Carol Sue So glad things went well with DGS.

I didn't eat enough at my evening meal/snack because I wasn't that hungry however, I have to admit that later I got so hungry. Although it was such a struggle, I actually made it through the evening without giving in and eating. So I now have made it through 3 days successfully.

Thank you everyone for all of the encouraging words!

I had many tick marks in the right column but it didn't translate to the scale. In fact, I bounced back up - grrr. Hope everyone has a great week!

Trish, congrats on 3 days in a row of IF. Great going. Over time getting through the hungriest gets a little easier. And you don't notice as much.
I am going to recommend both you and Pipsicle try the waist measurements. Lots of people see changes in belly measurements even before the scale changes.
So don't despair Pipsicle. Get a baseline measurement if you have not already done so.
I am going to try one of the moderators challenges, so thats fasting today and feasting tomorrow. then repeat. I have not managed more than one EF fast per week. (beyond the 18 hr of IF). I am not sure I'm ready, but if I was ever ready, its likely now. Just a kick before my trip, as I won't do any EF then, but do plan to stick to some form of IF.
I am thinking of lunch and supper, but I may pack the lunch at the airbnb before we go out for the day.

I also report I have a GREAT sleep last night. I managed to get into the settings of my CPAP and lowered my pressures by 1 point. It had been at 9, higher than I thought, I lowered to 8, to see how that did for me. I didn't want to go too low too fast. I slept 4 hours and woke for the bathroom, and put it on again, (lately I have not been replacing it at this point of the night) and slept until 630. so 7.5 hours over all and good quality sleep too. Felt wonderful. It will take the rest of the week to see if this will be just right for me, but it seems the insomnia itself is much better and the night waking was fine, so if this continues I will be doing well.

We will be packing today, the laundry is basically done now, unless something else comes up in the next couple of days. If we pack now, we have time to think of new things and see how the weight settles. We are to take some things for our daughter, but will be bringing them back, I think. So I won't be leaving stuff behind to make up for the shopping I might do. I am taking some wine and maple syrup for host gifts but will likely replace that weight with scotch. We are to buy at least one bottle for our neighbour who is a collector.

Carol: I am so glad your experience hosting your grandson has been more positive, probably for both of you! thats great. You won't be dreading the next visit, and can enjoy his company more.

We had a great time at the pumpkin farm. There was a large activity and play area, so those little girls spent 2 hours playing outside. First we did the giant corn maze, (that was over 30 minutes, ) then just lots of play, climbing and running. So any hyperactive tendencies were spent. finally, we got to do some "pumpkin launching" like big slingshots for mini pumpkins, which was hilarious, with the little one doing better than the rest of us. Then we picked our pumpkins and went home for tea and hot chocolate. They played nicely at home and I stayed for another hour or so, and got to read a story. One goal was quality nice time with the youngest. She is transitioning out of nap time, and has been grumpy a lot, the last few times I saw her, so I wanted some fun with her, with less grumping, so total success on that level.

All in all, I am in a great mood right now, and looking forward overall.

Hoping for a good week for all of us.

Mad, I would like to know how you adjusted your CPAP. When I had my last sleep study they increased mine and it seemed like too much pressure at first, but then I think I adjusted to it, but sometimes it still seems like too much. It's hard for me to tell. Also, I got a new machine now. I thought I read somewhere that this new machine adjusts the pressure automatically to what you need. I will have to read up on that, too. They didn't give me too much info when I got it, just showed me how to use it. And I have a very hard time understanding the doctor. I just say "Uh, huh" and nod my head. LOL

EDIT: I googled and found a lot of instructions for adjusting my particular machine. I have bookmarked it and will go back to it when I have time.

