Good Morning! Nothing is really new today. Yesterday, I ate a ham and cheese wrap at the baby shower. I figured a wrap would be lower carb than a bun. The wrap was a little soggy so I mostly just ate the filling and some salad. At dinner time, DH and I went out to eat and I had a hamburger without the bun and a cup of soup. I also ate 3 or 4 of his french fries. When I got home I took a glimiperide because I figured I had eaten some carbs. At bedtime my BS was 191!! I was tempted to take more meds but I'm glad I didn't. I woke up at 4AM and checked my BS and it was 119. Sometimes it takes several hours for the glimiperide to lower my bs. I don't know why. I think I'm supposed to take it about 30 min before I eat, but I didn't have my meter with me to test and didn't want to take it if my BS was already low. DH made pancakes this morning but I didn't eat any. Yay! I froze the leftovers because my grandson will eat them if he comes over. I am not hungry yet so I probably won't eat until lunch.

My weight is up a bit too, but that's nothing new. I just keep going up and down, but gradually my "down" is getting a little lower. I need to get more serious about this as my doctor's appointment is in mid October.

Hello ladies I hope you all had a great wkend! :) I was not able to do the glucose test yesterday because that lab do not do it on Saturdays.
I did not do good this weekend although I didn't just do horrible either. I had a smoothie with flaxseeds this morning and I was drinking the detox water with lemon, cucumber, mint leaves, and ginger.
Do any of you drink green smoothies? How did it effect your BS?

Caramel, I don't drink smoothies at all. I just never got into it. I usually go for regular food.

I just read an article in WebMd about the importance of eating breakfast. It states that some people say they don't eat breakfast, but they do have a snack sometime before lunch, and the people who do that rather than not eating anything until lunch fare much better. They made a final statement that eating breakfast lowers your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Well, I have ALWAYS eaten breakfast, and I have both.....too bad I wasn't in their study. LOL

Good Morning Chickies.

I didn't do great the last 2 days myself Caramel. We just take this one day at a time. I am back OP today.

Carol Sue I am slowly reading Dr. Stork's book. I found it interesting that he does admit the importance of protein in our food plan. Not sure I can have all the starchy carbs he recommends. I think they just set me off. Any way, I am interested to see how he says all this works in the body and decide from there. I actually think that his way of eating could be fitted into the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet way of eating. By eating one starchy meal a day, but I will have to see if I agree with the things he says or not.

He uses research to prove his points, but then so do all the other doctors such as the Swedish doctor I read about who proves why LCHF is the best diet. So the research idea that any of them use just isn't proof enough to get me following the plan. It comes down to how it works for me personally.

I ate more starchy carbs this weekend using more of his idea of eating and my fbs went up to 130 this morning and that is with me taking my 1000 mg Metformin later in the evening. My weight did hold at 117 with an increase of .2 lbs. BP is good too so all that is fine. I just want to be able to get my FBS back down under 120 again and I think I've proven that low carb works fine doing that. I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but I am going to be careful. I've come to far to screw it up now.

I have doctor's appt Wednesday morning. I am curious to see where I am with blood work, but not looking forward to it either. Today, I am back OP of More of a LCHF way of eating. I did put the CO in my coffee this morning, but did take Doctor's Diet recommendation of measuring the 1 teaspoon of CO rather than estimating. I agree with him that our estimations are not always accurate. I know one time I told my doctor, "I am eating healthy". And he answered "Maybe you are eating too much of the healthy food." That could very well be a problem for me.

Shannon I hope things are going good with getting the old house ready to sell. I know you are ready to move on and put that behind you.

Wishing everyone a great day.

Carol Sue I read that in this book about how important it is to eat breakfast and how that people who eat breakfast weigh less. Well all the years that I did not eat breakfast, I did not have diabetes or a weight problem and when I ate breakfast, I not only gained weight, but I developed diabetes. So I busted that theory. Goes back to One Size/Diet DOES NOT fit all.

Hi ladies,

I had a couple good days and then it all crashed like it often does and my FBS was 122 today. That is the most it's been since when I first kind of got started checking it regularly. It has been around 98-99 for a while so this was definitely not good - due to ice cream I suspect.

I ended up ordering those cookbooks from the Satisfying Eats blog I mentioned. I joined a Wheat Belly Facebook group and asked there what people thought of those and got a really strong positive response so I decided to order. I got them in the mail today and just finished going through the first one. They are pretty large - I'm pleased with the number of recipes in them and am looking forward to using them to work on meal planning. That is my number one problem - I don't plan. With a family to feed (including a particularly cranky husband when not happy with food) it's just too easy to go out and we've been doing that alot, even past the "moving" stage. The only thing about the cookbooks is that her sweetener of choice is a powdered stevia which I don't have so I need to pick that up because I have no idea how to convert from her stevia references to what I have on hand. Normally that would kind of throw me off but like I said I got a overwhelming response when I asked about her recipes so I want to give it a try. Hoping to pick the stevia up tomorrow at the Trader Joes while I'm in Raleigh.

We are still tying up the old house for the market. Mark went up there Sunday and dealt with a few things and tomorrow I have to go to let the carpet folks in and do a final inspection of the paint job which should have been completed today. Mark was there while they were painting and addressed a few things so hopefully there is nothing to report. Here is a link to our listing so you can see my cute little house we vacated
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/10...60537297_zpid/ The inside pics will be taken once everything is done and supposedly it will be "on market" on the 18th or before.

