Well...

Oops! I forgot to write yesterday. Needless to say, I was a bit busy - first night of school. I weighed in yesterday and haven't lost a friggin pound. I'm so sick of this. I've dropped two pant sizes - from a 14 to a 10 - and the scale hasn't moved. I work out six days a week, drink 80 plus ounces of water, eat next to nothing - and the scale hasn't moved.

I went out to dinner tonight with my husband and his 5 sisters and assorted spouses. Everyone asked me how I was doing on my diet. I just said fine. Nobody notices that I'm in pants two sizes smaller??? My husband doesn't notice either - or at least he hasn't said anything. Would it kill him to say, "Hey hon, you're looking good." So they all had drinks and passed around heaping plates of appetizers - I had water.

I'm so sick of this. I'm so ready to quit. The only person I get encouragement from is Shannon at work and she's been out sick this week.

Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?

Hanging on

Okay - so yesterday I overreacted. I'm not up today - must've been water weight gain. So I don't have much to say today, but I need to journal daily - nulla dies sine line - to keep me on track. Hmmm, how about if I write down some of the NSVs (Non-Scale Victories).

My favorite Tommy Hilfiger jeans fit
The green pants that I bought (even though they were too small) to match my gorgeous Marshall Field's cardigan now fit - why is pants plural and shirt isn't?
I moved in a notch on my bra - TMI? hey, this is my blog!
I'm comfortable wearing a tee-shirt without a shirt over it

That's enough for now.

Stats: WI tomorrow

It's Not Fair

I took my two daughters and a guy friend of theirs to the state fair. The first thing they did upon entering the gates was make a bee-line for the french fries stand. They got an ice-cream bucket full of greasy potatoes and I wanted to shove my whole face into it... but I didn't. I had one bite of a fry. Honestly, that's all.

It's really not hard to find good for you food at the fair. I had a veggie pita (the carrots aren't in my diet, nor is the pita really) and a fruit bowl with watermelon, canteloupe, and grapes. The best, though was a turkey sandwich (I tossed the bun). The hard part is the temptation. Dippin dots, deep fried battered australian potatoes, Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies, foot long hot dogs AND corn dogs, brats, a shake from the dairy barn, and, of course, the dreaded cheese curds. Why do I like all of this crap? I know how bad it is for me.

I exercised this morning, sweating my butt off for 20 minutes on the treadmill, and walked for five hours at the fair. I'm up a pound. It must've been the pita and carrots. It's not f***ing fair. I should've eaten a bunch of grease and made myself sick. Why do I keep gaining when all I do is deny myself food and exercise obsessively? I hate this diet - no I just hate being fat - no I just hate being short. Those people who are a half foot taller than me and whine about not being able to get down to a slim 150 make me want to puke.

Okay - I'm getting pissed because the middle child's boyfriend is playing PS 2 downstairs and has to have it at ear blasting sound level. I'm so crabby I might just kick his ass out. At least the husband is gone for the weekend so I don't have to put up with his crap.

Stats: 165, 500 (feeling like it anyway), 130

Is it possible to eat too much lettuce?

I mean really - can you eat too much lettuce? Because I had about 2 cups instead of one and I'm afraid it's going to make me gain. That's how paranoid this diet makes you. You lose quick at the beginning, which makes the slow down (like a couple pounds a week) seem like failure. In WW if I lost 2 lbs everybody would cheer! Now I feel like a lard-ass if I allow myself to feel full... which I do now. Not uncomfortably full, just satisfied. But that's a good thing, right? I feel like I should feel hungry. I'm supposed to get in another supplement and my fat. I don't know what to eat!! Margarine and pudding? Mayo in a smoothie?

Oh joy, I just looked up the pretzel twists and they're on the B list so I can have one. I had a bar this morning. So shoot me! I needed some cha KO lot. I'm getting insane about this. Hey the lime thermo-boost is way better than the orange which tastes like bile... like back when you were a little kid and you had orange juice and then got the flu and heaved until all you had left was this icky ghost of orange taste mixed with stomach acid. Yikes! Well, at least I'm not hungry anymore.

