Weigh No Way Challenge Help Needed

[prfctlildvl]

Gosh, I'm having such a hard time not pulling my scales out of the closet and hopping on them!!!! It's such an addiction to try to overcome.

Maybe we could start a 12 step program.

Hi, my name is prfctlildvl and I'm a scale addict......I've been one for about 3 months now. It started off as just once a week habit and then I was using every other day and gradually I was up to using every couple of minutes. Sometimes... when I went to other people's houses, I would use there too.

Does anyone have any advice? It's heartbreaking to go into the bathroom and see the empty spot on the floor where my scale used to be.

But good news..........I had an awesome dinner! I bought thin cut boneless pork chops and put two in a zip lock baggie with some parmesan (just the kind from the can) and coated them and then put them under the broiler. I ate them with my new favorite lettuce free salad. I cut green peppers, cucumber, broccoli and cauliflower and put it all in a bow with feta cheese and use Newman's Own Ceasar dressing and YUM!!!!!! I started leaving out the lettuce cause it takes so darn much to make a carb and honestly, all the other veggies fill me up.

[changing]

Wow, your dinner sounds fantastic!

I had to smile because I've recently gotten into "lettuce-free" salads too... I'm big on slicing up cucumber, radishes, and mushrooms and leaving the lettuce right out! Lettuce goes bad so much faster than the other veggies I used and I find I can use less salad dressing with the chunkier veggies.

Good luck on breaking that scale addiction... I used to be a once-a-month weigher and have fallen into a new addiction myself. So I guess I'm not much help.

But hooray for lettuce-free salads!!!

[FrankoRock]

Why is it exactly you leave the lettuce out? is it just the inconvience about it? or is it just not welcome in the Atkins diet? I love Lettuce. I usally just eat a bowl of lettuce with a little bit of dressing... hmm, this concerns me now.

[prfctlildvl]

You can definitely have the lettuce on Atkins but I like leaving it out. One of the reasons is that when I'm trying to get in my 12-15 carbs of veggies, lettuce is pretty much carb-less. I would much rather fill a bowl with the veggies that are higher in carbs and have more nutritional value than the lettuce does. I sometimes put a bit of lettuce in the bowl but for the most part, I'd rather have all the other veggies.

Do you use fitday? If not the website is www.fitday.com. It's free to sign up and it gives you all kinds of counters and will also track your daily food intake. When I first started using it, I had no idea of the values of foods but I slowly started noticing that some foods were much higher in nutritional value than others. Because I'm trying to change my whole way of eating, I am trying to choose foods that have the higher nutritional value so that I don't backslide into my old eating habits.

Like when I eat burgers,sausage or steak, I noticed that my daily calorie intake is much higher than when I eat pork, chicken or turkey (the leaner meats). I can have much more of the leaner meats (which makes me fuller and stops me from cheating) and I still have less calories than with the fattier meats so I'm adjusting the way that I eat accordingly. That's not to say that I don't eat the fattier meats - I do - but not all the time. I try sticking with the leaner meats.

I've also been reading books and articles on nutrition and healthy life styles and anything I can find that Dr. Atkins wrote. I don't want this to be a fad diet or a quick fix to loose the weight because when I've done that before, I've backslided right into my old nasty and unhealthy eating habits. I'm going for a whole new way of life and it's not just about loosing the weight. I want to be healthy.

My Dad was diagnosed with acute leukemia about 6 months ago and has gone through some very tough chemo treatments. I've seen my very strong 66 year old father (who was never sick a day in his life) cry out in pain from everything he has had to endure and that has really motivated me.

I have read articles that link red meats to some not so good health issues so I've cut back on my red meat. I've read articles regarding nutritional approaches to cancer and one of them said that dark green veggies are excellent for promoting cancer wellness and so I'm eating more dark green veggies.

I don't want to go through what my Dad has gone through and I don't want my kids to have to watch me go through that some day so I'm having what Oprah calls an AHA moment. I'm eating right, exercising, drinking a lot of water, taking vitamins and trying to achieve an overall life change while I'm still young enough to reap the benefits of a healthy life style.

And I'm trying to find a belly dancing class in my area because I've read that it's very good for promoting weight loss and physical fitness and its a ton of fun!!! I hate exercising so anytime I can put some fun into it, I'm ready to try it.

[Desertthorn]

Great post. I also understand about the lettuce and a salad without is still a salad. I still like to use lettuce for my wraps though, but tender cabbage leaves would work as well I guess and they have lots of flavor, but low on carbs also. Hum, red cabbage.... Sorry, I seem to have drifted off to lala land

[FrankoRock]

thanks a lot for the advice, I had no idea about the lettuce.

[prfctlildvl]

You're welcome FrankoRock. Lettuce doesn't have as much nutritional value as some other dark green veggies but it will fill you up if you're really hungry.

Like Desertthorn mentioned, I sometimes put a leaf on a plate and put tuna salad, ham salad or sliced meat and cheese in one and use it as a wrap. It holds everything together really well.

If you are following induction still and can only have 2-3 cups of veggies but need to get your 12-15 carbs from those, I'd rather eat the dark veggies. I have grown to love peppers and cucumbers and that's actually what I had for lunch.

I sliced some up dipped them in a little ranch dressing and I made some Ham wraps. I cut a mozzarella stick in half and then half lengthwise to get four long pieces. On a plate I put a piece of ham and then put one piece of the mozzarella stick inside and wrap it up inside the ham. I make two and put them in the microwave until the cheese gets a little soft and gooey. Makes a nice lite lunch with the veggies.

I'll eat a little light something light again in an hour and half - two hours. I eat constantly all day long -just little bits and pieces here and there. If I were two, the pediatrician would call it grazing but it works best for me. I don't feel like I'm being deprived of food.