New Blog Updated: Day 9 of Son of DDDY Challenge: Milestone crossed, history in "numbers", blogging as a weight loss aid, water as "Gastric Band" for surgery-wussies, WonderSlim Discount, and Realizing I'm gonna have to learn to make soups....

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Day 9 of Son of DDDY Challenge: Milestone crossed, history in "numbers", blogging as a weight loss aid, water as "Gastric Band" for surgery-wussies, WonderSlim Discount, and Realizing I'm gonna have to learn to make soups....

Summer Slimmin' Check-in Week 7: Damage Repaired, Momentum Back

Whew. Adding extra protein mini-meals worked. the 4 pounds I had regained during the "Carb-Wild Week of Family Festivities and Pizza Pig-Out" are bye-bye:

259.6

I wasted SS Challenge time when I lost my way, but I find my appetite is calmer adding those protein snacks (the pudding shake, oatmeal especially, since they're easy to make and eat, so no hassle for me).

I have not been eating at lower calorie levels I'd wanted. I'm eating at about 2000 calories average. My goal this week is to keep it under 1900 and to keep up the nutrition tracking and water (which I had totally slacked off on).

So, this has been the challenge progress (and backsliding):

Starting Weight: 267.6
End of week 1= 265.6
End of week 2= 263.2
End of week 3=264.8
End of week 4= 262.6
End of week 5: 259.6
End of week 6: 263.8
End of week 7: 259.6


So, basically I lost two weeks, cause I'm back to where I was at the end of week 5.  There's only  TWELVE DAYS left in the challenge, I don't see making my goal of 250. But I'm still hanging in and seeing that number as my objective. :)

I did get some help with my water intake in the last couple days when I went and got some cucumbers (Kirby's), fresh mint, and limes, and I added all that to a container and chilled in the fridge for a few hours. It was amazing. If you like Persian mast o' khiar salads (the minty cucumber yogurt salad you get as an appetizer at Persian restaurants), and I'm wild about the stuff, this tastes like it (sans yogurt). Love it. So refreshing this crazy hot summer.

Anyway, more reviews on the WonderSlim (alternate Medifast sorta) I tried along with my regular foods:

Oatmeal: Ya know, there were sooo many reviews about how much better this was than MediFast oatmeal, so like real oatmeal, five-star reviews, that I'm thinking that MediFast oatmeal must be incredibly awful, cause this was passable. Now, if I had been eating the world's ickiest oatmeal and had this, I'd give it 5 stars, too, I guess. I had the apple n cinnamon. It did have a nice apple and cinnamon taste and the rolled oats were REAL and so the texture was nice (if not overcooked, like my first batch. Use less time than the directions and increase as needed). But like so many of the higher protein, lower calorie diet stuff I've tried over the years, there is this aftertaste, this bitterish undertone. So, side by side with REAL oatmeal, it would get no more than 2 out of five stars (and that for the nutrients/low calorie/appleyness). If you compare it to some other diet protein/soy oatmeals I've tried, yes it fares better. I will say it fixes fast, is easy to eat once you get used to the aftertaste, and is filling for its portion. I like it as a side to eggs to quell my voracious appetite in the am, and as a snack between meals. Worth trying, especially if you are an oatmeal lover who has tried other diet/protein oatmeals and found them wanting.

Cheesesteak Macaroni entree: I cooked this stovetop since other reviewers recommended that. I watched it the whole time to avoid overcooking. It was all right. The final serving is about a cup. The "meat" has a slightly odd texture, but not totally offputting (chewy). The pasta was okay. The cheesiness was adequate. It's not something that made me gag and it's not an entree that made me go "Oh, that as fun." It's merely adequate. Although the cheese-addict in me was satisfied by having the cheesy flavor.

I am not sure at this point if I'd reorder this entree. I'd have to wait and see how it grows--or doesn't--on me and how the other entrees strike me. BUT...it does have a nice filling quality given the quantity. I had it with a side of sauteed spinach, a boiled egg, a small wedge of cheese, and had a creamy pudding for dessert. I was full and got plenty of protein. By itself, I would not be satisfied, but I do think adding veggies as sides--or a salad--or adding some extra low-carb pasta would help oodles. If you LOVE cheesesteak, then definitely try it. There aren't that many entree options, and this seems to be one of the more highly regarded WonderSlim ones. I'd recommend it to those who know it's special high-protein diet food and are willing to base their taste expectations on that basis.

