Bro had surgery tonight because doc had two emergency surgeries before him. All went fine and he went straight back to his icu/heart room. Updates tomorrow after all other docs make their rounds.

He went from not going to make it Tuesday night (per heart doc) to 50/50 later /next day to making it through surgery one. Heart surgery will be the biggie. I hope I can someday talk about our Christmas miracle. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! (And I'm back home today.)

Today's airport menu....

Break - jalapeņo bagel w/ham, egg, and cheese ala SW Florida Int'l
Lunch - chili cheese fries (I felt so guilty at first, but I got over it) ala Detroit Int'l
Dinner - grilled wings and lite beers (at our local) ala my favorite hometown historic hotel pub

PQ So glad his first surgery is done and went well. These things aren't easy at any time of the year, but the holidays are extremely difficult. I will continue praying for him and your family and trusting the Lord that this will just be remembered as a Christmas miracle for your family.

Mars I was able to order the Designer Whey protein powder from the vitamin Shoppe where I order other vitamins from. I read about it and it seems to be a very good quality. A beautician at the salon where I go had told my beautician that she had lost weight by giving up bread and sugar and upping her protein. So I had been thinking about adding protein to my plan, but didn't know where to get a good low carb friendly product. Thanks again.

I remember reading about your Mom, but couldn't remember it was you. How is she doing? I need to go back and read your original post concerning her. Before I married my DH, I was a caregiver for a lady so she could live at home. I took her shopping, out to eat and she went to church with me. It is good to help her keep things normal as she still has a feeling of independence. I think they do better if you can do it that way, but not everybody can and keeping them safe becomes the important thing.

Jacqui I have kind of taken your plan and made adjustments to make my own plan. I like the one carb day so I will be using that although today I made mine a 1 carb meal instead an all day carb day. Because there are times not every week that DH likes to eat out and I can't always stay low carb, I will probably not do an all day carb day, but a one carb meal when necessary. However, I like having Saturday as my carb day most days.

I have been counting my carbs this past week just to see how many carbs I do eat. I really don't eat above 70 carbs each day. I don't remember if I shared here or not. I've always said I eat Moderately Low Carb (MLCD) along with Intermittent Fasting. I do that so I will stop eating by 8 pm. Also I try not to eat until I am hungry and stop when satisfied/full. So this is my plan that I have chosen to follow a MLCD.

Carol Sue I hope you get your bp straightened out. My Daddy's bp goes so low sometimes to the point that it doesn't even register. I don't like the way his doctors play with it. It went so low he almost fainted when he was visiting my step-mom one day at the nursing home and the nurse out there told him when that happens from now on to drink ice water and it will bring it back up. Mine is always higher at the docs office and I have pretty much decided it is because they do it manually. Not sure. I've also heard that exercise will help with keeping it regular.

Pattygirl Your plan sounds like a good fit for you. It's great that you do well on just 70 carbs!Some of us play around Carb Day--I tend to eat carbs all day, but sometimes I limit it to a meal. I like the 'permission' aspect of it. What sort of carbs do you do you like on your regular days?

I'll be interested to hear how you like Designer Whey powder. I use the ready-to-drink shakes--just works better for me. I have an intolerance to all the milk-protein drinks that use casein as the protein. There is a tiny bit of casein in DW, but not much. If I have too much, it irritates the skin on my face and I get a rash. I used to think this was hormonal because I also got it with PMS, but in hindsight, I think it was the Cheetohs that I always craved at those times, lol. Anyway, I hope it agrees with you. I used to drink Muscle Milk shakes. They are low carb, adequate-for-a-meal protein. I think they they taste great, but are super sweet and can trigger sweet cravings.

Thx for asking about my Mom. I think it is slowly dawning on her that she has to slow down. I think a caregiver is a special kind of angel.

Carol re keys!!! Not I just need my glasses to find me. I hope you're richer after your next casino night!

We went to Texas Roadhouse yesterday and I was pretty good. I had a couple sips of DH's beer and 1 bite of a roll. My dinner was roasted half chicken. I ate the leg and thigh and brought the breast home to make a bit of chicken salad. My sides were fresh vegetables, (broccoli and carrots,) and a tossed salad. No potato or starch at all. Water to drink.

I hate to make this all about my blood pressure, but I am wondering about it being high in the AM before I take my meds. I thought the meds were meant to keep it steady over all. This morning it was 161/67. The 161 is way too high, but the 67 is perfect.

