Discussion Board

Finally lost some weight. I'm now at 152. A few days ago, I felt like I was really struggling. So, I told myself I needed to go back to eating a huge salad of lettuce and tomatoes with balsamic vinegar on top before every lunch and every dinner. I think that this trick is starting to work for me. I'm also going to stop eating right after dinner. I tend to eat late at night, and so I think that this is helpng as well. This week, I'm going to continue to eat this way and see if it helps. My goal right now is to get down to 150 by Friday, and 148 or lower by next Friday.

Good job on the weight loss. I know I too need to work on not eating after dinner. My problem is I eat after dinner as a way of relaxing or I just want something a little sweet. I think if I choose to eat after dinner it is going to be fruit. I remember Mike, one of the star mcdougallers said he always had banana ice cream for dessert. It is a great dessert. I have also taken to drinking herbal tea at night to stop me from eating, just to eat.
Keep up the good work. Kathy

I ended up gaining a few pounds over Mother's Day weekend. It was tough because it was also my husband's b-day. I made some vegan cupcakes and I induldged in some of my favorite licorice too

This week, I ended up doing Mary's mini and ended up losing the three pounds that I gained. I really do need to stop this yo-yo. I found that eating vegetables and brown rice three or four times a day for the last three days have really stabilized me.

Today, my husband's family is coming from Iowa to stay in town for a while (at a hotel). And my husband's brother is going to marry a girl from Guatamala this Sunday. Ironically, her dad works at a meat packing company in Guatamala and she got ecoli about 10 years ago. She still strugles, but refuses to become a vegetarian. She seems to avoid all food (like spicy food) but to eat all other foods (steak is her favorite, yuck!)

This weekend and upcoming week will be hard, hard, hard, for me. His family eats really bad food, although they say that they're trying to change, I don't think they are. My mother-in-law had a stent put in in January, has super, super high bp and cholesterol (she used to eat a pickle dip with mayonnaise mixed with pickles and with chips dipped into it)

I know that all eyes will be on me this weekend and what I'm going to be eating. Although my dh is a carnivore, he is on board with no processed foods. Unfortunately, his mom is super gung ho about white flour products and everytime she comes over she has white flour products like white bread, cakes, flour, cookies, and crackers galore until every nook and cranny of our home is stuffed with the sugary and fluffy stuff. And all I ever, ever see them eat is processed ham sandwiches on white bread with chunks of cheese! All my brother-in-law ever eats is coca cola and chips!

My work is cut out for me. I've told myself it's due or die. I've lost about 15 pounds since I last saw them at Thanksgiving, so I know that my progress will speak for itself, I just need a lot of strength. I'm praying that at the end of the day, I won't get into any arguments about my lifestyle choices of being a lf vegan, or being a follower of Christ (that is also a really, really tough issue in my family because they don't believe in Christ)

If anyone can pray for me, great. Oh, and I'm sick right now with a respiratory infection given to me perhaps by my little 18 month old. She didn't really get very sick, but somehow I got the sickness from her (or unfortunately maybe gave it to her). I went into my physical yesterday and the assistant said, "do you know you have a fever?" And I said, "no, I had no idea." I thought I was feeling bad from allergies, but apparently it was a respiratory infection and I rarely, rarely get sick if ever

My goal for this upcoming week is to maintain my weight loss and stay at least at 152. I also want to make sure that I only choose lowfat vegan foods while my husband's family is here so at least I can be an example to them. I might not even indulge in wedding cake, but I'll have to see because the entree they're serving is chicken cacciatore. If I'm hungry enough, I might give into the wedding cake.

-k

Good for you on the Mary's Mini. I have often thought I should try that, but I do love to cook and try new things, but it would probably help me. Sounds like a tough weekend. Stick to it though, I think living by example is the best we can do, both with eating and letting Christ live through us. Family is the hardest though, I do understand. I have a hard time not wanting to offend people. I will pray for you this weekend that things go well, that you can stick with this way of eating and being a testimony to those around you.
Kathy

Ditto what Kathy said!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil 4:13

Wow, what a busy week! My brother-in-law got married on Sunday to a girl from Guatamala and her family came up from Guatamala. On Monday, we had a huge party at our house of about 25 people or so. And half of them didn't speak English, only Spanish.

