Trish, I am in total agreement but I am learning as I get older that the 6 hours of sleep that I would get before and be rested is definitely no longer working. If I don't get at least 8 hours of sleep I am exhausted by 10:30-11 o'clock. But it's almost bedtime so … Nite nite … for good weigh-ins in the morning

Good morning. Today is clean out the fridge day so I see soup on the menu for lunches. It's very, very cold here and soup just seems like the best thing most of the time. Ive also had a rotten cold since the weekend and find soup[ a comfort. Too bad I always want crackers with it.

FBGL has been running a tad high - probably from my darned cold. I find that coughing spells wake me up. I think I'm on the mend though so the higher readings should stop.

Exercise has not been happening because I feel so rotten. Maybe next week.

Because of my cold, I have not been concerned with diet or weight loss. I know I am eating foods that I should not eat as an overweight diabetic. Comfort food, that soothes. But I will be getting back to my high veggie diet as soon as possible. I'm starting to crave it today.

Trish, I have always said that the best program for weight loss is one that you can stick with long term as it has to be a life-long committment. As you said, that's not the same thing for everyone, even us gals with diabetes. I cannot follow a diet that requires a lot of fruit as I don't like fruit that much, but I know that it's important to you that you are permitted to have fruit. Whenever someone posts a new plan they are trying I usually google it and look it over to see if it's something I want to try. But if it doesn't work for me, it doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. As long as it's isn't detrimental to your health, any plan will work if you can stick with it. I am glad to see that you are posting a lot more lately, partly because of Foxfire or Firefox, or whatever it is. LOL And I also think it is because you are doing well, and you feel more like talking about it. Either way, I'm glad to see it.

Rennie, you have done so well in the past couple months....don't feel that you have messed up everything you did. You have stumbled, but you didn't fall, or you wouldn't be posting. You'll get back to it. The holidays just have too much temptation. And this weight loss healthy stuff is HARD! No one get up one morning and decided to lose weight and it just happens. We all struggle, but we have this thread to come to for love and support. I think you have found what works for you...just keep at it and you will succeed. I think the best plan has to allow for some wiggle room.

Lotsakids - Welcome to our world of diabetes. It's not always pretty here. Gluten free is good if you can do it. I could never do it 100%, or maybe I should not say never. But cutting carbs really helps get the gluten out of your diet, so if it works for you, go for it! We will be here to support you.

Ruthie, a pot of soup sounds so good on this cold cold day we're having here. Friday is usually an eat-out day for us so I am not planning on any cooking, except to maybe cook up some greens for lunch. I am starting to really look forward to my lunch of greens. I was doing kale, and now I bought some collard greens to try. I can't believe it took me almost 68 years to try them. I could have been enjoying them all these years! Today, my cold feels a lot better. I hope yours does too!

Mad - I know you vanish occasionally. I'm looking forward to your return. Hope all is well with you and yours.

I have been diabetic since 2008. Overtime I have heard a lot about the importance of an evening snack and how it is supposed to help with AM fasting BS. I have never found that to be true. I think that applies more to Type I diabetes rather than Type II. In this book I've been reading that emphasizes eating lots of vegetables, the guy says that it's very important to refrain from eating anything after dinner. It is important to sleep on an empty stomach. The feeling of hunger you get after you have digested your last meal is not true hunger, but symptoms of your body detoxifying and repairing. If you check your blood sugar at this time and you are not having a low, you are not really hungry and you should not eat. Eating stops the detoxification process and puts your body back in digestion mode and the detoxification process is delayed.

The reason this impressed me so much was back when I was thin (130 ish) I never ate anything after dinner to keep my weight under control. When I went to bed hungry, I sleep like a baby. I felt so good and well rested when I got up in the morning. It wasn't until I met my husband that I got into the habit of eating at night, and therefore gained all this weight and developed diabetes. Type II is not a medical disease. It is a lifestyle disease.

Eating the high vegetable diet is supposed to stop the need for detoxification and therefore stop the uncomfortable feeling that we interpret as hunger. It is not a vegetarian diet because vegetarians eat rice, pasta, bread etc. That is not included in this program, but small amounts of animal protein are and there is a list of veggies that supply protein, along with beans, which are permitted, up to 2 cups per day. High fiber is emphasized.

I am not promoting this diet to anyone. I am just explaining it. This is recommended for Type 2 Diabetics, not for Type 1, who have their own issues and must control their diet differently than we do.

This is based on the Eat To Live program by Joel Fuhrman. I have renewed the book from the library because I have found the information so interesting and want to read it through again. I even might end up buying my own copy of the book. I try not to do that because I have done that with so many diet books in the past and they ended up collecting dust because I did not continue on the plan. This one is speaking to me in a different way.

I think anyone would benefit from adding more vegetables to their diet.

