julslovesjesus

Joined June 2010

Posts

107

Following

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Weight History

Start Weight

306.4 lb

Lost so far: 124.3 lb

Current Weight

182.1 lb
Performance: losing 0.3 lb a week

Goal Weight

165.3 lb

Still to go: 16.8 lb

Hi!
I'm 48 y/o single mum of 2 fantastic kids (well adults really, my daughter is 22, my son 30!. I'm the proud grandma of Pheobe who is the most amazing little girl ever and have another on the way due March 2015. I live and work in the beautiful Lake Macquarie / Newcastle area of NSW, Australia.

It's time to get my weight dealt with once and for all! I've been on every diet known to man,should probably have a degree in nutrition by now- but still am massively overweight. Well, this is it. I can now no longer ignore it as I have health issues that must be addressed.

My weight loss has been a long journey. At my heaviest, I weighed about 180kg for several years. In 2009 I got down to 126kg over about 6 months of extreme dieting with hours of exercise per day. Then could not afford the time or the expensive foods and slipped backward. Got to about 155kg again and went onto Atkins style in 2012. Got myself down to about 135 kg and couldn't stick to the plan and gradually gave up. Gave it a try here and there, but remained about 150kg. Have very gradually lost a few kg since then. Have been bouncing around between 139 - 142 for the last 12 months.

Now I have these health challenges, and I have no choice. I have to take this seriously. So here goes for a fresh start! I'm starting 40 kg lighter than my heaviest weight, so obviously I can do this! :-)

julslovesjesus's Weight History

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Following

	janetofnq
	last weighin: gaining 1.3 lb a week

	Marino:)
	last weighin: gaining 0.8 lb a week

	becca_mom_of_three
	last weighin: losing 0.2 lb a week

	hoyecl
	last weighin: losing 0.4 lb a week

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julslovesjesus's Latest Posts

Nose Huggies did work.. Amazing
ahhh haaaa haaaa haaa - that is the funniest (worst) advertising I have read in ages.

posted 17 Jun 2012, 02:14

stopped my stall!!
way to go! Well done!

