:hug:Rie... that is what it's all about isn't it? Hope things are going good for you. I've decided that I have to step back and see what I'm accomplishing here and I realized that if I was as emotional as I was when the oldest DGS granduated, what will I be like if I live to see the youngest one accomplish the same thing. When I married DH there was no way that little boy would have made the accomplishments he has made. I didn't know enough about Aspburgers (sp) to know what he wasn't supposed to be able to do so I took all the good things his real "deceased" grandmother put in him and I built on that telling him he could be whatever he wanted to be. I stood at the graduation and remembered a little 9 yr old boy looking up at me and whispering "Do you know about my Meemaw?" And I told him "Yes, I know about your Meemaw and you can talk to me about him anytime you want. I was really close to my grandmother like you were with your Meemaw". We've been buddies every since.

No one works with getting baby to drink from a cup. We have a special cup that teaches him to drink out of a straw. No one has worked with him and the therapist will be here in the morning. I found a new straw and cut it to make it work for him. YAY!!!! I tried it with him after his nap and I am pleased to say that Jaxx actually liked drinking milk from a straw today.

So, I want to thank you Rie for helping me through all I've gone through and I pray whatever you are going through will work out good for you. We are doing what needs to be done and I think I realized Saturday at the graduation that the "Reward" is the results we see later down the road.:hug:

Love2B, glad you are finding that some fat helps with the sugars. The balancing act comes with having the fats to slow down the absorptions of starches, (trying to make sure they are healthy fats if possible) and when we are trying to lose weight, making sure that calories are within the limits we want. Its tough for all of us, and its a learning process.

For my part, I am doing atkins again for a bit, the carb cravings are getting the best of me. We will see if I can make it through the first day, always the hardest. Managed to turn down the chinese noodles DH was having for lunch.
GOt to Yoga this morning.

Sad news, my uncle (Dad's brother) passed away yesterday. He has had alzheimers for a few years, and was in a nursing home, with an aunt and cousin taking most of the responsiblity for seeing him regularly and doing laundry for him. He was a terrific guy, comfirmed bachelor, a real womanizer, but also with no kids, he was more of a friend to his nieces and nephews, and treated us all wonderfully. I am trying to figure out a schedule change to go to Quebec for the funeral with my dad.

Rie: loved the pic. A great mother/son activity. Bet thats a great time for him to open up and talk about things weighing on that young mind, in between telling you about the sound an outboard motor makes. :D

Have a good Tuesday friends

:hug:Madeliene So sorry to hear about your uncle. All but one of my uncles are gone and I was never very close to him. Daddy wasn't raised with him. I'm cutting back on my carbs as well. Not doing Induction because of the Joint Juice that I drink, but I had to get control as I was craving sweets ALL the time which always is a good sign that I better get busy and get control. I actually have been hungry for the Atkin's food. Got the New Atkins recipe book. I know I would like to eat more low carb and thought they might have some good recipes in there. Haven't had time to look at it yet.

I've been dealing with swelling a lot too and I know low carb takes care of that so easily. In fact, I woke up this morning with leg cramps in BOTH legs at the same time. I hopped out of bed going "O God, O God". Didn't even wake up DH. LOL Can't really blame the Metformin at this point though as I'm really trying to flush the fluid out. I'm just trying to hit the protein and veggies more than anything else and not cook with much if any salt at all which is tricky since DH loves his salt, but I can make most of my foods separate from his.

Bonnie, Jane, Georgia, Ruthie, Love, Rie and Everyone:wave:

Patty, I'm fighting the salt monster too. Weight is still up - 184 :yikes: and I'm wondering if I'm using salt as a scapegoat. I did have ham on Sunday, a marinated flank steak on Monday and sushi when in town yesterday but ...

Anyhow, I'm off to the gym shortly and have asparagus soup planned for lunch with three (count them!) wheat thin crackers. Not sure about dinner but it will include lovely chard and/or spinach from my garden. I also am loaded with leaf lettuce if anyone wants some. Coming soon - sugar snap peas and strawberries!

Hang in there chickies.

Ruthie I forgot that the main reason that I love low carbing is that it keeps that old salt monster from swelling up my ankles. I really didn't cut the carbs all that much yesterday and finally I can see my ankles. Not the way I want them, but they are way down from the way they've been in the past few weeks. And I think weight has actually gone back down and even a lb lower than ticker, but I'll wait a few days to be sure. I got in the habit of eating a lot of low cal/ff foods as well as a lot of prepared foods and of course they are loaded with salt. I'm trying to do more homemade things so I have more control.