Trish, I am not concerned about my blood pressure going too low because my systolic is usually not lower than 135. But it's my diastolic that dips low. I read online that if it goes below 55 you double your risk of heart attack and stroke. I don't know if the doctor is even taking that into consideration. It seems that he just wants to get the systolic lower, but there's no way to lower one without lowering both, as far as I know. I think that the big difference between systolic and diastolic could be caused by my bad heart valves.

I wanted to mention something that's in the Slow Carb Diet book. 4 Hour Body. He says to have a protein breakfast on Carb Day and just include the carbs in lunch and dinner, so I think you are right on track only having carbs at 1 meal. It's not meant to be a day to stuff yourself with all the carbs you want, but a day to allow some carbs that you miss during the other 6 days. I know that Jacqui sometimes has carbs at breakfast, but with the rate of her weight loss, who are we to tell her she's wrong? LOL

Mars, I have some Whey Protein Powder that I bought to make shakes in my Bullet, but I found that I am not really a shake person. I drink it in addition to my meals instead of as a replacement and that is counter productive. I never thought to try using it as a creamer in my coffee. I buy sugar free caramel flavored Coffee Mate, but I'm going to try the Whey Protein instead.

DH told me that when he was growing up there was a woman in the neighborhood who had Alzheimer's and she used to go outside and run around the neighborhood naked. I've hear of that before. I wonder why they do that?

PQ I am so glad that your brother had the first surgery and got through it successfully. I know he's not out of the woods, yet, but it's a step in the right direction. What is the heart surgery going to entail? I pray that he's strong enough to get through it.

On the road (stopping for gas) but want to mention that some whey powders I have tried are hard to dissolve. Also perishable. So I use the ready to drink ones. Someone on 3FC, I think Kaplods, gets fresh whey from a farm.

PrairieQueen, I am so relieved to hear your brother's first surgery went well! I hope the second one goes smoothly also and he recovers with no problems! I'm glad you made it home safely.

Mars, I agree with Carol Sue. Temptations abound during the holiday season, so eating off plan is not a big surprise and no big deal. It would be a big deal if you did it everyday, or if it somehow changed your attitude and made you decide to jump off the wagon completely. but that's not going to happen. So, you have an unexpected Carb Day here and there during the Holidays. You can work with that! I'm so glad things are falling into place with your Mom!

Carol Sue, how did the BP readings go yesterday after you took your meds? I'm glad you enjoyed yourself at the casino and at the steakhouse. It sounds like your way of eating is going really well!

Trish, you should definitely do whatever works best for you! And I think having a Carb Meal instead of a Carb Day is a brilliant idea! I know that the Carb Days I experience would be a terrible idea for someone diabetic. In fact, I'm sure they aren't very good for me either! I have entirely too much sugar! It's particularly bad during the holidays. Hopefully, I will find the discipline to slow it down and make my Carb Days a little more reasonable after Christmas. And Carol Sue is correct: Tim Ferriss does say to wait to start Carb Day until after breakfast AND that's not a rule I follow in my modified plan, lol!

SeeMyFeet, how's it going?

Rennie, I hope your schedule is slowing down!

Yesterday was Carb Day and I had all kinds of sweets as well as pasta for dinner, so today I am up to 173.

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:
12/6--173
12/7--
12/8--
12/9--
12/10--
12/11--
12/12--

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

Lunch
Yogurt
Hot green tea
Diet Dr. Pepper

Tea Time
Hot green tea

Dinner:

Today's Exercise:
2-mile walk around the track

Carol Sue You did great at Texas Roadhouse. That is DH and my favorite place to eat. We usually go there for anniversary or birthdays and find it so easy to stay OP because DH usually tells them not to bring the rolls. We took DGS to Longhorn restaurant because of his schedule that day. TX RH opens at 4 here and he had to fit the dinner into his schedule. It was his BD dinner so we got the bread. I had gone so long without eating and it was there so I caved in and ate some of it. It wasn't my plan. I compliment you.

P.Q. I hope you get good news on you brother's recovery today. Prayers continue your way.

Jacqui I really didn't change a lot of things in my plan from yours. And obviously I didn't follow my one carb meal rule yesterday. LOL I'm really just getting serious about this so a lot of things are subject to change. However, your plan is so similar to how I like to eat and in the beginning of the new thread here, I noticed you invited newbies here to share the plan they are following, so I decided to use what you do to put more structure to what I'm doing because it is working so well for you. I will make adjustments to it if I need to, but at the moment I think yours is a very good plan.

Well, I spoke too soon on my carb day. I ended up staying up extremely too late and after writing last night, I had more carbs. So yesterday ended up being an all day carb day. Today is my 1st of the 6 days of Moderate carbs.