Creamy Pudding/Shake: I almost didnt' try this as a pudding, cause the reviews at the WonderSlim site tend to skew towards this as a shake. But I think the problem is that this is NOT puddingy. This is like a mousse consistency--airier and less creamy than pudding. I like it. I took one star off cause it does have a bit of an aftetaste, but I expect this from high protein diet foods, so no biggie, really. Four to 4.5 stars (based on experiences with other lowcarb dieter foods).

Here's what I did: I prepared it with refrigerator-chilled water (really cold), a bit less than 4 ounces,  and let it sit while i ate my soup. Afte 10 minutes or so, this has set quite nicely. I added a tablespoon of Bob's Red  Mill Shredded organic coconut (smells good, low carb, about 30 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1.3 carbs per tbsp) and about 6 ChocoPerfection dark chocolate baking chips (sugarfree, lowcarb). Almost negligible calorie-wise, really. Just for appearance and to give a shot of chocolate. I found it to be a really nice high-protein QUICK dessert after soup (or even salad or a veggie joe bowl with veggies). I definitely will reorder this. I got the chocolate cream, which I will get again. And I want to try it with some fresh berries, too.

Really, don't be put off of it as a pudding. So quick, no blender to clean, slower to eat, which is always good for dieters. And you can pump it up with low-carb or fruity goodness. Mixes easily with a spoon. Nice "moussey" texture (and I like mousse). A tad gritty, but not horribly so. Just differently so. If they could find a way to rid it of the aftertaste, this would be pretty perfect diet fare.

I've also been enjoying the utterly wonderful bounty of avocados and donut peaches (my fave, fave among peaches) out there. Been eating berries and LOTS of spinach. The arugula has been a bit sad, which makes ME sad, in turn. Love that best of all salad greens. Watermelon has been faboo, too.

I'm still only exercising 2x a week, and part of that is that I'm just having my endocrine issues, and there's not much I can do about that.  I just gotta hold on until my status can be worked out with medication tweaking.

So, that's my check-in. Glad to have "backtracked" to the 250's, glad to be back on the momentum wagon, though, as usual, I suck at challenges, since giving it my all just seems to never work out with these things. I'm such a slacker. ; )

Anyway, I wish you all a happy week with losses! Of the fatty kind. And all sorts of beneficial health and joy and love gains!
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Until My Meds Get Checked/Tweaked, "Skaking" things up here & Do You Do MediFast Alternatives, like WonderSlim?

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Wow. I've been absent again. I missed the SUMMER SLIMMIN' check-in. I've been carbing it up at family gatherings (one day chicken and rice with sugar-topped plantains, the other a lo mein and steamed dumplings feast, and a pizza backslide last night).

I have been feeling off. My face feels a bit "masky", and since we changed my regimen a month ago, I think my previous thyroid med status has now sequed to the new one (lower dosage) and it's NOT helping. I have felt like sleeping more, and I've craved carbs (and been indulging, though until yesterday, not bingeing), and my attention is hard to focus. The scale is up. Yeah, something's off. I have an appot to see doc in August, so I gotta do something until then to not lose all traction.

I will say that despite feeling groggier and carb-happy, I only big-time overate twice in the last week plus. And even though I wanted to binge last night, it was a minor binge (and weighted in less than day before). I did NOT eat enough to gain 4 pounds, and the scale showed me up to 263.8. I know the carbs and sodium mix is mostly to blame.

Yesterday, it was pizza. Damn the Dominos 2x Tuesday. I had not been shopping (due to feeling lethargic) and so there was NOTHING in the house to give hubby. So, I fell into the order-crap hole and got the 2 pizzas for one price. I ate 3.5 slices and a salad and stopped. I wanted more. I wanted the whole fricken pizza. But I took the slices, bagged them, froze them. I wasn't gonna throw them out, as hubby can take them for lunch (as he did today, two slices).

I haven't had an all-out, stuff until I hurt binge in a while. In fact, even when I wanted to eat MORE at the family functions, I didn't. I avoided cakes and sugary snacks for the most part. I didn't have more than one mojito (and that has sugar), and ended up having half of it. I took my own beveraged. I ate something before showing up.

Even the late night eating (the other night I overate), I ordered HALF of what I would when I binged.

I like to think the sense of calmness on most days is progress. Even with the regain.

So, I'm not stressing overly.

I am taking a different tack until I can see the doc (it's too coincidental that I feel off when we're trying a new combo, which I researched after and found was LESS strong than the original one, though should be better absorbed.)