I have my craft room almost to the point of being ready to start working on something. My first project is going to be creating some 3 dimensional fabric letters spelling out 'Autumn' to string up across the mantle and then I want to make something for the front and back doors. I have an embroidery pattern for them which makes them quick. I started working on the alphabet for Olivia to have a while back and never finished but since at preschool they do letters of the week I think I'll try to give her a letter each week. I have through like J or so done so I just have to pick up and finish them when she gets to whichever letter. We leave for the beach on Sunday so hopefully I can get the Autumn banner either done before then or get the fabric cut out and maybe I'll take my machine with me this year and work on some things. Last year I took a ton of fabric and cut out patterns that I was planning to sew at the October sewing retreat. This year I have no idea what I'll work on at the retreat because I've been out of my room for so long. I need to get to thinking!

This beach trip is kind of stressing me. I can't remember if I told ya'll this or not but this trip is with hubby's sister and mom. In the past there has been drama and tension. Fortunately, last year it went pretty well so I'm hoping for the same this year. We have to take our dog with us this year because he has been so sick and we don't have anyone in the new area to watch him for us and administer his meds. He has been on an antibiotic for 10 days and it has not helped at all. I'm not sure if it's the cancer or what. Anyway, he is coughing ALL THE TIME. I am getting very little sleep at night because he starts coughing anytime me or Mark move in the bed, Mark sleeps through it of course but I'm a light sleeper and it is keeping me up. I'm actually contemplating sleeping on the sleeper sofa tonight since I've barely gotten any sleep for a week or so now.

So, we have the added care of the dog on this trip (taking him out to potty, listening to him cough all the time, not being able to leave and not worry about anything going on back at the house, him keeping me up at night, etc PLUS generally I cook most of the meals and I just have not had time to prepare anything (I usually make ahead and freeze) or even think about what to make. My sister in law is vegetarian so I have to factor that in and now, with me eating meat at every meal, it makes it harder to come up with meals where the meat is kind of separate and optional. So, it's really weighing on me and we leave SOON. I also have to get us all packed. So, just send some good thoughts and prayers my way because I really could use a good vacation and so far, this one is just stressing me out!!!

Shannon Prayers coming your way. Hope you can enjoy your time at the beach. The old house is cute, but I like our new one better. Just my preference as I'm not a two story house person any more. Loved it when I had it years ago, but not since I'm older. You make me think I ought to think of doing crafts again, but I kind of past that one too.

Well, my weight is coming down. I had a new low again today, but my FBS was 141. Don't remember what I did so will have to look at my menu for yesterday on MFP. As I read the Doctor's Diet, I'm thinking more in terms of a Calorie counting/Carbohydrate Addicts way of eating. However, I am concerned with the climbing fbs. Some how I've got to figure out how to get the weight and the bs going down at the same time. Oh, my new low weight is 216.4. I think it has been years since I've seen that low number.

Shannon mentioning Wheat Belly reminds me that I have the book and had it out to start reading when the Doctor's Diet book arrived. I think I need to read it too. My Mama always said that she craved bread the whole time she was pregnant with me and I believe it plus that my aunt once said to me "You are just like your Daddy, you can make a sandwich out of anything". I always have a tendency to drift back to eating bread and the fact that Doctor's Diet allows whole grain breads doesn't help me. While it doesn't seem to keep me from losing weight, it may very well be what causes the fbs to go up. My doctor said to me the same thing that this doctor says in the book about wheat when I asked him about eating it... "You don't have Celiac disease so there is no reason for you to give up wheat". I'm not sure they know all they think they know about it. And I'm not sure if I should be eating it or not.

I like the weight loss, but I sure don't want my bs going up.

Well, tomorrow I go to the doctor and get my test results and A1c reading. Will see where I go from there. I do get bored with the low carb diet, but when it comes right down to it, I like what I can have on it more than what I can't. Just have to get my head around this way of life again.

Have a good day.

Shannon, I'm not able to open your link to the old house. :(

I hope things go well for you on vacation. It does make it difficult when you have people eating different food plans. For DH and I, it works because he likes potatoes so I just make extra veggies and he includes the potatoes. I really don't know how to cook for a vegetarian, so I'm glad I don't have any in my family. I think the person who eats vegetarian should plan on contributing to the meal planning and preparation. Would she be willing to do that?

Trish, I am just finishing up the Cholesterol Clarity book for the second time so I haven't moved on to the second reading of the DR Diet. Anytime I see a plan that includes starchy carbs I just work around them. I omit the things that raise my blood sugar. For me, it was his explanations of how things work that interested me rather than the actual food items. You can always tweak the menu. I know that goes against your tendancy to want to follow 100%, but you are unique, and you won't find a plan that fits exactly into your personal needs. IMO if wheat raises your blood sugar then you need to cut back or omit it from your diet. It has nothing to do with gluten intolerance. The medical community doesn't seem to get that. If I ate the way they instructed me, 45 gm of carb at each meal and 15 gm of carb at 2 snacks, where would I be? Just my opinion, again.

Here are some other points I learned from Cholesterol Clarity. One way of raising your HDL is IF with a 16 hr fasting window. This also helps my FBS. Last night I was really tired after dinner, so I went in and watched TV in bed and actually fell asleep for a little while. Being asleep kept me from eating in the evening. After we actually went to be I couldn't fall asleep because I was hungry. I came out and made a fried egg. Not only did that allow me to fall asleep, but my FBS was 116. That is much lower than it usually is when I eat a snack. So I guess I can remember that an egg is ok if I really need something. I will only do that if I am too hungry to fall asleep.

It also said that for people who do not want to eat high saturated fat, they can eat monounsaturated fat such as that in avocados and olive oil. It does the same.

It had a short segment on glucose intolerance and it said the reason we become shaky and nauseated and have to eat is because our bodies are sugar burners and have lost the ability to burn fat. We need to correct the insulin resistance to change that.

