Today was a flop. I just got too tired and too busy. Tomorrow will be back on track. Had to wait too long to eat and we just got what we could. We ended up getting KFC and ate more than I should have. Window was more of an 8 hr window. As new plan does, I call it a planned off day and will be back to 6 hr window tomorrow as it will be a normal day starting with breakfast with DD and DS. I'll have my regular breakfast at Whataburger and plan to have cod fish for main meal.

I haven't done Halloween in a long time and we actually ran out of candy and I had to turn out the lights after about an hour. I'll plan better next year. We have a lot of kids in this neighborhood and they were so cute and very polite. I actually had a ball. I gave too much at a time and when they came, they came in big groups so next year I need to get about twice the amount of candy at least. I just don't want to have any left over when they quit coming.

DH had doctor's appointment with eye doctor and the right eye is healed up. Now we are scheduled to have the left eye done on December 20th. We don't do anything special for Christmas so it is no problem for us. DD, DS and her DH will probably plan something for just the 5 of us to get together for Christmas dinner and probably here at my house. Nothing big. This way we will get his eye done before the end of the year.

Carol Sue I wouldn't presume to tell anyone how to eat either. However, for me I do believe I should have taken better care of my bones. My hubby explained to me what osteopenia means. He says it just means I don't have enough calcium in my bones. I don't think I have to give up the amount of caffeine I get in my coffee so I'm not giving up the 2 cups I drink. I am not going to give up the sweetener I drink in those 2 cups. I just need to add more dairy in my plan and that is easy to do. I still may have a cold drink once in a while. I just won't have colas.

As far as drinking coffee or diet drinks during fasting hours, I don't think it would hurt any way because Dr. Whitaker allows his patients to have them during their fasts. This lady says it will keep you from losing weight, but I notice some people have them and if they get to a place where they cannot lose the give it up. I might do that.

It is late so I'm going to bed. This is going to be a busy week. Thursday is usually my day to do nothing, but my niece from OK is coming to town so we may all meet somewhere to eat so we can see her. I told DH that we will have to go because every time I came to TX to visit she was so sweet to drive down here to see me. She is a sweetheart. Of course, all of the kids are so precious. I may still make Thursday a OMAD and just eat when we go out to eat.



Have a good day.

We were supposed to get snow today but now their saying rain, so I guess the temps are going to be warmer than expected. They said highs in the 40s, then back to 60s tomorrow. I want to go to the sleep center and get a new CP mask. It's pretty far, so I didn't want snow. It probably would have been a dusting or just flurries, anyway.

We got 3 kids for trick or treat, and right when it started at 6. Nothing after that. DH spotted some really big kids coming up the street and turned off the light. He said they were adults, but some teens are tall. Trick or Treat is for the little kids. We used to get a lot like you, Trish, when we first moved here and it was a young family community. So we have lots of candy left, but not any that I really like. I can resist as long as I don't take the first piece. LOL

I was not very hungry at dinner time. DH had hamburgers. I roasted a chicken and ate some of that, then broke it down to have in the refrigerator. I like to snack on it, and I feed it to the dog. I will use some to make chicken salad today. Our supermarket had whole chickens for 49cents a lb and I bought 7 of them. LOL I put 6 in the freezer. It was barely over $2 per chicken. I couldn't pass that up.

Since I didn't eat much dinner, I got hungry and had scrambled eggs before bed. And I woke up hungry. I'm not going to eat yet, though. My coffee will hold me over. I'm going to try not to have more than 2 cups, and I will have a small glass of milk. I think I will start having milk with my breakfast. Last night I was drinking hot tea, which I like when I don't feel good or when it gets really cold. After I'm done with this box of tea bags I will buy some decaf tea, since I like to drink it in the evening. It didn't keep me up, though. I slept well.