I have watched with good cheer and interest, Lyn of Escape From Obesity's progress on MediFast. (She has a coupon code for those wanting to use the plan. See her blog  post on the MediFast winners.)

I can't do that--first, saw too many reviews of the horrible taste of the stuff and, second, too much soy. I am not euthyroid, and I don't want to take in THAT much soy every day and then have to worry about rejiggering my medication all the time. Nothing worse than unstable thyroid levels when you're hypothyroid. Sucks bigtime. And makes losing weight virtually impossible for me when I"m out of my limited "happy range."

And I wondered about all the folks who have seen our Lyn do so well and want to try something like Medifast, but without soy or with LESS soy. Who worry about soy or are just sensitive or allergic to it. What are their/my options?

So, I did googling. hahah.

Then, I ordered stuff from Diet Direct. Stuff related to WONDERSLIM (though I'm not doing the plan.) I heard about Wonderslim from two sources within one week: 3FatChicks.com's forum and Impatient Dieter. And I saw that soy sensitive folks have used it as an alternative to MediFast (though MediFast seems to work better, it tastes worse and is more expenseive). Trade-offs for people to research.

I am not doing "the program". I simply feel too draggy and demotivated by that dragginess to want to shop/cook/plan, etc. I want simple stuff here that is high-protein, low-to-medium carb, easy to fix, so I don't have to think about food some days (or several days in a row). So, that's my rationale--just holding on and maybe make some progress until we fix me up medication-wise.

BUT..you can use the Diet Direct WONDERSLIM stuff for your "cheaper and tastier alternative to Medifast" regimen if you choose. Others have done it (check 3FatChicks forum to see). You can read up on both plans and see how to work it. In truth, if you have the patience and bucks, you can order stuff from both and see which flavors you can handle before you choose a plan.

For those following Impatient Dieter--who used a regimen of 7 Wonderslim shakes of 100 calories each and two lean/green meals a day of 250 calories each with full fat dressing to lose an astounding amount of weight FAST--and who were curious to try that regimen, I'll happily post reviews of the drinks and meal equivalents for you.

WonderSlim has some soy items, so you do need to read ingredients and decide how much you think you can handle. The shakes and drinks are not soy-based. They are whey-based. You can read nutritional info on their products here: WONDERSLIM

From what I understand, MediFast has more fiber and probably a higher nutritional profile than WonderSlim. It has fewer carbs in its entress. (WonderSlim offers some pasta dish options). WonderSlim's oatmeal is supposed to taste LIKE OATMEAL, unlike the MF weird one. The shakes are supposed to be tastier and without aftertaste like MF. BUT..the WS stuff uses in many cases aspartame. So, some folks don't do that.

So, I do recommend you compare ingredients and carbs, etc, and also if you do WS, to get a fiber supplement. Not a biggie, really. Everyone should review ingredients in what they eat, anyway.

QUICKIE REVIEW: I had the protein WS Hot Cakes for breakfast with two eggs with cheddar and some Almond Breeze. (All stuff I still had at home and easy to prepare). (I'll revise this post with a pic when I upload and rescale. I'm feeling draggy, remember?)

Lots of protein!

The hot cakes would not be confused with regular pancakes, but I found them pleasant--nicely vanilla-ey and with some sugar-free syrup and cinnamon sprinkled on top, satisfying. (One packet makes 3 very small hot cakes. Cute, too.) Don't overcook. Easy to prepare.  Add 1/4 cup water to one packet, stir, let stand for 1 minute (it thickens and becomes frothy), scoop onto pan that's been preheated low-medium heat. I spritzed Pam for the "greasing". I added a tiny dollop of Smart Balance over each pancake (like a pea sized drop) for some healthy fat.

SparkPeople's Nutrition Tracker lists my breakfast as 491 cals,  27g carbs, 35g protein.

It's now 4 hours since I ate--yeah, yeah, I'm not eating every 2 hours, that's up to you if you do the whole plan, which I'm NOT doing--and I"m not remotely hungry, but plan to eat anyway to keep me from GETTING to the point of hunger.

This is not CLEAN EATING. You see that, right? :) It's not "wholesome" eating.