Today we bought some bacon because DH wanted a BLT since we have so many tomatoes. I cooked 1 piece with my lunch and even mixed in with my veggies it is just too salty for my taste. I can eat it on a BLT because of the tomato lettuce and bread, but now I'm not eating the bread so no more BLT for me unless I eat it wrapped in a lettuce leaf.

My step-daughter wants to use my glue gun so I have to go find it for her. Shannon, maybe your DH can come find it for me! LOL

Well, I just typed a whole new post and lost it. So will try it again.

Carol Sue I agree that I don’t have to do a plan 100%. In fact, I’ve decided that IF does work for me and eating LCMF works for me along with IF. I’m not going to worry about the few times that I cannot be 100% in control of everything as I think that is what does me in. I will do 100% low carb on days that I can and not worry about the days that I cannot for whatever reason.

I’ve started doing my formal exercises again for 20 minutes at least 3 or 4 days a week. That will also be perfect some weeks and some weeks it won’t. I am trying to become more active in many different ways other than the formal 20 minutes which should make up for days I don’t do them. I did 20 minutes on the recumbent bike yesterday and 20 minutes with the kettle bell dvd today. Tomorrow, we have doctor appts so it will be walking around at Walmart for a while after when we go get our meds.

I know I have to stop being so hard on myself and just do what I would say to someone else on here... just do the best I can work toward eventually having more good days than bad and the rest will fall into place. TAKE IT ONE DAY AT A TIME.

Trish, I finally finished the Cholesterol book and am now rereading the Dr Diet. I went online and renewed both of them so now I have them until the end of the month. I chuckled yesterday when I read in the Cholesterol book, "Because of genetic differences, you can have 100 people doing the same diet plan and get 100 different results." Isn't that what we always say? Just by eating all the different vegetables and going low carb I lowered my total and LDL cholesterol each 60 points and my triglycerides 100 points, so dietary changes DO help! Unfortunately, it has not effected my weight in the same way, but in the DR Diet he says that even if you eat healthy foods, if you eat more calories than you burn you will not lose weight. I am going to try to cut my portions down based on his suggested menu. My protein servings are higher than he suggests. I will not add the grains or starchy veggies every day, but I will have them sometimes. And I will probably use more than 1 serving of fat per day. I will eat breakfast every day, but I just don't eat it as soon as I get up.

The Cholesterol Clarity book says that IF helps with raising your HDL, so I will do that as much as I can. I don't expect to be perfect.

I was reading reviews online and a lot of people strongly disagree with what Jimmy Moore says in Cholesterol Clarity, but after seeing the big differences in my lab results, numbers don't lie. I don't think he is 100% right or 100% wrong.

Shannon we've found the easiest (and tastiest) way to have easy meals with people who are veggie and not is to grill out. Will you have access to a grill at the beach? We love doing portobello caps and other marinated veggies along with chicken breast or flank steak.

I'm upping my activity a bit more by trying to walk stairs at work on my breaks. Honestly though it isn't my activity level that's holding me back, it's bad eating. Since we still don't have access to a kitchen we're at least trying to make more conscious choices about where we get food - less fast food, more grilled options and fewer carbs. We're temporarily moving in with my inlaws so we can keep the house show-ready and thankfully my MIL generally cooks healthier (and is willing to work with us on what we should be eating). I think my next goal will be to have a serving of raw veggies every day.

Trish, this guy, Dr David Perlmutter has been on public TV lately promoting his latest book about low carb, low gluten for brain health, such as protection against Alzheimers. I only watched a portion of his show but here is a website that has a lot of articles you might be interested in. I have never heard of him before and don't know anything about his qualifications but I am going to read some of these articles and see what they have to say.

http://www.drperlmutter.com/

Sometimes this all gets very confusing and I wonder if DH has the right idea...eat whatever he wants and let the chips fall where they may. (no pun intended! LOL)

I can't wait to hear how your doctor appointments went.

Bmillion, I think you are doing the right thing...making baby steps toward your goal. Subtle changes are easier to accept rather than trying to change your whole lifestyle overnight. My problem is also with food. I eat healthy, but still eat too much. And I need to increase my activity level.

Shannon, maybe you could go on a vegetarian website and find some recipes that would appeal to everyone, not just the vegetarian eaters. I have no doubt that you will figure this out!

I'm sorry that this is going to be a quick flyby. It has been a busy day and I have Bible study tonight starting a series on Transformation and I really do not want to miss any of these classes.

The doctor's appt went so much better than I expected. He walked in and asked me how my glucose was doing and I told him honestly... when I eat low carb it is good and when I ear starchy carbs it is in the 140s. Then he got the results of my A1c and it was down to 5.9. My overall cholesterol was up by 5 pts, but still in normal range. My triglycerides were 88 and the doctor said that I had lost 17 lbs this year. My HDL were a little low, but will work at getting that higher. Don't remember how we do that, but I know it can be done. He was so very pleased with my progress and told me that I was doing a good job. I told him about me having the readings for a while below 120 and how I had to take only half (500mg) Metformin. I told him the diarrhea was just too bad when it gets below 120 and he said "OK" and smiled.

DH numbers were higher. His A1c was 7.9, up from 7.1 last time and cholesterol etc was up. He upped his Metformin to 500 mg 2x a day and upped his statin to 20 mg instead of 10.

We got our flu shots and went to Walmart to get a shingles vaccine as doc said it was cheaper at Walmart. Come to find out our insurance wouldn't cover any of the shingles vaccine so we didn't get them because they were $200 a piece.

