Yep, Carol Sue, you need to stay away from that bread and pasta. No doubt about it. Here's something to help.

Whell...I napped after work today. Prolly be awake all night now. I guess I needed the sleep, but honestly I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do everything I need to do. And I have a lot I would like to do. Like lose this weight.

Carol Sue, I bought shelled pumpkin seeds. I got them at Kroger. :T Please keep us posted on the kidneys issue! :hug:

SeeMyFeet, just take it one day, one step, one little bit at a time! There's no rush! :yes:

Yay! These pumpkins seeds seem to work much better for me than the roasted salted ones! I'm back down to 168.5 today and that is after having eaten some quite late! I don't know why I am getting hungry after dinner, but I think these seeds will work well for that, as long as I don't overdo it! :crossed:

EDITED TO ADD: How could I almost forget to tell you?! I'm wearing a size 10 jeans today! I'm so excited! I had one pair tucked away in my closet from the last time I got down to 168. (I think I wore them once or twice before I started regaining, lol!) I've battled the looseness of my size 12's the last few days, so I thought I'd give these a try this morning, and woohoo, they fit! :yay:

Week 29: High 171, Low 170
11/29--171
11/30--170.5
12/1--170
12/2--170
12/3--170
12/4--DNW
12/5--170.5 Carb Day

Week 30: High 173, Low 169
12/6--173
12/7--172.5
12/8--171
12/9--170.5
12/10--169
12/11--170
12/12--170.5 Carb Day

Week 31: High 172, Low 169.5
12/13--172
12/14--170.5
12/15--171
12/16--170.5
12/17--169.5
12/18--170.5
12/19--169.5 Carb Day

Week 32: High 171.5, Low 167.5
12/20--169.5
12/21--170
12/22--167.5
12/23--167.5
12/24--168
12/25--DNW :tree:
12/26--171.5

Week 33:
12/27--173
12/28--170.5
12/29--168.5
12/30--
12/31--
1/1--
1/2--

Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 fried eggs
Leftover ham
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Lunch
Protein bar
Mio water

Tea Time:

Dinner: @ Wendy's
2 plain cheeseburger patties (bun removed)
Large chili
Diet Dr. Pepper

Late-Night Snack
Pumpkin seeds

Today's Exercise:

Jacqui_D :cheer3: 168.5 and in your size 10 jeans is a wonderful accomplishment. CONGRATULATIONS I have some beautiful clothes in my closet waiting for me to get back down so I can wear them. Some brand new. I am happy for you.

SMF Thinking of you today and pray you will have a good day.

We ate at Golden Coral yesterday and my weight is up the 2.4 lbs I lost. I think noticed on MFP that they must use a lot of salt because my sodium was over 1200 mg over the 2300 we are allowed to eat each day. Water, water, water today. It will be interesting as I log meals out on MFP to see how other restaurants do with the sodium. Sodium is the main reason I don't eat a lot of lowfat products.

Poached eggs and coffee this morning. Poached with a bit of butter, made in a skillet, warm and moist, not in the microwave where they turn out too dry for my liking. Which is this morning's manifestation of a drastic turn toward as-low-carb-as-I-can-go mental attitude. Will the brain control the hand today?

The Joy of Size 10 post helps, Jaq. I'm finding it difficult to imagine progress, much less feeling joyful about progress. I prolly have some size 10s in the house somewhere...from a younger version of me. I should dig them out and hang up one for inspiration.

Hard and Fast goals for today: Lunch: salad (no fruit); Dinner: ??? No calories after 7pm....Get the exercise in, Take my vitamins, Get some housework in, and Early to bed.

Gotta figure out that dinner part. Another salad? Green beans and veggies? Guess I'm leaning toward a Goat Diet.

Way to go Jacqui! That is such a great feeling. I think I'm going to try those pumpkin seeds. We're going to a place called Jungle Jims today ....it's an international food market....and I plan on getting a few unique items in addition to the mandatory Britiish load up.

