Positive Eating Plan aka
Prevention Millennium Diet*

Daily servings
veg and fruits, 9 servings ( 5 veg/4 fruit)
whole grains, 3-6 servings
high-calcium, 2-3 servings

Weekly servings:
Beans - 5+
Nuts - 5
Fish - 2

Serving Sizes

veg. & fruit
1 serving = 1/2 c. chopped fruit
1/2 c. cooked or raw veg.
1 c. raw green leaves
3/4 c. veg or fruit juice

Whole Grains
1 serving = 1 slice whole wheat bread
1/2 rice or bulgar
1/2 c whole wheat pasta

Calcium 1 serving = 1 c ff or 1% milk
1 c ff yogurt
1 c calcium fortified O.J.
1 oz. reduced ff cheese

Supplements
100% DV multivitamin/mineral
500 (under 50) to 1000 (over 50) mg. calcium
100-400 IU Vit. E
100-500 mg Vit. C

Keep calories to 1500 a day - 250 cal. per meal. Eat 6 small meals a day. Do not exceed 42 fat grams per day.

Drink 8 glasses water and 1+ cup of tea daily.

* Copied from the Jan. 2000 issue of Prevention Magazine

Here is the website address for the Prevention Millennium Diet.

http://www.prevention.com/2000/diet/index.html

This is not necessarily a vegetarian diet.

How is everyone? I am so pleased as I am home this morning. I slept late, just had breakfast, have written in a diet journal, started a new PMD thread, and will go for a hike when I finsih posting. My plans today include cleaning out the fridge and shopping for healthy groceries. Getting back on track with food and exercise is my #1 priority for summer break. Guess I will still follow the PMD mostly, but I am toying with the idea of notching it down just a bit. I am going to count calories and try my hand at 1200 cals. a day. I don't know if I will be able to do it, but I am starting to think that caloric intake must be more closely refined in middle age. Well, we'll see how it goes - I have no answers but it is an idea I have been kicking around for a while.

Mrs. Yogi, may I call your bubu, - why don't you tell us about yourself? Are you new to the 3fc boards, I notice you have fewer posts than most of us "oldtimers".

Hi one and all!

Alice, no Parasha isn't on any medication. She was taking something to make her less confused but it didn't seem to do much in the long haul. She spends most of her time sleeping or looking for something to eat (which isn't doggie kibble). How is the dog training going? Are you going to try "crating"? I have never done it (I had the old fashioned "chase them around the house with a mop" approach.

Ledom, you sound like you have a GOOOOD day planned. I don't know if less calories is the way to go though. Everything one reads says not to cut back too severely. You will be exercising a lot...hiking and kayaking and all. The more you weigh the more you need, for example according to WW my min. would be 1300 and max. would be 1650. I think I weigh more than you and I know I am shorter. Though my friend who is much taller and slimmer gets less points (calories). I think the key is CONSISTENTCY and I am talking to MYSELF not anyone else. I know if I would stay at even 1650 cal. I would lose. But instead I would leap up to "I hate to say how many calories" every three or so days and that is what messes things up. I am weighing on Wed. I actually weigh everyday but my "official" day is going to Wed. I lost two pounds this week. Can't get to excited though since I have lost those same pounds about a million times. Still it is encouraging and I am glad you suggested a new start.

I have been sorting boxes of my mom's and grandmother's pictures and have been trying to photographicaly organize their lives into albums. I thought it would make me so sad doing it since they both have passed away (mom last Nov.) yet it has left me with such a good feeling. They both had a lot of photographs in boxes. Photographs are so important. Especially when you can see the whole life of a person from beginning to end. It also has given me a perspective on my life too. I will have one album alone on just my mom's Christmases. I stayed up until about 3:00 am last night looking through photos. It was great.

Mrs. Yogi, are you on a diet? Any pets, children etc?

Lana, how is the chicken pox patient? Still only one patient?

Everyone have a good weekend.

Hello Ladies, HAPPY FRIDAY and thanks for asking.

I'm actually visiting from the Zone thread, but I love to read everyone's posts and see how the family is doing. I spend *too much* time on this site when at work, but I think this is a healthy addiction (I have a low maintenance boss).

I've been lowcarbing with the Zone since the beginning of March. I'm 47, 5'6' and started at 179, now down to 167 and counting. Also lost 4" off the waistline and am feeling **great**. My goal is 150 and a 32" waist (4" to go).

