Had a 7 hr eating window today. Someone on one of the FB IF groups for 40s and beyond asked if it was okay to change up your eating window or if you had to do a set window. Everybody said that it didn't matter if you changed the eating window. In fact, they actually said it was beneficial to keep the body on its toes. Also some people eat keto or low carb, but some don't. One lady who has lost a lot of weight doesn't follow any particular diet plan. Interesting to see.

Trish, I agree with all of this. The only reason I work at staying low carb is because of my blood sugar. I have to keep it down. I can't wait to see my A1c in June. I have had a few spikes due to high carb days but overall my readings have been much better than in the past. My eating windows are rarely the same. For the most part I try to keep it from 11 am to 4 pm. But I often eat earlier and sometimes I eat later at night. I believe if you eat at the same time every day you will get hungry at the same time. Your body learns when to expect food. This is what I mean by being a normal eater. No rules. No counting. There are a lot of foods I no longer eat because I've eliminated lunch. One is tuna. I love tuna salad. I used to be able to have it at dinner but the restaurant closed. DH likes it but won't eat it for dinner.

Better sleep last night. I want to get weighed today. I've already had coffee but that's ok. There are some people who weigh more than once a day. I might try weighing at bedtime just to see what the difference is. I think we gain fluid weight as the day goes on. I wonder how much.

I haven't had pain for several days except for my finger which I think is arthritis. I've been exercising my legs while sitting watching tv, doing some exercises I learned when DH was doing physical therapy. I think its helping me walk better. My arms don't hurt any more. I rarely take Tylenol. I'm still itchy but not intense. The lotion my step son gave me seems to help. The thing I don't like about it you have to put it on wet skin right out of the shower and let it air dry. That takes too long and I have to delay getting dressed. I might try patting myself dry and see if it still works. Taking Benedryl at bedtime keeps me from itching at night. I cant take it during the day because it makes me drowsy.

Its still cold here. Its going to warm up over the weekend but only to 70 degrees.
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I got weighed. I'm up to 185. I'm really not surprised because I felt that the 183 was dehydrated weight. I'm ok, I'm continuing to bounce in the 180s and not near 190 and far from 200. I'm confident that I will continue down. I'm not changing anything. I feel that the way I'm eating is what's right for me.

Carol Sue, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw your 185 because we are so similar. My weight today was up to 185.6. Of course, we had the Church's chicken Tuesday and spaghetti yesterday so I'm sure it is from sodium. Also Dr. Berg said when you eat out that you don't know what chemicals you might be getting such as MSG and foods are cooked in Omega 6 oils. That might be why my weight always goes up when we get takeout.

Carol Sue, go on youtube and look up Dr. Eric Berg and type in gout. He tells what causes and one of the suggestions is to eat one celery stalk a day if you have it. He also one on arthritis pain. I just happened to come across those 2.

He really encourages eating OMAD for weight loss but I'm not there yet. Today I ate a banana and 2 large strawberries around 12:15. I am going to aim at eating within a 5 to 6 eating window today. I do like the idea of eating OMAD and eating whatever I want during the old CAD one hour eating window and maybe I will be able to do that again, but for now maybe I need to just get used to 2MAD or at least a 5 to 6 hr eating window.

I learn a lot of good things from Dr. Berg and some others, but it is best to take what I can live with and forget the rest. I did read one keto testimony of a woman on FB that said that she reads a lot of what others do or suggests from books etc in order to keep herself encouraged to keep OP. I think that is true for me.

Have a great day.

Trish, I love celery but never think to eat it other than in recipes. As soon as I saw your post I ate 2 ribs of celery with cream cheese. I didn't watch the video yet but I did read about celery for gout. Other sites said you need to eat 3-4 and taking celery seed extract is better. I'm not going to buy that. I'll wait to see how it goes eating celery and taking the tart cherry. Celery is very healthy and I've heard that chewing it uses more calories than is in it.

I don't know if I could do OMAD unless its earlier than my dinner time at 3-4 pm. I could possibly do it occasionally. 20 hour fast is the best I can do on a regular basis. One time I did 36 hours. DH said I couldn't do it and you know I had to prove to him that I could.

I did well today. I was a little below 1000 cals so I fudged the number so MFP would accept it. 65 grams of carb. They were mostly vegetable carbs. I am on this kick of eating cauliflower rice with frozen kale sprinkled with parmesan cheese. I love it.

