I am comfortable from what I read online that the True Lemon packets are really crystalized lemon juice and lemon oil and will continue to use them when I get water in restaurants etc, but I have a bottle of lemon juice that I will use at home. I'm not buying lemons because I don't have anyplace to store them. I will mix it and ACV in a bottle of water each day. I will try it for a while to see if it does anything. I guess I'm not expecting much because of past experience, but it won't hurt me to drink it. I will use 2 Tbs ACV and 2 tsp lemon juice to a bottle of water which is 17 oz. It will be less than 17 oz because I will have to drink some of the water in order to add the lemon juice and ACV.

I had over easy eggs and toast today. We don't have any bacon or sausage on hand right now. DH prefers sausage, I prefer bacon. We eat whatever we have. I don't know what we're having for dinner. DH wants to go to the casino, in which case I will have Chinese again. So far I've said No, but I've changed my mind before. One thing I like about going there is I eat less all day. I have a few books on my Kindle to read so I only gamble occasionally.

Total calories 1253 and net carbs 60. Not a bad day. We didn't do much of anything except watch movies today. We had breakfast for dinner today.

Carol Sue. Hope you had a good day if you went to the casino.

The casino was horrible until right before we left. We had 2 good hits total $2400.00. I was reading in the food court for the first couple hours. I’m reading a book about weight loss. Not what to eat but how to think. I’ll let you know if it’s any good.

Scale stayed the same 188.4. I did good yesterday until DH convinced me to eat a hot dog on the way home, so I went to bed full stomach, which I hate, so no food yet today. Just black coffee. Their hot dogs are good! DH didn’t cook today because he wanted to go out for breakfast. I want to break that habit. I don’t know what or when I will

Someone posted on Twitter that avocado lowers insulin. I never heard that before but will google. You can’t believe everything you read online. I like them but not every day. I get tired of them quickly. People aren’t buying them as much because the price went up. If I want something I don’t care about the price.

Carol Sue, sounds like a productive trip to the casino. Congratulations. The hot dog won't be too bad. It is one of those "life happens" moments. I haven't heard that about avocados. I started eating half of one a day again hoping I won't get tired of them. I can't do 1 a day like some do, but half is okay. The ones I got at Walmart were hard, but I brought them and put them in the lowest veggie drawer in fridge and they don't ripen too fast. When I cut it in half I put scoop out one side and put the empty piece back on top of the other and wrap it in a paper towel and put it in a small baggie and put back in fridge. When I took it out today it was still fresh no brown spots around it. I hope it continues to work that way. Look forward to hearing about the book.

I have been using ACV some the past few weeks but not everyday. Today I decided to put on a top that I had quit wearing because the sleeves were too tight. I was surprised that they are loose on my arms. I wonder if that was the ACV. I hope now that drinking it is going to be an everyday thing that I find that what I heard about ACV helping lose fat all over the body is true.

Weight was 183.2 today and FBG still at 98. I liked seeing that 87 the other day and sure hope to see it again in the future. I had my eggs, bacon and avocado breakfast again today. We are going to have SF BBQ chicken tenders, cooked baby carrots and salad for dinner. I always end my dinner with a keto ice cream bar these days. I plan to make this a 2 meal day although I will end my day with my collagen coffee and ACV cocktail. Making the IF eating window almost 7 hrs.

BBL
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I have been reading Reader's digest book you and I bought years ago Magic Foods for Better Blood Sugar. I wanted to see what foods have in them and why I should eat them. It has helped me to see why I did better in SC that helped prevent some things I'm experiencing now. I looked up avocado. It says the good fat in avocado may reverse insulin resistance as the fat in olive oil and nuts does. I never noticed it with nuts, but have with olive oil, but I get tired of olive oil in my salads all the time. It seems to be the soluble fiber in the avocado that stabalizes bloodsugar and lowers cholesterol.
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Total calories today 1232 net carbs 65 grams. Did 2 meals and snack with 6 hrs.

We went to Walmart but I forgot to look at avocados because it wasn’t on my list. We also forgot to get water because that also was not on the list. I go pretty strictly by my list unless I spot something as I’m running by. I’m the fastest shopper in the east! DH wants to go to Kohls to look for shirts. It’s next door to Target where I buy facial tissue so we can get water there.

No scale again today because we left the house so early.

