Natalia and Mahalia.....thanks for your thoughts .....sometimes I get confused trying to eat one way for myself yet thinking about how to feed my family.

He doesn't have a problem with gluten and I agree Natalia about the whole wheat bs........I think I'm going to find a few "bready" type things he can eat and find the healthiest brands of those and up the protein (which will be a bit of a challenge). Also I have to get rid of all the sugary stuff in my house.....I still have halloween candy from his school.....and find some good alternatives.

I dont' mind giving him buter, coconut oil and the healthier fats. I'd rather do that then the chemicals (in popcorn for instance).

Off to the doctor.......and really thanks for the input.....it helps. None of my other friends get this woe so they are not much help.

so, today went out to eat for supper... at a real restaurant where the waitress comes to you. I have never, ever been able to stay onplan before at a restaurant..i usually end up ordering dessert fries gravy poutine ..the whole shebang..LOL

Well, tonight, though it wasnt *exactly* a meat fast, it was darn low carb!

I ordered the half chicken rotisserie, with no roll, no chalet sauce, and greek salad for the side. Dressing on the side. Diet pop to drink. Yay!! I'm feeling verry full now though..maybe shoulda gotten the 1/4 chicken but I wanted to feel full so I wouldnt be tempted to order dessert! LOL

And we are taking D there next week ( so weird bc we rarely go out to eat) he's turning 3 and his favorite food is RIBS! What a kid! LOL
So I think I"m going to get the 1/4 chx (1/2 if I'm starving), side of greek and a pinot grigio.
I'm not making his birthday cake because when I make cakes I make the most orgasmic frosting and its one of the impossible to resist situations. Usually when I am preparing frosting I feel like I'm going into a diabetic coma.
So because of that, I am ordering him a cake this year. And I am going to whip myself a one minute muffin with ground nuts instead of flax.. chocolate of course (cocoa) and I'm going to find a luscious single serve LC frosting I can slather on it. I know if I go to the trouble of doing this then I won't snack on his cake. (I won't lie- usually whenever there's cake in the house I eat 3/4 of it. I just can't seem to help myself! I am going to get a small cake and offer it up to everyone!! Then keep it out of sight.

What's everyone doing for V-day?? We don't really have plans but since its a weeknight won't be going out..maybe ordering chinese. If we do I'll get the moo goo or the gai ding (chicken and vegetables) with no sugar or MSG.
I did ask MIL though to take the kids tomorrow so we could have a wee bit of time to ourselves Don't know what I'm doing yet but I have 2 thick, juice grilling steaks in the fridge!
I challenge everyone to stay OP during V-day!! Tell dh NO candy or chocolate, please. The chocolate's not going extinct- it'll be there when we're in maintenance. As for meals, if you know a healthy restaurant or two I suggest looking at online menus to check carb counts. Usually the entree salads are a BAD idea! But sometimes you can find a grilled chicken caesr no croutons. I just find they put in so much crap that the carb count is outrageous, not even including the dressings!!
Almost everywhere will do double veg instead of the starch so thats an easy sub.
Have a happy, onplan weekend everyone!!

wildviolets,

I think you should approach the principal about the use of food rewards by the school and try to enlist his help. At some point, food rewards were no longer allowed in at least one of the local schools here. That policy was actually put in place a few years ago. The teachers made an effort to come up with alternatives. (Occasionally, food treats still happened during the first year, but not very often.)

In some districts, students are no longer allowed to bring in food treats on their birthdays. They can hand out other things, just not food.

Up early to proctor the ACTS at our high school when all I want (and need to do is sleep). This weekend needs to be project sleep for me!

Violets - I agree with all responses about your son - he is absolutely adorable in the pic with you, and I'm sure you are a fantastic mom. Schools are beginning to shift to more awareness about all the sweets, etc. It might not be bad to discuss with principal or teacher to enlist some support there.

Natalia - yay for the scale moving!!!

Ate a litttle off plan here and there all week -- birthday week, what can I say. A student made me cupcakes, and I had one. My husband bought me truffles, and told the waiter in the restaurant it was my birthday, so they brought dessert (good job, hon). Anyway, I do feel a little bloated, and I have a strong desire to eat clean.

I may well start a whole30 on Monday.

Have a good day, girls! Hope everyone got more sleep than I did last night!

Mahalia, sodium (and other electrolytes) are part of one of the most basic blood tests doctors do on a regular basis. The test called CMP would have a basic liver function test on it as well.

