B: coffee with MCT oil, collagen powder, German butter; one pastured egg fried in evoo; one almond and tapioca flour tortilla, half of an avocado
S: handful of nuts, one square 85% dark chocolate
L: skipped lunch
D: grassfed burger, spinach, herbs, other greens, half an avocado, evoo, balsamic vinegar
After dinner: tiny handful of Sparx candies (made with xylitol)
I decided to start posting again. I had a long hard summer.
In May I had an eye inflammation and switched from wearing contact lenses to wearing glasses.
In June I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, kidney stones, and adrenal fatigue. It took me most of the summer to heal from these things and just as I was beginning to feel better . . .
In September I had a mild shingles outbreak on my hands. One of the pustules on my pinky finger got infected and landed me in the hospital with Sepsis. It took me a month to recover . . .
In October I took myself on a two week trip to Europe despite all my health issues and I'm so glad I went. It was very healing to get away and not think about my health problems. I felt good in Europe!
I'm back home now and still feeling pretty good. All is well!
I'm still on my Plant Paradox diet, but I have learned so much. Diets really do have to be tweaked for our individual needs. I had to increase the amount of food I was eating, and eat more grains and yogurt when I was trying to heal from the hypoglycemia. I also had to limit my nut eating to only almonds and somehow eat three meals a day plus a huge salad every day. It was hard to eat so much food every day, but I got through it and I'm happy to say that issue has been resolved and I no longer have the blood sugar problem. For a while during the summer I gained weight and was worried I wouldn't be able to lose weight again. But when the hypoglycemia was resolved, my metabolism went back to normal and I am busily losing weight again. And I feel great! I feel like I'm back to normal.
Oh my goodness, magistra, I'm so sorry about what you've been through the past few months! I'm so happy that the hypoglycemia has resolved. Sounds like things are going well now; that's great! I'm glad you got to have that vacation in Europe. After so many health troubles, that must've provided some much needed peace and fun in a new environment. Congrats on being back at 3FC!
Last edited by Chunkahlunkah; 10-24-2018 at 01:46 PM.
Today is my birthday and I'm having a weird food day.
Breakfast was: two eggs fried in evoo, two cups of coffee with a scoop of marine collagen, and full fat cream, 3 dried apricots, broccoli sprouts, and brie.
Lunch was: 1/4 almonds, more brie and 4 ribs of celery
Dinner TBD: Hoping to go out to dinner
Possible birthday cake: almond and coconut flour cinnamon cake.
My sleep is still turned around from my trip to Europe, but fortunately it hasn't interfered with work.
I did end up going out to dinner yesterday. We went to Outback Steakhouse (my husband's choice). I wasn't keen on that particular restaurant, but my husband usually likes their steaks. They don't serve grass fed beef or wild caught fish. One of the best things on their menu was the sashimi appetizer, but they have changed their menu and they no longer serve the sashimi. Both my husband and I were disappointed about that.
But this was my birthday dinner so I splurged a bit. Here's what I ate: one third of an appetizer with tuna, avocado, and won-ton, half of a brown loaf of bread with butter, one glass of red (Cabernet) wine, grilled lobster tails, asparagus, wedge salad with blue cheese, half a slice of cheesecake, and half a cup of coffee with cream.
We took our time eating and spread the food out over an hour and a half. I never felt really stuffed and didn't have to hobble out of the restaurant like I would have in the old days.
I felt pretty good until about 3am and then I woke up with a little pain in my liver and gall bladder. I think it was the butter and the cream cheese that bothered me. But the pain was mild and it passed before too long and this morning I feel fine. I feel really good and I'm glad I had my indulgent meal. I will be getting back on track with healthy eating today.
I made bread this evening using cassava flour, tapioca flour and arrowroot flour. It was so delicious! I ate three large pieces of it and felt satisfied with that as a meal. I try to eat some kind of bread, crackers, or grain cereal a couple times a week, but not every day. If I eat this type of resistant starch daily, I gain weight. But it's good for me to eat some kind of grains daily, so I try to eat millet as often as possible. I avoid wheat. I'm trying to eat a lot of vegetables, but not to do Keto. I have been told that Keto is good for a while, but eventually it causes problems. So, if I do end up doing Keto, I should break Keto at least once a week.