Trish, I think it's GREAT how well you are doing with IF, not to eat, even though you felt a little hungry. One of the women on the LC forum has a quote in her siggy "Hunger is not an emergency." And that's true. Look how many times people have to fast for medical procedures. After the doctor had me on that 6 day fast in the hospital I realized that you can get through it as long as you're drinking enough fluid. Years ago I didn't realize I was fasting. I just used to try to go longer without eating. I noticed if I got busy doing something I forgot about it. It's like your stomach is thinking "Well, I guess I should just get over it. She's NOT going to give me anything." LOL

Yesterday my step-daughter and I had a screaming match over money issues. Poor DH was stuck in the middle. He agrees with me that by age 50 she should have learned to take responsibility for herself, but he was keeping quiet and I just couldn't. She stomped out and told DH "See you next year." I don't think she means that, but I told him that next year is only a couple months away. Her birthday is Wednesday. I was going to bake her a cake that she loves, that her grandmother baked for years and years. After yesterday, I told DH I was not making her the cake, but after a good night's sleep I have reconsidered and will make it. She is still his daughter, and this was about her poor life management skills, and had nothing to do with her birthday. When we married, I made a vow that I would never interfere in his relationship with his kids, and I still feel that way. I don't want her to take this out on him.

I am the only one in the family who has the recipe for this cake. Once I am gone, no one will ever get to taste this cake ever again. No one else kept up the family traditions. This might be the last one ever.

carol: glad you decided to make the cake anyhow, but maybe have DH take it to her.
It must be hard to stay out of things, and I can guess it all started with her asking for money for "a very good reason".
And that DH doesn't say no, but it affects you too and you felt the need to step up. Maybe you could frame that he is the issue, as much as her. Its very hard when you do not have your own kid issues too. I'm sorry things had to go that way.
In my own marriage, DH not stepping up for me, or for US even has been an issue from time to time over the years.
You are not alone, and hope things will settle out ok.
hugs

Got a really busy day today so will have to make this kind of a quick check in.

I've really been thinking about the "Facelift Friday" thing on the FB Dr. Fung group. I don't really want to do a strict low carb especially keto, but I have decided to do more low carb than not. I really like the way the inches come off when you eat less carbs. Almost make a CAD like woe look good.

mad I found my measuring tape and measured my waist and plan to use that more. It seems like it really doesn't matter whether you eat low carb or low calorie/lowfat, I've noticed the weight seems to come off slow any what, however, I do remember when my size of clothes were smaller than what I thought it would be when compared to my waist when I did Atkins. I wish I could do Atkins again, but just don't think I want to do carbs that low any more. I did join a FB low carb recipe group hoping I might be able to get some new ideas on recipes.

Pipsicle, Carol Sue and others: :wave:

DH is going to be ready to walk out the door in a few minutes so I better close off. Catch y'all later.

Have a great day.

Mad, ours is not a typical step-parent relationship. She lived with us. Her mother was out of the picture so I raised her from a young age.

This started in 1992 when she got married. She and her fiance spent the money they had saved for the wedding and also the money his father had given them toward the wedding. We didn't find out until it was time to pay, so DH and I had to cover it or cancel the wedding. It was not a small sum. She told me that the parents are supposed to pay for the wedding. I did some screaming then, too. LOL It has continued over the years. A few times it was due to unemployment and couldn't be helped, but most times it was irresponsibility. DH is OK with this. He understands what she does. Yesterday her husband called and asked DH what happened because she was crying and couldn't/wouldn't tell him. After DH told him what happened he said "I don't know why she did that. We have money." I won't go into details, but I know her, and I know why she did it. She never listened when I talked calmly to her. I had to scream to get myself heard. She might be mad at me, but she will remember this the next time. The day will come when we will be gone and she will have no one to come to for money. She has to learn to handle it responsibly.

Trish, measuring my waist is not helpful. Because I had those two abdominal surgeries my abdomen is way distended. I look 7 months pregnant. When I lost that 10-12 lbs recently I can see it in my face and around my neck and shoulders, but my waist still protrudes. I don't think that will ever change.

Carol Sue So sorry about the disagreement with your step-daughter. I know my step-daughter that I raised would live closer to me but we get along so much better now than we did when we lived together. I always thought I had become her enabler. I think DH and I both did that with his daughter too. Of course, we don't have the money we once had when we first married and after we sold our house in FL.

Mad When do you leave on your trip? I think you will do very well with your eating. I like the way Dr. Fung says to worry about fasting when on traveling and just get right back to it when you get home. In fact, I think the way Dr. Fung teaches us to do this makes it so easy without a lot of pressure or guilt.

