Hi Michele and Congratulations on making your goal! 

I started my Alli plan last night (7/20/09) with dinner and I'm excited and anxious about this.  I appreciate you and others sharing your story and tips here in the forum, especially to us newbies like me.  I'm 5'4" and a whopping 212#.  My goal is to build muscle (I'd like to have no more than 25% body fat) and I'd like to lose about 70# over the next year, preferably before next spring. It is very encouraging to see that you were able to lose 89# within one year.  That's incredible!  Truly.

I plan to  use the forums to keep my motivation up too. I'm not great at making the healthiest of food choices and I've just recently (like two months ago) began to eat healthier and make serious effort to develop healthy eating habits. That said, I'm sure I will have no problem getting in the 19 grams of fat in each of my meals. 

Thanks for sticking around after your weight loss.  It is really encouraging.

Dani

 What are some good meal or lunch and breakfast I could use as begin the program?  I'd apprecate some tips as for me, I will need to plan, plan, plan to be sure I have prepared good breakfast and lunch meals.

 Im not a big breakfast person so I usually just eat a fiber one bar...that holds me until lunch. For lunches I like lean cuisine pizzas, fat free hot dogs, lunch meat in a wheat pita, usually a cheese stick, baked potato chips, some fruit and a vegee....I do snack on the 100 calorie packs, vegees and fat free dip, skinny cow icecream, fat free puddings and coolwhip, spanish rice is great for dinner (and for lunches the next few days)...I also love to snack on dry cereal,jello, yogurt,  cottage cheese.,and popcorn..  Dinners I like the birdseye vegees dinners(they are frozen) and have lots of varieties, lean hamburgers, fat free hot dogs, rice, chicken, of course fruits and vegees, (I ate A LOT of spanish rice when I first started)

 HI Brody, I got kinda a personal question for you. I am 5'4'' and started at 205, kinda similar to you. I want to get down to 130-135. I was just wonderinf if you had any problems with saggy skin after you lost all the weight? I know taking it off slowly reduces that but I am just curious what to expect. Great job on your weight loss. I am so jealious. I can't wait to have a success story.

 My worst problem area would be my stomach, but I also have had two kids... For the most part the exercise has me pretty toned. I actualy looked into having a tummy tuck and the doctor was very impressed how tight my stomach muscles were. Without having had children I think that wouldnt have been a problem ... Keep doing cardio and weight training(I only use hand weights) no exercise machines... and with the Alli hopefully you will have great results too!

 WOW!!! Brody you are such an inspiration for me! I'm starting my alli plan tommorrow, and mine is set for 1800 cals and 19g of fat per meal. I'm getting so excited to start and change my eating habits!!!  wow and congrats for losing 89 pounds!!!! SUCH an inspiration for me. My starting weight is 210 and I cant wait to start this and change my life. So by you saying add mayo to the sandwich to add fat...You are really aiming for 19g of fat, not alot less? Say, if I didn't add the mayo to the sandwich my fat intake that meal is less---is that bad and interupting with the alli plan? it's a little confusing at first!

Thanks for these tips Brody!  I need to stop my morning visit to McDonald's and fooling myself that removing the top english muffin from my sausage mcmuffin makes it alright to eat such a fattening sandwich for breakfast.  I love their iced coffee, so maybe I will downgrade to a medium iced coffee instead of my usual large. I actually really like fiber one bars, so I am going to try those this week with a medium iced coffee for breakfast and see how that goes.  Again, thanks for those tips! ;O)

For lunch though, doesn't all the sodium in those frozen meals bloat you?  I think I can do the lunch meat in a pita (another great suggestion) or even on a slice of low fat bread, but I'm not so sure about the frozen meals.  I bloat easily.

Hi there.  I'm in the same boat as you.  Starting weight was 212 and I'm only 5'4".  I had weight loss surgery 10 years ago and managed to lose 160# to get down to 175#, which was the goal weight my doctor and I estimated for me before my surgery.  I was 330# the night before my surgery.   I used to exercise every day after my surgery adn it really prevented me from having saggy skin.  I mean, I was so toned back then (with the exercise) that I wore tank tops all the time to show off my toned arms.  Fast frward 10 years and one divorce later and I have regained about 40# of my surgery weight loss, and I certainly do not exercise the way I did after my surgery.  So I now have my share of saggy skin. I have, however, started diong the P90x about 4 days/week and it is helping tremendously.  My 14 y/o asked me last night to start going jogging with him (he's in training for 8th grade football), so I told him I would but mom can't jog too fast starting out. LOL I'm glad he's trying to encourage his mom to get in shape. 

