Discussion Board

I am coming to your house to eat. I will be there in a bit.

Really, you are doing so well. Way to go!

Can you share the Bean Poriyal recipe? I've tried cooking a few Indian dishes in the past and have been less than successful at making them taste that good. I think I use too much of some spices and not enough of others.

Sounds like your are doing great. I see you also started in September and I am noticing all the same things you are. I'm so jealous a baby Grandaughter. Well I have 5 Grandsons (secretly hoped one would have been a girl) She's precious. I feel like I am on pure adrenaline all the time. All this energy. I see you feel the same way. You work in the health profession I didn't see the specific area. You must be a strong person to deal with that day after day. Oh well I'm going to see what sksamboots is up to she hasn't posted to me in a couple of days and then I need to clean the kitchen I hope I am not up till 5:00 in the morning like last night. Have a great day tomorrow. Paula

Heidi, what a great journal! I love how you contemplate things and take time to notice & rejoice in the little benefits of McDing.

Heidi, I love your enthusiasm and food descriptions! Glad to hear McDougalling is helping with your depression; that's another wonderful benefit. Keep up the good work!

LET'S FINISH STRONG! 86 FAT FREE DAYS LEFT IN 2009!

Lost a pound. Yay! I'm noticing my belly fat is less dense...wish my skinny jeans would start fitting better. I feel so fantastic and really sort of feel skinny. I have a lot of confidence and even caught the eye of two different men yesterday and I KNOW it isn't because I'm so shapely and hot ...there must be something in my face or a glint in my eye

To tell the truth, something new is happening in my life: I am doing life all by myself, and feeling like I don't need a man to be happy. That is, I have a job and paying the bills, taking care of things, without a partner along. Gardening is giving me something incredibly wonderful to do with my time, and I'm not concerned about whether I"m being noticed by men. This isn't solely because of the food I'm eating. I am really digging in on the "self-work" all around. It definitely helps to have the energy to pursue an active, productive and meaningful hobby such as gardening, though. And for that, I can thank the vegan eating

Today my mom is taking me out to lunch. We're planning on a soup and salad buffet place, where I will be able to find good variety that is vegan and fat free.

B: apple; leftover poriyal w/rice
L: soup and salad
D: leftover shepherd's pie

have a wonderful day, all.

It sounds like you're doing great, Heidi! You sound so happy and confident.

Now about that poriyal recipe . . . .

Hi Heidi! I didn't check the journals for a few days, and you've gone and had a granddaughter!! Nadia is beautiful, and you look nice in the picture too! I guess that she was born on the third? If so, she was almost born on my birthday - the 4th!! Enjoy her, I know you will!
I love your post about all that this plan has done for you! Isn't it amazing? How is your hair doing? I last used BS and ACV on Saturday, and I'm still ok today. I may try to make it until Friday. I'm amazed. My hair doesn't exactly feel clean, but it looks ok, and has lots of body. Take care, LauraA

good day today. The weather is so fine...I LOOVVVE October, the month of Indian Summer with brilliant blue sky and warm sun in a setting of cool air, and the colors in the trees! very nice.

I stayed on plan perfectly. Ate out for lunch at a soup and salad buffet. Fixed a big plate of salad with a good variety of veggies, and balsamic vinegar over it, and this place has a very tasty lentil soup that is vegetarian. I got a bowl of that, and a baked potato. put the lentil soup over the potato, and a big salad...yeah. Dinner was LO shepherd's pie.

Activity was walking with a client putting flyers on doorknobs. Lots of hills, so I'm counting it in Garbanzo's hike

spent a fortune on brakes for my vehicle and thankful that I had a little bit of money in savings...now I have less, but that's okay.

I have a headache, but waiting up for kids to get home, and my mom who has the kids, is staying the night so she doesn't have to drive after dark.

tomorrow I want to make another Indian dish, dunno what yet. Some saag aloo, and a soup or something. I'll post the poriyal recipe in the foods & recipes forum.

LET'S FINISH STRONG...85 FAT FREE DAYS LEFT IN 2009!

dunno what got into me, but I'm wiped. Last night was a late night, but only because I had my mom staying over. We sat up and talked until about 10:30 which is pretty late for me but not unheard of...but I was zonked. Punkin-ized way bad. And this morning I'm not waking up very fast, if my son's alarm hadn't gone off, I'd still be in bed.

B: baked sweet potato w/split pea soup over it
L: Annie's samosa wraps; big salad w/LO coleslaw dressing.
D: I have no idea what we'll have for dinner. Hmmm, boiled potatoes, roasted broccoli,

Hair experiment: if my hair had been shiny this morning, I would have loved it. It looked so good with lots of body and texture, but it wasn't shiny, so I broke down and used soap: I washed w/a TBSP of diluted body wash and rinsed with vinegar and it feels really good right now. soft and clean.

that's about it. It feels like gonna be a long day. hope I wake up. Maybe eating will do it for me.

good day today, although sleepy. I actually fell asleep while my client watched Scooby Doo on TV.

I ate a baked sweet potato with an instant split pea soup over it for breakfast, and apple midway to lunch

for lunch, Annie's samosa wraps

Snack: *gulp* movie popcorn!and water. Went and watched the movie "9"...visually compelling and quite frightful and "edge of my seat" ish. I enjoyed the movie a lot.

