Hi Everyone!! I just started Alli this week. It has been good so far. I have not had any TE's which I was really scared of. I think this message board is probably going to be a really good thing. I have read so much about this product, the good, the bad and the ugly. I have read negative reviews but mostly positive ones. I am not really sure how this whole web site works, maybe someone could give me a few pointers?? I stepped on the scale last week after a vacation and I was shocked when I saw 205lbs. I have a weight loss goal of 70lbs...WOW!! But I really shouldn't look at the big picture. Well, good luck everyone!!

Hi Tommyesenia,

Just take one day at a time before you know you will be a little sex kitten. Remember each step you make counts, keep adding steps a day.My mom was having the same problem with her knees because she was@ 290lbs she started walking a block at a time and before you knew she join the gym and was jogging on the treadmill and weight training she drop a good 50lbs and I am so proud of her and she did it without Alli I lost my first 50lbs without alli also but then I hit a plateau and nothing would work so my doctor introduced me to alli and I must say I have hit the jackpot it seems. This is my third week and I've lost 10lbs. So be encouraged whatever you do don't stop because the time keeps ticking.  Because of the economy most grocery stories have great sales on meats and vegetables. If you are cooking for yourself try buying the family pack of meat/vegetables it will save trips to the store plus you will have some for other days. I have a family of five and now we buy more turkey meat than red meat, believe me its a lot cheaper than beef or chicken. It seems like since we eat heathier we eat less.

   Hi I just started here not only to look good and to feel good but I made a major mistake a few years ago and had my tubes tied due to family pressure and my exhusband. Aparently you have to have a certain BMI or weight a certain amount before they will do a reversal. We ended up divorced it was a very abusive relationship I had small weight issues in my teens like maybe 20 pounds over what I should have been nothing major. When I married and realized how abusive he was I started to eat for comfort and pretty soon it started showing. Well I finally had enough and filed for divorce and when we seperated I dropped 36 pounds in 6 weeks which scared me and my doctor. We realized it was because I wasn't eating for comfort and chasing my 3 kids around and eating rarely. It was nice to  be smaller but I got remarried to a wonderful man who loves my curves but wants me to be happy.  We are wanting to have a baby so I will have a wonderful reason to lose this weight. I     SW 228.8    CW 227.4   GW 145

 Hello!! I have a question. My family goes on a camping trip every year up in Maine. I am only going for 3 days and I don't plan on pigging out but I do plan on eating what everyone else is eating and I know that would put me over the 15g of fat per meal. I am not going to take my alli during this trip in fear of having any TE's. So I guess my question is...When should I stop taking the pills to ensure that I don't experience TE's? I was thinking maybe not taking the pill the night before we leave? If someone could help me that would be great. Thanks!

As far as I understand it, Alli only works for an hour before and after your meals and then leaves your system - so it's in your body for around 2 hours. And if you ever do have a TE, that its actually from something you atw 24-72hrs ago.

My husband and I both started Alli 3 weeks ago, after my 23rd birthday. I want to lose 100 lbs, and Ive already lost 8! I work in retail, and need some ideas on quick and easy breakfast and or lunch ideas, that can be for on the go. I have a microwave at work thats all. I work over  40 hours a week, and this has been the problem, MCD's (yuck) has been too close for too many years. I am tempted no longer, I cannot stand the smell, or sight of any fast food. I started Alli, because we are trying to concieve, and my doctors have let me know my weight could be a possibility as to why I am not pregnant, even after 2 years. Plus I, we need a change. If you have any receipes, that would be great, please something with taste. Or maybe something frozen, that we could just pick up at the store? Lean Cuisine? Healthy Choice? Ect.? Ideas?

Thanks and good luck!

SW:270 CW:262 GW: 1st:250  2nd 220  3rd200 and finally 170. Once at that, I want to go lower, 135. But small steps, are the best steps sometimes, I want to KEEP it off, not temp. off.

Orellana Hi- I've got a really good breakfast casserole, it takes 30 min to cook, but you could cook it the night before and mirowave it in the morning. Ingredients:

1/2 lb turkey sausage, 1tbsp butter, refrigerated bag diced potatoes & onions, 1 large carton egg substitute, 2 c fat free cottage cheese, 8oz fat free cheedar cheese, 1oz reduced fat parmesan cheese, 2- 4oz cans green chilies, 1/3 c reduced fat Bisquick

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 9x13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Cook sausage until no longer pink; transfer to paper towel to drain.  Mirowave potatoes until tender or saute potatoes until tender.  In large bowl, combine remaning ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Add potatoes and sausage and mix well.  Pour into perpared pan.  Bake for 30-35 min or until golden and set in middle.

121 cal   1 fat   2 sat fat   19 protein   1 fiber   857 sodium   13 carbs   2.4 sugars 

This is a very good recipe - hope you enjoy!

Cat

Hi Crystal. 

I would like to join you.   I have about 55 lbs.  I want to lose.  I just started my Alli program  in June, 25, 2009.   Not sure at this point how long it will take me, but am being so careful what I eat.  I write everything down.  Am hoping to be down a couple sizes by December.