Carol Sue I will check out the website. I finished reading the Wheat Belly book and I'm pretty much convinced that while I may not give it up 100%, I will be cutting back on it a lot. It sounds like you are planning to do the way I am planning to do. I'm going to low carb most of the time, but allow for a few other carbs from time to time. According to Wheat Belly, most people can do well if they keep carbs between 50 and 100 mg. I think I do well to keep them within 50 to 75 mg.

bmillion Sounds like you are working your plan as well as you can while moving. I have no doubt that you will be even more successful when you move into your new home. Having your DH doing it with you is a big plus.

Gonna try and take a quick nap or at least relax before I have to get ready for church.

Catch y'all tomorrow.

Congratulations on the 5.9 A1c, Trish! That's wonderful! You are doing a good job. Maybe now DH will see that eating the way you do could be a plus.

Thanks Carol Sue. One can only hope that DH will see what eating lower carb can do. I will keep doing what I'm doing and hope he will eventually join me.

Good morning, everyone. Today is a day we should all remember those who died in the terrorist attack 13 years ago today. May they rest in peace.

My eating was way out of line yesterday. It was all healthy food, but everything looked good to me and I ended up eating over 1700 calories. I usually stay under 1500. My blood sugar stayed low through it all, but I won't be getting on the scale anytime soon! I hope to make up for some of those extra calories today.

Just a quick check in. Not much going on here. Just wanted to say I'm still here. Been a busy day. Been on the phone a lot today. My Daddy was really feeling so bad today that he has absolutely no energy. My sister went with him to the doctor this afternoon and they gave him medicine for stress and we are all praying it will work and help him feel better. Of course, I could probably help him because I don't think the way he eats is helping him, but no one there listens to me. It is so hard to watch someone you love going through things because of what they eat and they won't listen. So you have to step back and just be as supportive as you can knowing that what they are doing probably isn't going to help a whole lot.

I am so grateful to have a doctor who kind of understands how I have to eat. He also seems to try to help me prevent future problems rather than just put a band aid over the problem. He will be just as happy as I will when I can get off my medicine. He doesn't throw unnecessary medicine at me. To me that is a blessing.

My family doesn't push certain things either. I leave my doctor's office with a copy of the results of my blood work or any tests I have done. My family seems happy just to know that the doctor says "everything is fine". My doctor said something about my cholesterol being high. What he didn't tell me was that it was still in the normal range. I found that out because I had the results in my hand and could take the results from 3 months ago to see what I need to work on rather than thinking "oh no, my cholesterol is bad". I have better peace of mind know that I still have room to improve the LDLs and triglycerides even though they are in normal range and I also know that I really need to work at getting the HDLs up. All of my other blood work is looking good. When I see it in black and white on paper, then I know more of how to better help myself.

Sorry about venting. It was just so frustrating when I listen to the cry for help that they don't really want. So sad. :(

See you tomorrow.

I ended up getting on the scale to see how much damage my eating did yesterday and I am down 1 1/2 lbs. Go figure. I heard that sometimes a bad eating day doesn't show up for a day or two, so that might be why. This morning I woke up will DH's cold and I feel terrible. Sore throat, runny nose, coughing. I knew I would get sick because when he's sick he becomes a big baby and wants comforted, so I end up getting all his germs. Oh, well, that's what marriage is all about....sharing. LOL

Carol Sue I hope you get better soon.

I have been doin good this week, yeterday I gave more than my all in zumba....my legs felt like jello, lol. I sure do hope that the scale show it on Wed. I'm shooting for 1st place in the biggest loser contest at work, I was #48 out of 84 this week losing only 0.4 lbs.

Carol Sue So sorry you got DH cold. Hope you will feel better soon. I read a lot on that website you shared of Dr. Pulmutter. Have you read much on there yet? I was able to go on there and read last night and with him being a neurologist and all the info he shared about why LCHR is so good for you by giving the things it helps and how it decreases our chances of certain diseases, I am totally convinced that LCHF is the only way to eat for optimal health. Now just to get myself to eat that way. I would love to have his books, but think DH was shoot me if I bought one more book. I still may get them especially the cookbook. I don't think I need his regular book, because we know how to low carb as there are so many websites that tells us how. I can even use the Swedish doctor's website for that. But I do need to learn how to make some really good tasting low carb especially if I'm ever going to interest DH in eating this way.

It is a shame that I can't get my family to eat this way, but I know how hard it has been for me. My Daddy said yesterday that he feels like he is in a fog. I thought of him when I saw the title of Grain Brain. Doctor's still push the high carb lowfat and that is the diet the doctor gave my Daddy and then they want to push a medicine to try to make him feel better while he eats high carb diet. :dizzy: So crazy and such a crazy roller coaster to ride on. :dizzy:

Did you see that Dr. Pulmutter is going to be on Dr. Oz this morning? I plan to watch it. In fact, I just may devo it as I would like for DH to see it. He might listen to a neurologist.

Caramel I've never done Zuma as I don't think I could keep up at my age. CONGRATULATIONS on the .4 lb loss and being #48. Good luck with your goals. That competition will help you reach your goal. You go girl!:)

One more time, I am drinking my first cup of coffee this morning with a small amount of CO. I've decided that if LCHF has so many benefits, then I need to work toward that. So I am going to go for it. I will just take 500 mg of Metformin today as I don't seem to be able to take 1000 mg with the CO. Carol Sue I tried eating eggs before bed when I took my evening Metformin and my fbs was 146 so it didn't make any difference for me. I think I just can't eat a late snack at all.

So I plan to start taking it with my last meal of the day and work at eating NO snacks at night. I am going to try to just eat 3 meals a day. I noticed on one LCHF plan I read just had plans for 3 meals and no snacks. So I don't think I have to eat more and I am also seeing LC diets saying "eat only when you are hungry". I am thinking that LCHF is a way of eating that causes you to automatically eat Intuitively. So I think we are seeing that when you take the best of certain plans like combining IF, LCHF and IF that you have a "natural and normal" way of eating. I am thinking that it is probably the way people at before we got so civilized and started having to diet and ending up on yo-yo dieting.

