Carol Sue That was what my Daddy used to do with Dorritos. His blood pressure would go up and then we would go on the roller coaster of up and down to try to get it regulated. He did the same thing when he went to live in the nursing home. When they took him to Walmart once a week, he would always buy chips and candy. I too love chips especially Fritos and Ruffles, but I swell so bad that I just don't buy them any more. DH doesn't swell but his bs goes up.

I ended up going to Walmart to get a few things. DH insisted my hair wasn't as bad as I thought and it did finally lie down in the back. I think I remember how we use to do it years ago with tape. I'm sure my beautician will be too busy for a perm before the end of the year so I will see if I can figure out a way to get it to do like I want it to.

We ended up eating tacos from Taco Bell. I've been hungry for cottage cheese so I got FF cottage cheese and had it for supper. The bad thing is that now that I've had the serving, I probably want want it again for quite some time. It usually goes bad and I have to throw it out. Any way I ate within 7 hrs today so I'm through eating for today.

Trish, it actually was Doritos that raised his BP. He bought both Doritos and Fritos. He used to buy low salt chips but then he switched. That was his mistake. I need to guide him back to the low salt chips. I don't like any of those. Not even chips. The same as I don't like sweet, I also don't like salty. I think I just like a bland taste because I don't like sauces or gravies on my meat except maybe just a taste. When I eat pasta, I just like a little sauce. I never thought about it til now. Occasionally I will feel that my body needs salt so I will eat a few of whatever salty snack he has.

DH just got a call that an old friend of his died of covid. This guy had had his spleen removed and that made him more susceptible. If he could have hung on for awhile he could have received the vaccine and he might be alive. He was in his 60s.

Trish, I don't care how my hair is when I go to the store, especially now with a mask on. People are interested in themselves. They don't care about your hair. I know you always want to look nice but its never as bad as you think it is. I have also stopped wearing make up. I think I look fine and my opinion counts! LOL

Carol Sue I always thought it was funny would say that he and Mama never used salt even cooking or at the table. He would cover his food with black pepper. But then he would sit and eat almost a whole bag of chips with all that salt. I do use a little salt but moderately. I just don't want the problems that comes from eating too much.

I'm sorry about your husband's friend. It is a shame he couldn't have lived to take the vaccine. DH says that if they announce that the vaccine is free that we will probably take it. I kind of want to see how people respond to it before I decide to take it. So we will see.

Trish, I lightly salt food when I cook but DH puts salt on his food before he even tastes it. He says he knows it doesn't have enough salt. He is the same that he will eat salty snacks right after dinner. Yesterday the chili needed more salt but I didn't add any. The canned tomatoes have sodium. It tasted bland but he probably added salt. My eggs yesterday tasted bland, too from not enough salt.

So far a few people have had a reaction to the vaccine, but I'm wondering about the long term effects. How long does it keep you safe? They don't know. The virus keeps mutating. It could mutate to another strain like the seasonal flu does. And the vaccine could be harmful long term. We don't even get a flu shot, but we never get the flu now that we aren't working. We don't spend a lot of time around people. I think our immune systems are strong. We grew up in an era when people did normal day to day cleaning but did not use sanitizer like they are used now. Most bugs are good bugs that your body uses to kill bad bugs. Too many sanitizer kill the good bugs that you need. When I was a kid, we would get dirty playing and then come home to eat without washing our hands. We were fine. I didn't get sick much as a kid but I would pretend I was sick to stay home from school. LOL. So we are careful, but whatever happens will happen. I know DH will never take the vaccine but I might. Our hospital has started vaccinating its employees. I know my doctor is going to tell me to take it, but I don't see him until June.

Now the bad news. Last Friday I was 190.8. Today I am 193.2. I didn't eat cookies and don't think I over ate that much. Every time I get to 190 I bounce back up. It doesn't matter if I weigh daily or weekly. But I will keep going. Sometimes I think my lows are due to dehydration. Then when I hydrate I bounce back up. I don't want to be dehydrated. Its not healthy and has nothing to do with body fat. My body does not want to let go of this insulation! Once Christmas is over I will get back to exercising. I don't think exercise does much for weight loss but I do think it is very important for health. I sit too much. 2021 will be my year. If you look back, I think you will see that last year I said the same thing about 2020. LOL. But the only alternative to looking forward is to stop trying, and I will never stop trying.

