toadfood's starting over journal

[toadfood]

Weight: 259.
Fasting blood sugar: 138.

[veggiecat]

Forks Over Knives in screening at Johns Hopkins Dec 8th, http://www.forksoverknives.com/screenings/ I saw it in Delray last Sat; very good.

[RAS]

Welcome Back Toadfood.Missed you.Glad to see you posting again.Lets both try to get those fbs back to normal range.!

[Anna Green]

I go online to post in my journal and I get all excited when I see your name. So glad to see you. I'd love to get healthy alongside you again.

[bunsofaluminum]

TOADFOOD!!!! yayayaaay! You're back! yayayaaay! yayaaay! we missed you

[janluvs2heel]

WELCOME BACK TOADFOOD!!!!!!!!!!!


So glad to see you back.

Jan

[f1jim]

It's nice to see you back Toadfood. Good wishes on your efforts here. I'm curious what your plan will be on this journal that might be different than last time. It's always good to peak at the roadmap before starting out. Looking at your signature makes me also think of Letha and hoping she checks in on us too.
Beware the pretzels!!! HaHa
f1jim

[Teresa1986]

Toadfood~ I wondered where you had went. When I came back a couple of months ago I asked about you and Letha and no one really knew where you went. I always loved reading your posts! I am glad you are back. My previous name was luvdachies or something like that. =)

[kirstykay]

Welcome back! It's nice to see you again. I look forward to watching your progress.

[toadfood]

Aw, thanks everyone. What a nice warm welcome! I was so surprised and pleased to be remembered.

I'm going to use this journal to keep track of my weight and blood sugar, track what I'm eating and how I'm exercising, and talk about whatever else is going on with regard to the plan.

My story in a nutshell: I started the plan at the end of 2008, weighing 243 pounds. I lost about 40 pounds, my blood sugar was normal, and I was able to cut my dose of diabetes medication in half (with doctor's approval). Then I fell off the wagon and into a deep ditch. Binging on VAD (Vegetarian American Diet) over the past 10 months or so brought me back up to my current weight of 259. Sugar is back up, and so is my dose of medication. I seem to have had enough of all that, though, and am ready to get healthy again.

What worked last time and will work again:
--Cooking my own food, trying out lots of recipes, packing food to work every day
--Sticking mostly to MWL food
--Exercising daily or close to daily (could mean just a walk)
--Posting here every day, and reading and commenting on others' journals.
--Having daily goals and tracking my progress on those goals

Yesterday was not bad. I did eat some off plan (but at least fat free and vegan) food. I took a 20 minute walk at lunch time -- I can't even remember the last time I did that. And I cooked a big pot of quinoa, yum!

Today's food:
Breakfast: green beans and quinoa with gomasio
Lunch: curried red lentil soup with cauliflower and carrots; brown rice
Dinner (planned): French lentil soup, more quinoa

I struggle to get in my 5 servings of veggies a day. Eating them for breakfast seems to be a good way to make sure I do it. So today I nuked a bag of frozen green beans and plopped them on top of a plate of quinoa, with gomasio (sesame salt) sprinkled on top. Yum.

[kirstykay]

Sounds like you've got a solid plan there! You've done this before, so you know you can do it again. Congratulations on making it back here.

[sksamboots]

Hey you,

Glad to see you

[RAS]

Again Welcome Back. I am posting on mwl board,don't want to say the same thing over and over.I do read the posts there and here.Lots of good info.just hope I will be able to help others,as I have been helped.

[toadfood]

Hi everyone! Again, thanks for all the great support.
Yesterday was a good day. I took another 20 min walk at lunch time. In the evening I had an event to go to for work where I knew there would be a lot of delicious cookies (I've been to lectures in this series before and it's always a cookie extravaganza). So I went home first and ate plenty of lentils and quinoa. Then when I got to the event, I went directly into the auditorium, avoiding the cookie room completely. Yay! It sounds like a small thing but for me it takes a huge effort, so I feel good.

Something else I forgot to mention that worked before and is working now -- somewhere Jeff Novick says it is OK to eat up to 5% of your calories as added sugars. If you eat 2000 calories a day (and I have no idea how many calories I eat, but I have a big appetite), that's 100 calories of sugar, which is about 2 T of jam or maple syrup, or a few pieces of hard candy. In the past I have included up to 100 calories of optional sugary treats as part of my eating plan with good success. Yesterday I tried this and it worked really well -- it was nice to be "allowed" to have a treat, and I didn't go overboard. I have to be careful to use treats that are "safe" -- i.e., that I can have around without overeating them. Hard candy and lollipops work well. I have also recently discovered these Ginger Chew candies from the Ginger People that are good too. They are yummy and feel like a treat but I am able to eat just one or two and be satisfied.

Today:

FBS 138 again. What's up with that?
Food:
Breakfast: quinoa and spinach with gomasio
Lunch: curried red lentil soup with quinoa
Dinner: French lentil soup with quinoa

Hmm, a theme is emerging. That's the last of the quinoa, also the last of both kinds of lentil soup. I have tomorrow off and I need to go grocery shopping and do some more cooking.

I'm working late tonight, so I packed all three meals to take with me. So far I've eaten breakfast, which was yum. I'm really liking eating veggies for breakfast.

[Anna Green]

Ooh you got it going on! Veggies for breakfast are good to me too.