Discussion Board

Thank you.

My daughter and her husband and 4 yr.old boy stayed with us during the month of April while they were waiting to move into their new home. Everything went very well. My son-in-law does all the cooking for their family and uses a lot of olive oil. So when he offered to cook at my house I just made my veggies plain without oil and I didn't eat the meat he cooked. My daughter kept telling me to stick with my diet and don't change anything even though they were there. I think it's because she noticed how much weight I had lost. They are all settled into their new home now. Anyway, it was a nice time and we were glad to help them out and my little grandson was born when they were here.



Gramma Jackie and newest grandchild (4 hrs. old)

Oh what a precious picture of you and your grandson.AND you look wonderful..so healthy you are glowing! RAS

My favorite thing about the McDougall Program is that I can still eat all my favorite foods with just a few changes. My favorites as I previously stated are Mexican food, Asian food and Italian food. I simply replace the meat in tacos, enchiladas and burritos with beans and the meat in fajitas with strips of portabello mushrooms with bell peppers and onions. For Asian food I replace meat with tofu and for Italian food I replace ricotta with tofu or usually just eat pasta with marinara sauce. I make Margarita pizza with no meat or cheese. And of course I make veggie burgers now rather than hamburgers and lentil loaf rather than meatloaf. I don't even miss the meat anymore.

4 hours old! That's wonderful. I love how he is just gazing at you so calmly. And now you will have the gift of health and energy to give him.
Congratulations!

Glad things went well with your daughter and her family visiting you. I was worried that there would be arguing about the food.

Fulenn

Oh my goodness- you are such an inspiration!! You look wonderful in the picture with your beautiful grandchild, and don't look like you have more weight to lose. How are your knees now? I too had borderline high blood pressure and stiff knees. The blood pressure was quickly lowered with McDougalling, but I still have such stiff knees! I love keeping up with your progress, and love your idea of regular plan being way less of a diet or quick fix. My problem with the regular plan is compulsive eating! Best of luck- I am happy to be following your wonderful progress. Take care, LaurA

wow, I almost did not recognize you, altho your face is hidden a bit.
Congrats on the new grandson too! how precious for you to be there for the birth too.
you are looking grand for sure!

Thank you for the lovely compliments. My knee problems come and go and probably always will. I also developed an ankle problem, most likely caused by my high arches as well as twisting it when I fell a couple of times, but it too seems to gradually be getting better. I too can be a compulsive eater, especially when eating out with friends and family. But if I fall off the wagon, I just get right back up and get on again.

Thanks! I will be babysitting him after my daughter gets off maternity leave. I have 5 grandchildren and my daughter's 4 year old and the baby are the only ones nearby, so it's a real treat for me.

I had a lovely weekend. Went shopping at Whole Foods yesterday. Normally it's very crowded, but the local water park opened and that's where all the traffic was headed. The stores and restaurants weren't crowded because half the city seemed to be at the water park. Hubby and I also went to some garage sales. I picked up a neat low fat vegetarian cookbook. Tonight hubby cooked himself a steak and I made waldorf salad, corn on the cob and strawberry pie with a gluten-free crust. I also had a glass of sangria with fruit in it. It was nice to eat out on our deck overlooking the pond. Very relaxing.

I am entering a contest here in Ohio to get a chance at winning a new car. It is sponsored by The Nature Conservancy and Ohio Metro-Parks. Every time you visit one of the parks on the list you have a photo taken of yourself and then submit it to the contest. The more parks you go to, the better your chances are to win the car. I am also using this to document my exercise and weight loss this summer.

http://www.nature.org/allhands/naturalt ... allery.xml

I went to an Asian festival today. There was a vegetarian/vegan food booth. I had beans and sticky rice steamed in a banana leaf and tofu with vegetables in a sauce. Very yummy.

So is the banana leaf something you eat as well or just what's in it?

No the banana leaf is just to wrap it in when steaming the rice and beans. You don't eat it.

Who knew? The other day I asked my husband if he noticed anything different in my the last few months and he immediately responded: "you are not so irritable." That's exactly the answer I was hoping for. I told him that I was pretty sure it's because I had given up coffee. And he noticed! It took me 2-3 attempts, but I think I can chalk coffee from my list of things I have given up. I love hot drinks. Despite being on Synthroid for my hypothyroidism, I still feel cold most of the time. I only warm up when the temperature is above 75 degrees and that is only in the summertime. I was not much of a tea drinker, but I found that putting a little non-dairy milk in my hot tea did the trick. I also found a coffee substitute at my local health food store called "Dandy."

http://www.dandyblend.com/

It is made from dandilions and chicory and tastes a lot like coffee.

Yea! Coffee is a tough one--it took me over a year of really trying to finally give it up. I made a pot a few weeks ago, but reason caught up with me before the mug did and I let it cool down before pouring in on the magnolia tree (they like the acid).

Fulenn