My day changed today. DD called last night and said his legs were swollen. He wanted to know if he could take a Lasix as it wasn't a day for it. He asked if it would have him running to the bathroom all night and I told him it probably would, but he could take it. I called him this morning and he had gone to the bathroom 12 times during the night and bp was still high. I called CHF to see if it was okay for him to take a Lasix (this is the morning to take it) and Chlonidine together. I wish they would tell me some things before they happen. :dizzy: However, I know they can't tell me everything as this is a learn as you go on some of those things. Any way there are no problem taking them together since Chlonidine is used to bring the bp down quickly not to take fluid off. Good to know. Then she asked me if had taken his Coreg and I didn't know. He is supposed to take that as soon as he gets up when he takes his thyroid medicine. Turns out he shouldn't take the Coreg and Chlonidine at the same time as his bp could bottom out. They should be taken an hour apart. So called him back and he wouldn't answer because he was taking them together as I called. Then I had to call back and ask what do you mean "bottom out". Turns out that is just how he reacts to the medicine. He would know in 30 minutes how he as going to respond to it. Bp came down and he was fine, but tired. So he is resting the rest of the day. Just one of those mornings. DS and I think he doesn't tell us everything he eats.

Well, I had some improvement from Oct 1 to Nov 1. I actually lost 1.8 lbs. Sad since it should have been better. I think eating this new way is going to be so much better. My FBS was improved slightly, but would have been better if I hadn't eaten that candy last night. But it wasn't as high I it used to be after one of those fiascos. My bp is doing great.

DH got on to me last night because I was so upset about the osteopenia. I thought about it after we talked because I look things up online and I realize they give you the worse scenario. DH said all that it means is that I am low on calcium. By adding some dairy to my food plan will help correct it.

I've decided to continue drinking my 2 c coffee with the 1/2 and 1/2 and my sweetener as long as it doesn't effect my A1c and weight loss. I only drink a couple of cups of half decaf coffee and I can switch to decaf for any more of it I want. Cutting out all sweeteners is what the OMAD lady on FB suggests in her book. If I come to a place that it causes me problems with bs or weight loss, I will deal with it then. My coffee the way I drink it keeps me from eating. I have tea with caffeine and I may keep it for company or give it to my BIL and get me some decaf next time I go to the store. I guess today will be a OM day since it is after noon and I'm not hungry. I am not going to eat until I am hungry and since we eat at 3ish, I probably will wait until then.

One thing this OMAD book says is exercise is for health not for weight loss. She couldn't find any research that showed that it helps weight loss. Made me think of the book you read Carol Sue that said not to exercise when you first started LC. I don't remember exactly how you said it do the exercise. She said we do need to exercise, but do something you enjoy and do it moderately. I think I'm going to go back to doing 20 minutes 4 or 5 days a week. I notice the right amount helps my knees and too much causes problems. I also am going to see if I can find either Tai Chi or Yoga moves that will help with balance. At my age that is very important.

I hope your Dad gets this all straightened out, Trish. It's scary when you're not there with him to see what he's doing, and what he's eating. I thought "bottom out" meant it would go too low.

I tried to get my CPap supplies today but the said I need a new RX from my PCP. I haven't been to him for a while, so I don't know if he will send it. They are waiting and will send me the supplies once they are approved. I guess I am going to make an appointment because now I need to discuss my foot, my A1c and my CPap. I hope he will discuss all three in the same day. A lot of people get a CPap but then don't use it. I am so accustomed to it I can't sleep without it. I put it on, just like I put on my nightgown. LOL But you have to jump through hoops to get it.

Carol Sue Sorry you couldn't get the Cpap. I hope you can get it. If you have to go see him to get it, maybe you need to so you can talk to him about your foot. I was wondering how it was doing, but I knew you didn't really want to talk about it.

