Welcome home, Cincorn! The grandkids must have put you through your paces. I can't imagine going camping any more. But sometimes I drive past one of those vintage Airstreams, and I want one so bad! Just want to drive it to the beach and hang out, with my dog.

So since you went camping so soon after leaving the hospital, I hope you're feeling a lot better. Enjoy sleeping in your own bed!

I'm laughing at myself tonight. I've been on an emotional roller coaster about losing weight for the last couple days. Today I actually stayed totally on track with my food plan and I've been succeeding rather nicely. It takes so little to throw me off. I've been determined to overcome hunger and feelings of hypoglycemia. I'm trying to lower my blood sugar overall, and I'm doing really well, as long as I stay away from starchy carbs and overeating protein. But my body is so used to eating more of that stuff that when I bring my blood sugar down to healthy levels, it feels like hypoglycemia. I just have to white knuckle it until I get used to this lower level.

I have noticed that I don't lose weight unless my blood sugar remains under 100. Things that help it do that is keeping net carbs under 50 gm., protein under 30 gm. per meal, eating enough healthy fats with my meals and fasting daily for at least 12 hours. Also, daily exercise that includes some weight lifting. When I do it all, good things happen! Unfortunately, when I get hungry, reason and experience seem to go out the window!

This weekend I got all the laundry done. ALL of it. Even the boys'. When I put away all my clothes, I kept bumping into things I no longer wanted to wear. I feel disgusting when I wear those clothes. So out they went! I think my closet lost 20 lbs.

I am off to get a really good night's sleep. If Daisy lets me sleep in...

I'm having arthritis issues as well, and find swimming is a wonderful workout. I can push myself (laps) or I can be a kid and do underwater flips. Either way, it helps quite a bit.

Oh Georgia, kankles and sausage fingers - I am so there today. Thanks for that - just you mentioning them reminds me it is temporary and to drink enough water to flush it all out

Jude

Oh Georgia I feel the same about the clothes in my closet! I have a HUGE closet full of clothes in 4 or 5 different sizes. It's time to get rid of the 20's and even a lot of the 18's are too big. I need to just get them OUT of my closet so I can find some things that I can wear! I put on some 16W's from my closet and they fit! I have had such a hard time finding anything to wear to church in my closet!

I am feeling much better...no abdominal pain, but I'm still so tired and lethargic. My husband had to carry the load on the grandkids camping trip. I had to take a nap every day and go to bed early at night while he bathed and settled the boys in bed. He did the cooking too. He's a real gem. Believe me we don't "rough it" when we go camping. We have an RV with air conditioner, a real bed, TV, etc. Not "real" camping I know but I'm too old for that!

I still can't eat very much so I'm trying to get the most nutrients I can. If I eat half a can of soup I feel like I'm going to explode, and EVERYTHING I eat gives me indigestion since the pancreatitis. Everything except the green smoothies. I'm drinking a quart of those a day. I'm losing weight like crazy.....215.2 this morning. But believe me, you don't want to lose it this way!

I haven't been to the gym in 3 weeks. I am going to go today and slowly try to get some strength back!

You can lose weight easily at the age of 50 but as you have arthritis problem it can be an issue.My father at the age of 60 have reduced near about 100 pounds in three months.

Try acupuncture for arthritis, you will feel the difference soon.Its worth trying.

214.2 today. I'm losing 1/2 to 1 lb. PER DAY now! That's great but also kind of freaky since before I got sick I was losing 4-5 lb.s PER MONTH!

I managed 25 min./1.3 miles on the treadmill and 10 reps on the weight machines. I was doing 2 miles in about 37 min and 20 reps before I got sick....I'll get back to that eventually.

I hope you lovely ladies have a wonderful day!

I am 66, I started to get serious about losing weight when I was 50 and it was slow for me but I lost 60 pounds so far. I am really bad about exercise so it was all due to diet.
I am actually finding it must harder in my 60s than it was in my 50s so attack it now! I had been overweight since childhood. Don't be discouraged if it seems slow it all adds up in the end as long as it's heading in the right direction.

Hi Patns - I am in Edmonton too! I am 58, just getting serious about losing weight, I guess it is about time.
I have been sticking with my eating plan only about half the time, and lost no weight this week. I feel more encouraged now for some reason, and not gaining this week is probably a better way of looking at it.
I think I was looking for fast results - 6 years ago I lost 133 lbs, and they just dropped off in about 7 1/2 months, but I think the years are catching up with me. I also quit smoking in January and regained quite a few pounds.

I am trying to stay positive

Jude

Losing weight now is not at all easy for me. I'm 52. I easily dropped 40+ lbs. in my 20s and 30s, within a few short months. But in my 40s, the rate definitely slowed. And in my 50s, what used to take me a few short month now takes years.

The one thing that is helping me the most now is adding muscle mass. In the last four months I've put on 3 lbs. of muscle, and I believe it has revved up my engine a bit more. I've been doing some weight training over the years, but not as consistently as I have been over the last few months. I'm going to keep this up!

My youngest is a sophomore in high school. He's started training for the football season. They workout five days a week right now. We have a weight bench at home and he's been doing some bench presses this morning. I've only done them with a weight machine, and if I remember correctly, could only press 50 lbs. when I was in my 40s. I've been working on push-ups and other upper body stuff with dumbbells. I can easily curl 20 lbs. So, I just did a set of 15 presses with 70 lbs.! My arms were wobbling all over the place, and my son was spotting me. But he told me a lot of the freshmen boys couldn't press as much as me. That felt good!