I feel like I am finally finding out that the way I ate as a kid was normal. The only problem I see about when I was growing up was that my Daddy didn't like anything but starchy type veggie. My Mama tried to cook healthy, but a balanced meal was meat, potatoes and corn, or peas, or carrots and once in a while she would substitue green beans, but we always had potatoes. I had an apple once in a while at school when they got a bunch of them and gave all the kids one. My Mama was a sweet eater. Breakfast was sweet rolls until I got to junior high, but by then I never ate breakfast. Even then I was pretty healthy until, I started hanging out with friends at the dive across from high school and ate junk/fast food. When I quit college and went to live with my aunt and work in Dallas, I was introduced to fresh fruits and veggies such as greens. We still ate starchy foods, but we always had fruit and some kind of veggie like greens. And I also was introduced to eating beans in place of meat and I found that I loved eating this way. She was always buying things from the health food store and trying to eat healthy and thus I learned how to eat healthier. The only thing was that I started gaining weight because I was eating too much "healthy" foods. We didn't have a lot of money so our foods were "quality" foods. When I started gaining weight, we started walking and we would walk all over Dallas. It was nothing for us to start out for a walk and end up walking for miles and miles. We had a ball because we felt good. Now I have to wonder what would have happened if we had known about LCHF. She died at 91 and had Alzheimers. If she had known about LCHF, she could have prevented that disease according to Dr. Perlmutter. She would be so amazed with the things we have learned since she died 12 yrs ago. :) But she sure set me on the right track to learn to be healthy. I find this all so very exciting.

Guess I better close as this has almost become a novel. LOL

Y'all have a blessed day.

Trish, I felt so terrible yesterday, all I did was lay around. I feel even worse today. Very congested. I had a really hard time sleeping because I use a Cpap and it's hard to use it when your congested. I am so used to it I can't sleep without it now. I do better if I am sitting up because when I lie down the congestion gets worse. I really am tired, though, and would like to get some sleep. DH takes Alka Seltzer Plus but I don't like to take it because it raises blood pressure. I sure hope he doesn't think I'm going to the casino today!

I always think if I could have told my mother to eat low carb she would have lived longer, but she only lived to 64. When I enter my food on Fitday my fat is always at least 50% or more. I can't eat really high fat. I just don't avoid fat. I bought some bacon thinking that would help me increase my fat and I just don't like it. It's too salty and greasy. If I get sausage or bacon when I eat out I blot it with my napkin to get rid of some of the grease. I consider my aversion to salt to be a benefit, because it keeps me from eating salty snacks. I think most of the fat in my diet is from the eggs I eat and the avocados. I usually pull the skin off my roasted chicken, mainly because I don't like it, but I leave it on if it's really crispy.

I always thought that my mother's family had heart disease because they used lard and ate fatty meats, but now I realize that it was because they ate a lot of starchy, carby foods. We ate a lot of potatoes and pasta because it filled you up.

I am trying not to buy any more books, too, Trish. I have so many. When I hear about one, the first thing I do is check to see if the library has it. If they don't, I check Half.com to see if I can buy it cheap.

Caramel, if you were 48 out of 84, then you were halfway, at least. Think of the person who was 84 out of 84. LOL I think you will do better this time. At one job I had, there was a group of us who had a weight loss challenge. Every month we all put $1 in the kitty. The person who lost the most weight that month got the money. I won the first 2 months I signed up. I was really gung ho about it then. After that I slid out of first place. You always lose faster when you first start out.

I am rather behind in reading - maybe in October I will catch up - LOL!

More drama today at our old house. We hired a counter top guy recommended by our agent (they have a list of "approved vendors"). The guy did not come out and properly evaluate our cabinet structure - he sent someone else who obviously did not know what they were doing. He showed up to install the new counter tops today and they are too heavy for this one portion and require supports which his guys do not do. So, now we have to pay more to have these supports (which are ugly and had we known we needed them we would not have gone with granite) put in, they can't put them in until Monday which is when pictures are supposed to be taken so they have to push that back, blah blah blah. I am so tired of dealing with the old house!! Then, today, I also had to deal with the other house we are renovating - had to go pick out carpet, counter tops and laminate wood. Someday I am going to get to focus only on the house I live in, lol!

Well, for some good news - I finally got my craft room organized enough to start a project. I've been working on it this evening - three dimensional fabric letters that spell "AUTUMN" to hang across my mantle. Very exciting to finally do something crafty for the new house!

Eating has been HORRENDOUS - seriously, awful - sugar, sugar, sugar. I don't know what the heck is going on with me other than that I am really stressed right now.

Still haven't figured out anything with meals for the beach, finally told my husband that I had nothing planned, he was fine about it but I know his family members are going to have expectations based on last year so still feeling pressure and guilt and just don't really know what to do. We leave Sunday and my house is a mess and I just can only focus on getting us packed and trying to pick up a little since my brother and his wife will be coming by to feed our fish.

Speaking of animals, I took our dog to a local vet this week and the good news is they no longer see the nodules on the xrays so we don't have to worry about that anymore. The bad news is his heart is gigantic and pushing on the trachea which is why he is coughing so much. Poor thing. There is really nothing we can do other than continue the meds he is on. He will either have a heart attack and die or get bad off with his breathing and not eating and we'll have to potentially put him down...but no time frame on his prognosis, could be soon, could be years. I'm sad about his heart but we already knew that was going on, I am glad to know the cancer was an error though bc I hated him having yet another thing that could potentially cause more pain. We are also trying another antibiotic just in case the first didn't work on the cough and it is bacterial.

