[fatmad]

Hi Gang:
I am please to say I have been doing well and sticking to plan for over a week, staying low carb, and am now below ticker. I will see how I am after this weekend away to change the ticker though.
I have driven my Dad and his companion Doreen to Ottawa for a long weekend, because his family is having a little reunion. The last couple of times he has seen his family was for funerals, so its nice to come for fun and not a sad occasion. Each time he thinks it may be the last time he sees them.
Last time he came without me, he came by train, but somehow a couple of relatives decided he needed to visit other people and changed his tickets and drove him around a bit, and put him on a train two days later, and called and told me to pick him up and that he wasn't well.
He was in heart failure! I had to take him straight to hospital. I told him its the last time he goes there without me to drive and take care of him. He agreed.
He is so grateful to have me bring him and that we include Doreen as a member of the family. I just love them to bits.

I have been trying to brush up on my very rusty french. Almost all of the relatives who were fluent in english have passed away. I have an aunt who I can never understand because she talks to fast, and two uncles who chew up their words so much that I can never understand them. Just a couple of cousins who speak english, so I will be doing my best and will have a headache.
My citrus allergy is coming in handy for a change. My cousin who is hosting is making lasagna (not on my food list for sure!) but the sauce she used has natural citric acid in it. So I just said I will bring my own food, which will be greek salad with chicken (a la madeleine of course) and since I am driving I won't be having beer or wine. (another good excuse). Of course, it is MUCH harder to speak french if you don't have a glass of wine first, and one in your hand as you try to speak it...... LOL

Trish, if you have feeling quite tired, its worth it to have sleep apnea testing.
I had it many years ago when DH thought I was snoring more and louder, (like 10 bears, instead of a baby bear, what he said, cute eh?)
I don't have a good sleep without it. It didn't take that long to get used to it. Maybe one night a month, I skip part of the night.

and FYI, the last while the insomnia has been really minimal, (touch wood) so I am generally better rested than in a while.

Have a good weekend everyone, and hope the hurricanes don't cause too much damage.

[Wannabehealthy]

Mad, good job with the weight loss. One time when a friend and I went to Niagara Falls, we continued on to Montreal for a couple days. We made a wrong turn and ended up in the French Speaking area. It was terrible. NO ONE there spoke any English. We went into a store to buy some things and didn't know what they were saying. Just handed them money and hoped that they were giving us the correct change. We tried to ask a couple people how to get back to the English Speaking area but they didn't understand what we were saying. We finally got back there after a few hours.

I'm glad you are helping your father visit with his loved ones. You and Trish are lucky to still have your fathers.

I am up a couple pounds and blood sugar is up a bit. I have become a little lax with my diet. Sneaking carbs in here and there. Yesterday for lunch I had leftover lasagna but just scraped out the filling, lots of meat and creamy cheese in sauce, and ate that and threw away the noodles. It was very tasty and I didn't miss the noodles. But for dinner I had a hamburger with the bun. I know better, and I paid the price.

[pattygirl63]

fatmad Good to hear from you. I understand about your Dad. DS and I are very picky about certain things he does or doesn't do as we feel we are all he has to watch out for him. I'm glad your Dad has a lady friend. I would be happy if our Daddy had one. DS and I think he would be happier in an assisted living place or would just join a Senior club because he would be able to mingle with others. He is a people person and he would enjoy games etc that they do.

Carol Sue Sorry about the rise in weight and bs, however, it is temporary and will be back down in a few days. It would be nice if it would come back down in a day, but if you are like me it takes longer to for the water weight to come back down than it does to go up. My weight is up a bit this morning too, but my FBS still keeps coming down steadily. 153 this morning.

I've been thinking about the WW Beyond the scale and the GL for Dummies book that I have. I do believe because of the rules of the plan of some foods that are freebies which are the same, I do believe they are the same and if not they are very close to the same. I am going to get the GL book out and go on it. I thought about getting my Deal-A-Meal cards out and use the cards for the foods I have limit. I won't worry about the cards that the GL calls freebies. I would just have to use the cards for the limited foods. Either that or I could get my WW sheets out I used to use and mark them off. Either way it would make it easier to follow the plan without having to count pts or calories.