Today's menu:
Breakfast: cereal made with millet, hemp hearts, banana, almond milk, and cinnomon, coffee with raw cow cream and a scoop of marine collagen.
Snack: heart defense cocoa powder mixed with almond milk. slice of gruyere cheese
Lunch: big green salad and broccoli sprouts, dressing made from evoo and ACV; three homemade ground chicken meatballs
Dinner: three slices cassava flour bread, two squares dark chocolate
Weigh in today: 161.6 (about a one pound loss for the week)
Not bad for all the cheese I've been eating this week. For some reason, dairy puts the pounds on me. I love cheese, but I do try to limit it.
Also, I had a weak moment the day after Halloween. My husband put out a bowl of candy even though we don't usually get trick or treaters on Halloween. I kept walking past the bowl the next day, and finally I ate two Reese's peanut butter cups. I can't decide if it was worth it or not. I'm just glad the craving went away and I don't care about eating more candy. I got rid of the candy right away after that. Out of sight, out of mind!
Last night we had a friend over and dinner was smoked salmon, almond flour crackers, non wheat artisan bread made from several different flours, cheese dip made from roquefort and cream cheese, carrot sticks, goat chevre, apple slices, creme fraiche, and dried apricots.
Last edited by magistra17; 11-03-2018 at 01:37 PM.
I've been struggling with the time change this week. No matter what I do, every year, I struggle as soon as the clocks are reset. I feel more tired and unmotivated. I just want to sleep all the time and I want to eat more comfort foods which for me now is a lot of dairy, resistant starches, and coffee. So, my daily eating has gotten a little weird.
But I'm happy to see that prop 7 in California passed. This is the first step to keeping the permanent daylight savings time in California. Now we just wait to see if the legislature approves it and then if the federal government will allow the change. I'm praying for this!
Out of curiosity I took my measurements yesterday and was very happy! I have lost a considerable amount of inches everywhere on my body but the most remarkable amount was the 6 inches I have lost around my waist. My goal is to get below 35 inches and I have reached 36. I'm almost there!
Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast: 2 cups of coffee with a scoop of marine collagen and cow cream. One egg cooked in evoo, two big raw carrots sliced up.
Lunch: One ounce of gruyere cheese, three dried apricots, 1/4 cup of raw almonds
Snack: was a hot beverage - 1 1/2 scoops of Dr. Gundry's "Heart Defense" plus a little cow cream and boiling water in the blender.
Dinner: sweet potato fries, sour cream, decaf coffee with cow cream
I finished my last class of the day and the weekend is here! Hip, hip, hooray! I'm going to try to not spend a whole lot of time in front of my computer this weekend. And get myself out walking. I haven't been walking and I'm really starting to feel it.
B: one egg fried in evoo, two big carrots sliced up, two cups of coffee with marine collagen and cream
L: a little piece of steak and one teaspoon of roquefort & cream cheese dip, a cup of cooked millet with 1/2 cup almond milk and cinnamon.
D: fish dinner at Sharkys with mashed yams and steamed broccoli, and a glass of red wine.
Last edited by magistra17; 11-10-2018 at 10:39 AM.
I lost a pound this week. Slow, but steady. It's taken me a year and a half to lose 35 pounds. Sometimes I would lose five pounds and then gain back three. It would take me a month to lose the three pounds that I gained back, but I would usually get back to where I was and then continue to lose. Sometimes I feel annoyed at how slow my weight loss is going, but at the same time I have been keeping track in another journal and I see that I have continuously lost weight since I started this woe.
I am two sizes down from when I started and I've had to either replace or take in all of my clothes.
Another benefit of my woe is that my skin looks excellent. I have no wrinkles or saggy skin, which I believe is due to the slowness of my weight loss. Before starting this woe, I had terrible rosacea, problems with fungus, and patchy flaky skin. But now my skin is so smooth and clear that I no longer need to wear any kind of face cream or makeup. I rarely use any kind of body lotion. Often I don't even use soap to wash my face. I just use clear clean water. I believe the excellent appearance of my skin is due to eliminating wheat, corn, soy, and sugar and replacing those foods with loads of vegetables, and changing the way I cook some foods -- I always pressure cook beans, rice, and white potatoes. The correct oil--olive oil--also plays a big part in the appearance of my skin.
When I was in the hospital the nurses noticed my diet. They saw that I ate a lot of vegetables and a few of them remarked that that was why my skin looked so good.
