Buns Again

[VivianS]

VivianS November 9,2020 Monday
Weight loss or not, I'm eating plants. This is how I eat. Period. I'm with you on that, Buns! That's the winning attitude! I'm proud of you!

[bunsofaluminum]

I don't know what to say about 10 days at the same weight except that maybe even the minor coloring outside of the lines foodwise makes a big impact.

Looking back in my journal, there is another long pause at 234 for five days. Then I dropped to 232 on day 13, had my foolish feast and shot up 3 lbs, then back down again, where I've held since 11/3. Is it possible that eating that sushi, pretty late in the evening, threw me off for this long? I can't imagine it would be, but I've never tried losing weight in menopause before.

SW 240
DAY 2 238
DAY 3 238
DAY 4 238
DAY 5 236
DAY 6 236
DAY 7 236
DAY 8 234
DAY 9 234
DAY 10 234
DAY 11 234
DAY 12 234
DAY 13 232
DAY 14 235 (morning after the sushi)
DAY 15 234
DAY 16 232
DAY 17 232
DAY 18 232
DAY 19 232
DAY 20 232
DAY 21 232
DAY 22 232


Other than that sushi stupidity, I have kept to plan. That is, I'm not using only low sodium ingredients in my cooking, but I am also not sprinkling salt at all on my meals. I am adding some other seasonings as I cook, but that has not caused me to eat more than the measured portions. In fact, I've gotten very good at pushing away from the table when I feel satiated. This morning, the dog got my last three or four bites of my breakfast (split pea soup).

All this to say, I am following MWL with measured portions, one day a week I'm eating rice and fruit for all my meals. I am consuming very little sodium total though not down to the extreme lows of the Kempner rice diet. Probably the first six lbs at least were water weight, and now I've lost 8 and 232 is a better number to be stuck on than 240, where the scale was for ages when I was non-committal and being a baby about butter.

Ultimately it doesn't matter about the scale. I've been more active just naturally because I have the energy and I am pain free. Eventually I'll add regular exercise on purpose, FOR SURE. Right now I am enjoying feeling good. Weighing every day just teaches me that my body holds onto the pounds. Thank God I'm not weighing once a week. The suspense would kill me, and then when the scale never budges, it would end me.

[moonlight]

Congrats, Buns! Keep it going, lowering that scale number whenever possible!

[earthmonkey]

Hi Buns!

well 232 is still lower than 240. So, I am playing with things like dal and split pea soup, and I notice that I don't lose weight eating those....so what I am doing is eating 1/2 a cup of say, dal, and then I add boiled potatoes, like a cup, because potatoes are so low on the calorie density and high on satiety. The beans/legumes are on the fattier side of the compliant foods, and it is one reason why I think they are minimized on the RD Report entirely, and somewhat in the RD Solution. And then of course, eating the yellow-green veggies first, like maybe two cups worth before getting to the split pea soup realm.

I'm gonna see how that does for me. As I said, the cold weather has me wanting cozy food like split pea soup too. So, just tweaking things to feel good about my hunger and meals.

YOU ARE DOING GREAT! (And the only reason the sushi could make an impact is opening the door to other non compliant eating, not long term weight i don't think).

t

[bunsofaluminum]

Congrats, Buns! Keep it going, lowering that scale number whenever possible!

Thanks moonlight. I mean, the scale is lower, isn't it. I have that much (except I have SO MUCH MORE)

Hi Buns!

well 232 is still lower than 240. So, I am playing with things like dal and split pea soup, and I notice that I don't lose weight eating those....so what I am doing is eating 1/2 a cup of say, dal, and then I add boiled potatoes, like a cup, because potatoes are so low on the calorie density and high on satiety. The beans/legumes are on the fattier side of the compliant foods, and it is one reason why I think they are minimized on the RD Report entirely, and somewhat in the RD Solution. And then of course, eating the yellow-green veggies first, like maybe two cups worth before getting to the split pea soup realm.

I'm gonna see how that does for me. As I said, the cold weather has me wanting cozy food like split pea soup too. So, just tweaking things to feel good about my hunger and meals.

YOU ARE DOING GREAT! (And the only reason the sushi could make an impact is opening the door to other non compliant eating, not long term weight i don't think).