I could have slept in this morning but you might know that I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. So I got up checked my FBS and it was 159. I exercised for 10 minutes on the bike then dressed. When I got ready to eat breakfast, I took bs again, still fasting and it was 153. I am going to add 2 more Garcinia Campogia pills to come up to the recommend doses a day. However, I'm going to take 2 before each of my 3 meals as 3 at one time seems to be too much. I think that is because of the green coffee caffeine. I drink half caff coffee so it will be easier for me to take 2 at a time. I also am drinking the vinegar water before I eat when I can remember it and I am also drinking it right before I go to bed. I do know me well enough that I need the structure of the GL plan. My weight gain is evident of the fact that at night I am grabbing whatever to eat. I need to remember to take the pills, drink the ACV and eat a planned meal.

Beauty appointment is later today so I don't have to leave so early. I just might get another 10 or 20 minutes on the bike before I leave. We aren't going to meet DD today. I plan to come straight home myself. My niece and her hubby have moved here this week so my DS will be busy for a while with them I'm sure.

DH started moving things around in my kitchen for me, however, it doesn't flow right for me, but I won't complain. I need to work on that as well as some other things around this house. I want to get it organized.

Have a great day.

[Wannabehealthy]

Trish, I don't feel that it's necessary to be following a specific plan. For the way you like to eat, I think adding more vegetables would be great since you want to cut back on meat. Maybe you could make your evening meal just veggies as you eat your main meal midday. That might help lower your FBG.

I have come to realize that my problem is not what I eat, but when and how much. I like staying low carb and like seeing the good numbers on my meter. If I also add in IF, I can start to lose. I no longer eat unless DH is eating. That might sound strange, but I used to enjoy making something for my lunch that I like, but then it seemed that when DH was ready for supper, I was still full from my lunch. I would eat anyway, because I didn't want him to be disappointed. So instead, I go a little bit hungry. It is never long until he wants to eat and my body is learning that it won't be long until it gets some nourishment. Hunger is not an emergency.

I don't count anything. Occasionally I will track my food on Fitday just to see where I stand and see if there are any problems. When I do this, I can see things that I ate through the day that were not necessary, and if i eliminated those things, I would be very much on track. Things like a piece of cheese or deli meat I grabbed while I was in the refrigerator. These little nibbles add up. No more nibbles!!! Maybe I should do some daily tracking for a while and make it more of a habit. My friend who lost 35 lbs writes down every morsel that goes in her mouth. She eat what she wants. If she wants some pretzels, she counts out what the bag says is a serving, and writes it down, counting the calories and carbs. Once she reaches her carb count for the day she stops eating. She is a type A personality and this is how she rolls. Her whole life is like this...very regimented. She could put her house up for sale tomorrow and not have to do any cleaning or decluttering. There is never one thing out of place in her home. I don't know how she does it but I envy her.

I think assisted living would be great for your dad. He might be thinking of a nursing home and it's not the same. I would not mind going to assisted living if something happened to DH. I know some people who have done that and still can use their car and be as independent as they choose, but help is there if they need it.

We are leaving now to go to the casino. We don't have coupons for the buffet for today, so will probably eat in the food court. They have good salads that I like.

[Wannabehealthy]

Trish, I pray that you and your family are all safe. I've seen the devastation on TV and the internet. It's awful!

[pattygirl63]

Carol Sue We are fine. I don't think it has even rained at our house. I talked to my son this morning and they are only getting rain. Of course, if it turns and goes northeast, they may get more rain.

Called my DD this morning and he didn't answer. DS called and asked if I had been talking to him when she called. I told her no, I had called and didn't get him either. We decided to try to call his cell phone. I knew he had forgotten to get some things when he went to the store Thursday so wondered if he had gone to Walmart. I called cell phone and it was off, but he must have hit his phone about the time I called and I thought he was trying to answer but couldn't say anything. I called my sister and told her and her DH headed over to DD to see if he was okay. I kept calling until DBIL answered the phone and said, "Hi Pat, your Dad is here and he is fine". He handed the phone to Daddy and he had been to the store. He knew DS and I sleep late on Saturday and he got up early and went to store thinking he would get back home before we got up and called. Needless to say, we both let him have it. I told him from now own call and leave me a message telling me he is going to the store.

I told him I guess he had gotten back at me for all the times I didn't call him and if there was any **** in me that he had just scared it out of me. LOL!!! Thankful he is home and doing fine.

I guess I'm OP today although since I'm doing my own thing, I'm not sure exactly what that is with a planned one. I ate a regular egg/bacon breakfast. I put on a pot of veggie type soup made with lentils, veggies and tomatoes with a homemade chicken broth. I still had chicken drippings from the chicken I roasted last week. So that is in the new small crockpot I bought yesterday and will be my supper tonight. I think when I go to the store again, I'm going to get some beef bones and some kind of chicken pieces with bone so I can make my own broth. I was thinking about the broth Dr. Fung recommends. I'll have to look it up and see what is in his.