Shannon, your Autumn letters and the candy corn look so cute. You are very talented! I can just imagine what mine would look like. LOL

I'm sorry to hear that you are having so many difficulties with workmanship at your old house. It's bad enough that you had to have all this done, but to have it done incorrectly just adds to the stress. I hope it all works out for you.

I think your DH should tell his family that with the move, you are not in a position to provide all the food for vacation and each of them will have to pitch in. I hate to see what will happen if they go there with these expectations. It's not fair to put all the burden on you.

With all that's going on I can understand your sugar bingeing! You need some time to take a deep breath and regroup.

I still have my cold and I'm hacking and sneezing. I did get some sleep last night by taking Alka Seltzer Plus. I haven't checked my blood pressure this morning so I don't know if it spiked.

I bought some more of my low cal high fiber bread so I can eat some of my tomatoes that are quickly ripening. I've been having egg and tomato sandwiches in the morning so I have all day to burn off the carbs. So fat it hasn't done a lot of damage to my blood sugar, but I know not to get carried away.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Shannon I am so sorry about all the crap going on with the old house and the added stress of the renovations of your MIL house. It is just a whole lot going on at one time and especially at the time you should be enjoying your new home.

I agree with Carol Sue that you should have your Hubby tell his family that you just can't do all the food this time and they need to pitch in.

Carol Sue I haven't given up my bread 100% either. Today DH wanted me to make cheeseburgers. I really planned to make mine into a salad without bread, but I caved in. The good thing is that I decided to not eat the HB bun. Instead, I ate it on my 35 calories 100% Whole Wheat bread.

I decided to get me some mini sized honey buns the first of the month because I had been eating out of DH donuts and thought it would be better to eat one of those little ones instead. Well, I had 4 of them left. I was going to put them out for DGS to eat, but then I thought maybe that was my sneaky way of keeping them around. So I put all 4 of them down the garbage disposal this morning. Decided that was better than them being on my thighs.

I suddenly realized this morning that I was headed down the same path I was yrs ago when I got my A1c down low carbing and then went wild eating all he carbs I could find. I'm not going to do that this time. I cannot decide to eat absolutely NO carbs because that just isn't me, but I am going to have to keep them to a minimum which is what I plan to do. I had the lunch today with carby starches so I'm through with them for the day. I will have a small snack later today to take the other half of my Meformin.

Have a great day.

This evening my husband got a call that a friend of his is in the hospital. He did not know he had diabetes. His family took him to the ER...he went into a coma and had a blood sugar reading of 1400. I didn't think blood sugar could go that high. They told him in the ER that they didn't think he was going to come out of it. He is a young guy, 47 or so. He is very big, eats lots of junk food and drinks gallons of sugary drinks. He has no job and no insurance. In the hospital, they were signing him up for Welfare insurance. They are showing him how to inject insulin. I can't see him making the changes he is going to have to make. I don't know if this insurance they are getting for him is going to pay for insulin and supplies. I know how long it took me before I understood what was going on and I was only on Metformin. I hope someone in his family is going to help him learn what he needs to do. He's lucky to be alive.

Trish, you got your A1c down to a very good number and you were still eating some carbs now and then so you should be able to continue the way you are and still be ok. Good for you for throwing those honey buns away.

Oh my goodness! That is really high! I am a laboratory scientist. I haven't worked in the hospital in a long time but I do recall rarely seeing a result that high. When a result is that high, the blood sample would have been diluted and repeated at least two times after running it initially and getting an error message because it was so high. Wow! I cannot imagine having no clue I had abnormal glucose readings and ending up in the ER with a result that high....shocking!! I, too, hope he has family/friends to help him make changes

On the topic of taking care of oneself, I have not been and I've got to change that. My belly is blowing up like a pregnant whale! Wheat and sugar really do not agree with me!!

Shannon, the good thing about that bloat is once you get back to no sugar or wheat, the bloat will go away! You can do this! You are just under so much stress right now.

I think because this guy didn't have any insurance he never went to a doctor or got anything checked. When you are younger, you can abuse your body and get away with it but when you reach mid to late 40's it starts to catch up with you. I will have to ask some more questions, because if he didn't know he had diabetes, how did the ER know to check him for that? He probably was getting warning signs, but ignored them.

My BS was 122 this morning. I am OK with that. Could be better, but I've had a lot worse.

Trish, my bread is also 35 calorie, but it is whole grain. It is not high fiber, but it has more fiber than white bread and at 35 cals per slice, I can have a sandwich using 2 slices. Hopefully, once my tomatoes are gone I will go back to having my sandwiches without bread. Yesterday, I had a fish sandwich without the bun, but I had some of DH zucchini fries. Better than french fries, but still not great. And this place had really good coleslaw. It was not soupy. I hate soupy cole slaw. I like just enough dressing to know it's there.

What's going on with everyone else? Caramel? Dgramie? Donna? Rennie? Bmillion? JLus? Ruthie? Bonnie? Mad? Some haven't been around the whole month of Sept, and Mad hasn't been here for months! I think she deserted us.

Carol Sue So sorry to hear about the young man with the diabetes. I sure hope he is able to get help and that he will listen. With a blood sugar that high, I’m not sure he has time to go through all the processes so many of us went through when we were first diagnosed. I surely do hope he realizes the seriousness and all that he could lose as well as his life.

I decided not to eat the double fiber bread. After reading the Doctor’s Diet, I decided to just eat 100% Whole Wheat like he recommended and not go for diet foods that have things added to it. I’m not quite sure what they add to foods to make it high fiber. While it could be okay, I just don’t think that we have the whole truth. They just want to sell their product and I don’t trust that it is always good stuff. I watched Dr. Oz Friday, (Dr. Perlmutter wasn’t on there), but they were talking about how we cannot trust the labels on our foods and they are going to change them again in a few months supposedly for the better. But who knows.

