Carol Sue You mentioned me asking my DS how she does her low carb diet. This morning I got this email from her and thought I would share it in her own words here

"Did you get my boards or pins in your email. That will help you get started on some recipes. Go with whatever diet works for you . These recipes work with a lot of diets. Just incorporate with what way you choose to do. What I do is call it my lifestyle way of eating. That’s how it’s not a diet to me . Just the way I eat. Love you!"

I've decided to do it the way she does. I'm not following a diet. Some days I want breakfast and sometimes I don't etc. I am tracking my food as best as possible on MFP to keep up with calories, but I'm not going to see this as a diet. I'm creating my on way of eating to fit my lifestyle.

Have a good day.

Mad, when you think about it, you are up 7 lbs. No one can even see a 7 lbs difference on you. I know it bothers you, as a 2 lb gain bothers me, but in the big scheme of things, it's just a blip on the radar. You will get the weight back down. It is so easy to pop something in your mouth when it appears in your line of vision. I have crap food in my line of vision all the time because of the way DH eats. Every time you say no, you strengthen your resolve, but then it only takes a moment to slip up. You can and will do this!!!

Trish, I think CAD with IF has always been the best eating plan for you, but I try to be supportive when you veer off to try something else. Your main problem is controlling the amount of carb at the RM. I think if you do the balanced meal version as in CALP it would be a perfect fit. I think it's best to go along with your natural instincts. Don't try to eat breakfast just because some book tells you it's right, if that is not what has worked for you in the past. IMO, you're just adding calories to you day. That was what happened to me when I started eating dinner with DH and I gained all this weight. Now I have started to delay breakfast and make it more of a brunch. I am working toward making dinner a much smaller meal. I can still eat what DH wants, but have to eat a very small portion to follow my natural instincts. I can make this work if I do it right but I am still in learning mode. When I lived at home and my mother would not cook a separate meal for me, I ate 1 scoop of each thing she made, meat, starch and veggies. Then I got up from the table and walked away, no matter how good the food tasted or how much was left over. I was done eating for the day. I want to return to that and will work toward it every day. I will not punish myself if I screw up, just learn from my mistakes and try again tomorrow.

I am really in the mode today because I screwed up so royally yesterday. Blood sugar was not too bad because I took a tiny bit of Glimiperide at bedtime, but I am really afraid to see the scale. I am going to force myself to face the music. I can't continue to hide from this.

Edit: I'm glad I got weighed. I am up 1 lb, back up to 199, but still not over 200. So that's good. I think the reason I didn't gain more is because I was up 3 times during the night, going to the bathroom. My body did not like having all that undesirable food and said "Get this crap out of me!!" LOL It is getting used to my smaller meals.

Trish, we were cross posting. I see your sister said to "do it with whatever plan works for you" and that's where I agree. You can do this with CALP and IF, but just incorporate the meal types she was using. Limit the carbs you have at your RM. If you have to let one go today, you can have that one tomorrow, instead of trying to fit in all the carbs at once.

Listen to me, trying to give advice.....like I'm some authority. LOL

I just got an email from my friend. She is finished with her chemo and will be finished with her radiation on Wednesday. I know she would not agree, but it seems to me that this went really fast. She has lost some hair and has been very tired, but otherwise she was able to get out and do her walking most days, and was able to drive herself to most of her treatments. Now we pray that whatever post-treatment testing they do shows the cancer to be gone.

pattygirl63 i'm so glad your dad's new place is starting off on a positive note. I'll be praying that this trend continues. It might be that this second choice location will be the best of them all!

Wannabehealthy Hope your friend gets good post treatment results. We all have those screw up days but you're back on track so hopefully what went up will come right back down!

My blood sugar this morning was 121 and they have been staying good. Unfortunately the scale was up 1.7 lbs today. Since I started on this lisinopril for my blood pressure i've been paranoid that i'll experience that negative rapid weight gain side effect. I am determined to stay on my eating plan but this will be stressful if my progress is undone by this medication. I'll just keep monitoring...

Momtopands, I have not heard of Lisinopril causing weight gain. What I just read online said it can cause weight gain or weight loss. My DH has been on it for about a year and I do notice that he is eating less lately, but he never has to watch his weight and seems to eat more often. I guess different drugs effect each person differently.

I did feel horrible last night and I blame my bad food day for that. I don't want to feel that way again.

Momtopands, if you do get a bit of weight gain, it is usually temporary, and continuing on your plan will eventually get it off. Its not unusual for new meds to have an effect on weight.