It's State Fair time so I'm going to start listing the things that I DON'T get to consume this year in order to purge them from my mind.

cheese curds, pocketbread sandwich, beer, french fries, mini-donuts, corn dog

Salty fatty crap cooked by zitty sweaty teenage boys who have been using the porta-john all day and don't have easy access to running water. There - didn't work - I still want some curds.

WI Day

I've been very "On Program" or OP in diet lingo, meaning that I haven't cheated at all in the past couple days. I was actually up at last Tuesday's weigh-in, probably due to the 4 glasses of wine and the pasta salad I had over the weekend. The counselor advised me to eat my fruits in the morning and eat supplements that were lower in sugar. NO BARS. Ikes! I live for those bars. It's my only treat. Oh, when will fruit taste like a treat to me. The other thing that they're advising is to take 9 EFAs (essential fatty acids). I was taking 5. I'll try 9 from now on - it'll only hurt me in the wallet. I bought 100 bucks more in vitamins today. Call me a sucker, but if it works...

Anyway, today I was down again. Not as much as I'd like, but whatever.

Today's Menu:
1% Cottage Cheese
Eggs
Strawberries
Grapes
Red Peppers
Shredded Cabbage
Village Hearth Lite Wheat Bun
Lite Margarine
Smoothie
Chocolate Soy Balls

Stats: 165/155/130

Real First Blog

I've been on the Slim4Life (S4L) diet since August 7th. I started on the Monday after I went to see Chris Isaak at the Orpheum. I figured I needed a big fat eatin', drinkin', partyin' night out on the town before I committed myself to serious fat reduction. Anyway, about the diet...

There's virtually nothing out there online about this diet. It is similar, so I'm told, to LA Weightloss. In fact, I believe they use many of the same products. It's basically a low fat/calorie/carb diet that is supplemented by a zillion vitamins and supplements.

Phase 1
EAT! For 3 days you have to eat the following:
2 eggs for b-fast
1 orange - 1/2 in am, 1/2 in pm
UNLIMITED proteins
unlimited RAW veggies (restricted to basically anything green except peas)
80 oz of water
1/4 - 1/2 tsp Morton's Lite Salt (for the potassium I guess)

Okay - so the object is to eat this every day. Sounds easy huh? Well it's not! It's like you get up and think, "yay eggs for breakfast" but you don't get sausage, toast, bacon, cheese. You can't even make an omelete - no cooked veggies or cheese! Okay - that's fine, I'll just pig out on protein. Yeah, have you ever tried that. After a while you gag at the thought of it. Raw veggies - well let's just say you squeak. And the water makes you feel like a pee pee factory.

The good news, however, is that you drop 5 pounds like nuthin!

Phase 2
After the 3rd day you start the real diet. They say it's tailored especially for you, but it's simply four plans and which one you're on depends on how much you need to lose. I'm on the lowest weight plan. Here's what I get:

2 proteins
2 veggies
2 fruits
2 starches
1 fat
2 supplements
80 oz water

I don't know how that sounds to you, but to me it's not much and I'm craving food every frickin' night. There is a food list that you have to go off of and you can't deviate. Like you can only eat beef 3 times a week and it can't be two days in a row... stuff like that. The supplements are bars, puddings, shakes, soups, soy pretzels, and are actually very tasty. Oh, like I said before, you take a ton of vitamins and you have to take the Morton's (drink it like a shot) every day. There are so many vitamins that I went and bought an old lady plastic pill container with the separators to keep track.

The vitamins are optional and they really don't pressure you into buying them. You do have to buy the supplements though. They're expensive. Also, you have to check in with them at least 2 times a week to get weighed and make sure you're, ahem, having daily movements.

Bottom line - I started at 165 and I want to get to 130. At an average of 3-5 lbs a week, they figure I'll be on the plan for 12 weeks. The cost, when I'm at goal weight, will probably be about $1000. Worth it? I'll let you know.

Stats: 165/157.6/130 (Start/Current/Goal)

First Posting

I started the Slim 4 Life diet two weeks ago. As there are virtually no discussion boards for S4L people, I'm going to use this spot to spew. Maybe I'll even answer myself. This is my journey and my journal.