Carol Sue I know what you mean about shopping this close to Christmas. I went to the store yesterday when I left my friends house and got the rest of what I need. I do plan to run into Sam's club tomorrow after we eat at Texas Roadhouse since it is so close. However, if it is too busy, I won't be going there. We love the tomatoes from Sam's and I need to get some more bananas for DH since I'm going to be using some in my fruit salad, but it isn't important enough to fight a huge crowd on Christmas eve.

moonkissed You are doing great.

Shannon Sounds like we are on the same page about getting back to eating low carb in the New Year. I also want to start making more things from scratch so that I know the ingredients.


My breakfast at my beauticians house turned out to be low carb friendly. Scrambled eggs and link sausage and coffee. So I felt good about that. However, after breakfast, she asked me if I had seen the 2 cedar trees out front which I had not noticed... said she planted them herself when they were little. I didn't tell her, but I am highly allergic to cedar and guess what? My throat started feeling scratchy last night. I was up most of the night doctoring my throat trying to avoid a soar throat. Could not sleep for coughing. So much to do for the next 2 days and I am miserable today.

She is coming for coffee Christmas morning and then her son and his fiance are supposed to come to her house and cook Christmas dinner for her. So looks like she will not be alone and she won't be here to eat. I do so hope her daughter will decide to bring her grandson to see his grandma too.

Since it is going to be just us, I've decided to make cookies today. And tomorrow I am going to make some deviled eggs and brownies for DH birthday. I thought it would be better to spread the food out over the next few days rather than to have everything in one day. Then I will cook the ham and other foods Christmas day. I will be so glad when all this is over and I can get back to eating low carb again.

DGS leaves for FL Jan 1st and I am starting AI that day. I have never done Atkins exactly as it is supposed to be done, but after reading an article someone posted on another thread on 3fc about how they rated over 30 diets and how they affect weight loss short term/long term and diabetes etc
I saw that they all work the same and none of them seems to work long term although they are all fairly safe and healthy. I've decided that since I like the way low carb works and how I feel when I eat that way, why not go for it. I can still do IE/IF with it as I've read others do. DGS will be gone 11 days which will give me time to get through the grouchy rough part of AI without him having to deal with my irritating attitude. Then I will add the carbs in the 5 carb increments each week until I learn how many my body will tolerate and me still lose weight. The day after Christmas, I will still eat a more moderate low carb that might help me ease into AI.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the holidays without stressing out. I've just got to get rid of this stupid allergy. Needless to say, from now on, I will be having her over to my house.

JLUS, Bonnie, Ruthie, Marcye and everyone else Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas and I'll see y'all back here the day after Christmas.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Merry Christmas!

I don't have a good short term memory right now so it is challenging for me to keep up with this thread! I read everything but by the time I am posting I can't remember very many specifics.

I hope everybody has had a great Christmas day. Ours went well inspite of the fact that I really didn't feel like celebrating. My beautician dropped by to bring potato salad that DH likes and while she was here the next door neighbors dropped by to bring candy which I did not eat any of it... fudge and peanut brittle which are not my favorites.

I ate a little bit of everything I cooked at our main meal and then about 5ish, I had a piece of pecan pie and was hungry for some ham. I haven't eaten anything else. DH offered me some of his candy, but I told him that I'm trying to not eat until we eat at 2 tomorrow. Hopefully I can get back to my IF 5 hr window of eating. I really don't have much of an appetite with the way I feel so I decided that I might as well take advantage of it and get back OP this evening.

My fbs was unusually high for me this morning, but I think it is because of the cold and flu medicine I am taking. I've almost lost my voice and when I've had to talk on the phone, it really wears me out. I really could have stayed in bed, but didn't want to disappoint everyone since I'm the cook around here. I definitely will sleep in tomorrow if I can.

Catch y'all tomorrow.

