[knit1purl2lose3]

Hey, thanks for the welcome and Support, from both of you!!

Tomorrow I am going to spend more time on THIS forum than on the other one, because I really want and need to connect with people on here.

Tonight I am feeling so lonely. The Sweetie has been out of town since last Monday morning, and it's finally taking its toll. I think the MIL thing was part of it, plus over the weekend we had lots of FaceTime time on the computers, and that was nice, but today it was back to the conference all day, so I've had no contact. And I am so alone and so isolated and so dang lonely.

I drove to the local organic farmstand tonight, because they have TOMATOES in!!! But when I got there I only had $3 in cash, and I can't ever remember my PIN to any of my 3 ATM cards, and I don't have a local bank. One is a virtual online bank and one is a bank half way across the country. But remembering those pesky numbers is just so hard! I think I found what I needed tonight, though, so maybe tomorrow I can get some cash and then drive back out to the organic farm.

Maybe I'll put myself to bed early. I can't stand the excitement. No one to talk to. No one to talk diet related stuff with. I just want to cry.

Went to the P.O. and my post office friend was there. She greeted me and said how GREAT I looked and asked what I'm doing and how I'm doing and said, well, don't stop because you look great! That was a big picker upper.

People wonder why losing weight is so difficult. It's not just the bad bad food we are faced with daily; it's the attitude, that rain-on-your-parade people who go around and just poo-poo everything. You're not doing this right and you're not doing that right and ooh you shouldn't be doing that. And then when you even take the time to show them how healthy you are eating, they REALLY get pissed off and angry. There is just a total lack of social support for weight loss UNLESS you do it by exercising your brains out and eating in one or two certain ways. do it Biggest Loser style, and you;re doing it right. Anything else is considered bad and unhealthy. Which is why I am publicly saying that I am following a modified version of the DASH. I even told my doctor that, because I just can't deal with that attitude people have of there's only a few right ways to do it! (And then the MIL couldn't even deal with the DASH! But, that's her issue.)

It's the lack of support that really gets me. I have to turn to anonymous people online I don't even know and who really don't care about me but are at least willing to type a little word of encouragement. Do family members do that? Nope. Do family members care? Not really. Do family members give one flip about hearing about something that is the focus of my life right now? Not at all.

I'm sure it will calm down, but right now this IS my life. I am trying so hard to get health back! It's the fight of my life! And I feel as if I have so little support. The sweetie is as supportive as possible; I know that. But there really isn't much interest about the details because The Sweetie eats just about the opposite of what I eat, which makes it very hard. The Sweetie wants and needs to lose weight, too, although does not have the health issues I have, and is totally convinced that the ONLY way to lose is by low carbing it. Which hasn't exactly been working so well, but I don't dare suggest trying something different. The Sweetie is just absolutely convinced that carbs like brown rice are just bad bad bad. I sure hope the media starts focusing on sodium being more of a culprit, although I doubt that's going to happen because of the vested interest by the Salt Institute and Big Pharma and their huge business selling Carter's Little Diuretics and ACE inhibitors!

That's why I was hoping something like Weight Watchers could be common ground for two of us last December, but that didn't work out. The Sweetie wasn't interested in even trying it, and I could've tweaked it to make it work, but I had no one to share that part of my life with. To sit over coffee and talk about. To strategize with. To figure how different tweaks and try different things until I hit upon something that worked!

I'm just discouraged right now. It's several things, not the least of which is how long The Sweetie has been gone now.

But tomorrow is a new day, and I will hopefully find my way around and "meet" a few more people on here. This forum can be my "sit over a cup of coffee and strategize" place.

I think it's how alone I have been now for so many days. I already feel so alone because I am home alone during the day during the week, every week, with no car. No friends. No contact with anyone but online people. That's why I blog so many different places...it's my only contact with the world. But at least in the evenings and on weekends it's Sweetie time. But with The Sweetie out of town for this many days, and last week we had no contact whatsoever because of the time difference, plus the break in communication with the MIL, it's just enough loneliness finally staring me in the face.

I'll slog through this. But tonight, I've had enough. I'm discouraged. Tomorrow is a new day. At least I didn't eat over any of this.

[karolinakat]

Sorry you are feeling so lonely. But I'm proud of you for taking the time to write your thoughts and to consider sleeping instead of eating. So many of us reach for food when we are bored, sad, lonely.....so you are doing well. Hang in there

[knit1purl2lose3]

Well, the scale is STILL the same. That's, what, 4 or 5 days in a row of doing everything right and that scale not budging? But, I shouldn't be surprised because it is, afterall, not the beginning of the month. It sure gets frustrating and discouraging sometimes.

And I track everything meticulously.

