FEB '09 MWL "ON PLAN, PLANNING TO STAY THAT WAY"

[Letha.]

I updated our weekly results below.

That means since I started January 8th, I've lost 9.75 inches off my body!! That ROCKS!!

Yes, that does ROCK. That’s a great result!

Hi all I am down .8 this week. Slow be sure! I upped my exercise some this week and plan to up it more next week. Thank you for being here and all the support.

I added your results into the group results. Congratulations on your loss this week. I’m working on exercise next week too.

...i'm going to take this weekend to clear my mind of all the negative stuff, focus on exercising (since i haven't in the past couple days) and get myself back on track...

Good Plan Swearbyit!

I’ll check back here in the morning. Later gators.
Letha

[LauraA]

swearbyit-I'm so sorry about the peace corps news. Maybe something will work out - I don't know how, but life often seems to land us at the right place at the right time. The emotional eating is hard. Mine has always been more of a binge eating or compulsive eating, and not so much triggered by my emotions. That is why the Pleasure Trap seems to explain so much to me. Just keep at this - you're doing great.

Letha-Thanks so much for doing our numbers again. It is really interesting to look at patterns of us as a group. Also, your comments to so many of us were great. Thank you. I'm going to try to do more commenting in the future. I know that we used to do it a lot in Nov, and now our group has gotten pretty big. Still, it is nice to hear comments! Take care, LauraA

[LauraA]

My brother and sister in law live down the street from me. We get together for dinner pretty often, and it is usually at my house where I'll fix salad and veggies, and they will bring meat or fish. I have a lot of control that way. My sister in law is a really good cook, and she loves to cook "healthy" things that I will eat. I think that I mentioned back in Dec that she had a Christmas party for her side of the family, and their tradition is ribs. She invited me and my daughter, and cooked a huge amount of potatoes and veggies all because of us. Tonight we ate at their house, and she did a nice salad ( I took my dressing) and a great mix of all kinds of veggies. After dinner she said that she loves having me for dinner, because I inspire her to cook such healthy food. All was going well until she added that the veggie dish only had a couple of teaspoons of oil! Oh well! I didn't say anything - she really tries. She is about 15 years younger than I am, and very very thin and fit. I figure that it's not that often, and it is usually at my house. She did discuss protein with me, and if I was getting enough. She is very receptive to my answers. Going to other people's homes is the hardest part, I guess. Of well - goodnight all

[Letha.]

Good morning all. I’m on plan and planning to stay that way. I’ve posted my menu over in Roberta’s corner. This is my last post in this thread. I’ve posted every single day this month in this thread and I’ve read all 512 messages posted here. Posting here and reading the posts here have really helped to keep me on track. So I want to thank everyone again who participated in February and I hope to see you all in the March thread.

I’ve been getting kind of sick of cooking so to make sure I stay on plan I’ve done a few things different in the past week or so. Last week I bought a bunch of back up meal stuff. McDougall cups and Eden Beans and Rice. Stuff I can make in a flash at the last minute. I haven’t used them yet. The McDougall cups are a little small for a meal for me and the Eden Beans and Rice are spendy, but they are great back up meals or travel meals. I don’t want to take a chance of falling off plan because I don’t feel like cooking.

The second thing I did this past week or so was to make two enormous pots of stew so that I could have like 14 servings over a period of 4 or 5 days. That’s been working well. But still, making those pots of stew require over an hour of veggie chopping. I was intrigued by a post from Burgess where he said he had started buying dried, diced potatoes from Harmony House. No peeling and chopping of potatoes sounded very appealing. So after it percolated around in my brain for a while I went to look at the website thinking I might buy a box and give them a try.

Well, I did buy a large container of diced white potatoes and a large container of diced sweet potatoes. But then hey, look, they’ve got dried diced zucchini to put in my morning oats. And they have a soup blend that contains a minced carrots, onions, tomatoes, peas, celery, green bell peppers, green beans, and parsley. Well that could go into about half the dishes that I make. But it would be nice to have more control over the ratio of the various kinds of veggies, so in addition to the veggie blend, let’s get some separate containers of onions, celery, green beans, carrots, spinach, tomato dices, & mixed peppers. Not to stop there, I got some cherries and blueberries to throw into the morning oats and a sample pack of 8 kinds of beans (Lentils, Split Peas, Red Beans, Black Beans, Navy Beans, Great Northern Beans, Dark Kidney Beans, and Pinto Beans) which have been pre-soaked before being dehydrated so you can throw them into a pot and their ready in 10-20 minutes. Needless to say I spent a good portion of my March grocery budget with this purchase. So this month I’m going to be experimenting with dehydrated veggies. Making lots of soups and stews and I’m going to do lots of photos and reviews on my blog. Take care everyone.
Letha

[topview1]

Yay for another successful month! If you stuck with it you are a winner, even if the goal was elusive!