On to the TMI part of my day:

Well, I am starting to think I may be gluten intolerant. Before yesterday I had two days on FODMAP, and while I was still uncomfortable, I did not have diarrhea or bad gas. Well, after my oops with the cookie yesterday, I had some pretty bad diarrhea today. I think the cookie was the only different thing in my diet. I did have more dairy yesterday, but was careful to take the lactase tablets.
I will wait a few days and see. I would say I saw this as a trend before, but like I said, I thought it was the metformin. It seemed like I could have wheat, like a slice of toast or something, as long as it wasn't at the same time as the metformin. And I was eating much more wheat the last couple of months. I may also be sensitive to other FODMAP things, but I'm pretty sure I can say wheat and/or gluten will be an issue for me. On low carb, I seldom at wheat things, like pasta or bread, but might use flour (for instance dusting chicken wings, or to thicken a cheese sauce) sparingly. No more. At least the gluten -free movement will keep my options open this way, though I have no interest in more gluten free pastas or breads.
One exception has been the Konjac noodles, and they are low FODMAP and in fact recommended because the fibre keeps things moving in the gut, so I will continue to have that.
No garlic and Onions is an issue. Apparently, I can have some of the flavour, because they suggest garlic infused olive oil for cooking some things. I need to find out if onion powder and garlic powder are ok to see if I can have some prepared sauces.
I did get out for a long walk with the dog once the bowel settled enough for me to go. Today is going ok.

I'm glad you are getting to the bottom of this problem, Mad. I would actually hope you are wrong, because I think gluten-free is a very difficult diet to follow, but you do what you have to do to feel better.

carol Sue: I do know people who do not have celiac disease who are (or were) gluten intolerant and after time on a gluten free diet seem to be able to tolerate some gluten again. SO I have hope. If the continues and I test the theory sometime, I will ask my doctor to test me formally for celiac to make sure that is not a problem. I doubt it, because celiacs actually have trouble gaining weight! and that sure isn't my issue, is it?

I am glad your friend is finishing her chemo. Interestingly (but its hard) often people have more symptoms from radiation therapy after the actually therapy is complete. The tissue damage continues for several weeks after. So be prepared to support her and remind others to support her in the physical sense afterward.
And remind her its ok to use her pain meds if needed during that time too.

Have a good night all

What a day. I got to the Retirement center and Daddy was asleep sitting in his wheelchair. Just as I was waking him his nurse came in and introduced himself to me. The he continued to tell me that Daddy's bp had gone very low this morning, but it was back up now. He also wanted me to know that Daddy had passed out while using the bathroom this morning.

Later Daddy asked me to tell the nurse that he though his bp was down again so I told the nurse and he came back immediately to check his bp, but it was fine. I took the opportunity to tell the nurse about the 2 medicines that CHF clinic and Daddy's primary says Daddy has to take 1st thing in the morning to get him going in the morning. One is his thyroid pill and the other is a heart pill that helps jump start the heart was how CHF explained it to me. He asked me if giving it to him at 6:30 am would be okay and I told him yes as long as it was the 1st pills of the day. He said, "I'll go right now and make that change on his records". Man I was impressed.

The other facility never talked to us about anything without us pushing for answers. Here these people are right there as soon as I walk in the door. I don't think the other place ever listened to us about any of Daddy's meds. Here this nurse set it up right away.

I left and went to the store. While on the way home, DS called me and said the nurse had called her and Daddy was going to the hospital. He went back to the hospital he had been in this last time (wouldn't have been my choice, but what Daddy wanted) and it was really good he went there. They ran tests and DS told them that we were never given the results of any of the tests he had there last time. Turns out Daddy has no bulging discs in his back or neck. They thought he had a cracked bone in his neck, but it isn't there. In fact, they sent him back to the retirement center tonight with no problems. The passing out while having a bm is very common for elder people. All his tests came out fine. The doctor said Daddy does have arthritis all over his body, but it is normal for his age, however, he said he could not tell us why he is so weak and has no strength to walk. He said hopefully with the therapy and care that will get better.

I really think Daddy has been dehydrated. I noticed that when he goes to the ER they put him on IV and he perked up because he is no longer dehydrated. When I told the nurse that Daddy's bp goes too low once in a while and CHF said to give him ice or ice water to drink to bring it up. He told me they can't do that because his water has to be thickened. They still have him on thickened water and we can't figure out why because we thought they were going to stop that. The speech therapist at the other facility told me he still has a little problem swallowing, but she said he has gerd which he has always had. However, he has had that under control with Prilosec. He didn't have problems with it again until they changed his medicine from Prilosec to Nexium. Someone evidently decided that he needs to use the thickener a little longer however although it he only suffers gerd.

We all discussed it with Daddy and decided tonight that tomorrow that DS or I will sign a paper tomorrow to have him taken off the thickener. Since it is the weekend, we may have to wait until Monday when we meet with their doctor and team but one of us will sign the paper to take them off the hook for taking Daddy of the thickening. Daddy said if they would stop putting the thickening in it that he could drink more water to keep from being dehydrated and I think this would give him more strength.

