Today I read the part about salt and magnesium. I will say what it says but I don't know if I agree. It says Americans don't eat enough salt. We were told to keep sodium low which is wrong. It says that the body decides how much we need. If we don't eat enough, the body hangs on to what we have and we crave salty foods. If we have too much it releases it in the urine. Does anyone else have an opinion on that? It says that our soil is depleted of magnesium so we don't get enough. Also, low sodium causes magnesium to be low. Supplementation of magnesium is ok.

I have not had any problems with MFP but have only been on the website once recently. I open your Dad is in a pleasant mood tomorrow!!

Trish, do you still take the Tart Cherry Extract? I stopped taking it and now I'm wondering if that's why I'm not sleeping. I thought it was the Tylenol that was helping but now it isn't. I have tart cherry to last about a week. I ordered more but it won't be here until 11/7. I found it cheaper through Walmart.com. I hope it works as well.

Yes. I do. Not every night but most. Especially if I don't have to get up early the next day.

I took the Tart Cherry last night and slept well and feel rested. No tylenol. I went to bed around 10. We watched tv for a while and the last time I looked at the clock it was 12. I woke up at 2 and 4 but fell back to sleep right away both times. When I woke up at 7 I could not fall back to sleep so I got up. I have more of them than I thought so I might have enough to last until my new ones come.

FBG was 93. I am going to try to keep carbs very low today. Maybe I will make meatloaf for our dinner.

Carol Sue Glad the Tart Cherry Extract worked for you. I took one with 2 Tylenol last night because I felt like every muscle in my body was hurting. I slept until after 9 am this morning which is very rare for me lately. I've been waking up around 7:30 or 8 and have to get up. It was good to get the rest. I had stopped taking the TCE for a while but it helps me rest so well without that dragged out feeling the next day that sleeping pills leave me with. I will try to always keep them on hand.

I got up this morning and decided to just eat healthy and be sure I get my fiber in. I still can't change anything on MFP as for ratios so just using it as is. I'm thinking about trying Fitbit as I notice a lot of people use it. It is cold here now making me wonder if we are going to have a good cold winter this year. It actually feels like I remember the weather around the up coming holidays like we had when I was younger. Any way I had a nice heart healthy breakfast of oatmeal with Nutritional yeast and yogurt and pb for flavor and blueberries for my arteries.

DH is tired of eggs so I'm going to actually cook a meal today of salad, pork chop and veggies. I thought about potatoes with the skin for more fiber but decided to save that for another time. I will have the other half of the soup I had last night. This diet plan from the Bariatric clinic suggests an Atkins bar for a treat and they make one that tastes like a Baby Ruth bar. Funny I never cared for them before but I love this Atkins bar so I have decided to finish my main meal off with a cup of coffee and half of one of those. DS told me the other day that she has one of those at the end of every day. We both are hooked on them but it works for something sweet. BTW She is looking great. She has lost almost 50 lbs and she came walking in the beauty shop the other day and I was so proud of her. She not only looks better but was using her cane and walking much better than when she had had to use the walker. When DH sees her he is going to be so surprised and he may suggest I go to the clinic and get the shots. He knows I struggle so.

FBG was 110 this morning and my weight was 214. I've only lost .4 this week but the shame is that The week before the 214.4 I weighed 212. So far I'm just bouncing. I hope to do better this next week. I think tracking on MFP or on some app is key to my success. DS tracks on the bariatric clinics app. So maybe if I'm more consistent with it the more successful I will be.

Mad- Hope your fasting is going well and thank you for your kind words.
Carol- Glad to hear you got a good night's rest.
Trish- What great news about your sister!

Last week I had a normal FBS (barely, 98) and a lower but still to high BP. Quite unhappy with the scale this week as it is showing a pound gain from last week and my confirmed loss is in danger. Plus, it is three pounds above an unconfirmed lowest! I was feeling really good about my progress. However, I am really struggling with this set back. It seems I am unlikely to lose any weight this month- sigh! This is a pretty typical place for me to stall out. I don't want to and want to figure out a way to push through this. I was pretty careful with my eating last week. For snacks, I was having broccoli and bananas. In addition, I got all of my exercise in. I can tell I am hungry because all of my dreams last night were about food. In addition, I think about candy and soda a lot.