Well, eventually it will shift. I need to FOCUS on the fact that I'm not eating for the scale; I am eating for my health. And as long as I do that, then what the scale says is really immaterial.

I was awake until after 5am, then the phone rang and woke me up at 8:45am, so I'm not exactly feeling refreshed today. But, it's just a day and nothing more than that, and I will make it through.

I did start reading a new book yesterday that looks enormously useful in its scientific information: The Instinct Diet. And it came out of years of research at Tufts here in Boston. Researched and written by a Ph.D. nutrition and psychiatry professor at Tufts, she has specialized in obesity for years. She puts the five basic human instincts toward food back into proper perspective so we can stop feeling guilty and ashamed of certain pulls we have towards eating. What so many ascribe to weak will, emotional issues, or even being "powerless over food," Dr. Roberts shows scientifically that these pulls are NORMAL, placing them in the proper perspective from a scientific research basis so that we can deal with them more effectively rather than just from some emotional point or feeling bad about how abnormal we are with food. Really brings a lot of balance back into the equation, I believe. I'm only 35 pages in, but I am really looking forward to this one. I use whatever information is useful on my journey, and this book looks like it may be packed with some useful stuff!

It's another dismal, gray day, the air still saturated with humidity, and the feeling that a lot more precipitation is on the way for another day of rain.

I'll be heading to the organic farm stand in a bit for fresh veggies.

I hope everyone has a brilliant day! Onward we go!

[knit1purl2lose3]

Diabetes and red meat, processed meat...
These are new study results they just released:

Daily Hot Dog May Feed Diabetes Risk: Study
Experts don't relish regular consumption of red meat, particularly processed forms
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Eating red meat -- especially processed products such as hot dogs -- increases your risk of type 2 diabetes, a new study warns.
It also found that you can significantly lower your diabetes risk by replacing red meat with healthier proteins, such as nuts, whole grains or low-fat dairy products.

Harvard School of Public Health researchers looked at 20 years of data from men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, 28 years of data from women in the Nurses' Health Study I, and 14 years of data from women in the Nurses' Health Study II, which involved more than 200,000 participants in all. They combined that data with data from other studies that involved a total of 442,101 people, including 28,228 who developed diabetes while participating in a study.

After adjusting for lifestyle and dietary risk factors, the researchers determined that a daily 100-gram serving (about the size of a deck of cards) of unprocessed red meat was associated with a 19 percent increased risk for type 2 diabetes.

A daily serving of 50 grams of processed meat -- equivalent to one hot dog or sausage or two slices of bacon -- was associated with a 51 percent increased risk of diabetes.

Among people who ate one daily serving of red meat, substituting one serving of whole grains per day reduced the risk of diabetes by 23 percent. Substituting nuts resulted in a 21 percent lower risk, and substituting a low-fat dairy product, a 17 percent lower risk.

The study appears online Aug. 10 and in the October print issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"Clearly, the results from this study have huge public health implications given the rising type 2 diabetes epidemic and increasing consumption of red meats worldwide," senior author Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology, said in a Harvard news release. "The good news is that such troubling risk factors can be offset by swapping red meat for a healthier protein."

