I spent the bulk of my day out in the shop. I got a lot done, and food was great, I had Atkins bars for lunch and dinner was cauliflowr with cheesea and keto breadcrumbs baked in the oven. I got in almost 6000 steps, and I am hoping for the same today. Trying to get things finished up and ready for the big craft fair.

Carol Sue, Congratulations seeing the 186 again. I used to think the things I read messed me up, but I honestly believe the things I'm learning from Dr. Berg and the low carb book are helping me stay on track. I know I could lose weight if I did a strict low fat diet because I've done it before, but I am convinced that low carb along with IF is so much healthier. I also believe it will help you eventually be able to come off of G.

I think when I go to the store Tuesday that I will get some almond flour so I can use it to make salmon patties and freeze them for a snack or when DH and I don't want the same thing.

I wasn't going to track on MFP but I really want to know how I am doing. I know that eating fat is going to raise my calories so I am going to have to adjust to seeing that everyday. I finally have my fat ratio higher than the protein and carbs with the net carbs below 50. I haven't had a Lasix in way over a week and the sodium was a little high yesterday and I still showed a low weight this morning of 180.2. So I think this is going to work out nicely. The big surprise this morning was my FBG was 91. Steak is on the menu for today. I am cooking cabbage to have with it since I don't want a salad. I was surprised that Dr. Berg say it is a very good food for the digestive system. I have started to drink a little bit of pickle juice to keep my electrolytes up. I think he also said that sauerkraut is good for good flora in our system as well. I will start eating some of that each day too.

I too am one of those people who likes to know why I am doing some things and I am leaning the answers from the lc book and Dr. Berg's videos. He said he has one on eating red meat too that I want to find and watch. Since he says it is so good for us, I thought I could take a little bit of cabbage and a small amount of ground meat and mix it together with a little bit of EVOO to make a very healthy keto meal or snack. I did good with the 2MD yesterday within 4 hrs, but I want to be prepared if any time I need a little of something. Also it would be a good breakfast replacement sometime.

Ann, you are some busy bee. That is so good for you.

Fatmad, I hope you are feeling okay.

Have a nice day everybody.

You,are so active, Ann!

I am roasting more chicken for Rusty today, and for me. DH said "Why don't you just cook the rest of this?". There were 4 more pieces that I was going to freeze. I said "Who's going to eat it?" He said "I will eat some, thighs, not drumsticks.". So its all in the oven. I will be thrilled if he will eat this! I know he will not eat the skin even though its crispy and will not eat off the bone but I can pull the meat off the bone like I do for Rusty. If not I will start buying bone in-breast for him. He used to eat that when the kids were here. There were a lot of things he ate so they would eat it that he stopped eating after they left. They are both really good eaters with very few things they won't eat. Hopefully this will be dinner with some sides.

Trish, we were posting at the same time. Your mention of cabbage and ground beef reminded me of the Crack Slaw recipe so many low carbers make. You can cut up cabbage or use Cole slaw mix from the produce dept. Here is a recipe I found quickly online. Some people also add some Laughing Cow Cheese. Many variations.


https://heavenrecipe.com/2022/02/14/...rb-crack-slaw/

I researched the White Kidney Bean extract and it says it has no effect on a low carb meal. I will keep it just in case. I can not say I will never eat carbs again but it has to be taken BEFORE the meal, not after you realise you ate carbs. I may have wasted my money but it wouldn't be the first time.

Here is another recipe that looks really good. I might make this for Easter. Too bad these recipes don't have nutrition information.

https://heavenrecipe.com/2021/11/22/...wer-casserole/

Carol, I had that white kidney bean extract, mine was called Glocomanan. I had to take 3 with a large glass of water 45 minutes before I ate. I wasn't successful at being consistant with it, so I didn't see any results in weight loss and I wasn't tracking BS back then,
That receipe for loaded cauliflower casserole looked good, similar to my dinner last night except no bacon. I really should go to grocery store, Maybe tomorrow as I will be in town in the afternoon for a rally obedience trial with Otis. I have lots of veggies in the freezer so another cauliflower au gratin dinner tonight.

Trish you are certainly doing a lot of reading, I like to read those books too, even though one will contradict the other and I often feel my body doesn't act like textbook case. I am still at 220 inspite of having a deficit every single day. I am tryng to just be patient, although I am anything but.

I am done out in the shop. was getting cooler then started to rain. All the frames and 2 sets of sconces are done and packed. I cleaned half the shop before I called it quits. I might get something done tomorrow morning if it warms up.