Carol Sue, It is not unusual for me to get home from the store and find tha I've forgotten something because I forgot to write it on my list. It would probably take me longer in the store if I went by myself, but DH goes with me everytime these days and I know he is too impatient for me to take very long shopping. Today he has to go to pharmacy to get our meds so I will have a little more time. We just go to local store today since we have to get meds there now.

I read an article that was said to be from a writer for People who did a 28 day diet supposedly using gummies of Paula Dean. I don't know if she weighed everyday or not, because she said that she says she lost weight on days 7 and 10, etc and then weighed at day 28 but didn't mention everyday weighing. It seems that a lot of actors are using them to lose weight. There was no mention of keto diet as she talked like she just ate what she wanted and didn't exercise.

I'm not interested in a fad diet. On the other hand, I do know there a lot benefits of ACV, but don't remember all of them. When DH and I first married and I told him about Paul Bragg's organic ACV and DH went on line on his website and printed the out the whole book from Paul Bragg. Knowing us, I am sure we still have that notebook somewhere. Back then we were advised to take it every moring. I first learned about ACV when I worked in health food store and was friends with the couple who owned the store. DH#2 took it every morning when he was first diagnosed with CHF. We didn't under stand a lot then. His heart got better and he stopped taking it. Who knows but if he had kept taking it maybe he would never have had CHF ever again. We didn't understand a lot of things back then that we know now.

Now they are saying take ACV coctail 30 minutes before a meal. After reading the article , I've decided to stop weighing everyday at least for 28 days. I am going to try to weigh once a week. Since I started drinking the ACV cocktail officially yesterday, then Monday will become my new WI day. I'm keeping my calories down around 1200 to 1300 calories most days and trying to keep carbs low at least between 25 to 35% of calories and keep the protein between 65 to 90 grams each day. I am looking to forward to seeing if this helps with the weight loss. It surely isn't hurting my FBG or BP. FBG this morning was 93 and bp was 115/55. That is really much better getting those high FBG and low bp readings that I used to get. I am probably healthier right now than I've ever been.

I did 30 minutes on the stationary bike yesterday. I'll get at least 30 minutes of walking today. My goal is at least 30 minutes of exercise 4 days a week.

Hope everybody has a great day today.

Trish, DH loves to go shopping. He gets his own cart and fills it with his things, candy, snacks, his bread, and I go for the things on the list. Normally the list is kept on the kitchen island and we each add things as we think of them. But as soon as DH sees things written down he wants to go. He is amazed at how quickly I get through the store. We meet up front by the registers, combine out carts and check out.

I'm making pork and sauerkraut. Boneless loin chops,for DH, mixed bone in for me, hot dogs and kielb.I'm making mashed potatoes too.

The instructions for my scale say if you get on the scale without opening the app it will register next time you open the app. This morning I was down .2 to 188.2 but when I opened the app it didn’t register. So I got on again later with the app fearful that it would go up but it went down to 188.0. So I’m happy that it’s down. I thought it would be down more because I’ve been really peeing the past 12 hours. I’m not sure what I will do to get the scale moving again. I’m stuck in a rut. I lost my motivation. Usually my books get me psyched up but it’s not working. I’m not really eating poorly, just not well enough to lose. Last night I was watching 600 lb life. This woman wanted to do the program on her own and Dr Now told her her weight loss would slow even if she stuck to the plan, and it did. She decided slow loss was ok. I don’t know of anyone who had weight loss surgery who did not regain.

I waited and waited for my blood sugar to go up after dinner but the highest it went was 120. Not enough to take G. It was 150 this morning but I still get the dawn phenomenon.

our temps are to go to the mid 90s today. That is very high for us. DH said it was too hot to sit out last night but I did not go out. Us old people are supposed to avoid high heat. Hope the air condition holds up.

Carol Sue, WebMD had an article on how to lose weight. One of the things it suggested was for when we have slip ups, but it would work even when we get discouraged because we are losing so slow and scale doesn't move is to write yourself a note saying the things to yourself that you would say to a close friend who was going through this situation. We are good at encouraging others when they get discouraged are fall off the wagon, but our inside voice is bad about beating us up. That is why she says that it is best to write a note to yourself remembering what you have accomplished up to this point and to remind ourselves that the scale doesn't tell us what all is going on in our bodies as we are becoming healthier, but we can't see that.