Since I stayed home I made the soup for lunch as I wasn't going to have a salad because I don't have any of my salad stuff. I ended up getting too much of DH iceberg lettuce out so I made myself a small salad with it. So I had a little bit of salad and a little bit of the soup before meal. I think I read that you can have soup instead of salad on CAD before RM. It has been cool the past few days and a veggie soup sounded good and it was. We had codfish cooked in lemon butter sauce and DH wanted corn so a small helping of that was one of my starchy carbs along with a small piece of leftover cornbread and 3 crackers with my salad which adds up to almost 3 serving of starchy carb (using idea of 3 minimum for day per LC for Dummies book). I had a glass of milk and a serving of yogurt with fresh strawberries to get my fruit and dairy into my day. A lot of food for OMAD but I just wasn't hungry until then and I'm going to try not to eat anything else today although I could still have a CM or CS since I do CAD. I think if I get hungry I will strain the left over soup and drink just the broth.

I cut up strawberries that DH bought yesterday at Sam's club. He usually mashes them and adds sugar to them. I was surprised when he asked me if I had put the sugar in it because he usually does that. He said "No, put in that other stuff you used before". He wanted me to put the Splenda in it. We are making progress. I have the ingredients to make some homemade Splenda chocolate chip cookies for him and will make those next time we have a cool day. Maybe tomorrow if it doesn't warm up too much. We are supposed to have a few more warm days so will have to see. I don't like heating the house with the oven if it is going to cause the air to come on.

It has been a good eating day over all. I didn't even log my calories on MFP because I'm not sure I had very high calories. Exercise was cleaning my house. When I sweep and mop it is really work as the house is not all that large, it sure seems to be large when I'm cleaning.

Catch you tomorrow.

Trish, my foot hurts off and on. It's never as bad as it was the first week, but just when it starts to feel better it starts up again. It also doesn't always hurt in the same place. It's been hurting along the outside of my foot the past couple days, and before it was hurting across the top of my foot. All my shoes go across the top of my foot, and puts pressure on it. Also, the first toe next to my big toe is red and a little swollen. It is swollen around the first knuckle next to my foot, and that knuckle is tender to the touch. All I can say is it feels like I dropped something on it, but I don't remember doing that. Sometimes you do that or bump yourself then you forget about it until it starts hurting. I don't know. I just hate the thought of all that he's going to make me do, like xrays and I don't know what else. I would love to be able to stay off of it for a few days but that's just impossible. There's always somewhere I have to go or something I have to do....and my house really needs cleaning!!

I am in a really good mood this morning. I slept well and my foot didn't hurt much during the night. One thing I realized yesterday is that I didn't take my Tumeric for a couple days. I just forgot. I was taking that because it is supposed to help with inflammation and pain. I think maybe that's why my foot was starting to feel better, and why it felt worse yesterday. So I took it last night and this morning. I started with one a day and worked up to 3 a day which is what it said to do. I think I forgot about it when my foot didn't hurt as much.

I am also considering going to the chiropractor for an adjustment. My back isn't hurting, but I remember one time my foot was hurting and after he adjusted my back my foot pain went away. So that's a consideration. He is DH's friend, so we like to go see him at least once a year. They have fun talking about old times.

There is a group of women on the LC forum who are also following low calorie and fat, which is unusual for that forum, and they are maintaining some low weight numbers. I usually buy full fat yogurt and cottage cheese, but yesterday I bought some low fat cottage cheese and next time I get yogurt I will buy low fat. I am going to try it for a while and see if I notice a difference. High fat hasn't helped, so why keep doing the same thing? They also eat mostly chicken and fish and no red meat or pork. I don't like to switch around just because someone else is doing it, but when what I'm doing isn't working, I think it makes sense to try something else. I have always been of the mind set that going too low on calories is bad, but what if I'm wrong??? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. So from now to Thanksgiving, I'm going to try low carb, low fat, low calorie. If it doesn't help, I can always quit. One thing I won't do is eat something that doesn't taste good to me.