I had boxed up all my 10s last spring after giving up hope of ever wearing them again, but still had them in the barn. I had planned on a big yard sale this summer but it never happened (glad it didn't). I had only kept the good stuff (LL Bean, Ann Taylor, J. Crew), glad I did. I just bought three pair of size 8 jeans/cords on after-Xmas clearance at the outlets. Two fit just a little snug but still acceptable for public display and the third pair will have to wait until the end of January :)

I bought an exercise DVD at Goodwill yesterday for $1.99 minus my senior discount. It is dance exercise, and it contained 4 DVDs. When I got home and opened it up it had a little booklet with a diet plan. I didn't really read it though, but it stated things like "no fruit after 3PM except apples or berries."
Some other pointers were dairy foods, fish, soy, nuts, olive oil and tea all push the fat-burning machinery to work harder. Fish oil and olive oil target abdominal fat. You can have some unrefined carbs, but combine them with the right foods and eat them before 3PM. If you eat an apple, add some peanut butter or a piece of cheese to slow the digestion down. Eat a lot of foods with high water content, such as soups, stews, vegetables. It has 7 days of sample menus. I'm going to enter them into my online tracker to see what kind of calorie count they're doing. The whole system is called Core Rhythms. It says it has an online community but I looked online and it seems it's no longer there. This was an "As Seen On TV" thing and anywhere I look it says it's "no longer available." I will be curious to see what the dance workouts are like. These 2 women are supposedly international dance champions, Jeana Kunitz and Julia Powers. Either way, I spent less than $1.99 for it.

SeeMyFeet, thanks for the article. LOL Not too appetizing. I think you could make some high protein bread with that flour.

I think you really needed the sleep. Don't worry about getting things done, those things will still be there when you are ready. Just take it easy for now.

I have some cut up veggies left over from Christmas and I don't want them to go bad. I ate some green, yellow, orange and red pepper strips this morning. For lunch I cooked some baby carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. I don't like that stuff raw. My grandson is coming this afternoon and he will help me out with the peppers and carrots. He loves them raw.

Jacqui, congratulations on the size 10 jeans. I haven't worn a size 10 since the 70s and they weren't real size 10s. They were 12s that got too big and I took them in. Never actually bought a 10. But back then sizes were a lot smaller than they are now. I weighed 125.

This morning my rings were loose so I thought I might be down another pound, but I was actually up one, to 199. I don't understand.

Trish, I have never tracked on MFP so I have a question. How does it know when you enter a food whether it is from Golden Corral? If you choose a food from their list, how would the sodium be different if it was from a restaurant or if you made it at home? I'm confused. I know that most restaurants use a lot of salt because it enhances the flavor of the food. I just don't know how MFP differentiates.

I too have some brand new clothes with the tags still on them. I even have some that I bought on clearance recently. They are a little too tight, but I liked them so much and the price was too good to pass up. So if I don't lose some weight to wear them, my step-daughter is going to inherit some really nice new clothes. LOL

Carol Sue, it's like you were reading my mind because when I put these pants on this morning, I wondered what their "real" size was, aka the size they would have been in the 1970's. Like you, I was MUCH smaller, a teenager, and typically wore 7's. There was no such thing as a 0 that I remember. I do remember the 5-7-9 Store had some size 3's and they were impossibly tiny! Well, I just looked it up. A 10 in today's sizes is equivalent to a 14 in 1970's sizes. I'd love to get down to a 12 in 1970's sizes because that was considered the "average" woman's size back then, and women looked very healthy, not too heavy, not twiggy thin. My mom wore a 12 and she looked great! :yes:

By the way, Carol Sue, Trish, PrairieQueen, SeeMyFeet (Mars, Rennie, Chickadeee), I think all of us who have clothes in storage which are a little too tight should keep them and do our best to strive toward fitting into them! And let's be sure to announce when we do! :dance: The scale doesn't have to be the only measure we use. I'll have to go to Goodwill and pick up some size 8 (1970's 12) jeans to play along though because 10 was the lowest size I had in my closet. Oh, and I AM going to clear out the bigger sizes to make it inconvenient and costly to go back up! :yes:

Carol Sue, that DVD set and diet sound pretty good! :yes: What a great buy! :cp:

SeeMyFeet, I hope you make (made) it through your day's menu exactly as you want(ed) it to go! :dust: / :crossed:

Just getting home from kids after a two hour wait n the wrecker. We had a blowout and I was driving. Our roadside assistance is sh*t! After an hour I said to send anyone, Ill pay. Two hours later a local showed up...he said they just called him and that he'd been sitting at home all evening. Wait until I talk to insurance guy.....for now on I'm calling this guy directly.

