Discussion Board

This is mostly for me to track my foods that I eat, so I can see what works, what doesnt and what needs improving or getting rid of. I am not going for any one version of Dr. McDougalls plan, just on plan. I read his Dec newsletter, Eat More Starch. And that is what I am going to do. But I am also going to cut out the other crap, cause its not food; what Ive been eating

I have a midterim goal of weighing about what I weighed (within 10 lbs) when I got pregnant with my last baby girl by August, which will mark 4 years since she was conceived. I also would like to be running about 3 miles or so a day without major pain too. I have found out, my rescue puppy is a good running partner .

I am going to list 7 days worth of food in one post, editing it daily as I eat my meals so its I can see patterns easier. I have a lot to fix. Im still working on my why bother attitude from losing Sierra. I am also firmly stuck in the pleasure trap, mainly because after losing her I really didnt care. But now of course Im on the other side of accute pain from grief and I am no longer numb to the physical pain of what I have been eating. It is time to care. It is time to live where I am.

So comment, chime in, give support. But please be kind. I am still very tender hearted. (crap Im already crying and no ones even said a thing ) But I have got to get myself out of this large, deep hole I have dug.

Happy New Year to all

And you will sweetie, claim it now and just do it!!
I am rooting for you big time!

Message didn't come out right -- please see below!:)

I'm sure you'll do great, Debbie.

I'm sorry you've had some difficulties this last year. I think a lot of us cope with those difficulties with food. But it sounds like you're past that now, and ready to move forward. Good luck, and enjoy the journey!:)

I am rooting for you too Debbie! I know you can do it!

Hi Debbie

Happy New Year. You know I will be following your journal.

Wishing you a healthy and happy 2012.

I really like your sig line; it's my goal to apply it to myself this year.

No matter what has gone before, you can do this, if you are ready.

Karen

Debbie, I am so sorry about Sierra!

I know you can do it! I am so rooting for you, as a fellow psoriasis, PsA person, I KNOW you can do it! You have done it before.

This is a bit of a tangent, but bear with me...

Last year I was in bed, sick, and looking for free books to download on my kindle. Found one (fiction) about a bunch of different women who were stuck together in an airport taken over by terrorists - the terrorists did not know the women were there, and so they were biding their time staying quiet and hidden until the authorities, or the worst came.

They "killed time" by telling their life stories in turn. The last person to talk was a homeless woman who was the only one who liked the situation - it was warm, she had company and plenty of vending food to eat.

Needless to say her life story was just awful - everything bad seemed to have happened to her. One year her husband killed one of their kids, tried to kill her and managed to get her arrested for it.

Then she said something that really stuck with me. She said that her grandmother had a name for those awful years, when life seems to throw you curveball after curveball, tragedy after tragedy. She called it a "Blood Year."

Her grandmother said that Blood Years, although just terrible to experience, were the luckiest years of all - because those were the years that enabled you to truly know the length and depth of your strengths, and allowed you to test your limits on all levels and grow from the experience.

Sounds like you had a bit of a Blood Year last year, Debbie. And now you get to learn how strong you can be, and have the opportunity to undergo an amazing transformation, and truly take care of yourself.




Nicole

WOW!!!! Thank you for the nice thoughts and comments!! They made me , but they were ones!! Im such a waterfall these days.

Today was a strange day. We had plans to go look at another rescue dog. We had always planned on getting a second when Sierra was around, but we always had an excuse. It was winter and teaching them to stand on the mats with muddy feet was hard. It was summer and we were busy doing this and that. Or....insert whatever. So I saw this pup, about a year old, on the list who just kind of sang to my heart. Talked with the foster who kind of gave me excuses as to why we shouldnt have 2 female dogs close in age, but she wasnt ruling us out. By last night though, I had decided it might not be the right time anyway. We have to get Alpine spayed by the 15th of the month and if we bring home another dog, get them settled, then take the pup out for a day, not only do we have to reintroduce her, keeping her quiet and mellow ( its a lab yeah right ) with another dog here was gonna be hard. Plus snow season is gonna start soon. And with bussing kids back and forth and such, we decided late spring very early summer. UNLESS....

Anyway, we went down cause I needed a new tag for Alpine and turn in the reciept her foster should of done and was hoping to at least meet this dog only to find her adopted. Made me weepy inside.

Ive been weepy all day long. Woke up REALLY tired. Then the hubs and oldest daughter fought over something, so I went and sat in the bathroom and cried for about 10 mins. He thinks I was actually using the toilet. Nope, needed a break.

Food wise it didnt go well. I ate oatmeal for breakfast but then it kind of went down hill from there. Mostly because we went out and I didnt have a plan cause I was too busy crying. Stupid I know. Tomorrow is another day. We are making tamales. Im hoping to fill my freezer with these little treasures. They are easy on the run.

I also think I am going to have my food post go for 14 days instead of 7. I think two weeks gives a better picture overall.

I also should mention for my records of course.....guys look away........today was day 2 of my TOM!! That might also explain some of the waterworks.

Off to start my 14 day food log. Thanks again everyone!!!

Two week food log. At the bottom of this log is what my goal for this first two weeks is. Its not huge, but progress. Ive gotta a mighty big hole to dig out from; it aint gonna happen overnight. I am going to scale my day too. 1 being bad, 10 being great.

Jan 1~~Scale 3
2 1/2 cups coffee w/full fat full sugar creamer.
B-1 large bowl of oats with 2/3 apple and 1 cutie (nectarine). Could barely finish it.
L-2 Del Taco bean burrito.
D-Not really hungry, but had french fries. I shouldnt of even eaten, but this being my MO, they were there.
8 chocolates.
Ive got a LOT of work to do.