Current U.S. guidelines that include red meats in the "protein foods" group along with fish, nuts, beans and poultry should be revised to distinguish red meat from the healthier protein sources, the authors said in the release.

~~~~~~~
I think what they may be missing is the fat-sodium link to diabetes, because processed meats contain HUGE amounts of sodium!!!! I wish they would not have made the connection to hot dogs, because people THINK they are eating healthier when they eat lower fat deli meats such as turkey, but the sodium content is still outrageous, and I bet you anything the link has less to do with hot dogs and more to do with sodium and fat!!!!

[knit1purl2lose3]

It's now after 5am. One of my dogs woke me at 4am with a hacking cough that can only be calmed down by shotting water down her throat with a syringe. Pomeranians commonly have an issue with a collapsing trachea. Sadly, though, I am sick, too. I wish mine were as simple as shooting water down my throat with a syringe! I haven't been sick like this for years. But here I am, and The Sweetie comes home (finally) tonight!! Hope I'm better by then!

I can't get back to sleep, at the moment anyway. I'll be lucky if I can handle fruit and rice today. I'll have to go to the store to get more fruit. I'm all out. I think I'll be able to do that when the stores open later.

I just have to share this article that I came across over on Spark this morning; it's very timely!


Defend Yourself Against Diet Saboteurs!
Are Your Friends and Family Making You Fat?
  -- By Rebecca Pratt, Staff Writer
There’s one in every crowd— at the office, in your church group, among your closest friends and family. Sometimes they mean well, sometimes they seem a tad malicious, often they have no idea how they’re sabotaging you. But every time you take a step forward to gain dominion over food, they’re at your elbow-- offering you a brownie, some chips, an extra heaping helping of pasta.

SparkPeople member Amy S. has been there with boyfriends, co-workers, and friends. "Either they bring in high cal food and offer it around, or they actually tell me it doesn't matter if I eat high cal stuff, and try to persuade me to do it," she says.

What’s going on? Why does it seem that people close to you go out of their way to sabotage you?

Experts sum it up in one word—Change. Getting fit through diet and exercise creates big changes in your life—changes you welcome. But if your friends and family aren't in the same mode of change, they can be oblivious, jealous, and uncomfortable with your changes. Perhaps:
1. They feel guilty. You're losing weight and getting in shape. They're not. Tempting you to "fall off the fitness wagon" means you’re "normal" again, and they can feel good about the status quo.
2. They don’t understand. They’ve never had a weight problem and just don’t realize how hard you’ve worked to get where you are. They think it’s "silly" for you to worry about what you eat.
3. They miss the old you. That is, the cookies you brought to work, the after-work "happy hours" spent in the company of high-fat potato skins, the luscious desserts you used to indulge in. Maybe you’re spending more time in the gym and have less free time for them. Maybe they’re afraid to lose you.
Don’t overreact, but don’t give up either! Try these strategies to vanquish your perennial food foes:

Don’t assume the worst. Unless sabotage is blatantly deliberate, give saboteurs the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their motives. If your mother serves you lasagna—your favorite-- perhaps it’s because she equates food with love, not that she wants you fat. At any rate, it doesn’t pay to get defensive.

Just say no. You wouldn’t expect to have a drink forced on you if you were a recovering alcoholic, and you shouldn’t have to submit to having fattening food foisted on you. Tell the food pusher, "No, thanks," and leave it at that. You don't owe an explanation. Nor do you need to feel guilty if you choose to avoid someone who’s not helpful to your cause.

Take it and leave it. Granted, the thought of wasted food is hard for many of us. You don’t have to be a member of the clean plate club. Remember, there are times when discretion is the better part of valor.

Look for patterns. Be on the lookout for situations that trigger your diet downfalls, perhaps with a food journal. It may help you recognize people and events that do you in, allowing you to develop strategies to deal with them. If you know, for example, that there are likely to be donuts by the office coffeemaker, it’ll be much easier to resist them if you have your own healthy but satisfying snack.

Set up your own support system. If you can recruit friends and family to your cause, you may be able to create a valuable support system. Numerous studies show that when your social network supports you, you reap positive results. If that’s not feasible, take a different approach: join a weight-loss group, or avoid friends (at least temporarily) who are a negative influence, maybe even make new friends who share your goals. You’ll get stronger with time, and be able to handle the not-so-supportive folks.

Ask for help. Keep in mind that your weight-loss needs are unique. Don’t expect loved ones to exercise telepathy to know what your needs are. Tell them! Be fair and reasonable, especially with those who share your home. They may be willing to make compromises, at least for shorter periods of time, about what foods are kept and cooked in the house.

Be a grownup. Remember that what you put in your mouth is your responsibility. While others may tempt you, ultimately you’re in charge of your own life. Look at difficult situations as opportunities to flex your newfound control muscles-- and reinforce the idea that you’re not adopting a healthier lifestyle for someone else, but for you.


I hope everyone has an excellent day!

[Leeney]

