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Tenaj and Kathy I have not rode a bike for a verrrry long time. Not sure I could keep my balance. That roast beef sandwich sounds pretty good. Tomorrow I can officially have carbs!!! I need to read up on the next cycle so "see" ya all tomorrow! Marsha

Hi,Tenaj!!!!  118 have officially responded, so it is a nice size wedding, a week from this coming Monday!!! Yikes!!!! It is really here!!! Thank you for asking!!! have a wonderful day, Janet!!!!! Love roast beef in any form!!!!! ATEAmNana, I bet you would do great on a bike, but I know what you mean about balance issues, when I first started riding again, I was a little tippy, I am sure people thought I had a few too many, he,he,he!!!!! What great carb are you going to have?? CookieMonster, I hope your headache stays away!!! Allergies? I know since moving here I have a few more headaches than usual, I am thinking it might be allergies. I am finding that reducing my carbs is the key for me in losing weight. The 17 Day Diet taught me that!!!! Also, I have to exercise to maintain weight loss as well. This thread is wonderful, good friends, good conversation and accountability. Hugs to you all!!!!

Kathy I bet you are getting very excited about the wedding. I am so glad we can come here for support. Snobird sounds you had a delightful day. Cookie monster hope you are feeling better. Janet. Yes it is hard at work sometimes but I'm getting better at taking carots or something so I don't get tempted as much. I did much better with my water today. I put a sticky note on my computer to remind me:).

Helloooo Ladies!

Wow - I am seeing some great results posted! And it sounds like some of you had awesome Mother's Days!

Even though I can't have them now, I'm keeping track of all the delicious recipes I'm seeing here!

Kindergarten - you mentioned that yard work was as good as a gym workout -  well, in our Optifast group, our worksheet says that ten minutes of working out - in any way - constitutes one mile of walking!

Linda - hope you are doing o.k. on chemo!

CookieMonster - one of my greatest challenges was mindless eating. I'd think "Oh, I need a snack" and reach for the bag of whatever.....and half an hour later, I'd think "Oh, I need a snack" and completely forget that I'd snarfed up the entire bag of chips and not even remember doing it! Being in the moment is a huge thing for weight loss....congrats to you on resisting that second donut.....I could have inhaled it without a moment's thought.

ATeamNana - I have several serious vestibular disorders that affect my balance. I had a bad fall off my mountain bike three years ago, and had never gotten back on due to fear of falling. Last month, we finally got my adult trike - and I LOVE it! Mine was a bit more pricey because it was custom-made for me (three-speed), but you can get them as low as $269 at WalMart.com (one-speed). I love riding it so much - it makes me feel like an 8 year old again!

My new wheels:

Optifast continues to go well. For two weeks now I have not exercised at all....first it was my owie thumb (which, by the way, is getting much better) and then it was either cold or allergy symptoms that made me feel yucky. So instead of working out, I napped. Not a huge calorie-burner....

Wednesday night at weigh-in, I had GAINED .2 of a pound, but I didn't care - my liver enzymes were back to normal!!! WooHOO!

Yesterday, DH and I worked like idiots in the yard, moving small trees, trimming back wild stuff, yanking out invasive plants, and cleaning out dead leaves. This morning, I'm down almost 4 pounds from Wednesday.

So I learned my lesson: just keep moving. Do SOMETHING every day, even if it's just a little. And if I gain (easier than you'd think, on 960 calories a day) so what, it will all even out in the end.

Keep up all the awesome work, Ladies! This is a great motivational thread!!!

Hi, Kindergarten! Thanks for your kind words.

I am doing the Optifast program through Kaiser. I am a member, but it is not a covered benefit for us. (It is, however, tax-deductible.) Our program is open to the general public, not just Kaiser members.

This is the home page for the program in Northern California. I know there are many Kaiser facilities in Southern California, so I would call the info line to find out if there is a facility near you that offers the Optifast program.

http://www.kphealthyweight.com/

If not, then I would check at your local hospitals. I would NOT try this on my own, even though some products are sold over the Internet. I rely on the regular medical monitoring to make sure I'm not getting into trouble.

It's an 82 week program, so there's a lot of follow-up. We weigh in once a week, meet with the nurse for vitals, then have a support group/class for an hour. Every three (?) weeks we have full bloodwork done, and meet with the physician. Most of us have been taken off all our meds. I'm down to just one (instead of a dozen): thyroid.

The first 16 weeks consist of meal replacements in the form of shakes, soups, and nutritional bars. No food. Just products. I get four shakes a day (Vanilla, Chocolate, or Strawberry), one soup (Chicken or Tomato), and one bar (choice of five flavors). We have to drink a GALLON of water a day, but I get around that by just tripling the amount of water (or ice) I put in my products, and blend them in my VitaMix blender. We are allowed to use Torani sugar-free flavored syrups in our shakes.