I just looked back to my posts from last year at this time and I was not posting my weight, so that means it was not good. I think on another forum I posted that I was 192 on 1/1, so I just maintained this year. I was supposed to lose 1 lb a week and be at goal.

Carol Sue A week ago I weighed 186.2 and today I am up to 188.6 I don't think I did anything crazy either. I think we have to be thankful that this year we have gotten under 200 and we haven't given up and quit and neither one of us will. Next week is Christmas and I want to enjoy it without worrying about it. I am planning to do a minimum of things that is considered off, but I am going to do it carefully. Then the day after Christmas I will get really serious about weight loss again. The main thing I want to do for the next week is to stay where I am.

Headed to beauty shop and store. BBL

Trish, since no one is coming to our house I am only having a ham and scalloped potatoes with a vegetable. No dips and spreads for snacking like I usually have. So it will really not be any different than any other day and will depend on how much food I choose to eat, like every other day. Nothing special. We eat our pork and sauerkraut on New Years Eve for dinner, so that will also be like any other day. There is really no reason for me to gain.

The Christmas cookies are finished. I hope to pack them up tonight and distribute them tomorrow. I didn't make the no-bakes. The recipe is really strange and I don't think they would fit in with the rest of the cookies. They are like raw cookie dough. Ill try them some other time. There were more I could have made but this is enough.

Carol Sue When Hubby #2 was diagnosed with CHF, the doctor told me "If he uses the shaker at the table, don't cook with but if he won't use the shaker then you can cook with it". I guess that is why it was hard for me to get used to using salt when I cook. It always amazes me when I watch cook shows how much they call a pinch of salt when salting their foods. It would be way to much for me.

I got a small precooked small ham like we got at Sam's last time we bought it but this one has less sodium and fat per serving so that it is 0 pts on SF plan. Even though I don't plan to worry about the pts when I'm eating Christmas day, I do want to be careful so that it isn't so difficult when I get back OP. I plan to make a low pt potato salad since potatoes serving is 0 pts the only thing I will have to count on it will be sweet relish unless I make DH with it and save out my portion and make mine with dill relish then it will be 0 pts. I will probably serve broccoli with it. We could have corn since it is 0 pts per serving, but I am old school and that is still is another starch not a regular veggie. DBIL is off Wednesday and DS mentioned us going out together and DH birthday is Christmas Eve so Wednesday would be a good day for us to go to the steak house to celebrate Christmas and his BD together. They have ham left over from the Thanksgiving dinner she ordered already cooked. She said they plan to eat it for Christmas day. They left today to go spend the weekend with her DD and SIL.

My niece and her 2 little boys are coming over. I got the vegetable tray again that they liked so well. I will make the Pigs in a blanket to go with it and I bought a small container of Christmas cookies and I have some individual applesauce that they can eat here or take home. I bought it at Walmart and it says no sugar added but I got unsweetened at the local store. I know the unsweetened is 0 pts and I'm not sure the NSA is too. Save those pts where I can.

I have't been exercising like I should but I got a work out today. The walking at the store and sweeping and mopping doesn't wear me out but I vacuumed the living room and I forgot how hard it is to use that thing because it is so heavy. DH does the vacuuming but he didn't do it last night so I decided I could do it. He does the hard part of cleaning under the furniture and moving things out of the way but I didn't even do all that and I am worn out. WOW.