I saw the discussion on magnesium. I've heard too that it typical to be low in it. I have tried a couple of supplements but they really hurt my stomach.

Fall thread results summary: |

Pipsicle I am so sorry about the way things have gone this week. I know how you feel but don't let it derail you. It is just a blip and I've had the same feelings this week too although I'm not really sure why I am having such a problem since I'm not going through what you are with your job. It is true that this is where we have to just grin and bare it and just press through. Not easy but I still believe we will be rewarded if we do so.

A couple of years back I ended up in the hospital with infections and was extremely low on magnesium. When I got out of the hospital the doctor told me to take magnesium but I had a problem with potty issues due to the magnesium in the grocery store. I went on line and found there is a form of magnesium that I could buy from Amazon called Magnesium Gluconate 500. I take 2 of those a day now without all the stomach problems. You might want to try it and see if it helps you too. I'm sure you might find it from a health food store as well. I hope it will help you too.

Pipsicle I agree that you should not get discouraged. Just keep going and try to do better. It is all we can do because the
​​​​​alternative is to give up and we don't want to do that. Just do your best today, then do it again tomorrow.

I saw that you can also order the Magnesium Glutonate from Walmart.com and pick it up in the store. I order a lot of things from them that they don't have in the store. It comes fast and there's no shipping. Many times the price is lower than Amazon. I hear a lot about Magnesium but I don't like to take things if I don't know that I'm low. So I am undecided.

Congratulations to your sister. I know she has to put forth the effort. I don't think the shots did all that without her following the diet. It is mind over matter.

I slept good but not long. I got up at 4. I checked blood sugar and it was high so I think that is why I couldn't fall back to sleep. I took some G but that takes a while to work. I ate pumpkin pie last night so that was the culprit. Can't blame that on DH. He was already in bed.

I stayed up reading from a while then got hungry so I cooked some eggs. Later on DH got up. Then we both went back to bed and I slept til 10.

The next section of the book is about different countries where people live to a very old age and enjoy good health. These people have very little disease such as cancer, diabetes, dementia and obesity. It is believed that this is due to the diet they follow. High plant based with little animal protein. Some of these countries follow a diet high in yams which would be high in fiber. I don't know if it was the type of yams we have in the US, which are really sweet potatoes. True yams are not available here.

Someone on the LC forum is following the GO diet. I never heard of it but it is from 1999. It is low carb but high fiber in the form of vegetables. I think it didn't become popular because Atkins followers limit vegetables due to the carbs but I think the carbs in vegetables are insignificant. I am starting to believe that high vegetable consumption could be key to weight loss and good health.

Once again, this is just my personal.opinion.

Carol Sue I agree about the plant fiber being key to weight loss and according to the old diabetic book I have from years ago fiber is also the key to lower bs reading. I think we get so scared of it because we have made to believe low carb is low veggies too. I'm not 100% sure how to make it work but I do believe it can. What I read recently seemed to even lower the amount of fiber from what I had always read before. It seems to be lowered now to 21 from 29 for women. I'm not sure why. When I was growing up, I don't know if I even knew what a fiber was nor did my parents. I remember buying a book back in the early seventies about a man who observed people living long and writing about their high fiber diet, but it never took off. I do know that if I eat too high a fiber it causes me problems but I also know that if I don't eat enough I have problems. So it is necessary for me to learn what my body needs and meet it.

I will be glad when the time changes this weekend. I hope my sleeping will get more regular. I sleep but I also need to wake up at the same time everyday. I just like being more routine. I never know if I'm going to wake up 6:30 or 9 am. I guess as long as I rest which I do seem to do that is all that matter.

We went to Walmart today and got our meds and the vitamins we needed. We had to also pick up meds from Drs office that DH gets. I'm glad we could get all that done today since we are supposed to have rain the next 2 days and storms tomorrow. Turns out Daddy does have a UTI so they started him on an antibiotic this morning. He has finally started opening up and talking to me about how he is feeling so it is helpful that we can talk about his feelings. Hopefully now that he is on the antibiotic maybe he will not feel so bad emotionally as he feels better physically.

Now to relax for a while. Have a good evening.

Trish, I hope this antibiotic is what your Dad needs.

