Hi PQ! I don't like being given specific meal plans but I do enjoy a list of DOs and DON'Ts, especially when I'm starting/re-starting/re-committing - sometimes I just feel like I've forgotten what a decent meal looks like, and hints help.

No worries about not liking the food in England! I love the food in Germany, Russia and Finland; don't care for it in France or Italy or Spain. It's been so long since I was in the States that I don't remember much apart from an enormous, Huge plate of pastrami in Boston as a cheap sandwich meal - pastrami is pretty expensive in England and not nearly as good; and I remember a buffet breakfast bar at the hotel in Boston (Copley Plaza) - it was the first time I'd ever seen such a thing.

Enjoy your trip, by the way!

Thank you! In the end I made 5.9lbs in a week but it stayed the same yesterday and went up a bit today. Yes, I know daily weighing is not necessarily a good thing for a worry-wart.

Thank you for all the kind words!

Good luck to us all

And up again today. Quite grumpy about it, because I'm sticking to the rules. Hm.

Didn't weigh today, woohoo! Daily weighing was making me unwell, so I'm going to try and keep it weekly, and try to trust the Diet! eep!

Rosinante, I don't weigh every day. I can have a day when I'm not very hungry and don't eat much, but still don't show a loss the next day. My weight goes up and down the same 4-5 lbs. I pay more attention to my blood sugar. When it's high, I know I didn't eat right, when it's low, I know I did.

Portions in US are way out of line. You find that mostly in restaurants, and I believe they do that so they can justify the prices. Better to sell 150 large meals than 100 smaller ones. If the people don't eat it all, they still made their money. We have a few restaurants in our area that still have smaller meals. My step-daughter goes there and feels as if they've been cheated, but for DH and I, the meals are just right and closer to our price range. I still bring some home occasionally.

Yesterday, I exercised for 60 min. 30 cardio and 30 weights. I want to do the weights twice a week but would like to keep up with the cardio at least 5 days a week. I'm doing this more to keep myself mobile. I don't want to need a walker or any other support if I can help it. The exercise also helps my blood sugar and blood pressure.

Hi everyone! Day three of our trip and I've done so well until tonight (see below)...

Monday - fruit cup & cheese croissant on plane, Kind savory protein bar, thin crust pizza w/no flavor in York
Tuesday - rashers and fried egg, lovely 2-course meal at French spot in York consisting of chicken pate/baguette/Carmelited onion relish, chicken w/leek, tarragon, cream salad, candy bar
Wednesday - rashers and fried eggs, steak and ale pie, fries, onion rings

We went to Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey), Scarborough seaside, Castle Howard and Some boring places for hubs

Ooo Scarborough! Shades of childhood vacations!!

For my hubs as well! He's from N. Lincs, so spending some time here before we do the London thing

Sounds like you are enjoying your trip, PQ. Nice that you are able to keep in touch. The thread might die without you! LOL

Well, it looks like Jacqui and Rennie have deserted us again. Just when I decided to knuckle down and could use all the input I can get. Yoo hoo! Where are you?

After my talk with my cardiologist I have decided I want to lose 20 lbs and 5 inches in my waist. That is where I was in 2011, and I think I could be happy with that. Not thin, but healthier. My BP and BG were much better then, and with fewer meds. My diet has improved so much in the past few years, but I know I am not as diligent as I could be, and that's what's needed to get the scale moving. I am lax in keeping the slip ups under control. I tell myself that it's just a little bit, but little bits add up. I'm only fooling myself if I say I'm doing my best. I also need to up my exercise, as the doctor suggested.

How are you doing, Rosinante? Still hanging in there? You seem to have a good grip on your plan, setting a good example for me.

I don't usually like plans that say don't eat this, or that. Because of my diabetes I know I have to really restrict starchy carbs and sugar. But I am not as strict with other things. If there are carrots or corn in my meal, I don't worry about it but try to stick with smaller portions. I wonder if I need to pay more attention there. I normally stay away from deli meat, but lately I have been buying deli turkey and eating it either chopped up in my salad, or wrapped in a lettuce leaf. I know that is not really a desireable choice. Too much fat and sodium. But they put it on sale and the price appeals to me. I only buy it when it's on sale. I do much better when I do this with roasted chicken and probably should stick to that. I like to eat dark meat chicken, and then use the white meat to make some chicken salad to add to my salads or in a lettuce wrap.

