<p>Youdon’tsay…I don’t even OWN a scale. I haven’t stepped on a scale since…I don’t remember. So I’m subscribing to the “oh these shorts feel a little looser”, or the “gee, the muffin top looks a bit less hideous” theory. </p>
<p>I will say, thanks to you all, that the “low carb” thing seems to be the most promising of all the diet-related lifestyle changes I’ve been looking to make. H even asked me this morning if I wanted a bagel from the local shop - and I said NO!! :D</p>
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<p>I’m sure a lot of diet changes have spouses confused. My wife knows that I’ve radically changed my diet but doesn’t understand the reasoning or methodology. I’ve sent one of idad’s videos that explains the HFCS/sugar thing but there’s a lot of other stuff that takes a while to explain. I’ve taken to mostly doing my own cooking to meet my changed dietary needs though my wife tries to help out. My wife and daughter are already fine weight-wise so they don’t see the need to make changes (maybe they don’t need to).</p>
<p>Gotta say that having a spouse who is adopting the same eating plan and having the kids out of the house has made our new way of eating much easier. The friends and relatives have not been terribly supportive – in fact, my mother-in-law has stopped inviting us over to eat – but we can deal with that. We even put the dog on a low-carb/no grain food and he’s looking pretty good too.</p>
<p>I don’t think I am gonna do well on low carb. But for now I have a house full of crablegs, shrimp, steak, eggs, etc.</p>
<p>Ok, just finished reading this entire thread and I also joined WW online the beginning of the week. I’m in, if you folks will have me! Only son just finished freshman year of college and the spring before he started college my mom (my soul mate) passed away. I became an empty-nest mom and a daughter without her mom pretty much at the same time. Sigh. Didn’t expect the depth of the impact of these changes to my life, although so happy for my son’s achievements and I am very fortunate that I have a great, supportive husband! But, I gained too much weight over the 2 years, lost 25 pounds last fall, and have gained 10 of that back already. Soooo, about 40 lbs to lose and I can’t wait to now have one more cool place to live and learn on CC! Good luck to everyone and many thanks to so many of you who have offered some great resources, ideas, and advice on this forum that I have already jotted down to absorb!</p>
<p>This morning I could feel my rib cage again. That’s how I judge. It’s much more fun, this weight management thing, with you guys around.</p>
<p>BTW, any way to turn off the iconification around here? I like to write semi-colon, paretheses, but I loathe those infernal yellow faces…</p>
<p>jym, are you not feeling well? I want to encourage you to stick with it. It is totally normal to feel bad the first week or two as your body adapts to burning fat rather than carbs as an energy source. That’s what you want, is for your body to burn FAT! And drink plenty of water because the first weight you lose is water weight. And make sure you are getting enough salt. (I know that sounds funny because you are usually told to keep your sodium intake down.)</p>
<p>My changed eating habits have been a source of tension between DH & I. He thinks everything is a ‘fad’ diet and sees no point to reducing carbs. I’m sticking to my guns since it’s been working though.</p>
<p>shell, the peer pressure thing is surprisingly tough. I realised a few years ago that I need to eat small meals often and if I politely also eat dinner with the family, that is too much. I don’t want to stop the small meals often, so about 5 years ago, after losing 20# when I was working out of town and could eat only what & when I wanted, I told the family I was done being polite.</p>
<p>It was annoying, the family was not supportive of this change in the way things work. My DH now cooks most dinners, sometimes I eat what they are having, sometimes not, and always with a small plate. I am not trying to convince any one else to do what I am doing, I wouldn’t even fight it, but I just ask for the respect to allow me to do what feels better.</p>
<p>Since I am a small meals often person, if I do eat an entire big dinner, I shut down and feel lousy for hours afterwards, so why not feel good!</p>
<p>I think other people feel judged by your good behaviour, even if you truly are not judging.</p>
<p>Izzie,
My stomach is a bit unhappy, possibly because I normally eat low fat, so its in a state of shock wit he pistachios and such that I ate yesterday 
Its just that this is so antithetical to the way I eat that I dont think I can stick with it long term. I dont want to be “on” vs “off” a diet-- I want to adapt my eating habits. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>I do have to say that with all the travelling and fancy food I’ve had in the past few weeks, my weight is only currently up a pound from my low thus far. I still have about 13-14 lbs to go, butr I didnt gain all the starting weight loss back, thankfully</p>
<p>idad has videos?</p>
<p>Dh is considering blood pressure meds, and that’s freaking me out. His whole family is on them, but his whole family is heavier than he is, so I’m trying to get him to not give in just yet (the doc said he’s borderline still so it’s up to him). He’s agreed to try to get to 175 (about 185-188 now; he’s small-framed and about 5’9") and to supplement his current once-a-week yoga with some cardiovascular exercise once he heals from the knee surgery. I mentioned going low-carb, and he went ballistic. He hates the idea of a diet, just the notion, not the doing it, really. I have to finesse this.</p>