Carol Sue That book sounds a lot like the books Fit for Life and Lose Weight Now. I do like having fruit and they say fruit should only be eaten alone preferably in the mornings before noon. Fit for Life allows the grains etc and the Lose Weight Now says he doesn't tell you to diet but ended up he did recommend vegetarian. Since I started Weight Watcher's, I seem to be craving veggies and the nice thing is that they are 0 point veggies. Thanks for sharing what the book says about how digestion/detoxification works after dinner. I guess that is why the 2 books I mentioned says not to eat 8 hrs after dinner. They use a 8 hrs of eating fruit from 4 am to noon, eat meals between noon and 8 pm and nothing else until the next day. They stress how important it is to let your stomach rest those eight hours. These books also recommend combining... don't eat meat with starches, but you can eat veggies with meat and veggies with starches, but not together. Interesting isn't it?

I too am so glad that I was able to switch to Firefox so that I could stay with 3fc. You have no idea what it was like to type a whole message and lose it especially when it took me so long to type it. Many times I just gave up and didn't try to type a new one.

Ruthie Sorry your cold is hanging on. Hope you feel better soon. You mentioned soup and I made soup for lunch. I had already planned to try my hand at a French onion soup and decided to make me a veggie soup using loads of 0 point veggies and only a few beans and corn for added fiber and no meat which was strange for me, but it was hmmmm it was so good. My son and I were just talking the other day about how when they were young that every Monday, I would take all the leftovers out of the fridge and make a stew/soup. Now I just do it when the weather is cold, but have to use frozen veggies since I don't always have a lot of leftovers these days.

Have a great day everyone.

Ruth that is my problem with soup also. I plan to make a vegetable soup, but no crackers this go around. I will do without I hope that you get better and feel better soon

thanks Carol Sue, I hope you get better and feel better soon also I ate right for a change yesterday and it paid off I just put Eat to Live on hold at my library. I'll pick it up when they text me.

Trish I made vegetable soup before I went to the gym, no corn and no potatoes. I thought about putting some zucchini and yellow squash in it but didn't know how it would taste. But it will be lunch for the next 4 days

burned 589 calories on the treadmill, feeling good

I actually did put a frozen gumbo mixed veggies which has a lot of okra and a small amount of corn, a zucchini and yellow squash mix and onion pepper mix and then some leftover Italian stewed tomatoes and a bullion and fresh cabbage. Just enough for one meal and let that cook long enough to blend the flavors and it was actually very, very tasty.

The Daniel Plan book I have stresses eat veggies, veggies, veggies. It has been cold here today and will be tomorrow and I'm tired of salads right now so soup has been a nice change.

Trish it's freezing here today . I know I wouldn't use the okra (I don't care for it), or the onion mix or boullion (too salty for me), I was too lazy to cut up the onion today and it surprisingly doesn't taste bad without it. I may add the squash and zucchini tomorrow or just cook it up separately . I have the list of foods, it says no dairy but I am eating egg salad and a yogurt for breakfast. I am giving up a ton and all of what I truly love, so I'm still participating in our church consecration

My veggie soup just contains canned mixed vegetables, canned tomatoes, onion and I buy 1 can of tomatoes with okra because I just think okra should be in there. I don't like okra by itself. I don't use squash or zucchini. I don't like it.

Rennie - also check to see if your library has The End of Diabetes. It is basically the Eat to Live plan, but this book is geared more toward diabetes. It's the same eating plan, but I never read Eat to Live so I don't know if he explains things geared toward diabetes.

Trish, this plan allows fruit at all three meals, just not unlimited like the veggies are. Carbs are absolutely forbidden. No dairy, and no eggs. Your diet is 80% vegetables. I know I will not be able to follow this to the letter. I will not stop eating eggs or cheese. And there will be carbs, although I hope to be able to keep them at a minimum. My intent is to greatly increase my vegetable consumption while greatly cutting back on carbs. I will eat my eggs scrambled with lots of veggies. I will have cheese occasionally. The book says that the nutrients in the veggies take away your cravings eventually. I have noticed that, since I have started eating the greens. My feeling of satisfaction lasts much longer. I finally tried collard greens yesterday and I think I like them even more than kale. I know there are some people, such as my husband, who don't like vegetables. He will have a half cup serving with dinner, and doesn't usually finish them. And it's usually corn, peas or green beans. If all I served was meat and potatoes it would be all the same to him. So I will work around this. I will have my eggs with veggies in the morning, my wonderful greens with mushrooms and onions for lunch and for dinner I will eat some of the meat I make for him and lots of vegetables. I will make some kind of potatoes for him. I will also have to find somewhere to fit in beans. I also love beans. Maybe I can find a way to incorporate them with my greens or add them to salad. My main goal is to lower my BS. Second is weight loss. I should notice a big improvement as long as I keep the carbs to a minimum. It was hard for me to stick with this over the holidays because I had to cook so much food for everyone else I didn't have time to cook my greens too. This cold that started right before Christmas didn't help.

I am going to google the Daniel plan to see what it's all about. I like cooked veggies much more than salads.

