugh' and guess what? I woke up seeing the scales trying to lose a pound! I say "trying" coz despite me hopping on and off 6 times, it couldn't make up its mind on which weight it wanted to be LOL So any way you look at it, I'm a happy girl today

And I've decided to forge ahead and try and find my CCLL. (don't know if you've read my journal) but I'll keep increasing fortnightly till I stop losing for 4 weeks OR gain weight. But you know what? It was soooooooooo hard to try and get to 25g carbs *hehe* esp when I don't snack, eat a lot of eggs, use a lot of herbs or spices or soy, and very little cheese - most of my carbs just has to come from veggies - and I ended up eating 8 cups of veggies and I had to eat something slightly higher in carb content that usual (like cabbage) just to make it to 23g !!!!

Oh well, this should be interesting... ensive

btw Marion , apples are a good thing to cheat on (much better than oreos )

[maribelle]

HI TICKLE!!!! Ok, I'm trying to remember where I mentioned that delicious B...word. Can't say it, since you told me not to!

:joy :joy :joy :joy :joy SO GLAD YOU'RE CRAVING HAVE STOPPED!!! It could be the nuts, Ari, since I've heard others say it does it to them too. Maybe just because your body isn't used to them. My pizza actually ended up being gross, becuase I fell in with the salt shaker, and after that could only eat the toppngs with just a little of the meat. Next time I have to remember NO SALT!

Good going on forging ahead! I hope its easy sailing, and I'll be here to keep ya strong! Did you get my email? I'm on and off through out the day, so I may not always be able to respond immediately, but fire away!

Ok, ladies, I'm going for my hike soon, so here's my menu really quick:

[tickletussler]

that was so quick I don't think I even saw your menu Marion! *heehee*

Yeah I got the email and sent one back to you

[DebbietheHugBug]

G'morning! :wave

Darn those cravings! The only nuts I had on that rung were unsalted sunflower seeds and chopped walnuts. Personally, I think it was something from the dairy rung that was getting me. I'll just have to be more careful :nod

Soooo... where is this mysterious menu? LOL Mine never changes much. I just throw something together in the morning and eat it when I get to work. I know, I know, we are suppose to eat within 2 hours of waking up but.......... :help So here's my menu. AND last night I had green tea instead of wine. I'm saving it for the weekend :yes

B - Coffee & 1 Splenda (I haven't changed to decaf yet.. slap me)
Omelet made w/3 med eggs and 1/2 C spinach cooked in butter
S - none
L - Salad w/1C spinach, 1/2 green pepper, 2 med hard boiled eggs, about 3TBS ranch dressing, some chicken
D - Not sure yet. Probably 1C broccoli and more chicken

Cal 1279 Fat 65% Carbs 4% Protein 31% Net carbs 15

I'm going shopping tonight for my "legal" food for camping this weekend. So I won't be working out tonight, but I have worked out Mon, Tue & Wed so I could use a rest. :sarcasm

Y'all hang in there! See ya later :hug

[tickletussler]

15g carbs? :confused Hey Debbie, how do you manage to keep it so low and eat your eggs and have your dressing? I'm curious, because when I eat that many eggs, plus eat my veggies, I find it really hard to keep the carbs to less than 20g. I know some days when I eat only 3 cups veg, I'm absolutely struggling to get to 15g, and trying to up my carb level to 25g - :yikes I'm having to eat 8-10 cups veggies

Looooove green tea, esp the Japanese green tea - tastes pretty special.

Marion, looking forward to hearing about your hike - hopefully each day will get easier :hug

[DebbietheHugBug]

Tickle, those are the figures that Fitday gave me. 19 carbs and 6 fiber but I added in 2 more carbs for my salad dressing.

