Not complaining but...

I have the flu, yeah just what I needed 5 days before we go on vacation. Not to mention we had to postpone our trip a few days because the airlines canceled our first flight so our trip got pushed forward a few days which has now turned out to be a blessing now that I am sick. I am just praying that I am over it before we leave. My mom has arrived here safely and the kids and I are all enjoying her so much. I just hope I don't make anyone sick. I would hate to leave her here with a house full of sick kids to tend to. I won't be able to weigh in next thursday, and I am not even going to try. This will be a good excercice for me to put some distance between myself and the scale. I am going to try and do my best to stick to my induction levels while I am away, But I am also giving myself permission to maybe have 1 or 2 free meals where I can eat what I want to. I may or may not use those free meals, but I am leaving that open as an option in case there is a situation that warrants me to eat off plan. I went clothes shopping the other day for my trip and much to my surprise I can now wear a size 18 bottom, On top I am still a 20-24 depending on the cut of the shirt but I know after breastfeeding 10 children my upstairs is going to be there for a good while and I am actually not looking foward to having to deal with being non-perky up there, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I may just have to treat myself to a boob job when I reach my final goal ( whatever that is). Ok thats it for now, See you in two weeks.

Summertime Burnout!!!

This is going to be really short because I am really in a funk today for some reason. I shouldn't be I went to the salon and had my hair done and got a manicure and pedicure and waxing so I should be feeling pampered and all dolled up , but instead I'm annoyed and irritated. Oh well blame it on hormones and maybe it's due to the fact that we are two months into the summer break, maybe I'm just burned out a bit. Dh is a school teacher and would probably kill me for saying this but, I can't wait until school starts back. My mom will be here to visit next week for a month and dh and I are taking a trip for a week while she is here to get some alone time and give her some "grandma time only" with the kids, I am praying that it all goes smoothly. Hopefully the trip with just dh and I will be enough to rejuvenate me and get me through the rest of the summer break without incident. OK that's it for today, Hmmm maybe the fact that I am only down one pound this week contributed to my funky mood?????

270's here I come!!!!

I can't even explain how good it feels to be down in the 270's a place I don't think I have been in at least 4 maybe even 5 years. It's no where close to where I want to end up, at this point I think I now have about 100 pounds left to go, but I am going to keep taking it one day at a time. My mini goal is to be in the 250's or less by my birthday in November, I think I can do it. I look back at my stats and I noticed that I stayed in the 290's for a very long time. Those where my days of experimenting with adding different things to my diet. What I think I have discovered is that simple is much better, I lose better, I am less frustrated with the scale when I keep my menu items simple. So i wont be doing egg creams and all that good stuff for the next month or so, I want to see if my theory sticks. I am sure that since I have only been in the 270's a few days I may go back up a bit until it sticks but I am ok with that. I STILL have not gotten back on the exercise wagon, as a matter of fact that wagon has totally ran me over and I am more like under the wagon, but I am going to really try and make that a goal this week to get back started. I know I will feel much better if I do it, but that's easy to say and very hard to put into practice.
I am going to try really hard though. Thanks for stopping by..until next week.

The heat is on.......

Whew, its at least 100 here everyday and it feels like it may be 150. Summer is in full blast and I am praying this is my last summer ever over 200 pounds. I look foward to writing next year this time with my weight being in "one-derland" ever if its 199. My medicine has arrived free of incident and I have been on it a few days now. I have to wait a month to repeat my lab work and see if the dose needs adjusting but I am starting to feel alot better thats for sure. A pair of my jeans that used to really hug me tight went on with ease today and I could stick both of my hands in the gap between my back and the jeans, I cant wait until that happens in the front too. Staying on plan has been realy easy. I am so busy with my little ones being home and trying to keep everyone entertained that I really dont have time to think much about food, its so liberating not obssessing over food all day. I dont have any time to really hang out on the low carb forum like I used to I really miss that but when school starts back I will get back there. I am also taking an arabic class an hour a day in the evenings so I am enjoying doing something for myself as well. So far this summer is off to a really great start.