Anyway, today's menu.....

Breakfast - toast w/butter and apple butter & iced tea w/stevia
Lunch - leftover beef stroganoff
Dinner - bowl of baked potato soup and small piece of baguette
Now - a very tall skinny margarita

I'll be back later to post more, but I just wanted to say that I have a skirt that I wore back in the 70s. It's a size 13 I think. It buttons all the way down the side. If I hold it up to me it now goes half way around. LOL I need another identical skirt to button them together. I just keep it around for the memories. I will never fit in it again. I have a few things I know I will never fit in again.

Carol Sue, like the signature post! :bravo:

PrairieQueen, oh, I would have been livid to be treated that way! In any event, I'm glad you're safe! :hug:

169.5 today. Still in the 160's, so that's good. I've had Wendy's 2 nights in a row because I was at my son's helping with the grandbabies. I had a salad as my side the first night, but I had a large chili as my side last night and I think the sodium in it made a difference. I probably should not have had ham for breakfast this morning because of its high sodium content, but we need to eat it up, so oh well! I'll have to try to drink a lot of water and hot tea today! :coffee2: Tomorrow we are having dinner with friends for New Year's Eve, so I'm making tomorrow Carb Day. It looks like I'm going to start 2016 off in the 170's. Hopefully I'll end it at 164 or lower! :hat:

Week 29: High 171, Low 170
11/29--171
11/30--170.5
12/1--170
12/2--170
12/3--170
12/4--DNW
12/5--170.5 Carb Day

Week 30: High 173, Low 169
12/6--173
12/7--172.5
12/8--171
12/9--170.5
12/10--169
12/11--170
12/12--170.5 Carb Day

Week 31: High 172, Low 169.5
12/13--172
12/14--170.5
12/15--171
12/16--170.5
12/17--169.5
12/18--170.5
12/19--169.5 Carb Day

Week 32: High 171.5, Low 167.5
12/20--169.5
12/21--170
12/22--167.5
12/23--167.5
12/24--168
12/25--DNW :tree:
12/26--171.5

Week 33:
12/27--173
12/28--170.5
12/29--168.5
12/30--169.5
12/31--
1/1--
1/2--

Today's Meals:
Breakfast:
2 fried eggs
Leftover ham
Fage Greek yogurt with Mio
Mio water

Lunch
Protein bar
Mio water

Tea Time:
Hot green tea

Dinner:
Large field greens salad with ham, pumpkin seeds, and ranch dressing
Diet Dr. Pepper
Mio water

Today's Exercise:

Bummer, PQ...Hope no one was hurt, and little damage to the car...I keep tow truck numbers in my address book. Never needed to call one (knock wood)...guess it's time I should update those numbers.

I just signed up for the 2016 challenge, Carol...I want me some of those stinkin' badges, too!

Whellll, the Will Power Dust came too late, Jac. For some stoopid :dizzy: reason, I sent DH out for a bottle of wine after work. I haven't had wine in ages on accounta the meds and the calories. I had more than one glass and woke up at 4am with a big dehydration headache. Kept drinking water, then finally caved and took some ibuprofen. Got some more sleep, but the coffee this am brought it back. Stoopid me. How much negative feedback will it take to cure my diet self-sabotage?

Ya know, I think it's the clothing. My clothing is not as snug, therefore, I feel "thin". Could always feeling fat in snug clothing be the key to sticking with a plan?

Carol Sue I just typed in Golden Coral in the food box on MFP and it had a lot of food items with the information on them. I pretty much picked most of my meal on MFP before I went to eat. However, I didn't notice the sodium count until later. MFP only allows 2300 mg of sodium a day and anything above that comes up in the red to let you know you have gone over. It does that with calories, carbs, fat, protein, and sugar. It also keeps up with the fiber but doesn't have limit so I don't even see how much fiber I'm getting until I go to the print page. On the print page, my exercise and calories I've burned shows up on the print page as well. It is pretty thorough.

I am back down to the 231.4 today as I still had more sodium than I should have yesterday. I decided to start planning meals the night before. A good lesson I learned to do when I was in OA (Overeaters Anonymous) years ago. I've decided that I need to really keep an eye on the sodium. I take a mild fluid pill, but heard they are really hard on kidneys and like Carol Sue it something diabetics should protect. I've decided that I really want my diet to be such that it not only reverses diabetes, but it improves my health as well. As my sister says, I don't want to lose my eyesight. I really don't want the complications that come with diabetes.

