Alexis' 5-bite Journey

Dang, I bought the wrong snickers bars. These are called snickers to go and it's really the KING size snickers divided in two smaller pieces. How dumb. Anyway, the problem is the smaller piece is much smaller than the regular snickers bars, but is I ate both pieces I would feel as if I am eating much more than than 5 bites. i think I am going to bring them back. Otherwise, one piece could be about 3 bites and I could have two additional bites. Or one piece could be 4 bites and I could have a 5th of something else.

Too complicated. I will just return. I just ate a bar and I am left pretty - blah.

I love your idea of dipping the Snickers into the pudding! There is no reason why you should have to feel deprived...when it's time to have your five bites, you have them the way you want to have them! I have been known to stick a bread stick on top of a slice of pizza and eat 5 bites like that...It works our great!

You mentioned low carbing...technically I am supposed to be on a low carb diet, I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)...but this diet is naturally low carb due the super small portions, so I'm not worrying about it.

You're doing great, keep on going!

LOL, Snow white. I was determined to make it work!!

So I am close to another 5-bite day conclusion. I just had dinner. It was a ground beef, pasta, casserole type dish. When I took it out of the oven I just knew it was going to be too delicious to only have 4 bites and push the rest away so I decided to only take out 4 spoonfuls and LEAVE THE KITCHEN lol. Well I am glad to say that I ate my 4 bites and followed it with 1 bite of yummy snickers. I am also glad that I've eaten earlier today. If I get hungry later I will make myself some coffee, but otherwise I hope to stay strong until weigh-in tomorrow morning.

What I have noticed so far on this diet is that there are moments when I so hungry it almost hurts, but after 10 minutes or so it totally goes away for a while and before it returns it's already time for my 5 bites. Before this diet, I never really had those hunger moments and if I did, I ate immediately because it almost feels scary to feel THAT hungry. Yet, here we are surviving on 5 bites a day.

Well I hope it was another successful day for everyone whether it was on the plan or a learning day.

Dang, I just realized I should have dipped my snicker bite into some nutella LOL. I also heard about this cookie dough butter that Trader Joes sells. I will be buying that tomorrow because I am desperately craving a wrap filled with banana and some kind of spread - probably both nutella and cookie dough butter lol. I love all the different things I can think up. That meal probably won't be that filling so maybe I will just have it as a 1 bite dessert. At times my mind drifts to all the goodies I have in the fridge and the jar of nutella, but I remind myself that my 5 bites are only a few hours away or that I will have more bites tomorrow. That is much better than when I was on zero carb (not low carb, but zero) the idea of a dessert didn't exist AT ALL. how depressing.

Hi Alexis,
I love the idea of dipping the Snickers in the Nutella...fabulous! I wish I had read this post earlier and I would have dipped my 1 bite of cookie bar in Nutella! If there are any cookie bars left tomorrow I will do that!

Snow white, we are so "bad" hehe I love it lol.

Today is officially a week.

Here is my stats:
Starting: 253lbs
Current: 244lbs
Lost in a week: 9lbs

I really wanted to lose that extra pound to bring me to 10lbs loss, but I am THRILLED with 9lbs in one week. I am at a size 22 now, ugh just think on zero carb I got down to a size 8!! But that is ok, I also feared it wasn't for the long-term because I knew the day a carb crossed these lips, it'd be all over. Of course I was right about that, but this diet gives me hope because people have all reported that the weight doesn't seem to come back on with the speed of other diets.

Well I do have some good news. I decided to try on my size 18 jeans and they FIT. Whoohoooo There is an unsightly muffin top, but at least they can now cover my behind and button lol. BTW, I can shop in my own closet until I reach a size 8 (I even have a pair of 6's that I never made it into lol) . I am still committed to this diet and maybe this time around I will make it into those 6's after all. I felt so fat in my size 8 jeans during my last diet and now I would kill just to fit my 16's. Weight loss is all relative and riddled with mind games. I have realized that with each new weight loss journey, I learn more about myself and experience less mind games and avoid more weight loss traps.

Anyway, yesterday, I ate between 6-7pm and didn't eat or have anything except water until bedtime. Of course, I woke up ravenous but that only lasted until I brushed my teeth and now I feel fine.

For my 9lbs, I am going to get my hair washed. I should buy myself a new shirt, but I hate shopping for clothes because I have SO MANY tops from when I weighed much less. I hate spending money on tops that I hope and know won't fit next week lol. I realized that I don't do nice stuff for myself then I lose motivation and start feeling BLAH and then I start eating BLAH and then I am 15lbs heavier than when I started said diet. I WILL avoid that this time.

I'm glad you are doing so great. I don't get to post everyday, but I'm staying committed to my 5 bites. Reading your posts gives me more motivation.