I wanted to share my story with you to let you know that the exercise helps tremendously!!  I only use free weights too and I see the best results from my weight lifting.  Cardio is great, but I see the extremely significant toning benefit from the weight lifting.  And don't be afraid of weight lifting.  Many women are, but if they would do more reps at a lower weight, you won't get that masculine bulkiness that I think scares most women from lifting.  Besides, I don't beleive most women are without enough fat on their bodies to be in any danger of bulking up.

 Danyalewilson your too funny about the mcdonalds!!! Have you tried their fruit and yogurt parfaits? I think they are delicious, and will eat two of them with a diet coke for lunch.  I also have a problem with too much sodium. I dont eat the frozen meals every day maybe once or twice a week is all.......... I also keep track of my sodium and try to limit it to under 2400 mg a day(which is kind of hard still) I love bread and butter pickles so they ususally put me over my limit but at least im conscious of my sodium levels. A fiber one bar and coffee will probably be filling , maybe you could add a cheese stick or a small amount of another protein to help round out your meal.

 I actually aimed for at the very least 1600 calories but closer to the 1800 calories but always tried to reach the fat grams for the Alli to work. My problem was that on the Alli for some reason I just wasnt that hungry. Even though there is no appetitie suppressant in the Alli I found I just wasnt that hungry.

turkey bacon is delicious and if you make it at home you'll save a bundle and also you can make your own iced coffees at home and save another bundle. i was going down to the coffee shop down the road and getting an iced americano. now i just make an iced coffee at home and am saving, saving. i just take the cooled down coffee from my coffee maker and first put ice cubes in the big coffee cup, then add the cooled down coffee and top it off with soy milk. yummo and it's even yummier when you know that you are saving yourself the money for the drink and the tip if you go to an independent place.

so if you put your turkey bacon in your own store bought sourdough muffin or whichever muffin you use and an egg that has been cooked in Pam then you know what you're getting and how many calories. Plus you know if/when you wash your hands. I saw a young gal at McDonald's not too far back and she was rubbing her eyes in the kitchen and not making any attempt to go to the sink to thoroughly wash her hands and she was talking to the manager at the same time and the manager didn't say a thing. My eyes almost bugged out. I asked the cashier if that 'lady' would be handling my food b/c i didn't want her touching it due to her unsanitariness. Oh, the image in my mind. ugh. I think i embarrassed my husband and i'm rather shy at times but when it comes to my health and others i just can't settle.

Hope you are doing well.

nita 

Hi Brody.  If you think the McDonald's story is funny, you should hear my journal entries about chinese food!  That's where I really spin things.  I love chinese food; it is a real weakness for me. :0(  Anywho, thanks for the tip on the fruit & yogurt parfaits.  I actually have enjoy the McD's fruit & walnut salads (that's when I was trying to change my diet just before I started Alli), so maybe I'll try those for lunch.  I did downgrade to my medium iced coffee today but didn't make it grocery shopping for my fiber one bars last night.  I'm not going to mention what I had for breakfast with my coffee, but let's just say those TE's are really no fun in the middle of your workday.  I've got to go better! 

Thanks for your support.  Please keep posting and sharing your tips.  Us newbies need all the help we can get!  :o)

Hi Nita47!  Thanks for the tip on the iced coffee.  I used to make my own iced coffee at my old job because we had that individual cup coffee maker with all the wonderful flavors.  At home I don't even have a coffee maker, which is part of the reason I head to McD's every morning for my java.  But you are so right, I should just invest in a small coffee maker at Walmart and start making my own each morning.  I spend about $2/day, or $10/week, for it at McD's.  I'm sure I could cut that down to about $3-5/week if I made it at home.  Guess I'll pick up a coffee maker next time I'm grocery shopping. 

Thanks for the tip!

 Any secret tips for any of us new starters on your success?  What was easy for you or what was hard along the way?

 Hey, Brody...

I have the same feeling you did - I'm just not hungry on Alli.  Did you have any weeks when you didn't lose?  I stayed the same this week and am bummed!  I hit my calories and fat and worked out 5 days for 1.5 hours each.  I did strength training and cardio!  Anyway...how did you deal with the disappointmet?  I just want to go have a Big Mac!!!