Dinner: saag aloo. I threw in a handful of grape tomatoes as a "bed" for a large helping of the saag aloo. Feeling good now. I'll sleep well tonight.

activity, none to speak of.Too drowsy. Plans for layering mulch over the larger side yard garden plot,tomorrow... and I've asked my landlord to bring by a large sheet of the black plastic, because I want to use a section in back that is full of bind weed and some other ivy...if I put the black plastic over it solidly, and it winters over, I think there will be useful garden space back there come springtime.

I really want to succeed at growing my own veggies, and improve at it, even getting to the place where I can harvest seeds and plant them and provide truly free food for myself and family. and of course, the work of preserving my home grown foods! but it's doable, for sure. It's been done by my own grandmothers, and it can be done again, by ME! so I'm reading up on it and learning everything I can about gardening in Utah.yah!

congrats! she is precious! I know how you are feeling, my daughter just had the first one and I had a hard time leaving this morning...I know I won't see him again till next year.

LET'S FINISH STRONG! 84 FAT FREE DAYS LEFT IN 2009!

I will have to take lunch with me today, but I get to play with Mr. M so it's worth it

Mr. M is 22 years old, with the mind of a 2 year old, and he is a hilarious happy guy. His favorite thing in the world is when a big truck honks its horn, and he'll do that fist pump thing when we're out walking, to get them to do it. It totally sends him. He also loves balloons. But he has ADHD and can't sit still for even one minute, so he'll wear me out but that's okay. We'll shoot hoops...he will stay with that for a long time as long as I'm out there with him. I love taking him on walks where he might see people, because he goes right up to them and "knuckles" (fist bump) and most people think it's great. He's a hoot, and that's no lie!

Coughing woke me up about an hour early this morning. I don't know what that's about, because I don't have a cough. That is, the illness I had last week is completely gone. Not a sniffle, and certainly no coughing fits during the day. But in the middle of the night...DANG if it doesn't get me. Ah, well. I woke up early, but lay in bed just drifting and praying and resting, sucking on a cough drop until the alarm did go off. By that time, I had a cat on me, purring and tickling me with her whiskers, right in my face. Phobia the black cat.

So, for food today:

B: seven grain cereal with a peach cut up and brown sugar; coffee
L: Leftover saag aloo and a salad
D: roasted broccoli and linguine with marinara sauce (classico)
S: piece of fruit?

activity:
shooting hoops and otherwise playing with clients
mulching over the garden plot across from the back door

On the WO shower front: as always my skin feels good. I've always showered every other day, still doing that but with water only, no soap. I do sponge bathe, taking care of "the sweaty parts" every day. There is no odor, and my skin really does feel good. It's soft. I noticed, water was beading up on it last time I showered.

My hair is a tougher transistion, but I'm figuring out a routine of sorts. Every other shower (that is, every four days) I'm rinsing with ACV. So far, haven't rinsed with just water but I may try that for tomorrow's shower. I also might use BS again, but when I did both BS and ACV, it didn't seem any better...whew I'll be glad when the transition is over.

If my scalp feels dull or dirty, I put my fingers in my hair and scrub my scalp all over. This messes up my hair and makes my scalp tingle. The cool thing about that is, I like the "cute messy" look, used to gel it so it looked cute but didn't feel good at all...but my hair gets that when I scrub my scalp that way, without the gel! I have a hair brush made of boar's bristles, which I have used one time, when my hair was really funky looking. I will probably use it more frequently, as that kind of brush moves the oils in the scalp down over the hair itself, coating every hair and also polishing it.

This is the thing, though: I think my hair looks shinier than it feels, even when my scalp is heavy or dull feeling. It takes a long time for my hair to get feeling icky, but my scalp? the next day!

Been listening to videos on the HVS website, lots of speakers including our own Dr McD. I start the video and then play Bejeweled Blitz while listening! ha! And learning a WHOLE lot. Yesterday it was Dr. McDougall's talk on dairy, and it reminded me why I stopped buying milk so many years ago...pus. blch. I don't pay money for pus. ew. But my kids like milk. I'm going to show them some websites about the dairy industry. Maybe they'll change their minds. I won't be spending money on milk anymore. They have an allowance and may spend it on whatever they wish.

well, time to get my morning moving. Long post today.

Hello bunsofaluminum! I love your story about the Mr. M. guy. He sounds like a lot of fun to spend time with, and a boon to your physical activity to boot!

As for your coughing, sometimes when you have an illness there will be a residual tickle left in your throat which kicks in without warning for several days after the rest of the symptoms have left. At least, that's how it's always been with me. Sorry to hear it picked when you were sleeping, though.

Your kitty Phobia sounds a lot like our Calis. He's about 3/4 black, with white on his paws and chest mostly. He loves to come up on my chest when I'm in bed and lay with his face right up by mine. He then takes his paws and starts "kneading" my beard. It's so cute and I love when he does it, but I need to have Jeanette clip his claws regularly or else it feels like someone's running razor wire along my face. Yeowch!

Your doing great, I'm happy for you