Dissolution's Solution

[carrotlvr]

Wow, what an amazing story! And I'm sure your journey will continue in the right direction. Many of us here have families that are not interested in this way of eating. There are a lot of short cuts as I have discovered. I am the cook in the family so I cook separate meals. You are doing great, keep up the good work. I look forward to hearing more of your story.

Kris

[Dissolution]

266 this morning. That's 3 pounds since I stopped taking metropolol a few days ago, so probably water weight, but hey the scale looks better.

I had to go into town to run errands yesterday. The wife was busy in the kitchen working on her Master Chef dish. So that made it difficult for me to eat lunch before I left. Even before starting this WOE, it was best to avoid her domain (the kitchen) while she was in it.

Into town I went, and hungry. I stopped by a gym to check on a membership. $20 a month, not bad. Cheap enough that you wouldn't feel guilty for not going, and probably wouldn't bother cancelling if you didn't go. Haha.

Since starting this WOE, I hate eating out. The BEST I can hope for in most places is a plain baked potato and steam broccoli. Not that I don't love both of those things, but I hate paying for them when they're not even seasoned.

However, there is one place that I do like. That's Subway. So that's where I went. I had a foot long veggie delight sub, on 9 grain wheat that included most of the available vegetables, no cheese and a fat free dressing. It was awesome. Can you tell I am obsessed with food? Anyways, I enjoyed it, I felt guilty, I came home and worked on home improvement stuff.

While I don't miss meat, sometimes I think I miss the place meat fits into food. I say this because I am thinking about BBQing cauliflower out on the grill today for lunch. Will let you know how it goes...

[MixedGrains]

Dissolution, I really enjoyed reading this so far, I have a lot of empathy with your situation. We're of similar age and have been (or are) on a lot of the same drugs. The cardiac issues I went through were more minor (no invasive procedures yet for me, hopefully never) but I weighed (and weigh) a lot more ... 550 or more (I'll never know for sure) at my peak, 390-ish right now, been eating plant foods since March. I especially empathize with the "I knew I wouldn't make 50, now I'm wondering about 45" feeling.

Regarding your barbecue, I am not a big griller but something I saw somebody do on a cooking show was grill slices of pineapple. It looked really good and would make a nice accompaniment to any savory veg that you are grilling. I've also seen people do cobs of corn on the grill.

As for eating out, I still enjoy it but the opportunities are more limited. I'm trying to get over the "I ain't paying ten bucks for a baked potato" sensation, but I just can't if all I get is genuinely a plain spud. However, I've had good luck at cheap generic buffets (Golden Corral is a favorite, Western Sizzlin' works, there are many others depending on where you are in the country) that have baked potatoes and a salad bar. Typically I turn the potato into a huge heaping plate of food by adding various combinations of salsa, chopped onions even if I have to chop them myself from the salad bar rings, pico de gallo, chopped tomato even if I have to chop it myself from the salad bar, beans or peas from the steam table if they don't look too oily, corn kernals, lemon juice, vinegar... you get the idea. The end result is always different than what I'd make at home and the variance is refreshing. Plus, there are often (not always) vegetable sides that aren't oil-drenched, and you can usually count on chopped fresh fruit to finish off the meal.

Your account of your Subway sandwich made me hungry, too. There's a Subway near me that I never go to, mostly because I'm very leery of breads, which I like rather too much. I have just assumed (without checking) that even their multigrain bread is 49% white flour plus lots of oil. And usually I avoid fat-free dressings because I've a long-standing horror of corn syrup. But now that my diabetes is extremely well-controlled (fasting blood sugars under 100, still taking Metformin but off the Januvia) I'm learning that a smidge of sugar (even the dreaded corn syrup) in an otherwise good dish is not a sufficient reason to demur, especially if that will leave me hungry and vulnerable to eating something fatty.

I am really looking forward to seeing your post the next time you get your bloodwork done and we get to hear about the dramatic improvement in your cholesterol levels!

[blondie]

Enjoyed reading your story, so glad that you have joined us here!
The last time I went out to eat with my husband at a local cafe where I always get salad bar and a baked potato, I asked the waitress if she could discount my salad bar price since I don't eat the soup or the pastas or puddings, just lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers usually, and I bring my salad dressing from home. She reduced the price from 4.99 to 1.89, so I was glad I spoke up.

[Dissolution]

MixedGrains, sorry about making you hungry. A word of caution though, I'm probably going to talk about food a lot! Glad to hear your cardiac problems weren't too bad, hopefully it'll only get better from here on out.

Blondie, what salad dressing do you use? I tried a couple of fat free ones and haven't really liked them. I've been making my own honey mustard at home (1 part mustard, 1 part honey, 1 part vinegar) it's ok, I guess.