Jan 2~~Scale 5
2 cups coffee w/creamer.
B-Cutie. Not too hungry yet. Big bowl of oats w/apple.
L-plate of mashed potatoes w/gravy.
S- 1/2 banana
D-7 little corn tortillas w/ about 2 T of mashed beans inside.
1 donut, 6 chocolates. Today much better.
Jan 3~~Scale 7
2 cups coffee w/creamer
B-2 breakfast burritos~~smashed crockpot beans and dry fried seasoned potatoes.
L-Mashed potatoes and stuffing w/gravy.
D-3 enchiladas w/mexican rice. lunch/dinner all homemade with on plan ingredients.
S-cutie and banana.
4 chocolates; 1/4 piece chocolate cake/2 inches by 2 inches.
Jan 4~~Scale so far 3~~really tired and weight was up.
1.5 cups coffee w/creamer
B-bowl of oatmeal.
L-2 cups of leftover roasted spaghetti squash w/brussel sprouts.
D-Veggie biscuit potpie from EHH. Very good.
S-1 cutie and 1/2 apple.
Had 1 doughnut
Jan 5~~Scale 8 Weight back down, lots of energy this morning.
2 cups coffee w/creamer.
B-bowl of oats w/a third of an apple.
L-roasted spaghetti squash.
D-big bowl of oats, plateful of fruit salad and a chunk of monkey bread (oats and fruit mine)
Jan 6~~Scale 3 weight down only 1.2
2 cups coffee w/creamer
Jan 7~~Saturday
Jan 8~~Sunday
Jan 9~~Scale 6
Coffee w/creamer
B-hashbrown stack inspired by Buns. Bed of steamed spinach topped with hashbrown, smashed beans and salsa.
L-Big old bowl of salad w/beans.
D-Homemade seitan sandwich w/baked tortilla chips. Sandwich covered with lots of lettuce/tomatoes.
Jan 10~~Scale 8
1 cup coffee w/creamer
B-Taco salad bowl. Smashed beans topped with 2 cups lettuce topped with salsa w/baked chips.
Jan 11~~
Jan 12~~
Jan 13~~
Jan 14~~

*goal for the next 2 weeks: Get off the regular creamer. Get rid of any SAD type meals (del taco) and reduce chocolate intake by at least 1/2; more would be better !!

I am so glad to see you back Debbie. I also go between MWL and the regular McDougall plan. Sometimes it's just not possible for me to do MWL and so rather than falling off the wagon altogether, I just eat food on the regular plan.

Good luck to you in the new year.

Debbie, so glad to see you back journaling and blogging again. You were missed! You have been an inspiration to many of us with your honesty and candor. You have even inspired me to start my own journal. Welcome back to the land of the (healthy) living.
Kate

Hey, it is so amazing that you're going to do this for yourself, congrats. Also, just by getting here you are stronger than you could ever imagine. Just remember that

I hope you have a wonderful 2012.

Thanks for the encouraging words GrammaJackie, Katydid and Kittykat!! So nice to come here in the morning and see so many nice words . And Katydid, I encourage you??? I think you got that backwards, LOL.

Woke up today feeling better. Both phyically and mentally. Not so teary. Body hurts still. Hubby seems to be getting sick.....again. 3rd time in a month. Had the flu in early December, lasted well over 2 weeks. Then at Christmas at his sisters house, his brother had what he kept saying was a 2 week long cold, fever, cough, bodyaches.....Um NO you have the flu!!! Thanks for sharing (4 people got sick within 3 days of that evening!!!) Hubby got sick again, just not as bad. Then this morning he is feeling chills!! Its 74 in the house and he's cold!! Im quite hot. (I'll touch on that in a bit) Not sure whats up, but......And no one else in the house has really gotten sick. I got flu-ie right before Christmas, but it was a quick 1 day feeling ill thing. The kids have had a cough, but nothing major and no fevers. So Im not sure whats up with that, but it bugs me that he's been so ill.

My plan was to soak the beans yesterday, which I did do, and cook them overnight so we could start making tamales today. I forgot to start the beans in the slow cooker, so Im doing them now. UGH!! So out goes that plan!! Have to come up with something else now. I do have left overs. During my time off plan, I really did try to eat on plan. I made roasted spaghetti squash and brussel sprouts with quinoa for dinner one night last week. I'll have that for lunch/dinner. I need to go try and eat breakfast. Oats with some apple and a banana. Im hungry but my stomach hurts.....

Im starting to wonder if Im taking too much thyroid now. After switching from sinthectic hormone to natural in Nov, the switch was hard. I started off taking 1.5 grains. I crashed. I felt like I wasnt taking anything. After 10 days of getting worse, I doubled my dose. I started feeling much better immediately and continued to feel better as time went on. I did my blood work 3 weeks later and my TSH, the only measure doctors will go by, and it was 0.03. I had no symptoms of hyperthyroid then. However, over the course of the next couple of weeks I have noticed little things, like being really hot when its not. 74 degrees shouldnt make we sweat!! Im also not sleeping good, waking up often and pretty fidgety. Because my doctor didnt like how low my TSH was, she upped my dose from 1.5 to 2 grains but that would take me from the 3 grains Im taking now, but me and the pharmacist were sure I'd crash again. So Ive stayed taking the 3 grains. Now Im wondering if I should try the 2 grains. I go by symptoms because I have shown that I am very symptomatic with a TSH of 3 and that is well with in range. So I may be trying to 2 grains soon. I'll talk with my pharmacist, she's quite awesome

We have no plans to go anywhere today. I have to run to town for a couple of things, but other than that, Im homebound!! Tomorrow the kids go back to school and thats a good thing. We get our routine back to normal. Which means getting up early again and going to bed early. I am tired today.......

It is great to see you back for this fresh new year! May it be your best ever.

Looking forward to many more contributions from you Deb!