Hi guys, like Joanna, I'm just popping in to say I didn't die, just super busy. I have had a mixed bag this week in terms of food and exercise; some days good, some days bad. I need to get my priorities straight again!

Hope, I hope that things are better for you by now. I am sad that you feel you blame yourself. I think you are handling what life has given you with strength and grace, so be proud, even if you don't feel physically strong.

Ama, you and I think alike. I HATE that there is so much crap in processed food. I make everything that I can from scratch, and what I can't make, I watch ingredients on like a hawk. I do bread every other weekend for us and I agree, it is very enjoyable and therapeutic. Recently I tried burger buns but left my hubby to take them out because I had to get my son to volunteering, and he forgot them. So they were actually hard enough to do some damage and we didn't eat them ;). We just a week or two ago bought a chest freezer (well, we used "points" and got it for free), with thoughts of 1/8 grass fed cow sometime soon, but I am enjoying stocking it up with other things for now.

Hubby was off today and he grilled burgers, and coming home to a meal hitting the table and shaking off the work and the traffic and the mom's taxi routine was absolutely priceless :D. He usually doesn't get home till 7:30 or so, so this was really an unprecedented role reversal.

I hope everyone is doing well; should have some time later to read though the week. Congrats to everyone who's doing well, and if not, tomorrow is another day and I know you can knock it out!

Cassie, welcome back. So good to see so many of our people coming home to our "dysfunctional family."

Ama and Cassie, you are my heroines. I made pitas once and other than being unusually dense, they came out OK. That was prolly like 20 years ago LOL. Cassie I had to laugh at your DH burning your buns because mine let my recent cornbread overcook and he got a lot of um... ca ca about being a "cornbread merderer" from me about it.

Cassie and everyone, I really appreciate your compassion. In white because it is my rant: I've been sick with about a 4 day break for almost 6 weeks, a lot of pain and fatigue and it just does something to a person to feel that way after a while. DH is wonderful but I hate to tell him how I feel sometimes (even tho he knows when something is wrong because he says he can see it on my face.) He just feels so bad and helpless. And my friends are great but how much can one impose? I missed an election night party because I could not physically put my clothes on; my body just refused. DH would have helped me, gladly, but my knees and back were aching so badly and I was so weak and exhausted from driving to and from writing class that I just sent him off to the party, watched it in bed in my pjs with my cat and some (OK a lot of) sugar free cookies. He kept texting, offering to pick me up, bring me to the door, but I was fine where I was, talking to a friend on the phone and texting DD about her first time voting (!!!!).

To give you an example of what I have felt recently, you know when you strike your elbow on something? That sharp pain? Imagine having that in your hands (sometimes up to the elbow) and your feet nonstop for a month and a half, all day and all night. I had to type in gloves because my hands hurt so much. And that was only one of many symptoms and they change all the time in addition to insomnia, IBS, anxiety, depression and a host of other stuff like trouble swallowing (really scary at first) or electric shocks all over my body. DH turned up the heat to ease the body pain the cold causes and offered me anything I need, told me go and buy whatever would make me comfortable, whatever the cost. Of course, I cannot shop in this condition, tho I have done it and paid the price; for now it is enough to get food (and he's been helping with that too.) But for DH with a reduced salary to say that: go out, never mind the cost, that was something. He bought me tons of hiking socks for my painful feet. And I do feel bad; the man works all day and then does so much when I can't (cooking, laundry, etc.) Of course when I can do (and even sometimes when I can't) I do my best. I've been crying a lot lately and my post was just one of the times I'd pretty well had it. But I woke up today determined not to let this beat me. I have to just remember that I am so lucky. And lucky to have my "dysfunctional" FD family too. Hey I think we function pretty damn well!!! My apologies for the long kvetch.

1. Aim for 1600 calories/day.
close-1750. going the wrong way-1805. getting further from goal. 1513 I did it! :D
2. Take meds 2x day.
yes. yes. yes. 5 hours late tonight, but yes.
3. Do some sort of exercise 3x this week with Sara for at least 20 minutes each time.
no. no. yes.no
4. Log everything everyday.
yes. yes. yep. yes.

