Journal for Health

[Ejeff]

Keithswife, instead of the margarine to get your veggies in perhaps a no cheese sauce instead. Quite quick and easy to make, boil 2 medium potatoes with a large carrot, some onion and a handful of sunflower seeds. Blend that up with some lemon juice, miso and nutritional yeast. Use some potato water to get it the thickness you want. This is so healthy you can pour a generous amount over vegetables and it’s a nice meal. Good for you in setting small goals and creating habits.

[Michele613]

I like that recipe too EJeff. I also mix nutritional yeast with spices to make a dressing or sauce. We often make our own hummus (very easy...we use 1/2 portion frozen chickpeas with 1/2 canned, lemon juice, fresh garlic, etc.) and I will use this as a dip and as a thickener for a sauce or dressing with some lite soy sauce or teriyaki sauce.

KW...try out different things to make veggies and other foods taste more appealing so that you 'want' to eat them.

[keithswife]

Keithswife, instead of the margarine to get your veggies in perhaps a no cheese sauce instead. Quite quick and easy to make, boil 2 medium potatoes with a large carrot, some onion and a handful of sunflower seeds. Blend that up with some lemon juice, miso and nutritional yeast. Use some potato water to get it the thickness you want. This is so healthy you can pour a generous amount over vegetables and it’s a nice meal. Good for you in setting small goals and creating habits.

Thank you, Ejeff. I'm going to try this.

[keithswife]

Well, now I am sick. Couldn't get with it as far as diet and exercise and now I am paying the consequences. Yesterday I was reading a WFPB testimony of a young lady in her 20's who turned her health around with diet and exercise. But that wasn't what struck me. She mentioned her parents and how they still suffer greatly from the SAD and no exercise. She didn't go into detail, but I thought, surely they saw how her daughter turned things around. Don't they want to at least try? It's human nature I guess. When the going gets tough, we want to stick with what's comfortable. That's been me all the way. I am my own worst enemy. I still have time. I can change.

So, as soon as I am able, I am going to force myself to exercise again. Making the food change is a no brainer. It's the only hope I have to get healthy again.

Exercise: short walk, mild calisthenics

B: bulgur and blueberries
L; air fried potato wedges, green salad, fruit
D: spicy chili beans with kale, cooked carrots, whole grain bread

[Michele613]

Hi KW,

Sorry you aren't feeling well...wishing you a speedy recovery. Yes....human nature keeps us from using others' positive experiences to inspire similar changes for ourselves and to save us much struggle and grief.

I am only 'back on program' for 4 days. Fell off into a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep pit and it has taken 4+ months to just back to a day 1. Feeling better already and I have shown a loss on each day which is encouraging. I know it is the 'right' choice to make but this time I hope it is a lasting one, beyond the 2 month periods I have succeeded in the past.

I am not active at all...I am a 'bed, rather than couch' potato. Have been succumbing to spending inordinate time on the computer and eating in bed. Activity will come but not for now. I enjoy being out but have misplaced my enthusiasm for generating any kind of movement. I am allowing myself some time to 'get on and stay on' the program for a while before I do a head trip on myself for not moving too.

Hang in there...make those healthy choices... remember the 'parents' of the successful 20 year old and choose not to be like them when tempting or old unhealthy choices come around.

We can do this!

[keithswife]

I so, so understand the bed thing, Michele. I've been reading a bunch of Victorian Era novels lately and feel pea green with envy every time I read about, "mother taking to her bed", and staying there for years at a time. And mother didn't even have delivered food or the internet back then. My ideal vacation is one where everybody leaves me alone and I get to stay in bed and read as long as I darn well feel like it. I'd only get out of it long enough to use the bathroom and pay the pizza guy at the door. Small wonder I ended up in the beginning stages of heart disease. Oddly enough, my husband's idea of a perfect vacation is one where he picks up one side of my bed, dumps me out of it, and drags me off to some amusement park where I'm forced to walk 20 miles a day for a week. He's actually done this to me several times.

We can do this. Slow and steady wins the race

[Michele613]

LOL...well your hubby's way gets you a lot of deferred exercise all at once.....kind of along the feast or famine lines.

My husband is my delivery man but if I was alone I probably would not eat much cuz I don't like to cook. I might have to force myself into the exercise I currently avoid because I'd have to actually 'walk' to the pizza store myself instead of just asking hubby to bring it home (they don't deliver).

Okay........let's see how we'll do.

