[Nicole]

So yesterday my dr put me on a protein rich diet of shakes and bars mostly and one light meal for dinner.

So when choosing my shakes and bars at the stores yesterday, I found lower cal bars with low sugar and high protein, and a sugar free shake with low cals and high protein. This morning I was unsure about the shake mix so I put a little low fat yogurt and a smidge of odwalla juice in it. I wrote down everything today though.

So here is what it looks like so far today:

Breakfast- Shake totals=
*220 cals
*1.5g fat
*18g sugar (yogurt has a lot of sugar)
*24.5g protein

Mid Afternoon snack- Shake and carrots
*100 cals
*0g sugar
*0g fat
*20g protein
-15 baby carrot sticks
-water

Lunch- Protein Bar and water
*180 cals
*4.5g fat
*2g sugar
*20g protein

So this puts my totals for the day so far at=
*500 cals
*6g fat
*20g sugar
*64.5g protein

My dr wanted me to get at least 60g protein a day from this. But she also wants me to eat 5-6 meals a day! I am worried I am getting too much protein at this rate with still at least 2 more meals left today. I pulled out some chicken breasts for tonight and tomorrow night that I am going to have green beans and broccoli with. But what else can I fill my meals with if I have already gone over my protein for the day?

I walked about a mile today when I got my son from the bus stop. I am going to try to walk some more tonight too when it cools down. I am supposed to start water aerobics on monday night, but I am worried my knee won't do well with it as it often collapses under me when coming out of water. Not a good thing to have happen when you have severe social anxiety anyway and I could get really hurt on the side of the pool if that happened. So I am worried and scared.

I am just trying to make this work. I want to lose weight. I can't stay 325 forever! Any advice would be great right now. I really want chips right now! Could I have some rice instead? My dr said I can only have one carb food a day (rice, potatoe, corn, bread, that kind of thing), and no fatty foods. So we threw out a bunch of things last night, but my kids still like to eat some things and hubby too.

(My husband is a bean pole and hates to eat, but does so to survive. He is 165lbs and 6'3" tall. He eats all day long and never gains a pound. My boys are also tall for their ages and are right on target with their weight. So I am the only odd one in the bunch with my slow metabolism and bad habit for skipping meals because I forget to eat. Thinking about food like this makes me hungry a lot. That hasn't happened in years!)

Thank you for any advice you can give. I have to do this for at least 3 months to see if it helps.

[4Kate]

You are doing a great job with your tracking. Kepp up the great work.

[Perfesser]

The recommended protein is not a maximum limit. At this stage, don't worry that much about exceeding it. I routinely do with what I eat! You have another concern much more immediate to attend to.

Your body is starting to detoxify from the carbs it's been metabolizing for your whole life. As you switch from a carb-based to a fat-burning metabolism, your carb monster realizes that it is fighting for its life. The next few days are the worst, but it is critical that you stay the course and NOT GIVE IN to any carb cravings!! We've all gone through it. The only way is to tough it out. This is withdrawal symptoms, every bit as much as if you were giving up crystal meth instead of carbs.

Be strong!! You can do this!! You'll be a lesser person if you succeed!!!

CT

[MsVickie]

I agree with CT. It will rear its ugly head but remember the goal here. The protein like he said there is no maximum. Alot of heart Drs put there patients on somthing like this before heart surgery. It will make you drop weight very well. Since your allowed a carb food a day use it wisely. Rice since he said ok is good. But dont over do it ok? Rice is somthing you can pile on and eat alot of without knowing it.

Good luck for the next few days and hang in there.

[amina6ae]

Great job tracking your meal plan, & wonderful start with the exercising!!!!
I have to agree that the protein doesn't have a max amount... There IS greek yogurt that has a bit lower sugar content (oikas, i think) also, make sure you drink a ton of water.. do this before the meals...
I have to say that the one carb a day, you should try to make that a "good carb" meaning NOT WHITE~~ make brown rice with low sodium broth or whole wheat bread, or even sweet potato instead of white, you get it i'm sure...
hope i was of some help.

[Nicole]

Well tonight, I did ok, but night time is usually when I eat the most. I didn't think it would be as hard as it was today. I had a good dinner.

I had:
1/4 of a trimmed chicken breast (we have waterless cookware so didn't use any oils)
1/2c cooked long grain jasmine rice (we don't have brown right now)
1/2c sauteed green beans and broccoli with 1tbsp olive oil

BUT... 45 mins later I was so wanting something! I was like pacing around, I kept opening the fridge and staring into the cupboards telling myself NO, you can't eat that!! I kept saying I just want ONE potato chip! Just one! I remember hearing words like this when I was quitting smoking. So I told myself NO and tried to stave it off as long as I could. Then I decided maybe I should try one of the vanilla shakes I have in the fridge for something cold on my stomach. So I did, and drank it really slow.