Alexis! Congratulations on the 9 pounds!!!! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want you to reward yourself! What about a pedicure? Wouldn't that feel sooooo good to get pampered for a little while? Or maybe a new pair of shoes or a new necklace? I understand what you mean about the tops, I'm with you there! : )))) Celebrating your accomplishments will help you maintain your motivation in the long run, I believe.

Again, I am sooooooo proud of your accomplishment! Keep on going! : ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

WOW, with a congrats like that, snow white, I feel on top of the 5-bite world. I am grateful for you and rnsmile's support. I did a lot of reading today to support this way of eating and stay motivated. It really helps that my hunger is pretty much controlled. I get hungry around lunch and dinner and that is it. The rest of the time I am busy doing other things. When I start having a craving or something, I log on to food.com and think about ALL the wonderful recipes that are available to me (within 5 bites), but that is better than nothing. That usually helps me to keep plugging along.

Tomorrow is another week. Work can be very difficult for me, but last week was a great learning experience and if I could do it last then I can do it again. Besides, I am looking forward to those 18's fitting me much better and hopefully being a size 16 by mother's day weekend.

So day 10 went well:
B: nothing (some coffee around noon)
L: 4 mini tacos, 1 bite of snickers (forgot to dip in nutella lol)
D: 4 spoonfuls of rice, beef, 1 MASSIVE bit of snickers/ice cream/nutella mixture.

Dinner was around 6-7pm. I am happy about moving dinner up. I did have to eat at 6pm even though I wasn't hungry in order to keep to that schedule. Tomorrow, I hope to move dinner up to 5PM. I'll be at work until 6pm and won't get home till 7PM so I might as well have a snickers or something on the way home and just get dinner over with.

Thanks again for all the support. Tomorrow starts another week! Stay strong everyone.

Same weight as yesterday. This might be the slow down I've read about in some jounals, but I am still happy with it. I tried on my size 18's again and the muffin top is shrinking so it's still good news.

I brought a hearty lunch today, but I have been craving bananas for like a week so I ditched my lunch and now I am having a banana for my 5 bites.

I had the best sleep last night since I don't remember when. I ate dinner around 6pm and went to bed at 1 AM and when I woke up this morning at 6AM I was so refreshed. I really think having an earlier lunch made the different for me. I am going to keep this early lunch moving forward. It's hard to say for sure what caused the great sleep, but I've read that can be one of the benefits of an early dinner.

Alright, I hope everyone is doing great today. Let's power through and get this done. I for one have way too many plans for the skinny me and I plan to do whatever is in my power to get the skinny me back ASAP.

The day is complete and you won't believe this but my last 5 bites were at 3PM!! Yes, you read that right - 3PM folks. I actually didn't even feel hungry until 2 seconds ago and look it's just about bed time. I ate lunch around noon and it was that banana (nutella) thing and it just flew out of my system within a couple of hours. So around 3 PM I decided to just have my last 5 bites since I was going to see clients back to back until 6 PM. I had 5 filling bites of beef/pasta wrap.

This entire diet is just WEIRD and STRANGE to me. I didn't have any liquids today except for water either. I went to make some coffee at work but I just wasn't feeling it since I didn't feel tired. As a matter of fact, I felt great all day. Refreshed, rested, light on my feet, and clear headed. Nope. I didn't need any coffee today.

Alright, good night to all. I am heading to bed now so that I can get enough sleep. I really want to make some big lifestyle changes that promote overall health. Yes, I have a ton of stuff to do tonight, but you know what? I can actually do it all in the morning if I wake up as refreshed as I did this morning. My health isn't worth sacrificing for the sake of doing work at home.

I hope you all had a great 5 bite day. Stay strong. We will BEAT THE FLAB. We are only ever 5 bites away from dessert. Now, that is something to be very very grateful for lol.

Day something...

So I finally hit the 10lb mark-WHOOOOHOOOO. I really WANTED that 1 pound off and gone and it was fighting hard to stick around. So today I am 243. Only 3lbs away from leaving the 40's and entering the 30's. My 18's pretty much slipped right on today until they hit my extra junk in the trunk. But if I *really* wanted to, I could have worn them today lol. I am waiting to debut my jeans next Monday when I am positive they will fit perfectly.

Alright, so I plan to do the same thing today. Lunch at Noon, Dinner at 3PM and then an early bedtime. This morning I woke up completely refreshed and full of energy. Maybe next week I will add some *light* exercise to my morning routine.

Well I hope everyone is having a good day. Stay strong. We can (AND WILL) get this done.