Unfortunately, I made some poor choices. We went to a German restaurant and I had a somewhat healthy vegetable dish, but I ate some butter with bread. The next day I ate only the vegetable side dishes at the wedding, but I had a cupcake. And I didn't eat any oil or fats except for the butter at the restaurant. Neither did I eat any meat

But...I hate it that I had some cheese pizza tonight on the last night that my in-laws are here. The sad thing is that I ate two bowl fulls of salad with balsamic vinegar and was completely full. But it was that inner voice yelling inside me to eat the pizza. Probably the pizza was my very worst choice this. And now I'm sick, sick, sick, sick because I haven't eaten any cheese like this for 6 months or more!

Thankfully, I held my tongue all week even though it was really hard with my in-laws. Last week, I had a respiratory infection and a fever when I was cleaning our house to get ready for company. Needless to say, I scrubbed down every inch of our house except for my master bedroom's shower. And what do you think my mother-in-law would criticize us for? Of course, the master bedroom shower because she said it was dirty. We didn't expect her to use our bathroom, and we certainly didn't expect her to complain about it. But she has a very critical spirit. So, my husband and I bit our tongue. When she told us we should get down on our hands and knees and scrub the kitchen floor, we bit our tongue as well. Eventually, my husband did confront her and tell her that we're not going to get down on our hands and knees to clean our floor and that we don't have a lot of time to clean the shower.

So, I am at the end of a good, but challenging week for my relationships, food, and overall emotional well being. I am planning on just praying, not holding resentment against my in-laws for their criticism, and I'm going to try to love them unconditionally. If I need to, I will gently stand my ground with them because I don't think that it's healthy to just let them walk all over me. But, I am proud of myself for not exploiding with anger or sobbing into a puddle of tears because I feel imperfect or that I'll never get her approval. I do pray that she becomes more understanding of the situation that we're in with two young kids: (2 and 1 year old). If anything, she embarassed herself at complaining at us (what kind of guest complains when they go to someone's house?)

As far as weight goes, I'm very scared to death to stand on the scale. I wouldn't say that I ever stuffed myself or overeat this week, but I indulged in way too many non-mwl food items. At the same time, I am excited that last Wednesday my physical went well and my doctor was very excited about my cholesterol being so low and that my vitamin b levels were very high. He says that he wants to encourage me to lose 10 more pounds and I'll be in a healthy bmi range (141 for me at 5'3''). He gave me an ekg even and basically said that I was in pristine health. I am going to shoot for this goal of getting down to 141 and then keep going until I get to at least 120 or 115 at the lowest.

Starting tomorrow morning, I'm going to do Mary's mini fast. I've thought through my diet the last few months and I really have done the best when I've done the Mary's mini fast. I'm going to focus on potatoes. I'll add some vegetables and fruit to round out the mary's mini. I'm hoping to stick with this diet until June 19th, which is my birthday.

I hope to post tomorrow and give an update as to how tomorrow goes. I'm slightly nervous about Memorial Day weekend, but since my hubby and I already indulged too much this week, we're hoping to stick to the straight and narrow these next few weeks.

Oh, and my in-laws did bring at least two sodium nitrate laden hams and left them in our refrigerator along with juice, sugary jam, trans-fat laden butter cookies...hmmm I think my coworkers might be getting these on Tuesday!

-k

I am so glad you survived the week. I am happy to see you again. Family can be so tough sometimes and it can be so hard to not say anything. I had a problem with a family member this week and I told my husband I was going to call her and talk to her. I thought it best though to wait until I had calmed down and see if I still felt that way. I am still upset but let it go and am asking the Lord to help me to forgive her.
I don't know if I could have handled those comments about my cleaning. Someone had once said that we may mess up and eat something we shouldn't have and that is okay, the fact is we are getting better and improving from where we used to be. So keep that in mind. I love pizza and that is a hard thing for me to bypass. I am continuing to lift you up in prayer. I think the Mary's mini is good to get things going again.
Kathy

Hi- your journal is wonderful. Extended family is wonderful for me now ( maybe because I'm the oldest generation). My mother used to be so picky, and we had 8 kids! She once told me that my oven was dirty, and in my sweetest voice I told her that she was right. I then told that I was so glad that she was visiting, because it was so hard to see everything and get everything done. Guess what? She cleaned the oven! After that, whenever she mentioned anything, I'd smile and say, "well, I was saving that job for you!" she would always do it! Take care, and rest up, LauraA

Thanks for the encouragement, Laura and Kathy. I really need it right now!