Married 15 yrs (!), no kids, DH on the road a lot, which is fine b/c I'm a songwriter in my spare time and like lots of alone time to read, write and contemplate (not to mention going to the gym and working up a nice sweat...).

We had two ancient Siamese cats who were our kids until this time last year ( ). I can relate to having old sick animals because they both had bad kidney disease and were *really* old - Siamese can live 25 years give or take a year or two. Ours lasted 18 and 19 years respectively, so as you can imagine, we were BONDED! We are NOT planning on re-catting at the moment, as we are actually able to wear dark clothing in the house and bought navy blue velvet couches. Which we could never have when they were alive, but we loved them to pieces.

My Zoning fluctuates depending on if DH is home. He is quite overweight and needs to lose about 75 lbs. His addictions are beer, sweets and corn products, but he is slowly coming around and realising that he has to get with the program soon or he could be in for a painful middle age. I don't nag, but try to serve up nice delicious low carb meals, and so far he is very impressed.

The main problem is that when he is home it's tough to stay on the program and stick with the workout sked, b/c he just wants couch time with his sweetie (who can blame him, she's looking better all the time here.... ) so I don't worry about being consistent and just concentrate on doing what I can, when I can. The main thing is I've weaned myself off sugar and starch, which is a major step and I'm very proud of myself - gold star... Now on to the next 15 lbs.!

BTW Judi, sorry to hear about your Mom. Photos are very therapeutic. I love them.

We're fortunate enough to have our NaNa (80 yrs old and fit as a fiddle from gardening constantly) living in the house with us - she bought a house big enough for us to have our own suites, so it works out great for the most part.

Moms will always be a part of us.

Hi ladies....glad to see that everyone is doing well. Glad to have you back in our lives Alice! I've been pretty busy at work as usual. I'm with ya'll for the summer "losing weight" thing. Unfortunately, I've been snacking shamelessly on sweets....especially chocolate, so I've gained 15 lbs in the past 1 1/2 months. It's time to stop. I'm going to start keeping a food and exercise log. The most important thing is to cut out the sugar. I'm really an addict when it comes to cookies, pastry, cakes, chocolate, etc. I also signed up for two classes that are back to back...a water aerobics and a water jogging class. The classes start June 4th so I need to drop at least 8 lbs by then. I'm going to start logging into my computer every day and posting. Ya'll have always been there for me and keep me motivated. My cat is doing better even though she's on a new medication for her urinary tract infection. The Baytril gave her severe abdominal cramping. Another antibiotic did not work. This is her third one. It seems to be working, but her stool is very runny. She only has a couple more days of the pills though, so then things should "hopefully" get back to normal. We get to celebrate her birthday in a week. She'll be 20 years old! Where has all the time gone by? It just seems like yesterday that I brought her home. Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be posting more often....I promise.

It is so good to hear from everyone. Mrs. Yogi, we have (or had) 2 things in common. I am 47 and I have 2 siamese cats, I lost a siamese to natural causes last year at age 11, so the two new ones are young, about 1 1/2 now. We love'em, lol about the cat hairs, it's my signature!

Sigh, graduation was this morning. I have been pinching myself all afternoon. Three glorious months to do as I please each day, oh yeah! Much speech making and rhetoric at the ceremony but one quote from Winston Churchill could, and should, be my mantra this summer. Never stop trying. Never stop trying. Never. Never. Never. I think he made that his whole speech at a commencement exercise once and our speaker today quoted him.

Shebacat, I am afraid to weigh - I know it would depress me too much but I wouldn't be surprised if I have gained 15 lbs. I know I feel just terrible right now. The last 2 days I have done pretty good. I am journaling, the only thing, I ate out last night and tonight so I'm not sure how many calories. I did leave at least a third of my portion on the plate each time and, Shebacat, no sugar for 2 days. I know what you mean about the sugar. This time of year it is hard not to think that I DESERVE icecream.

judi, I am glad you have the photos. What a nice thing to do and so pleased it gave you such pleasure. That is wonderful.

Didn't exercise today, but plan a long hike in the morning with a friend. Also have a couple of kayak journeys in mind for next week.

D and I went to big city today and I stocked up on books. I guess I bought about 7 novels. I have my summer reading lined out now. The thing is, I want to make sure I am up and moving around more hours than I am lounging with a book each day this summer.

I feel motivated and almost on track again. As I mentioned earlier, I guess I won't weigh for a while. I am either losing or I am gaining and I know which I am doing by how I eat and how I feel. When I get to a point that I feel I won't be devastated I'll hop on the scale again.

