Blondie's October Challenge

[blondie]

Thanks Carollynne -- you look awesome in your new profile pic! It was a small group of about 14 people -- one man had read Dr. Barnard's "Reverse Diabetes" book 4 years ago and had lost weight and brought his diabetes under control; his wife also eats lowfat vegan. Another lady in the "audience" was already eating a plant-based diet. Not sure about the other attendees.

Today was a rainy, cold, windy day. I cancelled my walk in the park because of the weather, and then didn't go to the gym. I'm still being bothered by vertigo -- not sure if I have some ear congestion or what? It went from summer to winter overnight and we turned on our heat yesterday. I'm dreading winter this year for some reason.

My food today:
B: Oatmeal with banana, 1 tbsp. walnuts, cinnamon, stevia; Chinese rest. tea with stevia
L: Hopping John (black-eyed peas, diced tomatoes, chopped onion, and chopped jalapenos) over brown rice; small orange
D: Chick-pea corn rice soup; small orange.
S: 2 small boiled potatoes

No green leafies today... will work on doing better in that aspect tomorrow!

[lmggallagher]

Hey blondie - you are a health educator now. How cool is that! Seems it was a pretty good audience too:)

Oh I have to check our your meals more often Hoppin John sounds sooo good. I just got the MWL book, so I have been winging it for recipes on my own, amazing I have lost at all, hehehehe!

[RAS]

Hi Blondie,you are doing so good.Keep it up! RAS

[blondie]

Thanks for the support Michelle and RAS! It means a lot!

Still dealing with vertigo today. Took a meclizine last night before I went to bed so the room wouldn't spin every time I moved in bed. I went to bed at 11 and slept until 8:30 this morning and felt kind of hung-over all day. This afternoon I took a 2 hour nap. I don't know if all of this is from one meclizine tablet last evening or if I've got some kind of bug. No fever though.

I went to the gym this morning and just couldn't pull off the 40 minutes on the elliptical -- I did 30 minutes and then one time around the resistance circuit.

Food for today:
B: My usual banana oatmeal with a cup of green tea
L: Little bit of leftover hopping John
S: airpop popcorn, chamomile tea
D: Canned organic tomato soup over rice (no bad ingredients on label but fairly high sodium), apple

Not much energy today, not much appetite. Didn't feel like standing at the counter chopping veggies, so I ate really simple today with no cooking. Hope I feel better tomorrow.
L:

[LoriJenny]

Hi Blondie! Congrats on your speaking engagement at the church...how exciting!! Hopping John sounds really delicious, I think I will try making that! I hope you feel better soon, my mom has had vertigo and it seems to be taking it's time going away...actually seems like several people I know have had this lately.

[lmggallagher]

Hey blondie--

Saw your three pound loss and that you broke your plateau, FANTASTIC! Guess what I am still at 218. You'll probably catch up to me and I still be right there. This could take a while, it usually does, dang! I need to get a mindset adjustment or breakfast

[lmggallagher]

PS Hope ur feeling better today too! That vertigo can mess up ur plans some Take care!

[blondie]

Hey blondie--

Saw your three pound loss and that you broke your plateau, FANTASTIC! Guess what I am still at 218. You'll probably catch up to me and I still be right there. This could take a while, it usually does, dang! I need to get a mindset adjustment or breakfast

Ha! thanks! I think I'll have to run to catch you!

I think the vertigo is better today -- just one episode this evening. I took my BP earlier today it was 106/59 with a pulse of 53! Hard to believe -- it was never that good when I was on 2 meds for high blood pressure, and my pulse was always in the 80's even with one of my BP meds having a beta blocker in it! My blood sugar after dinner was 125.
My food for today:
B: The usual banana oatmeal
L: Brown rice with turnip greens and the rest of the hopping John
S: Apple
D: 1/2 head of green leaf lettuce with tomato, green pepper, and onion, topped with a little brown rice and FF refried beans, with salsa.
S: Banana and 2 wasa crisps, chamomile tea

No exercise today except to walk around the grocery store -- at least I didn't take a nap today!

[blondie]

Had my usual banana oatmeal again this morning -- that has been my breakfast every morning since I started this program in February. Lunch was leftover tomato soup over brown rice. Not sure what I'll have for dinner - -was thinking potato and broccoli soup, but then I saw a mention on the boards of bean burgers and oven fries and that sounds yummy!

Went to the park for a walk with DH today, just did about a mile and half.

[sksamboots]

I love banana oatmeal. It so good to warm a banana a few minutes in the microwave and then add it to oats. So good!!! I've been eating sweet potatoes for breakfast lately instead of oatmeal but boy do I love my oatmeal!!