Hope you have a speedy recovery. I know you are super motivated since your sweetie will be arriving soon! Keep it simple today.

[knit1purl2lose3]

Leeney, on 11 August 2011 - 05:36 PM, said:

Hope you have a speedy recovery. I know you are super motivated since your sweetie will be arriving soon! Keep it simple today.

Thank you for your kindness and concern, Leeney.

I'm feeling better. I am eating more fruit that the Basic day calls for, but I'm not worried about that.

So far I've had canned (in juice) peaches, a few non sulfured prunes, and 2 clementines (was very surprised that these summer ones are as good as the December ones!). For starches, I've had 29 Kashi Autumn Wheat shredded wheaties. I even counted out 29 in 3 more baggies so I can grab and eat whenever, and 29 was the serving size rather than how much of a cup. I also had 1 plain toasted Joseph's wheat mini pita, naked. Well, I wasn't naked when I ate it. The pita was naked. Sodium for the day is at 80mg so far. My b.p. is excellent, and little by little, I'm feeling better.

PROGRESS ALERT: I was actually COMFORTED by the idea of a basic fruit and rice day because I knew it would help me feel better faster! Comforted! Who'd a thunk it?

ANOTHER PROGRESS ALERT: I can't believe how much I am actually PREFERRING to walk now. Here I haven't been able to move much for so long.... years.... and now I haven't used a motorized cart for 2 weeks. There are still stores where I will have to for awhile like, Costco, due to its size and the hard concrete floor. The back of my head tells me I should try and walk 15 to 20 minutes, SLOWLY, about 3 or 4 times a week. So far I've been able to do that, and that is REAL PROGRESS for me!!! But I won't have the car again next week, so I'm not sure how to keep it up because I still can't do the sidewalk in front of the house because it is so uneven. I can't do the Leslie Sansone DVDs in the house because the floor shakes so much it scares me (110 year old house), and she walks at too fast of a pace for me right now. Even her slower one is too fast for me yet.

AND, here I am not feeling well, and not only did I make it to the store at 7am this morning, but I WALKED through it. If I am doing this well on a really bad day, then you know I am doing fantastic on better days! And I seem to be having more better days lately....hmmmmm....wonder why??

So even though the scale hasn't budged all week, there is progress happening--a LOT of progress!!! My body just does not drop weight the way it seems it "should." But that's okay. As I realized the other day, I am not eating for the scale; I am eating for my health!

But I do have to admit that it feels really weird wanting to stick with this eating plan! There is a small part of me that wants to want to give up. But more of me wants to not give up, EVEN WHEN THE SCALE ISN'T MOVING! How strange-wonderful is that? I guess I've been doing it long enough now that it is beginning to feel "normal" and not eating this way feels abnormal. Could have something to do with all those health benefits I've been experiencing, the ones that are totally unrelated to the scale.

I think I am experiencing something that Dr. Roberts writes about in her book (that I mentioned the other day)--that if we can persevere, our bodies actually begin PREFERRING and craving the good healthy foods over the non healthy ones. It's sort of a re-training it goes through. Whatever it gets used to eating is what it begins preferring. I would have NEVER believed that I would EVER prefer a "fruit and rice day" to eating anything I wanted. Gasp!

I received The RD Cookbook (2007 version) in the mail today, so it's nice to have that to read. Books and online forums are the only places I get much support, so when I feel I need a little shot in the arm, I head to the forums and/or the books. I should be getting 2 more very soon--Heal Your Heart, and RD Renewal. Plus the other non-RD books I have but that still have very valuable information in them sometimes.

Sorry for blabbering on. I can get yakky.

ETA: I just had the most yummy thing!!! I saw it in the store today for the first time (hey, I haven't grocery shopped in a store for a looooooooooong time, so I'm behind in what's out there!)

Saw BetterOats Organic Raw Pure & Simple in the store this morning.... fast, super easy, and oh so yummy good! I did add 1 T of organic half and half for some extra creaminess, plus a shake of the old pumpkin pie spice blend in before I mixed it up.... really really good!!

Better Oats

They even have a dark chocolate flavor I am going to have to find...

dark choc, but I forgot to check the sodium in this one... <---sorry, no matter how many times I've put in this link, it doesn't come out right. Oh well. You can get there from the other link above and just search under their products list....

and a Cinnamon Plum Spice!

USDA Organic
32-40 grams of whole grains per serving (varies with flavor)
200 mg of ALA Omega-3 per serving
Organic whole grains: Oats, Barley, Quinoa, Rye, Wheat
Organic whole flaxseeds
Good source of Fiber


Nope, the Cinnamon Plum Spice one has too much sodium in it... darn. But this plain one is yummy!!!!! Makes eating whole grains SO EASY! Even easier than oatmeal...

[Leeney]

Quote

that if we can persevere, our bodies actually begin PREFERRING and craving the good healthy foods over the non healthy ones.

YES! YES! YES! I feel so sorry for people who don't know or are unwilling to try this. They don't know what they are missing. I have often had people say to me, 'I could never eat like you do,' and I think..How do you know; you've never tried. We've been conditioned by 'you know who' to like our foods sweet, salty and fatty. Our range of tastes is so much broader than this, but some people never discover that.