Carol Sue I'll check for that one also Your husband and mine always remind me of one another. I got my husband to eat two forks of greens on New Years that was it, rice, potatoes and chicken is his meal for sure, he can do without the peas, green beans and corn also but he'll eat them if I put them on his plate. Have you tried, mustard and turnip greens yet. They have a bitter taste but they cook up really fast and oh so tender. I love them. And you are right the greens do help with the feeling of satisfied hunger.

Rennie, I intend to continue on and try mustard and turnip greens, too. I started out eating swiss chard which I saw someone eating for lunch at work. I never thought I would like kale because it is so thick and tough, but it cooks down very tender. Bitter is a taste I seem to like. I wish I could buy a bunch of "mixed greens" and try them all together. If I buy a bunch of each of them I end up with much more than I can eat before it goes bad. My mother never cooked greens. The closest she came was spinach, and she served canned. No one in my husband's family eats greens either and they are not served in local restaurants, except maybe Cracker Barrel has them.

Carol Sue, freeze them and they are ready when you are I don't know of any restaurants that serve them other than Golden Corral and I don't like all of the greasiness, so I don't eat them when we go there.

I am so glad I came here. We had Chinese Sasame chicken today. It is a cheap meal for us because they put so much food in a meal that DH and I divide it in half and make a meal out of it for the 2 of us. Still a lot of point so I was going to have a salad, but after reading y'alls messages, I am going to change the lettuce for cabbage and add my veggies and make me some soup for dinner. It is 34 degrees here and I'm sitting here freezing. Soup will be a good way to cool down. Everybody at the beauty shop was talking about how we seem to get colder as we get older. I'm in S.C. and not as cold as some of you, but it is cold. So far we haven't had the freezing rain and snow others have had though, but good weather for beans, stews and soups.

Carol Sue I buy frozen greens now because I have the same problem as you. I didn't get kale today because was wilting even at the store where I usually find it fresh. Walmart never has fresh crispy greens so I never even bother to look there. Last time I got a large pre-bagged, it ruined on me and I just won't buy it. I know I can cook and freeze, but if I'm going to do that I may as well buy it frozen to start with. It makes a nice addition to scrambled eggs. I add a little bit of beans to my veggie soup and you can also add them to salad. I like to do that but usually forget to put it in my salad. I never ate greens until I went to live with my aunt when I was in college. That is where I learned that I loved fruits and veggies. I later learned that Mama liked them, but Daddy didn't. My second hubby would eat just about anything, but my present hubby is a picky, picky eater.

Rennie Greens are one of the veggies that I almost always order at Cracker Barrel. I like eating them at Golden Coral, but the last few times we've eaten there the food was not really great and I agree the greens were too greasy to eat.

Ruthie I hope you are feeling better today.

Fatmad, Lotsakids, Bonnie and others Hope y'all are doing well.

Stay warm girls. Catch y'all tomorrow.

Trish it's 37 degrees here, I just told my son to turn the heat up because I'm freezing. But this always happens to me after I come from the gym (we've been here awhile now though). My body cools down and then I'm super cold. I'd like a good stew. What kinds do you make? I'm with you on Walmart's greens they always look bad. The reason I don't like the frozen greens is because they are more stems, which I consider trash than the leafy part, so I'd rather pick my own I've only been to Cracker Barrel twice and that was in Virginia when my friend would come home to visit. She is now here in NC, newly married and has found out she is highly allergic to gluten so she has to be selective about where she eats. I've only had a breakfast and a salad there.

Carol Sue I now have The End of Diabetes book in my possession. I haven't opened it yet.

did my 4 miles today, burned 589 calories. My fbs was higher than it's been but I think I forgot to take my met last night. Also happy to report that I am down to 175.4 as of this morning, which was my pre-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas weight loss goals. It's sad because had I done what I was supposed to do I would be in my low 170's or 16's by now, but now me being steady will help me win the race .

Rennie I haven't made stew in quite some time mainly because I love beef stew and DH likes the meat pulled like pulled pork and I like it chuncky. One of us has to give so, I might do it with the pulled any way or do it half and half. I have also made what someone I knew called Hobo stew which is made with ground beef. Since I can have dumplings on WW, I just may make some chicken and dumplings tomorrow. I don't make it often and have a taste for it. I can make a plain chicken soup to save for adding veggies sometime and make chicken dumplings for tomorrow. When my kids were little, I used whatever leftover meat was in the fridge.

I am tracking my exercise as well as my food on the WW etools. I was so excited when I realized this morning that they set up for me to earn 14 exercise pts a week and I have already earned 26 pts. This is neat as I've still got today and 2 more before weigh in day. I'm doing 30 min of the stationary bike most days except when I do a lot of walking and even then I still do 20 to 25 minutes. I am actually up to 3 and some days 3 1/2 miles a day on the bike. I think I'm going to move the bike into the living room and work at increasing it up to 4 miles a day. This is great.

I can't believe how good this is going. I love WW. I was up this morning by 7 and did my 30 min... of 3 1/2 mile bike ride before I even went to church. My weight is up a few lbs which is no big surprise since the initial weight loss was mostly water weight. The real weight should start coming down now. I'm on my way.