My doctor doesn't give me any medicine for diabetes that will cause me to gain weight. I was upset with him for a while because he wouldn't give me glimiperide or some medicine like that to help me get the blood sugar down. He told me I would gain weight if he gave it to me. He knows that I know what to do because he saw me do it in the beginning. He even told me once that he can tell when someone is working at it or not. I believe I am blessed because I believe he really cares about me and what is best for me and he works with me. He told me if I just exercised 15 minutes a day that it would be great.

The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet was created to help keep insulin under control. Most doctors back then who wouldn't let their patients do low carb would allow them to do CAD. I'm going ahead with it with a few changes which I believe not only help me stay OP, but we have learned through the years are not bad carbs like carrots for example. Using MFP to keep up with the calories. I think I'm going to lower them again maybe down to 1600 instead of 1700. I settled on the ratio of 30% carbs, 35% fat and 35% protein.

Today's food plan

Breakfast was Bullet coffee made with Chocolate Designer whey with 1/3 c blueberries and 1 T EVOO
Lunch will be a homemade hamburger and maybe a salad on the side.
Dinner will be ham salad.

The bullet coffee will be breakfast each morning, alternating chocolate whey protein powder with French Vanilla and using different frozen berries so that it doesn't get tiresome. I probably will ditch the ham eventually because of the sodium content but that will be my dinner for a while since I have a large package of it. However, the sodium does keep me from adding a lot other high sodium foods during the day. Right now the only thing that will be different each day will be my lunch. That will be my carby meal. I really don't like calling it a Reward Meal so I won't. I'm not planning any all day carb days.

Today's menu...

Breakfast - homemade hash brown, fried egg, Irish butter, ice tea w/stevia
Lunch - last of beef stroganoff
Dinner - grilled wings at pub, light beer

Mom up from Florida for a couple of days to see grandkids ages 4 to 28. She needed a break. I'm going back down in February for a four day weekend to see bro. He's still in hospital but using his phone on his own to call preprogrammed numbers. His feeding tube was moved to his side yesterday, so his throat can heal and the muscles can strengthen. We talked To him last night and today :) he seems to have his old personality except for the nasty outbursts directed at hospital staff. They said its normal and may get worse before its gets better....par for the course due to the amount and types of drugs that were being pumped into his system. AND he is completely off dialysis! His body is working on its own except for feeding tube because he can't swallow yet. As soon as he can eat and drink, he's off to rehab :) Yeah!

Night all....mom and I are having a drink.

SeeMyFeet, I thought you were going to say "I sent DH out for a bottle of wine after work and he never came back." I don't know what made me think that! LOL Glad he came back and brought you the wine. It sounds like you need to let your hair down a bit and chill. Tomorrow is another day, according to Scarlett O'Hara. You don't hear Prairie Queen worrying about how much she's drinking! LOL

I'm afraid to drink because of my meds. I mix a little red wine with some diet ginger ale. Have to get my reversital. LOL

Good job on signing up for the challenge! The Delicious for Christmas was the first challenge that I stuck to until the end, even though I didn't set any records on weight loss. Normally I start them and quit half way through. I hope I stick with this one for 2016. Riestrella makes it fun with giving out the badges. My badge isn't appearing the way it's supposed to. I'll have to see what I did wrong.

Trish, that's good that MFP will give you counts for Golden Corral. It's always so hard to figure out the nutrients in food that you didn't prepare yourself. I belong to MFP but have never used it. I can't figure it out. I have been using Fit Day for so long and I'm used to it.

So far I have not gained from glimiperide, but I think it keeps me from losing. I don't know what will happen now that my dose is upped. I want to use it as a tool until I can get my eating back in line and my exercise. I don't intend to stay on it for a lifetime if I can help it. I did very well avoiding carbs today. I had a few of DH's french fries, that's it. I went to visit a friend but she put out veggies so that's what we filled up on.

Jacqui, one thing about weight that comes from too much sodium, it's only water weight. When push comes to shove, we are concerned with fat, not fluid. Fluids fluctuate from day to day.