I forgot and had 5 mini tacos instead of 4 and I still wanted dessert so I had an additional bite of snickers dipped in nutella. I am a total addict. I usually can't tell which bite I am on because I get so full by the second bite. I know I should take smaller bites since my stomach almost hurts by the 4/5th bite but I am so scared that normal bites won't fill me up. That is my goal tomorrow. To have NORMAL bites.

BTW, this morning I spread peanut butter on a hot dog bun and placed a banana inside and it was HEAVENLY. I have a serious banana craving going on these days. Well my 3:00 PM bites were my dinner. I will be going solo until tomorrow's lunch. Luckily I have back to back clients beginning at 3:15 ending at 7:00 PM so even if I wanted to eat, there would be NO TIME. I plan to go straight to bed when I get home around 8/9pm too.

242 on the scale tomorrow. 242, 242, 242, 242 lol.

Oh my friend in St. Thomas just invited me and my kids down there in July. She will pay for the children and I just have to pay for myself. ST. THOMAS in July is my new MOTIVATION!!! I am starting the 61-day challenge as of today!!! That will be all 31 days of May and all 30 days of June. I WILL not go to St. Thomas weighing ANYTHING more than 200lbs.

hi alexis,

just wanted to say congrats on the drop in pant sizes! and that's really great about st. thomas - that would definitely be the best motivator to not slip up and keep at this.

actually, that's one of the best things about this diet for me too, the light and refreshed feeling i have, as well as the amount of energy is reason enough alone (at least for me) to keep doing it. it's almost like on this plan, the less i eat, the more energy i have, go figure

Thanks, Amu! Yes, I can't believe the energy I have on this diet. Mostly, I can't believe this "fat chick" now eats like a "skinny chic", which is what I've always wanted.

My extra dessert bite yesterday didn't cost me in weight gain, but perhaps it didn't help me lose either lol. I am the same 243lbs today, but that is alright with me because I am not giving up. I hope the scale makes a shift tomorrow morning. I tried my 18's again and they are much easier to button. I'll take my "wins" wherever I can get them. I really need to find my measuring tape this weekend.

As a side note, I am loving the feeling and the idea of only eating 5 bites of food. I had no idea I could even LIVE on this amount and have the amount of energy I do. I thought I would have passed out by now LOL. I wasn't hungry when I woke up even though my last meal was at 3 PM and it was only 5 bites. WOW.

I have noticed that I am the hungriest at the end of my long commute in the morning. I am on the train (usually alseep) for almost an hour and then when I get up and go up the stairs my hunger kicks in. By the time I have walked a little bit and finally get to work the hunger has lessened. I grabbed a cup coffee on my way to work this morning because I wanted something warm and cozy. I bought a large cup and I can barely stand the thought of drinking all of that coffee so I poured some into a smaller cup and will be saving the rest. I have new habits forming already.

Alright, another 5-bite day. We can do it. St. Thomas here I come!!!

Another day done.

B: coffee
L: banana/nutella in hot dog bun. (OMG deliclious. I ate it in 4 bites LOL.)
D: Skipped. I tried to space out my lunch and dinner to fit the 3 PM since I have been getting great sleep and loads of energy; however, I was so busy that I had lunch at 1:30 PM and didn't get a break from clients until 5PM and by that time I was over the idea of dinner and I wasn't hungry. My hunger may already be in St. Thomas because it sure isn't around these days lol.

Soooooooooo, I stopped at Trader Joe's to get a jar of their Cookie butter. i have heard RAVE reviews about it - some called it crack in a jar lol. Well, IT'S CRACK!!!!!!!!!!! Impossible to have 5 bites of this. Impossible. I had a TINY taste and I will be replacing the nutella tomorrow with this CRACK BUTTER lol. It is so freaking good. It's like crushed/blended cookies. Before 5-bites this is the kind of thing I would have just eaten in like 2 sittings (ok, ok, 1 sitting lol), but now with 5 bites I have gained so much more control over my eating. I don't have willpower of steel so I avoided their more chocolate chunk cookies. I am only human and cannot risk having those incredible cookies in the house just yet. For now, the butter will suffice.

OK, off to bed. See everyone tomorrow.

Starting: 253lbs
current:241lbs TODAYYYYYYYYY!!!!
Lost:12lbs

2 lbs have disappeared into the abyss of weight loss. I am so excited. So close to the 30's I can taste it. Maybe I can debut my 18's much much sooner than I think.

You know I was beginning to wonder if I should cut out the Nutella and sweets, but with this loss I realized that it's all about our bites and the power of time. Thank goodness because I am not ready to give up my desserts. They are the only things keeping me going lol.

This is a cookie butter celebration. Let's have another fantastic 5 bite folks.