I talked to Daddy after we all got home and he was in back at rehab and in bed and he said they came and got him from the hospital and took him back, feed him supper and put him to bed. We are very thankful for where he is.

My eating was crazy. I really had a strong feeling that I needed to eat breakfast this morning before I left for the beauty shop. I sure am glad I did. I decided to eat a homemade version of Mcmuffin. That was around 8:44am and I didn't get to eat again until about 7 pm. DH and I were so exhausted that we went my McDonalds and got cheeseburgers and fries. We always share a small order of fries. My blood sugar before the burgers was 108. So I'm exhausted tonight and ready to go to bed. I'll come back tomorrow and do indies.

Good night.

Wow, Trish, what a day you had! I'm hoping your Dad will do better when he starts drinking more water. Maybe he should be careful to take small sips rather than bigger gulps. I think being dehydrated can cause dizziness, too, as well as dropped BP and pulse rate.

Mad, I don't think my friend takes any pain meds. The only side effect she has had other than being very tired is the skin irritation, which she said is very bad and uncomfortable. They told her the skin irritation could continue for 3-4 weeks and she now has an ointment with lidocaine that is helping with that. She is not one to take pain meds, ever. She is a very "different" person. She does things her way and does not waiver.

Today is better, or starting that way anyhow. DH and I had a flurry of cleaning the house, and plan more later, as well as a walk later. We have a concert this evening to look forward to.
Normal BM and no diarrhea, or feeling like it will come. No pain waking me last night either. Will see if this keeps working, but am definitely better. I know its only been 24 hrs, but a good sleep without pain works wonders.
Trish, sounds like your father has good help.
When the blood pressure drops during BMs its called a vagal or vase-vagal response. The vagal nerve sometimes responds to pressure that way. Ensuring he doesn't get constipated or has a need to strain may help. Im not recommending anything other than hydration and fibre. Just the good sensible ways to prevent constipation. If he is a coffee drinker, having a good cuppa in the morning may help too.
Carol, I am glad your friend has found a way to manage pain like the lidocaine cream, that avoids opioids if that works. May the healing continue.

To anyone who has known me for a while, this will be very surprising. I am considering eliminating eggs from my diet for 30 days. I love eggs and always have. I cannot imagine a day without them. But I have been reading a lot lately, and eggs are something that cause a lot of different medical conditions in some people. I have tried so many things for my pain and psoriasis, but eliminating eggs has never entered my mind. I feel that I could not live without them. I am thinking of doing this for the month of April. I can do anything if I know I don't have to do it the rest of my life. I have to think of foods I can eat that I like enough to replace the eggs. I think the veggie combo I make with sauteed onion, cabbage, and kale could work. Since I don't eat breakfast until closer to lunch, I could make that and feel satisfied until dinner. I will have to get DH onboard as he is the one who cooks the eggs in the morning. Actually, I wasn't in the mood for them this morning, but ate them because he made them. Also, when he wants to go to McDonald's for breakfast, I could get the sausage McMuffin that comes without the egg. I need the next week or two to psych myself to do this. I think I will be successful with this and see no difference in 30 days time, and then can go back to eating eggs, knowing that they are not causing my problems. After that I will do a coffee elimination. I don't want to do both at the same time because then I won't know which one is making the difference. What are your thoughts on this?

momtopands The CNA who took such good care of my Daddy at the other facility told DS that this facility is not a bad place to be. She loved my Daddy and called him Papa. I think she knew how they would leave him sitting up hours after he wanted to go to bed at night so she always saw to it that he was in bed and comfortable before she got off work at night and was the one who got him up and got him clean and dressed in the morning. I have to say she knew exactly what she was talking about. Daddy told me this morning that they came in at 6:30 and gave him the 2 medications that I told them that he has to have 1st thing in the morning.

I didn't know Lisinopril could cause weight gain. However, I don't think that is my problem. Mine has been stress and the what I've been eating even on low carb. I bet your 1.7 lbs will be off in a day or 2. My doctor back in SC said he never worried about it when I came in with even a 2 lb gain because that didn't have to be weight. I think we get so weight conscience we worry about it, but then we are the ones fighting the problem. I too still have to stay on top of things.

Carol Sue I'm glad your friend's treatment is over. I'm sorry she is having such issue's with skin. The fact that when I overdo carbs causes me skin problems is what keeps me doing more of a low to moderate carb intake. When I breakout in a rash, I know I've gone way over what my body will tolerate.

I hope you don't have to give up your eggs. How about eggbeaters or eating the egg whites? Not my favorite, because I think there is such good nutrition we need in the egg yolk, but if I couldn't eat them I would be satisfied with eggbeaters if I had to. I like making my omelets with them. In fact, I'm glad you mentioned sauteeing the veggies, I bought some spring greens to put in my breakfast omelets.