I didn't eat a lot of food yesterday. I just didn't feel hungry, which is super nice when that happens.
Brunch: fried egg in evoo, a chunk of artisan bread made with almond flour, tapioca, arrowroot, flaxseed; coffee with cow cream and collagen powder; two big carrots sliced up, a heaping teaspoon of French roquefort mixed with cream cheese.
Snack: 1/4 cup raw almonds, more coffee with cow cream and a scoop of marine collagen, another slice of artisan bread with roquefort and cream cheese.
D: a big helping of mushrooms sauteed in evoo, Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocchi sauteed in evoo. One scoop of Heart Defense mixed in the blender with boiling water.
Last edited by magistra17; 11-10-2018 at 10:42 AM.
Down .2 today. I'm exactly 160. Well, that's good. It's still a loss. Although for a moment the scaled dipped down to 159.8. I kept stepping off of it and onto it to see if it would go back to that. lol
I've been eating a lot of dairy and starchy food again this week, which I want to ease off of. I started going tor a daily walk again. So glad to be back walking again. Right now it's just one mile a day. I'm also doing a little IF. I fast for at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, but sometimes it's more than that. A couple times this week, I skipped a meal and ate a late breakfast and early dinner. It's surprising how flat my stomach gets after doing a little IF.
This week, I have a whole week off from work, so I really want to focus on eating more vegetables, drinking my water, taking my supplements, and daily exercise. I'm excited!
B: two cups coffee with raw cow cream and marine collagen; one fried egg in evoo; sliced raw beets; one heaping teaspoon of roquefort and cream cheese dip.
I've been hovering around 160 for a couple of weeks now. My daughter made fudge and it looked so tempting! Ug! It sat there on my counter top for a few days and every time I passed by it, I just wanted to grab a piece. Then she finally cut it up and took to it school to share with teachers and students during finals week. Whew! I was soooo glad to see it go!
Ever since she made the fudge, I've been experimenting with sugar free fudge recipes. I got kind of close to my old recipe (the one my daughter made) but it still needs some tweaking. I used monkfruit to sweeten and it didn't dissolve very well, so the fudge was crunchy. I was going to throw it out but decided to remelt it, add almonds and make chocolate almond bark. We'll see how that works!
Winter's been stressful. We had an unusually cold winter here in Southern California. It even snowed at my house one day in February. The last time that happened here was about 20 years ago. The warm weather is finally here, my teaching schedule is slowing down, and I'm feeling motivated to lose that last 15 - 20 pounds that have just been hanging on. The good news is that I've managed to maintain my weight at 160 throughout the long winter. Absolutely no gain. Whoopee!
Easter is coming up this weekend, and I'm hoping to stay strong and stay away from tempting sweets.
Have a great weekend everybody! Happy Easter! Stay Strong!!
Last edited by magistra17; 04-19-2019 at 11:39 AM.
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Hi Magistra! I'm still following along with your journey and I'm glad you have continued to post about it here. It is very interesting and informative. Many could learn and benefit from your experience. I'm sorry to hear of the health issues you had in the fall, and also surprised about them since you follow such a healthy lifestyle. I'm glad it's all behind you. Your diet probably played a big part in healing.
I'm wondering about your diet while in the hospital. Did you request a particular diet? When I'm in the hospital I find it difficult to eat around some of the things they serve. The vegetables are in a tiny little cup, barely enough to qualify as a serving. They put sauces and gravy on everything and I do request that they be omitted. So many times I'm fasting for tests and don't get any food anyway!! LOL They usually have me on something they call "heart healthy" but it makes me wonder sometimes. It seems that the only difference is I don't get any salt or caffiene, and I get margarine instead of butter. Heart healthy!!
I used to eat a lot of vegetables just because I like them. Recently I have been reading about how they work in the body and it is giving me a better understanding of how they protect and repair. I'm going to find a way to get them back in in larger quantities. It's hard for me since DH isn't that interested in them. He prefers
"♫ Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar at suppettime ♪" LOL
I'm so happy that the hypoglycemia has resolved. Sounds like things are going well now; that's great! I'm glad you got to have that vacation in Europe. After so many health troubles, that must've provided some much needed peace and fun in a new environment. Congrats on being back at 3FC! 
Stay Strong!!
