Lisa's Final Countdown, The Good Days, the Bad, & the Ugly

Great job getting on that treadmill! I wish I had one! Actually, I used to for a while, but then we had to give it back to the person we were borrowing it from. And yummy, healthy foods! I'm proud.
 
I hardly ever get stuck over at work and I always have something there to eat normally if I do. If nothing else I have atkins shakes there so I don't go home starving and stop in and have fast food. Thats the only time I usually drink them since they are so spendy. Anyway funny how I was going to stop at the store on the way home today cuz I'm out and got held over at work.

The end result being I was SO hungry and of course thats when the cravings hit. I was so close to stopping at Wendy's on the way home and getting a burger, fries and their new ice cream whatever version of a blizzard. Then I remembered reading cravings only last ten minutes and took that into account with the fact I better go home and ask hubby first before I blow BOTH our diets...by that time I was like nvm because by the time I go home I can eat there and not spend the money.

I told myself go home, cook your own version there and then if I still wanted to eat out then talk to my husband about it. I ended up making some low-carb hamburger buns from dixie, thawing out hamburger to make real hamburgers, and frying up some zuchini in low carb batter in a skillet instead of fries. I figured out pretty quick the "hamburger bun" mix was better just as a roll then on hamburgers but over all it hit the spot and I'm stuffed.

Glad I didn't give in but just another wake up call that as soon as we're moved I better stock back up so I don't have this situation even more likely to happen when I start up my college classes.

Anyway I haven't slept yet so I'm heading for bed...only drawback of nightshift ;/. And my leg isn't too happy today after using the treadmill so I'll see how I feel when I get up. I started a new challenge but that doesn't start until tomorrow and they said any kind of exercise so maybe I'll start the strength training and ab work outs alternately until I can do cardio.
 
I see that you are a PCOS lady - like me. It does tend to make it extra easy for us to gain weight and extra difficult to lose weight. There are quite a few of us about here.

I have copied in one of the best postings regarding PCOS that I have seen on this forum because I thought that you may find it of interest.

amandarobertson said:
I suffer from PCOS but still reached my weight loss goal last year. Here are my "Top 10 Tips" to help you in 2008.

Health club memberships will be at an all-time high. The promotional flyer I got from the local gym in the mail today went straight into the trash. I am vowing never to pay another year of “fat tax,” those fifty-plus dollars a month many of us agree to pay for a one-year membership that most will probably use for a few weeks. Of course, I believe in exercise as part of any weight-loss program, but it doesn’t require a gym or any expensive torture contraptions.

I’m sure sign-ups on ediets.com will soar. I’ve tried most of the more popular diets they offer: Atkins, Slim-Fast Optima, etc. -- the results never went beyond losing five or so pounds. Atkins is just so hard! And I consider a Slim-Fast shake desert, not a meal! But after years of trial and error and much reading on the subject, I have at last found a healthy, balanced diet that doesn’t require any special shakes or the banishing of carbs.

I also tried numerous supplements. Hoodia, which I took religiously for four weeks, had absolutely no impact on curbing my appetite, along with a few others containing stimulants that made me feel like I was having a heart attack. But don’t get me wrong; I do feel that the RIGHT supplements can have a dramatic impact on weight loss.

I believe the underlying cause of PCOS is insulin resistance. And I believe this because as soon as I started to treat my insulin resistance. I saw a dramatic improvement in my skin and in my hair: less acne, more hair. And I also reached my weight loss goal of losing 45 pounds over the course of last year. I am 5’9” and now weigh a healthy 150 pounds.

Because of insulin resistance, many women with PCOS have a much harder time losing weight. Here is why: Insulin is the hormone responsible for allowing glucose, or blood sugar, to be absorbed by the cells of the body, where it is converted to energy. If you are insulin resistant, your cells react sluggishly to insulin. When you eat a meal -- whether it's steak, fish or vegetables -- the body breaks it down into glucose, a usable energy form. When you are insulin resistant, extra glucose remains in the blood stream, until it is finally sent to the liver and converted to excess body fat.