I think you have to start slow with fiber and increase it gradually. I don't know of anyone who got fat from eating too many vegetables.

I tracked on Fitday for years. I really liked it and still do but I switched to MFP because it syncs to my Fitbit but I don't like it. There are too many discrepancies in their database.

Doing my best to get my wayward trend under control. Yesterday and today have been under my calorie cap. Was really hungry most of yesterday. Today has been better. Still hungry a lot but it has been on and off. Pleased I made it to dinner without snacking. Hungry now so I may have a snack before bed. For today, I did a good job of balancing my carbs and protein as per my plan. I can see the "energy seeking behavior" returning and I have been making terrible choices as result. More than 700 calories yesterday were from sweets and I'm grateful I was able to stay within my calorie cap despite those poor choices.

Saw the discussion on fiber. There is some really interesting research on the gut biome and how it affects weight. Fiber is one of the things that has been shown to keep the gut biome balanced toward that of healthy weight subjects in the study,

Fingers crossed for luck to make good choices!

Hi all, this has been my busy time, but it was all planned and no problems, but thanks for caring.
DD convocation went well. She arrived Friday night, had the ceremony Saturday morning, and we went out for supper on Saturday, including several guests. Older DD suggested restaurant instead of caterer at the house, and I am so glad. I was working Saturday night and left early Sunday am for another delivery, so it was really busy and I would have been stressed and exhausted. this was I was busy but ok.
Yesterday was a long day of meetings in Toronto.
They have improved the commuter train schedule, and so DH dropped me at the train station and I was able to rest and read on the way in and home from my meetings. So much better than driving. I have driven sometimes because the trains were not convenient, but this fall they expanded the schedule so there are many options now. So that's a big improvement for many people who commute, either occasionally like me, or regularly.
I have actually gone back up to 156 as of this morning. All the eating and celebrating and not fasting lately is doing me in. I will not bother with trying to do anything different for the the being though. we are doing something tomorrow night for the birthdays and for Christmas, since older DD leaves on Friday for 3 months of "holiday fun" This includes scuba diving in the Red Sea in Egypt, holidaying in Spain with a friend, going to a ashram in India to study yoga, and I think January is still up for grabs but no doubt she will find something fun and interesting to do. We expect to see her again in February. If all goes will she will have the cruise ship job into the arctic again for the summer so our travel bug will just keep going.
After she leaves will be time enough to worry about diet and weight loss and getting back to normal before the Christmas holidays.
I have had a cold since Thursday night, but not too bad, a few sinus headaches and a scratchy throat, taking vitamin C and echinacea to help.

I have been catching up on posts and hope things continue to go well.
Pipsicle, I wonder if in addition to thyroid meds you would benefit from Kelp supplements or something that give you an iodine boost. I don't know if you need to check with your physician about that, but I sure hope you can find a way to power through this little setback and get to feeling better generally.

Blessings to everyone to stay well and have some losses before your American Thanksgiving.

Wow, Mad, your DD sure has an interesting social life! Certainly no shrinking violet! And I mean that in a good way. I'm sure you are very proud of her. Congratulations to her on her accomplishments.

Pipsicle, I'm sorry to hear you are having problems with hunger. Sweets will do that even when they are within your calorie allotment. In comparison, protein and fat tend to curb hunger. I am not preaching to you, as I know this from my own experience. I've been having my own issues with sweets, thus my recent gain and blood sugar issues. The body seems to know that the sweets contain no nutrients so it causes hunger, hoping you will eat something to give it what it needs.

Speaking of sweets, my FBG was 130 this morning thanks to the pumpkin pie. I am not even crazy about it so I don't understand why I'm doing this. I should probably only make one when it's just for DH like this. I am eating it just because it's there. Even DH who loves it doesn't need 2 pies. I automatically bought the big can of pumpkin which makes 2 pies. I should have kept that one for Thanksgiving.

I was having a lot of heart palpitations occurring when I lie on my side. I think it's caused by dehydration. If I have potty issues I seem to get the palpitations that night. I have been drinking the electrolyte water and no palpitations last night.

We are having temps In the low 70s but rain is supposed to move in in a few days and take it down in the 40s. Here comes winter. November is the anniversary of when DH fell and broke his hip, so I hope things to better this year.