I have found that these doctors sometimes have conflicting views. I agree to take what you can live with and forget the rest. It all boils down to what works for each of us. We are all different, except for us, who are sisters from different mothers. :lol:

Carol Sue, I need to go back and listen to that video again because I think he said cherry extract is also good for helping with gout.

I haven't been tracking the past few days. I ended with a 5 hr eating day today. No nighttime eating tonight. So very happy with my day.

Drinking my chamomile tea so I can get sleepy to go to bed. Hope you can sleep well tonight.
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Decided to check calories on MFP just out of curiosity and my calories were 1095 carbs were under 100.

Weight was down to 184.4 this morning. Hope I can keep it going downward. Who knows. I've had my morning fruit and cup of collagen coffee. Planning a steak for dinner and will drink a protein shake around 6 so I will have a 7 hr eating window today just to get enough protein.

Have a great day everybody.

Trish, I already take the tart cherry for gout. It doesn't relieve it on its own but maybe I don't take enough. My BIL takes it and no other meds but his gout is from eating pork so he just avoids pork. Mine is from the diuretic blood pressure med I take and the resulting dehydration. This blood pressure med works better for me than any other so stopping it is not an option. If I would lose enough weight to lower my blood pressure the problem would be solved. So many positive changes depend on my weight loss. You would think this would give me incentive, and it does, but its so easy to let it fall by the wayside. I need someone to give me a nice hard slap in the face, or a swift kick in the butt.

We went out for breakfast and I ate a biscuit. I would not do that at home. He gets tired of eating eggs and wants something different. Eggs are fine with me over and over but I am very weak when bread products are right in front of me. I don't know what I can do to increase my resistance. Its like a weak part of me takes over and pops things in my mouth. I think I should pray to God for help with this. He does not want me to abuse my health.

Today I felt like my legs are getting stronger from the exercises I've been doing. I've been walking much better the past 2 days. I still have trouble going up and down off a curb. When I push up my thigh hurts and feels weak. And going down my knee doesn't bend very well. When I'm walking I don't have to bend my knee very much. I wish I could talk to my physical therapist from cardiac rehab. He could tell me what exercises to do to help. I'm determined to improve my mobility.

Hi all,
I am trying to catch up. I just got back from our trip and I am a bit tired. Sunday I drove 77 miles to DBF house in Vt, then Monday 205 miles to our VBRO near Sleepy Hollow, NY, We really had a great time, weather was cool so it was nice for the dogs. We got lots of walking and pictures. Tuesday we found Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, headless horseman bridge, and monument, and lots of Washing Irving sites, On Wed we started the day with a hike and it was up hill, I kept telling myself it would be downhill on the way back, I got in my 5k steps early. Then on to downtown for lunch, waking along the Hudson, and more pictures and historic sites. We ended the day doing another hike in Rockefeller St PK, beautiful place, By bed time I had in over 12k steps and i burned 3,000 calories, I have just been eating one good meal a day and no snacks, Scale will tell the truth tomorrow, All i all I drove 700 miles in 6 days, most of it where I didn't know where I was, thank heavens for navigation.

I stopped on my way home from VT to pick up supplies for my Cricut vinyl cutter and I am not leaving my house to drive anywhere for a while.

Wow, Ann, that's a lot of walking as well as a lot of driving! I would be half dead. Glad you had a good time. Can't wait to hear your weigh in results.

We split a fish sandwich at Rodneys and neither of us ate the bun so the only carb was the breading. With the huge breakfast I had it was slightly over 1000 cals and 78 grams of carb. The buttermilk biscuit did me in, but I have to admit it was freshly baked and delicious. I am amazed that I feel that 78 grams of carb is a lot because I'm sure I was eating way more than that in the past.

From what I read online its my hamstrings that need to be strengthened. One article I read said its not uncommon to lack strength in the hamstrings from too much sitting. Raising my hand. :wave: Guilty as charged. I so want to move into a house that has no stairs but I do see where its important that I work toward conquering this. There are stairs in so many places and I have trouble just up and down a curb. Some of it is balance related. Step daughter mentioned that she now notices that any way they go into their house involves stairs. She notices it mostly when they bring groceries home. They lived in a mobile home for almost 30 years. No stairs there. It never entered my mind when we bought this house but I was 35 and could run up and down the stairs. What a difference 41 years makes.