I love the taste of the products, and I have never been hungry. I'm averaging two pounds a week loss, but the inches have really come off! The energy burst kicks in around week 3. The weird thing is my fibromyalgia pain has almost dissappeared, but I think that's from eliminating the junk from my diet (white flour, white sugar, gluten) rather than just weight loss.

It's not without risk - I did have that liver enzyme episode, and now I have sludge in my gallbladder, but I haven't felt this good in years. All my lab work - cholesterol, blood sugar, etc - is now normal after dealing with high numbers for years!

And the cost is not for everyone - it's $4,300 for the entire 82 week program, payable in smaller increments as you go along. There are no contracts to sign.

We start Transition in July, slowly adding regular meals back in. We're learning how to do that in a sane way. Transition lasts a few months, then it's basically monitoring and support after that.

I'm down 35 pounds from my highest weight, with 35 more to go.

By the way, my MO said that if I hadn't done this on my own, she would have put me in the program herself. She mentioned a study that with just diet and exercise, women reduced their risk of recurrence of breast cancer by 23%. I'll have to get a link from her.

I'm also doing this to reduce the amount of pesky body fat that produces the estrogen in my body even though I'm post-menopausal. That, and to make sure I get the right size implants in the fall. I asked my PS what would happen if he gave me implants to match the size of the giant TEs he inserted in December, and I later lost weight. He said the implants would not change in size. "So I'll have stripper boobs, right?" I asked. He just laughed. SOOOO not what I want! I want to be my normal size when I get my permanent squishies.

Hi, Blessings, Thank you so much for all the information!!! You are so well versed in all of this, and you would be a great mentor for many!!! I see both my PCP and Oncologist in July, so I will discuss it with them!!!! Have a great weekend!!! Hubby and I went for a hike at Albacore Ocean Park today, up and down the cliff paths to the ocean. We saw starfish, urchins and sand crabs. It was beautiful. We are both tired and we rented a movie.

HI, Janet, I wanted to say hi, before I sign off and start our rented movie. Congratulations on your weight loss and hard work. You are doing great. Good for you and I know you will keep it up. Have a great weekend!!!

Hi, ATeamNana, Love chatting with you as well here!!!! Have a wonderful weekend!!!!! Hugs to everyone!!!!

Hey all,

Something odd happened, or at least I think it's odd, maybe not. Last night, just for the heck of it I weighed myself before bed. I was up a little bit, but it was the end of the day, no surprise. I never weight myself in the evening though. This morning, I was curious how much my weight changed and so I hopped on the scale again. To my SURPRISE, there was almost a full 5 pound difference between last night and this morning. Does anyone weight themself often enough to know if this is normal? I'm not worried about it, I don't think something's wrong, I'm just surprised by it.  Thanks. Happy Saturday! We're off to another soccer tournament up the coast. I hope it's great weather, we'll see.

CookieMonster - how accurate is your scale? Have you weighed something that you know is a  certain weight (like hand-held weights) and it measured them correctly?

Also - how consistent is your scale? If you weigh yourself once, then come back a few minutes later, does it still say the exact same weight?

Were you wearing the exact same thing last night and this morning?

My old scale was wildly inaccurate, and fluctuated each time I stepped on the scale.

But yes, I've had a big drop overnight. Sometimes I'll remember getting up to pee in the middle of the night, other times I just wonder where the weight went!

Thanks for your kind welcome, Kindergarten

Welcome Marcia1111, truly a lovely group of women here... :-)

CookieMonster, your weight changes throughout the day. I check at different times. The best thing to do is weigh yourself naked int the morning after you go to the bathroom. Most importantly is to be consistent.

Kathy I hope you enjoyed your movie.

Marsha- now that you are in cycle 2, what foods have you added? I still have to read about it. But tonight I'm having grilled pork chops, roasted asparagus & sautéed fresh peas in olive oil & shallots, and a whole grain basmati rice. Our neighbor has been getting us some fresh veggies from a nearby local farm because she works right there. It's been great. This week for $20 we got asparagus, broccoli, peas, carrots, onion, 3 pears, 3 apples & fresh herbed goat cheese. Fresh & delivered to my door.

You are doing great ATeamNana. Where did you buy your new scale. I think we may be in need of a new as well. Have a great Sunday!!!

I got a health o meter at Walmart. They have all types but I chose the simplest one. 20.00. They had some that measure body mass dehydration etc. aand tracks weight for up to 4 people. I just bought the up to 2 people and no other fancy stuff. I like it so far it has been consistent so far:). Happy Sunday everyone getting ready for church so gotta run!

I like the new digital scale. Yes cookiemonster much more consistent:).

Have a great day everyone!