[lmggallagher]

blondie!

Wow, my jaw dropped when I read your blood pressure! That's so low that you better hold a mirror under your nose and check you're still breathing, lol.

You won't have to run to catch up with me -- I am headed your direction on the weight at the speed of light. I did make all the right plans for eating away from home today & followed through - but turns out this new recipe I took with me does not work as leftovers! Like opening the lid and looking at it was hard, the three bites I got down were way harder than that!!

So I have been gone since 5AM this morning and just got home, but somehow on the way home a sin food (frozen soy yogurt) jumped in my car and demanded to be eaten instead of dinner! At this point it will likely take another week to get back to the dreaded 218!

One week in and already I have a melt down. Maybe I'll not weigh tomorrow and just take my blood pressure, sigh...

[blondie]

sksamboots, I usually just put my oats in the bowl with sliced banana, pour boiling water in with it and then mush it all together and eat it when all the water is absorbed. I bought an entire flat of raspberries from the salvage grocer and put them in the freezer -- thinking I might switch off from bananas some mornings and have microwaved raspberries on my oatmeal! yum!

Michelle, sorry your leftovers didn't work out. You could have done alot worse than frozen soy yogurt -- just get back onto your regular food now and I'm sure you'll have a loss at the end of the week! I forget -- are you working on high blood pressure too? I was on 2 pills and got rid of one of them the first week on this WOE, then the other one was gone within about a month.

I ended up making broccoli potato soup for dinner. We are having a soup potluck meal at church tomorrow, so I made a big pot and plan to reheat and take that.

[lmggallagher]

Hi blondie:

Thanks so much for your post in my journal, I feel bad about yesterday. I mean messed up in week one of all things. But you're right I could have done worse and I will get back on it today.

So to answer your question, I haven't been on any pills, except thyroid, which I have to take, but I was inching up on all my numbers. My BP was usually low like 110/64 for years, but with the weight it was hanging at 124/89 even with lots of exercise. I am pre-diabetic though and had fatty liver ( which is fine now).

Since I have relatives both sides of the family that have had stokes and I have had breast cancer, really young - I figure it's time to get real and take responsibility for my health. I personally believe our healthcare crisis is because our doctors don't tell us there are alternatives to pills and mostly we don't go looking for them either!

I also have a ex bf, who has been dealing with prostate cancer at an early age. I started reading all the books (first "China Study" then all the rest) because I thought both our cancers are due to what we eat. So once I found out all these things I had to jump in and do it! He thinks I am doing the right thing - but guys won't give up their meat easily. I'll keep trying!

So my long answer is - no pills, but I have watched relatives sit down to meals and take like 8 or more a meal and I have no intention of going there myself!

I am going to be telling relatives your story though on the BP though because it's AMAZING!!!

[blondie]

Thanks Michelle -- I'm pretty excited about my blood pressure too! It developed when I was losing weight going to a diet doctor who had me on a high protein diet. She prescribed Wellbutrin, not diet pills, so I feel pretty certain the high BP came from the high protein intake.

I'm ashamed to list everything I ate today. Started out with my usual oatmeal and banana for breakfast. We had a potluck meal of soups at church and I ate 2 bowls of my own broccoli potato soup since all the other choices had meat in them. Then I just had to taste someone's cake, and got about a 1"x2" piece ...the rest of the day was eat eat eat and I can only believe it was that fatty sweet cake that started this whole thing! I had a subway veggie sub, came home and ate popcorn, then graham crackers, then saltines, then an apple, a cup of herb tea in an attempt to quit eating, and finally stopped eating.

So tomorrow...back to MWL food. I have plenty of salad things in the fridge and some fat free dijon salad dressing. Oatmeal, brown rice, potatoes, good stuff.

[lmggallagher]

OMG - Church food, there ought to be a law! Our Church has it's Stewardship Brunch next Sunday - I am absolutely dreading this. A good friend knowing that I have gone vegan said she'd chip in on a vegan platter from a really expensive restaurant downtown. I know she is doing this so I'd have something to eat and variety. Except, that the food is completely drenched in oil. Oil or cake, I guess the cake is worse because the sweets will just make us keep eating, and eating and eating! Of course the oil turns immediately to lard on our bodies. It's not a potluck so I can't sneak in my own food. I am going to have a huge breakfast, stash stuff in my car and stand around the platter looking like I ate stuff, is that a plan?

And about your blood pressure, it was because YOUR DOCTOR put you on protein, oh no! I almost feel sorry for doctor's, they have no idea they are trying to like KILL US!