These days, my focus is purely on achieving optimum health. I DO NOT set out to lose weight any more. While it is an ambition of mine to finally weigh less than 200 lbs., I only care to achieve that in a very healthy way. Right now, except for the menopausal madness that is messing with my sleep patterns, everything is functioning pretty well. I am a type 2 diabetic, but I'm totally managing it with diet and exercise. My blood pressure is in the athletic range. Cardiovascularly, I'm strong and fit. Not taking medication for anything. And I intend to keep it that way!

Good morning all. I've been off camping at the Columbia River Gorge and am just getting caught up.

Cincorn -- I'm with you on the definition of camping. My idea of roughing it is to have to live off of the generator and battery power. But I love the ability to fix my own meals, sleep in the same bed, etc. And my grand nephew and the rest of his family loves being able to borrow it! Glad you're feeling better and that you're seeing some positives in terms of the weight loss. Hope that things settle down for you as it sounds as though you're definitely still going through a lot with what you can and can't eat.

Georgia -- The getting and staying healthy is my main goal as well -- especially after the a fib scare this spring. I've still got a ways to go, but it's slowly coming along. It sounds as though you're really discovering what works best for you and the weight is coming off as part of the overall plan.

The camping trip with my grand nephew (he's 6) was so much fun. It's interesting to see what fascinates him as we explored. He loved all the dams on the Columbia River -- would shout out "there's another dam" whenever we would see one. He also LOVED the waterfalls. He just couldn't believe how many there were along that stretch and how big they were. We actually camped on the eastern side of the Cascade so we would go from arid, near desert to the evergreen, western side each day. Such a start contrast. He also loved Mt. Hood and the endless efforts to try to explain why Mt. Rainier has a bowl and Mt. Hood is more pointed at the top. Try standing at the top of an overlook where we could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens and explain the different shapes when they're all volcanic mountains. My last physical geography class was in 1968!

Off to get some garden picking done and finish cleaning out the RV. Have a great day.

213.2 today! I want OUT of the 2-teens so badly! Then I can start whining about wanting into onederland LOL! I saw a 3 day cleanse supposedly touted by Dr. Oz and I'm thinking of doing that. It's difficult for me to totally change track on my diet. I was eating low carb and now have eat very low fat. I've been eating very little meat, only chicken and fish, and little of it. I just don't know HOW to eat this way. I need to learn to cook some vegan dishes. I already didn't do dairy, except cheese, which I can no longer have. Anyway, I'm eating lots of canned or frozen Amy's vegetarian dishes and I know it's not healthy to eat so many canned/frozen foods and I need to eat more fresh...just don't know how to cook vegetarian.

I lost 10 lb.s in July (well, I "cheated" cuz I was sick) but August is not being very kind to me....only 3 lb.s lost so far this month.

Anyway, I hope you ladies have a great day. I'm off to the gym!

Cincorn, it sounds to me as though you're doing very well with making the adjustment in changing from a low carb to low fat. But, I understand the feeling of knowing the low carb route so much better and learning about low fat. I'm posting a link to a site that has info on a low carb and low fat diet approach -- mainly because it seems to have a lot of food ideas and recipes and thought it might help you. You've probably done all sorts of research already, but can't hurt to peruse it. Hope this gets easier for you.

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/rec...fatlowcarb.htm

Don't know if you use one of the food tracking apps, but most of them have break downs of foods by protein, carbs, fats, sodium, etc. so that you can plan out your day and know how much of everything you're getting. You may have to up your overall carb intake, but I try to keep mine to under 100 g a day (which is way more than you're used to if memory serves me correctly) and that seems to keep the metabolism going.

Anyway, hope some of this helps or at least knowing that we're worried about you and all you're going through right now.

Have a great day everyone.

Thanks for the link and the info Betsy. I am getting more comfortable with the low fat approach.

I'm at 212.0 this morning. I was stuck for 3 days at 212.6 but FINALLY movement on the scales downward! I set a goal of 7 lb.s loss for August and I've lost 4.6 lb.s so far. I just need 2.4 lb.s now to make my goal!

Cincorn, it sounds as though you're getting into the hang of the low fat approach. Just think back to when you started reducing carbs -- probably had a lot to learn and felt as though you didn't know what you were really doing. Any time we have to make a big change in our food intake requires a whole lot of new learning.

I had an aha moment this morning. I've been working on incorporating a lot more exercise into my daily routine. I had been very faithful in doing yoga, going to the gym, and trying to add in a walk each day. Then I had a couple of appointments coupled with going on a short trip. Not much exercising coupled with some really bad food choices. As a result, I have gained almost 15 pounds in the last month, and I swear that mentally I'm just not in the game right now. I've been trying to figure out where my will power and desire went -- must have left them in Oregon when I was down there!

Anyway, I went to the gym yesterday and realized that I feel much more positive this morning. Emotionally, I feel as though I'll be able to stay on plan today. So, no more sloughing off the exercising. And, when I'm in a positive mind set, I have a lot more success with resisting the emotional eating issues.

Anyone else experience a correlation between exercise and better mental control over staying on plan?