These are my Top 10 Tips to Weight Loss with PCOS.

1. Gradually cut down on refined carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, white pasta and most sweets) and replace them with healthy sources of carbohydrates (whole grain bread, brown rice and whole wheat pasta). Refined carbs have been processed so that most of the fiber and nutrients are stripped away. This causes the body to quickly convert them into glucose. Whole grains still contain the fiber that will allow your body to digest the food more slowly, keeping you blood sugar levels from spiking and help to correct insulin resistance. I found that I was able to lose weight by eating roughly 70 grams of healthy carbohydrates per day.

2. Avoid all hydrogenated fats. Look at labels. If the product contains ingredients like hydrogenated vegetable oil, don’t buy it. Look for products that are free of hydrogenated oils and trans fat.

3. Moderate your intake of saturated fats. Saturated fat can mostly be found in animal products like: bacon, red meat and cheese.

4. Incorporate healthy fats into your diet: instead of cooking with vegetable oil use olive oil. Add nuts and avocados into your salad. They are excellent sources of Omega-3, the heart-healthy fat.

5. Have lean protein at every meal. This will help to control glucose spikes. Servings should be 3-4 oz, about the size of a deck of cards. Try turkey, poultry, veggie burgers, and lean cuts of pork and beef.

6. Avoid starchy vegetables like carrots, beets, corn and potatoes. They naturally contain higher amounts of sugar that can cause glucose levels to rise. Opt for vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus and zucchini, which are low in sugar and high in fiber.

7. Buy whole foods. This means if it comes in a box, it’s probably not good for you. Prepackaged food is full of preservatives, chemicals and sodium which can actually make PCOS symptoms worse.

8. Start an exercise program you can stick with. I began with walking 10 minutes a day, 3 days per week. Now I have worked my way up to jogging for 30 minutes, 5 days per week. Find an activity you enjoy whether it’s walking, rollerblading, hiking or swimming, and gradually increase your workout session lengths and the number of days per week you do them.

9. Begin taking supplements. (Insulite Labs PCOS System offers the best combination of supplements for women with PCOS that I've found.)

10. Take it slow! Losing more than half a pound per week is too fast and you will probably just gain it back.
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I tend to agree with most of it - except that I had a lot more weight to lose than this person and did not worry about going slowly. I wanted to lose weight as quickly as it was willing to come off whilst I did things healthily.
 
bmohearn and gonnagetabs, THANK YOU so much for the support. I don't always know how to respond but seeing the support in my journal means alot.

And Omega...thank you SO much for posting that. I read it and was so happy because most of those things are already things I'm doing. I know alot of people in the forums seem a bit against low-carb diets but are nice about it but maybe I'm calling it the wrong thing. I watch my carbs but I'm basically doing everything on that list under doctors advice for the insulin resistance. The only thing I haven't really done is watch which kinds of using strictly...I cook with mostly olive oil but I also use canola sometimes if I don't think the flavor is gonna matter so much because olive oil is so spendy. I cook at home now and not from boxes so even though I haven't looked I don't think I'm doing too bad for avoiding hydrogenated oils...we don't use margarine, only real butter.

I did wonder about those supplements though and I'll have to look it up...have you tried any? Right now I'm just making sure I take a daily vitamin and started taking b-complex as well as iron. Doctor is making me take the iron cuz everytime I stop I'm anemic. I used to be bad about taking stuff regularly but feeling tired and being bruised up all the time made it worth the effort, lol.
 
I worked last night and came home exhausted. This morning at work and on the way home I was so tempted again to grab my hubby and go get breakfast. I wanted hashbrowns and biscuits and gravy. I kept waffling back and forth all the way home. Reminded myself once I got there that I read cravings only last ten minutes and were worse when tired. I was slightly hungry and should have ate SOMETHING but the tired won out so I just went to bed, figuring the craving would be gone or it wouldn't matter because you can't get breakfast after 11am anywhere in my town, lol. Hashbrowns and biscuits and gravy....always comes down to those, lol.