Our Christmas Day celebration is over again for this year. It did not go as planned. My step daughter had a cold or the flu earlier in the week, but she still came since she was feeling much better. My brother-in-law would not come because he didn't want to catch whatever my step-daughter had. Also, my step-son came down with the same thing on Christmas Eve and could not even leave his bed, so he didn't come, either. I was a little disappointed because his wife could have come over and brought my grandson, but she didn't. I didn't even suggest it, because her not coming told me she chose not to, so I didn't want her to come out of a feeling of obligation. So it was small group. DH and I, step-daughter and husband and brother-in-law and sister-in law. We did have a nice time and I have a lot of food leftover, some of which I really don't want around. Hopefully, my step-daughter was through the contageous stage of her illness and none of us will get sick. It sounds like you had something similar Trish, as it's going around. They said that even the flu shot is not working as well this year as it should. I'm wondering if the fact that I got a pneumonia shot this year has kept me from getting sick so far. As I recall though, when I do get sick, it is usually farther into winter like in January or February. Maybe it will miss me this year.

My blood sugar has been high all week and I have been taking the glimiperide like a mad woman. Trish, I remember you told me that your DH takes 8mg daily. How many mg is each of his pills? Mine are only 1mg, so sometimes when my blood sugar is really high I take 2 at a time. I have a lot of extra pills because some days my blood sugar is good and I don't need to take any. I have noticed lately that when I get the palpitations my blood sugar is high, and if I take the glimiperide the palpitations go away. Hmmm I have never heard that palpitations are a symptom of high blood sugar. By high, I am talking mid to high 200s, not extremely high. I am planning on getting back on the wagon with my food and exercise and should not be having those highs anymore.

I sent a PM to Mad and she stopped in to say Hi. Did you see her post?

DH just made ham and eggs for breakfast. Very good!

Lettingslenderin, don't worry about keeping up with the conversations here. Trish and I have been posting here for several years and we tend to get very wordy, LOL. We want to hear what you have to say. Just post what you want to post. Judging from your post on the other threads, you are doing very well and we could use some new ideas.

Carol Sue DH takes 4 mg of Glimiperide 2x a day. Sorry about all the sickness in your family. My neighbor told me that it starts like mine did and turns into the flu, but I started meds just as soon as I started feeling the symptoms. I thought it was brought on by the cedar trees in my beauticians front yard, but now I'm not sure. I am hoarse and have a cough. I didn't feel like doing anything yesterday, but I think it was good that I had plans and had to get up and get busy.

My fbs was 178 yesterday so when I ate all the starchy foods I ate yesterday, I took one of DH Glimiperides. I didn't eat a lot the rest of the day. When I got hungry, I went to bed. Not too long after I went to bed, I had a hypoglycemic reaction which surprised me because I had taken the pill around 2 in the afternoon and this was around midnight or after. I didn't know it stayed in your system so long. I was sweating so badly that I didn't want to put a robe on in case DGS was up. So I remembered that I had bought DH some glucose tablets that he has never carried with him for such emergencies. So I got up and took 2 of those and went back to bed. I didn't go to sleep until I started feeling normal again. It really helped though because my fbs this morning was 108 and I am back OP. Funny thing is that my weight was down 1.2 lbs from yesterday morning. No drum rolls though because I am way up from what my ticker shows so I need to change it. I've gained 7 lbs since that low.

I am doing low carb. Not sure how low I'm going to go, but I am going to try keeping it low as much as possible and I am doing an IF 8 hr window. I may have days of only 5, 6 or 7 hr window, but I'm setting it at 8 hrs because I don't want to set myself up for failure or a guilt trip if I set it at 5 and go over.

I did see Fatmad's post. It sure was nice to hear from her and hope she will check in with us more often. She is missed a lot.

Holiday meals are over for us. I bought DH some chocolate candy for his birthday because he had really missed it. He told me last night that he didn't want any more bought. So I think we both are ready for healthier eating. DGS will eat the left over sweets. I put baggies of ham in freezer to have for breakfast and for cooking beans. I'm having eggs, ham and collard greens for brunch now. I will probably have a ham salad later today and my beautician gave me a lot of deer meat a customer had given her that she didn't want so I'm thawing some dear steak and will have that for dinner with low carb veggies.

Lettingslenderin I agree with Carol Sue. She and I are talkers so please jump in and feel free to share what you want to share. You don't have to remark on anyone's post if you don't want. I used to be on other threads but some of them have so many people and I couldn't remember everyone or what they had to say. We want you to feel comfortable here.

