Ok, yesterday I did not do so well. I hit about 1400 calories, although I do have an exuse - I went out for lunch with people from work.

Today I am not doing so good either. In addition to my regular breakfast, I could not resist a bottle of starbucks frappucino, mostly because my brain was still deeply asleep at 10 am. I did this all to myself - I did not go to bed on time even 1nce this week, and it all caught up to me today. I should know better, but there are just so many things that I want to do at home(so many websites to browse, so much to learn, so many books to read), that my "one more thing" ends up keeping me up longer. It did not help that I had 2 horse magazines come in this week, and I can never resist reading almost all of their articles at once!

All I have to say is TGIF and I cannot wait to go to bed tonight and sleep in tomorrow!

Good for you on sleeping in! And just take this as your "day off".. as for the Starbucks Frap. Yeah I can NOT resist those myself. So I don't allow my self to hit Starbucks often.. their scones or muffins whisper my name when I am in there too. Its just....calories galore waiting to strike..

So upward and onward from here for you!

too funny as we have a starbucks in our office building (:O) and it is rough to avoid!! i hear ya on the not getting enough sleep and staying up too late, i've done the same this week. paula truly is the 'guiding light'...i'm sure she'll help you tons.

MORE IMPORTANTLY - CONGRATS ON THE INCHES LOST!!! THAT IS AWESOME!!! and you are right, a much better way to tell that what you are doing is working!!

Great job.

The last two meals means the snack and dinner. I would personally try to get close to 15 grams of protein per meal. Anything over that is fine (although your body can only use about 20-25 grams at a time so anything over that is a waste). That cereal you have would probably be a good protein source but how many carbs are in it?
A general rule of thumb is that whatever the food has most of, that's what "source" it is for you. For example, yogurt has both carbs and protein but it has more carbs so it is a carb source.

Your workout is on the way (via email)... I know you said you prefer to exercise at home so let me know what exercises (from the list) you can do at home and what ones you can't and we'll modify it from there.

Thanks A LOT, Paula, you're the BEST!

The cereal has 30g of carbs, including 10g of fiber.

My pleasure! Okay so the cereal is a carb source. I would have a couple hard boiled eggs with it and then between the eggs and the cereal, you'll get enough protein.

Cool. I do like eggs, but all that hype about cholesterol in them, and how you're supposed to minimize them really conditioned me to stay away from them. I still eat them, but like once a month. One thing about eggs is that I LOVE the yoke (which is the bad part of it, from what I heard). Anyway, I think I'll be eating eggs for breakfast now.

I think this protein diet will make me feel good, because I get really sudden sugar drops if I eat sweets, especially without complex carbs and protein. Even after today's Starbucks coffee (30g of sugar, yuck) I felt completely full and fine for several hours, and then in a matter of minutes I was starving like crazy. Hate that sugar drop, so all this protein should really help!

Thanks, Paula! Hope you have a great weekend. Paining is hard work, you can loose pounds doing that, so good luck!

Hi, isnt that cholesterol the ok kind? not sure cant quite rember, but I know that eggs are really good for you, they have just about every vitiamin you need in them. I have trouble geting my daughter to eat and the doctor was raving about eggs and if I can get her to have a egg every day then all her nutrients would be taken care off. So they have got to be good for you. Sounds like your going well and on the right track. Late night are a hard one when your in the habbit of them, its just managing to break the cycle. Hope you have a good week.

It all depends on the egg, they suggest for people that are trying to lose weight and obtain a healthy heart ( including watching cholesterol ) to go for the omega-3 eggs ( they're eggs that come from hens that were fed with mainly alfafa and things of that nature )

Interesting info, Zoila and Tigny, Thanks!

Ok, I made an "attempt" at Paula's diet today:
Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 mini whole wheat bagel with butter, 1 coffee with 2tsp sugar
Snack: 1 serving package of chips, 200 cal
Lunch: Hamburger helper leftover (mostly hamburger meat with some cheesy sauce and noodles)
Dinner: flounder with veggies.
Snack: cottage cheese w/1tsp of sugar.

Ok, I know that chips was not a good choice of snack, but I completely forgot about cottage cheese in the refrigirator, and I got a sudden drop of sugar around 12pm, so had to eat some quick-absorbing carbs. I followed up with lunch an hour later. I'm beginning to get irritated with the sugar drop. I had my blood sugar tested(the fasting test), and the doc said that it is completely normal. My breakfast was big (300 cals), and no sugar, except for coffee. Why did I still get a sugar drop?

My exercise was good today. I went horse riding, it was a great day for it. Tomorrow hubby and I are thinking of going skiing. Would be great if we did, as it would give me another good workout, but I have to see how I feel tomorrow. Even walking out to the pasture to get a horse was really hard, was exhausted after that, but I seemed to feel better after a ride.

Allright, I'm not doing very well with my diet here. My attempt at Paula's diet was a complete disaster. After eating dinner last night, I was still hungry, so had cottage cheese as snack (still good, almost no carbs), but a few hours later, cravings for carbs and hunger was amazing, and I ended up binging on ice-cream, of all things, leading to almost 1400 total for the day. I was still hungry even after eating ice cream, but made my self go to bed instead of eating.