Food experiment #1 for today:

Baked kale leaves in the oven @250º for 20 minutes with a little salt and pepper.

It turned out very nice, very crispy and crunchy. Kinda like potato chips, but not as firm. Will do this again.

Food experiment #2:

BBQ grilled cauliflower. In the future I will steam the cauliflower BEFORE putting it on the grill. I could get it brown and crispy, or black and soft. It will brown nicely though. Will attempt again.

B: Oatmeal & Flaxseed meal w/ maple syrup.
S: Banana
L: Grilled cauliflower and beets
S: Apple
D: Baked potato, steamed broccoli, salad w/ honey mustard (Applebees)

[MmmCarbs]

Great story so far. I'm so happy for you! Looking forward to reading your journey.

It was sweet your wife finally came around enough to discourage you from eating her special recipe bread.

[blondie]

Blondie, what salad dressing do you use? I tried a couple of fat free ones and haven't really liked them. I've been making my own honey mustard at home (1 part mustard, 1 part honey, 1 part vinegar) it's ok, I guess.

I use Maple Grove Farms fat free dressings most of the time because they don't have alot of weird stuff listed in the ingredients, and no high fructose corn syrup --
http://www.maplegrove.com/content_products_sub.asp?s=4

I have tried their balsamic vinaigrette, raspberry vinaigrette, and honey dijon so far, and I like all of them. I bought their cranberry balsamic the other day but haven't tasted it yet. Bulls eye original BBQ sauce is fat free and has no HFCS also, and I sometimes use that. I also like salsa on my salads, and just balsamic or red wine vinegar alone.

[lmggallagher]

Hi Dissolution: I use Annie's fat free - mango and raspberry balsamic vinaigrette. Likely it depends where we are in the Country what brands are available? I want to make my own eventually, so I am keeping a close eye on your experiments Dissolution. Especially on the grilled goodies, I have a grill maniac friend, that I am soo trying to get over to the "light side - but I know it will involve him bringing his grill, if ever it could happen

[Dissolution]

It was a good day...

Woke up at 5:30am this morning to get the wife to the dentist. She's pretty phobic about them.

B: Oatmeal with Flaxseed meal and maple syrup. Coffee.

Wife get's finished quickly, have to be back at dentist at 3pm. So we went shopping. Stopping at Panera Bread, I had coffee, wife had coffee, danish and muffin. Get a call from #2 son, he is off work today, decide to go hang out at his house since he lived closer to the dentist than we do. I asked if he had anything for lunch (cause I was getting hungry), he said he did.

* #2 son has always been 20-40 pounds overweight most of his teen and adult life (25 now). After seeing my results he decided to try a vegan diet. He picked up the Engine 2 diet book. I haven't read it so I'm not sure how close he is following. While he has lost close to 10 pounds in the past month, he seems to be eating a lot of vegan junk food (lots of fake meat products from the freezer section).

We get to his house and he hasn't had lunch either. He offers me some of the fake meat stuff, which I politely declined. I noticed that the container of quinoa that he purchased when he started the diet was still untouched. So I offered to cook lunch.

Cooked the quinoa in his rice cooker, added chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper. Then stirred in half a cans of black beans (rinsed), corn (drained) and tomato sauce. Let in simmer for a while and then served him quinoa "chili".

S: Apple
L: Quinoa "chili"

Back to the dentist, in and out pretty quick. Wife wants steak to try out her new dental work. We find a "gourmet" butcher shop. She bought a $35 steak! I was kinda nauseous, not sure if it was being in a butcher shop or spending that much on a steak.

More shopping...Oh a blood pressure machine, check blood pressure.
105/66 Pulse 67. Starting to consider dropping another blood pressure medicine.

We start heading home, need to stop for gas and her weekly carton of cigarettes. She starts talking about the electronic cigarettes. #4 son switched to them about a month ago and seems to like them. Wife buys electronic cigarette starter kit!

** I know the electronic cigarettes aren't healthy, but they've got to be better than normal ones. One step at a time for my wife.

Once home she starts cooking for her and the two sons and #4's GF
(the steak was 2.3 pounds so it's enough for all of them). I slice up a butternut squash and toss it in the oven. Then I fix a veggie wrap; fat free flour tortilla, hummus (home made), spicy mustard, carrots, radish, onion, tomato, pepper and kale. 3/4 of the way through the squash baking time I sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon over the top. The squash tasted awesome, wife and #4's GF both liked it a lot.

D: Veggie wrap, butternut squash

[Dissolution]

Blondie, Maple Grove Farms is the fat free brand I can get around here. They're ok I guess, but I'm not eating that many salads so it'll have to do.