I tried something new yesterday. Usually I have oatmeal with raisins for breakfast. It's delicious and good for me, but I was finding myself feeling famished after just a couple hours. Then it seemed to lead to getting off track the whole rest of the day. So yesterday I decided to have my lunch (a tostada) for breakfast, a low carb tortilla baked crisp then topped with refried beans, cheese, lite sour cream and salsa. The higher protein and fat really worked! I stayed full ALL day long! Then what I planned to do was take my usual breakfast and instead of snacking on the wrong things before bed I was going to have the oatmeal then to keep me full through the rest of the night, trying to avoid my middle of the night cupboard raids. But, I didn't even need it. I had my popcorn, 2 Tbsp of semi sweet chocolate chips, and I was good for the night. Here it is 2:15 a.m. and I'm still feeling pretty good. I'm going to do the same thing this morning, but I'm going to add 2 oz of chicken to the tostada to get in even more protein. I hope it works again! I have 1519 calories planned for today, so I hope I can stick to it.

Sara is feeling discouraged already. :( She weighed herself and gained 1 1/2 lbs. I tried explaining to her that the scale fluctuates all during the day, and since she weighed herself at night it probably wasn't the best time for it. I hope I can get through to her that this is an ongoing learning process, and it takes time to understand what works best for our individual bodies. She is trying really hard to make good choices, and I'm doing my best to help her by packing her good lunches and giving her good snack choices plus lots of love and encouragement. Please send some good thoughts her way.

Have a very happy day everyone!

Lisa, I think it's great you found what works for you. Someimes it's just a matter of experimenting.

I missed the original posts about Sara due to the storm. How old is she? Is she overweight? Sorry to make you repeat info. I hope she does not get too attached to the numbers on the scale. That is a trap for a lot of us; I am still caught in it. And you're right, the numbers fluctuate and if you're gonna weigh yourself, it's much better in the morning at the lowest than at night at the heaviest.

Ama, it's funny; you'll probably find the Cold Eze in a supermarket or drugstore easier. They have regular and sugar free versions. The sugar free melt in your mouth with no real taste; the honey lemon of the regular taste pretty good. It's zinc and for some reaosn, it works. Take one every four hours when you feel sick. No citrus a half hour before or after. I have had it cut colds and upper respiratory things short or even stop them. It's working now. But ya gotta catch it at the beginning for the best results.

Goals:
Food and fitness:
1) Plan meals - yup, yes, yes, yes
2) Try to stick to meal plans (or close) - yup, no, mostly, I traded out lunch but I stayed within my limits
3) Mindful eating (I like that, Frenchhen; I hope you don't mind I'm using it)- ish, no, yes, yes
4) Water - 36 oz, c'mon 6 glasses - 64oz woo hoo, 56 oz, 72 oz, 56 oz
5) Do not be a carb monster - decent, did pretty well on that, yes, yes
6) 2 gym visits or walks (even short) min, 2 c'mon how hard can that be? (answer with fibro: very hard but NOT IMPOSSIBLE) -nope, no, no but I did exercise at home, no
7) stretch -yup, no, yes twice, yes twice

Personal
8) Wriiiiiiite - yup, yes and class, some journal stuff, the most I've done in a while though I am still stiff from sitting at the desk
9) Meditate -nope, in my car for my friend's sister who was having open heart surgery, yes, yes 1
0) mindful speech/listen -nope, no, yes, meh
11) Practice Spanish -nada; nada todo nada; si; si por dos horas en classe y mas.
12) I'm adding this: keep under 1600 calories: yes, no, 1305, 1285

Hi, Hope. Sara is 10 (she'll be 11 in a couple weeks), and she's a little bit overweight. She's in the 88th percentile for her age, so she's bigger than most girls at school. She's not that far off...just needs a little bit of work.

You're so right about the scale being a trap. I'm addicted to it, and need my fix several times a day. I'm always lightest at about 3 in the afternoon. Weird, huh? As for Sara, I'm going to try to get her in the habit of just once a week.

Lisa, that is strange, 3 pm: I think that's when I'm at my heaviest! LOL. I think it's good to nip that scale addiction in the bud. Good luck with Sara! I love the emphasis on healthy food.

Speaking of scales, planning seems to be working for me. I am finally losing again and I hope to keep it off the time and to lose more!


Today's menu:
Breakfast
Ezkiel English muffin with raisins
Tofutti cream cheese (this seems to be working)
Lunch
Applegate organic turkey and lettuce wrap
orange
Dinner
roast chicken
winter squash
Snacks (this will be tough becasue I have a discussion group meeting at my friend's and she always has food; I'm gonna try to be "good")
home:
almonds
lox
at my friend's
hummus
rice crackers (can't resist)
fruit

Cassie - You can joke that your DH has "smokin' hot buns." LOL! Great job reading labels! I am doing better at that than I used to, and it is really pissing me off what I keep finding. The other day I was snacking on wheat thins and read the label - packaging treated with BHT to preserve freshness... what? It was not even in the ingredients list, but written further down. I looked it up and there were lots of "possibly could be carcinogenic, cause behavioral problems... etc" issues associated with BHT. AAAAAH! I lived on wheat-thins when I was pregnant!

I plan to start making bread regularly again - just having a hard time getting a loaf big enough to make sandwiches with, they all seem to turn out more flat and dense than they should. Now I want to start using more nut flours and less wheat - time to start experimenting again! If you have any bread baking tips to pass on it would be appreciated! What else do you make from scratch? I could always use ideas! I make my own vanilla extract, salad dressings, kim chee, pizza crust, sun-dried tomatoes, dinner rolls, and several skin care products. But really want to expand my horizons.

Glad you got a break from dinner last night. What a sweet hubby! Ama

Hope - It is do sad to hear what you have been going through... I think it is really good that you are able to write about it and get it out in the open. I don't know much about fibro but it sounds like such a heartbreaking condition when flared-up. Big hug to you for what you have been going through. Your DH sounds like a wonderful person and a very compassionate husband and I am so glad to hear you have his unlimited support.

Glad to hear that you are back on track and losing again, that is such great news! I like how you have been planning your menus - lots of good food :)

Ama

Yes, Hope, it's me! I'm still around, although just in mind, not really in effort :o If I can stick with the walks, that's good, though.

Hey Lisa, I'm a Ph.D. student in astrophysics, halfway through my second year. I'll be done with classes at the end of this year, at which point I'll be able to concentrate almost wholly on research. So I've got some end of semester projects coming up. The proposal is for a high-energy astrophysics class I'm taking, and we have to write a proposal to use a real satellite telescope (Chandra X-ray Observatory, if you're interested!) to do some kind of science. The other project involves original research I've been doing on star-forming galaxies. I have to have a report done by the end of semester, and hopefully next semester I can actually get it published in an astronomy journal.

Still struggling with water. I'm going to fill my water bottle right now! To be fair, I did better yesterday - maybe 40 oz.

Hi, I am brand new here :)
 

Hey Everyone,

I am brand-new on here, but found this forum and wanted to be a part of it. I have struggled with my weight for basically my entire adult life. I had been doing really well on Atkins, when an illness got me offtrack over the summer. I just pretty much threw caution to the wind after that and have been eating anything and everything I want, as much as I want, like I am naturally thin or something! Ha! Anyway, I have got to get this under control, and once and for all I have to find something I can stick with. I have a tendency to go to extremes on weightloss (and pretty much every other area of my life) b/c I want instant gratification. Well, I need to get over it, or I will be yo-yoing for the rest of my life. So...

My goals are:
-Eat 1800 or fewer calories per day (may sound like a lot, but it's a heck of a lot less than I have been eating)
-Walk on my treadmill 4-5 times per week
-Drink more water
-Take the stairs at work instead of the elevator (I work on the 4th floor)
-Take the stairs a few times a day even when there is no reason to just to get away from my desk (I sit in front of a computer 8 hours a day)
-Try not to obsess!

Anyway, I am sorry for such a wordy post. I hope to find some support and motivation here! I need it!

Thank you so much, Ama. I try not to gripe but it's so good to be heard. And to have another outlet for that tho I promise I won't abuse it by complaining too much. We all have our challenges. And DH is great: I am so blessed in so many ways. Forgive me if I sometimes forget that!

Twinkle, I love your energy and your humor. You seem like you are gonna fit right in here!!!

And I have a trouble with extremes too in diet but you sound very sensible in trying for a balanced approach. I'm trying for that too!!! Maybe we can all help each other out.

Welcome, welcome.

My comments are in red.

UGH only accomplished 2 goals today...raking leaves which was 20 mins of exercise. I did have water but not nearly enough.

Going to Christmas bazaar tomorrow. Going to buy chili sauce for my Mom and try to find some books for my niece for Christmas. My weakness is almond bark--guess I will just bypass the candy table!

Jenn

Thank you for the great welcome, Canary!! :) I really hope that I can not only get help, but hopefully be able to help someone else along the way!!

I am so sorry! I was so excited to reply to you that I didn't read down far enough to see that your name is Hope! My name is Brandy, by the way. :)

Oh, my, feels good to have Friday!

Twinkle, welcome! Your post was not long at all; we have some chatty people here and we love to share. I'm glad you found our group.

Ama & Hope, my clean foodie friends :). I would love to get some ideas from you also...maybe we could start a thread in the foods section. Seems to me maybe I did that several months ago? Will have to look.


Basically, I've just done bread, rolls, anything breakfasty like waffles, pancakes, muffins, English muffins, any baked goods, pizza crust, salsa, very recently 15 pints of applesauce, all my soups; I tend to cook meats and slice or chunk for lunches rather than buy lunchmeat (especially now with the freezer I can do that more often); pasta sauce (well, my hubby's mom's Italian, so I have to ;)), I've done pasta and noodles before but, like bread, can't figure out how to get the homemade as high in fiber, so still experimenting (and I have a pasta attachment for my mixer on my Christmas list). When we have them, mashed potatoes and gravy are always homemade, and I've done crackers and graham crackers (those were, um, challenging) and tortillas (time consuming); dried fruits. I have not tried cheese or yogurt but would like to (and frozen yogurt!!). Really, it's just the basic things. I'm still getting used to working it into a rhythm with my work schedule.

The processed stuff I do buy tends to be very simple...I buy potato chips (3 ingredients; potatoes, sunflower oil, salt) and my go-to snack is usually Triscuit Thin Crisps...again, 3 ingredients. Cheerios, Shredded Wheat (BHT added to packaging, so you know it's getting into the food :mad:). It's a shame Nabisco butchered the Wheat Thins. I also have a ton of recipes for granola and granola bars and the guys are big now on "breakfast cookies" and biscuits. I just found a recipe for homemade Pop Tarts and I already do pie crust, so that should be easy. Not the healthiest, but I do have a teenage boy in the house and I can't be too militant or he'll revolt (and by revolt, I mean, go to the store and buy himself crap)! I am hoping to get into canning next summer so that will be interesting.

Yes, the label contents really jerk my chain...BHT, no thank you, and it's in everything. Also I've been watching for BPA (the plastic additive...it is in the lids to Mason jars, which makes me angry, but I found BPA-free replacement lids). I am just starting to research GMOs and I'm not liking what I see there, either. Do I think I can cut out all of this stuff from my life? No. Do I think I'll die if I ingest it? No. But if all other things are equal, I'll make another choice. Most canola oil is GMO. Safflower isn't. Easy switch. Things like that. I am learning and it's a work in progress. I wish I had known a lot of these things years ago, but am just trying to make the best decisions I can.

I wish Judipurple would come chime in...she is the one who truly does everything from scratch; she would have some awesome thoughts!

On the bread, I had the same experience. I tried using vital wheat gluten, a dough conditioner, but really the only thing that does the trick is to use some regular flour along with the wheat. I usually end up with about a third of white flour, two thirds wheat. I get the fresh ground wheat from Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) and it makes a beautiful loaf. Sometimes I throw in wheat bran, oat bran, or oats, too, depending.

...and now I've hijacked the thread. Sorry folks :o. It's my current soapbox. But things tend to be quiet on the weekends so maybe we can get a good discussion going!

Did another test drive today and did cut off all my hair. I'm taking the night off and will probably just hang out with the family and peruse some used cars on the internet for the other person in the house that's busting a gut for one! Ugh! Maybe I can convince a dealer to do a buy one get one free!

HOPE! I keep forgetting to ask how DD likes college???

Okay, I'm done posting now. See, Twinkle, your post wasn't long at all!

Cassie - I like it when you hijack the thread! You have such great information to share! I forgot that I make several breakfast foods from scratch also – pancakes, waffles, pie crust, etc. I did not think about granola bars and pop tarts. Now I am definitely going to try those! I have thought about making kefir and cheese also but have not gotten that far yet. And I think Judi makes yogurt – Where is Judi???

Thanks for bringing up that mason jar lids have BPA in them! I never would have thought of that! Nice to know there are replacement lids out there. I am not into canning yet, but once we get our garden up and running in this new place I am definitely going to go crazy with canning. I need to figure out how to not end up with 100 lbs of green tomatoes again, what a wasted effort this year. But I just planted garlic and started an asparagus bed last month and that is all doing great. We have about 6 blueberry plants that are recovering from transplant shock (couldn’t leave those behind)! I hope to have a lot more food to store by the end of next summer, especially if I get the tomato thing figured out.

I’ll definitely switch up the bread flour and see if I can get a better mix between the white and wheat. I think I had trouble for a while because I was not kneading it enough. When it says 8-10 minutes I was not following through! We have a local flour mill with a store front where I buy yeast, soup mixes, spices, corn meal etc… they have a lot of different kinds of flours – I’ll need to try some new ones out.

I get so disgusted at the crap that goes in food also. DH and I have been doing alot of label reading lately and the processed food selection is in pretty bad shape. Organic foods are doing better, such as using Vit E for preservatives instead of BHT, and beet juice instead of Red #40. I haven’t even started looking into the GMO issue yet – aye… We had a ballot measure in California about labeling GMO food, but it was so full of loopholes and special interest groups I am pretty sure it got shot down. I’ll put GMO foods on my list of things to research!

Good job with the hair cut, so tough to make that choice - I hope you’re having fun test driving cars!

Ama

Wow! You go! Very impressive!!!

Welcome Brandy!!! I like the take the stairs goal - I have a goal that if I grab something off the food counter at work I must go up and down several flights of stairs to justify the indulgence. It gets a little quiet around here on the weekends, but Monday starts a new thread and the fam all gathers for a new week of goal setting and progress!

Have fun!

Ama

Welcome, Twinkle. I tend to talk A LOT, and your post was not very long. Taking the stairs is a good goal!

Wow, Cassie and Ama! Your posts are concerning me about what I'm feeding my family. I don't know what BHT's and GMO's are, but they don't sound good. (genetically modified something or other?) I really commend you on doing so much with natural foods.

Sara wrote me a little email this morning about how we have so much junk food in our house, and other snacks have to be cooked or prepared, and it's hard for her to make good choices with the LACK of choices she has. So I was on a quest today to find some snack treats that aren't too horrible. We discovered flavored rice cakes (she is loving the caramel), and we got pretzels and dipped them in a little bit of melted chocolate just on one edge. We've discussed what "a serving" is of these snacks so she's going to count and measure. But now I'm thinking I need to go read the labels and see what kind of bad stuff is in there.

Oh, well now that I'm looking at the label for the rice cakes, it doesn't look too terrible...rice flour, salt, sugar, corn, natural apple & cinnamon flavors, cinnamon, sunflower, safflower and/or canola oil and soy lecithin. It's more than a handful of ingredients, but at least I can pronounce them all, right?

I'd like to get educated more on what you guys are talking about, but I need beginner basics. I'm a stay at home mom, so I should be able to do more home made whole foods and things time-wise. I'm just concerned about the costs. I get $200/wk to buy groceries and gas. I spend $165-$175 on groceries, and it doesn't even seem like I get that much. That only leaves me a few $$$ for gas, and I am the kid taxi in our house. Point being, my budget is tight. Or I just need to learn to do things differently. I have cut out quite a lot of packaged products, but I admit I do still buy lunch meat from the deli. What are other options? I should learn to do things like mix up my own waffle mix instead of buying Bisquick and stuff like that.

Any information, ideas, etc. for a beginner?

Lisa, please don't worry about what you feed your family! I definitely don't want to be fear-mongering here. And everyone has to do what is right and practical for their families. I didn't used to think about all of this stuff at all, but I am coming up on three years of being more aware of food, exercise, health, etc., and I certainly had no clue about it before. It's just been part of that process.

What makes it difficult is that there really is no ultimate word on what's good and what's bad. You can find anything on the internet to support any position. If you look up GMO (genetically modified organisms) you will find websites that say they are completely safe, and websites demonizing them. Some things are GMO just because they've been hybrid or bred for drought resistance...but some are because they've been infused with pesticides. And they aren't labeled as such, so it's hard to tell. So the best thing is to just educate yourself and draw your own conclusions. We can't do it all right all the time, and my motto is choose the hills you're willing to die on. If I'm "good" 80% of the time, then eating my frozen yogurt with 20 ingredients, aka a chemistry experiment (albeit a delicious one) is a trade off I can feel okay about making. I know diet soda's got to be bad, but every once in a while I drink it. And a lot of things like that...but where I can make a swap, I do.

In many cases, homemade stuff is much cheaper. I don't know how much a box of pancake mix costs, but I have a big bucket of homemade mix sitting in the pantry, and when I want a batch, I scoop a cup of that and mix with egg and milk and done. I have a recipe for granola bars that takes literally less than 10 minutes and just uses stuff you already have in the pantry. I don't know if you have access to farms/orchards, but we visited an orchard a few weeks ago and came home with fresh apples (not seconds, not bruised) for about .50/lb. They are 1.49/lb in our store right now. Canned soups can be pricey, so I take a chicken or turkey carcass, make stock, make huge pots of soup, and freeze in Mason jars; basically, when I make soup for dinner, I make a huge amount of it and then it's there. It's a great way to use leftovers as well...one of my pet peeves is throwing food out.

The lunch meat thing is new for me...I always did buy it before. Except one day I stood in the deli and looked at the lunch meat at 7.99/lb and it occurred to me that frozen turkeys are .89/lb (yes, I know, bones, skin, etc), but still...So Wednesday night I cooked a turkey, cut it up, packaged it, plopped it in the freezer, and boom. I can pull a package out when we want sandwiches. I do not know how long this will last, but I've done it often with leftovers and with ham also, so I think if I plan ahead and get stuff in there when I have time, it might work. My son loves meat. He will snack on meat. In my book, meat beats Doritos. I am also a pretty obsessive shopper with coupons and store sales and if something is buy one get one I stock up like crazy, especially if I have coupons also. Once you get into it and learn the rhythms, it does tend to be very gratifying. As you can tell, since I've gone on and on about it so much today.

As far as learning, just think about what you're interested in. I learned most of my stuff from the internet. I look at stuff in the store and go home and search the web for a way to make it. Sometimes it turns out great. Sometimes it's not a winner. Sometimes I'm late getting home and I drive through Chick Fil A for my son. Sometimes I just want to eat stuff with no nutritional value and I do, including plowing through chips and margaritas at the Mexican restaurant, and sometimes I try natural things and think, that's just too damn much work. But bit by bit, I'm adding a lot more good, healthy things into my repertoire. I think I chose the wrong career; I'm really just a frustrated dietician and/or chef, I guess, but the more I learn, the more fascinated I am with it and you will probably be the same way :). It is all about being willing to learn and personalizing it for you as you go along, and I think you will do great at it and have fun with it also.

I am going to settle down now and apologize again for hijacking the thread. I'll go search the Foods thread for the one I think I remember and then bump that up and maybe we can continue swapping ideas over there!

One more thing...site I love: Food facts, nutritional information, nutrition, healthy eating, diet, food allergies, ingredients - Home

It has info on many foods (natural and processed) and gives them a score, but also lists ingredients of concern and what is good about the food. Very informative!

Cassie, what a great idea about slicing up turkey. At least you know there aren't any preservatives and no salt.
Before I was told by my Dr that I had to cut back on salt I never read the labels. It's amazing how much salt is in EVERYTHING that we buy. A plain Harvey's hamburger has 980mg of sodium--half of an average person's daily total.

I'm hoping this site will help with motivation. I put a book on hold at the library and since my Mom was going anyways I thought she could pick it up for me. She says "it's not another cookbook, is it??". It's written by a nutrionist on how what we eat affects our bodies. It's free so what have I got to lose? It's very hard feeling like I'm up against a brick wall. I'm doing this because I want to be healthy but it's also because my Dr's told me. I have friends that believe in me but I have to believe in myself.

Jenn

Cassie, thanks so much for that! No, you are not fear-mongering. I'm just becoming more aware a little at a time. I only just started this healthy thing in February, so I've got a long way to go and a lot to learn. I'd like to give my family healthier things than packaged, boxed, processed foods. I hope you can find an appropriate thread in the Food group to continue the conversation. I'd love to hear more from you on this. I will definitely start looking things up. I'm a "researcher" and learn most of what I know from the internet. My first project is going to be to make home made Bisquick :) If I have any questions on anything I read, now I know who to ask. :D You may not be an expert, but I bet you know more than most!

Ama- let me hunt down my bread recipe for you. Its a good one for sandwiches.
Lisa- that 3 p.m. weigh in that i sometimes do, as well, is always an "OH MY" time. Usually I am much lighter than the first thing in the morning weigh in, and it motivates me to continue to eat well the rest of the day.
Hope-I am praying for miraculous healing for you. Why not! Let's just pray that this horrible debilitating disease becomes healed. And thanks for the compliment on the mindful eating, that is my hardest thing to do, eat and be aware, not just shovel it in.
Cassie- a man who cooks is a gift. Lucky lady!

My week is going really well, despite the curves, I am coming out all right.
1. Ingest 64 oz water minimum.M,W, Th,
2. Log food.M,W, TH, F
3. Slow down and be mindful when eating.M!T,W, Th, F
4. Walk dogs M-T-W-Th- (then walk dog F, S, Sun) (one dog is going duck hunting f-sun)M!T,Th, F,

I need to concentrate on my water intake, that should be the easiest thing. Why do I make it so difficult?

Cassie- I am totally on your page when it comes to lunch meat! I buy chicken breasts when they are on sale for 1.99 a pound and then portion them out to 3 ounce pieces, butterfly them and pound them out, freeze them individually in plastic wrap, and it takes literally 3 minutes to cook one and top a sandwich. Last week for 8 dollars I made 26 portions of chicken! I do the same with rump roasts or eye of round, for pork, I buy a pork loin roast and roast it and slice it thin for sandwiches. I don't know if your store sells them but I have a Honeysuckle white boneless turkey !?! yes, in my freezer right now, weighs about 3 pounds, Got it for 9 dollars and change. They are really good! I also buy from my pig guy, ground pork and make my own breakfast sausage.

Lisa- for casseroles and things I make my "own" cream of something soup. Very low salt and affordable! I'm going to try to start making my own mayonnaise, 4 dollars a jar is getting ridiculous! It's basically just eggs and oil! Bananas are usually the best deal in the store. I get about 12 for under 1.20. Eggs are a low cost food too. I buy dried beans and soak and cook 3 pounds at a time, unseasoned, then portion it out in the pint size freezer bags and I'm set for a few weeks for side dishes. I also buy the huge bags of frozen vegetables. They are about 5 dollars.

Ama- Here's my recipe for white bread, glad you asked for it, now I feel the need to bake.

1 pack of Rapid Rise yeast
1 cup of warm water
1/3 cup of milk powder
1 Tablespoon butter, melted and cooled
1 Teaspoon of sugar
1 Teaspoon of salt (add less if you like)
3-4 cups of flour (I like the better for bread style but all purpose works well too)

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Let sit about 5 minutes until frothy. Stir in powdered milk, sugar, butter and salt. Work in flour a cup at a time, for the first two cups, then gradually add the 3-4 cups. You might not need all 4, so work it till it is smooth. Knead it about 10-12 minutes, Great biceps, triceps and pecs workout! Let rise 1 hour covered in a very lightly oiled bowl (I just use a drop or two of olive oil and spread it around with my hands) (I put it in my garage in the summer, in the winter I put on the oven light and stick it in there with the door cracked.) Punch down and put it in a greased loaf pan and let it rise about 30 minutes or until it looks high enough in the pan to your liking for sandwiches. During this rising time let it sit on the counter near the oven covered with a towel while you preheat your oven thoroughly to 400 degrees. Bake 20-25 minutes. Let cool a little, about 10 minutes, then remove from pan.

1. Aim for 1600 calories/day.
close-1750. going the wrong way-1805. getting further from goal. 1513 I did it! Holy cow...1000!!! :eek:
2. Take meds 2x day.
yes. yes. yes. 5 hours late tonight, but yes. only a.m.
3. Do some sort of exercise 3x this week with Sara for at least 20 minutes each time.
no. no. yes.no. no
4. Log everything everyday.
yes. yes. yep. yes. yes.

Not that I want to do 1000 every day, but wow for me! I did it without even being hungry, and it sure does make up for at least one or two days when I went over my goal. Not doing so hot with that exercise thing.

Past couple of weeks the weekends have been absolutely horrible for me and I pretty much blow my whole week of effort on these two days. Going to try super hard to get through the next 48 hours while staying at least close to on track.

On the happy side, I've re-lost 5.6 lbs of my "off-track gain" in the past 3 weeks, so half way to getting to where I was.

Have a happy day everyone!

Here is a picture of me from my brother's wedding 3 yrs ago.

Attachment 379

:D
3 years ago? I guess this is the before pic? Did I miss the during/after pic?:)

Mike this is the after pic :P
(it's during the reception)

I look about the same.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry, I misunderstood.:o

1. Aim for 1600 calories/day.
close-1750. going the wrong way-1805. getting further from goal. 1513 I did it! Holy cow...1000!!! Yea...1540! :D
2. Take meds 2x day.
yes. yes. yes. 5 hours late tonight, but yes. only a.m. yes.
3. Do some sort of exercise 3x this week with Sara for at least 20 minutes each time.
no. no. yes.no. no yes, but not with Sara.
4. Log everything everyday.
yes. yes. yep. yes. yes. yes.