Wild Wadi... whooo hoooo

This is going to be short because I am exhausted. Last night my eldest daughter and I went to "ladies night" at an amazing amusement park here in Dubai. Here is the link:
www.wildwadi.com It was totally awesome, the rides were so much fun, I don't know when last I had that much fun. Of course my daughter and I both want to go back. Hopefully we will get to go again before the summer is out. Even better than that, I fit in every ride, ha ha. No embarrassing moments of " sorry maam this ride isn't for you". and the best of all, I stayed on plan the whole time, I was actually having so much fun that we didnt eat or drink a thing the entire time, When we left I ate 3 pieces of KFC but since that was all I had eaten since lunch it didnt take me over my carb count for the day. The pounds are still doing their thing. I was 285 before so I am really not impressed, I know its a great accomplishment considering I started at 322 so I have lost about 37 pounds so far but I'm still very much plus sized. I just need more patience with myself thats all. Ok lunch time , grilled chicken and salad are on the menu for today. take care

Sugar Alcohols And The Scale

Yup I'm up a pound this week. I know that I now suffer from Post MS instead of PMS, I managed to make it through the whole TOM without a sugar free chocolate in hand but one day later while out on one of my now tri-weekly trips to Carrefour( Europe's Walmart in UAE) there was this king size sugar free white chocolate bar and I had to have it, never mind the 56 grams of sugar alcohols for each 4 pieces, there were about 24 pieces in all. I will have self control I told myself, only eat 4 pieces a day till its done. Well that was enough to get me to put it my cart and off we went. Day one , ate four pieces and put the rest away, day 2 ate 4 pieces and put the rest away, day three the chocolate told me that if I just ate it all that day it would no longer be there anymore to tempt me, so down the hatch it went, yeah I know, not much self control there . Any way gone went the candy bar and it took my ketosis with it. I finally got the darn stick to turn purple today so I am back in ketosis again so that's a plus. Now just waiting for my Scale to catch on that yeah I really want to lose weight and its not fair to punish me for one small indiscretion. Well lesson learned unless I want to gain a pound leave the king size sugar alcohol laden deliciously creamy white chocolate bar in the store, cause no matter how good it tastes I will be sorry after. This week I learned that sugar alcohols don't like me very much and my scale can be very two-faced as well.
On a much brighter note, I have ordered the medication that I need, just praying now that they allow the delivery to go smoothly. I cant wait to feel better because I have been sleeping like a bear in hibernation this week, and still haven't started back exercising but I will try hard to get there this week.

Let the summer vacation begin.

Its official, everyone in the house including dh are now on summer vacation. It was a smooth transition so far, with a few bumps. My little one got burned with hot tea, so I am nursing her wound, and the baby had an allergic reaction to some teething meds and had to be rushed to the ER. Thank God they are both fine. I'm still dealing with the inability to get hold of my thyroid medications right now, which is very frustrating. For some reason T3 isn't on the market for sale in the UAE, go figure. So I may have to try and get the Ministry of Health here to give me permisson to have some sent here, I wont be holding my breath on that too long though.
My weight is back on the decline and I am thankful for that , I know most thyroid patients have trouble losing and that is not my issue. I suffer with the fatigue, muscle aches(all over body aches), feelings of not wanting to move, excessive sleep patterns, and now hair loss, aspects of hypothyroidism, and according to my lab work I have the antibodies that indicate that I have Hashimotos disease,haven't really figured out what all that means just yet I will post my lab work later on. So needless to say this week I have alot of research cut out for me with the addition of a dh and 10 kids to now tend to ALL DAY LONG,lol. Hold on to your hats ladies, its going to be quite a ride.

Sort of a pattern!!

Sorry I am late again this week. Busy day on Thursday , and now another busy weekend. I wont dare bore anyone with another post about my "feminine issues", but you can probably pretty much figure out why my weight it up a little this week. At least I see the pattern and its not bothering me. I have been doing a really good job of staying on plan and I know as long as I stick with it, I will see results, and I know its going to take alot of patience with myself. The patience part gets very hard sometimes, but the more I begin to accept that this is a change for life , the less it feels like I am on a diet, and the easier its becoming to stay on plan without a second thought. I have been having what feels like some thyroid related issues and I found these articles :
http://thyroid.about.com/b/2008/06/11/whats-happening-to-thyroid-patients-taking-eltroxin-brand-levothyroxine-in-new-zealand.htm?nl=1#gB3
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southlandtimes/4575143a6568.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southlandtimes/4579569a6568.html

I don't live in New Zealand but the medication that we get here comes from Glaxo Smith Cline in Germany, and since I changed to this new bottle I have been suffering from hair loss, fatigue as if I am not treating my thyroid at all, and my eyes are always sore and painful. I'm not sure what to do with this info but I may start by writing the local newspapers here and see if someone can do some more research. The bigger problem is if they pull it off the shelves, there are no other medicines on the market here so how would all the hypothyroid patients treat their conditions, scary thought. Well I went to the doctor and had my lab tests repeated and I will post my results as soon as I have them.
Until next time.

