I didn't make it with the 20 to 30g of low carb today. I think it is the fat. I'm not sure. I made stir-fry veggies with shrimp cooked in butter and added Alfredo sauce. The fat got to my stomach so bad that I had to eat some crackers to soak up the oil.

I'll try again tomorrow.

Carol Sue, re: psoriasis....it is an autoimmune condition so supposedly inflammatory foods make it worse. I think sugars and wheat are at the top of the list but I've also seen some say that dairy and eggs/meat from grain fed animals are as well.

It was a long day taking care of two 3.5 yr olds and I mowed the yard after dinner. I am going to sleep good tonight (hope the munchkin cooperates with that plan). I have taken almost two full days off from testing. Last tested yesterday morning. I will start back tomorrow morning, just needed a break.

Meant to tell ya'll that I made the cauliflower mash again and hubby ate it again and commented "who knew you could do that with cauliflower?!" LOL! I also made "cabbage steaks" or "cabbage wheels" and my hubby who said "I hate cabbage" was upset I didn't make a larger batch! Of course tonight I baked a wheat free sugar free chocolate chip walnut cookie batch and he said "these are a good substitute if you are dying" dying? Lol! I think they taste really good but he says that is bc I am not eating sugar. I really do think they are just as good as the regular cookies I used to bake. They have a different texture/consistency but taste-wise I really think they are just as good. Oh well, I'll take what I can get from him!

Shannon, I was never officially diagnosed with psoriasis. I first started getting it around my ears and hairline and the doc looked at it and said that's psoriasis and prescribed a cream. Down the line I started getting it on the sides of my torso and some on my legs but it looked different. It was red dots rather than scaly patches. He said "guttae psoriasis." Never did a biopsy or any other tests. He referred me to a derm whom I didn't like at all. The options they gave me sounded horrible and dangerous. The drugs are expensive, and only work for a while, so not worth it for me. The light box has a risk of skin cancer. So does a tanning bed, so I chose the tanning bed. More in my price range. I have read so much about it, and have found that it is an autoimmune disease but people have different triggers. Mine never went into remission until I was put on that diet with lots of carbs, so that throws the wheat theory out the window. I have heard coffee and tea and right now I'm drinking a LOT of coffee. But when I quit the coffee that year, I still had it. I think it might be one of those things that just appears when it wants to with no rhyme or reason. I am willing to try this Carb Nite thing to see if there's anything to it. As I said before, if I see it messing up everything I've worked toward with my blood sugar I will stop. The psoriasis is not life threatening and not high on my priority list. Blood sugar is. Recently they said that psoriasis is tied to heart disease, which I do have. But psoriasis going away isn't going to make the heart disease go away.

Shannon, I love cabbage and I eat a lot of it, but I chop it and put it in a pan with onions and butter and put a lid on it until it's tender. I googled the cabbage steaks and they look interesting to me, too. DH would not eat it. The only way he eats cabbage is when it's wrapped around a hunk of ground beef in a stuffed cabbage roll. LOL All the recipes I see have the same basic ingredients....olive oil, salt, pepper. Maybe I will make some today. I am going to be roasting a turkey breast so they can just go in the oven with that. Thanks for mentioning it!

When my husband wants a cookie he wants it to be a real cookie, with all the sugar and fat it's supposed to have. I wouldn't even consider offering him anything else. I rarely eat sweets, but if I were going to, it would be Haystacks made with Fiber One cereal, melted chocolate chips and peanut butter. At least I would feel healthy with the Fiber One cereal. LOL

Here's another book we might be interested in. I got an advertisement from Prevention for the book "Beat Diabetis Naturally." They want $31.95 plus shipping! That's not going to happen! I check online and our library has it so I'm going to go get it. The ad mentions vinegar, cinnamon, and says burn belly fat 7 X faster. I'm curious. Maybe I'll stop there today.

A quick flyby as I should be walking out the door right now to go to beauty shop.

I sure did want that 1 sl of toast this morning, but low carb won out. I passed it up and I'm going to the store after I get out of beauty shop. Going to get some more meat that I really like that I think will help me stay on plan. My main problem is what to eat when I cook dinner for just me. I'll also get some salad fixings too.

BBL

I am so excited to be halfway to weight loss goal today!!!! I have not been below 160 pounds in 20 years!

Shannon - Can't wait to hear your new official blood numbers.

Carol Sue - Thanks for A1C info. You're right, I was in the higher 6's than before. Trouble is I've been "borderline" for about 10 years and never did anything about it. (And now I know that borderline isn't great for the body either.) Now that I am officially not borderline but over the line, I had to take control. And of course I am hoping that I won't have to take medication.

Trisha - It's just me for dinner most of the time. My best dinners are big vegetable salads with chicken or a boiled egg with dressing I make. Olive oil, rice vinegar, lemon juice, herbs and garlic. Greens, tomatoes, a carrot, onions, celery, roasted vegetables like brussel sprouts or broccoli, some apple. I'm full, really had a lot of carbs but also fiber and fat and protein. Fiber fat and protein at every meal! And the scale and sugar numbers usually look good the next morning.

Here's what Bernstein says about eating too much at one time:

"The upper part of the small intestine contains cells that release hormones into the bloodstream when they are stretched, as after a meal. These hormones signal the pancreas to produce some insulin to prevent the blood sugar rise that might otherwise follow the digestion of a meal. Large meals will cause greater stretching of the intestinal cells, which in turn will secrete proportionately larger amounts of these 'incretin' hormones. Since a very small amount of insulin released by the pancreas can cause a large drop in blood sugar, the pancreas simultaneously produces the less potent hormone glucagon to offset the potential excess effect of the insulin. If you're diabetic and deficient in producing insulin, you might not be able to release insulin, but you will still release glucagon, which will ... raise your blood sugar. Thus, if you eat enough to feel stuffed, your blood sugar can go up by a large amount, even if you eat something indigestible, like sawdust."