 I just started Alli on July 7th, after seeing pictures that my sister took of me in my bathing suit on the fourth of July.  I didn't even look like a human figure anymore--just a blob of white fat floating on the water.  I was in the water thinking I looked just fine, while 9 other people on the boat were really seeing this image of me.  I am just dead-set serious this time about getting back to 130lbs.  It has to end here.  I know it will be hard.  I know sitting on the couch and eating would be easier.  But I want to live, really live.  I will not weigh myself every day.  This will be hard enough without that.  The number is going to be what it is going to be, whether I torture myself with it or not.  I started the activity plan today.  I am a nanny for a 9-mo. old and bring my 16 mo. old son with me to work at their house.  The kids thought it was just the funniest, most exciting thing to watch me exercising down on their play mat area!!  And lifting two spagetti jars as weights--I must have looked cookoo!!   But I did the sets required, felt good about moving my body, and did another complete cycle!  Then I pushed the kids in the double stroller for 20 min.  Feels good to move.  Feels much better than just sitting there--being fat.  Noticed when I entered my lunch into the website that it was almost double the calories that it should be, so I cut my whole meal in half, and added a huge pile of broccoli.  Guess what?  I couldn't even finish the broccoli--I was full!!  I usually would have eaten the whole original meal, without thinking.  I then finished the other cup of broccoli for my afternoon snack.  By the way, those of you with kids out there that need to try to fit in some excersise, just do it while you play with them!!  I pick up my son and fly him around the room.  Lay on your back with your kid sitting on your lower belly and "crunch" up to see him.  Just fit it in whenever.  To the woman who mentioned the air climber in the garage, that's awsome that you jump on it when you check the laundry!  You don't have to do that--but you CHOOSE to.  Good choice.  Every little bit counts.  I plan on starting to park in the farthest space out when I go to the store, and have to walk to the entrance and back.  (I live in the boondocks, so I unfortunately can't just walk to appointments or stores like some of you lucky ones).  Just received the Alli Diet plan book in the mail--got it on Amazon brand new for 50 cents!!  Has over 200 recipes, advice, and motivation.  Sorry my post is so long, I'm just excited to be part of such a seemingly supportive community of like-minded people.  Nice to meet everyone! Talk to ya'll soon!  Stay strong!! 

:-D      ~Wendy G.

wendy,

love your moniker. used to love quiet riot back in the 80'.s i'm dating myself.

the thing about doing the exercise in front of the kids is very helpful for them . i remember as a kid my Mom exercising to Jack Lalane. (sp) and he's still alive and so is she. She's 74 or so and i think he's in his 80's or 90's. She pretty much instilled in me exercise from an early age. i just got out of control with my eating in my 20'2, 30' and 40's, now i'm doing something about it. don't get me wrong i've gained and lost through all those years but never was constant or didn't learn how to maintain so that will be new this time around and i strive to get it right this time. i have to.

peace, health and happiness to you. 

I am glad to finally have found a place that looks at more that just measured out meals and heart-racing pills.  I have been overweight my entire life with a dreadful relationship with food.  For the very first time, after a serious conversation with a friend, I decided to make a change in my lifestyle.  This time its not about the fact that I can't stand before a mirror and feel sexy or find clothes I like.  No longer is it about thinking everyone is noticing that I am the overweight one in the group (look around at America).  I realized that as I am just a few months from thirty, with a horrifying family history of heart disease and diabetes, this is no time to flirt with danger.  Continuing on the path and eating style of my past would, within a short time, ensure that the rest of my life be spent managing my diseases.  What a way to choose to live.  I have been given the choice and offered an out in enough time to do something about it.  

To that end, I have altered the way I look at what enters my body.  Not that I have a strictly tofu diet or have lost a love of dark chocolate, but more that my favorite thing about the Alli pills is that they give me a real feel for what an overload of fat looks like in my body.  My system was never intended to intake as much cheese (my major downfall) as I have been used to ingesting.  

It is amazing what a change in lifestyle can do. I am active already and have not increased my fitness/workouts, but just by changing the way I am eating and adding Alli to my daily regimen, I have lost 12 pounds and am feeling so much better in my energy and digestion and even how my jeans are fitting.  I am encouraged!  I am excited to realize that unlike everything else I have tried i the past, this is not an all or nothing deal.  It will not tail spin me into eating everything because I cannot get even a taste of what I love.  Its about health this time.  Its about balance.  Its about really living, rather than just living to eat.  I hope to have more good to report soon...

Jessa, Welcome to the boards.  I too am a cheese lover.  When i started this eating plan (not diet) I started to see that I was eating tons of cheese.  I was eating it on everything!  I am now in my 6th week and I am not missing it as much as in the beginning.  I am trying to get used to fat free cream cheese.  That will take me a while but I think I can do it.  Good luck and keep posting.  The group on this board is very supportive and encouraging.  Later, Lynn

They make "1/3" fat cream cheese (phili brand), with 7g in an ounce which is quiet a bit of cheese, I can use half of that on a bagel. I just didn't like the taste or texture (lack of) completely FF. 1/3 is a bit running too but at least it holds itself together and taste great. On my weekly shopping list :)

 hi, i'm new, too!

just started on july 15th...i like how i have already begun to develop healthier eating habits, just by way of researching the fat/calorie content of my foods!...i, too, LOVE cheese-and wine, lots of cheese and wine...that's going to be the hardest part for me...

speaking of alcohol, has anyone still experienced success while maintaining a pretty active "social" lifestyle? just curious how this will work out in that regard...thanks, in advance, for your thoughts.......

kristi

 kristi;

I have re-started this week.  I found success with alli, fell off due to family and health issues, but am back because this is a lifestyle that really works!

As far as alcohol is concerned, you can drink as long as you remember those calories count towards your total daily intake.  A friend suggested diet  cranberry juice and vodka which tastes pretty good.  Most alcohol has the same number of calories per serving, some have fat.  Personally, I quit drinking for the first few months I used alli.  Later, I found a few things to include when out with friends. 

Everything you put in your mouth is a choice.  The great thing about alli is you have so many choices.  Good luck and happy losing!

Marcia