We met my DS and BIL and my niece and her hubby to kind of celebrate them moving here. We met at a local little pasta/pizza place. We ordered spaghetti with meatballs. We had never eaten there before so we should have share a meal as it was so much food. I ate the meatballs out of mine which was only about 3, but DH says he didn't eat all of his. We brought them home and will get at least 2 meals out of them. I'm going to freeze one for later. I'll give him the meat balls and I am boiling the rest of the roasted chicken to get the broth off of it and then take the chicken I take off the bone and put it in my portion of the spaghetti. We will have a salad on the side. I'm beginning to get some ideas so I can eat pretty healthy and not have to count anything.

I also found that this brand of Garcinia Cambogia makes a formula that has vatimins and probiotics. I bought a bottle and I am taking 3 of those along with 3 of these I already had... taking 2 about 30 minutes before a meal along with the ACV. I decided since I took such strong antibiotics and for so long that maybe I need the probiotic one. It also says it has some prebiotic as well. I don't want to mess up my stomach and this should help prevent it.

Carol Sue How was Casino buffet? How are you feeling?

WI is in the morning. I'm not sure how that is going to be since I'm still up a bit. FBS was down a few pts this morning. Might have been better if I had remembered to drink the ACV before bedtime. I was so tired, I forgot ACV and didn't even charge the cell phone are Bluetooth.

[Wannabehealthy]

I'm glad to hear your family is safe, Trish and pray for those who have suffered such devastation.

We didn't have a good night at the casino, but since we won last week, I guess you can't win all the time. We decided to eat at the Food Court. I noticed they didn't have any Cobb Salads in the case but thought maybe they had moved them. When I asked, the girl said they were out of them. I didn't know what I was going to eat because all the sandwiches had bread or bun and came with french fries, and even the wraps came with french fries, and I wanted something low carb. Then she said they did have Caesar Salads so I had that. It had chicken in it, and romaine, which I love, but it didn't have as much stuff in it as the Cobb Salad and I got hungry quickly after eating it. My only option was to go back and get something else, but my only on plan choice would have been another salad, and I didn't really want to buy another salad, so I just did without. Not long afterwards, my hunger went away and I felt fine. When I got home, my blood sugar was 87. LOL I haven't had an 87 since I was diagnosed in 2008. I was very happy. I ate a slice of cheese wrapped in deli turkey before going to bed, and FBG was up a bit, in the 120s. Not surprising. This morning DH wanted to go to McD for breakfast. I was glad he didn't want the breakfast buffet, but I was not even hungry for McD but I went. I just had eggs and sausage and 1 bite of an english muffin, which I quickly threw away so I wouldn't finish it. I just realized I haven't eaten anything else all day. I just checked BG and it's 118. Happy happy happy! I made country ribs and sauerkraut for dinner with grilled asparagus. And I have a whole chicken in the oven that I will debone and wrap up for snacking or shredding in my salads.

I have a bunch of chicken bones in the freezer. Most of them I got from rotisserie chickens we've had for dinner. I wanted to make some bone broth with them. I've never made it, and I don't even know if I would use it. DH already told me he likes his chicken broth made with chicken, not bones so he's won't be eating any of my broth. LOL A woman online told me you can also use chicken backs in it. My mother always made her chicken soup with chicken backs and necks because she could get them so cheap. Her chicken soup was just broth and noodles, no actual chicken meat. There are a lot of recipes online for bone broth. You can put celery and onion in it for flavor, and ACV helps leach the minerals out of the bones. It has to simmer for hours and hours.

I'm still having some leg and foot pain. Today it might be because I wore sandals with a little heel to the casino, and I do a lot of walking around there. Also, my hands are hurting a lot. It's getting harder and harder for me to use them. I have a jar opener which is very useful, but just now I had a hard time getting the lid off my bottle I use for my drinking water, and I have a hard time with my pill bottles. I have heard so much of this happening to other older people but never thought it would happen to me. I've read so much about foods that cause inflammation but I don't think I'm eating a lot of inflammatory foods. Maybe I'm not eating enough veggies. That's the only thing I can think of. My hands don't hurt when I type, but typing might be aggravating it.

Maybe I'll get weighed tomorrow and see a good number.