posted 17 Jun 2012, 02:08

Atkins tips & tricks for newbies
well the scale is moving again. I've had a couple of stop/start times. But learning heaps along the way. Here's what I've learnt - it's all probably buried here in the archives in other people's posts, but if my experience makes it easier for others, that's awesome. Otherwise, I'm cheering anyway!
Educate yourself within an inch of your life - literally!
- buy the book(s) - I've got mine ordered through Borders in Australia but am still waiting for it to arrive - international shipping takes ages!
-even if you have the books, or even if you don't - do the lessons on the Atkins site www.atkins.com to get more practical with it
- trawl through the forums, ask questions, - your understanding of this program is what will make or break you
-use www.fatsecret.com or www.fitday.com to record EVERYTHING.
-invest in kitchen scales - weigh EVERYTHING and RECORD everything you put in your mouth.
-stick to the program, it works! -Be willing to try new things, you'll be amazed how much variety you actually can have on Atkins
- be prepared. For me, with my extremely busy lifestyle - it's the key to being able to stick to the program.
- if you find you've stopped losing, or cannot seem to lose weight - recheck you are sticking to the program. Check your quantities, make sure you are eating enough. Less is not best for this change of lifestyle.
My experiences:
I did Atkins (or what I thought was Atkins) years ago - failed miserably. Could not go without veggies. It was awful. I decided to re-investigate it recently because nothing else seemed to be working.
I started June 19 at 362 lbs on induction. In 10 days lost 5 kilos (10 lbs) and was going well. Had craving and realise now I was not really doing the program right. First week of July I ended up going away to a conference for a week and did not prepare well. Went off Atkins (but didn't go nuts) for a couple of weeks. In that time I regained 8lbs - so kept two off. And actually regained less quickly than I would have ordinarily to be honest.
Restarted August 3rd at 360lb. By my birthday on Aug 19, I was down to 346lb. Unfortunately, I came unstuck for a couple of days - had 4 birthday parties to attend in as many days and "tried to be good" but didn't PLAN - that was really my undoing. Being stuck at parties where there really weren't ANY Atkins friendly options. Again, I really didn't go nuts. Ate a piece of birthday cake here, a handful of nuts there and really did do my best. Ended up feeling AWFUL! You see, Atkins really DOES make you feel good! My energy levels plummeted in 48 hours. I could barely drag myself out of bed. Awful awful awful. I never realise how awful sugar made me feel. Energy food? Ha, I doubt it!
So that four day foray into party land brought a present of 6 lbs with it. Could not believe it came back that fast. Again - I really was not going all out - I was just not eating the Atkins way.
Restarted at 352 on 24th Aug - today I'm down to 344. Feeling pretty happy about that!
I've now realised I wasn't eating enough. I was using Atkins shakes and bars too much - so have gone right off them the past week - and feel that has made a huge difference. I was having a shake in the morning for my breakfast - not "bad" but I've started eating veggies & eggs instead, and it's helped enormously. I was often having a bar as a snack also - but as a result I was not eating enough foundation veggies, nor enough fat. Now I'm a bit more aware of how to do the program, I'm finding it much easier. I love Atkins. It really is changing my life. I've got a long way to go - but I have absolutely no doubt I'll reach my goal. Not through fad dieting or dieting products, but through eating in a way that brings health and vitality to my body. Loving it!
I live an exceedingly hectic life - I am out all day, and often night times also. It takes diligence and foresight to make Atkins work in the way it should, and not just rely on prepackaged Atkins stuff.
So, here's what I do - when I am home - I make sure to make the effort to prepare food in advance. For me that works like this...
*I put 6-8 eggs on to boil while I'm preparing other things. Once they're hard boiled, I cool them and peel them qickly and keep them in a ziplock bag in the fridge - I use them as a snack, or to add to my lunch time salads.
*I buy cheap plastic take away food style containers - they make life so easy! I buy all my salad & veggies, line up containers and make up to a week's worth of salad ready to go for lunches. I write down every ingredient as I weigh it, labelling the containers salads 1,2 3,etc when I'm done. I tuck a smaller container with dressing in each one (I use about 1/2 teaspoon ranch dressing mixed with 1 tbsp olive oil). I refrigerate all of them, then on the morning I need them, I just grab a container, grab a small can of salmon or tuna or a couple of boiled eggs and I have a great lunch all ready.
*I have a heaps of "steamer" bags I bought at the grocery store (unfortunately I can't find them anymore, so re-use the ones I have after washing them out well). I prepare and weigh a nice selection of veggies for each night and add to the steamer bags (which I've labelled 1-5), again, writing a list down and keeping track of each ingredient. Sounds laborious, but it isn't once you get in the swing of it - it becomes a production line. Once all the bags are packed and sealed, I put them in my freezer - meals size portions ready to go. Yum!
*I also prepare a few different things so that if I'm really tired, it's easier to go to the freezer than to the takeaway store on my way home (which I used to do ALL the time). So, I'll cut up a chicken breast, mix it with olive oil, garlic, spring onion and curry powder, or instead of curry powder tamari soy sauce (again - keeping a record of quantities for carb recording). I bag these up and put in the freezer so I can either defrost in the microwave and throw into a frypan to stir fry with my vegies, or defrost during the day so its ready to go. It's amazing how easy this is, and how incredibly yummy the dinner is! With the curry, I put a tablespoon of cream in right at the end - so yum!
*Another super easy dinner I make a couple of is chinese style omelettes. These freeze remarkably well and all you have to do is nuke them and they're ready to go. (I stir fry some vegies - celery, bell pepper, mushroom, spring onion etc, then add some chicken, tuna or salmon. Cook in about 1/2 cup of stock, or 1/2 stock cube. Once that's all softened, remove from pan, add mixture of 2 eggs and 1 tbsp sour cream, once it's starting to set, spoon your meat & vegies back over half of it. Fold omelette over the vegies then pour in the stock over the top. Put straight into a plastic container, allow to cool, then freeze. Totally yummy.
So - there's a few of my organisational tips. I'm NOT a very organised person generally, so this does take self discipline for me, but it's well worth the effort. When I do make the effort, I save so much time because I'm doing almost a week's worth of meals in one hit. Only takes an hour or two!
oh I forgot - everything I've written down as I'm preparing the food, I keep by my computer so it's easy to log into my fatsecret food diary each day. As I use a salad or vegetable portion, I just have to note the "number" on the container to know which it is in my notes taken when preparing it. (I draw a table with 1,2,3,4,5 etc along the top, the ingredients down the side then just have to note the actual weight in each corresponding box.SOOO much easier and quicker than having to do that every day)
The great thing about this is, it's actually teaching me about portion sizes and control - I have never learnt that before, so it's an eye opening experience to realise just how much I have been consuming previously

posted 27 Aug 2010, 23:56

julslovesjesus has submitted 3 posts

julslovesjesus's Recent Food & Exercise

	30 g Cherry Tomatoes
	43 g Mushrooms
	1 large Egg
	Bicycling (leisurely) - <10/mph
	Swimming (moderate)
	Water Aerobics

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This is not a diet, Its a LIFESTYLE!!!
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Doing Atkins the RIGHT way
Come in and learn about a healthy way to lose weight and keep it off!! Learn about Atkins the right way.

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