Right now my weight is in the "down" category, so I've got a bit of a start, as long as I don't mess it up. I will not start weighing daily, but will do it at least once a week to see my progress of lack thereof.

I also want to get back to drinking more water. I hate to do that if I'm going somewhere because I need the bathroom too often, but I do need to keep from being dehydrated.

Jacqui, I saw that you mentioned your weight being up from drinking water at night. Try not to worry much about fluctuation that you know are from water, because it's just water, not fat. And the water is good for you, and in the long run it helps to flush the fat and toxins out. I know it can get discouraging seeing the scale go up, but if you know you've stayed on plan, you don't need to be concerned. Unless you have a medical reason to be retaining fluids, it won't stay with you long.

Jacqui, how long were you at your Dad's, or are you still there for an extended period of them? Did you do a lot of damage? It's funny how we tend to eat differently when we got out of our normal territory. You know you do better when you're posting. I hope there's not a problem.

PQ, I hope things are going well for you. I forgot how long your vacation is. I know you have the summer off, but don't know if you're spending the whole summer abroad. I would get homesick and Rusty would miss his mommy.

I have MIA here and I do apologize. It has just taken me a while to get on a plan and stick with it. I too hate dos and don'ts of a plan, but I know there have to be some. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do low carb, slow carb, calorie counting, WW pts etc and I am in a place where I don't want to count anything any more.

I don't have to count anything on Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, but I am not 100% sure it is good for me to put all my starchy carbs in one meal. I can really overload in that 1 hr meal although I don't eat for 1 whole hour. My Reward Meal usually only last 35 minutes, but I find I can cram a lot of food in that hr that I'm afraid will rise my blood sugar if I eat it somewhere else during the day.

I have always leaned more toward eating low carb although not Atkins low and I like the idea of Intuitive Eating theory of eat only when hungry. Many of you know I tried the new WW SP plan because I heard that is more Low carb friendly. However, the pts counting just didn't work for me. I can't handle having to eat a set amount of calories or carbs or pts. It either sets me up for over or under eating. Goes back to Carol Sue's rules of dos and don'ts. I just don't do well with them. Then Saturday it hit me. The old WW Core plan that later became the Simply Filling Foods Plan. Low carbing without a lot of rules or counting unless I decided to have a treat or food that is not on the list of foods that doesn't have to be counted. For example, I plan to have corn on the cob for lunch today and I will have to count the 4pts for it which will come off either my extra Weekly pts allowed or Activity pts I earn. Reading the book yesterday, the recommendation is 20 minutes of exercise 3 days a week. I do 45 minutes 5 to 6 days a week. So if I only have an occasional pts food I have to count, I probably won't even have to worry about that.

Too keep myself accountable I will come here each evening and post what I ate that day. I've changed my ticker to where my weight is today. I did my measurements this morning so I'm good to go. I am making my WI day will be Mondays. So my starting WI today was 225 meaning I was up 4 lbs. The measuring tape was up but was nicer than my scale.

My food plan for today as I already have it planned

B - 2 sl turkey bacon, 1 sl FF Am. Cheese and 2 eggs
L - 4 oz beef stead, salad w/EVOO & ACV and 1 ear corn-on-cob (4pts)
and glass of FF milk and FF yogurt
D - 1/2 c lentils w/pepper onions stir-fry and turkey 1 oz sausage
S - 1 Slim fast protein shake

Ex - 5 miles on recumbent bike (approx. 45 minutes)

Y'all have a nice day. See y'all tomorrow.

Carol Sue, Jacqui, PQ, Rennie, Rosinante and others

Trish, I noticed that the ladies on the CAD/CALP thread don't eat much carb, even at the RM. I think that's the key. You get to taste a bit, but not overdo it. They have a bit of one carb one day, then a bit of another the next day. it's not good for diabetics to have too much carb at one meal, even with the second meal effect. I think it would be better to alternate the carbs from day to day rather than try to fit them all into one meal. I think that's what causes people problems when they do CAD. They think of it as getting 1 hours to eat all the carbs they can get their hands on, and that's not right. No one is going to lose that way, or keep healthy BG. I guess I shouldn't say "no one" because Jacqui loses very well doing her carb day once a week, and she really enjoys the carbs. I hope she's just busy and will be back soon. I miss her.

