Shannon, that's a beautiful ring, and it's over the knuckle! I'm afraid to force a ring over a knuckle for fear it will get stuck! LOL When we bought our rings DH told me I had to buy it tight so I wouldn't gain weight. I was only 130 lbs back then. Should have known that trick wasn't going to work.

2 inches! I'm down 1/2 inch in my waist and I'm thinking I could just be pulling the tape measure tighter.

Darcy, Your lab results are awesome. I know you can bring your A1c down a little lower. Metformin is not such a big deal and helps some with weight loss, but you're right to avoid it if you can. I know it's hard to get some "me" time when you have kids, but come here when you can. We love hearing from you.

Rennie, you might want to try 1/4 C of bean the first day or two. I know it doesn't sound like much, but see how your body is going to handle them. One of these days I'm going to cook some beans from dried, but they do say that canned are just about as good for you as dry. I just use the canned because DH doesn't eat them much. When I make chili he doesn't want a lot of beans in it so I either cook some extra beans in a separate pot for me, or I mash up the beans with a fork so he doesn't see them in there. Lie to my husband? Never! LOL (He also doesn't know I put Miralax in his jello and that's what got him through this recent bout of constipation! )

Edit: I just thought of something else. If you like Hummus, it's made from garbonzo beans, and makes a great snack with celery sticks or peppers.

No Trish yet this morning. I guess I'm the early bird out of the group. I went to bed really early last night.

I haven't been eating my kale lately as I've had so many other veggies around to eat. Yesterday, it was on sale for 89 cents a pound so I bought a big bunch. It looked very fresh. My body is going to be so happy to get the kale again. I have to remember to throw some black beans in with it. Yummy Yummy. I miss it.

The last 2 books I borrowed from the library were not helpful to me. I'm glad I didn't spend money on them. I don't know how I got on this mailing list, must have signed up at one time, but I got an email from Michelle May MD. She is the author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat, and now I see there is a book out Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Diabetics. I checked the library website and they can get it for me from another library, so I ordered it. Her program is break the eat, repent, repeat cycle. The book is free from the library and sometimes I hit on something that hits home for me. Can't wait to see what information it gives.

Good afternoon! Just checking in to say hi! Not much going on over here. I attempted to bake a low carb, gluten free bread to use for a lunch sandwich but it just was not that great so lunch was kind of disappointing. Oh well! Lol! I need to run to Sams Club this afternoon before we run out of toilet paper! I also have no clue what I am making for dinner. It's that kind of day!

Darcy WELCOME!!! You are doing really well. Great doctors appt results. I also use MFP. It helps me keep up with what I am doing.

Carol Sue I'm still here. Just late checking in. I got up a little earlier this morning, but morning seemed to flyby. DS called and we made up for no talk yesterday. He is so good to call me almost everyday when he is on the road. I haven't kale lately either although I still have it in the freezer. You may have got the email from Michelle May when we were on IE. Carolr mentioned her and posted some of her articles on there a lot at one time. I still get email from her website from time to time.

I am just counting calories right now. Mainly because I am at that place that I usually get to with such a low low carb diet. I am absolutely bored and can't stand the thought of eating any more meat of any kind. Salads have lost their place in my life because they leave me with too much burpiness. So I'm just counting calories for a while. I am choosing no rules except IE rules of "Hungry? Eat what you really love... eat only as much as it takes to reach satisfaction and Stop eating. Not hungry? Don't eat just because the clock says it is time." I think I have to do things this way for now.

I got up this morning and wanted fruit so I had 1/2 small banana and 3 strawberries mixed with 1/2 c Greek yogurt with Stevia for sweetening. Wasn't a whole lot, but it hit the spot. I think now that it is spring time, I will quit eating the eggs for a while and eat fruit and yogurt. I ate a good lunch and I am so satisfied that I may not even want dinner. So if I don't want a meal, I won't have one.

Now I am going to go ride the stationary bike. I will catch y'all again later.

Donna, Rennie, Ruth, Shannon and others reading

Trish i eat my two egg omelet everyday but yes, now that it is warming up I may need to find other options. I also feel mildly bored by low carb even though it's only been a month. Tonight we decided to go to Chick Fil A and I was considering getting an old (high carb) favorite but in the end I decided on a salad with fruit and nuts.

Good job and choice you made Shannon. Proud of you. I guess I was so satisfied with lunch that I haven't even been hungry so far this evening. I can always have scrambled eggs later if I need it. I will just have to carefully ride this mood out and really watch the calories until my body decides it wants the low carb eating again.