I've really been in a groove with my calories the past few days. I've made it through day 1 of a 3 day weekend without binging on crap. So excited! I can't believe it. And the scale is rewarding me for it, too. The nutritionist said I need to get Sara active every single day. Oh, boy. That's going to be hard. There is a park nearby that has a walk all the way around it that I think is like a mile. I'm thinking we can try that, but it seems so long. I told her we can go around the park and then she can play on the monkey bars afterwards. Her face lit up about that. She asked if we can do that tomorrow (which is now later today), so we'll see what happens.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Looks like a good week Lisa. Good for you turning the calories around.

Question...
This morning I woke up feeling a little lightheaded (I know I didn't eat enough for dinner). Tested my glucose number and it was 1.0 which works out to low 100s. I have been getting weird readings lately so I'm going to follow up with pharmacist to make sure monitor is working correctly. Just wondering whether any other people with type 2 have ever had a reading that low. The lowest I've ever had is 3.5. It should be between 4 and 6.

Thanks, Jenn

Lisa, you are doing very well...yay! Sometimes stringing a few great days together is great motivation to keep it up. What else did the nutritionist have to say?

Jenn, I'm not sure what to tell you other than to check with your pharmacist or doc. I hope you feel better soon.

Frenchhen, that's a great idea about the chicken breasts. I will look for the turkey breasts also; they are all on sale this time of year and I just got 2 more turkeys in the freezer last night. Fortunately my son loves the dark meat and my hubby and I like the white. It did occur to me that I need to get a bigger pot for stock, though, in the spirit of using every last bit of the bird!

So many recipes, so little time. My "things to try" stack is growing faster than I can get to them ;).

Jenn- thanks for posting your photo! That color is perfect for you!

Cassie- the little roasts have dark meat too! The dark meat is laid across the underside of the breast and then tied together. the brand is Honeysuckle white, i'd post a link to the product but I don't think it is allowed. They have one that is all breast meat too, but I buy the combo one. And it isn't "chewed up and put back together" it's made like they make a boneless pork loin.

Lisa- that mile walk may look daunting, but you can do it. You can stop and rest, you don't have to hoof it, just walk it. Stroll! Make it fun with you and your baby girl, talk, laugh, hold hands, giggle. Stop and turn over a rock and look for bugs, whatever! Today it might seem long, 10 times from now it won't seem that long at all! I felt that way about my walks when I started out, and even still someday's its all I can do to get those shoes on and go, but I always feel better afterwards.

Franchhen, thank you. I was just hoping they would find a cure too this morning as DH and I try to figure out what to do. And not just for myself but for others and the peopel who surround us.

I love these discussions about food. Such good ideas. I have been eating organic cold cuts but what you guys are talking about I KNOW is better.

Cassie you always have such good info and ideas; thanks everyone. I miss Amy (Almeeker); she would be right on this too.

Goals:
Food and fitness:
1) Plan meals - yup, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes (didn't post it on the thread
2) Try to stick to meal plans (or close) - yup, no, mostly, I traded out lunch but I stayed within my limits no -ate too much at the group and have been nauseous since, no but yesterday I did fine
3) Mindful eating (I like that, Frenchhen; I hope you don't mind I'm using it)- ish, no, yes, yes no, yes
4) Water - 36 oz, c'mon 6 glasses - 64oz woo hoo, 56 oz, 72 oz, 56 oz, 64, 36
5) Do not be a carb monster - decent, did pretty well on that, yes, yes no, yes
6) 2 gym visits or walks (even short) min, 2 c'mon how hard can that be? (answer with fibro: very hard but NOT IMPOSSIBLE) -nope, no, no but I did exercise at home, no exerciseed at home, no
7) stretch -yup, no, yes twice, yes twice, yes no

Personal
8) Wriiiiiiite - yup, yes and class, some journal stuff, the most I've done in a while though I am still stiff from sitting at the desk, yes no
9) Meditate -nope, in my car for my friend's sister who was having open heart surgery, yes, yes, yes a bit
10) mindful speech/listen -nope, no, yes, meh, I thought I was; so-so
11) Practice Spanish -nada; nada todo nada; si; si por dos horas en classe y mas, si no
12) I'm adding this: keep under 1600 calories: yes, no, 1305, 1285 over, 1444