This is actually a really good point. Legumes are on the denser end of the calorie density spectrum, and they're so tasty. Easy to eat too much. Sometimes I even crave dal or black beans, etc. And refried beans have been my main comfort food from the beginning, back 11 years ago. I can eat those right out of the can the one cup a day recommendation...most days I follow it, some days I go over. These days, I'm doing great and haven't had more than one cup of beans in a day thanks to the portion boundaries.

but yeah, they're a bit denser aren't they. I also need to make sure I'm getting the full measure of green/non-starchy vegs. Eat them first, and the starch to finish up. Pink Rose used to post here, and his secret was "starch as dessert" ... his go-to meal was steamed cabbage and baked sweet potato. He'd eat the cabbage first, then have the sweet pot as "dessert" which meant he was front loading with the lower calorie density food, then finishing with the starch, and probably overall eating quite a bit fewer calories. This was his maintenance plan, and it worked.

so...we have a 50/50 plate recommendation. Why not eat the non-starches first, then the starch? I'm not going to eat a bowl of soup BEFORE meals...soup is a meal in my book...but I could eat the 2 c broccoli before starting on the potatoes. Or the soup, for that matter.

And...exercise. I've got to choose something and do it every day. Even 20 minutes a day. Even (like the 600+ lb man mentioned in RDS...whose first exercise was to lie on his back and lift his legs.) EVERY. DAY.

Meanwhile, the scale is actually up two lbs today. Innat speshul.

[earthmonkey]

Buns!

you aren't alone. I have been wrestling with the same five pounds for two weeks. I made huge detours from my food plan, and i can blame the election stress, I can blame work, but in the end, no one makes me buy a pint of guacamole and chips for lunch when I have two apples and sprouted grain bread for lunch (FOOD IS FUEL!). I do have to stop using food as a reward, and as for fuel instead.

Like that fellow, I have kept to cabbage and a potato of some kind for dinner in the past, and I do find that a good combo. Chef AJ has some nice sauces if balsamic vinegar isn't enough, but in the end, I agree with McDougall, with the RD Solution etc, that tasty foods seem to increase the desire to eat more. So I am working on tasty ENOUGH so that I will eat the good foods yet not tip over into craving salty savory foods (my downfall).

keep up the good choices! You are doing it!
t

[VivianS]

VivianS November 10, 2020 Tuesday
Journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step! You also must decide where you are going, which route to take and make sure you stay on it. If you let your heading vary a little bit without
making corrections, you will end up in a tree instead of a motel. Driving or walking like eating must have some built in corrections. Dr. Doug Lisle spoke with Chef AJ on YouTube in the last few days. He said that if we are filling up on whole plant foods, we will naturally correct. Like water heaters, we use most of our calories just running our bodies. It was an interesting video.
I cut up 2 cabbages and cooked them last night. I put the sliced cabbage in jars in cup sized portions. I'm going to cook sliced carrots and celery tonight I think. I have been adding different amounts of vegetables in recipes just to vary my diet. Cronometer helps me watch nutrients and calories. You asked someone for a recipe for nonstarchy soup. It made me realize that with Cronometer you can vary a recipe just by listing the ingredients grouping them and you will have the nutrients and calorie count. I decided to cook the ingredients separately and add them together at the last minute in different combinations. I like having frozen vegetables, but having them in the refrigerator is easy, too. I have two soups that fit the 50/50 combination ready at all times. I eat those every day. I bet you like certain vegetables, but not others. Cronometer helps by making suggestions, too. I was struggling with constipation. MWL guidelines say no dried fruit. I had eaten prunes for years. That change ( no prunes) put me right back into constipation. Cronometer suggested raw plums! Duh! Prunes are dried plums. Why didn't I think of that? We are creatures of habit. That's why I like Dr. Doug Lisle's idea about being an experiment of one. Try doing something new and see what happens!

[bunsofaluminum]

Today's a low calorie day. 2/3 c Rice and fruit or veg. I'll probably finish up the week the same way, but using potatoes on Friday since I go to my PT job on Friday after my FT shift ends. I take nuked potatoes and baby carrots with me to eat at my desk.

My son has bipolar disorder and had something of a mental breakdown yesterday. Lots of financial stress, plus some cycling in his mood...he was texting really scary stuff about seeing God face to face, and including pictures taken while speeding down the road at 95 mph AND TEXTING about it WHILE DRIVING. I took the afternoon off and went to his house to visit with his wife while he calmed down at his sister's place. Cannabis is our friend, especially for people with Bipolar. And I didn't comfort eat! My hubby went and got food for the family which included some veggies and rice for me. There was oil used in the cooking, but I kept to portions.

He's doing somewhat better today. He just has a couple of bills that are freaking him out.