Carol Sue, So glad your foot is doing better. I never thought about back causing foot pain. Interesting to know. I do know that when I went to the chiropractor that I wasn't able to life my right foot very high, but once he moved things around and I had a few treatments, I suddenly was able to. That is happening again. Most of the treatment was vibration machine. I think I will try the tens on my back and see if that helps. If it doesn't improve, I will make an appointment the one my BIL uses. He isn't one of those who keeps you coming back. BIL only goes when he really needs an adjustment.

I spent the morning looking up info online on how to use heat/cold on my friends knee. I found it very interesting and I also found a product I'm going to buy (I love Amazon, they carry everything. LOL) to spray on my knees. They doctor said he uses it and those in his office call it a Magic Medicine. He uses homeopathic products which I prefer.

Carol Sue, I think that is another reason I like CAD. You can use low fat or fat or nonfat. It goes with my preference. I have added some fat back into my diet because I don't want to lose my hair and it helps keep me satiated. I agree we have to do what is best for us.

Another lesson learned yesterday. I ate within a 6 hr window, but because I didn't eat until 3:30 the window was in the evening. I don't like eating a later window. I don't like the way it made me feel nor the 2 lb temporary gain.

I also like eating the CAD woe. I found out that what the OMAD women means by OMAD means 2 snacks and a meal within 5 hr window. May work for her, but that would never work for me and my bs. I do like eating a low carb breakfast and finishing up with a RM around 3:30 or 4. Sometime the window is later, but I still only eat 2 meals as I would never want to eat even a snack between the 2 meals. I did one thing in her book that helped me which I think is why CAD says weigh everyday and average the weight by adding up the 7 days and divide by 7 once a week to get your actual weight loss. It has helped me a lot of times when I thought I had gained. Those temporary gains just means the body is doing some healing it needs to do before you see a whoosh. That is how I am looking at my 2 lb gain today. CAD is what has worked for me in the past and it is how it will work for me now. So I'm not changing my plan.

I say that to say I know what works for me and I'm not going to deviate from it any more. I'm glad you have found the new LC group who has found a way to make it work for them and I pray it will help you too. It has taken you and me a long time to find something that would work for us. I think we both will finally be able to see some good changes for us now.

Have good day.

Yes, my foot feels very good today, and even my hand does not hurt as much. I took 2 Tumeric last night and 2 so far today and I think that's what's helping. I will still go to the doctor because I am overdue for my A1c. I will call tomorrow for an appointment.

The chiropractor I go to does not use any machines. It is all hand manipulation, and he just tells you to call if you need to come back. He graduated high school with me so he is also 71. He is very fit and sees no reason to retire. He makes his own hours and has cut back on his appointments. His wife will retire at the end of the year and maybe he will take more time off then.

I think when your back is out of alignment it puts everything out of alignment all the way down. I didn't realize it would help my foot until I noticed it stopped hurting a couple days later. I didn't realize how bad it is to have a sore foot. Most everything you do involves walking.

I feel that I did well today. I had eggs, toast and milk around 11 AM. Then I had a pork chop, rice pilaf and mixed veggies around 4. 2 pieces of candy for dessert. LOL I will try very hard not to eat again until tomorrow. I have set a goal of 5 lbs gone by Thanksgiving. That is quite doable.

So much for my 5 lb goal. I did great until AFTER dinner, then I had a mini junk food binge. So I start over today. I had potato chips for one thing. I'm wondering if the salt affected my foot because it hurt all night after feeling pretty good all day. I've been awake since 2am. I laid there trying to fall back to sleep but couldn't, so I got up. I might go back to bed in a bit.

On top of that, my pension check is late. It's dated the first, but I usually get it a day or two ahead. It has been late a couple times before. If it doesn't come today I guess I will have to call about it. I tried once to get direct deposit but they never got back to me and I let it go. I will check into it again. We are OK financially, so no worries there, but it's mine and I want it. LOL

hey friends: hope I will be coming back a bit more. We have closed on the house sale, and are done there. We will be unpacking and adjusting in our new place for while, but it feels good to be taking care of only one place now.