Make sure you are getting at least 300mg of sodium a day even on rice and fruit days. And walking is walking no matter where or how fast you do it, so don't feel you need to keep up with Leslie. Just go at your own pace. I don't know if you have stairs in your home, but it's a wonderful workout for me on days when I can't get out of the house.

I'm so glad you are seeing such wonderful results so quickly. You are making remarkable progress. Now I'm going to go check out those Better Oats.

[knit1purl2lose3]

Leeney, on 11 August 2011 - 11:23 PM, said:

YES! YES! YES! I feel so sorry for people who don't know or are unwilling to try this. They don't know what they are missing. I have often had people say to me, 'I could never eat like you do,' and I think..How do you know; you've never tried.

I like that, "How do you know; you've never tried." Sad thing is, even if some people would then try, they'd give it a meal or two or a day or two and call it quits, not realizing that it takes more time than that for taste buds to adjust! I used to make fun of the hummus-eaters......now I have a hard time giving it up because of the salt in it. Can't make my own yet.... don't have a food processor or blender. Yet.

I'm also slightly amused at the folks who go around saying things like "Maybe you're not losing weight because you're not eating enough" and they aren't saying it to people who are eating 500 calories a day, but to people eating 1400 and 1500 calories a day! I wouldn't've believe how little food I really need to feel full now. Had no earthly clue. I just finished the day out at 990 calories, and feel like I ate too much! I'm still finding my balance, too, though.

Quote

Make sure you are getting at least 300mg of sodium a day even on rice and fruit days. And walking is walking no matter where or how fast you do it, so don't feel you need to keep up with Leslie. Just go at your own pace. I don't know if you have stairs in your home, but it's a wonderful workout for me on days when I can't get out of the house.

Oh yes, I actually have a hard time keeping it down to 500. I was low today, but just had 2 slices of rye bread for my dinner, and THAT popped it right up! All the way up to 400-something. Why does bread have so much sodium in it??

I have to have my occasional rye bread. It hones my sharp, "wry" wit.

Oh, and the STAIRS in this house???? Let me tell you, 110 years ago they did not build stairs the same way they have for the last, oh 60 or 70 years or more. These puppies are STRAIGHT up, with not enough depth to place your entire foot on the tread. You have to use your toes to climb them. I also have to use my hands to climb them, which is why I go up once at night and down once in the morning and that's it. So I could never use them for exercise. In the mornings I have to come down them sideways, one careful step at a time, hanging on for dear life to the handrail.


The one problem I seem to be having on this eating plan is how DRY my skin is getting. I think it's from cutting my fat so bare to the bones. I'm like sandpaper, and I hate slathering on lotions and potions. I need to find a way to get good omega 3s in...hate taking capsules of that stuff. I hope to increase my intake of walnuts soon, but I have other nuts that need to be eaten first. All raw and unsalted, of course.

I know nuts aren't officially in the eating plan, I don't think, but I'm going to flex that rule a bit, I think.

3 hours and counting for The Sweetie's arrival! ......

[karolinakat]

knit1purl2lose3, on 11 August 2011 - 11:40 PM, said:

The one problem I seem to be having on this eating plan is how DRY my skin is getting. I think it's from cutting my fat so bare to the bones. I'm like sandpaper, and I hate slathering on lotions and potions. I need to find a way to get good omega 3s in...hate taking capsules of that stuff. I hope to increase my intake of walnuts soon, but I have other nuts that need to be eaten first. All raw and unsalted, of course.

Go to the health store, get flax seed, and put it on everything It helps! And are you drinking enough water? I haven't found that my skin is really any drier.

[knit1purl2lose3]

karolinakat, on 12 August 2011 - 03:09 PM, said:

Go to the health store, get flax seed, and put it on everything It helps! And are you drinking enough water? I haven't found that my skin is really any drier.

I drink gobs of water every day. Flax seed isn't very beneficial if it isn't ground up. It goes through the body pretty much intact and undigested if it isn't ground. Not a huge fan of flax; I eat a little here and there.

I'll keep researching. My skin is like sandpaper. really.

[knit1purl2lose3]

OH FOR THE LOVE OF BOB! THE SCALE IS UP ONE WHOLE POUND TODAY!!!!

I ate 895 calories, 7g fat, 20g protein, 20g fiber, 1,684mg potassium and 593g sodium yesterday, AND THE FLIPPIN' SCALE IS **UP** A POUND!


I have only a few comforts.....

1. I ate a lot of soluble fiber yesterday, and it travels very very s l o w l y through the system. Nothing I ate yesterday seems to want to leave my system yet, so that could be part of it.
2. It is not the beginning of the month, and as I wrote previously, my body likes to lose in chunks at the beginning of the month only.
3. Yesterday I found an old pocket planner from 2006. For the ENTIRE year, even with going vegan and eating almost nothing and trying very hard to lose weight, I stayed within a 3lb range of exactly where I am now. A whole year. So this is one of those points that my body does NOT seem to want to get under. BAH!

I'm not sure what to do to bust outta this vortex, but this one is a doozy. "Normal" rules of weight loss just don't apply. I walked for 20 mins yesterday, too! Who else would GAIN eating what I ate and walking 20mins? And I've been walking several times a week, usually longer than I did yesterday, so I'm NOT building muscle which would explain the gain.

BAH! GAH! ACK! OY!

Nothing else to do but keep on.

[Leeney]

