Morning ladies, slept awful last night and woke up with a headache. I have decided I need a maid after looking at this house I need to clean today, haha. Hope everyone is well. @Karlotta a 16 lb increase is so upsetting. Keep your head on straight cause it will turn around. Welcome newbies my diary is open and I welcome new friends. Well gotta go and start on the house, need to cut grass too, never enough hours.

Good morning/afternoon/evening all.
So happy to have the time to sit down and catch up with you all!

Welcome foutunebc and batlady. Lovely to have you with us!

@cdpits I have never seen hornets, not something you come across much in the UK. We do get blooming big wasps here in Dubai though! Reminds me of a holiday years ago to Egypt when we got in a taxi and the driver had his window open. I saw on his headscarf a huge insect with a big stinger! Being very allergic to bee stings I was panicking in case the breeze from his window blew it onto me! I was practically climbing over my (now ex) husband to get out! I made him stop the taxi and change! Phew. Now I am used to them and just avoid them but man, are they scary! Lol. Btw, whats white gas?

@fortunebc you have my utmost respect for the time and patience it takes to look after a person recovering from a stroke let alone adding in the Alzheimers. It must be heartbreaking when the body is there but the person you have spent a lifetime with is locked away.
I think all of us here have had/still are on plateaux! The lovely thing about here is that we all help and support each other through them...and they do switch eventually. The general feeling is that its your body healing and dealing with past illnesses, hurts, diets or trauma and when it has done that it can go back to dealing with losing weight. Hang in there!
Same respect to you Liana and anyone who is living with caring for another person young or old. It makes every loss you have so much more hard won as your cortisol levels must be higher by default.

@ Karla....of sweety. You didnt say before that it was jumping up. After such an amazing loss your body has obviously rebelled! It will sort out again and drop. Maybe the ZC was just too much of a change even though you had been LC before. Maybe all that protein was turning to glucose and caused fluid retention. You are soooo strong and successful now. WE know you will be fine and stick with it until it whooshes the other way!

@batlady wow a DR who actually told you to go low carb to sort your metabolic syndrome! Yaay. Theres hope yet for the Medical profession,lol. I expect you will find as you get into it that you will naturally get lower and lower carb. A lot of us eat less than 20gm without any bother. Did I read correctly that your protein intake is higher than your fat intake though? Please be aware that higher protein levels can still not help your metabolic syndrome as protein can still be changed into glucose and stimulate insulin. Eating less prtoein and more fat stops you getting hungry too! Do you like butter and cream etc? Slap it on everything,lol. Has anyone told you about working out the best Macro's for you? The percentages/grams of carb/fat/ protein??? There are several sites that have calculators. One of the most common is http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

@ Janice...I laughed when I read about your internal alarm. Mine is driving me mad at the moment. As you know like May and David, we keep late hours. Going to bed around 1-2am and sleeping until 10.30-11am. With the new timings for Ramadan/summer we are not going to bed until 4.30am.....my blooming infernal(internal) alarm is waking me at 10.48 every morning and thats it! I'm awake. Grrrr. NOT helping lose any weight with this sleep pattern.
SOOOOO happy your blood results are good and both your DR and lovely Randy are happy with them! Question is....why did you get yourself into such a tizzy about them!??? You know how much better you are on this WOE and the huge changes you have made. A little blood test isnt going to wipe out all of those benefits especially as you dont have any direct influence on them. You are still being too hard on yourself and not allowing yourself the love! Your journey has been amazing and you give so much love to all of us and others in your life. Keep a bit for yourself and what you have achieved and then add it to all the love we send to you!

@ Kathie, it must have been really scary hitting the deer. I know a couple of times in Dorset where my mum lives she has hit a deer. Apart from the damage to the car and shaking her up she says the worst thing is if the deer has runoff and you dont know how badly its hurt.
All of you talking about eating deer, elk, moose and bear....WOW! Venison I love and I would love to try the others but its so funny the way you just drop it into the conversation as a normal thing...its really exotic to me. Anyone want to swop camel burger for moose steak?? lolol.
Glad you are all ok though and good luck with the insurance company. Take extra valerian or whatever first! lol.

@ May....is there no end to your teasing of us??? Lolol. Your lovely crafts which you share with David and then you put us all in a spin with the photo of your hunk!! I imagine several older ladies having extra hot flushes hehehe.
One thing though...I can tell hes been truly Ozzified rather than British!! Do you know how???? I'll wait until you answer!

I dont know if you saw my discussion about this WOE causing depression...its certainly not anything I have felt or heard of before and I didnt mean true depression, it was more mood swings and sadness. I have been aware of this for about 3 or 4 weeks and its not like me at all. Im usually and 'up' person as you know by now. Its been really odd. Snapping, and angry and irritable and it began to worry hubby and I so I thought I would ask. Didnt get any diffinitive answer except it may have been the rhodiola or syrtrinol supplements as nothing else has changed except our hours and it started before that. Have stopped the rhodiola to see if that helps. If not I'll stop the sytrinol and see if that makes any difference. Maybe its neither and just one of those spells! lol.