Congratulations! I like the way you said it is about the number of bites and power of time! Well said! : )))))))))))))))))

Still 241lbs today and still happy. I stuck to my 5-bites yesterday and actually only had the first set of bites. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO busy at work. No wonder I gained all this weight these last few months. Before 5 bites, I would eat all this crap in-between sessions because I wouldn't have time to sit and have a proper nutritious meal. Now I just find a nice chunk of time between noon-2PM (that is usually before the day starts to get busy) and have a nice calm 5 bit meal. If I am too busy to in the second half of the afternoon then I skip the bites and have them at home.

Yesterday, I was really playing with FIRE. I brought home a slice of velvet cake with this delicious cream icing. I had already taken a bite at work as part of my 5-bites and I was so tempted to eat another slice. Instead of eating another bite, which would have resulted in eating the entire cake, I ate 5 licks of icing and WALKED AWAY and WENT TO BED lol. I woke up this morning feeling really guilty about it and I feared there would be a gain from it, but there wasn't.

The other thing that was on my mind is that I've only lost 12lbs in almost 2 weeks. I know that is a great accomplishment, but when you have 60lbs to go it can feel like spitting in an ocean. I worked real hard this morning to stay motivated. I realized that if I lose another 12lbs in the next 2 weeks that is still 20lbs in a MONTH. NOT BAD AT ALL.

Snow white, I had to remind myself again that it's about the number of our bites and letting time work its magic and POOF the results show up.

Alright, I hope everyone is having another fantastic 5-bite day.

Alexis, you are doing great and like how you restrained yourself w/ the 5 licks! Great idea...that way you didn't have to suffer too much by feeling that you were deprived of what you really wanted! I am very proud of you and I want you to just keep looking at how much you are losing and NOT look at how much you have to lose. This is a mistake that I have made time and time again and often it leads me down a path of naughty behavior. I am really trying to now turn over a new leaf about celebrating accomplishments rather than allowing my weaknesses to destroy me and my mindset. You are doing great, keep on going! : ))))))))))))))

Well, I accidentally went over my 5 bites Friday night. I wasn't hungry all day but *made* myself eat lunch (banana & nutella). However, I also made myself eat some bites of dinner at 3:00PM because I wanted to stick to having my last meal at 3 PM. Well I wasn't hungry and the dinner wasn't really memorable so after a long evening of running errands with my daughter, I was hungry and thought "Oh, I'll eat my second set of 5 bites" uggggh. As I was eating them and reviewing my day mentally, I realized that I had actually eaten 15 bites for the day!!! It's funny because on twitter, the doc mentioned that it's when the hunger goes away that some people fall of the wagon because they *forget* they are on a diet. I need a better way to track my bites because my stomach was shrinking and I wasn't hungry at all.

So Saturday morning, I was up 244lbs. I didn't eat all day and had one set of 5 bites before bed and this morning I am still 244lbs!!!!!sucks. Should I spend the day without food again for as long as I can to help the scale move? Should I just eat my two set of 5 bites today and just forget about what is happening on the scale? How could I have eaten so little yesterday to compensate and yet didn't lose a thing? This body of mine is so STUBBORN.

By skipping bites it could put your body into starvation mode and slow your metabolism tremendously. At least by eating the 5 five bites at L & D your metabolism gets revved up instead of slowing to a stop! Also, water retention can be an issue so be sure to drink your water, this will also help you eliminate waste that can bog down your weight on the scale as well. Can you tell me your strategy for eating dinner at 3pm????? And what time do you eat lunch again????

One way you can keep up with your bites is to log on the forum every time you eat and post what you've eaten. Like on my page for L & D I write "will post" then as I eat I come back and edit my post. This also helps me be more involved and accountable on the forum. Hope this helps! Do not be discouraged, we will get that scale moving again, I promise!!!!!! : ))))))))))))))))))

My work day is extremely busy, but I log my bites on the forum. That is a good idea.

Ideally, I would have liked to eat lunch at 11:00 AM and then eat dinner at 3PM and head to bed by 9:00pm. I had such amazing sleep and woke up full energy on the days that I SOMEHOW by some miracle ate by 3PM/4PM. My problem is I am not hungry in the mornings like I use to be before 5 bite. I start getting hungry around 1/2 PM. So should I just have one set of bites if I am not hungry? I should probably give up on the 3PM dinners and move it to 5PM.

Snow white, thanks for the motivation. I get so impatient sometimes with this weight loss. I know at the end of 30 days I'll have a substantial loss if I just keep up with the plan, but sometimes I am scared that at the end of 30 days I won't have much of a loss and I'll feel like I should have been doing something different. I know I need to sllllllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww down and just WAIT for the days to go by and the losses will add up to something significant.