[petra65]

How is everyone doing. I went out to eat last night for the first time in quite a while. I actually had a date. How scary. He let me pick the restaurant so I picked a Mediterranean one. How sneaky was that? I had chicken schwarma. It was good and obviously didn't do me any damage. I've lost weight this week. I need to do some cooking and shopping this weekend.

[Starling]

Hi Mediterranean and Sonoma people! I've been lurking at 3FC for a few months and love to come here for inspiration. I finally got up the nerve to join.

Here's my diet story in 25 words or less Well, I'll try to keep it brief!

My son (who's now 12) was very premature and had a lot of health problems including many food allergies. We decided to homeschool because the pre-schools we tried just didn't seem to understand his various issues. After several years we found out that he has Celiac disease, and after following the gluten-free diet, he became much healthier and his other food allergies have gone away. But we decided to continue homeschooling because we'd connected up with a great community of people, and, we're having fun with it

But due to my son getting off to such a stressful start, I haven't paid attention to my own health (I basically have the same body I did when he was born-- 6 1/2 months pregnant).

I keep trying to change my diet and exercise habits, but find it really hard to stick with it (I've lost and regained the same 5 lbs several times a year for the last 12 years )

I'm looking forward to coming here and checking in regularly, getting support and hearing about others' struggles and triumphs!

I've been interested in the Mediterranean diet for quite a while. Our whole family stays away from processed food because so many processed foods have gluten in them. So we already eat a lot of beans, chickpeas, rice, fruits and veggies. My weakness is emotional eating, and then I binge on sweets.

I'm hoping to start an exercise program this week. I just discovered a beautiful park that's a 10 minute drive from our house (our house is right on a highway, kinda hard to walk here ) So my goals for this week are to get out to the park 4 times this week, and to start using my Fitday program again.

Hope you all have good progress with your goals this week, and again, pleased to meet you!

Carol

[petra65]

Welcome Carol. Thanks for coming out of the shadows. Please feel free to join in at any time.

I made some chili this week and also a barley and black bean salad that I'm taking to work for lunch. I seem to be in a pretty good groove right now. Let's hope it sticks.

[Starling]

Originally Posted by petra65

Welcome Carol. Thanks for coming out of the shadows.

Thank you!

I made some chili this week and also a barley and black bean salad

What else do you put in your barley and black bean salad? One problem I've run in to when I've tried this kind of eating before is that I cook the same things over and over, and then I get bored and rebellious. I'm guessing part of what would make this work for me is actually taking the time to make new recipes. Plan things out.

I've gotten in the habit of browsing 3FC in the evening before bed-- that might be a good time to do food planning.

I had a good day yesterday-- remembered to write things down. Got 45 g of fiber but 37% fat

If I'm going to get in 4 days of walking at the park, I should go today-- but it's cold and blustery

Wishing everybody a good day

[petra65]

Carol: One of the things I love about this diet is that I would never get bored eating this way. I can't imagine ever running out of recipes to try. The barley and black bean salad also has grape tomatoes, green peppers, scallions and a vinagrette dressing. I like those kind of salads for lunch or a soup.

As for your fiber and fat amounts. I think that sounds about right. This diet should be about 40% fat so that sounds right on target. I don't use fitday or anything like that right now. I actually use the sonoma diet site and they just encourage you to write down what you eat and not be so obsessive (which I tend to be).

Cooking Light has a lot of mediterranean friendly recipes. I subscribe to the magazine but you can also get them for free from their website. There is also a huge number of recipes here. Happy cooking and eating.

[Starling]

Hey folks, checking in

Tuesday
I was very motivated! Walked in the cold! Ate 500 cal less than my usual! Typed everything into Fitday!

Wednesday
Had a difficult appointment in the morning and that threw me off all day. Forgot to type things into Fitday-- just scribbled things down onto scraps of paper and just now I got all the scraps together and typed it in. Found out that yesterday I ate 400 more than my usual.

Thursday If the kid and I are gonna get out and walk today, we better do it soon huh! it's nearly 3 already

Best wishes :

[petra65]

Starling I hope you are having a good day today.

Hope everyone else is doing well too.

I've had a couple good weeks. I'm praying that all the Halloween candy goes out the door tonight.