I lost two and a half pounds toward my five week goal of losing five pounds. I didn’t make my goal, but I made it halfway which is OK. I’ll keep working on the other two and a half pounds. It’s really hard sometimes to lose weight, but a steady slow weight loss works best for me. Making lifestyle changes is what I’m aiming toward. Some people use diet pills, but they should always check with their doctor before starting any type of weight loss program.

There are so many weight loss supplements out on the market that I don’t know anything about. I know some of them are not safe. It’s important for anyone wanting to take diet pills to research and study for themselves about any possible side effects. They need to discuss this with their doctor and make sure that what they’re wanting to take is safe for them, whether it’s generic Phentermine or whatever. A person’s health should always be the top priority!

I didn’t lose any weight last week and actually gained a pound although my eating was pretty much the same. One thing different was that I had a horrible chest cold all last week and I’m still not completely over it yet. Needless to say, I did not feel like walking and didn’t walk at all last week.

This proves how important walking is for me. Today, I did walk for 25 minutes, so hopefully I will increase the time and frequency now that I’m starting to feel better.

Most places have fried chicken tenders, but Jack-in-the-Box also offers grilled chicken tenders which is great news for those of us trying to lose weight or eat healthy! And what’s really great is that their tenders are delicious! I’ve had them quite a few times now, and they’re consistently good. So…when we go to Jack-in-the-Box, I order two or three grilled chicken tenders (you can ask for one, two, three, or however many you want) plus a side salad - I just use a small amount of salad dressing. That makes a perfect meal for me!

By the way, 4 grilled chicken strips have 180 calories and 2 grams of fat! Awesome!

( 4 Crispy chicken strips have 500 calories and 25 grams of fat!!!)

Click here to check Nutritional Information for Jack in the Box.

This is from AOL’s Outrageous Fast Food:

Quiznos’ Tuna Melt, regular
Calories: 1420 calories
Fat: 118 g
Sodium:1535 mg

Wendy’s Baconator
Calories: 1680
Fat: 103 g
Sodium: 1800 mg

Burger King’s Enormous Omelette Sandwich
Calories: 730
Fat: 45 g
Sodium: 1940 mg

McDonald’s Chocolate Triple Thick Shake, (32 fl oz)
Calories: 1160
Fat: 27 g
Sodium: 510 mg

KFC’s Chicken and Biscuit Bowl
Calories:870
Fat: 44 g
Sodium: 2420 mg

White Castle’s Fish Nibblers Calories:
Calories: 1050

Fat: 25 g
Sodium: 2980 mg

This are just a few foods, but they clearly show how unhealthy a lot of fast foods are for people!

Well, I lost 1/2 pound this past week which is better than the week before. I’m half way to my goal which means I’ll need to add on another couple of weeks time-wise, depending on how I do this week. I had problems with my foot and couldn’t walk as much last week. I think walking is a big factor for me.

I bought new running shoes last Friday, so that has alleviated my foot problem. I’m supposed to buy new running shoes every six months (doctor recommendation). I found the receipt for my old shoes, and it had been way over a year since I bought them…Woops! No wonder I was having so many problems with my foot and ankle!

I didn’t lose a pound this week, and I think maybe it’s because I didn’t walk all week until yesterday. Also, I only ate one grapefruit instead of two or three. Hmm…I really don’t know for sure why I didn’t lose a pound, but I’m just glad I didn’t gain one.

These are some of the reasons I’m wanting to lose weight:

• Extra fat stores estrogen, and I’m already higher in estrogen than progesterone.
  
• Hormone imbalance affects so many different things including my fibromyalgia and even seasonal allergies. So I really want to get rid of extra fat!
• My clothes don’t fit as well. Just losing 5 pounds makes a difference in the way they fit.
• I want to have enough self-control to balance what I eat in a healthy way. I feel better when I eat healthy which means eating more fresh, raw veggies & fruits, lean protein, and greatly limiting my sugar and processed carbs intake (that’s the hard part)!

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I lost a pound this week, and I thought for sure I would’ve gained a pound. I made Oatmeal Double Chocolate Chip Cookies to send to an event….and the event was cancelled!

Right after I baked them, I ate my three cookies that I allow myself when I make cookies. That was fine. But with the cancellation, we ended up having three dozen cookies at our house, so I had four cookies the next day and three more the following day making a total of ten cookies.

This is why I think I still lost my pound anyway:

• I did eat protein after each round of cookies, either nuts or Whey Protein Isolate Powder mixed in water.
• I only drank water or tea sweetened with Kal brand of Stevia (a natural, not artificial, 0-calorie sweetener) all week. I drank three or four glasses of tea a day.
• I walked several times during the week and stretched every day.
• I didn’t “diet,” but ate smaller, healthy meals. (low unhealthy fat, low processed carbs)
• I wasn’t on a fat free diet, but had healthy fat every day (nuts every day, avocados, olive oil)

So, I think all of those things together helped. Plus, my doctor increased my natural, pharmacy-compounded progesterone a couple of weeks ago. My hormone ratio was off again, and that tends to make women gain weight when they have estrogen dominance. Now that my hormones are getting more in balance, it’s easier to lose weight.

Yeah!!! I lost one pound this past week, so that’s a start to losing “5 Pounds in 5 Weeks.” This is what I did:

• ate smaller portions and didn’t get second helpings
• drank lots of tea (regular and green tea) sweetened with Stevia (natural herb with 0 calories) and lots of water
• ate low-fat although we did eat at Chick Fil-A one day. Woops!
• ate three smaller meals and two healthy snacks with protein every day which works best for me (I ate nuts every day - good protein snack)
• chose healthy carbs and tried to limit processed foods, which are usually high in empty carbs, to a bare minimum. I must admit I did make cookies, but I limited myself to three cookies out of the whole batch instead of the usual half a cookie sheet’s worth. (I love cookies fresh out of the oven!)
  
• limited my candy to one small piece of chocolate on two different days (sigh!)
  
• stretched daily and went for a long walk on three days

I want to lose five pounds, but I want to do it slowly so that I can develop more healthy habits and also so that I don’t upset my fibromyalgia. One pound a week is good for me. I plan to try to reduce sugar (Easter candy didn’t help any…and we still have some left!), eat healthy meals with more raw fresh foods and fiber, drink more tea, eat protein with every meal or snack, and walk more. Some people like to use pills such as eca stack, but each person has to figure out what works best for them.