I love Chinese/Oriental type foods as I know you, Ruthie, do as well. I found a large bag frozen Oriental veggies at Aldi's and decided to try them. I make either instant brown rice or whole grain noodles and cook them up, take some kind of meat... beef, pork, chicken or fish (I like pre-cooked tail-off shrimp) and I cook those all separately. Nuke the veggies while noodles or rice cook as I saute the meat in whatever goes with meat I'm using and/or taste I'm in the mood for at that time. When it is all done, I mix it together and I have a nice healthy Chinese type dinner and little or no salt. I'm trying to learn to do this with a lot of foods that I/we like ready made.

I don't know if I shared with those of you here on this thread, but I'm reading a book "Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories" by Lorraine Clissold. Only read 2 chapters so far... message seems to be that we seem to think we've done a good "healthy" thing if we, example, eat a portion of green peas, drink orange juice and have a salad each day to get our 5 veggie/fruits in. And while we build a meal around a meat dish, they build a meal around loads of veggies. They eat the meat and carbs, but they are all mixed and blended together... unlike the Chinese meals where we want loads of rice and meat, I get the impression theirs is either balanced or they eat more veggies. They have no fear of any food as we do here in the western world. Also, they blend flavors of seasonings in their foods. From what I can tell, their way of eating is comparable to what I have read about Volumetrics way of eating. Also, helps me to understand more of what as well as why WW is trying to get dieters to learn to eat more veggies and fruits.

Yesterday I wanted fish. DH loves Long John Silvers, but there is no way I can match it. I've tried. I heated up some peanut oil. Salted a cod fillet for him and I had some Steelhead trout that I need to use and lightly salted fillet for me. Since I don't want the flour, I took almond flour and mixed with with a little corn meal to make my batter. I dredged fish in dry mixture and egg/milk mixture and dry mix again to coat well and fried it in the peanut oil just long enough to get the fish done. I think this could also be baked which I've done with just the almond flour, but wasn't sure with the corn meal thus the reason for frying it. DH thought it needed more salt, but other than that it was good and we had plenty of veggies so it was much healthier for us.

Madeliene I heard something on tv last night where someone had just stopped eating"wheat"... person hadn't changed anything else but cut out the wheat and said he had lost inches in his waist, no longer lethargic with that washed out feeling. In fact, he said that he felt better and had a lot more energy. Can't remember what was said about the weight loss. It seems he knew someome who looked great and told him they had quit eating wheat. He said he liked the way that person looked so much that he decided to try it. He only gave up foods with wheat in it which he said he found it in loads of food. He stressed that he still eats ice cream etc no other change but the wheat gone from diet. Don't know that I'm ready to totally get rid of wheat, but I could cut it way back and who knows may still cut it out completely if I can find satisfactory substitutes for some of the things I eat. I do eat more whole grains, but I'm not sure if it still has wheat in it or not so I'll have to check that one out..

Don't have to cook today as DH made his huge batch of spaghetti sauce last night. Haven't decided if I'm going to eat it on whole grain spaghetti or make loads of veggies and mix it. Have plans for both so will see which way it goes.

Y'all have a great day.

HI Friends:
fbs was 4.8 today after my atkins day yesterday. Weigh in was back to ticker tonight. I stuck with atkins again today.
Trish: I am not sure I will stay wheat free for long. I don't think it makes me feel fuzzy in the head. I definitely don't feel bloated with it the way some people do. But, I am doing better on carb cravings by having none for now. Seems to also lessen the food cravings in general. But I think the other part is that planning is simplified. I stayed for the meeting tonight and was reminded about that. I haven't been planning my food for the day keeping points in mind. will have to work on that, but I don't think thats likely until after the wedding. but the planning should help me get through my vacation times. My other goal will be to ride my bike, which I haven't been doing very often. Will be easier on the knees than running or lots of walking. so thats tonight's meeting, making goals and plans for the summer.
Hope everyone had a good hump day.

Hmmmm. Weight is up again and I think it is definitely the carbs! I need to quit blaming salt.

Yesterday's planning went down the tube as other stuff interfered. I need to make MY plans a priority.

Here are the gory details:
B. 2 slices brown bread and one poached egg.
Snack - a cup of raspberries
L. bacon and tomato sandwich on brown bread
Snack - an avocado
D. pasta with pesto and parmesan plus a glass or two of red wine.

How's that for being waaaaay off plan?!!! Wheat city! I just may have to switch over to Atkins for a while and keep a close eye on my BGL.

Ruthie I think mine is a combo of salt and carbs, but I think mine was too many pre-packaged foods like I love those new $1 frozen dinners. DD takes them to work and I think when I ate them it made me want more salty foods. Just cutting the out the high salt pre-packaged foods in my diet. I also think you hit something on the head with "I need to make MY plans a priority."

I have done a lot of reading of people who successfully lose weight and keep it off and they learn to eat the way that feeds their lifestyle and the foods they like and I think the key to their success is that they make Their Plan their Priority. I'm not sure that I've ever made MY PLAN MY PRIORITY. I've always left room for fitting into other peoples plans. Maybe that is something to to think about... at least for me to think about.

