No Sugar New Year Challenge (Page 17)

I'm a big fan of sweet potatoes..just the white ones I don't eat.

I try to eat a lot of protein for breakfast as it keeps hunger away. Eat carbs for breakfast you'll be hungry soon.

I eat egg whites, Canadian bacon, and fried 2% cheese every day even Christmas. Fried cheese is weird I know but since I don't eat bread, I find it is crispy and yummy.

How do you fry your own cheese?

Me too!  I've been putting cinnamon on top, yummy! 

How do you keep it from just melting in there????

Don't feel bad. I am not down either. Still working off the Christmas gain. 1 pound to go. Still craving. It will get better in about a week for me. It takes about 3 weeks for me to get into a good grove. 

It melts and gets brown and crispy which is how I like it. With no breads or crackers or flour stuff I miss crunchy stuff.

I just got a ding.

Got emotionally wrecked tonight and ate half a chocolate bar with a coke.  The only two sugar things I hadn't managed to remove from my house....

Since I dinged on 12/24 and used my mulligan on 12/25, I was basically starting over with the sugar withdrawal.  I am now on day 5, which is the longest I have ever gone without sugar.  Since I have bronchitis, I can't even figure out what symptoms are from sugar withdrawal and what symptoms are from the bronchitis.  All I know is that combined, I feel crappy.

And, my weight this morning was 167, which isn't too bad seeing as I have done little exercise and I have been eating a ton.

I used my mulligan last night - white chocolate mocha from starbucks....it was good, though.  Now I gotta white knuckle it through new years! 

Hey - I'm kinda curious about you guys - since we are stuck in this together....

I am a 36 year old, stay-at home mom of 2 boys (4 and 8), I miss my former career in HR, but i'm trying to stick it out until they are both in school and find a part-time job.  Married, and he turns 40 this year! Main sport was swimming in HS and college and last year was  my first tri.....anyway, share if you want to!

I'll take another ding for this morning. I craved a cinnamon bun from the coffee truck with my coffee.  Ate some and it really didn't taste good.  Oh why did I do it.  Well, got that out of my system.  Don't think I will want another one for a long time.  It also killed my calorie count for the day =(

Another day, another challenge.

I tried to get access to the google spreadsheet. Help.

I'm hanging in there so far.  I was still hungry after dinner last night which would have been the clue to reach for the (Slow Churned) ice cream, but had a juicy Clementine instead.  OK.  I had two Clementines.  They are very sweet and tasty, but they are not ice cream.  I survived. 

I weigh in tomorrow at Weight Watchers and I fully expect, no, demand, a humongous weight loss.

Have a good day all.

Leah

Seems likes some folks are having a tough time and getting dings. I see a trend that folks eat something and it doesn't taste as good as they hoped and wish they never ate it.

I mentioned before about a book/website that I am working on that can help with this...I cut and pasted something from her website below. I believe most of us don't know how to diet beyond cut calories, what to eat and exercise. We all want to do those things as we are all triathletes. We know being at our ideal weight will make us faster which we'd all like. So why is it we eat the xx or the yyy? White knuckling it isn't enough for some of us. For me I believe learning how to diet and control my thoughts and desires about food, how to handle difficult situations (like kids eating malts last night which I absolutely love but didn't eat...stood 4 feet away giving my husband directions on how to make them so I couldn't lick my finger). 

Website the following is from.

"I want you to know that it isn’t your fault if you’ve had trouble losing weight or keeping it off. You just haven’t known how. After all, has anyone ever taught you how to:

• motivate yourself every day?
• build your confidence by giving yourself credit?
• create time and energy for dieting?
• get yourself to follow your plan even when you don’t feel like it?
• make a craving go away?
• refrain from emotional eating?
• get right back on track when you make a mistake?
• handle special occasions and people who push you to eat?

The reason I wrote The Complete Beck Diet for Life is to teach dieters how to diet, how to keep going when dieting becomes difficult, how to maintain their weight loss, and how to create a flexible and healthy eating plan. Dieters need to stop putting some foods off limits, but instead, learn how to eat their favorite foods (even candy, fries, or chips) every day.

I developed the five-stage program in this book as I helped yoyo dieters (including myself) in the past 25 years lose weight and keep it off.

If you’re like me and have dieted in the past, it’s so important for you to overcome your discouragement and to recognize that this time will be different."

Anyone interested in reading the book and working together to implement the principals let me know. I want to get this eating thing in control and be at my ideal life for rest of my life.

Quick intro as someone suggested:

Kathy, mom to 5 (19-10) and married to Kevin for 23 years. Since I had kids I mostly haven't worked a couple years ago worked as a contractor for a few months. Now I train during the day and be a mom when kids are home as much as possible. Kevin signed up to do his first tri in April and started training this week. 4 of our 5 kids have done tris which is pretty cool. My big goal in sports life is to have fun doing cool stuff and be an inspiration to my kids to live a healthy life.

I started losing weight on April 21, 2003. Before IMLP I had lost 97 pounds and felt great...I gained some weight after IM and became more free with my eating for the first time since I started losing weight and it scared me. I did my first tri in 2004, and in 2005 did my first Oly, first HIM in '07. I bike race some..crashed badly in a bike race in June 2007 which wrecked my season mostly. But it was the  motivator to sign up and do an Ironman as in a blink of an eye I could have lost my ability to ride/run/swim...so even though I knew it would be a big challenge I signed up...and I did it! This year I tried cyclocross which is like steeple chase on bikes but we get off and jump over barriers carrying our bikes...crazy hard but wicked fun.

