Discussion Board

What an inspiring picture! I had a thought-provoking experience yesterday, related to this image. My husband and I were driving along, and I was talking about how hard it was for me to exercise some days because of my arthritis.

I thought of your experience, Dissolution, and seeing that picture, and actually thought, "I wish something like that would happen to me to get my butt in gear."

On my side of the road was a guy jogging, his lower body obscured by parked cars. When he jogged past them I saw he was like this kid - only with on artificial leg instead of two. I nearly jumped outta my skin! And I felt appropriately humbled and chagrined.


OK, Universe, you win. I can do it.

So we went for a long beach walk in the sand - Boy are my muscles sore today!

Dis, re broccoli stems. I wash the raw stems off then use my mandoline to slice them really thin like potato chips. No cooking them. I keep them in a container in the fridge and use them like potato chips as dippers for hummus or salsa or I sprinkle them with a little tobasco chipotle sauce. If the pieces are too small for dippers, I just sprinkle the chipotle sauce on them. Normally, I only buy broccoli crowns and look for the ones with the shortest stems but I like the broccoli chips so much I might buy broccoli with the stems intact. Even a couple of my non vegie eating grandkids like these.

Didi

His name is Cody McCasland.

nicoles It definitely sounds like the universe was sending you a message. Cool experience...

didi That's a great idea with the broccoli...of course now I'm wondering what they would be like if a microwaved them on parchment paper like I do to make potato chips...

scooterpie Thanks for the name....Now I remember seeing the article on him, but I did not connect it to that picture.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on. I've noticed the wife eating a lot less meat these past few days. I also think she is eating oatmeal while I am at work. Sunday night she made chicken and green beans and mashed potatoes for a during super bowl meal. That's what her and #4son and #4sonGF ate, I had pre-bacon contaminated green beans and pre-milk and butter infected mashed potatoes. The wife wound up getting sick and throwing up right before bed, and complained about feeling really bad. This seems to be happening more often after she eats meat. I wonder if I'm having some effect on her subconscious. I have been called meat "poison" lately. I also refer to milk as "poison cow juice".

Sunday I loaned my copy of "The China Study" to #4sonGF. My wife kept telling her, "Don't drink the kool-aid". I think that reference was lost on the poor girl.

Years ago I thought if there was a pill I could take that would make junk food taste like crap, and healthy food taste awesome, then I would pay a huge amount of money for that pill. Well, I think this WOE comes close. My wife offered me a single Pringle potato crisp the other night, I think she did it as a joke and it shocked her when I took one. Now I always used to enjoy Pringles, and fully expected to enjoy this one. However, it made my mouth feel like I had just eaten a spoonful of Crisco. It was so nasty, there was just this greasy coating all over the inside of my mouth, and I always thought Pringles weren't greasy at all.

It's fasting day tomorrow....Looking forward to that.

Good Morning Dissolution, you are doing great And your wife might be just about ready to join you on this WOE. amazing what a spouse can do for their better half. So sorry that she is vomiting though. It seems as though her tummy is upset and wonder why.
Funny how you said about the Pringle chip and what the inside of your mouth feels like after indulging with a single chip. I know exactly how that can be. I remember really enjoying some food, like pizza with cheese, or something like that. high fat, and it never ever as good as I remember, and then the after effects of that indulgence is just awful too. this past weekend, our oldest son bought home 2 pizzas one for dad with meat and cheese and one for himself with no meat and no cheese. The cheese one smells so nice, but then I have to remind myself, it will never taste as good as I know I will feel like right afterwards.
Have you ever tried those kettleball weights? #1 son bought himself one and has talked me into trying the exercises with him, but only using my much smaller hand wt. Now my legs are very sore from the squats! Great exercise for real. Just found one for myself, a 5 lbs wt with the DVD on the bargain shelf at Walmart.... Youtube has great home videos on using them too. Son and I were watching these things and he of course he doing wonderful, and since he has been my inspiration for getting healthy, I might keep trying this exercise for a time. til at least I get my muscles back to the unsore level...

Great going Dissolution for your staying power on losing wt. Cannot wait to see you as a star here! maybe your wife and you can go to a McDougall weekend or something together at some point. You can always wish, right?
I went to a church little singing group yesterday, and there was talk about an international dinner, and the menu was to be fried chicken!! ugh, no doubt about it, I will not be attending that dinner!

carollynne The wife is still very much opposed to my WOE, at least verbally. We were watching "Freaky Eaters" last night, she suggested (jokingly) several times that she should call the show on me. I told her they would be at the house right now if she had kept up her bologna sandwich and pringles diet. I think her current diet trend might be related to me telling her about Dr. McDougall's eat more starch challenge, I've also made an effort to emphasize that I am a starchivore.

So it was weigh-in day. 232 That's down 2 pounds in a week. Trying to decide if I should make more of an effort to lose weight faster.