I've got everything done that I am going to do until I have to prepare and cook the pigs in the blankets. I bought tv dinners for lunch and I will make DH a salad and make cold slaw for me for 0 pts. I sure am missing my Daddy and yet glad he isn't here with all the politics like it is. He would be so angry about it all. He already wondered why he went to war because he felt it was a waste of his time. So it is a blessing that he isn't here, but still it is our first year without him. They firsts are always the hardest while we adjust. I still feel blessed regardless of how things turn out. Just so sorry for so many who have lost loved ones this year whether from Covid or something else. It is hard no matter what. I know a lot who are going through losses and one of my nephew's ex-wife's brothers is fighting for his life right now. Don't know what happened but sounds like he may have been in an accident. I pray 2021 will be nicer to us.

Have a good day.

Trish, what I buy is a bone in precooked ham but I bake it. For years I have bought it at the store where I buy my ground meat. It is their store brand and we like it. It might be no different than any other but it seems like it's tastier to us. I have made potato salad for years but now that I learned how to make good scalloped potatoes I'm doing that this year. I'm looking forward to our simple dinner just the two of us.

I'm going to weigh again tomorrow. I might have figured out why my weight is up today. TMI.
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Carol Sue I usually buy the bone in ham, but I couldn't find one small enough just for the 2 of us and DH decided he liked the small one that is sliced from Sam's but it has too much sodium. So I found one at the local store and hope it is good. I will have my air fryer by then and I will still put the pineapple and cherries around it , season and cook it the same as I would he larger one. I like scalloped potatoes and potato au gratin but DH doesn't like it. He does like chunky potato salad like I like it and now that Daddy is no longer here and it is just the 2 of us I can make it that way. My Daddy and family like it made with whipped potatoes southern style which I like too but the chunky is my favorite. My Daddy thought it was terrible because I should have loved it the way Mama and his Grandmother made it. LOL

I know how you feel. I told DH today that we have this time with my niece and little G-nephews and the only other thing we have to do it go our with DS and BIL to celebrate DH birthday and then we are free to be just us and that is nice because I won't be under any pressure to do anything except what we want o do and when.

Edited to share that WW just wrote me offering me 2 free months then if I don't cancel during those 2 months I will continue paying. So I decided to do it. I don't know how low carb will work with Purple plan but I saw someone else on the FB that I think was the purple group who is doing keto. So if you can do a low fat keto then I should be able to do a low fat low carb on it.

Trish, I think you are already doing away with sugar and you don't seem to eat much bread. Do you want to limit your grains? They seemed to help you so much. I'm glad WW offered you the free months because I'm really afraid if you stray from WW you might not do as well. You might surprise me!

I still eat corn sometimes. I have left behind the rules about foods that should or should not be eaten on a diet. No food is off limits. I consider the nutrition of a food and have lost interest in chips, pretzels, sweets. They have no nutrition. When I say food, I mean nutritional food, not frankenfood. So its about quality and quantity. I am not losing, true, but I believe as I reduce quantity by only eating when hungry and stopping when hunger is satisfied I will lose slowly. My weight used to bounce higher up but now it's staying closer to 190. I believe the day will come when I start to see more 180s. As I learn not to stuff myself I am happier. I get so depressed when I know I over ate and can feel it. I feel so much better when I feel my stomach growl a bit. It took me 10 years to get from 217 to now but I know I will never go back to that. I felt stuffed every day back then and never knew what hunger felt like. I was eating 3 full meals, plus snacks, then something at night, every night. Lots of baked goods. When I had my heart surgery is when I was diagnosed with full diabetes, not pre. I am happy that I have made these changes and improvements but I want to continue. I don't criticise those who stick to a plan because it works for them. It just doesn't work for me. I am tired of food controlling me. I want food to be my fuel and I want my happiness to be from how I feel, not from what I ate.

Things might be different if I lived alone. DH will not change. He wants certain foods so I'm better off eating what he wants and eating to hunger. So have finally stopped eating fried potatoes. I grew up on them but they just don't taste good to me anymore. I eat baked, mashed or scalloped in small portions because I still like them. I still like pasta but secretly I'm glad that DH doesn't want it because I'm better off without it. I easily overeat pasta. DH is starting to eat more vegetables which is good. Trish, if your DH does not like scalloped potatoes you are better off without them. You cannot make one serving. I am tired of potato salad but DH still likes it,but he likes scalloped better. I just learned how to make them.