So, for all you cherry lovers out there I had this in my email today!! Thought I would share it!
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2015/06/cherry-clafoutis-low-carb-and-gluten-free.html

Finally (Thank God I hear you saying! Sorry, have to catch up when I can!) I went up onto our roof to take a couple of pictures and its a windy hazy day and not so good but heres a hint of Dubai.



The tallest building in the world Burj Khalifa. Looks amazing at night! Too scared to have gone up it though! LOL



Yes, thats the sea, Im about 5 mins walk from it and....never go! I hate sand! The crane is where they are building a new hospital. To the left of our villa they are building a canal that will join the sea and go in land right past burj Khalifa and carry on back to the sea in old dubai. Its actually next door but one! Needless to say its a huge building site around here at the moment.
Finally..



I tried to get a good shot of the Burj Al Arab hotel. On a clear days you can see it clearly, typical that today its windy so dusty. You can just see a faint outline to the left of the minarets. Poeple go mad about it but to me its just like a Disney hotel. OTT and garish. Sorry if you are a Disney lover!!

Good morning/evening ladies. It's a beautiful morning here, but going to be a scorcher today. (Around 30 Celsius).
@ May love the miniatures! The time, talent, & patience you must have. Wish I'd found this group sooner, i would've commissioned wedding decorations from you, lol. (Shipping might've been impossible, tho.)
@ Jane sometimes I find my moods are cycling like TOM, even tho there's no parts left & I've been menopausal for years now. I'm snappy & very quick tempered & even tho you know you're being a witch you can't seem to stop. I hit a deer 10 yrs ago & my daughter (10 at the time) was with me. She wanted me to go find it & take it to vet. Had to get someone to look for it to appease her (didn't tell her it had run off & died).
@ Karla you've been such an inspiration, motivator, & great help please don't let yourself get too down over this increase. I am still going to send you pics of the Atkins package carb stuff as soon as daughter shows me how.
@ Janice at least you're chiropractor is fully on board even if your Dr is a little unsure. Too bad you got so worked up about the appt when it looks like it went well. I was looking forward to making some chokecherry wine, but between oodles of blossoms & now looks like I'm not going to have much fruit. I'll have soom with you when Ellen & I come for borscht.
@krazyforyou please send the maid my way when you're done. I have stuff strewn all over. Am just putting blinkers on til after wedding & kids get into their own place. Forgot how much crap comes with a baby, lol.
@cdpits we smoke the hornets out at night. Nothing else seems to work. My inlaws house has bees in walls & beekeeper came out & vacuumed them. Seriously, hooked up a shop vac & sucked away. Worked for 2 yrs, now seem to be coming back. Think when we tear place down some walls will only be held up by honey & honeycombs.
Well my son is driving around like madman trying to get my water going, so I should give him a hand. He just got off a night shift & is a little out of sorts. Have a great day/evening

Hey everyone--gosh, it's hard to keep up anymore, there's so much going on in your lives. Dubai must be a fascinating place to live, Jane. You have quite a view from your house! I cannot imagine going to the top of that tallest building---it boggles the mind how they ever built it!

@cdpits Congrats on reaching your goal! How wonderful--a huge accomplishment! Thanks for sharing your pics--amazing that you got so close to the birds and squirrel, too.

@krazyforyou Work, work, work--you have a busy schedule! Hope you enjoy the weekend that's just about here.

@Janice So happy for your good blood work results and that your doctors are pleased with how you're doing! You've come a long way, baby! Your hard work is paying off big time!

Hope you're all looking forward to a good weekend. One more work day!

I woke up this morning at 3---WIDE awake! Tried to get back to sleep, but nope, can't do it. Gained another .2 lb this morning, definitely continuing the upward trend. I really don't think it has anything to do with what I've been eating even though I haven't been logging. The only 'out of line' thing I ate during that time was blackberries a couple of days.

I noticed a really nice improvement yesterday that had just slipped by me. My back is a lot better--it usually kills me after sitting at my desk for hours, and the last two days I had very little pain! Also, a trigger point on my upper back that periodically gives me a lot of pain (I've had to do Lamaze breathing sometimes!) hasn't been a problem for quite a while, and I hadn't even noticed it. Duh. I guess my attention has been on other areas of chronic pain and I didn't even realize the improvement in my back. I hope LC eventually improves my SFN pain!

@emma It's such a good feeling to give away the 'fat' clothes and clear out the closet! I'm right with you in the desire to have everything in my closet look good and feel good when I wear it. Maybe by next year!

@karla I've been thinking about you and hoping the scale numbers are returning to their rightful place! This is a process for perseverance, that's for sure! I keep thinking of the ZC 20 lb lady, but she also was re-feeding herself with tons of calories while she was gaining that weight. I don't know how that correlates with what we're experiencing. I guess the bottom line is to keep doing what we're doing and see what happens. Hope it's soon!