I had Glucomannan but was afraid to take it. It is fiber but not from white kidney bean. I read that if it is not taken with lots of water it can swell up in your throat. That scared me. It is said to swell up in your stomach to blunt hunger. The kidney bean extract binds to carbs and keeps them from being absorbed. No carbs, no benefit.

DH ate the chicken along with broccoli, Brussels sprouts and mac and cheese. I found a way to make a quick side of mac and cheese for him. These are the kind of meals I like where we can eat the same thing with a starch for him . So far I'm able to avoid eating the starch. The longer I do it the stronger I will be. 1080 cals in 4.5 hours with 37 carbs. I don't remember the fat and protein but I don't care. But know I got enough fat eating the eggs and chicken skin.

Ann, I'm sorry and puzzled that you are eating so low carb and not losing. That would certainly discourage me. It took me a very long time to get from 217 to 199, and even longer to maintain 199. I think 217 was my highest or close to it. That's where I was when I had my heart surgery in 2008. You would think that would scare me into action. It was the recent information about the damage of insulin that set me in action.

Trish and I have both read many books and we've recommended them to each other. I agree there is a lot of conflicting information but. It works different for different people. One size does not fit all. Reading the various books helps me stay on plan.

Trish, you are one person who I know who did very well on low fat. It doesn't work for everyone.

I think I ended up with a 6 hr eating window. Those usually work very well for me. Will see if it continues to. Our steak was really good. I had some cabbage in fridge that needed to be cooked so we had that along with the steak and we shared the last of the cantaloupe we had. We like that and it is supposed to be an okay food on a moderately low carb woe.

Ann, I've learned that there are a lot of good info in the books we read although not all applies to me. So I take what fits and forget the rest. I agree that it used to confuse me, but as Carol Sue says, we have learned that One Size doesn't fit All.

When DH#2 was living and I ate low carb, I always cooked balanced meals so I could eat what the family ate except for the starches. I did that when DH and I lived in SC and even when his DD and her family lived with us. Don't know why I have such a difficult time doing that now. You would think that being just the 2 of us that it would be much easier to do.

Carol Sue, I loved eating low fat because I had so many choices of foods that I could eat but DH wants whole milk and full fat cheese and it is just so much easier to do low carb. I also am finding that doing this the way Dr. Berg says seems to be lowering my FBG. I loved having readings in the 90s this week and I think 91 was the lowest I've had since I've been working at this.

Trish, the level of your FBS is amazing compared to what it was back when we started posting together and done naturally without meds. You have really put your diabetes in remission. Good for you. I still test often throughout the day. My readings have dropped a lot so I'm hoping to have a better A1c in June. I am never under 100 though. 107 was my lowest recently and that was at bedtime after fasting for several hours after dinner. My fasting readings are still in the 120 range. No high spikes is a while. I have to keep remembering that lower blood sugar means nothing if you are using meds to push the glucose into the cells. It takes time to get rid of the extra glucose. I am still dependant on the G but down to half of prescribed at this point.

In Diabetes Code, Dr Fung made a comment that fat can clog your pancreas and if you get rid of the fat your pancreas will start to work normally again. He didn't elaborate. I want to research this further to see how this applies to me. I would think that this fat would be the last to go. I wish I knew all this 14 years ago. I just thought "Lots of people have Diabetes" and didn't take my diagnosis seriously. Big mistake, but hopefully it is not too late.

We got snow again overnight. Even the roads are covered. The temperatures are going to stay low and with no sun its not going to warm up,not til later in the werk.

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The Keto bread is out. I tried making a slice of toast to eat with my eggs today and it got very hard and crispy but did not get brown. Morning toast is mostly when I eat bread. That will,save me some money continuing with the Sara Lee.

I have been having sauteed mushrooms lately with my eggs. I was going to stop because on MFP they had a high carb count, 17 GM in a cup. That didn't sound right to me so I googled. Its wrong! Online it said 4 GM per cup. Then I found another entry on MFP that matched that and I gives me 2 carbs for 1/2 cup. Yay! The mushrooms can stay! If anything, sauteeng would increase the fat since they are cooked in butter. This is one thing I don't like about MFP. Anyone can add an item and who knows if its right? Do you check every entry?

Carol Sue, I keep saying I'm going to stop tracking on MFP because the range of calories etc are so out of whack especially on things I don't know the calories on. I try to find things that are close to what is on the package if I have the package to go by, It is difficult when I don't. So I just try to go close to what I think is right.