Had Hallowe'en in there, and I didn't do well at all. DH had the girls get rid of the leftovers when we went out on Thursday, so thats a good thing.

We had planned for younger DD to live with us, but now older DD is here too. Her recent job ended, and rather than spend time in another city with a boyfriend, there was a split up and she is here now. Will be in and out, doing courses, and visiting friends. She is applying for other travel jobs, so hopes to be gone by January, at least for sporadic work. But the house feels full and generally good.

I haven't weighed in for a bit, I think I will wait until Monday, and see how things are then. DD is cooking, just because she hasn't been able to cook much for a while, and is making healthy foods, and is quite willing to tweak things for lower carb. All to the good then. I have been walking the dog, so am moving around too.


Have been reading your posts and wish you both well.

Hi Mad. Glad to hear you are finished up with the house sale and able to get on with life, now. No more empty nest with the 2 girls back with you and it is a new home for them, too. It sounds like you are happy to have them and it is working out fine. Good for you. I also dipped into the Halloween candy more than I wanted to, but I'm not too upset about it. It was a little bit and the candy is almost gone.

I called about my missing pension check and as I expected, they will not do anything about it until it's been 10 days. I know there's a possibility that someone else can cash it and I don't know what they will do if that happens. Hopefully it will show up, maybe today. I requested the forms for direct deposit and hopefully they will follow through this time.

Yesterday I was feeding my cold, so I really went overboard. Also, I don't have much protein food on hand so I've been getting into the carbs. It's the same old issue, when I don't have what I'm craving, I keep eating things looking for satisfaction, that doesn't come.

I woke up around 5 am and BG was 107. Back to bed and at 7 it was 137, so that's how much it goes up with the dawn phenomenon. I don't know what I'm doing or not doing that's causing that. I would really like the 107 to stick around until I eat, breaking my fast. I keep reading about how to handle the DP but it seems that different sites have different answers. I guess it's something we each have to work out for ourselves. The only thing I've noticed is that around 4 or 5 I start to feel hungry. I think that's a sign that my blood sugar has gone down, and when it doesn't receive food, the liver dumps glucose. By the time I get up the hunger is gone, so I would say the liver dump takes care of that. It makes sense that an evening snack would help, but I'm not sure. Or maybe some evening exercise. Something to keep my liver from thinking I'm starving. Back when I was overeating I never felt hunger, so I take hunger pangs as a sign that I'm doing something right. I am looking forward to some nice warm fluffy scrambled eggs when DH gets up, probably around 9.

I decided I have a cold. Although I have that chronic cough, I can tell when it gets "different" and my nose has been exceptionally runny, a bit of a fever, 100.7 which isn't a big deal. I slept a lot yesterday and last night and am feeling rested this morning. I hope to stay home and rest today, too, but that depends on DH and how much running around he wants to do.

18 days until Thanksgiving and I still don't know what I'm going to do. I guess I will start by asking my daughter-in-law if they have plans with her family and then see if my step-daughter is doing the same. They are the deciding factor. If they are not coming, my plans are considerably down sized. Without them, all I care about is the turkey and all DH cares about is the pumpkin pie. LOL We know where our priorities lie!

This is from the Mayo Clinic site, which I trust. Most of these don't apply to me since I do not use insulin. I do take a Metformin at bedtime, so the only other one is to avoid carbs at bedtime. Sometimes I do that, sometimes not, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. There were a few times when BS was the same at bedtime as it was in the am, but I wasn't checking at 5 am at that time. That was when I was eating the egg at bedtime....fat and protein. One egg worked, and 2 did not.


What you can do

Your doctor may recommend a number of options to help you prevent or correct high blood sugar levels in the morning:

Avoid carbohydrates at bedtime.
Adjust your dose of medication or insulin.
Switch to a different medication.
Change the time when you take your medication or insulin from dinnertime to bedtime.
Use an insulin pump to administer extra insulin during early-morning hours.



My detective work continues on.

