Trish, after reading about your chicken with Ritz Crackers I remembered a tip I read on another board. These people are using crushed Pork Rinds for breading. It would give a different taste, but it 0 carbs.

Shannon You are so talented. I've never used an embrodiery machine. I used a serger (sp) when I worked in a sewing factory and I don't think I could have even threaded it etc. I was so glad for the man who kept the machines repaired and he threaded the those types of machines. However, I loved the days they put me on those machines instead of the sewing machines. I could make more money on those than on single thread machines. Glad you are getting a new one. Should be loads of fun.

Carol Sue I forgot about the pork rinds. It would give it a crunch. I actually like eating just plain baked thighs and drumsticks. DH likes drumsticks, but he is really tired of chicken right now so I've been looking for knew ways to cook them. He loves fried chicken tenders that I cut to nugget size, but we don't need that either.

Well, my weight was back down to 216.2 today with my wild eating, but fbs was back up in the 150s. I sure wish my doctor would have given me the glimiperide. Never remember how to spell it. But he won't. So I'm on my own with the Metformin, diet and exercise. I've just got to get this corrected. I may have to check out the Trim Healthy Mama and see what she does different. But until I decide about that, I'm just counting calories. I've customized my calories/carbs/fat/protein ratio to fit more of a lower/moderate carb rather than eat all the carbs they recommend. I'm beginning to wonder if I should just focus on that since I am losing weight. Hopefully when the weight comes off, the fbs will finally automatically come down too. So far today I have a moderately low carb plan with calories between 1200 and 1300. I plan to have an apple/cheese snack before Bible study and will cook a small amount of lentils with sausage in crock pot while I'm gone and have that with some collard greens when I get back home for a late supper. Have the plan, now to do it. :dizzy:

I think Rennie is so busy with her new job that she crashes when she gets home. Haven't heard from her lately either. I used to see her on MFP, but she hasn't been on there lately. I assume that is why.

Have a good day.

Trish, I don't recommend the Glimiperide. Yes, it helps lower your BS, but here's the reasons why it's so much better to do it with low carb. The way Glimiperide lowers your BS is by forcing your body to release more insulin. That's not good. Eventually your body may quit producing insulin at all and you may have to inject insulin. You don't want that. Also, insulin causes weight gain, so Glimiperide makes it harder to lose weight. When you eat carbs, your body starts to release insulin. If you eat low carb, it will not release as much insulin. I don't know the proper terminology so I might not be explaining it absolutely correct, but that's the basics the way I understand it. Try to stick with low carb as much as you can. Don't get upset if you happen to have a carby day. Get over it and move on. You can follow any diet plan and tweak the carbs to fit in with what works for you. If they say eat 100 gm a day and you know you do better with 80 gm a day, eat 80 gm a day! If you go over once in a while, so what? Don't let an occasional high FBS upset you. Your last A1c was below 6. That is GOOD! I hate to see you fretting over this so much because I know you're doing good in the long run.

I am trying to learn how to use dried beans. I have tried twice with kidney beans and I just can't get them soft enough for my liking. I think maybe the bag of beans I have might be old and I just read that they take longer to soften when they are older. Also, I never know when to add the salt. It's so much easier to use canned beans but I want to learn to cook with the dried. My mother always used dried and her recipes turned out wonderful.

I know lentils don't have to be soaked ahead of time. I made some lentil soup once, but it made so much and since I'm the only one who eats it, a lot of it went to waste. I will have to try making a smaller quantity. It's so much easier to just buy Pregresso! LOL

Carol Sue I did text Rennie this week and she is alive, just very busy with her postal route. Her probation period (as a new employee) is almost up.

Oh girls, I am worn out. This week has been rough getting over a cold, hurting my knee, hubby being gone, stressing over packing for the retreat (still not done) and the excitement of deciding to invest in my future business. In between all that we've had preschool, MOPS, filling up the compost bin and 9 leaf bags from the backyard. And, all week long, guilt over my eating, eating badly and feeling badly, etc. It has just been alot this week.

I leave tomorrow around 6 am for the retreat. Hubby doesn't get home until around 2 am bc his flight doesn't get in until midnight tonight so we will maybe speak briefly when he wakes me up getting into bed. I've written him a list to help him remember to take Olivia to school, my SIL's baby shower on Sat and taking all the leaf bags and trash to the curb on Sun since the pickup here is at the crack of dawn on Monday. At our other house they didn't come til mid morning so I always had time to take stuff out if I forgot but here, that is just not so!