MediFast and WonderSlim are what I call Frankenfood Diets (although others define it differently)--foods that are not what nature makes or near-natural. Processed, reconfigured, "isolated" this, added vitamins, removed THAT, preservatives, all sorts of stuff in there that's hard to pronounce. If you prefer to stay close to nature--as I generally do, but man, I'm zapped right now and justt balk at the idea of toting bags full of produce and proteins home and chopping and cooking... aaaaaarrrgggghhh-- this is not for you.

If you can get tired of flavors easily, this is not for you. Shakes and drinks have limited flavors , there's lots of chocolate , sure. Most of the entrees seem to be similar in spice structure. But your lean meal can be whatever you want that fits the parameters, so make that one happy for your mouth. Lyn has great recipes. See her site for that. Make the most of your REAL FOOD. (I have some frozen asparagus, some fresh Spinach and zucchini, but no meat or poultry at home right now. Dang.)

I plan to add stuff I have in my pantry to use them up, like my nice FiberGourmet high-fiber, lower-carb version of pasta. I like the fiber in that and the texture. I have many soups that I can easily heat up (most are veggie-based). I have frozen Diet-To-Go suppers that can fill in a pinch (though not low-carb, they're vegetarian and lowfat).

I didn't want to ditch the challenge, though exercising is really hard--and I have been tempted to cancel Pilates, but dammit, I refuse to give in THAT much!

If anyone has tried a MediFast alternative (for folks who can't afford/don't like taste of/can't do all soy), please post a link to any post you've done so others can see the resources you have. I don't mean SPAM or PR. I mean YOU use it and it works well for you.

If you've used WonderSlim, do you blog about it? Please comment and link.

If you've done Medifast and found a way to construct your own using more accessible ingredients from your supermarket/health food store--post and link.

So, right now, I was up 4 lbs from last weigh-in, then today down a bit, but still up 3 lbs. Let's see what next weigh-in brings.

On the plus side my natural hair journey has yielded nice results. Here is hair on Saturday on way to one of those carby family gatherings:

Happy week to you all.

WONDERSLIM / DIET DIRECT NOTE: If you spend more than $79, shipping is free. Spend 99 bucks, get 10% automatically off. I got my stuff  IN FIVE DAYS via FedEx, and would have gotten it sooner, but I ordered on a Saturday night.

Legal Note: I did not get any free products (other than usual few samples added to orders). I bought these products on my own dime and my review is my own. I am NOT at this time an affiliate. I am considering becoming one, and it depends on if I enjoy the products.

ETA: Okay, as of Thursday afternoon, I am an affiliate. Just  updating.
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ETA: Okay, so I just changed my mind and emailed them to remove me as an affiliate. I feel dumb. hah.

Fat to Fit Blog Hop Thursday: Journaling In Better Nutrition...can get tricky!

As my regular readers know, I got back to Sparking, which include using the SparkPeople Nutrition Tracker (a lovely online tool for food journaling). I have found it really useful, not just to track food, but to track holes in my nutrition, since it tells you as you enter your meals how you are stacking up not just in carbs/proteins/fats, but in assorted nutrients (and you can customize).

As a middle-aged, post-menopausal woman, I wanna know that I'm getting  enough calcium and vitamin D. And I wouldn't have realized I'm chronically deficient in zinc, folate, B-12, and potassium had I not sparked. (I can't eat shellfish/seafood, and I won't eat organ meats, and I limit my nuts/seeds for caloric reasons,  so I tend to have issues with areas where those are the major suppliers of particular nutrients.)

Thanks to Sparking that journal, I have been able to target my supplement intake to what I need, not just shove some in my mouth "just in case." I love doing the report after supper and seeing where I need to boost nutrients--and am most happy when I meet goals in most categories. But knowing where the holes are lets me know if I need a B-complex or just a B-12 dot, if I need to have more romaine or spinach, if I should add a beef dish, if I need to pop a Citrical-D max.  I do find that I have to take zinc. Period. I have almost never ever made my zinc nutrient RDA, so, yeah, I take liquid ionic zinc. It tastes truly hideous, but I do it, cause I suspect at the bottom of my chronic skin and thinning hair issues may be this chronic zinc deficiency.

Because I was low on potassium yesterday (I usually am, and most Americans usually are), I had some banana with dinner and coconut water with lunch on Wednesday. This morning, I added a banana-skim-milk-raw-cocoa-powder smoothie to breakfast to get magnesium/calcium/D/potassium (all nutrients that a lot of people fall short of, including me if I'm not careful with meal planning).

So, what is the tricky part in the subject header?