[pattygirl63]

I can't tell if the ACV is helping or not. I will continue a little longer to see. Yesterday was a carby day so not sure about anything right now. Weight up 1.4 lbs from last week and FBS was 174. I'm sure the leftover spaghetti helped with that. I knew it might so can't complain since I made the choice to eat it.

This morning I drank some ACV with honey (usually use Stevia) and bs reading went up instead of down before I ate breakfast so I will continue to use the Stevia.

I will be following the Low carb for Dummies Glycemic Load starting today. I've had 1 carby food this morning since the Sarah Lee MG bread counts as 1. I plan to cook catfish and will have salad, corn and Brussel sprouts for main meal. DH got some beautiful corn on cob the other day. From what I read in the book, it isn't as bad if you cook it longer which I do. I don't eat it often because it sometimes causes issues although I it hasn't the past few times I've cooked it. I will be eating the 5 allowed higher glycemic foods each day so I'll still count it as one of the 5 servings.

I am back in the mood to get committed to the plan so that will help me a lot. I will go back to exercising 4 or 5 days a week starting tomorrow. Thank God as that will help a whole lot. I surely didn't need to stay in the mood I was in or my weight gain would have been more. I may have to use MFP until I get the hang of this. I'm not going to worry about the amount of carbs if I do use MFP mainly because most of my carb count will come from fruit and low carb veggies. I have to remember that the carbs in them do count.

I talked to my son this morning. He said he got out to see how things were in his neighborhood. They sit high enough above sea level that his neighbors say they have never flooded. He said the little town his Granny lived in years ago was hit really hard and flooded as there are a lot of lowlands there. I heard from my cousin this morning and her brother and his daughter who lives near him are fine. They haven't heard from their daughters who live in Austin who has been getting a lot of rain too. I think the rest of the family are far enough north that we are not affected. We got some rain, but it was light and steady, nothing heavy and although the local news says we have the possibility of more, it looks like it might be over for us. My DS lives on the south side of town and she got more rain than we did although not loads.

Hope everyone is doing well today and any lurkers who are TX neighbors I pray you are dry and safe.

[Wannabehealthy]

Trish, I am trying to figure out how the ACV will effect my psoriasis. From what I've read, although it is acidic, it helps turn the body more toward alkaline, which is what I want, I think. Some people with psoriasis said it has helped....some drink it and some apply it topically. I should probably just start drinking it and keep it up for a long time to see what it will do. I don't think it will hurt anything.

We buy bottled water for drinking, and I got some of the half size bottles to add some ACV to them and carry with me when I'm out and about. I don't add any sweetener to mine.

I weighed this morning, and I am a smidge over 200. If I'm good the next few days I might get back into Onederland.

[Wannabehealthy]

I had a BG spike yesterday, and ruined my good record I had going. I had a chef's salad for dinner, but ate 1 bite of DH's pizza. One Bite! I also bought a piece of chocolate cake at Walmart. It was very small, less than 3 oz, looked more like a big cookie than a piece of cake, no icing, and I cut it in 4ths and ate 1/4 of it. Checked BG at bedtime and it was 244. Darn! I know better. I took a good dose of Glimiperide, but not too much. I'm gun shy after waking up to that 44 that time. So fasting is 185 this AM. I will have to work at getting it back down again. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the other 3/4 of the cake. I WANT to eat it. LOL I am very carb sensitive. I have absolutely no wiggle room.

I have heard that eating low carb makes you more carb sensitive. I can vouch for that.

[pattygirl63]

Carol Sue So sorry about the high reading experience. I too am probably eating too many carbs although I am not carb sensitive and don't want to be. I understand about the scare of taking too much glimiperide after your low of 44. My weight is going back up, however, I did get up this morning at 7:30 and checked my FBS and it was 154. That is better than it has been in a while. So I won't be going low, low carb.

I thought about going back to very low carb, but after reading your post I am not going to. I'm going to get myself organized with the GL way of eating. I'm not as carb sensitive as you are and I don't want to be. I am going to go back to counting the calories and be diligent about it. That works if I work the plan. I'm going to stop playing games. This is my life I'm thinking about. I may go back to CAD and make it work for me.

DS called and they decided to meet me at Denny's on my side of town. I am going to make breakfast my RM today and the other meals will be CM/LC. DS and I decided to get the pancake we love to eat at Denny's and half it. We probably will 1/3 it and share it with DD. The shared pancake will be my starchy carb for today.

Well, I better get dressed. They wait until morning to decided whether to go eat or not as we have to wait to see how DD feels and DS sleeps late. I need to do at least 15 minutes of exercise before I go. I'll check back with you later today.