I understand what you mean, Kathy, about letting it go when you are angry with another family member. Besides my husband and my children, I feel like it usually backfires 100% when I try to work through a conflict with another relatives. Sometimes, the best way is to try to let it go and forgive. This last year, I decided to be bold and confront my older sister after she was mean to my 2-year old son and said that he was the worst little boy she's ever seen! She is still not talking to me, so I know that my sister doesn't respond to confrontation and it make me sad. I'm glad I told her that she hurt my feelings, but feel pretty ostracized from her because she's stopped talking to me (I'm still praying a lot about it). I've always told myself that I have to pick my battles. I picked this as a battle, but later regretted it. But I'm glad that this last week I didn't let my mother-in-law's comments make me go to war with them.

Laura, you have a great sense of humor! Yes, my husband told my mother-in-law that we need to pay her to come over and clean next time she stops by! I think that humor really is one of the best ways to deal with it. I don't want to let people walk all over me, but neither do I want to become so uptight that I get upset at everything. And I don't want to sink down to other people's level by becoming critical myself. So humor does really help at times.

Saturday, I did well. Here's what I had:

Breakfast: sauteed potato with red peppers and broccoli

Lunch: potato veggie curry

Dinner: oven baked fries with corn on the cob, green salad with balsamic dressing and watermelon.

Snack: baked potato and watermelon.

So far, so good. We still have cake in our refrigerator, but eating watermelon has helped curb my sweet tooth. I do completely agree with McDougall and Novick when they say that the potato is one of the most satisfying types of food that you can eat. I found that when i ate dinner last night of oven baked fries with corn on the cob, I was very full and felt so good that I have absolutely nothing to complain about on this woe! I'm not sure if the watermelon helps, but I think it has really filled me up. I know most diets discourage watermelon because of the sugar, but it's really done a lot to make me fill full so I'll have to give it a thumbs up so far.

-k

I love oven fries too. Sounds like i need them on my menu tomorrow. Keep on keepin on

I surprisingly did pretty good this weekend.

Sunday:

Breakfast: baked potato, broccoli, sirachi sauce with honey mustard

Lunch: watermelon, corn on the cob, oven fries

Dinner: baked potato, broccoli, salad, watermelon

Monday:

Breakfast: soy yogurt, ezekiel bread with jelly (oops, trying to resist husband's doughnut and so that's why I gave into the yogurt and ezekiel bread, but at least I didn't eat the doughnut!

Lunch: oven fries, broccoli, sirachi sauce with honey mustard, banana

Dinner: baked potato, broccoli

Snack: oven fries, broccoli

Today is going to be really hard at work. We're going to a tex-mex place for lunch. My plan is to order grilled vegetables and a plain baked potato.

Kimberlee,

I like that you are taking care of not only your physical well-being, but your spiritual and emotional well-being as well. I, and most people, can relate to the situations that you're going through with your family, and I LOVE the way that you're handling it. Like you said, you cannot allow people to run all over you, but you've used sooo much wisdom in dealing with your sister and mother-in-law. I don't think you should feel any regret for the way you handled things with your sister. Matthew 18:15 says, "Moreover if your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone..." What she said was way out of line; we cannot speak negatively about our husband and kids, and we definitely can't allow others to do it...even if it is your sister.

I definitely understand how you feel (I too feel ostracized from my family), but you are doing the right thing. Continue to pray and trust that God will work it out. Don't worry; she will come around and things will get better because of your obedience and faith in God. I hope you continue to enjoy the family that you are connected to and enjoy the great progress that you're making in regards to your health.

I'm so glad I found your journal!

YOUr menu's look great. Potatoes can be so filling. That is why I like them so much. Keep up the good work.
Kathy

Thanks Kathy and Proverbs31woman.

So far, potatoes are helping me. Even my carnivorous husband is on board and says that we need to eat potatoes everyday because they're cheap and they fill you up.

Yesterday I didn't eat a lot, but here's what I had:

Breakfast: apple
lunch: baked potato, mixed vegetables, honey mustard sauce
Dinner: baked potato, mixed vegetables, honey mustard sauce
Snack: air-popped popcorn

I felt pretty good. Not quite sure how long to keep up with only potatoes. I think I'll switch to only brown rice for a mini with just brown rice and vegetables because I've been craving brown rice for some reason. I'm so excited that my little ones are eating their veggies. They're basically doing McDougall diet, but occasionally my carnivorous husband feeds them things like non-fat yogurt. As much as I try to feed them healthier, I think that they'll have a better foundation when they grow up. But boy am I proud of my 2-year old when he eats broccoli and loves it! At first I thought it was weird when all Nicholas ate was tons of fruit and vegetables, but then it really inspired me to do McDougall when I realized how healthy and happy he was eating this way!

Good for you and your family!