Rolling in a new month!!

Turbo Jam is cool but I cant see myself doing it everyday, the treadmill gets so boring. Callanetics is my magic ticket. I love it and I look foward to the hour I spend doing it, and best of all I have managed to be consistent with it as well. When doing it you should give your body time to recover so I do it every other day. The days I dont do it I want to, thats how much I enjoy it. Today the scale it teetering between 289 and 290 , but I am writing 289 because thats where its been going down to a few days now, just waiting for it to stick there and go lower. I feel great and I am finally starting to really notice that my body is changing and its really nice that dh notices as well. Im still doing my shakes for 1 oe 2 meals a day, it works well and keeps me from having to plan out meals all day. I want to try and start back on my treadmill. I just need some motivation. I have been really good about driking my water and keeping up with my food journal , this week I ate no processed foods, just meat, salad, veggies, nuts, and cheese maybe once or twice. I expected the loss to be more but Im not sweating it as long as I dont gain, I know TOM will be here again I would like to be down to 280 by the end of June but no pressure, as long as I am sticking to plan I will succeed. See you next week.

Shaking things up!!!!!!!!

Well, you know I think I have just a tad bit of OCD in my blood. I searched and searched until I got my hands back on some low carb shakes. I even went so far as to order some and have them shipped all the way from America. What can I say, I like to stick with things that work. One of the powerful things that happens to you when you follow the book and are truly in ketosis is that your desire to eat leaves you. Today I was out of shakes ( AGAIN) and nothing seemed apealing to me, its like my relationship with food is over, after all these years and all the love just like that you wake up one morning and your beloved is gone. Will I miss it , heck yeah, but being down 4 pounds from last week gives me reason to keep looking foward and no turning back. Soooo as my OCD would have it I have found some more shakes and plan on having them in hand by the end of the day. I do a pretty good job of eating healthy foods, its just with the shakes I dont have to put so much thought and effort into what I plan on eating throughout the day.With 10 children I really dont have time to be hovering around in the kitchen trying to figure out what to eat next.
I am really into the callenetics, I LOVE it and I see curves coming in places that I didnt know existed, so whoooo hoooooo. Im enjoying this ride. See you next week.

Uncle "TOM" and Aunt "FLO"

Well my unwanted relatives are hear and lets just say they brought an extra present this week. Im up a pound, but its not getting to me because I started doing Callenetics and I love it, so I am not going to get bummed out about one pound. Something else that hit me this week is that as long as I stay consistent time is on MY side. I dont need to give myself dates to get to certain pounds and make myself feel like a failure, this isnt some kind of race. Im doing this for ME and as long as I dont give up , I have already won. So rather than set dates that I want to meet my goals by I will set goals that I want to make and then just keep up with the day I make it to that goal. I know I will get there, so no need for the extra pressue. I plan on doing turbo jam and walk away the pounds on the days that I dont do callanetics. My goal this week is to do some form of excercise daily and continue to eat clean, stay under my 20 grams of carbs daily. My shake routine was put on hold because I ran out of shakes and the store here that carries them is out, so one week of normal atkins, and I will see how things go from there.
until next week....happy low carbing

Busy Busy Busy Thursday

I really dont have time to post today, I have to go to my daughters school. Its the end of the year and lots of things happening at the kids school. My weight today is 294. I had a fiasco one day that involved 3 atkins advantage bars which threw me out of ketosis because of all the sugar alcohol but I am right back on track and also excercising now. I will try and post more later when I have time.

Better late than never!!!!

Sorry my post is a day late but in all fairness I will use my weight from yesterday which was 297. I'm feeling good. Yesterday was my daughters KG graduation and Awards day for my son, there were tons of chocolate baskets floating around and I was very tempted to " just have a bite" but I resisted.Despite all the running I still stayed on plan and yesterday made 12 cheat free /clean eating days.
I have still been:
- keeping up with writing down everything I eat
- drinking at least 3 liters of water
- staying under my 20 grams of carbs a day
- avoiding MOST low carb convience foods
what I am NOT doing is getting enough exercise. I don't know what my problem is, I have a HUGE variety of Cd's , machinery and gadgets to give me something different to try everyday but I just don't have the energy or motivation to get the exercise done. Can I count keeping up with 10 children as exercise??? I know I need to do more I just haven't found that niche that I can do everyday yet, but I am working on it , I ordered a callenetics video along with the actual Dr. Atkins book so we'll see if I can make some changes in that area, other wise everything is going pretty well.
By the way I found my lab report here goes:
Cholesterol 163.5 should be less than 200
Triglycerides 42.2 should be less than 150
HDL Chol. 42.9 should be between 35-60
LDL Chol. 106.7 should be less than 130
VLDL Chol. 8.5 should be between 6-38