Madeleine I hope you don't mind if I use your name. I only new one Madeleine in my life and she was my Mama's cousin who was older than her. She didn't come around much but I just adored her and her sister. They were so close that they looked like twins. If I had listened to what she told me about how she stayed thin, I might have never had a weight problem. She and her sister low carbed, but then they didn't call it that... they called it the Banting Diet. I remember when I asked her how she stayed so thin she said, "If I eat potatoes, I don't eat bread. If I eat bread, I don't eat potatoes. I follow the Banting diet". I hadn't thought of that conversation in years. LOL

I'm glad you are starting to get some relief from the bowel issues. That is so miserable and makes it difficult to go any where besides having all that pain.

Well, I had a nice long talk with low carbing sister last night. She has emailed me so many keto recipes on Pineterest and has got me all fired up. I'm not going to do keto or Paleo per se, but I am doing low carb. I've changed my ratio on MFP so I can keep up with things on there. So that I am eating low carb, moderately high fat and protein. I am not on CAD, but can use the 1 hr carb if and when necessary to keep from messing up plan. I'm just creating my own eating lifestyle but doing it using IF since I do better.

I am never eating store bought sausage sticks to fill in for low carb snack etc again. Those things did a number on me. Those things landed in my gut and made me miserable with gerd yesterday all day long. I was miserable. We stopped and got McDonald CB and I guess something in that meal plus the water I drank started pushing all that junk out of me. I had potty issues all night, but it wasn't like being sick. It was just cleaning me out. I feel the way I like my gut to feel this morning. Empty. My weight is back down from the bloated 225.8 to 220.4 this morning which gave me a 2.4 loss this week according to MFP. A good time to get back on IF low carb style which I am doing today. I love this feeling and don't want to lose it.

I plan to go back to having brunch around 10 or 11, however, I may have to eat earlier some days when I go out to see Daddy in the mornings. So that won't be written in stone. I'm finding the longer I fast between meals also keeps my bs low. It was 108 last night with that long almost 10 hr fast after breakfast. So if I have to eat breakfast at 9 ish some days that will be a good thing not a bad thing. Then I will eat with DH around 3 or 4 and once I'm used to eating low carb again, I won't need any snacks at night.

I saw a great idea for using sausage patties for bread and putting your eggs and cheese between them to make a breadless egg mcmuffin type breakfast as a keto breakfast on Pineterest. I'm going to have something similar to it for my Keto type low carb brunch today which will be more Paleo because I'm also having 1/2 banana with cinnamon in it.

Y'all have a great day.

Trish, the thing with eggs, if you are allergic/sensitive to them, it's not necessarily the yolks, but sometimes the whites are more the problem. So the egg beaters would not solve the problem, since they are made with egg whites. I actually don't really like sausage anymore because of the grease, and when I do eat it, I blot it with a paper towel or napkin, but if I were going to eat it instead of eggs occasionally, I could handle that. I just never cook sausage at home anymore, except for hot sausage occasionally.

Here's some info about the rash you get. You could be gluten sensitive if you get a rash when you eat too many carbs. Maybe not full blown Celiac Disease. Read up about "gluten rash" and see what it says. I saw that when I was reading about the things that could possibly be causing my skin problems. My DIL's sister said she had psoriasis until she went on a Gluten free diet, but I feel that it was not psoriasis, but the gluten rash. Then there is the Keto rash. Some people get a rash if they go too low on carbs, and by adding a few more carbs, their rash clears up. I think so many of our health issues are caused by food, and we don't necessarily need a pill for everything if we can pin point the cause of our problem. I love reading about this stuff. I don't think what I have is gluten rash because I often go a very long time without eating bread or bread products, and most of what I eat is whole foods. Plain meat just roasted or grilled and with no sauces or gravies. And also veggies just with a little butter. So I don't think I get enough gluten to have a gluten rash, and when I am doing low carb, you would think the rash would go away. It doesn't.

I used to buy Slim Jims to eat as a low carb snack and DH likes them too, but I decided they are too fatty and contain nitrates, so I stopped buying them. Plus, I found that I was eating them as a snack simply because they were low carb, but I wasn't really hungry. I find if I eat my 2 meals a day, I don't get hungry and don't need a snack. I used to buy string cheese and eat them for a snack, so I stopped that. Now I started buying sliced cheese or block cheese and eating that for a snack. I might stop that too and learn to just eat my meals and no snacks. Snacking is just a bad habit for me. I'm just sticking extra calories in my mouth. If I get really hungry I can eat some celery sticks. If I'm not hungry enough to eat them, then I'm not really hungry.