Trying on summer clothes...

...has never been this rewarding!

I busted out a bunch of my last year summer shorts/capri's. Every year I do the same thing, and every year it usually ends with a DI run of my favorite pants and another shopping trip for more. This year, will be the very same situation, only this time, its getting rid of clothes that are TOO BIG! :D

Last summer through up until I started this diet, I was a size 20, sometimes 22 depending on the brand. Most of the shorts/capri's (lets just call them shorts for now hehe) I tried on today were 20 and 18. The 20s, 2 of them are so big they just fall off while I'm standing there! And majority of the 18s are pretty loose fitting!

So, these were my favorite shorts to wear last year. I loved them, and they were a size 20 from Maurices. Look at them now! I can slip them off without even unzipping! Goodbye shorts!

These are Pre-Kadree pants, I believe. I've had these forever, and they were always pretty tight, but now they slip on nice! Actually a bit more loose than I remember! They are a size 18. In fact, most of the size 18 pants I wore last summer are LOOSE! SO excited!!! 

Weight on the scale is one thing, but my actual size is far more exciting! But I have lost a total of 17 lbs since I started this journey. :)

All and all, I get the feeling its gonna be a great summer! Not quite ready to bust out the bikini (I don't even own or wear them, its just a figure of speech). ;)

Oh, and an update, I'm currently 206! One away from my next goal! Gonna buy me something fun on Amazon. :) 

Then its just baby steps to 199...

I. Want. My. CAMERA!

Now... I need to hit the tanning beds. I'm as white as the snow that's currently ruining our springtime outside. >_<

Seems to be working!

Well, I've been trying the whole lower calorie/carb thing for a about a week now, and its paying off! I weighed in this morning at 207! 2 more pounds and I reach my SECOND goal!

Still haven't cashed in my first goal of Rodezio's, mostly because we didn't have any time, and I didn't feel I deserved it until I passed 210. I hope I keep this up, I NEVER want to see 210 on the scale AGAIN!!

Also, had an interesting experience with Jamba Juice the other night. We were having the hunger cravings for it, and Kelly and I used to go their frequently for a little late night desert, so we got our usual things. I love Strawberries Wild, but upon looking for the nutrition I found it was a whopping 54 Carbs! I thought to myself, "Weekly cheat?" Well, it turns out not having any fruit for a full 2 weeks is like taking a laxative haha, so lets just say it "cleansed" me, and I lost a pound, despite it being so high in carbs! Woo!!!! If I'm gonna cheat in the future, its gonna be with something healthy like Jamba Juice!

Another thought, been paying more attention to measurements for a while. I didn't start out measuring, and I should have, but I did measure myself way back before I had my surgery and after. Since my body was essentially the same after the surgery, I went by those measurements, and I've lost a full 2 inches in my stomach area, a half inch on my hips, and a full inch on both arms!!! That's pretty drastic, and I can totally tell the difference in my clothes! 

This is all very exciting, so I hope this just continues to go this smoothly without any more delays. 

Still plateauing

I still haven't had my Rodizio's dinner because I refuse to make excuses for myself. 

Yes, I reached my first goal of 210. 
Yes, my husband promised me dinner... 
and yes, I look and feel much better than I was 14 pounds ago....

but NO, I can't have my dinner because 210 was my plateau and I can't..... get.... below it!!!!

I've been steady at 210 - 213 for a week. I've worked out again, and I've been really active in general, working in the yard, spring cleaning the house, and just walking more. Yet, nothing is working. Thanks to the internet, I think I have found a solution to my problem: too many calories.

Apparently, you CAN have too many calories on a low-carb diet. All the many yummy foods like bacon, mayo, butter, cheese, etc. are totally fine for me to chow down on, but the calories may be too high. I very well could be eating more than 2000 calories a day, which is bad! So, I'm going to start counting carbs AND calories starting tomorrow. Gonna stay away from processed food (because they always add in sugar and weird chemicals that can throw off a diet), and no more CHEATING.

Yes, tonight, since I figured I'd start tomorrow again, I had Taco Bell. What I usually eat; Meximelt's, Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Nachos, and a Baja Blast Freeze. Was it worth it? Maybe, but DANG was it tasty!!!!!! Will it effect me? Who knows. The scale will show tomorrow if it did. I DID take some carb intercept pills to help take the load off, so we'll see if they finally did their job. 

Other cheats this month included eating one Oreo, taquitos and half a burrito at Rancherito's, and having an Ultimate Grilled Cheese at Cafe Zupas. All of which probably contributed from me slowly going from 210 to 213, therefore forfeiting my Rodizio dinner.  :(

I've also learned that just because it doesn't have any calories, carbs, or sugar, doesn't mean it isn't okay to eat. Case in point; diet root beer. I read an article that even the diet stuff destroys diets (go figure?). So, goodbye my late night guilty pleasure sips. :( Also no more fruit PERIOD, which sucked because even though strawberries are only 1 carb each, the natural sugars are just as damaging as real sugar. So no more of those either. :(

Basically, I just gotta stop making food my life. I'm letting it control me. Every day my world revolves around what not to eat, and it's very stressful (which also leads to gaining weight). Bottom line, this sucks.