I only found out I had low sodium when I started on a quest about 4-6 months ago to figure out what was wrong with me. I got copies of all my lab tests from the past 2-3 years, and the most recent sodium test showed a level below range. Prior lab tests showed it was just in range, but I was eating a high salt diet at the time. But doctors NEVER told me. Here I was living with daily, horrible headaches that no pain med could touch, and the answer was there all along.

*sigh*

So for the rest of my life, I will be getting a copy of the actual blood test results. Some doctors don't want to give it to you, but you have a legal right to it.

If you do have low sodium, it might indicate your adrenals aren't functioning as well as they could be. If you have symptoms like fatigue along with it, I'd encourage you to see a good naturepath. Robb Wolf talks about adrenal fatigue quite a bit - check it out.

So it has finally happened. My appetite is quite diminished. Today I had just a few slides of bacon (because I got full), and then was not hungry again for hours. And now I'm looking at my huge plate of brussels sprout/shrimp salad, and I only ate about half. I'm just full.

The hypoglycemia is gone. I've finally completed the withdrawal from sugar. WOOT WOOT! And eliminating the rest of the foods I'm intolerant to has really helped. I feel SO MUCH BETTER. But I'm furious at the medical community for not telling me about such a test years ago.

When I was paleo in 2009, I was losing a pound a day and that was when I was in the 180s. So I'm anxious to see what the results are.

So today I made DS some steel cut oats with strawberries I cooked down and some vanilla cream. (He just started liking strawberries and cream oatmeal by QUaker which is just pure junk I know). He said it wasn't sweet enough so I add a bit of stevia......He didn't really like it but I'm going to be persistant because i think it's just because the texture is different (and of course not as sweet). In a couple days I"m going to try maple oats with good syrup. I have some serious grocery shopping to do......reading labels and finding good brands.

Athena, that is very interesting about sodium and headaches. I've always had bad premenstrual migraines until recently I figured it out that it had to do with water retention before my period. So now i drink a herbal PMS tea for 4 days before and it helps SIGNIFICANTLY. I was thinking there is a comparison between my story and your story due to water retention possibly?

Also one time i went out to dinner with friends and had a pasta with alfredo sauce (something I don't normally ever get) and it was ridiculously salty. My one friend wouldn't even at hers. Of course I ate all of mine and on the way home I had a terrible migraine.

I need to listen to some of Rob Wolfe's adrenal podcasts......I think my fatigue is somehow related. I go to my gyne on Tuesday and I want to talk to her about some of my issues but I don't have high hopes for any help from her. I'd like to go back to my naturopath but i don't know have the money for it now.

I'm thinking of starting some IF'ing this week. Does anyone do that anymore? I just fermented some veggies and starting that too this week for my stomach. THey are not the tastiest but are supposed to be good for us!

Have a good Valentine's Day if I don't get back here tomorrow.

Today marks the end of four weeks of low carb eating-- start weight 185.8,
Current weight 180!! I may be the tortoise but I am trending downward and free of the cravings monster. Yay!

Yesterday was date night... We had juicy thick steak with a pat o butter. -and a few grilled mushrooms.. And we went out to the mall and I made the conscious decision to not get a latte as I couldn't afford the extra carbs so I just got a reg coffee at timmys one cream 1/4 packet splenda.

Had a bit of a sick tummy yesterday afternoon so skipped lunch but had a late breakkie of ricotta creme, coffee, and 2 servings walnuts.
I also had 2 glasses of wine with my steak. Muhahaha!

I'm going to make a low carb cheesecake the day before d's birthday. I will NOT have cake with sugar icing!!!! Icing might just be my number 1 weakness.... But I know I can resist.

Starting to get a cold and sore throat over here too, ugh! And even the no sugar cough drops have 2.8g carbs each.

Check in later!

wildviolets: I'm so proud of your concern for your son. I've heard many a mother just go into denial or become defensive. At least you can control his home environment if nothing else.

Kudos to Natalia: it's always good when things roll your way isn't it! Keep up the good work!

Also kudos to Athena: Sounds like you have found your path!

OK, Friday we had a bad day. DH broke down on side of road coming to pick me up. Borrowed car from work, picked him up. It was late. We were starving. We ate mexican restaurant - we ate a LOT. I ate until I was nearly sick.

Saturday I had to work, even though I'd been bloated and gassy all night from that bad meal. Got to work and started having diarrhea. Thought I could tough it out. Couldn't. Came home after practically every coworker gasped at how pale I was. I felt awful. Bed all day. Bed all night nearly. diarrhea everytime I got up or rolled over for awhile. Yesterday's entire food consumption: 1 12 oz regular gatorade and 1/2 of a 44 oz sonic slush, and 1 glass water. Whatever goes in shoots through like a rocket. ack.