I feel like I took too much G. I need to check blood sugar. Yikes!

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My blood sugar wasn't low, but it was lower than usual and went down 10 points in an hour. From 91 to 81. 81 is fine but I felt shaky and was afraid it would go lower so I ate cake. I waited an hour and tested. It was 97 and I felt better. For some reason I didn't need as much G as normal. (Glimiperide). I guess that's a good thing.

Ann,, your trip sounds really great but tiring. I would have been worn out.

Carol Sue, It sounds like your bs may be starting to correct itself. Perhaps the fasting is beginning to work. I also have a problem with curbs. I don't know if it is the curb or the fear of falling that I feel. I always try to have my car parked where I can hold on to step up or have DH there to hold on to if he is with me. If I don't have those options I use my cane.

Dr. Berg doesn't say how much cherry tart to take, but I have to be very careful taking it since it makes me so groggy. I have been draggy the past few days so I'm beginning to think that the chamomile tea is doing the same thing to me. That is sad because I don't know what I can do so I can relax and sleep.

I always liked the Fit For Life Diet...8 hrs fasting from 8 pm to 4 am, 8 hrs between 4 & noon which he called elimination time when you can eat fruit and 8 hrs from noon to 8 pm you eat your meals. The diet prefers that you can eat meals of protein and veggies or veggies and starchy carbs but no carbs and protein together. However, it suggested veggies and starches be eaten first and wait 4 hrs then eat protein and veggies and fat is not to be eaten with starches. However, if you eat all of them together you must wait 8 hrs for it to digest before eating again. When I did this years ago, I was on a low carb plan similar to Atkins at the time and I read in the book that if you didn't want to follow his plan that you would benefit from following the timing. Like IF your window can be whatever you want it to be.

I did an 8 hr eating window today because I didn't get hungry until then. Calories were between 1200 & 1300. Since I like the FFLD as well as IF, I have decided to start my window time beginning when I eat my first bite of fruit. Today I started eating at about 11:30 am.

I read today that people who eat earlier in the day lose weight better than those that don't. I also read in another place about different diets. It seems that WW and low carb are among the best diets for weight loss, but it takes 52 weeks OP to lose even a small percentage of calories. I assume if this is true, that our losing slow is normal as well as a good thing because they say you are more likely to successfully keep the weight off.

Trish, once I moved out on my own I ate breakfast and lunch but rarely dinner. I didn't want to cook a meal for one and that's how I kept my weight down. Eggs have always been my favorite foods and I was never a fan of dinner foods, like meat. I even did that after I married DH. I cooked dinner for DH and the kids then I would read the paper while they ate. The kids both got married the same year and moved out. That was when DH wanted me to eat dinner with him and when I started to gain. It never entered my mind to stop eating breakfast, my favorite meal. At work, you always got a lunch break and everyone was eating so I ate. Once I added dinner to my day I quickly gained. I have heard that your metabolism is higher in the morning, and so is your insulin response. However, when it comes to skipping meals, there are a lot of people who never eat breakfast. Very few people skip dinner. Most of the time I'm not hungry at dinner but dinner is a big thing for DH. Mostly he eats 3 meals a day, like clockwork.

I could not follow Fit for Life. I don't particularly like fruit. I tend to prefer hot or warm food.

I got up to early. I think I will go back to bed and try to sleep again.
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Weight is still 217, the day I got in the 12k steps we had a big lunch in a pub, I had grilled chicken on a brioche bun and french fries. we also had wine on 2 nights and a dinner out was pasta alfredo, so needless to say I am happy with the scale. I was so afraid I would be crippled the next day but I actually felt strong. I discovered SalonPas Lidocane cream. I put it on my legs first thing in the morning and I am good for the day. Sitting with my feet on the floor or driving actually causes more pain than walking around.

Trish and Carol, I enjoy reading the different Dr's and food plans you find. I need something simple, the 2MAD works for me and sometimes the OMAD, I find it freeing to only have 2 meals to deal with and I can make them more substantial. I hear you on cooking for one, Lucky for me I dont' mind having the same thing 2 or 3 days in a row.

My house is a ranch so no stairs, I am so glad, stairs in DBF house kill me, steep ones to get into the house then a big flight to the second floor. A few years ago when my knees were really hurting I had to almost crawl up the stairs on all 4's. I am careful on stairs and often go down sideways, curbs bother me to as I don't feel my reflexes are good enough to balance if I need to. Can't make those cat like moves anymore.

