Hello from Greece! 15days induction but with an icecream break!

[mumu]

I'm reading your wonderful forum for 3 days now, for hours.
I NEED TO CONGRATULATE YOU ALL! YOU HAVE SUCH STRENGTH AND WILL!

I'm 37, proud divorced mother of two, a boy soon to be 14 and a girl 10,5!I am half Greek (dad's side) half Belgian (mom), and I live in suburb Athens.


I wake up at about 7.30, prepare breakfast and snacks for the kids, trying to tidy up the house while drinking my first double espresso macchiato coffee.


Then I'm off to work. I'm in charge of the marketing department in the company that i work for, and I'm usually stuck in my office from 9.30-....6,7,8pm!


Then i go home, -small detour at the grocery store- and do all the nice things a mom should do... rearrange the place which has been "bombed", prepare dinner, prepare lunch for the next day, check out the homework, make the table, eat, clean up the table, put some washing machines, yell about stuff, laugh a lot, hug a lot, watch some TV and then sleep like a rock around midnight. Typical, I think.


On the weekend it's either with the kids ..home, movies, soccer game watching my son play or country house relaxing...or at boyfriend's place... more relaxed, getting together with all our friends, dancing, eating, drinking.. having a blast!



About 3 months ago I restarted my gym workouts. Twice, rarely three times a week i go to the gym doing Pilates, some wave machine and weight lifting. I wasn’t doing any serious program for about 5 years, only a little bit of this n’ that, usually a month before hitting the beach….
Thank god my body has a good memory and I always look very athletic.


I come a long way successfully working out; I have always been the athletic type. Many years of ballet lessons and then contemporary dancing, general athletics, tennis, swimming, diving, skiing- sea and alpine, trekking, cycling, rafting, cannoning (yes we do have mountains in Greece).


Since I remember myself,-I think I began keeping track at the age of 15-, I was 1.72cm (5’ and around 61-65 kg (135-145pounds). And it was back then, when i discovered fast food, because with my mom it was always the healthy cuisine!



Ahhh! those bacon mushroom melt combos, pasta, pizza, bread, Nutella (cocoa-hazelnut butter) with butter cookies, waffles with ice creams and all that= approx 3000cal crap + 1500 of normal food almost everyday)
I'm the typical Mediterranean cooking lover +add any form of chocolate!


I'm so very fortunate to be "IDEAL" for my height, age, etc.


Climbed up to 190 for my son, really feeling miserable eating like there was no tomorrow, dreaming of my ‘after body”, then back to 135 in 8 months, with last 2 months of “some kind of Atkins” and I say that because I remember the dietitian checking “my little cup” with some kind of paper stick, which I now can guess was ketostix .
For my little girl i was only took 40 pound but about 7-8 remained. Some low fat diet and working out systematically from when she was 2 till she became 5!


Then i returned to work, divorced, fell in love, ate and drunk cocktails joyfully, broke up after 1.5 years, stopped eating and got down to a shocking 131!!



After that everything came to an equilibrium! Relationship with children, ex-husband, job, new boyfriend.... CARBS! Steadily i came back to my juicy 148!!

My way of eating was much healthier than before: Large bawl of Special K for breakfast with second macchiato, yogurt+ fruit brunch, large salad+ protein+2 bread slices for lunch, fruit snack, fitness bar second snack, large salad + protein+2 bread slices for dinner, maybe some 2-3 tablespoons of Nutella+ a glass of semi fat milk for nightcap. For the weekend it was pasta/pizza/souvlaki/sushi/and brownies/ chocolate soufflé/2-3 large mojito's, etc. I really can stop eating and having cravings...now i understand why!



Right now, I am happy, everything is going great, the only thing bothering me is a 10 pound layer of fat, covering my whole body. I KNOW IT SEAMS silly but i am really obsessed.. i want them off for good.

I haven't read the book but studied on about.com, on Atkins website and naturally on your wonderful forum.


Well that was a longer introduction than i thought.
Hope i didn't bore you!


Many thanks for the inspiration



SW 67(14,

CW 64.4(142),
GW 60(134)Muriel, F/37

[Chicklady]

Hi Mumu!
I used to love nutella. I tried the low carb version but it just isn;t the same
Sounds like you have quite the busy day! Good luck on those last 10!!

[mumu]

Thank u chicklady!
The thing is that it has never crossed my mind that i would shop low-carb foods...I don't even know if they exist here. I know about products for diabetics and health shops with all kinds of grains, flax etc. But low carb Nutella?
I have a few questions though:
1.What;s the deal with caffeine? I love coffee for its taste, can i turn to decaf?
2. I think i eat more than the appropriate amound of cheese. Does it matter much?
3. I realised i was constipated after week 1. I took Lepicol (psillion+prebiotics+probiotics). A little better now. I also take 1 strong vit C and a calcium tablet in the afternoon. Every 2-3 evenings i also take an ampoule of magnesium!
4. On day 11, after a very tiring day, i ate ice cream and extra cookies. Next day i continued like nothing happened... . Did I ruined the whole induction?
5. After snacking and lunch at the office i usually like to chew some sugar free gums. I read all about maltitole, freaked out, and wondered .... should i quit gums?
Thanx
mumu

[Elsie150]

Welcome.

I think you should buy the book. Check out ebay for some cheap ones. Also read all the stickies in the main forum and the Induction forum. That will answer lots of your questions and give you a place to start.

[mumu]

Thank you Elsie150,
I 'll definitely get the book, because i think i have much to learn if i want to keep ANA for life.
A was also wondering about atkins and kids and how will i be able to make my kids understand that this is very important.
My son is very athletic, he plays soccer almost professionally, but he eats tons of milk with choco cereals, cookies and ice creams.
My little girl is a little overweight, entirelly my fault, i let things slip. 5 years ago, when i divorced, her dad used to take them, so they could see each other more often, to MacDonalds near our place. 2-3 times a week to have dinner plus every weekend of eating for confort. Now i can recognize an eating for comfort- boredom- frustration!
The last 2-3 years I gradually cut all the unhealthy nutrition and discussed with ex the whole thing. At home we eat large bawls of salads, fruits, semi fat diaries lean meat, chicken etc. I try to control her but it's quite difficult to deny a kid something that everyone else enjoys at school, birthday parties, vacation etc.
She plays tennis and needs to lose about 8 pounds.
Well that all for now
Thanks again