Well, no nutrition tracker that I've ever used is comprehensive for all users. If you buy stuff ready-made, you better have the ability to deconstruct that chicken salad or beef stew or whatever it is you bought to get the components (unless someone posts a generic you just go with).

Today, breakfast is a delivery meal from Diet-To-Go that I'm using to get me through the first few weeks of the Summer Slimmin' Challenge. (See badge on top of my sidebar for info).  While the Diet-To-Go site has some nutritional info, it doesn't give it for the major nutrients (just the "top label" ones, fat, sodium, carbs, protein, calories). It doesn't give me the nutrients in my Eggs Florentine with soy sausage and asparagus, which, given there's spinach, milk, and eggs in there, should be nice. I know it's high protein (44 grams) and low-carb (6, and hence me having the banana, heh, cause I didn't have toast), but not how much of vitamins, minerals, etc.

That diminishes the usefulness of my journaling (in terms of health), although I still will know the calories and major categories that most dieters care about.

Still, I want to know that I had enough folate or B-12 or magnesium. It matters to me.

So, the convenience of diet delivery meals makes for inconvenient food tracking. Hey, Diet-to-Go! Make it easy for Sparkers who use your food. Give us the lowdown. BETTER YET: Contact SparkPeople, you Diet-To-Go administrators,  and give them your meal titles/info and side dishes and the comprehensive nutrient breakdown, so that these can be added to the food database there. Who knows? You might get a lot more subscribers through that huge online community (of millions of fatfighters!)

Anyway, visit other blogging fatfighters/health-seekers in the Fat to Fit Blog Hop:

Go ye and hydrate, move, laugh, and lose!

Happy fatfighting this Thursday!

My Calorie Guesstimating Is Still Primo...Now, If I could Just Get My Dinnertime Appetite in Line

I started logging my food on SparkPeople today. (My user name there is PrincessDieter, for anyone who is in that community.)

It's a bit of a slow-going pain, but I wanted to see how the calories/fat/protein/carbs added up.

I had written what I ate quickly in my diet journal at home, with a pen,the old-fashioned way, and I had guesstimated that breakfast had been roughly 550 calories.

When I entered the food into the nutrition log at SparkPeople, it told me the calorie count was 535. Good huh?

I remember the very first time I went to a dietitian. Not as a chubbyish kid or zaftigish teen (I was normal on the weight charts, but you could tell by looking at my belly and butt and thighs that I was on the higher side). I went as an overweight 29 year old carrying close to 190 pounds. The dietitian quizzed me on calories in meals, and I nailed every single meal she projected on a screen. The surprised look on her face made me think that didn't happen often, if ever. But hey, I liked to read diet books even then, even if they weren't really sticking.

So, I lost about 20 pounds that time. Regained plus. The usual story.

All that to say that the head knowledge of weight loss isn't correlative to the reality of weight loss, but it's still good to be aware. I can't fool myself when I scarf down pizza or cheese enchilada take-away that I'm eating A reasonable number of calories, cause I know dang well it's more like Z. I've seen caloric underestimation in action (just about everyone I know other than my middle sister underestimates how many calories they have at a meal.)

So, I had a pretty decent, high-fiber, highish protein, veggie/fruit enriched breakfast. I already planned what lunch and my snack will be. The crux always tends to be dinner. That's when my appetite goes nuts. It went a bit nuts last night, when I gave in to seconds/dessert temptation and felt pretty stupid, too.

But, fine. It's another day. I started off well, the middle seems manageable, and if I strategize (drink plenty of fluid, have my whey snack a couple hours prior to dinner, have a fiber supplement, too, to start filling me up) then dinner won't defeat me.

Tomorrow, I plan to return to Pilates after a 4 week absence due to this really hideous, lingering flu. I still have some cough (not much), some plegm (not much), some fatigue (middling). The idea of exercising is daunting, cause I am nowhere near my best energy levels. But I plan to eat lots of fruits and veggies today and get a lots of potassium and rest as much as I can before my session tomorrow. I want to recapture the muscle I lost being ill.

I hope I can continue the logging of food at SparkPeople. I tried this before at WW online and really kind of fizzle away. I always have done better at the pen/paper journal of foods (faster). But I want to see the nutrient breakdown, even if it's just for a few weeks to see where I'm lacking/excessive/etc.

I hope today is a great day for all the fatfighters out there. Write down your calories/points. Eat lots of produce. Drink water. Move some. Do that, you and I, and we're halfway to a good food/fitness Tuesday.

Later,