Trish, I honestly believe that diet plans are impossible to stick to 100%. We are all different. Anyone can write a diet plan and it works on paper, but not in real life. I am the same way with fasting. I can go a long time without eating and it doesn't bother me, but I have my coffee when I first get up, and I use SF creamer, so it breaks the fast. But to me, if I'm not eating food, I'm fasting. I realize I'm not getting the same benefit. I don't follow any plan. That might be why I don't lose weight, but I don't know if I can change and follow what someone else tells me to eat or drink. We weren't born that way.

I have pain this morning. I don't know if it's because of something I ate, or because it's cold and raining this morning. Yesterday I had very little pain, and it was warm and sunny. My feet hurt, my hands hurt, and my elbow hurts. It's not severe pain, just enough to be annoying.

I got my hair cut yesterday and I don't like it. Maybe I will get used to it in time. If not, it will grow back.

I cooked my potatoes for potato salad first thing this morning and now they are cooling. Once that's done I think I will go back to bed for a while. Everything else is ready. I just hope I don't forget to take everything. I should make a list.

Have a Happy Easter everyone, or a Blessed Passover.

Carol Sue I am so very sorry you are hurting. Maybe you over did yesterday. I hope going back to bed will help the pain to ease up. I know it does for me most of the time. Praying for you. So glad you don't have to do the whole meal for today.

One thing I saw stressed in low carbing is to be sure to drink plenty of water. Could be a key not only to weight loss but also to bs readings. Just a thought.

I agree that no diet can be done 100%. I found a Keto and Low carb group on FB. Through that group I found information on the difference between keto vs low carb. On that website, I learned that there are many who just can't do keto or even a very low carb way of eating. There are those who follow a moderately low carb plan which allows up to 100 g of carbs. I've decided that I could do that. This also keeps me from having to cut any foods out. MFP helps with counting the calories and the carbs and since sodium is not all that important on low carb, I will have to mostly ignore that part of MFP counting.

I did set up my ratio of carb, protein and fat to fit the 100 g carbs and added the percentage of fat to 50%. I decided that just because I allowed that much doesn't mean I have to eat that much. LOL. I will use MFP mostly for the calorie/carb count any way. This way I can keep fruit and a few grains in my plan too. I still can do this with IF and even with JUDDD because it turns out that Moderately Low Carb carb range is between 50 to 100 grams a day which gives me something to work with. In fact, since we are supposed to go out Tuesday, I am going to make today an UD and tomorrow a DD so that I can have what I want Tuesday for an UD.

One interesting thing I read on the new FB keto/low carb group is that there are people like me who do not lose weight on keto or very low carb diets. In fact, I saw where some actually gained on keto, but when they added some carbs back in to do low carb, they started losing weight. I think I needed to see that because I thought something was wrong with me. Turns out it is just my system.

I'm starting April with a 4.4 lb loss from March 1st. Not much but I'll take it. FBS was 166 March 1 and it was 163 today. So pretty much the same. Hopefully getting myself on my own MLC plan April will be better.

Going to take Daddy fried chicken tenders for his Easter dinner this afternoon then go to grocery store for a few things.

Y'all have a Happy Easter.

Hi Trish. My Easter was OK. It didn't start out good, though. DH found 2 tics on his body. One on his arm and one on his leg. I had seen the first mark on his arm on Saturday and wondered what it was but blew it off. When he went in to take his shower on Sunday he saw the one on his leg and he proceeded in digging them out and making a mess. Then he talked to his son about it and he told him to go to Med Express and they would give him an antibiotic to protect against lime disease, so that's what we did. The doctor there told him he didn't have to dig it out but to put liquid soap on it and the tic would come out on it's own. So now he is very sore from all the digging he did on it. I hope it doesn't get infected. We put flea and tic meds on the dog but we think he got the tics from putting the bird house back up in the yard. It had fallen down in the wind one day so he took it apart and cleaned out all the nesting materials and put it back up. We get a lot of critters in our yard, including deer once in a while, so we know there's the threat of tics.

