You should try the reflux drugs. My 6 year old was on them until she was 3 as reflux caused her to have recurrent aspiration pneumonia.

In the past couple of months she has complained about a sore throat and coughs a lot at night. She also gets really bad canker sores.

She is back in the reflux medication and all the symptoms have cleared up. Of course, 6 year olds are hard to diagnose...

If the medication relieves your symptoms it would be great! I think the ip diet should also been beneficial as you are never eating too much st once.

Good luck.

Marion, I think a lot of your issues are stemming from how much you are doing. This is an extremely busy time in your life and adding on medical issues just compounds things. I hope you get the acid reflux under control, that is a nasty feeling.

Re the bison; it is a very healthy meat and quite popular in restaurents here.

But I made a deal with a huge bison while walking in the national park. First I have to say the park has been open for over 100 years. They were transporting wild bison from Montana because the herds there had contacted TB. They were taking them to southern Alberta, I'm not sure why they had to come so far north to do that. But they had to change trains and 13 of them escaped. They couldn't catch them and went on with the rest to southern Alberta where they all died out. So they established the park where the 13 had escaped and it has become the centre for bison research.
Anyway in all that time there has never been an incident of bison/human conflict. But I thought for sure one extremely hot day I would be the first. I mistakenly wandered off the marked trail, came to a fence and had to backtrack. I rounded a corner and realized I was about 20 feet from a enourmous bison who was dozing in the sun. If I went back I would be caught between him and the fence so had to go by him very quickly. I just got past him an he jumped up and started pawing the dust he had been sleeping in. My heart stopped but I took off running and I was much heavier than I am now. I thought,"Buddy if you don't chase me, I'll never eat your kin again!" When I finally had the nerve to look back he was rolling with all four legs up in the dust. I guess he figured it best to have his bath since I had awoken him from his nap.

Actually I don't care for the meat, I can't get used to the texture. But moose is a different story and none of the moose I encountered tried to chase me so I still eat that meat.

Seriously! I feel like the stupidest person in the universe! I really am!!

It is the 25th of January and I've been trying to be OP since January 1st with no success whatsoever!! It is getting me depressed beyond what you can imagine and it is making me feel like a failure!!!

And to top it all, my DH started training not a long time ago (and I really mean NOT a long time ago), he is determined to do the half iron-man, and for those of you who don't know what is that, here is the definition: consists of a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run!!! I just got tired reading about it! And here he is, after only 1 month and a half of committing himself to the gym and exercising like crazy, he has like the widest shoulders ever, the most defined muscles a man can dream to have, he looks like a God! and me... the wobbly, full of cellulite me who can't even stick to a diet that made me lose about 50 pounds when I committed to it! Why this much stupidity from my part? Really? I have no excuse whatsoever!

Please, I am begging you, I need you to reply to me, all of you and encourage me to finally go back to it and stick to it like I did the first time, please pretty please.

Linden, I have been reading about your back injuries and thought at first it was unusual because it is usually the taller people who are prone to that.
But then read about your unfortunate accident. Did that happen recently? It is not great when we finally get time to do things like walk a good distance and then have medical issues crop up. But you are still doing a wonderful amount of walking in your daily routine. I found that was such a part of life in Europe with the milder weather than we get here for most of the year.

Ok off on another tangent which the bison reminded me of. There is much conversation on the board about hair loss.

I was working yesterday with a 15 year old young lady who had been evacuated a number of years ago from the very far north because of family trauma. She is what we used to call eskimo and didn't speak English until she came "south". She is short and quite chubby and I was strick by her beautiful hair, thick and shiney and not a split end. I asked her what she would usually eat when she was younger and at home. She said caribou, lots and lots of fish, lots of bread and almost no fruit and veggies. The bread would have been an addition that the white man introduced and I think may have led to the chubbyness or perhaps that evolved as a protection from the cold.
But it really seems the fish oil helps the hair, not sure about the caribou!

Well enough with the avoidence, back to writing reports.
Have a great day everyone.

Pat

It's kind of odd because I don't feel like I have typical acid reflux symptoms, but I think for the short-term anyway, I'll try the meds.

You are right, Pat. Things are crazy here. I keep thinking it will get easier, but probably not, so I have to learn to work with it.

I can understand bargaining with a bison. The meat isn't available easily here, so it's expensive if I see it which makes me not want to buy it.

Sandra, stop beating yourself up and comparing yourself to your husband---it is self-defeating and your body composition is not his. Make one right choice after another and remember that it's a choice to be a better person.

Hi Sandra, You posted as I was rambling in my other posts.

OK, first you have to stop comparing yourself to your hubby. He has been blessed with good genes. But I'll bet he also watches what he eats very carefully too. My hubby had no weight issues at all. At age 69 people think he is in his early 50s. But he is natually far more active than I am. Plus he can eat all the bread and grains he wants. But I am super carb sensative, what is good for him is very bad for me.