Dissolution, I think it is so great that you can lose 2 lbs in one week. that should be plenty IMO that is. Too fast and your body cannot keep up with it and skin will get looser and baggier!!
but still it is wonderful that you are still doing this and never cheating ( too much is you can lose like this)
Freaky Eaters, I never saw it (yet) but sounds like fun to me, if I can stand it--- the visuals@@ might make me sick I suppose
Hey good news that the 2 of you are still conversing, progress on that in a way.... but it sounds to me like she just enjoys the fight and will keep it going. Until you weigh less than her, How tall is she?
but good news from my family!! my sister's husband loves his meat, and his doctor wants to up his HBP meds and she says no, and so she called me to ask about that book, Halt and Reverse Heart Disease, by Dr Essy!! wow, and I hope they start having less meat, and less meat, and more of the greens. they both are in great shape, slim, active, work out all the time, ride bikes, etc. but they are getting up there to, in the 60's and that is the time it can happen to anyone.
Hey it is snowing today, not not too much at all.

Dissolution, I've never heard of freaky eaters. 2 lbs per week is awesome! Keep it up. You are going to be at 200 before you know it.

Fulenn

carollynne It's probably good that the weight loss has slowed down some. My face has thinned out without getting saggy or wrinkly so far. Where the rest of my body has decided to remove the excess fat has been amusing. Legs first, and then butt and then arms. Where as I used to look like I had a spare keg hidden under my shirt, I now have the spare tire look around my middle. Thing is I just feel SO fat.

I do have some guilty pleasures, not sure if I would consider them cheating though. The only bread type product I consume regularly is a fat free white flour tortilla. I can't find the whole wheat ones in fat free, and the white ones fold and wrap SO much better. Also I still drink coffee. At one client site I hit up a gum ball machine a couple of times while I am there. For the most part though, not too bad. To me this WOE seems to be almost "self correcting". While I still remember the taste of a fast food hamburger as pleasurable, I have no doubt that if I were to attempt such a meal now, it would most likely not taste good, would make me sick, and then I'd feel bad about eating an animal ...Damnit there's that vegan thing again.

My wife is 5'2", eyes of blue...lol Think she's right around 207 right now, with a high of 287.

fulenn "Freaky Eaters" was worth watching just to prove how amazing the human body REALLY is. Some of these people are surviving on diets I wouldn't have thought sustainable. They are however for the most part, mental. Here's the ones I have seen;

Guy ONLY ate meat, 4 to 5 pounds a day.
Guy ONLY ate french fries.
Woman ONLY ate fried potatoes with melted cheese on top.
Woman ate 30 - 40 ice cream bars a day.
Woman almost choked to death, refused to swallow food. Chewed it up and spit it out.


Between weather and work I haven't been getting out in the mornings to do my walking, but the good news is the treadmill in the basement is finally unburied. So I was able to walk on that last night. Have some to the conclusion that either my GPS tracking software is off, or my treadmill is off. Because I can walk 2 miles at an average of 4 miles per hour, going up and down hills, on gravel and dirt roads, according to my tracker, but can only manage to walk at 3.3 miles an hour on my treadmill....hmmm...Think I might have to do some calibrating on the treadmill.

A little over a week before our ski trip. Now it is not mandatory that I ski. So I'm currently trying to decide whether I should ski or not. Granted I am close to 70 pounds lighter than the last time I tried, but I'm also 10 years older and still at least 50 pounds overweight. An injury right now would be really bad. Part of me wants to ski next week, and part of me wants to wait until next year when I am lighter and healthier.

I mentioned that my wife seems to be having an allergic reaction from yellow dye #5. In researching that I found that many people who are allergic to YD#5 are also allergic to aspirin, and my wife is. I PM'ed Debbie about her YD#5 problems and she informed me that one of the first things her doctor did was to have her stop taking all NSAID's ( aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen). My wife takes 4 to 8 ibuprofen tablets a day. So my theory is because of her extreme use of ibuprofen, that has caused her new found allergic reaction to YD#5, and could also be the cause of what we have assumed was diabetic neuropathy. I told my wife my theory last night, and she just said, "You can't fix me". Still, I'm going to try to get her to switch over to Tylenol for a few weeks and see what that does. I know most of you are thinking, take her to a doctor...Sadly she needs to be unconscious for that to happen. ..She HATES doctors.

Man your wife is stubborn! You are certainly doing the right thing Dissolution by not pushing her at all. Stubborn people esp. hate to be pushed - I know, I'm one! When she finally adopts a healthier way of eating (and I think she will) she will be a huge advocate. PS I think you should ski - it is so much fun, and it may awaken the desire in you to do more, but please don't hold me responsible if you have a bad fall! Skinny people fall too!