It has 100cals, .5g fat, 1g sugar, and 21g protein. Better than giving into chips or something. I can't believe how bad I am addicted to carbs and salty foods. It is worse than my addiction to sugar I think. What a shame.

Then like 45 mins after THAT, it happened again! Grrr! This is harder than I thought it would be. So I grabbed a Baby Bell cheese. Again ate it really slowly. I haven't yet looked at the stats on that one yet though.

Sheesh, what a day. I think I have really been in denial about how much food has been controlling my life! It's like as soon as I can't have something, that is when I want it the most! When it never really bothered me before.

Normally I would not eat for most of the day and that didn't bother me. Then I would have a good sized lunch and a snack a little later. Then dinner even later. It is weird how since I have been thinking about my food, how much I want it. I haven't had candy in a while, but today the "prize" bucket for my kids with candy in it has been taunting me! And the bag of chips on the table that my kids had a couple days ago and today normally wouldn't bother me at all, and today I want to rip open the thing and eat like 100 of them! Sheesh!!

At least I am aware of it now I guess. Tomorrow is another day, and now that I know what I am in for it should be a little better. I know I have good will power because I stopped drinking Starbucks and smoking at the same time and that was like 6.5 years ago. And I smoked for like 8 years or something crazy. I was a 1 pack a day, and 3-4 mochas a day person for years!

I can do it!! I might take some tylenol PM tonight, just so I can sleep instead of wanting more food at 10pm or something!

[Queenofthenile]

I agree with everyone else here. You're doing a great job. Just be strong cause that ugly carb monster is pretty persuasive.

[sue4491]

Hi Nicole!!!

My best advice would be to get on a program you can live on for the rest of your life. I feel Weight Watchers has been best for me - I've tried many others but they are the ones which stress lifestyle... it's really a lifestyle change - it has to be and that's hard.

I found that stressing health worked a lot better for me than looking at my weight. To lose a bunch of weight takes a while especially if you do it with a changed lifestyle... as you can see, I started in Jan 2007 when I hit an all time high weight and just today, at my meeting weigh-in I hit goal.

The upside of this, is that if you DO take a long time to lose it, you lose FAR LESS muscle and more fat (this is a good thing) and by the time you lose a bunch of weight, you are pretty used to the lifestyle.

I log my points daily... WW has a really nice on-line facility to do that.

I allow myself a goof off day once a week (Sunday). Some Sundays I'm pretty temperate and other Sundays (like last Sunday when I had DQ cake and more), I'm pretty way out. But I logged on that day too. One off day isn't going to hurt you as long as you keep it in control.

To keep off the weight, you will have to watch it every day. The 'eat all you want thing' isn't true of anyone regardless of what tool they use. We have some super success stories here but you will find they all make their food choices carefully, most of them exercise frequently...

Watch your portions. If you are on Atkins, I would recommend your reading his very last edition of his "Diet Revolution" book. Because in there, Atkins admits that huge portions of chicken can make you gain just as fast as huge portions of anything else.

You will get a lot of support here... the people here are like family... many have had surgery and some like me, are non ops, but we all love and support each other and our resident doctor is awesome also, so come here to visit a lot because generally I have found in other places I do NOT get a lot of support except of course, at my WW meetings!

hugs to you and hang in there - you can do it!

[4Kate]

I can relate... Im still trying to do my liquid diet. Today is day 4 and I found that I keep wanting, for example, more SF pop cycles. I cant afford to go threw a box a day. LOL any way I made my self the deal of if I drank down my 32 oz of water, then I could have another. Well luckly I only had 1 after the water! As long as I drink another 32 oz then I can have another popcycle. I am dealing with a head hunger issue.




My point in all this is try and down some water when you feel like you are being drown back to the kitchen. I dont mean a sip, I mean drink a bunch beofore you give into it.


Hang in there, your doing great!

[Nicole]

Here is my biggest problem in all this. My knees hurt so much all the time, that just about anything other than just walking hurts so bad my right knee (the worst one) buckles. Climbing even one flight of stairs like we have in our house is really bad. Getting up from a sitting position almost always results in my knee popping in a painful way or getting stuck. When going up the stairs my right wrist is now starting to hurt a lot because of using my arm to help support me going up the stairs. So I have no idea how I am actually going to be able to do water aerobics. The last time I went in our hot tub here at the complex I almost fell getting out of it from my body feeling so so heavy getting back out. I haven't gone in there since.

I really don't think that I CAN even exercise like I need to without some kind of WLS. I just don't think I can lose enough fast enough to keep from doing permanent damage to my knees or causing more damage somewhere else from the stress of it.

I have a 7day free pass to a local gym and I am going to give it a try, but I am really worried about it. I hope that doesn't sound like an excuse. I am still changing my diet, and doing what I can. I am still looking into WLS though. I just don't know if non-op is going to help soon enough or fast enough for me to actually get the exercise I need and want. This is turning out of be a much bigger problem than I was willing to admit. I am so disappointed in myself.