On plan and planning to stay that way. I have 4 guests coming for supper that I don't know, so I have a 6qt crock pot going with a venison roast in the bottom and tons of carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes on top. I'll take mine out before I mix things up Fresh spelt bread out of the bread machine, a big salad and a McD made Easy cobbler with finish out the meal... I can't wait to eat the purple sweetie sweet potatoes that I put in for me...

-------eaten
oatmeal, blueberries, honey
organic gala apple

------ planned
lunch -white bean stew left from last night, spinach salad, winter veggies with the citrus chili dressing in the 12 day free plan

supper- purple sweeties, potatoes, a huge romaine salad and a small portion of the cobbler

Fit 10 and the 6 minute no excuses workout (NEWO) for me this morning. My arms are trembly, so I know that it was effective my goal for march is to add the NEWO 3 days to my everyday Fit10 routine. I only missed Fit10 1 day in Feb. I have stickers on my calender to prove it childish, yes, but it works! I look at the page of stars and know that I am succeeding. The smiles on my church calender tell me I am spending the quiet time reading and studying the Bible that I need to succeed in the other areas of my life (its full too). Feb. has been an awesome month.

I'm going to start putting stickers on my menu calender to celebrate my MWL success. The full calenders make me happy.

[Letha.]

... I only missed Fit10 1 day in Feb. I have stickers on my calender to prove it childish, yes, but it works! I look at the page of stars and know that I am succeeding...

I'm going to start putting stickers on my menu calender to celebrate my MWL success. The full calenders make me happy.

I want some stickers!
Letha

[LauraA]

Hi all, and thanks, Letha for mentioning that it is time for a new thread. February comes to an end so quickly!! I just started our brand new March thread, and I'm also going to mention it in The Lounge.
Letha, great minds must think alike, because a few days ago I ordered a variety case from Eden Farms of the beans and rice. I've tasted one or two before, but I thought they would be good to have on hand. They are more expensive, but great to take traveling or to eat when there's nothing to eat. Also, I've been doing the huge pots of stuff for quite awhile. If you don't like to chop, then I'm really still pushing my son's veggie soup. You only chop the onion and some garlic ( you could get garlic in some already chopped form). It makes bunches of servings, and is my favorite still. I have about 5 favorites, and I keep thinking that I will get tired of them, but not so far. Well, goodbye to February, and congratulations to all who stuck with us. I appreciate all of the support. See you in March. Take care, LauraA

[Riva]

Thanks for your work on this thread in Feb. You are fun to read, inspiring and interesting too!
Riva

[Riva]

A few days ago I mentioned that I was tightening up. It has been a challenging three day period and I am ON completly. Being on track has made me understand more profoundly how off track I had become. I realized that I cannot compare myself to most of america (i.e. I am eating so much better than 99% of america). That I need to compare myself to the goal itself. That I cannot puff up with pride as I look at my salad and pasta in the restaurant and compare it to the cheese laden glops on the other tables. NO, I need to compare my salad and pasta to the PLAN.

So, it has been a struggle to be on the PLAN again. I felt cranky these last few days but today, the third day I feel great.

Yesterday I ate:
oatmeal and banana
1 cup of brown rice
1 7.5 box of frozen green beans - cooked of course
a large serving of steamed brussel sprouts
1 cup of beans
1 whole grapefruit
1 navel orange
totally plain popcorn
1 slice of 100% whole wheat bread
1/4 cup of no tahini hummus from Mrs. Esselstyne

My goal: to get my cholesterol under 150. (it was 250ish Jan 2008, 205 May 2008 and now 225). I have a date with the blood stick end of May 2009.

See you on the March thread!
Riva

[LindaC]

I had a gainer week to end February results:




Last 5 weeks:
Jan 31st -5.2lbs
-3lbs
-3.6lbs
-1.8lbs
+0.6lbs

Total: 13lbs

So February total is: 7.8lbs

Gotta eat more greens this week... Brussel sprouts....

[LauraA]

LindaC - There is a new March thread, so please join us there. No one is posting on this one anymore. Take care, LauraA