I noticed in the TOC book that one of the samples of fasting was to fast every other day. I would like to work up to doing that someday. I also read where someone on the group had fasted 60 hrs.

I ended up doing a 2MAD today with 6 hrs between the 2 meals because it was after 5 pm before we got home and was able to eat. We stopped and got burgers at Burger King. I got a double burger with onion only so I was able to come home and put my own lettuce, tomato and extra onion with mustard and Light mayo on it. That way I was able to shave off some of the calories with the light mayo and the 2% cheese I put on it.

DH likes eating earlier everyday, but if I could eat later everyday, I could get by with eating only 2 meals. I've thought of things I would like to eat tonight, but I wasn't tempted because I knew it was just a desire not a hunger. Drinking water is really helping to keep me from being hungry. I drink my 2 cups of coffee in the morning and after lunch I have a glass of 2% milk and finish it up with a special cup of TX Pecan coffee. The only think I drink other than that is water.

I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight.

Good night friends.

Trish, we became enablers with my step-daughter but that was because I wanted to let DH make the decision of what to do. I didn't want to appear to be the wicked step mother. But she learned how to manipulate her Dad. For me, it wasn't that I didn't want to help her, but wanted her to learn how to stand on her own two feet and be responsible. For her, she seemed to feel that she could squander her money any way she wanted and it didn't matter because she could always go to Dad and get money. Plus, she only comes around for Holiday dinners or when she wants something. She never even calls her Dad just to see how he's doing. When he was in the hospital, she didn't even go to see him. She called him and said "Do I have to come?" Of course, he told her no. When I see her number come up on the caller ID I start thinking "How much does she want" because it's never anything good. Her husband used to drive a cement truck, and when the weather was rainy or snowy he didn't work, so we had to help them out a lot through that. But now he has a really good job and makes a lot more money. Now that we are retired, we don't have the money we had when we were working. I have money in an IRA but that is for us for emergencies. Since we are older, medical emergencies can arise. It's not a lot of money but we don't touch it. She doesn't know we have that money or she'd be after it. Just because we have extra money doesn't mean we should give it to her.

When my MIL died, my BIL sold the old house. He only got $4,000 for that house. It was over 100 years old and in a bad neighborhood. When she found out he got that money, it sounded like a lot to her. She went to him and asked him to "loan" her money to pay a car payment, but "don't tell my Dad." So the house money was in the bank. He gave her his credit card and say she could make the payment on his credit card. She took the card home and made the car payment, but then she wrote down the number of the card and the next month she used it to pay her electric bill and also the next month's car payment. When he saw that on the bill he called the credit card company and they told him that he would have to file charges against the person who did it or pay the bill, so he didn't want her to go to jail, so he paid it. But then he told DH what she did. DH told him he never should have let her have that card. Plus she never paid him back all that money. DH asked her why she did it and she said he told her she could. What he said to her was "Anytime you need money you can use my card." He meant come and tell me, but she took it to mean she could just use that card number any time she wanted. She swears he told her she could do it, but he is poor. No one in their right mind would give someone their credit card number and tell them to use it whenever they wanted.

Also, she used to work at the fireman's club, and her other uncle was on the board of directors. She took money out of the deposit and used it for a car payment. They found out the money was missing and asked her about it but she said she intended to pay it back. Her uncle covered for her and told her she could pay it back in payments and they wouldn't press charges, but she ended up quitting the job and never paying it back. Her uncle just let it go. He told us all this after the fact, but when DH asked her about it, she denied it. We believe her uncle. He has no reason to lie, and it sounds like something she would do.

So, this is not just me being mean and not helping her. She knows how to manipulate, and you have to be on your toes.