Today I've been trying to straighten up the house, get the laundry done, get dishes washed, etc so it's not quite so bad when I leave. I also raked up 5 bags of those leaves. I still have to pack for the retreat, we have to get a gift for the shower and I need to pick up a few food items since I am cooking breakfast Sat and Sun. I have only cut out fabric for two small projects so far. I will be up very late tonight though hopefully will get to sleep long enough before hubby comes home that I can get right back to sleep after he gets here. I am driving two hours or so and then meeting a friend to carpool. She will drive the 3.5 hrs from her house to the retreat location. Trish, it's in Waynesville which I think is near Asheville. So, I just have to make it those 2 hours without a wreck! LOL! I'm really looking forward to getting away but feeling badly that I didn't prepare well. I might take a bunch of fabric specifically to cut for sewing after I return just to be sure my time is well spent. Right now I have enough to keep me busy for about 2 hours, not 2 days!

Shannon I pray you will be safe and have a really good time. Since you enjoy making the crafts, I pray it will be a refreshing time for you. Thanks for letting us know about Rennie.

Carol Sue I agree that the canned beans is so much easier. I never had much luck with lentils in the past, but these turned out good. I didn't make a lot, but still had more than I needed. I will have enough for another meal. I would have bought them in a can, but couldn't find any canned lentils. I don't even know if any puts them out in a can or not. My mama used to make them and they were good. I kind of cheated about the salt. I used about a 3 or 4 oz cut of polish kabalsa which I cut up in small pieces. Since they have a lot of salt and I'm the only one eating them, I didn't have to add anything salt to them. I did add some collard greens to my serving, but will never do that again. I did not like the texture. But it was healthy. :dizzy:

I'm not counting calories or anything today. I'm just pretty much eating Intuitively until I can get my head around low calorie/lowcarbing again. If I'm hungry, I eat and if I'm not I don't. One thing about doing it that way, I don't feel the need to binge on anything so far. Just hanging in there.

Edit to say: Carol Sue Thanks for the advice and pep talk. I guess I needed that and I actually missed it before I wrote. I agree with you. And you are right about the Glimiperide. That is almost exactly what my doctor told me although he didn't explain how it works by forcing my body to pump out insulin. I appreciate your words friend.

I feel bad that I didn't get to say goodbye to Shannon before she left on her retreat. I didn't realize it was this week. Hope she has a good, relaxing time. She needs some TLC.

I didn't get up until 10 this morning. I kept falling back to sleep. I guess I needed it. My cold isn't completely gone. I am still coughing and yesterday I started to have painful crackling in my right ear. That's never good. I think running around in this colder weather is what does it. DH says you can't get sick from being cold, but it seems that as soon as the weather starts to turn I get sick. Once my body is accustomed to winter weather I'm OK.

I have been posting on a JUDDD board lately, only on one thread that interests me. From what I understand, it is low carb, but every other day you only have 500 cals. I would like to try it to give my weight loss a boost, but it's hard for me to do that because DH always wants me to eat with him. I haven't looked into the details of the plan, but I don't think it is high fat. That's probably how they keep the calories lower.

This morning I had scrambled eggs with sliced tomatoes. I like that combination. I would have liked to have had sauteed mushrooms, too, but DH was cooking so I let him do what he wanted. I can always mix my mushrooms in with my kale at lunch time. On Friday we usually eat dinner out, so I don't know what that will be.

Edit: I just entered my food for yesterday on FitDay. My total cals were 1262. 88 gm of fat 61%, 70 gm carb 21% and 54 gm protein 17%. The biggest culprit was the breaded fried zucchini I made for DH and I ate some of it, too. I rarely make that, and don't even like it that much. I ate it because it was there. The protein was my eggs for breakfast and grilled fish for dinner.

A quick flyby just to say I'm still here. Weight and FBS is wild. Yesterday weight was up to 219.8 and fbs was 118. Today weight is back down to 216.4 and fbs was 147, but I didn't take my Metformin because I had he diarrhea. I will change my ticker later since I'm stuck at 216.4 for 2 weeks. At least I didn't gain is one way to look at it.

I will probably go back to the 1/2 pill which is he 500 mg tonight or tomorrow night. I think I am finding that I do need some grains in my diet although my body does want the protein as well. Just taking it slow and easy to find or rather come up a my own personal plan that will work for me. I've just got to find a way that I can live consistently instead of haphazzardly. Is that a word? :?: Any way I got to run. Beauty shop and Walmart. I try my best not to have to go there on Saturday, but DH wants some stuff that is cheaper there.