[maribelle]

HA HA HA!!!! Funny me! Yeah, I got distracted and forgot the menu part.
B. 4 oz. sausage, 2 eggs, 1 T. chopped onion
L. 1/2 spit turned chicken w/ skin,
S. Pork stir fried with 2.5 cups total of cauliflower, broccoli, onion, celery, 1 sliced mushroom, and 2 baby carrots, sprinkle of powdered ginger, garlic and onion powders, and splash of soy sauce

The walk was AWESOME! But I was pushing it to hard and started having chest pain, so sat for awhile, than continued slowly. When I get that digital camera, I'll take pictures of the place where I hike and post them. SO GORGEOUS! Your menus sound so yummy! Shopping for trips like that is so fun, isn't it? I'm going in now to get some lemons and some more ketostix. I haven't tested in a while, and I'm afraid of what I'll find. Been trying to stay away from them, since if I find I'm not in ketosis, I have gotten frustrated and used it as an excuse to cheat in the past...stupid me!

Got your email back, Ari...thanks. Hope you both had fantastic days!

[maribelle]

GOOD MORNING!!! Man, I could go back to bed, I'm so BUSHED this morning. Must have been all that walking and late night cleaning! It was worth it this morning to wake up to it, and I find myself looking around falling in love with my house all over.

Well, I'm close to getting back down to that 315...if I keep walking, I think I'll bust out below it any day! I can really feel the positive effects of finally moving my arse!

So...what 'cha all up to today? Hey Deb, if you're going camping, are you going to be able to post? Do you take a campable lap top with you? If not, make sure you let us know on Monday how you did fighting the temptations. (Wine IS ok, in small amounts, but if you drink more than say 8 oz, you will switch your body from burning fat, and it will burn alchohol. Then it might take you a couple days to get back into ketosis. Not a criticism, just a thought... :yes You've been doing AWESOME with that green tea! So full of antioxidents!) I hope you have fun!!! I'm finding myself a little envious!

Hey Ari! How did your day go? Be sure you get a good nights sleep!

MENU:
B. 2 scrambled eggs, 2 sl. american cheese
L. grilled fish and scallops with 1 T. tartar sauce and some melted butter, and 1 c. steamed cauliflower
S. Fried tuna on a salad with 1 oz. mozzerella, 1/4 apple chopped, 1 T. almond slivers, 1 T. onion

OK, bye for now. :hug :hug :hug Catch up with you all as you post.

[DebbietheHugBug]

Mari, good job!! :icondance Exercise always makes me feel better, even though I get sore. I say "it hurts so good!" :guns

I don't have a laptop so I won't be able to post. I'll let you know Monday how the camping goes. I went shopping last night and made a bunch of "legal" stuff to take. I got some amazing ideas on another thread.

Thanks for the info on the wine. I never knew how much it took to stop the fat burning and start the alcohol burn. 8 oz, not very much. I can't promise myself that I won't have more than that but I'm not going excessively over do it, either. :nod

I don't know how to count the carbs/fats/cals for my menu today but here is what it looks like:

B - this is something I found on another thread that sounded good and I'm getting sick of the same omelet everyday: I had a small portion of this, here is what is in it: Huge container sour cream, 8 med eggs, about 1/4C Splenda, about 1TBS Vanilla, a TBS or so of Davinci sugar free Hazelnut syrup. Baked in a 9X11 pan (made a HUGE batch!) I had about 1/20th of it this morning LOL.. mmm.. tasty!

L - Salad made w/1C spinach (I love my spinach), 1/2 green pepper, 2 med hard boiled eggs, about 3TBS ranch dressing, about 4 oz. Chicken.

D - Dunno yet. We are heading to the mountains as soon as we get home from work. We might have hot dogs & veggies. But my promise to ME is to stick to the program!

Wish me luck! :help

For my craving for chips (thanks to the Fritos in my pantry that I ALMOST gave in to last night). I deep fried some kale and sprinkled with salt. It's different but actually tastes good. Those are my chips LOL!

Very busy today. If I can't post later, I'll see y'all on Monday! I hope you have a wonderful and "on program" weekend! :joy