So we will all figure out what is best for each of us. We are all different and have to make our own way.

I wonder where Mad is? I'm getting worried.

Hi friends: seem to have a set point of 158 these days, have been the same several days in a row, which is good because I was eating the last two days.
I plan to fast today. I have not always fasted when I planned to. So I am not down before Christmas. But truly, its so different this year it does not really matter.
I had a virtual office party last night. One of my colleagues dropped of some hard cider for me, and there was a delivery from my favourite Indian restaurant, and we chatted about old times, new times, good times and bad. I was also happy because I talked about my health for less than a minute. Even I am bored with it.
I am on all these groups these days, 3FC and two celiac groups, and now a Sjogren's group and a new group for weight loss. Its too much. I am going to drop a lot of that. But it has made me bored of talking about health.
The big issue right now is I have tentatively self diagnosed my knee pain as a torn meniscus (cartilage) in my "good" knee. (the one I didn't mess up 35 years ago with torn cartilage, a broken bone and several torn ligaments). This has been affecting me walking and sometimes give me pain in the night affecting my sleep. The pain started a while back, and was getting worse instead of better. I totally rested it for 24 hours and am now just doing one dog walk a day, with DH doing the others.
Also have been doing some nursing care for a neighbour, and dog sitting for another neighbour who is in hospital with pneumonia (not Covid19 related).
So we are busy enough. I am going to wear a knee brace for the next while and see if that helps more.
No big plans for the next few days, Will have both DDs around on Christmas Day. Thats about all the plans.
Have a good day friends.

Fatmad Good to hear from you but sorry about your knee. I hope the knee brace helps it. We do miss hearing from you when you stay away so long, but it is good that you are busy. It will help your transition to retirement to be easier.

Carol Sue Yesterday I kept thinking about today being my last day of my WW membership and wondering if I was making the right decision and felt uneasy about it all day. They had made an offer of one month free in the beginning and DS had said they offered her two months, but she turned it down because she never used it. But then I have so when I checked my email and they offered me 2 months, I decided to take it. One thing it does for me is it keeps me moving because I like earning those fit points that I don't use. I don't believe it helps with weight loss but I do need to keep exercising. I am learning a lot about the SF and using it along with the Purple plan. I know a lot of people on Purple do not track things that are 0 pts. They don't even show that they eat those things in their tracking and I think that is because it doesn't always track it correctly sometimes. So I've decided that I can do the same thing. In fact, some people who do SF count Smart Points instead of the old Plus Points for their weeklies. So I could do that. I can track all the 0 pts on my Simply Filling plan and track only the Weekly SP foods that are not 0 pts on the WW. That way I can learn and become more confident in what I am doing with the SF plan. I want to stay on SF because I don't want to have to count my lean meats just because some of them are dark meat that I will be cooking in the air fryer. I think doing SF will help me to become more Mindful/IE woe.

DH seems to favor French fries, hash browns and mashed potatoes. When I get the air fryer, I can cook all those in it and they will be 0 pts per serving for me and cook his in oil like he likes it. He does like some pasta dishes, but I usually cook regular for him and cook the 0 pts pasta for me. So all this is very doable for us I just have to do it. Today is chipped beef day, DH will have his on biscuits like he likes it and I will have it on 0 pt elbow pasta for only 5 pts. I am going to start eat fruit for dessert like I see a lot of people on FB SF group do.

Things went well with my niece and the little boys. They are so cute and it is so neat how the little one will come up and just give me a big hug considering how he used to cry if he thought I was going to come near him. The oldest is just as special in his own way but he is at the age he is getting away from that. I love knowing that they like their Daddy and his brothers when they were little get so excited when they know they are "going to see Aunt Pat". She said the oldest one was disappointed when I had to cancel last week.