This morning I wake up hungrier then ever, eat 2 eggs and a toasted mini-bagel, and am still hungry! I don't understand what's wrong with me! My usual breakfast would have been just a mini-bagel with butter and coffee, and I would feel satisfied. Is my body just going through a "hungry" period, or is it reacting to not having carbs/starches at night? Or could it be that my body is having trouble processing protein, so its demanding more food? I have to say, I was not that hungry/binging ever since I started dieting in December, so it is not usual for me.

Could my body be reacting to a consistant calorie deficit for the last 2 month, and therefore sending stronger hunger signals, sort of "survival" mode kicking in? Should I go on "maintenance" mode for a coulple of weeks, and up my calorie intake to 1400, so that my body will realize that it is not about to starve?

Its also weired that I had more higher calorie days in the last 3 weeks, and I've been hungrier too, its like having more food triggers more hunger. How can that be?

If anyone has any input/suggestions on this, please share them with me! I cannot maintain a diet that keeps me hungry all the time. I cannot fight it, I will give in or binge or quit dieting alltogether, which I don't want to do. I've worked hard to get those 7 lbs off me, and I'd like them to stay off!

hey NTL,
first of all, i've found that if i eat too much the day/night before, i am ALWAYS hungrier the next day and especially in the morning, so I dont know the medical metabolism stuff around it, but I know that is common.

Nothing is wrong with you!!! Not all diets work for all people. We all have to remember that. What were you eating when you were losing weight?? Example diet?? we can possibly give more input from there...

the consistent calorie deficit that you are referring to - how low are you going? i thought you were doing a 1200 calorie diet? How much were you eating (calorie wise) before you started doing the 1200 bit??

It doesn't hurt to change it up and yes, possibly the solution is to eat at about 1400 for a couple weeks and focus on staying the SAME weight and get your body to realize that you are adjusting to your new slimmer self? that seems like it would make sense..

lemme know and i'll see if i can help.

dont beat yourself up. you are doing great. this is not EASY at all so that is whywe are all here to help eachother. hang tight, you'll be fine and you'll get support /advice and get to your goal with some patience and determination .

S

Hi NTL!

Heres the two biggest tricks up my sleeve for staving off late night hunger....I eat a fairly decent breakfast and lunch/snack and wait until I CANT wait anymore to do dinner..I start getting really hungry somewhere around 330 or 4 but make myself wait till later, even if its just till 5pm. also..I chug a big glass of water before each meal, during the meal and after the meal. Finally, I read that eating a pickle or something vinegary before a meal really helps too, tho I cant remember why! I think its something about the carbs in your meal and the pickle making you feel fuller longer.

And one last thing is..when you are laying in the bed, and feel that twinge of hunger, tell yourself that this is your body eating the fat...read that somewhere too. Makes sense, because oftentimes Ill go to bed feeling that twinge, ignore it and go to sleep, and sure enough the scale is good to me the next morning!

Hope this helps a bit!

Skyler,
Thanks!

What I'm thinking is that it takes much longer for the protein to get absorbed into my body, it just kind of sits in the stomach, so my brain is still thinking that I'm hungry(despite the full stomach, I know). I think I need to get carbs in first, so that they can get absorbed fast into my bloodstream, and then follow up with protein. I ate a snack like 2 hrs after breakfast, and only then it registered that its been fed, and then all of the sudden I felt really full, like I just ate a huge meal, not a 100 calorie snack. It was really weird.

I am doing 1200 cal diet, kind of. I'm more concerned with calorie deficit, which is how much I burn vs. how much I eat, but make sure that I don't go too low. What I meant before is that since December I only had 2 days when I ate more calories then I burned that day, so maybe my body is puttin on the breaks.

This past week my average calories were 1238, not that great, but not awful either. I'd rather have the average cals eaten around 1100, because that seems to make me loose faster. Average cals burned were 1600, so got a daily deficit of about 350. Not enough to loose a lb, but maybe a half?

Kate, unfortunately when I get home from work I am so hungry I cannot wait to eat. I usually eat something small to keep the hungry wolves at bay and cook dinner. If I don't snack on smth, it becomes a reall danger that I overeat during dinner. I also tend to have low blood sugar if I wait too long, so I start feeling shaky and almost light headed(not really, but almost like a high), at which point I become a raging munching monster. I try not to let that happen, because once I do get that feeling, it does not go away immediately after I eat - takes about half an hour or so, and its hard to keep myself from eating during that period, so I tend to overeat. Don't know if this makes any sence.

Good advice on eating in bed though! Again, I usually don't do it (surprisingly I'm usually not hungry after dinner). Yestereday was such a weired thing.

Skyler, I'll post later my typical daily diet that I've been doing Jan-Feb with some success. I'll ask Paula about the reaction to the diet, and seek her advice too.

Hey Girl Hope Your Doing Good Sorry I Been Mia But I Am Back So Lets Jump On The Wagon And Rock Them Scales!