Ah, the scale. All I can tell you is that it is not always cause and effect. The results of what you ate today may show up three days from now. Or not. Probably the most difficult thing to take from this is not to get hooked on the scale. I know you know this. You've said over and over that your focus is on getting healthy. We give the scale a lot of power, and we need to take that back. I do realize you are venting, so that's fine. Just don't lose sight of the fact that what you are doing is changing your whole lifestyle. Of course your body is going to act up! Again, I know you know this, but patience and persistence will get you through anything the scale can throw at you.

I know what you mean about older homes and stairs. Our house is almost 90. Most of the stairs have been updated, but there is one small section that is steep and narrow. Mr. Wonderful's size 14's just do not cut it, and we always have to alert people when they visit.

My skin is also on the dry side. I make sure I have some oil with each meal, if only a tsp. It might be avocado, evoo, flax seed oil, nuts or seeds, especially if I'm having vegetables since the oil is needed for absorption of vit. A and others.

Now, I love a challenge, so I'm thinking about what you can do without a food processor or blender. The overripe banana is easy, cause you can just mash it up and mix it with some plain yogurt...if you eat that...and maybe some walnuts. But I'll bet you can make your own hummus too if you don't mind a rougher texture. Cook them up until they are really soft and smash them with a potato masher, mix in the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, whatever and voila...no sodium hummus. I use a pressure cooker for all my beans, no soaking or boiling and they're pretty much all done in about 30 minutes, but other ways work just as well.

[knit1purl2lose3]

Well, the scale is back down that one pound, but still, the scale has hovered between 272.2 and 273.4 for WEEKS now. The only shift was when I went off the b.p. pills and the scale shot up to 279 and came back down to 272.2 in 5 days. That was last week. And now for an entire week is just hovered between 272.2 and 273.4.

Yeah, it's just the scale, and I am eating for my health and not the scale. But it's discouraging when I read about all those success stories in Kitty's books and here is sit on a scale that refuses to go lower than 272.2.

And now that The Sweetie is back home, it does alter my eating. I have to cook things I wouldn't eat, and then try to stay out of them.

Oh well. It will all pass, eventually. I just hope this scale doesn't decide to sit at this weight for an entire year. I couldn't go through that again, I don't think. Not when I am actively trying so hard to shift it some.

[Aomiel]

Hang in there. I hit a stall for 3 months and I had to keep telling myself that at least I was eating healthier. Then I took a closer look at my diet. I was eating all the right foods, my calories were around 1800 per day...acceptable by many standards...but apparently not for me. Now I know that in order to lose, I *must* stay at 1200 or lower. Just keep watching and recording what you eat. I use Fitday.com and it helps keep me on track.

.

[knit1purl2lose3]

Aomiel, on 14 August 2011 - 08:22 AM, said:

Hang in there. I hit a stall for 3 months and I had to keep telling myself that at least I was eating healthier. Then I took a closer look at my diet. I was eating all the right foods, my calories were around 1800 per day...acceptable by many standards...but apparently not for me. Now I know that in order to lose, I *must* stay at 1200 or lower. Just keep watching and recording what you eat. I use Fitday.com and it helps keep me on track.

I use sparkpeople.com and track everything. I can't seem to lose unless I keep the calories to 900 to 1200, with 1200 being the occasional and 900-1000 being the usual. It's sure not much food!

The biggest problem right now is not that I am craving the junk or bad stuff, but that I want to eat more fruits and veggies!! And they DO add up.

Oh well. Eventually, this too shall pass.

[knit1purl2lose3]

And the scale is UP again this morning, although it's not a full pound this time. Just 6/10ths. But still, this is one helluva scale vortex!

Started this morning with an IHOP date. They have a Simple & Fit Seasonal Fresh Fruit Crepe that was so yummy good, and right in line with my dietary needs. They have a fantastic nutritional breakdown in the form of a downloadable 11page pdf from their website! The crepe entree was a bit high in calories for the whole thing, but I didn't finish it all, and I won't be eating three full meals today. I'll probably have either one more small meal, or two snacks instead of one more small meal.

I couldn't even finish the whole thing, I was so stuffed. The Sweetie got a Simple & Fit French Toast entree that had slices of banana on it, so I got the bananas from that entree, giving me a double amount of the yummy high potassium 'nanners! Mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmm. Lots of fruity goodness! It was so yummy! I can't believe how totally FULL I am from that fruity crepe, and I didn't even finish it!!

I am also amazed at how un-tempting most not-so-good for me foods are now. Occasionally I cave, but it's getting more infrequent. When I crave now or go "off plan", it's only going off plan in terms of total portions, or craving more than I should have of something on plan, like baked potatoes. I am now officially addicted to Wendy's plain baked potatoes. Some days I want more fruit than I "should" have in a day. Or a bag of Newman's popcorn that is low fat low sodium.

While I can have bread, most of it has so much sodium that I pretty much don't eat much bread any more. I think the Joseph's whole wheat mini pitas fit in nicely with my plan, though. (I can usually fit in 60mg sodium from the mini pita, but 100mg or more in one slice of bread is just too high of a sodium "price" for me most days.)