Trish, I was concerned when you weren't on here today, but I know sometimes you get busy.

My blood pressure was up this morning. So I got on the scale and my weight is up too, and also my BS. Must have had a bad day yesterday. I took a glimiperide and now after dinner it's 108. I'm getting tired of blaming my weight on fluid retention. I WAS eating leftover ham from Easter which I don't usually eat. The ham is gone now. There's still some turkey left that I will finish tomorrow, but it doesn't have the sodium content that the ham had. I only make ham on Christmas and Easter, so that's it for the next 8 months. LOL I am not bored with low carb yet. My weight isn't falling off the way I would like, but my BS is so much lower than it was, and as long as I keep my eating under control it will stay that way. I didn't like the way I felt after eating those carbs on Easter. I have to get more exercise and drink more water. I have to get back to tracking so I'll know when I'm overeating.

This morning I changed things up and made 2 deviled eggs. Lunch was Kale with mushrooms, onions, garlic and beans. Then I had some turkey with tomato slices and mayo. If I had thought of it I would have used a lettuce leaf and made it a wrap. I could have put some beans in that too.

We went to WalMart and Dh wanted Long John Silvers but I didn't so we got his to go and when we came home I ate a half piece of his fish, with some carrots and brussels sprouts. It was a good low carb day, but a little too much food for lunch.

Shannon, Good job on choosing the salad!

By the way, when my husband went to the DR for his shingles he weighed 219. Today he was 206. He's down 13 lbs! I should start eating what he's eating!!! And it all came off his gut!!

Wow Carol Sue he dropped that quick! Men can do that though. I used to reception at Weight Watchers after I reached my lifetime status many years ago. I was always amazed at the drops the men had. It was nothing to regularly see a 10 lb weekly loss. Crazy! So, I bought some kale today. I have no idea what to do with it! Pinterest, here I come, lol! Oh, and I think you might have better results if you up your water intake. Ham is really salty!

My sister and her hubby both go to Weight Watchers and he has already reached goal and made Lifetime membership. Really ticked her off as she has such a tough time losing anything. She has had lap band surgery and still can't get her weight down.

A quick flyby to say that my day has gone very well. I've 1379 calories and my fiber is 28g. Carbs were up to 170 g and sodium real low. Wasn't shooting for any particular goal of anything. Only ate when I was hungry and ate only what I really wanted. I even felt like doing all my exercise today. So I'm pleased with the results even though the carbs are high. I'll see how it affects weight and fbs in the morning.

Good night.

Last night my BS was 109, this morning 111. With numbers like that after all those 200s and 300s I was having, there's no way I can give up low carb! I know I will have carbs once in a while, but not on a daily basis and it will be planned. This is my new lifetime eating plan.

Shannon - Kale is the number one food for nutritional value. This is why I started eating it. It took me 68 years to try it. There are a lot of recipes using kale. You can use it in a salad along with lettuce and other greens, but it's a little tough for me. Here's what I do. I cut out the stem, chop it up and put it in a colander in the sink full of cold water and swish it around to clean it. If you don't, it will have sand in it. If you bought it bagged already cleaned you don't have to do that. In the meantime, I saute some chopped onion and garlic in some butter or chicken broth, if you want to avoid the butter. When they are almost done, I add some sliced mushrooms. When that all cooks down a bit, I add the chopped kale. Turn the heat to low, put a lid on and let it simmer until the kale is well wilted. Add a little bit of water or chicken broth or it will burn and stick to the pan. I learned that. LOL This will take around 20 minutes, and the kale will still be a little crunchy. When it's almost done I add a sprinkling of black beans. After I plate it up, I sprinkle on some crumbled Feta Cheese when I have it.

Since you are in the south, y'all, there are a lot of recipes that use fat back pork, ham hocks or bacon, but since I am eating this for the health benefits, I can't see putting that in there. Being a yankee, kale is not something I grew up eating, so I don't know the difference. Sometimes I buy other greens, such as collard greens, or turnip greens and mix that in, but usually the bunches at the store are so big that if I buy 2 or 3 kinds then I have too much and it goes bad. Trish said she freezes hers. I will have to find out how she does that.

Trish, I think you can make your calorie plan work for you as you have done this in the past. Low Carb is not for everyone. If you really miss the carbs it's hard to stick to, but you know you can always go back to it in the future if you want to. That's what's nice about our thread. We let everyone do their own thing and support them just the same. There are some things I will want from time to time. Like a tuna salad sandwich, and for that I have my Nickles 35 bread in the freezer. I will eat it and move on. I will also be making spaghetti or lasagne once a month like I always do. And when DH wants rice pilaf I will eat some. It's one of my favorites. But he can keeps his potatoes and sweets as they don't call my name at all. As long as I do low carb 90% of the time I will consider myself to be OP. I will choose my carbs very carefully, based on what I really like and not just eat them indiscriminately like I used to.