I air-fried what was left in my bag of chicken wings. I ate the equivalent of 2 wings. When I looked it up on MFP, I couldn't believe how many different calorie counts there were. I have put my own tracking in there from a package so I don't know how some people get it so out of whack. I saw several at the count I finally used because there were at least 3 or 4 with that count for one whole wing. I ate 2 of them with a little bit of saurekraut for brunch and put the other in fridge for another time. Sometimes MFP is a guessing game. Since I mostly care about the fiber to subtract from the carb count to get net carb count, I have thought about just tracking carbs and fiber only in a notebook, but haven't done that yet. MFP makes it easy to track exercise and I like having to track it each day.

DH has mentioned eating eggs several times this week so we are having eggs for dinner today. Thus the reason for me having chicken wings for brunch.

Weight stayed the same as yesterday. I think I said it was 180.2 but it was and is 180.6 lbs. I realized when thinking about how my FBG has come down through the years, it has worked about the same as my weight. I seem to get in a certain range and hang around there for a while bouncing up and down and then it goes down and will hang in that range for a while and then go on down.

If you remember, I think my FBG was in 150s when I started and would bounce up higher once in a while, but when I started working on it, it would bounce down in the 140s once in a while, but I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get it to stay there. Then all of a sudden one day it was in 130s. I had the same experience in that range before it went below to 120s. I really worked at getting it below 120 because I heard a female doctor say if you could keep your bs below 120 that you weren't doing any damage to your organs. It has taken me years of tweaking to get where I am. I have to say that I really think the IF has helped better than anything. I also think that trying to keep the carb count lower than the fat and protein really helps as well.

Our temps are going to be mostly in the 80s this week with a couple of days in the 70s. Nice to see the sunshine. Just hoping we don't get into the 3 digits before August.

Have a nice day everyone.

Trish, I don't want to stop using MFP because of the way it syncs to my scale and Fitbit.. The counts never mattered too much to me until I started reducing carbs. Now it makes a big difference knowing I'm eating 10-15 fewer carbs a day. That's a big difference. I'm glad I don't have to give up mushrooms. I had to give up the imitation crab I used to snack on because of the carbs.

When I got up at 7 my weight was the same as yesterday. Since it was early I weighed again later and it was 187, so I'm going with the 186.:lol:

I went to a site from Mayo Clinic that tells you how many calories you should be eating. Mine said 1400. I am always under that. I started reading Obesity Code today. It said if a man eats 3000 calories per day and burns 3000 calories a day, then he reduces his calories to 1500 his body will reduce what it burns to 1500 for survival. It does not change overnight but over time. Some of his bodily functions would not get enough calories to perform as they should, like preserving body temperature, muscle and bone preservation. It makes sense. If I increase my calorie intake to 1400 (non carb calories) will my body start to burn more calories or will I gain weight? I would hate to lose any of the progress I've made since progress is so slow. There's many things to consider.

Carol Sue, I do notice the same thing with my weight. I weigh less at a certain time of morning than others. I take the lowest too. :lol: It gives me what I need to keep going. Usually I find that within a day or two that it stays the same at a later time. It seems to even out.

I have set my highest allowed calories at 1400, but I don't always get there. Days like today, I have to work at getting to 1000 calories MFP wants. I stay with them because I need to know what I'm doing whether it is exact or not. I figure it is close enough. I can't get things exact as far as ratios of protein, carbs and fat because they deal with 5s, but I do like the fact that the pie at the bottom helps me to see if I am keeping protein higher than the carbs and what is left is the fat which does end up higher because once you have the grams of carbs and protein you want the only thing left is fat whether you use it or not. MFP just makes all of this so much easier because they figure it out for me. So I will stick to it. It also keeps up with my weight. I do like that woman we read who stracked on MFP. I don't change my low weight to a higher reading when I show a gain. It shows that I have weighed this weight for weeks. It doesn't see the bounces that I see writing it on paper and that is helpful as well.

BTW Thanks for the recipes yesterday. I've changed my morning meal to brunch again and plan to have one of those for brunch one day this next week. I did change my evening meal to a snack because I will use it to do whatever I need to reach the 1000 calories and protein that I need to round out my day. Today, I have to add a protein shake to get to it.

Trish, when I read you mentioned 80 degrees I had to go back and read it again! I am only going have a high of 21 tomorrow and 29 on Tuesday; we are back to winter.