So we were 45 min late getting to step-son's but they were just socializing at that point. I had intentions of only eating a small amount, but there were so many different thing there I wanted to try, plus she put out cheese and crackers and I was filling up on that along with some celery and cream cheese. Her mother brought a dish which was diced tomatoes, cucumber slices and orange slices in a vinegar and oil dressing. I would never think to combine oranges with vegetables but it was really good. She also brought baby carrots in a sauce with butter, lemon juice and dill. I love baby carrots, so I ate them and brought some home. I know that this all sounds like low calorie healthy food, but then there was the ham. And my sister-in-law brought a dessert that was out of this world, and I ate 2 pieces of that and a small slice of apple pie. I usually stay away from the sweets, but not yesterday. So today I plan on fasting until dinner at least. I have to allow my body to get rid of all this extra food I ate. I'm not really stressing. It was a holiday and I know I don't do that every day.

I don't pay a lot of attention to my fat counts on MFP. I will have to look to see what they are. I don't limit or add fats, except for the butter I use on my veggies. When I add that in on MFP I know it ups the fat. All meat contains fat so that adds in, too.

Have you been tested for Gout? Mine started with fevers and foot pain. I started meds for it 5 years ago and have had it under control since. I was diagnosed with metabolic disorder because I have gout, diabetes, high blood pressure and weight issues (from early childhood)- often when one thing is out of whack with your body the other things start popping up.

Hi Donna. I have not been tested for gout but I don't think that's it. My pain is along the outside of my foot. My BIL has gout and I don't eat many of the foods that give him trouble. If/when I get around to going to the doctor for it that is probably one of the things he will be checking. The more I mention my foot pain to others the more I find out how many people have foot problems. Yesterday my SIL told me she had a bone spur removed and now it hurts worse than before. I've had a lot of medical problems but not being able to walk is the worst.

How are you and your family doing after the fire? Have you found a new place to live? Were they able to find out the cause of the fire? I hope you are all doing well.

Just checking in since it's been a while. Wannabehealthy sorry to hear your foot is still in pain. I'm praying that you figure it out soon and get back to feeling better.
pattygirl hope you find the right diet mix for you. Congrats on you 4.4 loss for March! Hope your dad is doing well.

My FBS was up a bit at 119 but last night's dinner did have a few more carbs than I should have. I am struggling with breakfast now because most of my low carb breakfast items are egg based. Now i'm thinking that i'm developing an allergy to eggs. This is exactly what happened when I became allergic to bananas. I eat them and almost immediately I become sick to my stomach, nearly throwing up on the spot. I don't even know where to begin to find something different. Cereal is no longer an option, only fruit is not enough. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

Carol Sue What an experience for you and DH. People don't smoke any more, but someone I knew once took their lit cigarette and stuck it to the tick and they automatically back out. Hope he is better without any infection or problems.

You enjoyed the food and it was one day. I wouldn't worry about it. DH and I took the chicken tenders to Daddy and it smelled so good that we went back and got some for us on the way home. I got away from eating fried chicken in FL because we only ate Broasted chicken since fried isn't popular down there. When we moved to SC we would get KFC once in a while, no one fried it like they do here in TX. Daddy said something to me yesterday about me not eating fried chicken like I used to. I like it but not like I used to. I think it is because I'm not into the greasy food any more. However, I will say that Bushes here doesn't have greasy chicken. I have got to where I like it many other ways. Any way, we bought 5 chicken tenders fried and brought them home. I made us a salad and we had healthier home cooked sides. Today back on track.


Carol Sue, can you get on MFP? I've changed password and even made some other changes as they suggest since they were hacked and still can't log food on there. I was able to clock my weight loss and put one food item on food log and then nothing else could be done. I sent them a message but I've already done what they suggested. I saw where some other people had the same complaints so I assume they are down. I may have to go to another calorie counter. Until I know for sure this will give me a chance to see how logging on my own sheet I copied from the Diabetes for Dummies book works for me. I just write down what I eat from the different food groups. It is almost like doing the old exchange diets except that you only count the carbs in the starchy foods. It will also give me the chance to see how I do without counting calories. I will try to keep up with the carb count between 50 to 100 grams each day.

I might get a clean eating week this week as the only appointment I have this week is beauty shop Friday. My best friend had to cancel going out to eat tomorrow afternoon because she has a medical appointment.

Donna Glad to hear from you. How has things gone for you and your family recovering from the fire. You are in my thoughts and prayers daily.

DH is up and ready to eat so I've got to get busy. Cooking the steak I was going to fix yesterday with salad and veggies. Not in the moon for a lot of starches today. Just want my crackers with my salad... a habit.