This years focus is Ironman Canada and cyclocross in the fall.

Here's my intro.

Jessica, newlywed (to Charlie this October). I work in medical research at the local university. I started training for tris in Feb 2008 after two year of running and training for half marathons. I love triathlon and that every day is a little different. I'm racing my first HIM in early April and am looking forward to the challenge.

My intro.....Abbie married to matt for over 3 years.  We have two 4-legged kids Calvin and Keifer.  I work in advertising sales for 5 magazines/websites.  Grew up in NJ and have lived in CA for over 10 years now.

Growing up I was always active in organized sports; soccer, volleyball, softball, track & basketball.  I got to college and played club lacrosse.  After graduation I started running and met someone who was running the NYC marathon.  I thought it was NUTS!  I went to watch her race in the pouring rain and decided that one day I would complete a marathon, I wanted into the nuthouse!  I wound up running the Slicon Valley Marathon, Maui marathon, and the NYC marathon.  I also did a 60-mile 3 day breast cancer walk (more painful than any of my marathons) and a 30-mile 2-day breast cancer walk. 

I was bored with running and got into tris.  I did a bunch of sprints & 1 Oly my first season, a HIM in season 2, IM in season 3 and this year I have a HIM and 2 IMs on the schedule.  I guess I have moved beyond the nuthouse and now reside on the funny-farm

I gained about 4-5 pounds IM training....constant hunger 24/7!  I dropped that weight in my taper to IMKY.  Right now I'm looking to change my body comp and get as light/strong as I can before the bulk of my training begins.  Currently I weigh less than I have since college!

Hi my name is Mark, I'm 49 and I'm a Tri junkie. Well, so I think. It hurts so bad while you are doing them and so exhilarating when you are done!  What a high!!!!

 I'm married for 20 + years, with two boys, 19 and 15.  My 15 year old is a track/Cross Country runner. God is he fast!  He got me into running in the summer of 2007.  Started my Tri career in 2008 with two mini sprints.  Never did any sports in High School or College. 6 years ago a friend challenged me to do a century on my bike.  That started me cycling to the tune of 3k+ miles a year.  I have done numerous Centuries and one year did three on back to back weekends.  2007 was the year of "fixed gear" riding.  Two Centuries and other tours, totalling 4k+ miles that year on a fixed gear bike.  I love cycling!

See a pattern here?  Challenges!  I need challenges to motivate me.  They are a driving force in pretty much everything I do.  Never tell me it can't be done.  I will find a way, sooner or later to get it done.

Sept 2007 a friend of mine challenged me to do a triathlon in 2008.  I had to learn how to swim again.  I had not done any serious swimming since I was a kid.  2 Tris on the board for 2008 and numerous running races.  Life is Good!  2009 right now is just running races and a few cycling events, since I don't have the support from my wife to do any more Triathlons. She says I'm too intense.  My life long battle has been to control my weight, so this challenge might do me some good.  I still dream of being able to do an IM one day.

I am presently an IT Manager working for NYSE in Manhattan.  That will change on April 1 2009 , as I start looking for a job.   Just another bit of stress in my life.  I commute 5 hours a day, so training time is limited.  Hmmm, Maybe LIRR should have a Gym Car!?

Hi everyone! Sorry about the dings some have been getting. I can completely relate to things not tasting as good as you imagine they will, and not being worth it once you eat them. I've been doing well avoiding the sugar, but I try not to eat other junk food too and had a hamburger for the first time in a long time yesterday. I just started craving one, and what my imagination had built up the hamburger to taste like was much better than the reality It turns out I didn't even like it!

The Beck diet book is great! I read it a few months ago and it really hit home for me. I think most of us know what we need to do to lose and maintain weight and be healthy. It's DOING IT that's the problem. The Beck book really addresses why we have difficulties sticking with our plan and how we can change our thought patterns to think like thin people. I started working through the workbook, but got sidetracked by life. Thanks for the reminder Kathy! Time to get back to it

I'm Barb, age 29 (I will be 30 on January 18), single with 2 cats (Smiles & Nittany).  I work as a social worker for individuals with mental retardation.  I played soccer through college and eventually joined the Army.  While in the Army, I injured my ankle really bad and needed 3 surgeries to repair it; however, I was left with post-traumatic arthritis.  I gained 81 pounds, from the inability to exercise and eating a lot of comfort foods.  I started exercising again in the spring on 2007, but found that I couldn't run like I used to do, as it caused too much pain, so I bought a bike which led to triathlons.  I completed my first sprint triathlon in July 2007.  I got more serious about weight loss in the spring of 2008, and have lost about 50 pounds since then.  I would love to have the other 30 pounds gone by this summer.  My first HIM will be in June 2009.  A stand-alone marathon and an IM may be in the future.

My major problem with weight loss is the food part.  Growing up, I rarely ate fruits and vegetables and would eat cake for breakfast.  This was normal for my family, but has led us to develop really bad eating habits.  Also, I was very active, so I never had to watch what I eat.  Thankfully, I am on track to learning good eating habits, losing the extra weight, and being healthy again.