Discussion Board

Hi toadfood!! You are doing so great. How long did it take or you to lose this much weight? I'm jealous, but I will get to my goal this year!! Take care, LauraA

Congratulations....keep going

Oh, I see the answer to my question, because your first journal entry and weight was Nov 2010 - how great! Take care, LauraA

Thanks, Laura and Potatohead. Laura, I really got serious about changing my eating in late July/early August 2011. I weighed 246 at the beginning of August, and I weigh 187 today. So that's a weight loss rate of a little over 8 pounds a month -- but it was actually more in the beginning, and is less now.

Well, gang, I was late leaving the house this morning because the pants I was planning to wear were too big. I ended up changing my whole outfit. As my partner said, it's a good problem to have. More stuff for Goodwill!

This morning, as an exercise I figured out the calorie density of my typical meals. For lunch and dinner it's around 300 calories per pound. Breakfast is more like 400 or 450 because I don't normally eat veggies with breakfast. So the average is still under 400. Yay!

Yesterday afternoon I went shopping for some smaller clothes. I had already been to the mall near my house and not found what I wanted, so I took the bus out to a bigger mall. I bought 3 skirts and a blouse, all from what I have started to call the "minus" department (I used to be a plus size, now I'm a minus size). One skirt is a size 14, one is a size L, and one is a size 12! That last is total vanity sizing -- I held the skirt up to the size 14 from a different brand, and they matched. The blouse is a size 16 -- I always need a bigger size on top. When I got home I compared it to an old blouse in a similar style, which is size 16w, and it's quite a bit smaller.

So that's my haul. I tried not to buy too much, as I don't know how long these clothes will fit. Two of the skirts have belt loops (I also bought two belts, in a dressier style than the belt I wear with jeans) and one has an elastic waist, so I'm hoping they will be wearable for a while.

Woo! Vanity sizing or not, the psychological boost of a size 12 is FANSTASTIC! Heck, you are fantastic and an inspiration. So happy for you. I got my butt back in gear, too. Way to go!

Thanks, Nomikins. We can do this!

I've been reading up on calorie restriction. It's interesting -- I always think of Jeff N when I think of CR, but a lot of the prominent CR people eat quite a bit of animal products. It seems kind of silly to me, but whatever.

Anyway. One of the CR articles I read said you should be losing no more than 5 lbs a month if you are still in weight loss mode, because CR is not a diet, but a WOE for the rest of your life. I found that comforting, as my weight loss has slowed way down (and my weight is up a little today, not surprising after a nut and dried fruit binge on Monday). Now that I'm below my goal and no longer obese, I really need to be in "rest of my life" mode. The rest of my life is already happening. I'm where I need to be right now.

Hi toadfood- I see the point of the CR article. I still get in a hurry, but may lose 4 or 5 pounds a month. The thing is, if I try to restrict myself, lose quicker, then I somehow eventually go "off" of the program and gain. I'm trying so hard to see this as forever, and not to try too hard to lose. Staying away from the scale this week has been a bit of a challenge! Take care, LauraA
PS the new clothes sound great - how exciting!

It is hard. I am in the middle of a consultation with a dietitian. She says I am losing weight too fast and wants me to eat more.

I think she is right. For the past 2 months I've had a slip up about once every two weeks, and maybe if I were eating more on a regular basis that wouldn't happen. But what I *want* is to lose the weight fast and buy more skinny clothes.

Still chugging along. Today is Day 3 of following the plan developed by my dietitian. She does not agree with Dr. McD about everything. She said I was not getting enough protein, and was getting too much fiber. Too much fiber! She has cut back on my greens! So I'm trying to decrease the fiber and it is not easy. I bought some farina to try in place of my beloved oat bran -- going to cook it for the first time tomorrow. I should note that this is a vegan dietitian, so it's not like she's biased against plant-based diets or anything like that.

So I'm not exactly McDougalling right now. I'm still vegan (of course), still eating mostly whole foods without added oil, but I've added some things like tofu and Tofurky in order to increase protein without increasing fiber too much. I went out and bought a bag of white jasmine rice! I ate some Yves veggie pepperoni for a snack! It's weird you guys! I'm feeling good, though, and the scale is down another two pounds. Today I'm wearing a new outfit I bought for spring -- a size 14 skirt and size 16 blouse. No more plus sizes for me.

I tried farina for the first time today. With a lot of blueberries and sunflower seeds mixed in, it's not bad -- and it's a very pretty shade of purple. With the farina, tofu for lunch and tofurky for dinner, I managed to get my fiber for the day down to a mere 57g (the dietitian wants it to be around 40).

Fasting blood sugar this morning was 80! That's an all time low for me, I think. If this keeps up, I won't be waiting until my appointment in June to talk to my doctor about my diabetes medication.

My brain hasn't caught up with how much less I eat now. I'm still cooking vast quantities of food. Now I'm planning food for next week, and we are still eating leftovers from last weekend. I'm going to try a couple of recipes from Happy Herbivore, and fortunately a lot of those are small (the Aztec corn soup I made last weekend made just two servings!). I'm thinking Hippie Loaf, which will use up some of my leftover black beans and quinoa, and maybe the Cajun "meatloaf." And I just printed out the new twice-baked potatoes recipe from the Forks Over Knives web site (also with black beans!). I was already planning to bake taters for next week's starch, so that would be good. Then there are the two heads of cabbage that have been sitting in the fridge since last weekend. I know cabbage keeps for a long time but I need to cook at least one of those.

The dietitian wants me to eat more but if anything I think I am eating fewer calories than I was before. I'm not sure how that happened. I'm starting to think I will need to eat a serving of nuts or seeds every day to get enough calories without overdoing the fiber.