BBL

Momtopands, I don't know what I would do if I became allergic to eggs. They are my favorite food and I like to prepare them many ways. I have tried eating other things for breakfast but nothing satisfies me.

Trish, I am not having any problem getting onto MFP. I changed my password, but I have it saved so all I do it click on it and it opens up. Maybe you should click on "forgot my password" and get a reset.

Thanks Carol Sue, I'm back into FB and logged my food. I'm so spoiled with MFP so I'm glad to be back on there.

Momtopands I love my eggs for breakfast so I'm not much help to you either. However, I remember in one low carb book where the author said she didn't know why people always thought they had to have eggs for breakfast. She said you could have foods that you have at other low carb meals for breakfast example tuna salad or chicken or steak. I notice at Denny's that they may have eggs but not always with bacon or ham. They have pork chops or breakfast steaks with the eggs. So I would think that anything that is protein like a pork chop or even fish could be a breakfast food. Hope that helps.

Trish, I'm glad you got MFP figured out. I used Fitday for years and loved it, but now that MFP syncs with Fitbit I have switched to that and am slowly figuring it out. The one thing I don't like about it is it seems to be geared toward restaurants and brands and makes it hard when you eat mostly home cooked fresh food, but I'm getting used to it.

DH hasn't complained about pain in the two sites where he had the tics so they must be healing. They look much better, but the one is still red. I hope he will be OK.

Eating so much food yesterday had me in the bathroom most of today. My body is just not used to that. I think most of it's gone. LOL

The past few days I have been reading Dr Fung's Complete Guide to Fasting. I found it on my Kindle but didn't realize I had it. I checked back and I got it in April 2017. I can't understand why I bought it but never read it. It's basically the same information he has on his IDM website. One thing I read today is that over time, our bodies adapt to whatever way we are eating, and even if we are doing IF, we should vary the way we do it instead of doing it the same every day. That way the body does not get used to one eating schedule. I want to get more serious about IF, but I am going to alternate the way I do it. This will make it much easier for me to fit it in with DH's eating schedule. For example. Today, DH ate a big lunch. Then at dinner time he just had some cake he had bought at the store, so there was no discussion about dinner. That made it easy for me to skip dinner. The last time I ate was around 2-3, so I will not do any snacking tonight and fast straight through until whatever time I eat tomorrow. No set schedule. Some days I will fast until dinner, other days I will eat 2 meals, breakfast/brunch and dinner. Some days I will do a JUDDD down day, and some days a JUDDD up day. The down days might not work with MFP because it will not let me enter a day of less than 1,000 calories, but I will work something out. I will do this primarily low carb, but some days my carbs will be less than 50 and other days they will be more, as long as I keep my blood sugar in line. This way I will not feel guilty if I don't do a 16 hour fast every day and some days my fast might be longer.

Dr Fung compares fasting to having bariatric surgery. He said bariatric surgery is forced fasting. You can fast and get the same benefits without the risks involved having the surgery. It's just a little harder because you have to control the fasting.

I don't think I will do extended fasting although eventually I would like to. I can't see DH going along with that, but who knows what lies ahead. I will start out slow and build on this and some day I may go all day until the next day without a meal.


Momtopands, I just googled Low Carb Breakfast and got many sites with ideas and recipes. Maybe this will help you.

Carol Sue I decided to go to the HEB closer to me today. It is an older store and my niece had told me it was a rough area and not to go there, but it is really close to the Jr. college here and I remember when that store first opened when previous DH and I lived close to it. As I was walking through the store to see what they carry (it seems to cater more to Mexican cliental, but any way I was walking through all the beans and pasta etc starchy foods and realized that this type of foods shouldn't be a problem for me. In fact, no starchy foods should be a problem. Previous DH wanted potatoes or rice or some pasta with each meal, but I realized that DH now doesn't. Now he does like his fries and some bread, but only on occasion. So I wondered why I think I have to buy these things and add them to a meal.

We do like our sweets, but even that can be worked around without having them a lot. In fact, I bought some Sugar free jello cups to keep the sweet tooth under control. DH does still like his ice cream. So I didn't buy any rice and won't be cooking any starches with meals any more which will make low carbing a little easier for me.