Hang in there, we will get this yet.

[Wannabehealthy]

Well, I'm disappointed in myself that I did that, but I'm over it and moving on. I cooked some kale with onions today. I am going to go back to eating kale and see if it helps with my pain. I know it sounds weird, but it did help with my hip pain I was having a while back and I think it helped with my shoulder pain, too. I read online and it is anti-inflammatory. It definitely can't hurt me. I will have to buy some more crumbled Feta cheese, as I like it with a sprinkling of Feta cheese on it. I'm going to eat more vegetables, over all.

My Glimiperide RX is for 2 mg twice a day. I haven't taken that dosage for a couple weeks, now. I cut the pills, and rarely take more than 2 mg in all per day. It raises insulin, which stores fat, so I am much better off not taking it. I do take it when I need it, though. I don't let my BS stay higher for long. I am hoping I can get good enough at this to eliminate it altogether. I will probably never stop taking the Metformin. It has other health benefits, and I don't think that's what causes my digestive problems.

I was down to 200.5 yesterday morning. Don't know if I held that. I'm hoping to be back in Onederland the next time I weigh. (for about the 10th time LOL) But I won't stop trying. I think trying is why I have never really gained back what I lost initially.

Have a good day.

[pattygirl63]

Carol Sue I agree that by not giving up and keep trying is the reason I haven't gained back all the weight I've lost too. When I see the weight going up, I get busy because I don't want it gain it all back. I'm sure you will get back down into Onederland again in a few days. My first goal is to get below 210.

I didn't do CAD. I decided to take the Garcinia Cambogia with Probiotics exactly as directed along with ACV. I have decided to save the original plain Garcinia Cambogia for another time. I am counting calories again on MFP. I ended up ordering 2 eggs and 2 slices of turkey bacon at Denny's to see if their turkey bacon tastes any better than what I've bought at the store. I asked what the brand was, but it is their own brand so my niece suggested it might be Jeanie-Os. So when I went to Walmart I got a package of it to see if I like it because I definitely liked what I had at Denny's except I would have liked it cooked a little longer. DS did order the cinnamon pancake and did want to share it with her. So I cut 1/4 of it and transferred it to my plate so that I would not be eating it from the original plate and ate it in place of toast. I did not add any syrup or butter to it. I've ended up with about 1600 calories for today and I did 15 minutes on the recumbent bike before I left plus I walked around at Walmart before coming home this morning. Late this afternoon, I did another 15 minutes on the bike.

My niece is counting her calories on MFP too. She uses a Fitbit and does a lot more exercise than I do because she does run in the morning and then walks her dogs during the day. She is the one who has gotten her diabetes under control with diet and exercise. It was really nice spending time with her and her hubby.

Today has been a very successful day.

[fatmad]

Trish: I have been a bit worried about you using ACV. The caffeine reminds me of diet pills from long ago, just in new packaging, and I can't think its good for you.
I managed not to gain except a pound while away, and did have a slice of cake and an alcoholic cider at the family gathering. so well done, I can do parties and not over-indulge, though I will say it was really hard. My family helped by not pushing me to have stuff when I said no.
I have been suffering some pretty bad cravings ever since though.
I was feeling a binge coming on last night. DH and I stopped at the grocery store after some errands, and yes, I had eaten supper, but if he hadn't been there I am sure I would have caved and grabbed some pastries and binged on them.
Settled for cherries in stead.
Hope you all have a good week. Things are crazy getting ready to sell, and we have had interested before its even on the market.

[Wannabehealthy]

I did it again! I ate the rolls that came with my salad, and I had a spike last night. My thinking was...I'm having a salad, so I can eat these rolls. Not so!! I know how bread spikes me! I did take some Glimiperide, but I guess I didn't take enough. I have to stop doing this. It seems I do good all day then one thing gets in the way.

Mad, I know you were addressing Trish, not me. I am usually firmly against taking any supplements at all, but I have read thoroughly about the ACV and Garcinia Cambogia and have found nothing to fear with either one. There are precautions with the GC, but none of them applies to Trish, such as being pregnant/breast feeding, on statins, or some other drugs. The worst it says anywhere is that it is not proven to help with weight loss. The ACV is actually a food used regularly in cooking. There is no caffiene in either of them. Maybe as a nurse, you know more about this than meets the eye, so I'm not actually disagreeing with you, just curious.

Good job at the get-together. Each time you are able to do that makes you stronger for the next time. Do not shop when you're hungry, and try to stay away from the bakery department. LOL