Mars DH and I have one meal together each day usually around 3 pm. I finally have him eating a salad so we start our meal with a salad when it fits into the meal. Then I put some kind of veggie with it. I also like being able to have legumes with it because I have recently learned that I really enjoy something like lentils in place of starchy carbs. I also like a glass of milk at that meal. Now that I've learned about the protein shake, I will be blending a tablespoon of it in my milk. I ordered chocolate to use in my milk and I ordered Fr. vanilla to use in my morning coffee. On my carby day, that will be my day to enjoy potatoes, pasta etc.

The Designer Whey I ordered seems to be for people with allergies such as gluten, eggs etc as well as low carb. So I'm hoping it won't cause me any problems since I have never figured out if Metformin causes my diarrhea issues or if it is caused by something I eat. I like Carol Sue like flavored creamer in my coffee, but I don't use it because of the carbs. It will be nice to have the protein powder to put in it.

I still have some of the old protein powder that I have had for a while. Not sure how good it is but I started using it yesterday in my coffee and tastes ok. It is chocolate and it tastes more like mocha coffee. I made the bullet coffee with it this morning using on 2 spoonsful rather than a whole scoop and 1 t of coconut oil. I read somewhere that CO lowers triglycerides so I plan to have that each morning. Besides tasting good, it helped me so I didn't eat anything this morning since I felt I had overdone the carbs on my carb day as I felt guilty about eating so many carbs yesterday. So strange how we get conditioned so it may take me a while to get used to having a Carb Day. I will have to not make it quite so carby as my weight was up 4 lbs today, but then I haven't been really faithfully to my new plan since I found you guys. Today is the official day to get seriously started.

Rennie I'm glad to know you are a part of this thread. Hope you are doing ok. I know this is your busy season right now. Be sure to be good to yourself.

SeeMyFeet Hope you are having a good day.

Edited: I seemed to have forgotten to erase some things I had moved around. Hope I got it right. Shouldn't multi-task. Hope I got it right.

Hi all! I've been a little stingy with the personals lately but I am reading everyone's posts.

Bro update: back on dialysis and bp meds, doubled his pain meds BUT it's all due to the surgery last night and was somewhat expected. Mom/stepdad meeting with all his doctors in morning about a plan and the scheduled heart valve (both) surgery on Thursday.

Today's menu....

Break - Coke Life
Lunch - beef minestrone ala PQ, hunk of buttered Italian bread
Dinner - chicken w/lemon-mushroom cream sauce over mushroom fettuccini

sooooo...in order to get the RDA of all the micronutrients such as K, Mg, folate, etc., we actually need to eat 10,000calories of fresh fruits and vegetables? Or 1,000,000calories of processed foods?.....whell, that 'splains a lot....

PQ, are they going to repair your brother's valves, or replace them? At his age they will probably give him mechanical valves. My step son has one as he needed his at age 42. He has no problem with it, except for needing to take Coumadin. I hope everything goes well for your brother.

I'm going to the doctor with DH. I'll be back later.

His are too far gone to repair, he will probably have the prosthetic type vs. biological which only last 10-20 years. ICU doctor thinks he's too critical to plan on a Thursday surgery, but that is up to the cardiologist (whom my mother hasn't met with yet today).

Hope everyone's dr visits turn out well....so much going on this time of year!

I've been playing around with the micronutrient settings on MFP. I'm seldom getting "enough" sodium (set at 1500mg) and never get enough potassium. Not sure what I can do about that--sure don't want to eat more and I take enough supplements already....(wish it measured Mg--the upgraded version prolly does, but I'm too cheap to pay for it.) Of course, I'm wondering what all this does for weight loss, or lack thereof, and mood, etc etc.

Well, I had a lemon poppy seed muffin yesterday, and after reading the nutrition label, it was not guilt-free. Mars prolly heard me howling about it all the way out there. 450-freakin'-calories! Blew my day to smithereens....and of course, my scale was laughing at me this morning.

ooo, my MIL had early onset Alzheimers. Once, when we asked her to get into the car, she pulled up her dress and acted as if she were going to go potty right there in the car. When your brain starts getting scrambled like that, you do strange things. Lots of older men are in the sex offender registry because they become inappropriately sexual. Very Sad. There's an assisted living home down the block from us. We all keep an eye on the older folk going for walks--mentally they are fine, and allowed to go for walks. It's a lot to deal with. And very sad.

Well, let's kick Dec 7's butt today! Healthier, wealthier, and wiser.