Hi everyone:
Made it through the fast yesterday, feasting starts with lunchtime. I am going out to sing tonight, and will plan to eat at the restaurant there. Its a crepe place, and they have a gluten free crepe, and will do whatever filling I like. yum. That with a nice salad will be great.
I leave Friday night Trish. You are right, I do not plan to be too careful on the trip. I will have to be careful about gluten and citrus like always, and if I stick with some form of 2MAD I should be fine. I always walk a lot while travelling. If you remember, in spite of drinking some wine and eating some desserts while I was in Portugal, I lost a couple of pounds to me great surprise. I will settle for not gaining more than a pound or two, but we shall see. I will be fasting on the travel days each way. I have found it works better than trying to get special food, and airline food is crummy anyhow. I have terrible motion sickness, so being empty is actual easier and the Gravol works better.
Slept fairly well last night, I was awake for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, but that is common when fasting. I slept a little late this morning. But the CPAP is so much better with that adjustment, I am not waking up because of discomfort, and I sleep longer before the first time up to use the washroom. More dreams too.
Carol: I am glad you figured out how to adjust yours. I wish I had posted in a few places about that sooner. I have been held hostage by the sleep lab and their poor business practices. So I am excited to take back control of my sleep. This was the final piece of the insomnia puzzle. I also was not upset or bothered by the slight insomnia last night. It used to get me worried, fearing I would be too tired to get through the day, and that kept me from sleeping well the next night, and into bigger problems. I seem to be over that. Knowing that it happens with fasting will help me time my fasts when working so that I won't fast nights before a busy day etc.
I am sorry about the situation with your step-daughter. Is she the only one? or did she also have older siblings?
My husband's parents had 5 boys, and 2 had a lot of financial help from my in-laws. I get that, some of your kids need more help than others. My younger daughter, for instance, has had more help as an adult and with schooling than the older one got. She does need it, and we can help.
But what my FIL did was list some of the money he gave those two as loans, to be deducted from their final inheritance.
He died first though, and MIL did not agree, and willed even division. My other BIL were pretty steamed and felt it was unfair. But personally, I had no problem. But oddly the widow of one always felt her family did not get a fair share. I stay in touch with her and the other "needy" brother. That brother has real mental health issues, and is close to my younger daughter. His kids are really lovely, and years ago I wanted him in our lives to ensure we could stay close to those kids. We are the only family members they stay in touch with now.
Families are difficult at the best of times. Just like Trish and issues with her younger sister.
I know my younger daughter has difficulty with money, and hope that her treatment will assist her to make that better. Once they are adults, they don't "have to" listen to us as parents.
All this has nothing to do with weight loss support I guess, but our families affect our mood for sure, and that affects our eating. I hope I am getting past stress eating. I am not past the urge to binge on Hallowe'en candy when I smell it at the grocery store. These are difficult days to go shopping.
Ahh well, DH, wants to chat, ttfn

Looks like everybody has someone in their family who needs more help than others and I have no problem helping someone when they need it, however, I think you have to be sure you are helping and not enabling them. Previous DH and I have had people help us when we needed it and we in turn helped others when we had it to help people in need. I really think in some cases it needs to be done more in love because you have it and can.

I remember one time when my baby sister and her hubby were having problems financially and so was my son I had given up for adoption who came around back then. DH#2 and I were making good money and were able to give both a certain amount of money each month to get them through until they got back on their feet. It was never a loan, but just the fact that we could help them like someone had done for us. When we lived in the country a farmer loaned us a big tank that DH pulled behind his truck and put water in it so we could have bath and dish water while our well was being re-dug. When we gave it back and offered to pay for the use of it, he just said "In the country, when a neighbor needs help you meet that need if you can. The way you pay it back is to be there when you see someone in need and you can meet their need, you do it". So that kind of became our way of life.

When I married DH and his DD 1st husband left her, we had just sold our house so we payed for her divorce and payed some of her bills. I told DH not to expect her to pay it back because we knew she couldn't. I felt if it was a loan that it would just cause more problems in the future because she could never pay it back. My parents never helped me with money, but they gave DS the money to pay down on her first house and when her DH left her and the kids Daddy payed for her divorce. He threw that at her for years. Believe me she has more than payed him back a long time ago. She is the one who pays for a lot of things for him now. He gave baby sister everything she wanted and then because he has no money he blames her and her DH for him not having any money. But when she and I met him for the ultrasound, he gave her all the money in his pocket and told her he was sorry he didn't have more to give her. He told me about it and told me not to tell DS. I've never told DS about it because I know it would really hurt her with all that she and BIL spend on him. He wouldn't have a cell phone if it weren't for them. They always joke about BIL being Daddy's and DS sugar daddy. Since baby sister and her DH never payed back money to them it is best I don't tell them. I learned years ago to stay out of all their stuff.