I also read that we should switch up our eating to keep our body from getting used to the same way of eat and the same food all the time. Now that I'm cooking everyday, I am going to get us on a routine of eating certain meals for our main meal so that our body doesn't always know whether we are dieting or not.

I have really enjoyed my food plan today. Oh I learned on MFP that I can change things up and I am still using the sodium count, but I don't eat much sugar so I switched it to fiber so I can see how much I'm getting. I was surprised to learn I'm not eating very much fiber so I need to slowly knock it a bit. I will have my jello later this evening and my calories, carbs and other numbers are within goals so today has been goo. I ended up with more of a CAD day because I ate a Little Debbie fruit pie before I realized it was Little Debbies and 260 calories. Did without even thinking so main meal became a RM. Calories under 1500 so still good. My hour + walking around the store helped too.

[QUOTE=How are you and your family doing after the fire? Have you found a new place to live? Were they able to find out the cause of the fire? I hope you are all doing well.[/QUOTE]

We are staying in a nice cottage courtesy of my husbands boss. We have it till the end of the month. We have looked at a lot of places - what we can afford is limited so there's that- some of the areas we've looked are scary bad, and the nicer areas the house is scary bad LOL;)

The fire started with the wood stove, insurance is not covering anything but the mortgage (and we haven't actually seen anything from the bank saying they got paid) its a mess and we probably have to get a lawyer to figure it out.

I am tired, depressed and so over all of this. Finally got a scale ( I know the least of my worries right?) and I haven't gained any weight despite my bad eating. I'm getting that under control though for the most part. There have been days that I just can't seem to wrap my mind around doing anything and the weather here is not helping. The kids seem to be doing okay though.

Donna, it's nice that someone let you use the cottage. I hope you find a place that's suitable for you and your family. You don't need to be worrying about your weight right now, but the stress probably kept you from gaining. I am praying that God brings you a solution.

Trish, I didn't know you could change things on MFP. I will have to check that out because I would like to see fiber without having to go look for it. I know I don't eat enough fiber.

I have to go help DH clean the dog's eyes. BBL.

Donna I am so sorry. Years ago DH#2 and I had a house in the country that we lived in for a number of years. Supposedly our house insurance was paid within our mortgage payment so we were paying it, or so we thought. We had just sold our house and our house burned before the sale was finalized. Come to find out the mortgage company we were with was taking peoples insurance payments each month and pocketing them and we found out we had no insurance. They did settle with us with a very small amount and they took our house and land. We lost all our equity to purchase another house. I pray the Lord will help you to find what you can afford in a nice place that you will feel safe in and will child friendly so your whole family will be happy there. God has a way of taking a bad thing and making good out of it and I pray this will be true for y'all. :hug:

Momtopands There are a lot of wonderful ideas for breakfasts on keto sites. I don't have to eat total keto to use some of their recipes. Google Keto Recipes for Breakfast and you will find some great alternatives to eggs for low carb breakfast/meals.

I am rethinking Keto although I'm not sure I could do it 100%. One of the keto/low carb groups on FB had a great story yesterday about a man who was diabetic and on dialysis. He went on keto diet and the lady sharing it said she didn't know how strict he was with it, but he can now has feeling in his feet and he is so improved that he is going back to work as a driver. This really got my attention. I don't know how low I can with my carbs and be happy, but I think I will try to go by what that LC book for dummies says and eat only 3 starchy carbs a day which would be only 45 starchy carbs a day for now. I think low carb is the key to healthy living.

Trish, I don't think you can have good blood sugar control without eating low carb, but low carb is a general phrase. Some need to go lower with carbs than others, and each of us needs to find their own limit. Ketosis is difficult to achieve, at least for me. You have to eat Keto consistently for 3-10 days. I have the strips, but no matter how low carb I think I'm eating I have never shown ketosis on the strips. I can control my blood sugar with just limiting my carbs. I don't need to be in ketosis, but there are other factors to take into consideration.

We went and got our taxes done this morning. I always put it off to the last minute. We go to a local AARP group who does it free for senior citizens, low income. The bad part is it's Tues and Thurs AM. First come first served. Once they get a certain number of people they close the doors and you have to come back next time. We have only been turned away once.

In your post to Donna you said your house sold before the sale was final, and I think you meant your house burned before the sale was final. I just wanted to clarify that.