Well, I changed my ticker. I started my diet plan (which I messed with all year) one year ago today. So I only lost 19 lbs this year because I didn't keep the lowest weight of 212. But the way I have to look at it is that at least I lost 19 lbs and didn't gain 19 + lbs. So not great, but not bad either. So once again, I start today right back OP. And Carol Sue, I'm going to get my exercising going again too. We will do this!!!!

Y'all have a great day!!!

Quick flyby. Weight is down another lb today but fbs is back up to 149, but I'm taking lots of meds for this junk I have. Headed out to beauty shop because I need my hair washed and I don't feel like doing it myself. Got to run by Walmart and get some more medicine or I would not be going out at all. I plan to stay home till I get rid of this stupid cold/allergy whatever.

Y'all have a good day.

Trish, you lost 19 lbs more than I did this year. It has been a bad year for me. I did greatly improve my labs but I think that was due to eating so much more vegetables than I did before. I will consider that a plus, but I would have liked to have lost weight. I don't feel good about that, but I am going to move forward from this point and not dwell on the past.

To expand on my question about DH's glimiperide, how many mg is each pill? Are they 4mg pills that he takes twice a day? If so, that is why you have the hypoglycemic reaction. I think you should break them in half, or even in 4ths if you can. Do you have a pill splitter? Your A1c and also your FBG are lower than mine, and my pills are only 1mg each that I am to take twice a day for a total of 2mg. Sometimes I only take 1/2 and sometimes I take 1 1/2 if my blood sugar is really high. I have had a hypo on only 1/2 a pill, so unless my blood sugar is over 150 AND I am planning on eating carby foods, I don't take it at all. I just let it go down naturally. Be careful with them.

The ham I bought for Christmas was very, very good. Normally, I don't like ham because it's salty, but this one didn't taste salty at all. DH said it still has sodium, which is true. I really ate a lot of it yesterday and I think I over did it because my stomach felt yucky last night. I keep thinking it doesn't have carbs, but I still shouldn't be eating so much. It's just about gone now. I feel OK today, but I am going to try to make this a water, tea, and vegetable day to clear out my system. My body is not used to all that rich food. I have way too many cookies left over. Hopefully, my step-daughter will come over and get some of them for herself, and to take to work. I get nauseated just looking at them.

Hi! I just jumped in recently and it's hard to keep up but I'm so happy to have found such an active thread!

We had a great holiday with all of my siblings and our kids. I managed to stay low carb with reasonable portions all three days we were together...except for wine at night. Checked blood often, everything was reasonable. Felt really awful on the way home yesterday so made a choice to eat some fries from McDonalds (I don't know why, when I'm sick that's what I want - hot fries from McDonalds). Numbers were a little high two hours later, but not crazy. Then got cocky and had two slices of pizza for dinner, which was over the line. Won't make that mistake again. Glad I track everything because it legitimately freaks me out to see high numbers and I like knowing how things impact me.

Anyway, blah blah, was up all night because my daughter has stomach virus again and SOOOO thankful she managed to stay healthy for Christmas. She's a real trooper. I complain a WHOLE lot more when I'm sick. I'm currently wiping down everything with Clorox wipes about once an hour. Fingers crossed no one else gets it.

Pattygirl, 19 pounds lost is never "only" - that's great. I've had years I've GAINED 19 pounds.

Wannabe, I'm sorry your holiday was disappointing. That's always hard.

I have an appointment with the diabetic nurse nurse on Jan 7. I'm really really hoping I can talk my way out of insulin. Because I have elevated liver enzymes and a family history (my mom) of cirrhosis, my doctor doesn't really want to try anything else to control my blood sugar. I have been carefully recording what I eat and my glucose readings for about a month and I think I've proven I can control it with diet. Fingers crossed. I am not good with needles. I have to psych myself up every time I have to prick my finger and it's not getting easier.

Congratulations for all of your weight loss. I just joined the Diabetes Miracle website but so far, not happy with it. It requires a charge just to join the forums, and once that amount is paid, there are basic things that are extra charges. For example, the forms for staying on the diet are $9, the list of snacks is $8. There is access to the author of the book and the opportunity to ask lots of questions. So it's a mixed bag... annoying because I bought the books, then the website, and now there are charges for things that should be included, imho. I might still follow the program in January, but I am reconsidering that decision and open to suggestions.