After a little web research, I found food bloggers swearing by baking un-soaked beans being a much better method than pressure cooking them. Thought I would give it a whirl, even though it was a very warm day. At least the heat stayed in the kitchen. I'm not completely sold on the process yet, but maybe it needs tweaking. Still, the navy beans I cooked up are good. This is the first food I've tasted in a month where it definitely seems like it needs salt, but I am staying away from the shaker for now. I've used my other non salt seasonings, but the beans really seem to not taste quite right without salt.

So already cooked up and ready to eat I have beans, and of course rice which I almost always have on hand now and then there's still all the taco salad ingredients (and I do my taco salad with black beans and rice instead of the taco meat) with those uber yummy tomatoes from the organic farmstand, so lots of good stuff cooked and ready to eat.

Eating whole foods is a great plan, but it sure does take more effort. Fortunately, as I eat more healthfully, I am getting a bit more energy and less pain. So I guess it's a positive correlation.....more work and effort but my tolerance and ability to do more work and effort are increased by about the same amount. YAY. It WOULD be nice if my pain is reduced and my energy increased MORE than I need for the cooking and food planning, but I guess I can't expect everything to be fixed in one month, now, can I? Afterall, I've been sick and in pain for a long long LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time. Just to be this much better is a true gift.

The scale is vortexing again, and this particular vortex is a doozy. It's just going to take a lot of concentrated effort to ever get down to 265.

Oh well, Onward and downward......

[MonicaC]

Knit, that scale business, I understand how very annoying it is to see such fluctuations after "a-good-follow-the-program" day. I had to detach myself from the weighing everyday due to the added stress of feeling disappointed when the results are not immediate. There are times I only weigh myself once a week rather than everyday as it is more important to focus on the program and the process rather than the results. Hang in there Knit.

[knit1purl2lose3]

Thanks, MonicaC. It's not like I expect the scale to be down after a day of eating right, but after WEEKS of eating right with no scale results, it does get annoying/frustrating/discouraging. I have found that weighing myself daily is what I MUST do to stay the course. I cannot wait a week between weigh ins, because I get sloppy with my eating. That scale is my daily reminder of the task before me and my commitment to it. It doesn't work for everyone to weigh in daily, but it sure does work for me. Even when the scale results are frustrating.

The GOOD news, is that the scale is shifting downwards again. Not by much, but it is shifting. Also, my former "tight" jeans are falling off me. So even if the scale isn't showing a change, my body is. The scale loss is very very very slow, but that's okay, since THIS IS NOT A RACE.

I guess I wore my loose jeans for their last time whenever I last wore them, because if my tight jeans are this baggy, then the loose jeans wouldn't stay up at all. I'll keep the bigger ones, though, for one of those cool pics where I can stand in just one leg of them!

Because it was a rainy ol' day yesterday, and chilly to boot, I made a huge pot (30 cups) of veggie soup. So yummy, so filling, so low cal, but so filled with nutrition, like potassium!

I am encouraged more and more with the scientific and medical research I am doing...it is paying off in a huge way! I can't believe that this "magic bullet" for which I have been searching for YEARS was SO SIMPLE! And it's not a plethora of supplements, either!

How many needless gastric bypass surgeries, how many people taking so many pills that they have been convinced they will now have to be on for LIFE, how many physicians are convinced (and in turn convince us) that dietary changes are good, but certainly can never do for us what the drugs can do??? How much psychobabble convincing people that their weight and health issues are based on emotions (and not that there are never any emotional issues to look at, but it's certainly not the root cause in most cases!)? When in truth it comes down to a physical biological process known as the sodium-potassium pump that takes place in every single one of the cells in our body!

In any case, I can't believe how much of my health is returning. Slowly, but it IS returning. Things that allegedly have no "cure" and barely have drug management options, like fibromyalgia. All because of that sodium:potassium ratio!

Just like I "backed" me way in to being able to follow the rice diet, it turns out that the rice diet is a way of "backing in" to the truth about the sodium:potassium ratio. Kempner had the sodium part figured out, and his diet increased potassium through fruit, but the potassium part is never discussed in any of the RD materials I've read thus far. And it's this potassium aspect that is the second half--and just as critical a part-- of the equation. Eating low sodium pretty much forces one to increase potassium without thinking about it much, but knowing the potassium part of the equation has allowed me to make higher-potassium food choices and what I believe has accelerated my healing process! And the better I feel, the more likely I am to stay the course, and not see it just as a weight loss technique.

While Kitty expounded on meditation and journalizing and other spiritual-emotional aspects of healing the heart and soul, which are certainly all pieces of the puzzle, she completely missed the potassium part of the sodium:potassium ratio, and what a gift this would be to the world if it could just be put out there!