Any way, I am going to shoot for lower carb, but not extremely low and eat more protein and fat although I have no intention of adding extra fat. My body doesn’t like extra fat. I’m just not going to worry about how much fat is in the food that I eat. I noticed that some of those who do IF in the 3fc thread seem to eat whatever they want within their eating window. So my goal is to just eat this way using it with IF. I think things will eventually fall in place. My doctor doesn’t put me under the stress/pressure of having to lose a certain amount of weight or get my fbs down fast. He just says “As long as you keep losing and your numbers keep coming down a little each time I see you, I will be pleased with that”. So I have to ask myself, why do I keep putting myself under pressure to do more.

My fbs is slowly coming down again. It was 134 this morning and my weight was up only a lb from last low. That isn’t so bad. It is true that if I eat strict low carb Atkins style, I may lose weight faster and my fbs might go down quicker. However, the thing that I do not like about extreme low carb is that the fbs and the weight also jumps up faster if I eat just one meal with a higher carb and it makes me feel like I lose the ground I’ve gained and I feel guilty and like a failure. Therefore, I’ve decided hat if I go ahead and include a small amount of starchy carbs that my numbers will continue to come down slowly, but I don’t think that is a bad thing. My theory is that my body will be used to eating some carby carbs anyway and as long as I don’t go overboard... one meal with a little higher carb shouldn’t cause me to have a big spike in fbs or weight and I can relax and get out from under all that stress which isn’t good for trying to control my glucose either. It is worth trying it and see how it goes.

Shannon When you get back OP, that bloating will go away.

Went to church this morning and I made the mistake of taking 500 mg Metformin with the Atkins shake I drank. I needed to go by Walmart as they are going to take the extra months supply of meds they had to charge me full price for and reimburse me the money and hold it until next month when my insurance will help pay for it. It was their mistake so pharmacist said they could do that for me. I barely made it home as I had diarrhea. I’m hoping I will get to feeling well enough to go over there today and get that taken care of before they close at 6 pm. I just don't think I can take 1000 mg of Metformin any more now that my fbs is coming down. So I'm going to take only 500 mg at night from now on. I also think that maybe my meter may be reading a little high. I've got to check it and see. I took it just before I had my blood drawn the week before I had my Alc to see how it measured up.

Have a nice day.

Trish, I saw the double fiber bread in WalMart and I noticed that it is bigger slices. The think I like about the 35 cal multi grain bread is that the slices are thin and small so you can make a sandwich with them and still not be eating a lot of bread.

I never have issues with my Metformin, even if my BS is low. The only problem I ever had with it was when I was taking that 3rd pill at bedtime. I was taking 850 MG at breakfast and dinner, then at bedtime I was using up the 500 mg pills I had left over. As soon as I used them up and switched to the 850 MG at bedtime I started throwing up in the middle of the night. That helped with my weight, but it wasn't much fun! LOL When the dr added the glimiperide he told me to quit taking the 3rd pill.

I'm using Sunbeam's 100% WW. It was the only 35 calorie bread I could find at my Walmart. It is small slices too and I'm probably only getting 1 slice cut in half, but it helps me have toast with my breakfast and a sandwich when I want one.

Today I had the Atkins shake with 2 strawberries in it and a cup of coffee. I came home and had eggs, bacon and toast with coffee. Tonight I had butter beans with cornbread, onions and tomatoes. I ate it within 8 hrs and I didn't even have 1200 calories.

The diarrhea like your nausea really helps with the weight loss, but not a fun way to do it.

I think I'm shooting more for keeping calories between 1200 and 1400 calories. If we eat out somewhere, I will allow myself to go up to 1500 calories that day. But hopefully keeping my eating window between 5 to 8 hrs will help with the weight loss and lowering the fbs. And days like today when I don't get to 1200, I am not going to worry about it because I figure the days I might go over to 1500 calories will balance it out... kind of like Weight Watcher's allowing you to save pts for days when you know is going to be a higher pts eating day.

We used to have Sunbeam bread in our area but I don't see it anymore. The 35 cal bread I get is Nickles, which you probably don't get because they are from Ohio. I can also get Sara Lee 45 cal bread.

I haven't checked my calories lately. I try to stay around 1200 when I am tracking. When I'm not tracking I probably don't have as much control. Right now, with having my cold, I'm eating whatever I want. I had a lot of chicken soup yesterday and ate it with noodles. It helped me feel better. I'm improving, but I have a lot of congestion and will be coughing for a long time. I hope I don't get this again over the winter.

I was looking back at my records of my A1c. The one time that my A1c was 5.7, my fasting glucose was 150. My fasting is always higher than I go during the day. My doctor doesn't care about the fasting as long as I have a good A1c.

Carol Sue I've never seen the Nickles brand here so no I don't think we have it. We do have the Sara Lee 45 calorie bread. Since I am counting calories, I think I would rather have the 2 slices for 35 calories.

While I don't want to eat loads of carbs, I'm going to center in on the calories right now. Today my calories will be around 1200 using the old Fit for Life way of eating. I had 2 fruits this morning. I will eat regular food between an 8 hr window which will probably start around 2ish. I've got a roast with veggies on the stove in a Dutch oven and it won't be ready until about that time. I will eat within more of a 6 hr window today. My exercising is more moving around rather than formal exercise all the time.

My doctor is happy with the A1c reading as well. So I'm just going to keep my fbs being at least under 140s hopefully it will eventually go back down to the 120s if not lower. Preacher talked about stress yesterday and how it can make you sick. Since stress is a diabetic enemy, I am hoping that I can eliminate the stress of always worrying about eating the right kind of good food and no bad food etc and just relaxing with my plan that my fbs will automatically come back down to normal as the eating and weight comes back down.