Dissolution,
Honestly you are quite a nice man to care so much, and want to help her, and with all her resistance it only galls her the more!! but at her ht and wt, she does need to lose for her health too. Maybe you just enjoy the challenge??
Great about that treadmill in the basement. So nice, to have in bad weather, just keep moving!!
Hey dear hubby of mine ate my Korean dish tonight, of rice noodles and a ton of veggies. (called chop- chay, phonetically) I really love it!! then he tried some soy ice cream, that he said he did not like. (altho he had polished off the very same choc one once before when he did not realize it was not cow's milk ice cream... very odd.
Sorry your wife is throwing up tho, not good there at all. Hope you can get to the causation of it and that she is wiling to listen too.

"mentioned that my wife seems to be having an allergic reaction from yellow dye #5. In researching that I found that many people who are allergic to YD#5 are also allergic to aspirin, and my wife is. I PM'ed Debbie about her YD#5 problems and she informed me that one of the first things her doctor did was to have her stop taking all NSAID's ( aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen). My wife takes 4 to 8 ibuprofen tablets a day. So my theory is because of her extreme use of ibuprofen, that has caus"ed her new found allergic reaction to YD#5

Dissolution My husband is also allergic to aspirin and NSAID's also iodine like in shell fish, shrimp etc. Only takes Tylenol and even then sparingly.
Just wondering what products your wife is consuming that contain yellow dye # 5 ?? candy ?refined foods? Just want to be sure we don't inadvertently eat anything with YD#5 as I hadn't heard about that connection.
Fortunately for me my hubby is totally on board McD W.O.E. with me.
You have quite a battle on your hands, not sure I would have the patience you have been able to maintain, and I'm really a patient person. It's like you are dealing with a willful child.I guess it keeps your spirits up, that it is working so well for you . congrats on your healthy track and weight loss! Dlee

Its in so much processed/refined foods, candy, chips, soda, ice cream. Its everywhere and should always be on the label. Ironically it is not in orange cheeses and mustards even though they are not naturally yellow. (exception is a cheese sauce which is then dyed yellow) The connection to asa and NSAIDs is in the physicians desk reference. I had an allergist at the hospital I worked at some 8 years after diagnosis tell me my doctor was full of hooey, so I found it for him. Silly man.

The FDA requires food manufacturers to list yellow #5 and #6 on the label, even though they doubt the likelihood of it really causing an allergic reaction in people, so they say. You also have to watch out for tartrazine, which is also a name for the yellow compound. Red dyes are also to blame for some allergic reactions. Any artifical dyes must be labeled, but if in doubt dont eat the product and if its too late, look on the website or call the manufacturer, they'll tell you if it contains said dyes.

I was diagnosed to the allergy to yellow food dyes 3 months after being diagnosed with the allergy to nsaids and asa and being hive and angio endema free for 2 months. Ive gotten to the point now I can look at a product, like sweet sour dipping sauce in a Chinese restaurant, and see the yellow hue to it, even though the sauce is red.

The allergy to fish and iodine is not related to the others. The asa and the yellow food dyes have the same chemical make up to each others as do the nsaids. One also has to be wary of salisylates, which is in asa and also citrus and bananas. If your allergic to asa you may have a sensitivity to the others.


*asa= aspirin
*NSAIDs= non steriodal anti-inflammatories ie. advil, motrin, naproxen sodium aka Aleve.

Thanks, Debbie, for all of your information on the yellow dye and other things as well. So much information here. I am ever thankful that I found this forum!

Melinda I brought home Tylenol for her last night, she recoiled in what I assume to be mock horror when I tried to hand the Tylenol to her, so I sat them on the edge of her desk. I noticed this morning that she had opened it. Also found more evidence of her eating oatmeal.

Thanks for your input on skiing. I will not hold you responsible if I decide to ski and hurt myself...lol

carollynne It's not really so much the weight with the wife as it is, just over all health. She miserable so much of the time, but I can't even get her to make a doctor appointment. I knew when I told her I was going to try this WOE, that she would be opposed. I just didn't figure that after how much success I've had, she would still be opposed. Although I must admit, she is less hostile towards this WOE lately.

What flavor was the soy ice cream your husband didn't like? Maybe the chocolate was masking the "soy flavor" that I hear some people seem to be sensitive to? I have sorbet every once in a while, and really like it. Although I've just mashed bananas and frozen it, and enjoyed it, so apparently I'm very easy to please.

dlee It's really somewhat surprising what the yellow dye pops up in. Pickles surprised me. She had a reaction to some pastry last night, the only thing I could figure out is, maybe that local bakery used margarine that contains yellow dye. As a side note I found this fascinating:

In some states, margarine manufacturers would sell margarine in plastic bags with a small bead of dye that the buyer had to knead into the spread (“Color-Kwik bags”).

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/09/22/the-politics-of-yellow/

Debbie So I found this link: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/angioedema-000011.htm

Out of the sensitivities listed, she has that we know of;

Yellow dye
Citrus
Shellfish
Aspirin
Advil

The top three have only started happening recently. Yellow dye for the past few months and shellfish for maybe 18 months. I think the main thing for now is to get her off, and keep her off of the ibuprofen.