And today my weight stayed the same. 234. So I've gone up two lbs and sticking. Loverly.

Meh, I'll just stick to the Phase 1, Day 1 as outlined in the Solution book. It's working nicely so far. I mean, I had spinach with my lunch rice, instead of fruit but stayed within portions. See if I drop anything after a few days of this. *sigh*

[bunsofaluminum]

Buns!

you aren't alone. I have been wrestling with the same five pounds for two weeks. I made huge detours from my food plan, and i can blame the election stress, I can blame work, but in the end, no one makes me buy a pint of guacamole and chips for lunch when I have two apples and sprouted grain bread for lunch (FOOD IS FUEL!). I do have to stop using food as a reward, and as for fuel instead.

Like that fellow, I have kept to cabbage and a potato of some kind for dinner in the past, and I do find that a good combo. Chef AJ has some nice sauces if balsamic vinegar isn't enough, but in the end, I agree with McDougall, with the RD Solution etc, that tasty foods seem to increase the desire to eat more. So I am working on tasty ENOUGH so that I will eat the good foods yet not tip over into craving salty savory foods (my downfall).

keep up the good choices! You are doing it!
t

Absolutely. If it's plain, without a lot of seasonings, it's easier to stop when satiated. I have a head of cabbage myself. I plan on making soup, and I'll steam some and put it in one portion containers for meals. That's a good plan, Vivian.

I cut up 2 cabbages and cooked them last night. I put the sliced cabbage in jars in cup sized portions. I'm going to cook sliced carrots and celery tonight I think. I have been adding different amounts of vegetables in recipes just to vary my diet. Cronometer helps me watch nutrients and calories. You asked someone for a recipe for nonstarchy soup. It made me realize that with Cronometer you can vary a recipe just by listing the ingredients grouping them and you will have the nutrients and calorie count. I decided to cook the ingredients separately and add them together at the last minute in different combinations. I like having frozen vegetables, but having them in the refrigerator is easy, too. I have two soups that fit the 50/50 combination ready at all times

I love soup. I'm planning on making a "not chicken cabbage noodle soup" tonight, using half a cabbage, and I'll use the rest of the cabbage for cooking and portioning, as you suggest. A TERRIFIC IDEA. Ready to put on a plate and nuke That's on my agenda for this evening.

[bunsofaluminum]

Okay, the scale moved FINALLY. Down to 231, after a fluke jump to 234 for two days. That's almost two weeks, stuck. But this is proof positive that things work if you keep at them. Takes forever, but yeah...fewer calories in DOES lead to releasing fat.

My daughter weighs every day and discovered that she stays the same weight all month long, until the week before her period, when she dumps four or five pounds. Since I'm in menopause, I don't have that landmark. But I wonder if I'm going to discover the same. Maybe I'll start seeing some kind of pattern. Let's see if things move again tomorrow.

I was going to do rice and fruit for all meals yesterday, which I did for B and L but D was split pea soup and cabbage. I did saute a half head of cabbage and will have that 1.5 c at a time with my starches. Using the other half to make Not Chicken Soup probably today.
And tired of thinking/writing about food.

[bunsofaluminum]

Day 26
SW 240
GW 140
CW 231

The scale stayed down

We had a wonderful video conference with work today, and I got to see all the faces that I haven't seen since Mar 17, 2020. It was lovely. It was a senior VP over Medicare/Marketplace sales who wanted to meet the broker support teams and arranged for us all to have webcams Fun!

They came out with a new date for our potential re-start at the office. It has been Jan 4, 2021 but they moved it to July 6, 2021 due to the surge in Covid that we're currently seeing. And I live in Utah where we're really getting socked. New records broken every day. And yes, I understand that more testing=more positives, but more testing does not account for the overwhelm of the medical system. It's a matter of flattening the curve, and it always has been and therefore we stay home until July. More than a year. And we do have a mask mandate in UT now, for the whole state. Our governor is very much a "local government" guy who put it off for a long time, but Utahns won't "give up their freedoms" to wear masks and Utah also has a lot of tourist stuff...national parks opened back up in the summer, schools opened up at the beginning of September and we started a massive surge in the middle of September.

But working from home was terrific yesterday when I slept until 15 minutes before my shift and honestly, I don't mind it. But The Togetherness Project with Wylie? We're exercising our patience mightily

[bunsofaluminum]

Day 27
SW 240
GW 135
CW 230


Down one more pound yay!

[bunsofaluminum]

Day 30
SW 240
GW 140
CS 230

Third day in a row at 230. Thankful that it finally went down from 232, right?