I have a grill maniac friend, that I am soo trying to get over to the "light side - but I know it will involve him bringing his grill, if ever it could happen

That gives me an idea. I have a smoker. Hmmmm...I've never smoked a vegetable before. Hickory smoked potatoes? Mesquite smoked cauliflower? Now I'm curious...

Like I've said before, I'm not really missing meat. But I did make a faux italian sausage a few weeks ago. Not so much because I wanted sausage, but because I was curious to see what it would taste like. It was made with vital wheat gluten and white navy beans. It was pretty good, but I was in no hurry to make it again, still have some in the freezer.

Other than that, so far I have stayed away from the fake meat products. My son on the other hand keeps raving about boca burgers or some such thing. Maybe those types of items would help your grill friend.

[lmggallagher]

Oh no, smokers, I forgot about smoked fish! Oh how I love smoked sturgeon and salmon & OK anything smoked with scales. OK, I'll for get this line of day dreaming. Speaking of smoking, please tell me what an electronic cigarette is -- this baffles me no end- especially trying to visualize it

As for the boca burgers, of all the phoney meats - those are probably the healthiest, but the most like card board. My guy friend ranched for years and trying to get him to love fake meat would be near impossible, but grilled veggies might be the ticket as he has a pretty big garden every summer. So I am thinking that way.

I hear Coleen Patrick Bodreau (sp) has a really good vegan entertaining cook book with grilling recipes, so I want to check that out from the library someday. But you got me stumped on smoked veggies, hehehe!

[Dissolution]

Scale moving so slow, have lost less than half a pound since Sunday. I hate that.

Michelle, an electronic cigarette is basically a nicotine atomizer that looks like a cigarette and is activated by inhaling through it.

One of the problems I've noticed since starting this WOE is I frequently wake up, in the morning or in the middle of the night and one of my arms will be "asleep" or my fingers will be numb. I've also had a pinched nerve feeling in my left arm. (not a heart attack, I promise)

My wife seems to think it's because I tend to sleep on my arms when I lay on my side and because of the weight loss I have less "padding" and that this is the cause of my problems. She could be right. I have noticed that I get colder easier now, and my hands seem to be cold to other people.

I quit taking the beta blocker last week, because I felt it was sending my pulse rate too low, and thought that might be related to my night time problems.

Anyways I went to bed Monday night (I always go to bed before the wife). I use a CPAP machine at night, or try to. I probably manage to wear it for 60% - 70% of my sleep time. I guess I fell asleep without putting it on. My wife woke me up to tell me to put my mask on (common occurrence). I held up my left arm and told her it was numb. She said were you sleeping on it? I said no I was sleeping on my right side. I held up my right hand and it was almost completely white and very cold. I should of had her check my blood pressure.

Last week after noticing my pulse rate was 50 I made an appointment with my cardiologist for Nov. 25. My BP during the day on Monday was 105/66. I understand that lower is better in most cases, just not sure if lower is better through medication.

I called my cardiologist's office to speak to their triage nurse and explained the symptoms to her. She moved my appointment up to the 18th and said she would consult with the doctor on Thursday.

I decided I would try and go the day (Tuesday) without taking my 20 mg of Lisinopril. Out of all my medication, this is the one that I think effects me the most. Maybe I'm crazy or maybe it was something to do with the heart attacks, but I can feel when my blood pressure is too high. It is so noticeable, that that discomfort was sometimes my reminder to take my meds on the weekends.

Well obviously I didn't die. Check BP several times yesterday 135/85 pretty much every time. That's probably a "healthy" BP for someone of my size. Feels a little higher this morning. Going to go have it checked and then decide on medicine for the day.

[lmggallagher]

Glad you'll see the doctor soon about the arm thing. That is a puzzle! As for the CPAP, after the first week on the MWL my sleep pattern changed completely. I sleep so much better and the CPAP hasn't come out of the drawer since week 2. I think I'll ask my doctor if I can be retested, but I am pretty sure I don't need it anymore. Others here have said the same thing. Hope it's so for you too in the future

[Dissolution]

Checked BP this morning 142/90 back on the meds. Down to 120/80 this evening.

B: Steel cut oats w/ maple syrup
S: Banana mashed up with flaxseed meal and cocoa powder
L: Humus, mustard and kale sandwich wrap
S: Apple
D: Black bean, onion and pepper burrito
S: Left-over butternut squash

Wow, seems like I ate a lot. I guess I did.

[Dissolution]

It's weird, some days I try to eat light in hopes of getting the scale to move. More often than not it doesn't really work. Then some days I say the hell with it, stay on plan but eat "more than I should", and the next day the scale drops by 2 pounds.

Also in this message attempting to use the diet tracker gizmos



My Weight Chart: