Yesterday's menu-

Breakfast/lunch-

1 high fiber honey wheat wrap with 2 cups of lettuce, chipotle mayo, and tuna- 9 grams
2 servings Snyder's Eat Smart Tortilla chips- 6 grams
lotsa water

total for b/l- 15 grams

Dinner/snacks-

2 black bean veggie patties on hamburger buns with chipotle mayo, lettuce, and tomato- 17.8
popcorn- 6
slice of Texas sheet cake
1/2 serving of Good and Plenty licorice candy

total for dinner/snacks- 23.8

total fiber for the day- 38.8 on the low side for me fiber wise, but calorie wise, a bit higher than I usually eat. Just one of those days when I needed something sweet I guess.

Glad to help, and it sounds like you are doing wonderful yourself! thank you for the kind comment about my daughter noticing my weight going down. I think the intense workouts I've been doing at the pool twice a week has really helped tone me up a bit faster this time around then doing just walking/jogging/dancing and the recumbent bike. When I lived closer to a pool years ago, I went four to five nights a week and was in great shape, especially my arms and legs. It really does make a difference for me. I just ordered some water weights and ankle weights for the water, to bump up my strength training while I jog in the pool and do exercises. I just love the water! I only wish I didn't have to go to Concord to get to the pool, but I love it there, and the price is right.

I found another Apricot Chicken recipe that I'm going to try, it's different than my usual Apricot Chicken recipe which has onion soup mix in it- everyone loves that version at my house, but I am itching to try this new recipe- I thought of you and how you love apricot preserves- if it tastes good, I'll pass on the recipe. I plan on using the Polaner apricot preserves in it, why not? My family's been eating high fiber lately without realizing it, because of some of the foods I am eating, they want to eat, too. I'm going to serve it with Quinoa- has more fiber than white or brown rice per serving, plus it's a nice change from rice anyway. My youngest daughter can have this as well, where she is gluten free.

Arnold's makes a Double Fiber bread- 90 calories and 6 grams of fiber per slice. I get mine at Hannaford or Market Basket. I actually love it because it is moist and tastes good. Some of the so called high fiber breads taste very dry, plus their not as high in fiber as Arnold's. I love their breads anyway.

I love blueberries and strawberries. We live across the street from a blueberry orchard- we pick them and eat them whole- so good! I will have to try and add them to some salads- I have added apples, pears, and dried craberries to my salads with pecans or walnuts. My kids hate fruit added to their salads, so I only put it in mine and my husbands. Kids! I am so ready for summer fruits and foods- this winter has been too long up here, as I am sure you agree!

Have a great day!

Steelslady, Thank you for letting me know which bread you buy. I bought a loaf of When Pigs Fly high fiber bread and it tasted like cardboard.

I found Beanitos at the Hannaford's on Ft Eddy Rd. I bought the plain ones and DH & I had some with our lunch. We thought they were pretty good.

Is the pool you go to in Concord at the "Y"? Keep up the exercising, you're doing great.

Please post your recipe for the apricot chicken, it sounds really good.

I totally agree about this winter! I've had enough of it.

Lilliann, you're doing great. Keep it up!

Trish, thank you for letting me know which high fiber bread you buy. Your menu sounds good.

Pattience, I'm sorry the experiment with your salad didn't turn out well. Everything sounded good to me except for the rice. I'm not a fan of rice in a salad.

Hope everyone has a great evening.

Today's Menu

Breakfast

1/2 Banana & .5 c strawberries 3
1 T Whipped butter 0
2 slices bacon 0
1 egg 0
2 slices Double fiber bread 100

Lunch

1 Cod fish fillet 0
1 c tossed salad with light mayo 2
1/3 c steamed corn 2
1 c broccoli florets 2
1 serving (16) Wheat thins, Fiber Selects Garden Vegetable crackers 5

Dinner

2 oz (dry) 100% Whole Grain Thin Spaghetti 5
1 T whipped butter 0
1/2 c chopped collard greens 1
1/2 c chopped turnips & turnip greens

Snacks

1 T JIF Whips - Peanut butter 1
1 T Polaner SF/HF Apricot preserves 3
1 sl Double fiber bread 5
1/4 c Shelled Edamame 2
1 Gala apple 4

Total 1223 calories & 46 g fiber

Finally had a day with my salt under the 2300 g just haven't drank enough water although I have drank lots of liquids. I always try to drink at least 8 glasses of water besides the other liquids that I drink.

I probably won't post anything this weekend as I have a busy one with DGS is home for spring break and running him around getting him to and from work and church activities besides my own weekend activities.

I agree with Lilliann, we are all doing great. In fact, I'm getting this down to such an easy way of doing that I may be able to do Intuitive Eating better and may not have to even count the calories or the fiber. Will continue counting until I'm sure. But eating Intuitively is my goal because I don't like thinking about food and eating all the time.

Everybody have a great weekend.

Today's counts are Calories 1654 Fiber 43

Ladies can i ask, how do you know how much fibre you should aim for? Are you doing it as a proportion of calories? Or is there are right amount for your current weight and height?

or are you just eating as much as you can so that you can feel fuller? Any explanation of what your understanding around fibre and how much to eat would interest me.

Thanks and keep going.

Trish- enjoy your weekend with your grandson!

Thatta girl! I hope your sugars are doing good, too! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, look forward to chatting with you soon.

I don't count calories- no need to, on this plan. I do a combination of high fiber/high protein, which keeps me full for most of the day. As a matter of fact, I only eat two meals a day- I seriously can't eat anymore. I might at night, once in awhile, have a small snack, but that's very rare now.

Just for the fun of it, I decided to track my calories for a few days, just to see where they are at. I average around 1650-1900, depending on the day. I went shopping today and stocked up on lots of fresh veggies, frozen veggies, and fruit. I keep high fiber bars, high fiber breads, wraps, tortillas, and English muffins in my house for some quick meals. I eat fresh eggs from a farm that are from chickens that are grass fed. I have low sodium bacon and watch my salt intake, eating no salt butter, etc. I also eat light mayonaise instead of full fat. I do not eat any sugar free products unless they are made with Stevia.

Depending upon the day, I average anywhere between 32-70 grams of fiber per day. It all depends on what I have in the house and time- some days, I have to grab quick stuff to eat, but when I have a chance at home to stay and cook, it's much higher.

I hope this helps! Others may be doing this differently, so they would have to chime in.

Friday's menu-

Breakfast/lunch-

1 HF Fiber English muffin with no salt butter and cream cheese- 8 grams
1 HF Fiber English muffin with peanut butter and Polaner strawberry- 18
1 serving Kashi Southwest BBQ Black Bean Crisps- 4 grams
lotsa water!
1 100 calorie pack of smoked almonds- 2 grams

total for B/L- 32 grams

Dinner-

3 pieces veggie pizza
strawberry milk
1/2 serving Good and Plenty licorice candies

total for dinner- about 5-6 grams

total for the day- 37-38 grams

Was very busy yesterday. Between a plumbing problem as well as having to go to one of my daughter's best friends's play last night, I didn't have time to cook anything. Her friend played the role of Audrey, which is my name, and she threatened to come and get me a drag me to the play, if I didn't go on my own. I couldn't disappoint my namesake for the night. Needless to day, yesterday was another very low day for me. *sigh*

Today, hubby and I ran a lot of errands today and went shopping, so we decided to check out the Co Op cafe, which has an awesome salad bar, olive bar, and homemade all natural entrees. I got two plates, loaded up one with salad items such as lettuce, spring mix, red pepper, snow peas, broccoli, 2 artichoke hearts, about 1/2 cup of Moroccan cous cous salad with veggies, a couple of cherry tomatoes, and fruit (1 humongous strawberry, canteloupe, some red grapes, raspberries, and two good pieces of pineapple) with chipotle ranch dressing and a couple of croutons on top. The other plate, I had a huge amount of broccoli (again, only hot, lol!) in garlic butter (not greasy at all, very tasty, too!), kale, summer squash and red pepper in a light sauce, and some spicy rice with cabbage, jumbo shrimp and snow peas- everything was absolutely delicious, and the best part is that I didn't walk away bloated like I do whenever we go out to eat! I estimate that I had about 6-8 grams of fiber there, judging by what was on my plate. Might have been a little higher, but to be on the safe side, I'll just leave it at that. I couldn't make dinner again tonight, due to us trying to fix the plumbing problem, almost a success, but need to do more work tomorrow *sigh again*.


Today's menu-

breakfast/lunch-

At the Co Op Cafe- 6-8 grams
2 bottles of Glaciar Distilled Water- one with lunch, and one I drank after food shopping

Dinner-

2 pieces of Fiber One 9 Grain bread- 12 grams
roast beef, mayonaise and mustard
2 servings of Beanitos white bean Nacho Cheese and Better Cheddar flavor 12 grams
gnu foods high fiber Blondie bar- 12 grams
chocolate milk


total for dinner- 36 grams

total for the day- 42-44 grams

As I said, we went shopping today. At the Co Op, I picked up these high fiber bars- Blondie flavor and Chocolate Brownie flavor. Tried the Blondie tonight- it was ok, but it didn't taste anything like a Blondie, that's for sure- very fruity flavor to it, if you ask me. It didn't taste bad, but I wouldn't buy it again for $1.89 per bar. Hopefully, the Chocolate Brownie flavor tastes better. I'll just stick to my high fiber Market Basket or Hannaford bars, thank you very much, if this is the best they can do for high fiber bars at an all natural store.

I waited with such excitement and anticipation for the infamous Beanitos........well, I don't care for the Nacho flavor ones at all- too "beany" tasting for my liking. Of course, dummy me bought two bags of that flavor as well as the Better Cheddar kind, and one bag of pinto beans with sea salt. If only I didn't live so far away from where these products are, I would have just bought one until I tried them out first. Better Cheddar wasn't too bad, hopefully the pinto bean with sea salt is good. I will eat them so as not to waste them, but very disappointed in the Nacho and Better Cheddar flavors, with Better Cheddar being the better flavor of the two I tried tonight.

The Fiber One 9 Grain bread is awesome! They didn't have my Arnold's Double Fiber Bread, so I found this one and decided to try it- it is nice and moist, thick slices, too! I just might try these in French toast some time.

They didn't have my Snyder's Eat Smart Tortilla Chips, but Bachman has a similar product, so I picked up a couple of bags of those. I like to keep all of my high fiber stuff handy and ready to use, especially during times when I can't cook and eat my salads- having an awful lot of those days these past two weeks!

I hope everyone is doing great this weekend. Enjoy the rest of it!

I found a really good article on fibre. do you want to read it? Its quite enlightening.

http://nutritionwonderland.com/2010/...-bodies-fiber/

You should see the fibre in my pea soup today. AND it was yummier than expected.

I know you don't cook Lilian, but here's the easy recipe for anyone else who wants it.

start with
per 100g of dried split peas per person/serving. For each serving add the following
1 onion (so two onions for 200g of peas)
1tsp butter or ghee or a good oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups water
salt to taste

Ideally its good to soak the peas to reduce cooking time but if you don't do that, just cook the whole thing to death and then blend it with a bar mix. Cook it with the lid on until you've got a consistency you like and then lid off if you want to thin it down and add water if you want to thicken it up. At the right consistency, its highly tasty and somewhat sweet from the onions and garlic.

Today in my pot i think i put about 1 tsp salt in 250g of peas. Usually peas and legumes need a fair bit of salt to make it taste right but it shouldn't taste salty.

A serve would be 100g of peas and it has about 20 grams of soluble fibre, and i can't remember how much protein but its all good as far as i'm concerned.

I'll probably do the same recipe with red lentils when i buy some. Earlier today i was checking up on protein and fibre content in all the legumes and pulses that i'm likely to eat.

If you don't cook, you could get a similar benefit from canned pea soup, usually pea and ham. Obviously it would just need heating up.

What's more, today, i haven't actually passed much wind yet either!

Awe, hun, I know how frustrating fluid fluctuations can be! I gain water weight from exercise, standing in the kitchen cooking for a few hours, excess sodium. There's just no way that you consumed 91,000 calories yesterday, so take heart- it will come off eventually!

While you are logging in your daily fiber, log your exercise as well, or if you were standing on your feet for long periods of time without much movement. This will help give you an idea as to the cause of this retention.

In a few minutes, I am going to "drain" my feet by laying on my couch with my feet at an angle against the wall for about 15-20 minutes. This really helps drain out the fluid from the ankles and leg areas, where fluid pools easily.

Tonight, I will also put my feet up under two fluffy pillows while I read in bed. I keep them like that for a minimum of 15-20 minutes, sometimes longer, while reading.

Are you on a fluid pill by any chance? I am on triameterene once a day. It does help cut down on some of the fluid, but I still have to elevate my feet, especially if I have been either consuming more sodium than usual or if I just stand or sit around instead of moving most of the day.

Hang in there, hun. You are doing great, and it is coming off for you, just have to get the fluid situation under control!