Thanks for being there, thanks for sharing your diet trials and tribulations, it makes me feel not so alone in this difficult journey.

Hi again ladies,

Just thought I would drop in before I left my part-time job. Ledom, you'll never be alone. As far as I'm concerned, we're all in this together. Even with me reaching my goal weight, I still struggle (as you can tell), and I still have the same issues that ya'll have. I do feel that ya'lls support is so important to me. Starting on Monday I'm going to be accountable for my food/exercise on this site to ya'll. Good or bad, I'll be exposed. I love to read too, and find myself doing the same thing instead of moving. We just have to aim for balance in our lives. Hope everyone has a great weekend......look forward to Monday and a fresh start!

I've missed coming in and writing things up in here...I just have been pretty busy, I was off a few days last week because of a pox victim......I also visited the Eye Institute in Ottawa, and my eyes are stable.... which is a very good thing....I go back again in another 6 months.....I'm enjoying the trip to Ottawa, which is an hour away, DH takes the day off and we go shopping... I finally bought some really "cool" sunglasses, that protect my eyes from all sides, without looking like bulky things... They were expensive but as the saying goes: "I'm worth it!".......We also go for a late lunch at this Italian Bistro, I always have their salad... delicious!! I even passed on a glass of wine and their fresh baked bread this time.... Saving some points.......But I was concentrating on the atmosphere and not the food... Since I have started WW last Monday, I have done very well.... Only on Friday did I go way over my points, with some chocolate......

Ledom: What a good idea, to instead of sitting there not moving and just read, to get up and move as much as not moving.....(did that make sense)..lol ... What are your sellections for your summer reading Ledom?

Sheba: Good point, that we are never ever alone with this struggle with food....It must go deeper than just wanting to feed ourselves tho, otherwise if it were only to eat to survive, we would not be overweight, would we?

Judi: Yes only one patient so far... who is going to school tomorrow... ya hoo!! (for mom) but not for him, his favourite thing about the pox was definitely staying home and being a TOTAL couch potatoe for a whole week... On Friday he was teasing his sister, back to his ole self, and I threatened him with school if he didn't at least pretend to be sickly...

Welcome back Alice, and a warm welcome also to our newcomers....

Well I should really get going....I've taken up enough room on this thread.... so lets start our Monday on a positive notee.....and stick to OP as close as we can.....

Good Monday morning gals!

Wow! It is very motivating to read everyones' posts. I had a good weekend, two sunny days in a row. Did a bit of gardening on Saturday with the DH which was satisfying.

This week my plan is to focus on DAILY exercise. I have been cutting WAAYYY back on coffee and drinking more tea. For the last couple of weeks I have stopped eating after seven in the evening which is step forward for me since for years eating in the evening was the time I had most of the days calories. I no longer crave anything. If I do, I make a tea with a drop of milk and artificial sweetner and that seems to take care of it.

Glad the patient is well enough to be back at school Lana.

I feel pretty UP, it must be the sun (just a moment ago I mispelled "sun" to read "it must be the sin"...gosh, I hope NOT!)

Hello everybody!

It was chilly here over the weekend compared to the temps we had earlier in the week. On Sat. we bought some hanging flower pots to hang outside and some flowers to put in our window boxes. Sun. night we were to have a frost so we had to bring all those flowers in and cover the shoots in our garden. Since we are to have another frost tonight we decided to leave the flowers inside for today.

JUDI~I usually trail after the puppy with paper towels and some spray rug cleaner. When we got Lacee there was SOOOOO much snow on the ground we were unable to take her outside. So, we trained her on wee-wee pads. Now that the snow has gone we take her outside. But, sometimes we get too busy to take her out every 2 hrs. and she still uses the pads.
That's wonderful you have so many photographs of your Mother & Grandmother. I don't have very many photos , but I do cherish the one's I have.

LEDOM~I am ready for a fresh start myself. I hope after tomorrow everything will start to settle down and I can start eating right and start walking now that the good weather is here. I hope you have a great time kyaking.

MRS. YOGI~WELCOME!It is really hard sticking to an eating program at times. I have problems on the weekends. You should be very proud of yourself.

SHEBACAT~I know exactly what you are going through. I've gained 8 lb. in the past few months and I'm not very happy about it. I am more than ready to begin again. I am glad that your cat is doing better.

LANA~Glad that your son is better and back to his normal self.