He's mainly talking about Type 1, but this will happen to Type 2's to a lesser degree. So this is one reason that eating too much of even the "right" foods is not good for us.

Kris, I do notice that sometimes I get a higher blood sugar than expected even though I've stayed low carb and that is probably because of portion size. That's what got me to 217 lbs in the first place....I do have a great appetite! That's the main thing I have to work on. Thanks for posting the info. I forgot to look it up.

You made me want to go make a big salad! LOL I didn't eat many salads over winter because it was so cold I wanted hot food. Now it's salad weather.

Good for you getting halfway! I would be ecstatic to get to 160. My BP and BG would be in a much better range and I would fit in my clothes I grew out of but kept, just in case. Right now I'm happy for each pound I lose, and every day that I don't gain.

Best to stay off meds if you can, but if you go on Metformin, it will help with weight loss and most people don't get side effects as long as you start out with a low dose.

I went to the library and got the book Beat Diabetes Naturally and also The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes. Bob Greene wrote the second one, along with an endocrinologist and nutritionist. I'm interested in seeing what they have to say. Getting the book from the library is much better that putting out the money and then no liking the book. Even if I don't learn anything new it will keep me in the healthy eating mode.

I cooked a turkey breast today. That was my original plan for the family dinner for Easter, to make the turkey for our dinner today and then serve leftover turkey with the ham on Easter. I'm still going to cook a half ham tomorrow even though the family isn't coming because DH said he wants some ham. I want him to eat whatever he will eat as he hasn't been eating much. I don't know who's going to eat all this food, but at least I will have protein for next week and won't have to cook any more.

I went to the store and got salad stuff, a small ham and brisket. Came home and put the ham in the oven. I put some of it in the freezer and some in the fridge. I made a nice big salad with a little over 4 oz ham in it. I counted it on MFP as 6 because I had a small piece for taste when I took it out of the oven and then a couple of bites when I cut it up. Any way, I figure DH and I can have our main meal and then I can eat a nice chef type salad for dinner. This way I can see to it that I get my veggies in. I don't think I will have to track my food on MFP if I eat this way because there is no way I'm going to eat the 1640 calories they say I am allowed. I eat my eggs and bacon in the morning and a salad, protein and another veggie like broccoli, cabbage or brussel sprouts, etc each day. I just might add one or true fruits into the plan... 1 at breakfast and 1 at lunch, because I find it very difficult to even get up to 1200 calories eating this way. Maybe the few days we eat out will make up the difference in the low calorie days.

Kris I had already made my salad and I chuckled when I read you post. I'm like Carol Sue I love salads when the weather this time of the year. I found it difficult to eat them during the cold weather. Congratulations on being half way to your goal.

Carol Sue I haven't had a library card in years. I think I should get one. I used to love to go to the library when my kids and grandkids were growing up. I homeschooled the grandkids and made them learn to read books and do research using the library. I was going to get one when we first moved here and the they were closed down remodeling the library at the time and I never bothered to go back. That is bad, isn't it.

Shannon I used to babysit for a living so I know keeping up with two 3.5 yr olds can be fun and trying. However, you do a great job. Yey with DH liking 2 out of 3 new foods. Not bad. Mine probably wouldn't eat a cabbage any other way but boiled with butter. I try to make what he likes or will eat at our one together meal each day. Then I eat what I want for breakfast and dinner.

Since I'm bored with tired of food right now and learned from Atkins that it doesn't hurt to wait up to 6 hrs between meals, I am only eating 3 meals, but they aren't huge meals. I didn't put anything out for lunch before I left today so I went by Zaxby's and got DH chicken zingers and got me one of their sensational salads. Well it was not sensational to me. I don't know the seasoning they used but I hated it. I ate about 1/3 of it and threw it out. For one thing, I thought it was grilled chicken and it was fried so I couldn't eat much of it and it must have been a ceaser type salad because it didn't have anything but greens in it. It tasted a sickening sweet and tangy flavor that almost made me sick. I'm not sure how much of that may be the fact that I've been having problems with my stomach. I've pretty much decided that I just can't eat a lot of fat or protein either. So I'm trying to keep the fat and protein kind of low as well as the carbs.

Y'all have a really nice Easter.

Today was a weird eating day. Woke later than usual, ended up eating strawberries with my coffee instead of eggs, it was so close to lunch. Went to a community day at the church where my daughter attends preschool and it was a BBQ lunch - ate a little bbq (it was spicier than I like), slaw and beans (resisted bread, chips, cookies and lemonade, lol). Had a cheeseburger (no bun) with guacamole for dinner. Then I wanted to make resurrection rolls with my daughter. Ended up eating one mostly bc I just did not eat enough today and my will power was crumbling. They weren't that great so I don't know why I caved really. Ate a handful of nuts to counteract some of the sugar. I just got my daughter bathed and in bed and I'm still hungry.

Hello Everyone, Just wanted to wish you all a Blessed and Happy Easter

I've been reading as usual but IMO this thread needs to be printed. There is always a wealth of information here. I have my good days and my not so good days. I have decided that starting on Monday I will go back to the way I was eating in January. That is the only way I am going to be able to get to the next decade. I am going to go on MFP and look up my menus from then and right down the ones that I really liked.

I wasn't active here in January, how were you eating then?