But it's not like other authors haven't tried. They have. In fact, in the book I am currently reading, The High Blood Pressure Solution by Richard D. Moore, M.D. Ph.D. (and yes, so far in the intro and first 14 pages he has credited Dr. Kempner no less than 3 or 4 times for his pioneering work), the author talks about his experience of the information being squelched by the pharmaceutical companies, and how doctors are trained to manage pills that manage symptoms, not to look at the single little root cause that can be taken care of through DIET alone!

Dr. Moore tells how his first book, published in the 1980's, after it hit the market and quickly sold 14,000 copies, was stopped by his publisher because a pharmaceutical company called the publisher, told them to stop printing and marketing it, and to instead publish a hastily-written book BY THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY on how great drugs are for treating hypertension, diabetes, etc., AND THAT THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY WOULD BUY all the copies remaining of the M.D./Ph.D.'s book so that they could be removed from circulation!

Conspiracy theory? No. FACT? Yes. So what is it the pharmaceutical companies don't want us to know? That diet alone--getting the sodium OUT of our diets and eating potassium-rich foods--is the simple and effective way to completely restore health and discontinue all those bad drugs--antihypertensives, statins, blood sugar drugs, etc etc etc! And why would the pharmaceutical companies want to sit on this information? Because they make BILLIONS of dollars a year on our "addiction" to their drugs, because we and our physicians have been brainwashed into believing that there are no dietary changes we can make to keep from needing their drugs.

At most, physicians will tell you that if you lose enough weight, you might be able to reduce some of your medications, and that sometimes people have been able to get off of some of their medications, but you have to lose boatloads of weight and eat very very clean, and even then, it's safer if you continue on the drugs. That's even what my physician believes and told me. She does not believe there is ANY way to treat high cholesterol except with statins.

What a load of baloney all of that is!

I wish I had been ready for all this information and data and research years ago. How many years have I lost to poor health when it was all so simple all along?

But, thankfully, I was ready for it now, and it is truly a gift. I can stop feeling guilty because of some "hidden resentment" I can't ever seem to find no matter how much work I do that is at the bottom of my health issues. I don't need to feel guilty any longer because I am so bad at staying on a diet, that I am some sort of "food addict" or "sugar addict" and I must rely on something outside of myself for help. Yes, sugar is addicting. So is salt. Anyone who eats a lot of either will be addicted to it. But it's not about me being defective; it's more about the food and what it triggers in my body than it is about me or some defective part of me.

Over time, these addictions will cause changes in the body and brain chemistry, and science sees one tiny part instead of the whole picture. Only a few pioneers have looked at the bigger picture and gone back to the root cause of where so many things go haywire. And that happens to be the sodium-potassium pump that is in every cell of our body! Once we get that pump working right, by getting the right ratio of sodium and potassium in our bodies through diet, everything just begins to fall into place and heal itself.

For this information and research, of which Dr. Kempner was on the cutting edge of the first half of it, I am truly grateful.

I think the larger part of what is wrong with our society is that everyone, including physicians, are all focusing on WEIGHT and WEIGHT LOSS. They tell us that weight is the CAUSE, and that losing weight will miraculously "cure" a lot of things, or at least make it all better. And so we have a plethora of books and TV reality shows that focus on weight. They do focus on eating more healthfully, but they totally miss the real truth: weight is but a symptom or sign of a sodium-potassium pump running amok, eventually leading to a whole cascade of bad health events. Losing the weight will get a lot of people eating more healthfully, which will in many cases lead to a better sodium:potassium ratio. But the credit is always given to the weight loss rather than to the sodium-potassium pump. What a disservice is being done to our society and our medical community!

And that's the one area I wish would be improved in the RD info---to at least balance out the focus on weight loss and emotional-spiritual recovery with the scientific facts about the sodium-potassium pump in every cell of our body!! Because people can lose a lot of weight and feel better and eat better, but still not be eating quite enough potassium for optimal health. But, that's my opinion entirely. I own it completely.

I am just so very glad to be finding out so much TRUTH after so much chaos has been purposely put out there. I think Big Pharma is behind much of it to keep us all ignorant about the cellular sodium-potassium pump which regulates nearly everything. It doesn't take fistfuls of supplements or drugs to make it all right again. YAY!

[MonicaC]

Knit what a most interesting post. I would like to more about the salt/potassium ratio to get your body right. Please share more information from the book you are reading. It is very funny but I have been experimenting with various items and I love my Bragg's raw apple cider vinegar with my water and it always makes me feel better. the apple cider vinegar is loaded with potassium. Isn't that interesting. I am interested in how foods help heal the body. Thanks for sharing your info. We are all in this together. Hugs to you.