Everyone take care. Alice

I agree Judi, as a group we seem to have beaten off our diet demons for the moment and are feeling more positive. After just 4 days or so of cutting out sugar and excess calories and exercising I feel like a new woman. When it feels so much better I have to wonder why it is so easy to let good habits slip away. Hiked about 4 miles with a good friend yesterday and that was really the first time in a while I'd taken the long trail. I plan to do a video this morning. I'm with you judi on the daily exercise.

Lana, my new books are (nonfiction) The Savvy Paddler which I have already read. The novels are Faithful are the Wounds by May Sarton. Of Human Bondage by Sommerset Maugham (reading Maugham's works might be a summer project as I just read The Razor's Edge in book club and am hooked on him). Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop (set in New Mexico, my reason for selecting it). And then two current novels, My Year of Meats by Ozeki and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Eggers. Being in a shopping mood I guess, I ordered 3 more books from Amazon yesterday, all of them essays on Photography, my nod at improving my job skills, plus I love that stuff.

Well, in light of my plan not to sit around too much I guess I'll sign off and get that video behind me. Hope everyone has a good week.

We should probably take this conversation to the general chat section, but this is too much fun...

Aleka, thanks. It's week to week, but I agree with Shebacat, how can we forget how good it feels when we have a good one! I had french fries yesterday for lunch and felt quite ill by the evening, so just had some olives with hummus and a pappadum and a little bit of fruit w/jello for dinner after a strenuous weight session at the gym (boy does THAT feel good!).

Tonight will go back and work on the bottom half. I like that concept (from the Body for Life thread) of working opposite ends on different days. I used to have a heck of a time doing the whole circuit at once and I don't like to rush, so this is perfect for moi.

Lanaii! Congratulations on resisting the extras at the Italian restaurant. That takes some serious willpower. (I skipped the bread but went for the fries instead, bad, bad girl )

Ledom, photography sounds like fun. I'm hoping to get into it as part of a communications program next September at the local college. I studied history at university for three years, but decided to get back into the creative end (I used to work as a typesetter before PCs were invented!) of things, so I'm curious to see if I do well in the visual arts. I'm excited.

Sounds like everyone has their reading material already picked out (wow, what a list!). I tend to get large history books out of the library that take forever to read, and you can only renew them twice, so I have to revisit an immense history of London this summer and pick up where I left off. One book I do want to buy, though, is Gotham. I got to visit NYC for the first time last spring and had a great time. What a fascinating city that is.

Finally the scale budged.....I lost 5.5 lbs at WW last night......in one week!!! My g/f lost 5 also... we were very pleased....the other girls did very well too... One even lost 6 in one week.....I feel very motivated today...

Thank you for those book titles Ledom, I have written them down, and when I finish Redemption by Leon Uris and Life Strategies by Dr. Phil McGraw, I will get on to the ones you mentionned....

Well patient number 2 is now at home....feeling very tired and headachy, only two spots have come out so far, but I recognise them as being the dreaded Chickenpox....but I am not surprised at all....She's been so anxious to be sick so she can stay home....She'll be sorrrrry........ So now once again I have taken a few days off work to take care of my kiddies......I have also asked to go part time, and they said yes....so I had Monday and Tuesday off, and now that D is sick, I will take the rest of the week off I think....I hope they don't get too annoyed with me.....

Well I hope everyone has had a good day, and keep in touch.....

Lana.....

Hi everyone!

Your books sound great one and all. I love shopping at Amazon.com too. This is what I plan to read in the next while "Full of Life" (a biography of John Fante) by Stephen Cooper. Fante is one my favourite American writers along with Henry Roth (probably my all time favourite American writer) then I am finally going to read Darwin's "The Origin of Species", I know much of it is cliche now but I have never read it so this is the summer. A book I am looking forward to arriving in p.o. box is "Without Reservations" by Alice Steinbach (a journalist who finally did the things she wanted to do...live in Paris, go to Oxford and and explore some Italian cities. It is her look back on the year she finally did it. I like the thought of DOING what we have always wanted to do. MAYBE this will be the YEAR for WEIGHT LOSS! For fiction I have "La Cucina" by Lily Prior about a woman whose passion for cooking leads to love. I am looking forward to a GOOD READ.

Congratulations on your wonderful weight loss Lana.

Did you have your father's funeral yet Alice? How was it? I ordered flowers for my grandmother's and mom's graves for mother's day. You blessed gals with moms and grandmothers spoil them rotten!!!

I haven't been eating the six smaller meals of PMD but the three more regualr ones. My six small meals were getting to be like six regular ones Not this week though. It has been pretty good food wise.