Carol, I think you are talking about Base Metabolic Rate, which is what you need just to pump blood and breathe. When I checked mine recently it was 1517. If I exercise daily I should burn 2350, I think that makes sense, I have been burning 2000-2500 per day according to Fitbit. I have my preference to have a 1000 calorie a day deficit to hopefully lose 2 lbs a week. I always have at least 8000 calorie deficit for the week but I do not lose 2 lbs a week.

I just have to keep on doing what I am doing, I am losing and I am feeling much better. Otis and I went to the rally show and go and he was really happy to be out there strutting around, he didn't heel well, but he was wagging his tail and that was good enough for me.

Stopped at grocery store and picked up sirloin tips, portabella mushrooms and asparagus for tonight's dinner.. I worked in the shop all morning and cut out 3 more pairs of sconces. I won't be out there until Wed when it warms back up.

Ann, here is the site I used and it says it is calories needed to maintain my current weight.

https://www.mayoclinic.org

I guess to lose weight I would have to eat less, but from what I'm reading in Obesity Code we don't want to cut calories because then our bodies will just burn fewer calories to compensate. We should only be concerned with lowering insulin. I understand what he is saying but I've had "eat less/move more" drilled into my head for 56 years. Its hard to change my thinking.

I have my calories on MFP set to 1200 and as inactive/sedentary because lets face it, that's what I am. I know a lot of people say to eat the number of calories for the weight you want to be and you will get to that weight. I don't know if I can ever change my thinking to not counting calories. But DR Fung says hormones control your weight, not calories. Trish, when I look at the % in the pie chart at the bottom my fat is between 58-60%. 60% is not high fat. High fat should be 80%. That's a lot of fat. I don't know what I could eat to increase fat. I don't know why I don't remember all this information from when I read these books before. It seems that the number of calories I eat, around 1200, is just naturally what I eat without trying to adjust anything to reach that amount. I think I should be taking notes as I read so I remember everything.

I had to redo my entry for yesterday on MFP because I didn't eat as planned. Instead of 35 carbs I had 92, and just barely over 1000 calories. But the scale went back down to 186. I can't explain it. Fat % was down in the 40s instead of 60 because I planned on eating a bunless burger with cheese but instead I had a hot dog with the bun and Life Cereal and Fiber One mixed together with skin milk. I don't know what it did to my blood sugar but it helped with weight and regularity! 😊

We got more snow overnight. Nuisance snow. Not a lot but enough to cover the road a bit. DH is going to want to go to Bob Evans for breakfast but I hate going out in the cold. Such a wimp.. I'm ok with eating there because I can get scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage, no toast. And he likes the double blueberry pancakes. I am actually hungry, probably because of eating those carbs last night.

I was tired and fell asleep without my CPap. I think I slept as well as I do with it but probably didn't breathe as well. No, Fitbit says my oxegen level was the same. So I don't know.

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I only had 1 slice of bacon today because we ran out, so lower fat today. I think I will get sausage next time and start to alternate.

Back to reading Dr Fung.

HI everyone: I was 157 yesterday, and had OMAD, but had a handful of chocolate chips so I did not stay keto as planned. I have put those in the basement pantry now to avoid the temptation. I have been packing up the kitchen, and that was not wise. having trouble with that today as well. I will likely be done with it later today.
The above the range microwave we were given is going to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store later today, and we will get a new one. This one was a gift, but it is large, has very poor ratings, and often fails because it doesn't vent well. Its a Samsung, and so is our oven, with which we have had major issues, so I did not want to go to the trouble and expense of installing this one, and then have to take it out and replace or repair later. we still want a microwave, but I think the slimline one will be better, and we will buy a highly rated one to avoid these issues.
I guess that is a long winded way to say, yes I am fine, but still battling with diet. Exercise is ok, because I get out every day, sometimes twice to walk Buddy, but I am also getting busy here at home. If things go well, April will not be so busy for work, and that would suit, given we will be busy with the kitchen reno.
Carol: I am delighted you are losing and doing better, and Ann: I am also stymied and surprised about your plateau. Have you read the Obesity Code or the Diabetes Code by Dr. Fung? Even without that, you can go online and watch videos and there are FB pages for followers, and you can read the stickies for starters. That is sometimes just as helpful, as the theory has evolved a bit since the books were originally published. But there is a lot there about resistance to weight loss and ideas about what to do. I had some issues when I got determined to lose my covid weight, and over came them with advice from the FB group. I hope you find the right answer for you.

Have a good week friends, not sure when I will drop by again.