Only thing I'm worried about is when I start getting cravings I just keep having incidents of them until I end up cheating. And honestly what's one meal but after the way I felt physically after I really don't want to do that. I thought about making some low carb biscuits and making sausage gravy with thicken/not starch but probably wouldn't come out that great. Also the way I've felt everytime I've tried to make some bread substitute this week I think I need to get back to basics if only for this week. Aching from head to toe is not fun.

I felt so sick yesterday evening like my lunch was still sitting there and I didn't even take my byetta pen so thats not what did it. Ended up drinking an atkins shake on the way to work and taking some immodium, lol. Something did not agree with me. And I have been SO THIRSTY the past 3 days. I've been really good about drinking water anyway but I get desperate f or some and drink a whole bottle. I'm usually lucky to drink half a gallon a day and yesterday I drank a whole gallon and kept going. Glad I'm drinkin more water but this has me a bit concerned.

Anyway I'm super stressed but I feel alot better after getting some major sleep today. I was having bad allergies so taking a benadryl helped with that and the sleep too. Got on the scale today after I woke up and I'm down another pound :D 327.6!!!! Can't wait to get out of the 320's though.
 
douknowjello said:
I thought about making some low carb biscuits and making sausage gravy with thicken/not starch but probably wouldn't come out that great.
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with lots of sausage in a thickened-by-reduction cream-based gravy? Wouldn't be nearly as thick as traditional sausage gravy, but it would have the right flavor.
 
Oh thank you, great idea. I've had the oopsie roll recipe sitting here and it's the only thing of my recipes I haven't tried yet. I had made another eggy protein bread that was ok so I guess I've been putting off the oopsie rolls fearing they wouldn't be good. But on that note there's nothing in them that would make me feel like crap. So you think the gravy would mask any taste from the oopsie rolls not being regular biscuits?

Now if I could just find a sub for hashbrowns. I tried turnips for mashpotatoes and it was disgusting...probably didn't do it right but couldn't get over the texture. Thought about trying them again for hashbrowns and also saw somebody mention using radishes? But radishes have such a different flavor I wondered if they meant turnips...don't know. Also saw zuchini which I bet would be good but not an actual sub for hashbrowns from potatoes and I definitely wouldn't but gravy on them, lol.

Oh and if anyone reads this and has a good yeast bread recipe without the bleached flour and sugar please let me know...I'm still on my mission to find some decent sandwhich bread, lol.
 
I've never done oopsie rolls myself, but enough sausage and black pepper would mask just about anything. ;)

Hmm, hash browns. Cauliflower is supposed to be a decent substitute for mashed potatoes. uses cauliflower to make pizza crust, so I think trying it as hash browns might be workable. I actually think a latke recipe (so with a binder) will give you better flavor than traditional hash browns would. Egg, onion, maybe some garlic powder?

Homemade bread is a tricky thing even before you start tinkering to get the carbs out. I've got a really good recipe with flax and whole wheat flour and molasses, but it's still got 9 net carbs per 64-calorie slice, and it's got enough personality that it's really bread-and-butter bread, not sandwich bread. Lettuce seems to be a popular "hold your sandwich fillings together" thing, but I agree that it doesn't really serve the same purpose in any other regard.
 
Thanks Allyphoe, soon as we get moved I'll have to start experimenting with those ideas. Also I checked out the low-carb forum you linked and I'm not really posting there but there was alot of great info, including a p.c.o.s. thread so that really is going to be useful. I figure I can just lurk around there for info, lol. Thanks again!
 
Cauliflower does make a lovely mash, but for a hashbrown? I'd love to hear about how that goes!

Google says: Fauxtatoes (Low Carb) Recipe
from Debbie Cusick

1 head cauliflower, chopped, cooked very soft
3 oz. cream cheese
1 tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Mash, whip with a mixer, or blend in food processor. I've sometimes used a bag of frozen cauliflower, but I think a head of fresh cauliflower gives much better texture. I simmer the cauliflower with a chopped clove of garlic to cover the mild "cabbagey" taste.

Oh man, that sounds kind of gross. "Fauxtatoes!"
 