BUT, now that its warmer, I'm going to push myself and go on bike rides. I'm gonna best my bike out this week, ride my bike to Smith's to get groceries. Walk to church instead of driving (if I can wake up enough haha), and hitting the gym more regularly. Pray for me that I can get my body to wake up and start losing again  I hope this, along with counting calories and lowering my limit to 15 carbs a day, will help me get down to 200!

Plateauing...

This is the part I hate when doing Atkins. I reach the point where I can't lose any more. I seemed to have stopped at 210, and I can't get any lower. Granted, I've been tempted more and more the past few days, and yes, I cheated (my weekly, 1 meal cheat)... Carb Intercept doesn't seem to be working the way it should (or used to), so I ordered something more powerful online to help. 

What do I do now? Technically, I'm supposed to move on from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of Atkins. It's strange that adding more carbs to my limit is the answer to losing weight. But when I cheat (even up to that level of carb intake), I still gain. How is it supposed to help me lose more?! 

Atkins is frustrating for this reason. And sadly, I haven't worked out for a week (so much going on) and my sleep schedule has been destroyed. All things causing my body stress and probably preventing me to lose weight. 

I've been reading lots of articles of "success stories" of people who live low carb lifetsyles and have lost weight with ease, having a MUCH HIGHER carb intake than Atkins allows. All of the information sounded familiar, but most of them don't complain about their weight plateauing. I know the last time I did this diet (and any other diet), is that I start to lose, and boom, I'm stuck. It was very frustrating last time because I got all the way down to 205, and no matter what I did (even exercise) I couldn't get lower. :(

Blah.... now it's happening again and I can't figure out how to get past it!!!

Creamy Chicken Skampi

So tonight I made my first low-carb recipe dish. This is absolutely delish! I practically licked the plate! And to think this chicken with the cream was only 4 carbs!!! I highly recommend this to everyone! :D

View the recipe here!

First milestone reached!!

By two ounces. To be fair, I'm going to wait a couple days to make sure it goes down. Then I can have my Rodezio's dinner!

Also when I first stepped on the scale, said 210.4 instead of 210.8. So unless I gained 4 ounces in the 2 seconds it took to go grab my phone to take the picture, I think it's time to buy a new scale. I hope this one hasn't been lying to me this entire time. :(

Any recommendations on a good inexpensive scale?

Also new pictures. :)

What a difference 12lbs makes!

So 3 weeks ago I bought a pair of jeans at Maurices. They were a tad too tight, but I knew with the diet I would hopefully it back in them.

I left them in my drawer for 3 weeks, and today I tried them on. They fit perfectly! That kind of boost is just what I needed!

As for being inactive for a couple of days, I ended up in situations that made me cheat. I gained a couple pounds back as a result, which really depressed me, but everyone assured me it was just water weight. Either way, it sucked. But, it was an experience I needed. That feeling of failure only fuel my desire to try harder to lose weight. I feel so much better! And I'm ready to continue on this journey together me!

Cheating has horrible consequences

So, the other day I used an expiring coupon for a free McDonald's large strawberry shake. I hate letting coupons go to waste. And yes, I know, I know, very bad of me, but here's what happened:

I didn't buy it for me, I bought it for Kadree, since she loves McDonald's and we go there for Happy Meals and the Play Place. Well, tempt me tempt me, she refused to eat it, even after saying she wanted it. She drank about a 1/4 of it and wanted NOTHING to do with it after that. So here I am with a delicious shake. Ugh....

I looked up online how much it would cost me, and found that 1 ounce was 6 carbs (fun fact, the entire drink is 50+). I thought, yah I can deal with that. Basically, a couple of slurps and I was done. 

Well, after my slurps, and a little lick of the whipped cream on top, I put it away for my husband to have later (so hard to do, since it was sooooo tasty). But despite it being well within my carb intake for the day, the ingredients alone were something I weren't allowed to have: sugar (loads of it) and milk. 

My body hadn't had any sugar or straight-up milk since I started my diet, and later that day, I felt SO sick. I felt sluggish. I became tired and almost didn't make it to basketball that night... All because of a few slurps of strawberry shake! I had to down a ton of water to make it feel like I flushed it out of my system. Yuck, never doing that again!

It's amazing how food effects you. To think that I drank that kind of stuff a lot, without guilt, before I dieted. No wonder I got all the way up to 224 lbs! I'd like to think that this diet, in a way, is like a cleanse. Everything you eat after, you will see how it effects you. I took a carb intercept pill just in case, to make sure that didn't effect me much, and I still managed to drop a lb today. 

And even after all of that, I'm an idiot and took a chance by having a sausage biscuit for breakfast. Not allowed to have that either. I did eat the sausage mostly, and only a few bites of the biscuit, but this is what happens when I'm stuck without much food options. :( I really need to be more smart. This really isn't a low-carb world. Everything is low-calorie, which is great if that's what you do, but for me, low-calorie has never helped me lose weight. >_< 

Be smart Jennette, be smart. 




On a lighter note, I am 2 lbs away from reaching my first goal: 210 lbs! The husband is gonna take me to Rodezio's once that magic number appears on my scale. And hopefully working out and trying to stay good until then will pay off. :D