<p>If I am in a maintenance phase- brownie out occasionally okay, baking a pan of brownies at home =disaster. I can’t stop at one if they are in my kitchen.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard of Shakeology? A bunch of my facebook friends are using it. I don’t know, it spunds like a gimic.</p>
<p>In our family, 4th of July picnic = brownie death spiral.</p>
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<p>Welcome, Peculiarities! This is a great place to find support. My advice: slow and steady weight loss is the key. Your progress will seem glacierly slow in the beginning…if you lose one pound a week, you’ll only have lost 4 pounds at the end of a month. But after 30 weeks, you’ll have lost 30 pounds, which is significant! </p>
<p>So don’t get dispirited if your weight loss isn’t significant in the first couple of weeks of your new regimen.</p>
<p>So, my first update: no good news, mostly my fault. I was hoping that it’d be easier to control what I eat at home after coming home from study abroad, but since food is a huge deal in my hometown (seriously - in 1001 Things to Do Before You Die or 1001 Places To See or one of those things, the food here is listed as one of three things to do, and it’s not a specific kind of food, just any food, it’s that good), and the food is very carb-heavy, I’ve had temptations left, right and center. Yesterday I thought, well, I’ll make today an exception, and I’ll finish all the food in the house that I might be tempted with so that it’s gone and so that I’ll be sick of it and eat healthily - except once I started down that path, I had to admit to myself that I’ll never get rid of all the food that could derail this diet. I’ll have to fortify myself to the point I can stare it in the face and walk away.</p>
<p>I just had eggs for breakfast and am off to do my weights. I’ll see if I can stay carb-free today, and I’ll have to take things one day at a time. I’m thinking that since I’m home for the summer and have a flexible schedule anyway, and I know I’m going to miss some of this food when I’m at school, maybe I can give myself one carb meal a day or one every two days and add some running or cycling into my schedule.</p>
<p>I saw a mention of Dreamfields pasta upthread. I hadn’t heard of it, but since I’m a pasta-guzzling monster I’m definitely going to have a look at that. I found a shop here that sells it - it’s a shop for diabetics. I hadn’t thought about it, but it would make sense that a diabetic food shop would sell low-carb food. Hope it works for me!</p>
<p>You don’t have to be perfect with the low carb thing. Just look at what you eat and decide where you can cut out some carbs. I ate pasta once a week while I was losing a ton of weight. </p>
<p>I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Dreamfields pasta is not low carb. It spikes insulin just like regular pasta. Their advertising is less than accurate. If you want pasta, might as well not pretend that it’s low carb – just have pasta every once in a while, keep the portions small, and don’t make it a regular thing. I don’t think that going nuts with all kinds of low-carb substitute products is the best way to go. Long-term, you want to adjust your diet so that you don’t want to eat carbs morning, noon, and night. I have pasta now about once every six months. I don’t even think about buying it. Same with bread. I haven’t had cereal in 2 years.</p>
<p>So rather than trying to cut out all the carbs from your diet, what foods that you normally eat or drink can you just commit to not eating or drinking. Attack it from the perspective of incremental changes. Make a couple and then go back to the well for a couple more in a week or two.</p>
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<p>Thanks for the heads up. Since I wasn’t sure I could deal without carbs anyway, it’s just as well.</p>
<p>According to my H’s nutritionist and the Diabetes Education center that we attended, Dreamfield is not technically low carb but most of the carbs have been rendered undigestible so it has a low glycemic index. My H has eaten it several times and his blood sugar has tested within the desirable range after the meal. This may vary from person to person, however. Whether a food is high or low carb does not negate the calories in the food, however, so you have to pay attention to that if you are trying to lose weight.</p>
<p>Here are the links to a 3 part YouTube interview with the head of Dreamfields, discussing several of the tests that have shown the product responds pretty much the same as regular pasta:</p>
<p>Part 1
<a href=“Part%201%20of%203”>url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5HUqybUr9bI</a> Dreamfields President Mike Crowley Responds To Low-Carb Pasta Comparison Study - YouTube</p>
<p>Part 2
<a href=“Part%202%20of%203”>url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=axfmH-dmMVM</a> Dreamfields President Mike Crowley Responds To Low-Carb Pasta Comparison Study - YouTube</p>
<p>Part 3
<a href=“Part%203%20of%203”>url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a3iIXN6eNbE</a> Dreamfields President Mike Crowley Responds To Low-Carb Pasta Comparison Study - YouTube</p>
<p>If it were critical to my health to avoid spiking insulin and blood sugar (e.g. diabetic or insulin resistant or serious lipid risk or morbid obesity), I would not eat pasta, Dreamfields or Barilla or any other brand.</p>
<p>Hey!
I am 6 feet 1 inch tall and I weight 176 pounds so I am not really overweight.But still I used to look fat.For the last 3-4 months I have been doing a lot of weight training and cardio and eventhough I notice a huge change in the shape of my body and I look thinner than before and am becoming muscular,my weight just isn’t reducing. 
And reading on this thread about how people are losing 2-3 pounds every week makes me feel like I am doing something wrong 
Someone help me out?</p>
<p>Iphoneboy,
It is probably because you have lost fat but gained muscle. Therefore your weight hasn’t changed. If you notice that your shape is changing and you feel stronger, that’s good news!</p>
<p>So, some news - successfully went carb free yesterday, or as carb free as I could manage, by which I mean any carbs consumed were incidental. A silly trick that I’ve been using and that is paying off for now is to mentally scoff at any food that I know is bad for me: “Ha! You mock me, but I’m mocking you, too, Unhealthy Food!”</p>
<p>I have to say that though they are slight, I can feel the changes coming slowly. I’m gaining a bit of muscle, without overtraining, and I’m nowhere near my limit so I might up my exercise regimen a bit. At the same time I’ve found myself able to stay away from tempting food simply because I know how much I’ll kick myself if I eat it, it’s not worth it. It’s taken years to come to this point - I definitely have an addictive personality that easily turns behaviors into habit, and I’m also a stress eater. Here’s hoping I can form a new, better habit.</p>
<p>Just coming back from the cirque du soleil Michael Jackson show ( excellent use of all the stuff he prepared for his ill fated last live tour) and had an experience I haven’t had in a long time. Some guy ( ok middle aged) checked me out!</p>
<p>Middle aged?! That’s awesome! Lately the only looks I get are from the 70-80 age group. They’re probably checking to see if I look strong enough to do CPR on them.</p>
<p>OMG, Almost spit on the computer, EPTR! LOL!!!</p>
<p>Someone told me today at church that from the back, I look like a young person. I love the ladies at my church. They are an honest bunch!</p>
<p>A backhanded compliment if I ever heard one!</p>
<p>I took it as an honest compliment, lol! If she had told me that I looked like a young person from the front, I’d know she was lying!! I took the compliment in the spirit it was given…</p>
<p>ellemenope, priceless. </p>
<p>EPTR, you’re too funny. </p>
<p>I had a bad week. Some onion rings had my name on them, and unfortunately I read it. But as you all have shown me, I just acknowledge and move on. Live to (not) eat another day.</p>
<p>Last year two street guys said, as I passed by, “She’s sexy, for an old lady.”</p>