I am up 1.6 lbs from eating the pigs in a blanket and Christmas cookies with them last night and stuff I ate when they left. But it was fun and I don't regret it at all. I told them that they had to take some of the veggies and cookies to their Daddy. I bought a tin of Christmas popcorn for all of them and told the boys they could not open it here because they had to open it with their Daddy because he was my baby too. LOL

Got up this morning and did 15 minutes of calisthenics and 20 on the bike. I have a lot exercise to do as well. I am back OP today. I know it will probably take me a few days to get that 1.6 lbs back off but it will come off.

Have a nice day everybody.

I am glad to hear from you, too, Mad and I'm glad to hear you are busy so I won't worry.

I didn't eat much today because I wasn't hungry. No breakfast. Shock!! I made a sandwich at lunch time from leftover rotisserie chicken and DH had a sandwich from deli roast beef. I am going to pass on breakfast on days that I'm not really hungry. I don't know if I will still track on MFP because I like that it syncs to my Fitbit but I will have to cheat if I am below 1000 cals.

Step daughter said her DH has a bad cold but he got tested and its not covid. I don't believe he got tested because she talked to DH yesterday and never mentioned it. She has been known to lie about things before but this is nothing to fool around with. It took BIL 5 days to get his results. She wants to come on Christmas to exchange gifts but I told her no one is coming here, and I told DH I don't want either of them here for at least 2 weeks. He agreed with me and said he will tell her. I don't want to be the big meanie step mother who keeps her from seeing her Dad for Christmas but this is literally a matter of life or death. Mine and his.

Trish, that 1.6 will come off. Its fluid. I'm glad you are getting those 2 extra months of WW. I'm glad you had a good time with the little boys and I'm glad they enjoy coming to see you. Your family loves you so much.


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I snuck a peek at the scale today because I felt light. 189.0. Yay! However, the challenge will be to hold it til Friday weigh in and beyond. I know from past experience that the chances of holding it are slim to none. I don't want to see 190 again. I did my time with that number. I guess if I do a repeat of yesterday and only eat 1 small meal I could do it. I plan on cooking a rump roast today so that would be a good meal with vegetables. I need a good dose of Determination. How badly do I want this? ,I keep thinking of the phrase "Don't keep doing the same thing expecting different results" or something like that. Its time to face the fact that I am still eating more than my body needs. When I really cut back I do lose. Its plain to see. DH says he has stopped telling me when and what to eat and maybe he has let up, but not stopped. He still seems to say "Do you want some?" every time he eats, which seems to be constantly. You are probably thinking "Just say no." Here's the problem with that. When he is eating something, I am only a hair's length away from wanting some and his "Do you want some" just pushes me over the edge. One word and its in my mouth. If he would not say that I would grit my teeth and move on. Here's a story. We decided one evening that I was going to not eat breakfast the next day. Next day comes and he brings me a plate of eggs and bacon with a slice of toast. "If you don't want this I'll give it to the dog.". Its sitting right in front of me! I'm not strong enough to let him give it to the dog! That is blatant sabotage and I think he knows it. I ate it, then was mad at him for doing that and mad at myself for giving in. But at the same time it tasted very good. I am very weak when food is sitting right in front of me. Why can't he be supportive and help me? It is as if he gets enjoyment out of seeing me fail. Am I wrong? Is it my imagination? It makes me very sad to think that my life's partner of 40 years wants to be hurtful toward me in this way. Does he really not realize he's doing this? I guess it all boils down to me being stronger. " No thank you!". And sticking to it. I'm NOT going to let him win. 188 here I come!

Thank you for being my sounding board. I don't have anyone else to discuss this with who would understand. And try not to judge. He's a good husband in so many other ways.

Confirmed loss in danger!
 

Not much to report. Weight is two pounds higher than my side bar. Definitely related to the recent Covid restrictions. Need to get things together before the gain is permanent. I just need to stay in the game in general. I'm tired of tracking and always thinking about what I can eat then failing anyway.

We are going to see a Christmas display of scenes from movies today with proper social distancing.

Winter thread results summary: https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/images/icon/icon8.gifhttps://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/images/icon/icon8.gif