Have a great day.

Madeleine I think that I have to give up the wheat either although I haven't checked to see if or how much wheat is in my whole grain foods. I had the WG spaghetti with the spaghetti meat sauce DH made and while I did have some swelling with the sauce it wasn't enough to worry about and neither was the WG spaghetti a problem as the 1 lb loss I saw yesterday seems to be sticking. I think I just have to change 2 things... cut the salt back to a minimum and drinking loads of water and tea will help that situation and second lower my intake of the starchy carbs but I don't think I will have to go to Atkins Induction low. I'm not sure it is the eating of wheat as much as it is "how much" we eat of it. What do you think? I'm not really counting cals or carb, IMetformin still not causing any cramps so I guess 1000 mg is safe for me, but the FBS is still up a little.

I read one time that the high morning number has a lot to do with how we feel when we wake up in the morning. Also read where a doctor said it was more important what the number is later in the day and that is always good. Personally, if my number has to be a little bit high in order for me to wake up feeling eager to hop out of bed then I can live with that. JMO

I'm not really counting cals or carbs, I'm just eating only the foods that I like that my body seems to function better on and I'm finding that I am better satisfied and hungry less. It's back to what I wrote to Ruthie about finding "My Own Plan" and making it "My Priority". I'm finding that it works for me because I'm sorry to say that I have a personality tendency of late to "rebel" against "diet" rules and this way I have found a way around that so maybe I can finally get food working for me instead of against. It is called Intuitive Eating.

You can learn a lot for kids. Youngest DGD usually eats ALL the time durning the school year. Last few days, I've noticed that she wasn't eating during the day so realizing that they used to get their meals free at school, I thought maybe they didn't have any food. So I asked her. She said, "Well, we haven't been to the store, but I've just been busy playing the X-Box". This morning I gave her some Eggo waffles if she wanted them. She said, "I'm not hungry right now" as she put them in the freezer of their fridge. I found that quite interesting because during the school year she left the house eating, came home and went straight to making something to eat and ate constantly throughout the day on Sat and Sun. What has changed? I'm not sure, but whatever the trigger was that made her eat constantly seems to have been removed for now. I will be interesting to see what happens when school starts again in the fall.

Everyone must be busy with "summer" things with kids out of school. Hope y'all are having a great day.

Hi Everyone it's me the Person who keeps falling flat on her face. I go good for a week and then I fall. I am trying to figure out why.. I am feeling pretty down cause it is making me upset that I can't get it togeather. Don't get it I try so hard and it isnt helping. This family here is making it so hard for me to do this too been thinking of how I can make this happen for me I dont know where my will power went but it seems to of disappeared .. I feel like a failure . I disappoint myself I was so strong before the move I was doing soo good and now I can't seem to find the path I need. I do feel like sitting down and having a nice long cry may be it will help me out here. No one in this house understands what I am going threw . I dont even have a friend who I can call on life sucks sometimes feeling alone and dont know where to go.

:hug:Bonnie I am so sorry you are going through this. I was concerned about y'all moving in there because I've gone through so much myself with so many living here. It isn't that the people around us mean to be difficult, but as you say they just don't understand. It isn't easy when you have to cook and do things around others... their schedule, way of eating and lifestyle. Visiting with someone when they come to see us or we go to see them is quite different from living with them.

I've just had to start taking care of me and you will have to find your way to do the same for yourself. It feels like they especially the children are mad at me most of the time, but I've had to find my way to get free from as much of the stress as possible. Here's hoping you :hug: can find your way to lessen your stress.

Rennie I've always had a tendency toward leg cramps even as a teenager, but when I went from 1000 mg to 2000 mg of Metformin they came back and was worse. When I took it with Fenophibrate (sp), I had muscle cramps in various parts of my body especially under my breasts. I am taking only 1000 mg Metformin right now and it seems to be working.

I've actually had a really good few days since I cut back on the carbs. NO CRAVINGS so far. Sure hope it keeps up like this. I'm taking advantage of it and hoping it will become a habit.

Jane Did I see on FB that you have a new Grandbaby? Is that your son's little baby?

Did OK on keeping carbs in check until early afternoon. I failed to plan ahead, had no lunch and was attacked by a small bag of goldfish crackers when I was shopping in town. Better than a trip to the Chinese Buffet but still ... :( Dinner was great - lobster (!!!) and salad. The lobster is a rare treat since I'm so far from the ocean but there was a great sale. However, the white wine was certainly not necessary.

Completely forgot my meds last night but BGL is 4.6 this morning and two pounds fell off overnight. This whole thing continues to be a big mystery to me. :shrug:

Living by myself, I can make ME a priority but I really feel for those of you dealing with families and other angst. As women, we are inclined to put the needs of others first and it's hard to change that mind-set. I have no good advice but do empathize. Hang in there, chickies - it WILL get better!