Than God I don't owe him anything. What I buy for him or do for him is strictly out of love as well as the fact that it is the right thing to do out of "respect and honor" for our parents. It is best to do what you can do and forget the rest.

Carol Sue and Mad So glad y'all have got your CPAP's adjusted for better rest. I am learning that getting to bed a little earlier and getting a good nights sleep is a big help. I am sleeping so much better now that I'm not eating snacks at night. I went to bed around 1 am and I didn't wake up to go to the toilet until 5:30 this morning and went back to sleep and got up around 8:30. So I got a good nights sleep and got up ready to go.

I decided to look at the Atkins Diet Made Easy book to see what she recommends to eat for breakfast etc. One of the breakfast samples was 2 eggs, 2 oz bacon, or ham or pork chop and a tomato, or greens like spinach or kale. I remember when tomatoes were not allowed on low carb diets. So I decided that to have 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon and 1/2 banana wasn't really a bad choice. So that is what I had for breakfast. We are having cod fish for dinner.

I actually enjoyed having just 2 meals yesterday. I like eating brunch at 11ish. Since DH likes to eat dinner at 3ish which would give me a 4:20 ratio so I am going to try to do that more days than not. FBS was back down below 150s and weight back down to 220. Hopefully it will continue to go down. This is probably why I need to think more about using the measuring tape. I hope the weight will continue to come down, but I have to get my brain around this to so I don't get derailed.

Mad, I did not adjust my CPAP. I just found and bookmarked the instructions on how to do it. I'm not even sure I need to, but would like to try and see if there's a difference, then be able to change it back if necessary.

DH has a son who is 2 years older. The only time we had to help him was after his first wife left and left him with all the bills. He was able to watch his pennies and get all his bills paid, but we helped him with food. When his wife left, she told him he could have the house and everything, she just wanted out. We told him "Run, don't walk to the attorney and get this in writing before she realizes what she did." He listened and she didn't get anything. She had a rich boyfriend waiting in the wings and didn't need it.

There were times that I struggled, and also times that DH and I struggled, but we just had to scrimp. We had no one to turn to. Everyone was maxed out back then. The thing that saved us was when I lost my job in 2000. I got a big severance package for 33 years of service, plus all the vacation time I didn't use. I paid off our house, cars and credit cards. Every time we struggled something came up. God has always taken care of us. Now on SS we have enough to get by, but we're far from rich.

My weight is coming back down again. I wish it would stop fluctuating and just come down, but I can't expect to get more than I give.

Yay! I finally made it down into my exercise room for a 30 minute session. It was a mixture of the Pilates Chair, The Ab Doer, the recumbent bike and the treadmill. DH put a light up in the beams above the treadmill, but the readout on this treadmill is in a different location from the old treadmill so he is going to move the light for me so I can better see the numbers. It's now in a shadow.

I forgot to put my knee brace on. It's ok now, but might be achy tomorrow. I also have to take another pair of shoes down there to wear when I use the recumbent bike. The shoes I wear are wider across the front and don't want to fit in the pedal. The shoes I wear on the bike don't have to be hard supportive shoes. I'm into this!!

Carol Sue Great you are getting into the exercise room. I'm also did some exercise this morning too. This makes 2 days this week although I only did 15 minutes instead of 20, but at least I did it. Hopefully the housework I did makes up for the 5 minutes or I might just do the bike later just to get the 5 minutes done.

My plan is to fast now until brunch or dinner tomorrow. I'm kind of learning to take it one day at a time and decided each day whether I want to do OMAD, 2MAD or 3 meals or 2 and a snack. It seems to go easier that way because if I plan it, I mess up and have to deal with feeling like a failure.

Mad I forgot to wish you a safe trip. Have a great time with DD.