Hi all,

For some reason on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I was in a horrible mood - definitely a Grinch! Fortunately, it seems to have passed. Honestly, I think it is stress related to being around family - my extended family that I only see a few times a year and my mom who has been really negative about Olivia lately, especially since my new niece was born. My favorite part of the two days was on Christmas day after we were done with all the family stuff, we picked up Chinese to eat for dinner and shared it family style. It was the happiest I had been for two days - just being at home and enjoying a meal together. Anyway, moving on to New Years!

I have been sitting down the last several evenings and working on goal setting for 2015. Last year I set a few goals in January but never really revisited them and of course at year end, had not met them. So far, to help with the goals I set, I have created a laundry and cleaning schedule to try out and am working on meal planning today. I also am going to try the 52 weeks of decluttering. I did it a few years ago and it was really great. I only did it a few months, not the whole year but I still felt it was really helpful. Basically you pick a different place in your house/life each week of the year to declutter. It can just be a drawer or one cabinet per week. It really breaks the big jobs up into more manageable chunks. Things have been super chaotic lately and I am really craving some structure in my life. I'm not sure how these schedules will work out as I am typically not good at keeping to them but I am going to try. Hoping for a little more sanity!

I have been working with Olivia on her sleeping and we have been using some essential oils on her at bedtime for over a week now. The last several nights she has slept much better. Last night she only woke once and slept a total of 11.5 hrs which is right for her age but a lot more than she normally sleeps on average so I am very pleased. We had one HUGE meltdown yesterday with hitting but otherwise she has been pretty well behaved this week. I hope we are making some progress. Though I am dreading seeing how she behaves once preschool starts back. I am hoping we have some firm boundaries in place before then. The first week back Mark will be traveling so I will be alone. The physical aggression is harder to handle alone.

Hubby got the coat racks hung in the laundry room yesterday and wow, how nice. I now have somewhere to put my purse and our jackets. Our "coat closet" in this house is nowhere near where we come in and out of the house so it was pretty useless. Next up on the honey do list is installing our new faucet in the kitchen. We have a white farmhouse type sink and the faucet on it is plastic and it is all scratched up. Since I spend so much time at the sink it is the one thing I asked to be replaced before it breaks, LOL! Everything else in the kitchen that I don't love I am willing to wait til it needs replacing but that faucet has been bugging me since day 1!

Good afternoon ladies I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

I got the fitbit zip for christmas and am loving it so far. It tracks my distance and steps. I am hoping it will inspire me to get 10k steps in a day so far I am far below that lol

I did great eating wise over christmas. I didn't stuff myself ever and actually ate fairly little. I did treat myself to cheesecake and a few cookies though. But I checked my weight today and I am down. Tomorrow is my official weigh in day though so we will see then.

Trish 19lbs is awesome! I lost weight this year and then regained it plus more before the year was over sigh. Here is to next year being better!

Moonkissed, I would love to hear more about the Fitbit Zip! I had some kind of activity tracker through Weight Watchers a few years ago and it was just AWFUL, and kind of put me off the whole idea but I now know it was pretty much a Cracker Jack toy compared to others out there. I KNOW I need to just get up and get more activity in my day (in addition to actual intentional exercise).

It's fantastic that your weight is down after Christmas. How many people can say that?

Shannonsnail, holidays are hard. There's a lot of pressure. And someone being negative about my child would put me in a mood! Glad you got to decompress and enjoy yourself!

I am also interested in this 52 weeks of decluttering. Wish I could get my family on board! We have cut our living space in half but some people (my husband and daughter) can't seem to let go of stuff.

My daughter was a difficult sleeper until she was almost four. Our quality of life greatly improved when we turned that corner. You have all my sympathy and best wishes on that.

I really want to work on some firm goals for next year, but I feel like my whole life needs an overhaul...not in a bad way, not like oh, my life is so awful! Because it's not! I've just been kind of on auto-pilot for a while and I'm feeling a little stagnant. Inspired! Hopeful! But stagnant.