Catch you later.

Quick post to let you know the All You is out with my interview. I haven't seen it yet but a friend messaged me that she saw it. Retreat going well, full report in a couple days.

My weight was up to 196 yesterday, but back down to 195 today. Yesterday, DH was going to the car cruise so we didn't have dinner. I ate a big breakfast and he ate a late lunch. After he left I ate some sauteed cabbage. I was a little hungry at bedtime but not terrible, so I just fell asleep instead of eating something. It made me remember when I rarely ate dinner, back when I was thin. Now, DH always wants me to eat with him, but I am going to try to eat much smaller meals and see if that helps with my weight.

Morning BS was 125. Good, for me.

Shannon, I read online that All You is sold in WalMart and Sam's Club. I will be going to WalMart today so I will look for it! Thanks for letting us know.

EDIT: I saw the Oct 17th issue in WalMart and looked through it and didn't see your interview. I guess I could have missed it. Do you know what issue it was in? They also had an issue called "Fall" but I didn't see it in there either.

EDIT 2: I saw online that the Nov 14 issue is out already and that's probably the one that has your interview. Our WalMart doesn't have that one out yet. I'll have to watch for it.

I'm glad to hear that you're retreat is going well.

Trish, you will find balance somehow. I wish you had some way to find out if the Metformin was causing your diarrhea. Maybe you should be taking it with your largest meal.

Thought I might share this info from MFP on a test tat was done low carb vs lowfat diets. I thought it was interesting.

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2014/09...Mblm0LgLXhM%3D

Hit a button and lost what I was editing to the previous post.

If what that article is true, then my recent idea of eating more of a moderately low carb/high protein/high fat diet would work. However, I don't really worry about the fat. In fact, I read today on WebMD that we didn't have to worry about taking Omega 3 until we started eating so many processed foods.

trish I don't worry about fat either. I don't add fat intentionally . I have read of people whose weight loss has stalled on low carb but for me it is still necessary for BS. I am rarely as low as 40gm per day. I think I need to cut calories for weight loss while avoiding as many starchy carbs as I can. I need to think before I eat.

Carol Sue I think it will be in the Nov 14 too, I looked for it at Walmart here tonight and it's not there yet

Hi Ladies,

I am home! It was a really great weekend :-) I think the best way to show you pics of what I made is to post them to my blog and then post a link here. I will try to do that in the next day or so. I made a few things that are gifts for folks so I might have to post those items here and the others on my blog. I don't think anyone I know would find me here. The lack of preparation showed itself in my lack of productivity on the retreat but I still got to sew in peace and that is really why I go.

Well, exciting stuff going on here at my house - we are picking up my multi-needle this coming Saturday - it weighs almost 100 lbs so they do not ship them, not to mention the damage that can happen in shipping. We have also decided to renovate my craft room and make a nice sewing studio. We are looking into using prefabricated cabinets from Lowe's and adding countertops. It will be nice and professional looking. My hubby seems to really want that for me and I'm thrilled!

I am trying to recommit today to getting back to no grains and sugar. I have been eating lots of grains and sugar over the last couple months and I have not been feeling well at all. In fact part of my productivity issues at the retreat were probably a result of high BS. I did not take my meter so I don't know what it was but I was very tired, dizzy, spacey, out of it. I also did not get much sleep leading up to and during the retreat so I'm sure that was a factor as well. Either way, I think it was enough to slap me back into reality. LOL! So, today I went back to eggs (scrambled with sausage, peppers, onions and cheese) and coffee to start my day and I'm going to run to the store quick before I pick up Olivia from preschool in a few minutes to get some salad stuff for lunch. I have dinner planned for tonight. After Olivia goes to bed tonight I need to figure out what the rest of the week will entail. I meant to do that this morning while she has been at preschool but instead I decided to get my stuff unpacked from the retreat so I can do some more sewing this week. I really wanted to make some pants and a dress for Olivia and I just didn't get to it because it required alot more prep than the other things I could do.

I think that's about it for me. I will shop at Food Lion for the few items I need since it's next to preschool and I will check for the All You there. I have seen it in that store as well as Walmart. I have a feeling it might be another week - I think my friend who messaged me is a subscriber and they probably get their copies before it shows up in stores.