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congrats on losing weight! You'll be out of the 320's before you know it! Drinking a lot of water will help you lose weight, and help with cravings too. keep up your great work!
 
Thanks pancake batter, I'd read a bunch of recipes for cauliflower but I wasn't sure about the aftertaste so I haven't tried any yet. You're tip for using the garlic to cover that is great, thanks again for posting it.
 
So my cravings for hashbrowns and gravy aren't getting better. Being as I've never made sausage gravy before I'm going to have to experiment. I've seen tons of recipes for turnips, radishes, etc. but while skimming through several people said don't expect them to taste like the potato version. So having said all this, everytime I get the craving I think at that time that whatever I make isn't going to be what I want. Fortunately stuff keeps preventing me from cheating.

Like this morning I was sick of wanting it the last 4 days and thinking ok already I'm just going to go have it so I can get on with my life and my diet. But as luck would have it my husband refused to get out of bed and you can't get breakfast after 11am. The fact that I got on the scale and am now down to 327 even made me hesitate as well.

I think I'm going to try making the sausage gravy and some carbquick biscuits and at least try that before giving in completely...throw in some shredded zuchini hashbrowns on the side...some eggs...maybe I'll hit on something that will satisfy.

I'll tell you one thing though...once I've gotten stuff to the point I can have potatoes once or twice a week I'm not going to waste it on mashed or baked...it's gonna be hashbrowns all the way! lol
 
You should be proud of being able to side track your cravings. And you have incredible self control it seems. Great job! I love potatoes... its hard to not eat so much of them. lol.
 
Yea I'm good at postponing but I'm still working on figuring how to get around the strong ones altogether. I made some sausage gravy like allyphoe suggested and added some thicken thin not starch and it came out awesome. I was very hungry so didn't take the time to make any carbquick bisquits or try the oopsie rolls but I will next time. I used some of those crappy dixie carb counters left over rolls and it wasn't the best solution but with enough gravy on them I got by. I knew hubby wasn't gonna eat that so I made a ham steak and eggs as well and also tried making the zuchini hashbrowns. We ended up not eating those because they came out soggy/mushy. Maybe the grease wasn't hot enough. Pitfalls of cooking while starving, I hurried stuff up and they didn't turn out.

But end result that sausage gravy really hit the spot and now that I know I can make it the biscuit/roll under won't be that hard. I doubt I'll ever find a pototo substitute for hashbrowns but after this morning I think it was the sausage gravy I wanted all along anyway. So we'll see...I may have just successfully and for the first time ever not only subverted a craving but got around it completely without feeling like I undid all my hard work.
 
douknowjello said:
zuchini hashbrowns. We ended up not eating those because they came out soggy/mushy. Maybe the grease wasn't hot enough.
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Next time, try grating, then salting to draw off the moisture (salt, stir, plop in colander, drain for 30 min or so, squeeze dry in tea towels) before cooking. Should limit the sog factor.

I never think of that kind of thing when I'm cooking, myself. (Ooh, I've had some *bad* outcomes!)
 
Yea I grated, threw in the pan of not hot enough olive oil and then salted, lol. I guess it ended well anyway because I forgot I'm not supposed to eat fried foods this week as part of our bonus challenge for the accountability challenge.

But I will definitely will do what you said next time. I had the same problem with turnips when I tried to do fake mash potatoes...too wet and the texture was slimy. But I didn't try again because I wasn't sure we'd get past the odd taste regardless. I love zuchini so I won't have to get past the taste if I can get it to come out right.

I really appreciate everyone's help on this though because if not for posting about it and then getting feedback I probably would have been eating regular breakfasts the last 3 mornings, followed by DQ blizzards at noon and god knows what else, lol. Uh oh.....mmmmm.....bliiiiizzzzards.....
 
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Keeeeeeeeep MOVING woman!!! YOU can DO THIS!!!

WE all get weak HERE and THERE....but THERE is a WARRIOR inside of ALL OF US....now IT"s JUST about DUSTING him/her OFF!!! :sifone:

I'm PROUD of you FOR POSTING alot!!! :)
 
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