But about getting back on track, the sad truth is you can't do it until you detox the carbs from your system totally. After that the program takes over and it is not hard at all.
I don't cheat, not that I am virtuous but because I couldn't stand to go through the detox again. In my case it kicked me into 3 days of migraines which meant I couldn't eat anyway. After that it was fine but I don't dare have an extra carb except what is in the packets and veggies.
So you have to totally seperate you and whatever carbs are in your enviroment. Until you go through that it will be very tough to stay on plan.
You did this before, you can do it again!

Also make sure you get every last bit of what is allowed on the program especially all the protein and have a huge salad daily. If we get hungry our defences go down and it is hard to stay on track.

We want to see you here for the long run and be sucessful. You have been one who has been here all through my very slow journey. Let's finish this and really enjoy summer this year. You are halfway there, time to regroup and look to the second half of the climb.

Pat

Oh Pat!

Believe it or not, I have tears in my eyes reading your reply.

Thanks for the encouragement.

I promise this time I will stick to it, after all what is 3 difficult days of detoxing comparing to a lost whole month?

You are not the stupidest person, I am right up there with you! I can't really tell you how to get back on the straight and narrow because I can't seem to do it myself. I definitely find that exercising helps me. I know that the program encourages us not to exercise - however, exercise is an anti-depressant for me. When I am depressed, I eat... you? When I am bored I eat, etc, etc, etc.

Hang in there my dear, and for sure stop comparing yourself to your husband. Mine seems to be able to walk to the mailbox and drop 10lbs!!!!

OK 100% OP today!

Elissa

Sorry. I like of the avoidance stories. The bison story's a scream, um, if you're not personally involved, I guess. And the hair story reminded me of hours of envy I spent, off an on, when I look at Native Hawai'ian and Polynesian hair. Lot of raw fish in those diets, too. And also on the topic of avoidance -- here's the not-like part -- avoidance is what I've been doing re the back. This happened before Christmas and I just figured I'd tough it out. Fortunately, the doctor had other ideas. I'll get the CT scan results next Tuesday so we'll see what happens next.

And I agree, Marion, you're probably doing too much but what can you let go of? I sure hope the reflux medicine does the trick because the acid from it can ulcerate your throat. And I sure hope things taper off a little and soon so you can enjoy the wedding stuff and not have it be just another thing piled on.

Sandra, I live on that island were people train for and do the Ironman so I have some idea what you're talking about and the image thing. (Try to imagine what the gyms in my hometown are like and how unlikely they are to cater to an aging female who wants to do some light weight lifting.) But you're sunk if you start to gage your goal with your husband's. Maybe if you could just lose the 2 pounds and get past the halfway mark? then just lose 5 pounds for a reward. I think you may be seriously diminishing your results in the light of your husband's. 49 pounds is stupendous! To me that is as remarkably impressive as the Ironman any day, and I mean that absolutely sincerely.

I'll play a game of get ready, get set, go with you -- if you'd like. Tomorrow's get ready. Put together whatever you need to make the plan work for just 5 days, until you're in ketosis. Get set is Friday. Friday is a day to just pamper yourself in any way you can think of. Pamper, not indulge. And Saturday is Go. My go will be boot camp, which I don't like much; yours will be to be on plan, OK? Or we could start on Friday with Saturday a day to pamper. I'm dead serious about this. I am GOING TO lose the weight I've put on from a week of pain killers and 2 cortisone shots (which I did NOT ask for). If you're willing to join me, it will make things easier. We'll just make a go of it, OK? Anyone else in? Man, I'm just sitting here planning out pampering and relishing it.

EDIT: So, everyone else was saying what I was while I was trying to think up a plan. But I AM serious. So will you think about it?

I'm in Linden! Weekends are always a struggle for me, now I will be accountable to myself and to all of you.

The letting go is probably the difficult part for me. It's kind of weird though, when I am doing the things that make me so busy--I am happy--and I mean truly happy. It's only when I sit here and think of where I'm at with my diet and where I want to be that I'm reminded of all the medical junk and that I'm not doing what I think I should be and so I get frustrated. It feels like there are so many variables in what I should and shouldn't do that I'm overwhelmed and while it seems that it would be easy to just follow IP, I know I do have to make adjustments with the dance which just creates a spiral of how much to adjust and then not making any good choices. So, if I were to let go of the piece of my life that is bringing me down, I guess it would have to be diet! LOL Think I can just not need food? I know there's a lesson in this some where...

Well, I guess the lesson is that a sense of humor may just get us through. And if I sounded at all critical, Marion, I didn't mean it because I think you juggle stuff really, really well. It just hurts a little knowing you aren't feeling great all the time.

I sure didn't take your comments as critical. I appreciate that you care and while I am busy, I don't want you thinking that I'm a complete basket case. I think you guys just get the yucky stuff because it's where things are with food. Thanks for caring!

You want to start tomorrow or Friday? Maybe we should wait until Friday to see if Sandra or anyone else wants to join in?

I need to get off the computer and stand up. I'm getting punchy going back and forth between a German and an English keyboard. My new computer says the 3FC - IP URL doesn't exist and it won't let me use Google search. I LIVE BY Google search.

I would like to get going ASAP - I will be 100% OP today but look forward to you and Sandra joining on Thursday or Friday