Sandy701's Journal, 29 Nov 10

You can do it, Sandy! I believe in you! YAY for you for your healthy choices and purposeful way of life! Hope you are blessed in every way. 

Nice goals. I have faith that you will make your goals plus some.:) I am so proud of you for your determination. You are very strong and I know you will meet all you goals. Keep up the great work. Hope you had a great weekend.:) 

Great job Sandy! You should be proud of yourself! I have every confidence that you will meet your goals. Just keep on doing what you're doing! 2011 should be a great year! 

Thanks everyone. I think every day's success adds to the foundation for success for the next day. So far, so good. Thanks for the encouragement! 

Sandy, you're doing so wonderfully I have no doubt you will make your goal. You lost 4 lbs just since Nov. 1; at that rate you should slide into the New Year well under your goal. :) 

Sandy you are doing fantastic! I am quite sure that you will make your goal!  

Oh, Hbkim, if you only knew. These 180's have been the worst, most trying pounds of this whole journey thus far. They just would NOT be beaten and dragged out to the road! LOL!! (Gosh, where did that metaphor come from???) Anyway, it's been a real struggle since sometime in October, even though the graph may not reflect it. Back in September, I thought the year-end goal would be a slam-dunk, as I'd hit my Labor Day well ahead of schedule. Now, however, I'll just consider it a success if I can get there by 11:59PM on 12/31! 

Stef, you know all about these 180's being a trying decade. The pounds just do not want to move! Your journal entry about perseverence was very well-timed and held a lot of good insight for this stretch we're both going through. It's that "patience" part that's so difficult to do. But I guess we just have to keep putting in the work and the results will eventually come - in whatever time frame. Have a good evening. 

I know what you mean, Sandy. I am having the same problem, and everytime I think alright, I am down 1/2 a pound so now it will start moving again, I get up the next day and the darned 1/2 pound is back! Really, really frustrating....which is why yesterday's message on perseverance really hit home for me. I have lost exactly 4 pounds since the beginning of August! BLECH!!! 

And yes, it will come...but in God's time, not ours. But good golly, lolly it is taking forever! 

I wish I could offer you some advice but I'm no expert on OWL; I'm staying on Induction until I'm within 15 lbs of goal (another 10 lbs for me). Have you tried to analyze when you lose vs. when you don't? Is there some pattern there -- i.e. artificial sweeteners? Atkins bars? nuts? some other food that makes your metabolism slow down? Your weight loss chart shows a pretty steady decline so perhaps none of those measures are warranted. Of course, if you wanted, you could always go back to Induction for a while since Induction is ok until you're within 15 lbs of goal or, alternatively, go back down the carb ladder a rung or two ... 

Sandy,you are doing extremely good :) Bread on your food list looks suspicious to me and the sausage with additives.May be those are stalling you?Or you are in pre-maintanance already? 

Thanks for the input Hbkim and Anita. I've analyzed until I'm blue in the face. Dropped the sugar alcohols and Atkins bars for 2 weeks and no change, so for me, I seem to be OK with them. My average calories have dropped as I've lost weight; my exercise has increased as I've lost weight - ALMOST enough to offset the drop in caloric needs due to my lower weight. The sausages DO have additives and if I were to get stuck, I might try eliminating them, as I have slowed a bit when I've added additional sausage-type meats. I even need to be watchful with hot dogs and use them only occasionally. The Lavash "bread," is basically a flat pita bread and a low-carb substitute for bread....makes a good hot dog wrapper! FOR NOW...it seems like things MAY be back to a normal loss pattern for me. No major changes in my diet but I'm aware that a few things may have slowed me down (MIMs and pumpkin pie MIX). I've also been eating a lighter meal at night, or at least I'm trying to. I realize I could go back to Induction, but for me, I wouldn't go there unless I had really blown things, gained weight, dropped out of fat-burning mode, and needed that fresh start on the fat-burning. (I may regret that statement, but hopefully not. LOL!) I truly think it's extremely important to learn how to manage my weight within OWL because that's the real menu range I'll be living in at the "end" of this saga. So, if I slow down, then I've got to learn more about my body's metabolism. There are specific ways to address slowing down in OWL without going back to Induction. Dropping back to Induction whenever things get tough is a real misuse of Induction IMHO. And, truly, this has only been a slowdown, by Atkins definition. A stall is no weight loss for 2 weeks (it was close!) and a plateau is no weight loss and no loss of inches for 4 weeks. My plan is to stay in OWL until goal because my ACE is looking to be below 50g. Pre-Maintenance will be after that, experimenting with the final rungs of the carb ladder to see how I tolerate them, without expecting any weight loss at that point. Thanks for stopping by.  

Sandy, it sounds like your metabolism and ACE are very similar to mine. I suspect that my ACE may be 35 or so! I am eating more foods and keeping to 25 carbs or less a day, and still I am not losing weight or inches. I am just going to practice patience and perseverance! Don't know what else to do.