And feeling sad because I watched a video recipe for roasted spatchcocked chicken. It's the same feeling I have whenever I see an animal cooked. Human beings dominate other life, and animals are subdued under our "rule"... domesticated animals especially have this humility. Humans own them and do what they will, with no protest from the animal. Hunting a wild animal is a little bit different, but I think even they lay down and die, you know? Once the fight is over, it's over.

But that chicken in the video I watched was born FOR THE PURPOSE of being killed, plucked, gutted, refrigerated, displayed, bought, roasted, and eaten. That chicken didn't think about its life...what life. It was probably less than 12 weeks old when it was slaughtered, you know? I raised chickens, and have even taken part in killing and butchering cockerels that were in our flock. When we got our first chicks, the whole family sat outside looking into the brooder and watching them pip around, stretching their wings and pecking at the ground. Then we went inside and chicken was for dinner. We were a little bit appalled at the wings, for we had just spent 45 minutes watching the babies and seeing exactly what wings actually ARE.
Raising chickens wasn't for meat, but living out in the country, and fresh eggs, and just wanting that bucolic life. Two dogs, two cats, four kids, and a flock of chickens.

I was an omnivore at the time, so even though the sight of the dinner chicken's wings was poignant, we all still ATE the dinner chicken, right? But today I got so sad watching that recipe video. It was an animal, and it had a life. It was peering sideways at the ground, scratching the earth as best it could, for surely its life was crowded with hundreds of other chickens sharing the same fate. It was making little low-throat noises, its heart was pumping. It was breathing. And one day it was beheaded, de-feathered, and processed for the grocery store. *sigh*

Last night, watching an Alaska "We live off the land" type show, the guy started talking about trapping octopus for food, and I changed the channel. Didn't want to watch him trap one of the most intelligent creatures on earth. I mean, humans are omnivores. We are predators. We are APEX predators, thanks to our brains. I don't shame anyone for eating meat...imo, there is no moral wrong in humans consuming animal. I do feel that the way we "produce" animals for food is morally reprehensible and shameful. That Alaskan loner, getting his traps ready for octopus? I don't judge him. He's doing what is needed to stay alive. But I changed the channel. Didn't want to watch it.

Even in my omnivore days, I wouldn't touch veal because of the utter cruelty in its production. And for what? We humans might be omnivorous predators, but do we NEED to eat baby cow? Anyway, since ditching animals as food I've added to that list. (I already don't eat animal for health)...nowadays I would never eat pork or octopus EVER for any reason. These two creatures are highly intelligent. Pigs are social, gregarious, happy, and have brains very similar to human brains (lots of curves, crannies, etc.) Pigs are so friendly. Honestly, go to the fair some time and visit the pig section. They come right up to you for head scratches. Sheep pile on top of each other at the opposite side of their pen trying to get away from hoomans, and goats come over and say hey. But pigs grin, and flap their ears and grunt, asking for attention.

And for similar reasons, I won't eat octopus. Even if I were still an omnivore...nope. Their brains aren't physically that similar to ours, since a LOT of their brain activity takes place in their arms. They actually taste with their suction cells on their tentacles. Octopods are curious, tenacious, can solve problems. An octopus in captivity actually memorized the security guard's time schedule and figured out how to sneak out of its tank and cross the floor to a different tank where he hunted the inhabitants of that tank. Then one night he simply escaped back to the sea. They are humorous, masters of disguise, enjoy playing.

So yeah, even though I don't eat any animal flesh for health's sake, I WOULDN'T eat pig or octopus for MORALITY'S sake even if I was an omnivore. And the sadness...wtf. I'm in menopause but I swear I'm still so cyclic. some days I am simply testy or edgy or weepy. Seeing a chicken prepared for dinner making me cry is a whole new level. Think I'll take a walk during lunch today.

[earthmonkey]

yay Buns!! 230!!!!!
woot!

t

[bunsofaluminum]

SW 240
GW 140? 135?
CW 232

The scale moved up two lbs, because everything I ate yesterday was high sodium. I baked banana bread (fat free vegan, but white not whole wheat flour) and had two slices of that with coffee and a cup of peaches for breakfast. My leftover Ramen for Lunch (miso broth with curry yummmm and loads of veggies) and we had take out for dinner...Costa Vida. They have no added oil in their ingredients, but there is definitely sodium. So yeah, I'm up two lbs.

It's probably time for another low calorie day or two. Rice and fruit, eh? But today will be low sodium, for sure.