Tomorrow I am going for a cardiac stress test in the AM. I am not to take any diabetes meds the morning of the test, and I am going to skip them this evening, just to be sure. I also have to fast for the test, so no bedtime snack tonight. This will be a test, to see how my FBG is tomorrow. I did great with carbs yesterday and want to stay away from them altogether today. There was a bit of brown rice in my stuffed peppers but it did not give me a spike. I don't know what would happen if I went to the test with a high BG. I think the meds would maybe interact with the meds used for the test, or maybe they don't want me to have a hypo during the test. The test is 3 hours so it will be lunchtime by the time it's over.

Good morning Everyone. Just a quick flyby. I did finally get my exercise done last night around 9ish. I've always heard you shouldn't exercise at night at bed time as it wakes you up. However, I had been so busy that I fell asleep in my chair. Problem was DH who stays up almost all night decided to clean some things in the master bathroom talking to me while I was getting ready for bed caused me to come alive for a bit and although I went to bed, I like to have never gone to sleep. They used to tell us parents that even if a child wasn't sleeping at nap time, they got benefits of rest. I hope that is true for the nights I lay there quietly for so long before going to sleep. LOL

I did eat a little more yesterday than planned. Not going to track on here what I eat as I'm doing this the WW Simply Filling/Intuitive Eating way and sometimes, I just get a bite of an allowed food to stop the hunger and go on. Example, I cooked lentils yesterday and once I felt so hungry and just ate a spoonful of lentils and I was fine. Since not having to count pts for them, I don't worry about it.

Weight was down a tad this morning so I guess I did okay. I thought about adding IF in the plan. I saw someone on another thread eating one meal a day. I would love to do that as that is how I used to eat when I was thin, but I have a difficult time doing that maybe because of the bs. However, I kind of try to do an 8 hr window any way and I have been successful with a 5 hr window in the past. I just might try that again. If I could do a 5 - 7 hr window, I could work it around the hrs I get hungry at night.

Carol Sue When the original CAD came out, you didn't eat the RM the way a lot of people do now. A RM was exactly one hour to eat a regular meal of whatever you wanted. I lost 65+ lbs eating that way without any problem. It has been changed and tweaked over the years as their new books came out. The FB group is set up according to the original CAD although some follow some of the options of the new books as I do most of the time of a balance or fairly balanced RM most of the time. The books allow us to tweak CAD to fit our lifestyle.

Originally, people could eat 1 meal a day RM which that is all I ate for a long time. Some eat only 1 RM and ! CM. Some do 1 RM, 1 CM and 1 CMS snack a day which is what my plan is most of the time. There are some days I seem to need more and I may add another CM or CMS. CAD allows us to eat lowfat or fat according to our health/preferences. I like it because it fits my lifestyle with DH. I can do it lowfat, no fat, moderate fat or high fat plus I'm not deprived of any favorite foods I want to eat as long as I eat low carb meals and snacks with only 1 carbohydrate food a day.

In fact, according to what I heard Dr. Rachel Heller say on tv, you don't even have to exercise to lose weight when doing CAD although it is helpful. I heard her tell a woman on tv who had pigged out on cookies the night before the show that the cookies binge could have been counted as her RM if she wanted it to be as long as all her other meals and snack had been CM. In CAD, they had covered everything to keep it from feeling like a diet and illuminate the feeling of "I have blown it today so why bother feeling".

So yes it can work and you can lose weight if it done properly.

Edited to say... I'm not actually doing CAD. I am doing WW Simply Filling/Core Diet and I eat mostly the carby foods allowed and spread the carbs out throughout the day. This is where a few carbs come in for me. I am also using Intermittent Fasting 8 hr window along with this.

Good luck on your tests.

Fascinating to hear how others are getting on

I'm still hanging in there (thanks for asking, wbh; thanks for the wave, pg63). I'm enjoying The Harcombe Diet because it's set me free from obsessively weighing lettuce leaves.... It also seems - SEEMS, fingers crossed - to be having a really positive impact on my mood, which is amazing.

I'm eating meat/fish with hot veggies or salads. I'm eating some dairy in the form of cream but not cheese, which has started to disagree with me; I've discovered that spiralized veg (butternut squash or zucchini so far) fried in butter is delicious, and filling, and feels like a treat. I'm on Day #19, and will be weighing in on Friday - I've dumped daily scale-weighing too. I got a couple of things wrong in the 2nd week but not deliberately, and haven't cheated once (yet). I'm not eating fat by the bucket-load but I Am eating enough to keep me feeling full.