I stopped for some groceries yesterday and totally forgot cream for my coffee, so I am going back this morning. I also want some thngs from Michaels Craft store. Never ends, I just keep watching Youtube videos of things to make and I want to try it,

I went out and got my SD cards from trail cameras, I had a really nice daytime bobcat video, a bear checking out my camera and a fat possum waddling around.

One of the YT vidoes shows how to print a picture onto regular copy paper with an ink jet printer and then transfer it to wood, canvas, glass or paper, Got to try this!

Ann, I cannot make a dish and eat it for 2-3 days because of my compulsive overeating. I just keep eating it the first day til its gone. I hope to overcome that some day. You are at my starting weight. That is what I weighed when I went in for my heart surgery in 2008. I assume it was my highest weight ever but I am only 5'2". 14 years to lose 30 lbs.

DH will not eat leftovers except for stuffed cabbage rolls or lasagne. When he still worked he would get tired of deli meat sandwiches so I would make a meatloaf on Sunday and he would take meatloaf sandwiches for a few days. He will eat hot turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving but no longer. He says food put in the refrigerator will give you food poisining. Many things taste better the second day but he doesn't care. We always laughed about his mother because she would have deli meat so long it would turn green. His brother would tell her to throw it away but she said she could just cut that part off. :lol:

When I married DH his house was a ranch built on a slab with a level entrance, just one step up into the house. This house is a ranch but there's a basement with cellar steps. You have to go up steps to the front porch to come in. We come in thru the garage and up the cellar steps. Any way I leave there are steps. Out back yard is higher and we have a deck with one step down into the yard. But I have to hold onto something to do that one step. His old house would be perfect for us now but it had no garage and I don't like the location. There is no shopping in that town except 1 convenience store. Here, we are 5 miles from everything. This location is perfect for us, but has the darn stairs.

By the way, I've been wearing a ring on my bad finger the past few days. Its not back to normal because it is my biggest ring. Most of my rings still don't fit.

Ann, I used to do crafts all the time. DH and I used to love going to Hoppy Lobby and Michaels but neither of us do anything like that any more. No room for one more craft and no one to give any too. We used to travel too but can't do that any more. I can sleep in motel rooms because their beds hurt my back. So we stay home. So our traveling days seems to be over. Have fun while you still can and I hope you can do it for quite some time.

Carol Sue, I'm not fond of a lot of things leftover, but not to the extreme your DH is. I think mine is because when my kids were growing up there wasn't any such thing as leftovers with 2 boys. And when DH grandson lived with us, I always had enough to make him a plate to take for lunch at school or work. So we didn't have them. Now I either make exactly what the 2 of us will eat or I make enough to freeze for another meal either next week or later in the week. I think I remember you saying your DH doesn't like it frozen for later so that is a problem.

I'm not sure what my highest weight ever was. I think back when I was probably around 31 or 32 yrs old I went to WW and they weighed me a 265. I didn't stay there long. I lost 15 lbs while on their plan back then and then I started going to a diet doctor and lost back down to around 150 lbs. He gave me shots and some pills and I was never hungry. Only ate OMAD. I've weighed 150 lbs a few times during my diet days and come to think of it, I always seemed to do it on OMD but we didn't call it IF back then. My highest after that was 221 lbs. I've never gained what I lost on WW all those years ago and maybe it was because it was slow.

Weight down another lb today to 183.4. I'm thankful for the 1 lb loss, but considering what I weighed on April 1st, it is a gain for the month. April 1st I weighed 181. So I have a lost a couple of lbs this week but still have a gain for the month.

I had a protein shake with the banana and strawberries for brunch at noonish, will have chipped beef for dinner and then I will finish up the day with a 6 hr eating window by drinking another protein shake plain nothing added. I think the 6 hr eating window is good for me and I need to be sure I get enough protein so will try to do things this way for this month and see what happens.

We ate dinner at 2 pm. I made pork and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. It got done early so we ate. So I had a 5 hour eating window. I like to eat sauerkraut on my mashed potatoes with ketchup. DH thinks that's weird but I got that from my Dad. I hope I can not eat the rest of the day for a longer fast.

Good for you on another pound down.