We have slowed down on our weight loss and maybe our bodies are making internal health changes that are really good. If we keep doing what we know to do, I have to believe that the losses will come. I've always heard that the weight we have carried the longest is the weight that is the toughest to lose. I just want to get back down to 150 lbs and I've carried that 33 to 34 lbs for a long time... probably 25 yrs because the lowest I remember weighing since then was 167 the first trip DH and I made back home to visit my family about 18 yrs ago. I will not give up. I know I should be able to at least get down to 167 and if I can do that perhaps I can even get down to the 150 lb goal.

Nothing to report today. FBS and BP is still good. I did weigh but it was up 1 lb but that is not uncommon after McD's CB. So I'm just maintaining bouncing between 2 or 3 lbs.

Have a nice day.

Trish, I know it’s bad to beat myself up but I do try to be truthful with myself when I might try to soften it when talking to a friend. I know what to do but I too often go off track when I know what will happen. There was a woman who used to be very harsh with me on the board that closed. I know she was right and was probably doing the best for me but someone reported her and she was banned. She had done that to other people too. I sometimes think of the things she said to me and know she was right. The truth hurts, but the truth shall set you free.

I slept for 9 hours, didn’t get up til 11am. This happens when DH gets up before me. I didn’t weigh until 12:30 and I’m down .8 to 187.2. I am still recycling pounds but I’m glad my regains are only a few pounds before I stop them. I do wish I could continue down but wishing doesn’t make it happen.

I didn’t eat yet. I would like to go to Texas Roadhouse today but I don’t know if I can wait that long to eat. If I don’t have my eggs for brunch then I seem to crave them in the evening. I think I’m better off having them early in the day. I don’t know if it really matters. I don’t seem to be able to do OMAD. My blood sugar suffers when I eat all my calories at one meal.

Carol Sue, I could have slept longer this morning too except that we forgot to unplug the land phone before we went to bed and it woke me up when it rang. The voicemail goes through company so I unplug it unless I know the kids are going to call or I am leaving to go somewhere without DH. We plug it in periodically to listen to voicemail and most of those are just hangups. I had checked it last night and didn't unplug it.

My weight is just bouncy bouncy right now. No gain, but no loss either. I am taking it as a sign that good things are happening that the scale doesn't know or can tell me.

I'm not sure it matters whether we have a regular ongoing eating window or not at the same time or the same way everyday. I also am not sure that it matters if I eat balanced macros or not. I thought about that yesterday when I forced myself to eat low carbs and high protein to reach a certain percentage of each. Some days I want more than others and some days like today I don't want much of anything. I just don't think it is smart to push myself to eat when I don't want to eat or to eat what I don't really want just to reach a certain # of carbs or protein or even calories. Normal weight people don't think about those things. I don't think they even worry about those things when they decide they want a piece of fruit or a bite of cheese, etc. They just eat what they want and then they stop and go on with their lives. Sometimes I find I am eating a lot of food at our main meal just so I can get the macros I need along with some of the other foods I want struggling to balance them. I've wondered what would happen if I changed that and ate some of those foods in another meal or snack and balance the same calories over that 8 hr eating window instead of trying to cram them into 2 meals and a snack. I'm basically eating 2 snacks and 1 big meal and I'm not sure that is good. Not too much different than what I was doing on Carbohydrate Addicts. There are days when I don't want to eat within 8 hr eating window because I'm not hungry to close my window within 8 hrs. I've had times that my hunger closed my window at 9 or 10 hrs when eating intuitively/mindfully.

I've been reading that book Magic Foods for better blood sugar again and I had forgotten how you can comine certain foods so that your blood sugar remains level and doesn't go up so high. I thought of it when DD said she made sweet n sour pork the other night. She cooks from scratch like I used to do and of course made it with vinigar. She said the next morning her FBG was in the 80s. It scared her until she talked to me. I am thinking about going back to eating the combo woe. That was so healthy and why I did so well in SC when I ate that way. Weight comes off slowly any way and I am working to keep A1c/FBG low now.

Hope everybody is staying save in this heat wave everyone is having. Hi of 105 here today.

Trish, we went to Goodwill after dinner today. They had a brand new copy of Magic Foods for Better Blood Sugar. I thought it was funny that you just mentioned it.

We went to Texas Roadhouse. I had Pulled Pork and it was very good. The only bad thing is the sauce they use is too sugary so I don’t order it often. I ate less than half of it and brought the rest home.

I know that I should eat mostly protein and vegetables and keep carbs to a minimum but I don’t check macros. The results are different every day. I would never want to eat more just to meet a certain number. You are right that normal eaters and those of normal weight pay no attention to macros, or even calories for that matter. I could be more strict and might lose faster if I tried but I don’t want food to be that important to me. One big step for me has been to stop eating toast with eggs unless they are over easy, which I rarely have. Another is eating ice cream when we go to the casino. I made a pact that I would only do that for every 5 lbs I lost and at the rate I’m going I might never have it again! It really doesn’t bother me. Plus DH won’t get it if I don’t so I’m saving him some calories too. He is delaying breakfast because of me, too,

Carol Sue, Pulled pork sounds good. We haven't had that in quite a while. We ate it a lot in SC. There was a BBQ place we went to and they had several different sauces sitting on the tables that you could choose from which I liked because it didn't come with the sauce on it. There are a lot of things like that in the store that you just heat up even ribs, but they have sauce on it so DH and I won't buy them because we know they have a lot of sugar in it. I wonder if you could mix it with a little bit of ACV at home to balance the sugar like DD sweet n sour pork she made? I might have to try that and see.

I had more calories today, because I ate what I wanted. I didn't eat until we got home from getting DH meds. We decided to get tacos from Taco Bell. I thought I had eaten way over my 8 hrs because I got hungry tonight around 10, but then I realized that I didn't eat until about 2:30 today so eating around 10 gave me an 8 hr eating window. But I did eat intuitively and mindfully by not eating until I was hungry. I told DH tonight that this week and next is going to be a real test to see how ACV works because we had 2 take out meals this week and we will have 2 plus we will eat out one day when my niece and her Hubby come to see DS next week. Eating restaurant or fast food too often doesn't make it is easy to not gain weight. Will have to work on doing some 2 meal days with all that going on.

Weight is up .4 today. I don’t know if it would be lower if I weight later but that is obsessive. These tenths of a pound mean nothing in the big picture.

I don’t think eating in restaurants is a problem for me. I can choose low carb meals. It’s up to me. I can ask for unseasoned, skip the bread, etc. Fast food is not as easy. It is usually preseasoned. I got a book from Amazon of a woman who lost weight eating fast food. I didn’t read it yet. I think it can be done and it’s up to the mind set of the person eating. It might not be as healthy but we’re talking weight not health.

I think I could order the pulled pork without extra sauce. It is cooked in sauce but it looked like they poured sauce over it. It was big chunks so when I broke it open the middle was meat with no sauce. I could rinse the pieces I brought home. I wish I knew how to make it with the vinegar sauce instead of bbq sauce. Only the bbq is sold in our restaurants but step son’s MIL makes it with vinegar. I used to make it when the kids were coming but not now because DH won’t eat it. I get mad that he won’t try things. But maybe if I was a more picky eater I would be thinner.

He said he will eat the beef roast if I shred it so I will try that next time. I asked why he eats it in restaurants but not mine and he said theirs is shredded with gravy. I don’t cook a lot at home because most things have to be planned ahead to defrost, longer cooking time, etc. I take things out to defrost then he tells me he doesn’t want that. He really likes to be served, and it doesn’t matter. In most cases he gets steak, roast beef or even a burger. A burger is usually my last choice. So we are better off where we can each choose something different. When the kids were here he ate whatever I cooked. I think he did that so they would eat it too. After they left he wanted to go to restaurants. We never went to restaurants with the kids.

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I was right about the scale. I got back on at 11:30 and I’m back down to 187.2 that I weighed yesterday. This is with only black coffee. I might have weighed more if I had eaten.

Im liking this book about the woman who lost weight eating fast food. I would not eat the fast food. But it’s about eating foods you like, not what someone else eats or what someone says you should eat. I’m about half way through the book and I see the benefit of her suggestions. When I lost weight the first time I didn’t know anything about dieting except eating less. The more I learned about what other people said to do the harder it became. If you’re interested the book is Vegetables Not Included.

Also, I read about the vinegar sauce. It has so much sugar in it I can’t see it being a better choice for me. I’d rather just have the meat with a little sauce. I had it at someone’s house who served the cooked meat with the sauce on the side so each person could add their own to taste.