I just wonder how much of our agonizing over our diets etc works against our getting control of this disease.

Trish, I think the 35 calorie bread is for 1 slice...2 would be 70 calories, but with regular bread 1 slice is 70 calories. I buy either the Nickles 35 or the Sara Lee 45, whichever seems fresher and whichever one they have in multi grain. Either the multi-grain sells out first, or some stores don't carry it. I keep mine in the freezer. One time DH was out of regular bread and I offered him some of mine but he woudn't eat it. Sounded too healthy for him. LOL

I plan on staying with low carb, but right now I am still eating the chicken soup with noodles. That is just while I have this cold. Otherwise, I am trying to avoid carbs. I also check my calories when I track on Fitday. I'm not necessarily doing high fat, but when I track, my fat is at least 50% of my calories. That's because of the egg and avocados, I think. I have been straining the fat off the top of my soup, but that is just a habit.

Yes, I knew the 35 calories was for one slice. I just think it is nice to get 2 sl for the price of 1 regular slice of bread. LOL I guess it is the game we play.

I don't plan to do a high carb diet eiher, just not extremely low either. Just want to do whatever it takes to keep things low without having huge swings whenever I do eat somewhere where I have no choice but have larger amounts of carbs. I'm trying to keep my fiber high enough so that my net carbs are low. Not going to add fat, but not going to work at keeping it low either since I know that fat helps keep us satisfied longer.

I had labwork done before i started dieting. My glucose is in the diabetic range, lipids are high and I have a fatty liver. My primary care doctor will go over the results with me on Wednesday. I feel like I waited too long. Can these improve with weight loss and exercise?

Trish Thx but I failed to mention that week1 I was #18 & week2 #7 before being #48, lol. Btw what u said is a great way to look at it. Well this is week4 and I'm hoping to get first or second.

Carol Sue I have really been staying focused! I have been doing really well, I even went to the gym Saturday & did turbo kickboxing :dancer: I've been feeling great!
I have not gone back to do the glucose test, I will be making an appointment soon though.

OAN I've been getting cramps in my calves and left shin :( Does anyone know what causes them or what I can do to stop them?

Lorib With diet, exercise and weight loss you can greatly improve your health. It is not too late so please do NOT give up. I've recently learned of a woman who had the same problems. Her diabetes is under control and she has almost normal A1c readings. You just have to learn that when you start working to get control that it cannot be just a diet to lose weight and then go back to your old way of eating. What you do to turn it around has to become a Lifestyle. Good luck on your journey. This is not a death sentence... it is a wake up call that your body needs help to heal itself.:hug:

I have had a busy few days. Spent yesterday making red tomato relish. I ended up with 13 pints. I was wore out by bedtime. I will not try to can again while babysitting 3 kids. Lol
Fbs was 101 today. They have been in the 80s before today.

Caramel Good luck on your challenge. You are working hard enough to make it.

I'm starting my day IF today. My weight seems to be stuck but my FBS is still coming back down slowly. It is 130 this morning. However, it was 130 the day I had the 5.9 A1c reading and blood work reading had been 133. So I assume this is fairly good for me.

Although yesterday my main meal was carby, my dinner was eggs, bacon, cheese and baby kale. I do not want to go backwards on this. I just want to do a little more tweaking so that if I want to eat a slice or two of the 35 calorie bread or go out and have half a baked potato once in a while that it isn't going to give me a big glucose spike.

I'm tired of counting calories etc again so I'm going to wing it. I think clocking it on MFP just makes me eat a little more to at least make the 1200 calories. I know how and what to eat and what not to eat and if I need to keep track again I can always go back and do it.

Carol Sue I hope you are getting over that cold and feeling better today.

I think Shannon said they left for the beach Sunday. I hope she isn't stressing over the food issue and sure hope the old house is getting finished so she can get out from under that stress.

Hope all of our others who don't check in very often are doing okay. Wonder whatever happened to Bonnie and Mad? Hope they are doing all right.

Have a nice day.

Lorib, Welcome to our Diabetes thread! Most of the time the doctor will start you on a low dose of Metformin for Diabetes. 500mg per say. If you start out with a higher dose you might get nausea. Other than that, I would suggest you ask your doctor if you can try to make dietary and lifestyle changes before you begin other medications for the diabetes or lipids. He's why. I was not given that opportunity. I was put right on meds, and they kept increasing them. I didn't know anything about nutrition and exercise and how it could change your lab results. I recently started sticking to a low carb diet and exercising and the next time I had labs done my numbers had dropped dramatically. The doctor was amazed. Ask him to give you 3-6 months to make changes before he starts you on meds.

For some people, a low carb diet is very hard to stick with. You have to limit sweets, and anything white, like bread, rice, pasta, potatoes. You don't have to knock yourself out exercising...walking will help tremendously, especially if you walk after a meal. Losing weight is also a plus. You can do this! At least give it a try. You might still need meds eventually, but maybe a much lower dose. Do you have a pedometer? You can get inexpensive ones at WalMart. Some count steps, and some measure distance walked. They seem to give you encouragement to see how much you can do.

If you don't have a blood glucose meter, get one. WalMart has one that I use, Relion. And the testing strips are only $9 for 50. Test 2 hours after a meal to see what foods spike your blood sugar, then avoid those foods. Everyone is different. If something spikes your sugar, you might still be able to eat it in small amounts as long as you eat it with some protein and fat.

You have a lot of changes to make and probably a lot of questions. We will help you as best we can. We are not medical personnel, but we can give you our own experience from going through this ourselves.