@Ellen, I haven't been back on the scale yet. The head games are too great right now, so I'm just going with how I feel. This woe has been so much more beneficial than just the scale for me, which is my motivation to stick with it. Patience is definitely a virtue for me though! I'm glad too, because I would have given up the first time I saw an increase on the scale, as I've done so many times before! I know the ZC lady's experience isn't the same as ours, but it does give me hope that this will pass!
@Jane, the scale has been down and up during this woe, just never this much. I can accept a couple of pounds, easily, but 18! (194 to 212!) I'm completely dumbfounded over it. Must accept it and continue on, knowing I'm still doing what is best for my body.

Have a great weekend everyone!

@ Ellen, Janice and Karla.....do you think that as all of you have tried ZC that it may be the trigger common to all of you that has pushed your weight up again for some reason???

@Jumanajane Good question, but I have no idea. My calories tended to be lower while on ZC, so maybe that had something to do with it??? I asked the forum and the consensus was not to worry about lower calories as long as I wasn't hungry. Someone posted recently--maybe to you, Jane?---that we should eat close to our BMR (1481 for me), so I upped my calorie goal this week to 1400. I'm so totally frustrated and confused, not sure what I'm doing wrong that prevents loss of any kind. I wasn't losing before ZC either. How can my body not be losing something when I'm not even eating as many calories as it takes to keep me alive? Does someone know the answer?

What a great thread! I'm nearly cross-eyed from exhaustion from moving one of our business facilities today and haven't had a chance to read through everyone's posts here yet.. but I will! Just turned 58 and wanting to lose a bit more (have successfully kept off 80+ lbs for almost 15 years, after struggling with my weight for almost 20 years previously) I had managed to creep up as high as 175ish, by not paying attention and have had to work hard to lose 8 lbs in the past 2 mos with calorie counting and strict macro (under 20 gms most days) attention. 152/(5'9") as of today.

Want to get down another 10 lbs and put on a little more muscle before I hit 60! I'm trying to not rush it, but had been stuck at 160 for the past 3 years so I'd thought it was hopeless, but nope! Just a matter of tracking everything and trying to work out daily. Seeing everything in black and white and having that accountability is evidently just as important as 'they' all say! Would love to believe that just staying keto would get me all the way, but no such luck!

On bio-identical hormones (progesterone/testosterone/DHEA/melatonin) since the beginning of the year and feeling better for it. This may be a bit more of a challenge for our particular demographic, but we are a tough bunch, that we all know!

Thanks for letting me share/participate.

I am 48 and it has been hard to lose the weight and keep it off. I started off on 1500 calorie but now I am trying 1200. I am so addicted to the carbs. each day I try to reduce the carbs but it is so hard. I am thinking about going cold turkey on all carbs maybe I will see the results I am looking for. I want to be 150 pounds again and I know it is going to take a lot of work. Plus I have limitation after a spinal infusion surgery in 2012. But I just keep pushing on thus far post surgery I weighed 256lbs but got back up to 276, last week I was up to 280 for not exercising and not really paying attention to calories. But, now I am at 278 and I boy do I pay attention. I am sticking to my 1200 calories diet and that is that. I will not eat calories back and I will drink 64 ounces of water a day. As a diabete I was told to eat 1/4 carbs with each meal but I know carbs love me like I love them. So, no carbs for a week and let me see how this goes or at least try no starchy carbs for a week.

@May Wow---6 1/2 lbs in one fell swoop? How exciting and wonderful!! That's a WHOOSH! I hope it's gone for good.

I'm so sorry about the hard times with your in-laws. Family relationships can be so uncomfortable and difficult to make better. With your MIL in this physical/mental state, your FIL's world is collapsing and it seems he's taking it out on you and David. It's hard to do anything right and pleasing in that situation no matter how hard you try. I dread getting older. I don't want to be an unreasonable and demanding old lady.

@FaithMathias Welcome! What May says is right--cut those carbs! After a few days you'll be surprised at how the cravings have gone and you feel so much better. Sweet stuff is so addictive and keeps the desire for more sweet going. Don't be afraid of substituting with fat which is far more satiating.

I wish we could confer with a doctor or someone who understands post-menopausal body function who could steer us in the right direction for successful weight loss. Most of us are having such ongoing difficulty and I don't understand WHY!

I hope you all have a great day and week ahead!

jumanajane wrote: »

Just thought I would pop this in quickly....sorry I havent time to do a full post....

YES May!!! Lolol. No socks! The badge of an Englishman.....trainers AND socks...usually grey! Uuuggghhh.

Made this yesterday...OMG its to die for and only 3gm carb a slice and soooo easy! Raspberry cheesecake slice.



http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/10/low-carb-raspberry-cheesecake-bars.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/VCiSP+(I+Breathe...I'm+Hungry...)

At Ellen and Kathie...really hope you get some sleep soon! I am right there with you!

Love and hugs to all of you.

This looks spectacular. Bookmarking for another day. Thanks!