that was perfect ...here is the problem
free T3 2.81 should be 3.1-6.8 ( mine is low)
free T4 15.39 should be 12-22 ( mine is ok)
TSH 7.06 should be .35- 4.94 ( mine is high)
This was after being on no meds for a month so the wacky doctor put me back on thyroid hormones 50mcg. a day for two months and then I go back to check the levels again. I know my levels aren't that bad but I feel like they are alot worse, I have that weak, dragging feeling , that don't want to move feeling, but I am trying to make myself do as much as possible.
OK that's all folks, I have a "social gathering" today and I am taking all the Atkins foods I need and making a batch of sweet oopsies so while they are having all the Anti- low carb crap I can eat and enjoy my own cheat-free pleasures.
See you next week....

Met goal and counting!!!!!!

WHOOOO HOOOO!!!!! Alhamdulillah ( All praise is due to God) I made goal, my weight today 299.2 I don't EVER want to be over 300 pounds again, I am not looking back, this will be the year that I get close to 200 pounds , I know I can do it. I feel great and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
May goals:
lose 10 pounds
no cheat days/ eat clean for 30 days
exercise at least 30 minutes every day
what I am already doing:
drinking 3 liters of water a day
writing down everything I eat
taking my vitamins and thyroid meds every day
keeping meals as simple as possible

I seemed to have misplaced my lab reports , that's what I get for procrastinating about entering it in my blog...so you will just have to take my word for it that my lipid profile was perfect, and my thyroid is wacky, but I am working on the thyroid issue.
Until next week...

Keep on Keeping on!!!

Numbers... Numbers...Numbers.......Today I am down to 301.4. I ate clean all week despite all the temptation foods that are around me. I did eat some fried shrimp yesterday, and ate some fatoush( arabic salad) with the fried bread crutons on it and today my ketone sticks are not turning purple, but I don't even care. I am back on plan and not going to have any off plan foods this week God- willing. I am only 1.4 pounds away from my April goal. I started walking on the corniche the days my boys go to Karate ( Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday). I clocked the distance on my odometer and its 3 km going and 3 km back to the car so 6km total. The first time it was very hard the second time it was much easier, I am trying to do it faster and faster each time God-willing. Its a great motivation because I park the car at one end and I walk to the other end, so I have no choice but to walk back, it takes me an hour and its fun, unlike walking on the treadmill for an hour which is very boring, I can see other people walking there is one old man that looks like he could be my great- grandfather and he zooms past me every time, my personal goal is to zoom past him one day, lol.
By the way the Cauliflower pizza was soooooooo good, I made it twice last week, but it took me 2 days to go to the bathroom after each time I ate it so that will be a once a month treat and must be followed up with a laxative tea or else there are many problems in the bathroom department, but it was a nice treat none the less. I think I gave up on the oopsie rolls, I don't really miss bread anyway, I would like to fool around with the recipe a bit more and make some kind of oopsie cakes one day , but its too time consuming and if you mess it up its such a waste, I tried to use some old oppsies to make oopsie bread pudding and it turned into oopsie garbage so I wont be doing that again. Good news I fit into my white shirt that would only button one button. Its tight but I closed 4 buttons yesterday. Bad news its that time of the month again after only 20 days. Last time it was double 42 days late this time 8 days early, but I read that low-carbing can do that because your body releases extra estrogen stored in your fat, whatever, at least I know its working on something. So I am hoping that I have some extra water weight and I will meet my goal by the first of May. Stay tuned....

It's the weekend......

Numbers first, today's weigh in puts me at 305.6 , I am happy because earlier this week, I buffed up a few days but I made a comitment to do this so I dusted myself off and got right back on plan. I also found out that after a month with no meds my thyroid is back hypo again so back on the meds I go, I am supposed to go back to the doctor in two months to re- check my levels. My lipid profile was also very good, I will post the number next week, I cant really stay long now my energy level is returning that I am back on my meds I want to catch up on the excercise that I slacked up on, I have been eating clean for 4 days now and am praying that there are no more slip ups for me this week. I have also accepted that I am human and I wont let my slip ups equate to falure. I am 5.6 pounds away from my April goal of being under 300. If I stick to plan and keep up the extra physical activity God-wiling I WILL get there. My mom will be in town tommorow for a week and its going to be very challenging to stay on plan while she is here but I will do my best. I havent really experimented much with too many recipes but tonight I am trying the cauliflower pizza, I will let you know next week how it worked.