<p>Somemom - I can so relate. I eat frequent, smaller meals during the day and by dinner time have no interest in eating at all. In fact, I had always hear it’s best to 'eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dinner like a Pauper." My husband, OTOH, basically eats one meal a day and that’s dinner. He’s looking for a meat and 3 every night. Very frustrating when we’re traveling and I need breakfast and lunch and he only wants dinner. I learned years ago to say, 'Sorry, but I have to eat and we’re going to stop." He’s adapted to that but I still sometimes feel guilty because he makes it a point to say he’s not hungry. Although, I will say - each and every time we stop, he will eat - lots. I think the not eating until dinnertime is just a habit with him because he gets really busy at work and he learned long ago to ignore his hunger pangs.</p>
<p>YDS - my BP started creeping up and was borderline and I really didn’t want to go on meds (the doc wasn’t ready to put me on them yet anyway). I haven’t lost any weight but I did start watching my sodium intake. Processed foods and restaurant meals have a TON of salt in them. I rarely get soup in a restaurant any more because they usually have more sodium in a single serving than a person needs all day. I also started doing 30 minutes of cardio 2-3 times a week. My BP is now back into the normal range. It can be controlled without meds. Interestingly, my hubby has been on BP meds for years and since I started watching* my* sodium, his BP dropped to normal. I assume since I’m the main chef in the family, it trickled down.</p>
<p>Woohoo, I went this morning and got my cholesterol checked after being on a strict low-carb diet for 4.5 months. My total and LDL cholesterol numbers didn’t drop a whole lot but my triglycerides are down over a hundred points, my HDL went up from 37 to 65 and my LDL/HDL ratio went from 4.5 to 2.2. I thought the pharmacist was going to get out the party hats when he was telling me my numbers. Apparently, now the triglyceride number and LDL/HDL ratio are getting to be looked at as more important than the overall number?</p>
<p>Fantastic Izzie. That is pretty much normal for a low carb diet. Triglycerides go way down. Good cholesterol (HDL) goes way up. LDL generally stays the same or goes a up a bit, but the bad LDL goes down and the harmless LDL goes up.</p>
<p>It is now believed that the ratio of triglycerides to HDL is the best predictor of heart disease with a ratio of 2:1 considered good:</p>
<p>[Triglyceride</a> To Hdl Ratio | LIVESTRONG.COM](<a href=“http://www.livestrong.com/article/443186-triglyceride-to-hdl-ratio/]Triglyceride”>Normal Cholesterol Levels by Age Chart: Healthy HDL and LDL Numbers | livestrong)</p>
<p>Yay! I am at 1.8:1 so I guess that’s good. The main reason I went on this diet was to support my husband who needed to fit into his tuxedo for a wedding in April. Had no idea I would drop 17 pounds and my triglycerides. If I had lost 5-10 pounds, I would have been happy.</p>
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<p>That’s so fantastic when it goes even better than you could hope for. I’m in the same boat. I have to pinch myself. Once you get the ball rolling, it kind of just keeps rolling. I am actually going to have to change my diet to **stop **losing weight, which seems kind of crazy.</p>
<p>Izzie, idad, others who have been successful at a low-carb diet - would you mind posting outlines of what you eat on a typical day? Low-carb is such a radical change for me - I’ve been quite good at low-fat - that I am having trouble figuring out how to make replacements for what I eat now.</p>
<p>Izzie, congratulations on the fantastic numbers! Improving health is what it’s all about, isn’t it?</p>
<p>I look for foods that are low carb like cottage cheese, beef, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, greek yogurt, nuts, cheese, seeds, etc. I also look for foods that are high-fiber and these usually mean fruits and vegetables. I try to combine these in a way that meets US RDA on fiber while watching RDA on sodium and cholesterol while also trying to minimize sugars. It’s not always easy to do this. Suggestions on low-carb foods on the other thread (Joseph’s oat/flax/wheat pitas recently) are quite helpful to increase variety.</p>
<p>I started out recording what I eat while trying to make small changes to decrease carbs. That make for a small change which is easier to accept (at least for me) than large changes. The pincer approach of recording and analyzing what you eat along with small changes can provide you with the feedback to make bigger changes.</p>
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<p>I don’t eat super low carb. I average just over 100 g of carbs per day or 20% to 25% of my calories.</p>
<p>I only eat two meals a day. Everyday, I have about 240 calories of half n half in coffee and a few 100 calorie snacks – peanuts, pistachios, green olives, clementines, etc. I go on different snack kicks.</p>
<p>**Lunch today: **3 eggs and 3 strips thick sliced bacon
**Dinner today: **Grilled chicken breast with bone/skin, homemade fresh salsa, grilled yellow squash</p>
<p>**Lunch yesterday: **One can solid white tuna made into tuna salad with Hellman’s mayo, celery, onion, walnuts, grapes, and curry powder, served on lettuce
**Dinner yesterday: **Paul Prudhomme’s Texas Red chili (I made a big batch and froze a bunch) and a huge salad with homemade olive oil/blue cheese dressing</p>
<p>**Lunch the day before: **One can Progresso Chicken and Rotini soup jazzed up with a cup of fresh veggies (onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper) sauted in a TSP of olive oil
**Dinner the day before: **12 ounce salmon filet pan seared with a sauce of one lemon and butter, served with two cups of fresh broccoli seared in little butter and steamed to finish cooking.</p>
<p>**Lunch the day before that: **Huge homemade blue cheese salad
**Dinner the day before that: **12 ounce pork cutlets, floured and deep fried, with Bulldog Tonkatsu sauce and 1.25 cup frozen baby lima beans with a tsp of butter. (I actually had this two days in a row because I made enough for two dinners – so the same thing the day before.</p>