Dr Fung has a section in his blog about Dawn Phenomenon. He is a diabetes doctor specializing in kidney disease I believe, and has shared a lot of helpful information. According to him, the dawn phenomenon is caused when there is too much glucose stored in the liver, and it's not really a bad thing, as it is working to rid the body of excess glucose. Unfortunately it dumps it into the blood stream and we get a high BG reading. Insulin just pushes it back into the liver, doesn't actually get rid of it. Fat around the middle is also involved. His suggestion is LCHF and IF to lower the glucose in the liver, but he doesn't go into detail on how that works.

fatmad Good to hear from you. You have a lot of good things going for you there. Now you deal with one place, DD cooking and tweaking to fit low carb is really a nice change for you. Sounds like everything is falling into place. I know you will be working to settle in now so check in when you need a break. We got into the candy too. We have a few pieces that I put in a bag to give to little kids when they come over, but out of site out of mind.

Carol Sue I too still deal with DP and never sure why it is up and why it is down. Never know if it is something I did or didn't do. When I think it should be up, it isn't and vice versa. However, although it isn't where I want it to be, at least it isn't as bad as it has been in the past and I'm not getting really high readings.

I read heard someone say that we should choose how and what we eat by how it makes us feel. I still lean toward a low carb although more moderate fat than high just because of the way it makes me feel. I did notice something when I ate the candy. Sugar makes my joints hurt and difficult to make a fist. If I eat too much starchy foods, I have the same problem. I seem to be able to hand a moderate amount but I definitely can tell the difference when I go over my limit. Also adding a moderate amount of dairy fat back into the diet helps as well.

I am continuing the rules of Low carb for Dummies. It works for me. I will also do IF, but I will do it with an 8 hr window instead of 5. I am going to have a high protein Slim Fast shake just before I close the 8 hrs to keep me from wanting a snack. That is better than deciding I can have a handful of nuts that turns into more etc. Instead of having 3 starchy carbs a day, I will have only 1 or 2 depending on what is going on that day. Days I meet Daddy and DS, I will have 2, but on days at home, I will usually have only 1 at main meal. I'm not going to call main meal a RM either except when taking to CAD group on FB. I am going to get the other book by Gin Stephens as there may be something else she has learned that can be helpful. I'm still on her FB and see sooooo many successful people on there. As they say don't throw out the baby with the dirty water. Besides, I've taken the best of all I've read and formed my own plan which I think that is what she did. Hey she has had long term success and so have her readers and I haven't so that says something.

I love her idea and CAD's of adding weight for the week or how ever often you weigh and divide by the number of days. I've made Saturday my WI day and I averaged the last 7 days. Looking at the scale normally I would think I had gained a lb when averaging shows I have actually lost 2.2 lbs this week. That has kept me from going off plan many a time in the past. That most definitely will be a part of my plan rules.

I love my egg omelet I've learned to fix and with the way we can buy frozen veggies already chopped it makes it so easy and quick to cook. My omelets are actually beginning to look more like omelets than not. LOL

I'm excited that we are meeting with my DGS and his little family today to celebrate his birthday which was yesterday. I told him we like to celebrate birthdays with steak and he chose Texas Roadhouse. We haven't been to the one here so it will be a nice change from our old one. Plus they show there calories etc on line and MFP has them too. I am having the Dallas filet, green beans and sautéed mushrooms for less than 500 calories. If we get a Cactus Bloom, I can even have a few bites of it without ruining my total calories which will be less than 1200 total today. I love eating at steakhouses, but can only afford them on special occasions.

Carol Sue I really believe as long as we are eating healthy, eating when hungry and only until satiated that the DP will eventually work itself out. At least I hope so. I really think that is why my doctor just looks at the A1c and tells me not to check it all the time. I just like knowing what is going on.

I hope you get your check today. Do you get a SS check along with your pension check? I hope you are covered some way. Auto deposit works so much better. We have always had direct deposit.

Have a good day.