Back in the game!

PMS is now gone and my weight today is 139.4kg or 307lbs. My new scale fell down off the top of my closet and shattered into pieces. I took that as a sign I should ditch the scale all together. I kept that thought for half of a day and later that night caved and decided to go and buy a new one to replace it...... Well "Sign" number two, I went to 5 stores one of them being the store I brought the one that broke from ( when I got mine they had a whole shelf of them) and NOBODY had the scale. So like it or not I have to go all the way in my daughters room to weigh now because I gave her the scale and I cant just take it back from her, but I think this will help me to keep from weighing myself a million times a day. I have given up the Atkins bars, I have a few of the nasty advantage bars left in the fridge and not even the kids will eat them so that should tell you how bad they are. I made my first batch of "oopsie rolls" ( www.cleochatra.blogspot.com/2007/10/better-than-ever-best-yet-revolution ) they were'nt nice as buns but it made some really good french toast. I am having alot of fun in the kitchen trying new recipes and ways to stick to my induction long term. I have made a mini goal to try and get back under 300 lbs by the end of April. My mom will be here in a few days its going to be a challenge to stay on plan while she is here but I have to do this, and maybe if she sees my conviction it will convince her to do the same for herself. I have also started doing turbo jam and I really like it , I just have to try to make a time that I can get it in everyday. Being a mom of 10 doesn't always leave me much time to do things , but I will have to find a way. OK lose 7 pounds in April challenge ..HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!!!

PMS in full gear!!

Well no complaints here, at my weigh in this morning I am still holding in there at 310 lbs. Thats to be expected when I used most of by carb allowances the past few days on Atkins bars to ward off all the pms chocolate cravings. I have however stayed on plan which is a major accomplishment. I am almost at my one month atkinversary.I invested in a scale that does pounds, I am tired of converting kilos to pounds and a one kilo loss doesn't feel nearly as good as a two pound one. My order for the Turbo Jam exercise series should be in my possession early next week, by then my period should be over and I am looking forward to following the programs recommendations. I went out to lunch with a friend today and I am pleased to say that I totally ate on plan, fish, chicken, a little lettuce and a diet Pepsi, I was totally un-phased by all the fruits, starches and deserts, it felt good to be able to walk away from all of the things I would have over indulged in and I didn't feel bad at all, I was actually full and satisfied, rather then stuffed and feeling sick. Whooo hooo now if I can just keep my exercise regular I expect to see some pounds gone next week, but even still I feel great and I can tell the inches are dropping as well. MY plan for next week, go back to being anti- atkins bars eating and start the turbo jam regimen.

What a difference a year makes!!!!

It has been exactly one year to the day that I last posted. What has changed, I am now a mother of 10. My baby girl was born Jan. 2nd this year, and I have started my battle against obesity once again. I have been doing Atkins Induction for 2 weeks now, my weigh in day was on Sundays but since I am re-starting this blog today I decided to change my weigh in day to Thursday. As of this morning I am currently 140.7 kilos or 310 pounds. My goals for this year are to grow my hair down to my armpits ( thats another blog yet to be written...) and to get down to 250 pounds( 113 kilos). I am doing Atkins this go round because my thyroid issues were causing me problems with breastfeeding so I am not restricted to what kind of diet I can do and I feel like atkins is something that I can stick with very long term. I try to walk on the treadmill daily for at least 2 miles, I do various work out dvd's and I recently ordered Turbo Jam which I plan on doing every day inshaAllah. I am feeling great, I go outside and dance in the yard and jog a little to get exercise in when I don't feel like being on the treadmill. My first week on induction I did really well, but the second week I discovered Atkins bars and I think the slowed my weight loss so I have vowed that I will not eat anymore Atkins bars, I will not drink any more diet sodas, I will use splenda and splenda products very sparingly to make home made foods to go along with my induction. I plan on staying on induction until I reach 200 pounds then my goal is to move to on going weight loss OWL phase of Atkins. So here my journey re-begins. I can do this, I will do this , I have to do this, May God grant me success, amin. My mini goal is to be down to 300 pounds by April 27th. Thanks for listening.