Today tried to eat a few bites of cheeseburger DH got me and it sent me running back to the throne room. So I guess I'm on a fast so to say. Forced compliance. The good news, I will have broken my habit of eating at all, so I can start back on the right foot. Whenever I am able that is.

And I invented a new word - frever. That's freezing with fever. I've had a lot of frever with this!

Kel- that sounds awful! Sounds like maybe you got food poisoning from your Mexican meal. I hope you feel better soon.

D wears you out- I have severe crohns so I too have the tshirt. Lol
Just keep yourself hydrated and let it pass. Maybe dh can pick you up a few soups, sf powerade and boost or rts low carb shakes. Or if you have powder he could make you a yummy protein shake. Nurse it slowly and have lil sips.

You will feel better soon!!!!

Kel, feel better soon ...

Wviolet, you're a great mom!! DS will get used to the new way of eating once his taste buds get away from the frankenfoods...

Athena, interesting about sodium...

Natalia, that's the exact same thing I do when I go to the restaurant you are talking about

This weekend my SIL and I went to Yoga Camp in the Laurentians, they had a snow shoeing weekend... So we got there on Friday night but missed the Yoga class... But Saturday we did the 8am 2hour Yoga class, then went snow shoeing for an hour, had a nap ... then did another 2 your Yoga class, then when on a moonlit snow shoeing with our guide... then this morning before leaving we had a 2 hour Yoga class again and breakfast then came home... I feel pretty good too ... The only thing is that the meals are alllll vegetarian but it's super clean eating so I went with it, I doubt I gained weight... It was a good weekend all in all, I really enjoyed the snow shoeing ...

Oh, just wanted to also ask, any suggestions about a book to read... I need to order a book for DS and want to order one for myself at the same time... I was going to order Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It - Gary Taubes, I cold not get into his other book it was too complicated for little ole me, would this be a better choice?

Kel -- hope the digestive roller coaster ride is over.

wildviolets -- it sounds as if you're doing all the right things to have your son be as healthy as he possibly can and without creating control issues for either one of you

Athena -- thanks for the info on sodium and adrenals. I've cut back sodium a lot since November and have been feeling a bit draggy. This was the first year in many that I didn't get a copy of my lab results from my doctor. Now I'm going to get them and see.

Ilene -- people have said that Taubes's "Why We get Fat" is much more accessible than his "Good Calories Bad Calories" I'm tempted to skip reading GCBC and go directly to WWGF.

Natalia & Ilene: I order the same things at SC when I go. I've never had the ribs, though. Are they any good?

I've been slow and loose with my primal/paleo WoL. I'm definitely inspired by what you all took on in the Whole30 and what you accomplished. Jumping in whole hog feels overwhelming to me right now.

Last week I had fewer -- but not 0 -- protein bars. This week my goal is to follow my dinner & next day leftover lunch plan 4 out of 5 weekdays. If I have a good lunch and good breakfast (enough protein, fat and some small amount of starch), I have no cravings and have energy in the evenings to do what I need to. I also will get out at lunch each day for a 10 minute walk, building up the frequent slow movement.

What restaurant are y'all talking about?

Kel - so sorry to hear that you were so sick. I agree it sounds like food poisoning to me... ugh.

Violets - I would maybe caution against the IF'ing or else recommend you do it conservatively -- like eat a very early dinner and then don't eat until lunch - but nothing too long. The reason I say this is that I've listened to Robb Wolf say over and over again that IF'ing should really only be done when everything else is "dialed in" -- in other words, if sleep, exercise, diet, stress, etc. are all good, then it may be time to experiment. Otherwise, he says it is more of a stressor on the body and can increase cortisol and have other backfiring effects. Just a thought.

Ilene - wow, what an awesome sounding weekend! I just started R. Wolf's Paleo Solution. I did read GCBC but agree it's super scientific. I have his Why We Get Fat in my Amazon cart and think that's the one you should get. I can't wait to read it.

Svelting - sounds to me like you are doing well! Easing in is fine and easier for some. I eased in over a couple months and don't think I would have been ready to do whole30 either initially. I had a really hard time giving up things like rice and beans and other "healthy" foods that had been staples for me for so long. I am 9 months in now, and it's normal to me now.

Natalia - happy bday to your son -- sounds like you have an outstanding plan as to how to handle it.

I ate well this weekend, but need to get moving to bed. Sleep, sleep, sleep... gotta work on sleep! Night all!

Claire, us Kanuks we're talking about Swiss Chalet, it's a Canadian chain of restaurants, specialty is chicken...