Now I have to check my blood pressure and weight and see if they improved also!

Good morning gals!

BS was 126 before bed (had some trail mix) and 117 this morning. It's kind of hard for me to get back to testing knowing my meter runs high but I should probably try to.

So, today is my one month anniversary for restart! It seems like it's been a year, lol. I decided to check all my measurements today to celebrate. I had kind of loosely checked them a couple weeks ago but I wrote them down today. It is kind of hard to get an accurate chest measurement (through the fullest area) because my boobs are just saggy bags but I did my best.

So, drumroll.....
Waist lost 3 7/8 in
Hips lost 1 5/8 in
Bra band area lost 1 7/8 in
Chest lost 1 1/2 in
Thigh lost 1 in
Bicep same

I think this just goes to show how much bloat/fat was on my body especially in the waist. My clothes still fit (just better). Honestly all my clothes are old. I left my job 2 yrs ago and have barely purchased anything in that time so my old clothes were probably too small and had just stretched as I grew. Now I've lost enough that I actually fit in them again without them digging in me. Also, I still wear alot of my maternity shirts (the kind that look like reg shirts just are roomier in the middle). Used to, I looked pregnant in them bc my belly stuck out but now they hang straight down. My weight today is 194 so down 16.8 from my highest known weight and down 14 from my restart weight a month ago so I lost 14 lbs in a month, woohoo!

Got up this morning and wanted my eggs and bacon. I had them with the double fiber and Polaner with fiber SF preserves. I think I can handle that much fiber earlier in the day with no real problem. I use extra virgin pure Coconut oil on my toast and I had my fruit as well. A large breakfast, but I've heard that it keeps you satisfied better for the day. Strange how I never liked breakfast as a child or young person, but we change through the years. A lot of foods I loved back then I don't care for now and vice versa.

I have m plan for today and the calories will be less than 1300 hundred and fiber is 25 so I think I've found my range for the fiber as well. Carbs count is better today a little above 100 g. So I think I've got it figured out for me. I lost the 1.2 lb that I gained yesterday and my fbs was 113. So that works for me.

Carol Sue I still have to be careful of the carbs that I do eat and be sure I eat only a small portion of them or it leaves me sleepy. I am adding what carbs I eat at breakfast and lunch, but since DH doesn't really care a lot for bread unless on sandwich or hamburger, I don't have to worry about that much. However, we both do like corn, green peas and carrots which you cannot have on most low carb diets. So I'll eat my double fiber toast (he does like toast with breakfast on Sunday) to help keep system working since powdered fiber does nothing for me. I also plan to slowly incorporate some beans into my plan, but will not do that just yet since I've just re-introduced the double fiber and Polaner back into my plan. My carby eating will just be at breakfast. It will be rare to have bready stuff later except for the occasional day out for a hamburger.

I do love tuna salads so I think I will start eating tuna or salmon salads again at dinner. Spring and summer does seem to be the time for salads. I've been trying to figure out what I can do about eating on trip and I think tuna is something I can do. You have to be careful, but many times you can get it in grocery stores already made up. String cheese, peanut butter and apples will be good for the car.

As for freezing kale, I just purchase mine frozen when I can't get good fresh. I clean mine the same way Carol Sue. I have a salad spinner and it squeezes the leaves pretty dry. Thinking of salads. I used to love my little salad shooter I had years ago. I haven't seen them in years and wonder if the even make them any more. Sure made it easy to make salads.

I got up late so I guess I had better get busy around here. My son will be calling soon and I want to get a few things before he calls. DGS may be here this week end. One more week on campus and he will be staying here for the summer.

Have a great day.

Guess you were typing while I was Shannon. You are doing super great!!! Marvelous work. So proud of you girl.

Hey Guys , so I don't know if I should join in here, maybe there is a Pre-D thread somewhere that i should be a part of. I'm trying to be positive but it's hard at the moment. But basically from my last bloodwork I am a fraction of a decimal apoint away from a diabetes diagnosis. And basically need to adjust my diet and lifestyle accordingly. I'm sort of frustrated because I have already been losing weight and trying to amp up my activity level. Ironically I'm down almost 25lbs and have worse bloodwork... go figure.

Thank you Trish!