[keithswife]

I stayed on plan yesterday except for dinner. I made a big bowl of rice and ate it instead of a meal. My stomach has not been happy the last couple of days, following a nasty fast food meal I ate before restarting. I'm honestly wondering if I didn't have a touch of food poisoning. Another reason I need to avoid that crap at all costs. The rice was just what I needed. For exercise, I pulled out one of my old Leslie Sansone DVDs and "walked" a mile. I have a whole stockpile of her stuff. I found a couple that uses resistance bands for firming. I'll try one of those today. I'm in no shape for anything more challenging, that's for sure.

B: bulgur and blueberries
L: cooked veggies over rice. I found a no oil balsamic reduction sauce I want to try with this
D: Mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, green salad

Exercise: Leslie Sansone firming dvd.

[Michele613]

Good going!

I have Leslie S on saved under favorites on my computer. I rarely 'walk' with her but it is something that I could choose to start since I am regularly choosing not to even go outside. Thanks for the reminder. Keep walking and choosing. It is tough.....sometimes I feel like I am a hair's breadth away from falling off especially when this underlying 'anxiety/wanting' creeps in...usually at night. I should just go to bed earlier or eat dinner later. I think it's more of an emotional signal rather than hunger.

Well...keep on keeping on! Have a wonderful weekend.

[keithswife]

Two steps forward, and one step back. I ate my healthy breakfast and lunch but didn't make dinner as my hubby and son went out earlier for a huge lunch. So, I ate the chips, the cheese balls, and a couple of stale sugar cookies. I also didn't exercise as I ran out of time. The lesson learned is to cook 3 meals no matter what. I still need a proper meal even if everyone else already ate.

So today if the rain holds off, I will saddle my spoiled, ungrateful horse and go for a ride. This is the rainiest year I can remember. Most days it rains. It seems that I spend more time cleaning mold off my leather tack than I do using it to ride. I will also do a walk dvd. I don't have much of plan as far as food goes, but I will cobble something together. Gosh, I just need to meal plan and follow that plan already. Not having food prepared always leads me to the junk food.

I think I am going to get some beginning blood work done, just to see where I am starting from. Then hopefully when I have my physical with my doctor I'll be able to see an improvement. It will give me a goal to work to, while also proving to my stubborn self that this program does work if you put in the hard work of actually doing it.

[Michele613]

Well sticking to the program is no different than sticking to learning or doing anything else except with food there are cravings, taste preferences, culture, upbringing programming, etc etc which need to be countered. It's tough but as they say: Nothing worth fighting for comes without a fight (or something along those lines). It's a .......!

Yes...being PREPARED is key....I go nuts with 'what's there to eat' either asking myself or my husband if there is nothing already in the fridge

Well another week coming to a close. Hope overall you were kind to your body. Just make sure that you always try to do a bit better each day/week/etc so that in the end....you are healthier, happier and feel better about yourself.

You can do it...if you DEEPLY want to.

[keithswife]

I did get my bloodwork done on Saturday, and I ate a few compliant meals over the weekend. My sister started a Mary's Mini this morning, so I have a little bit of help with this WOE again. My biggest enemy will always be myself. My son won his second baseball playoff game yesterday so we went out to celebrate. The restaurant served many vegan dishes, but I still ordered and overate a bunch of greasy junk. I keep asking myself, "do you want to get better? Do you want to prevent ending up in a nursing home like so many in the family who wouldn't take care of their health?' The choice is mine to make.

On the positive, I've decided to make sourdough bread. Making and keeping the starter is like getting a new pet. I will keep up the meager exercise I've started and add to it as I get more fit.

B: nothing. Have a major stomach ache from the crap I ate last night
L: spicy beans, cooked carrots, apple
D: mashed red skin potatoes, leftover cooked carrots, sliced strawberries

[keithswife]

Much to my chagrin, I got the results of my bloodwork back yesterday. The numbers are so awful that I won't post them here. It just goes to show that you can be at a normal weight, feel perfectly fine, and be very sick at the same time. Lesson learned for me. It makes me wish I would have just stuck with McDougall when I first heard about it back in my 20's.

But, sick as I am, I'm not dead yet so the good Lord has given me another chance to get things right. I sat down with my unsupportive husband and son and told them I was going to embrace this way of eating whether they like it or not. They came around when I showed them my bloodwork results. My best friend will give me the most grief, as she loves to lecture me about "all things in moderation". Well, I tried that, and I got worse, not better. She is very obese and tells herself the moderation lie to keep from changing her habits. We have been friends long enough for me to know I will not change her, so I will keep my mouth shut and just do what I need to do. Why food is such a hot button with people I'll never know. But I do know that I am the only person I can change, and I better get to changing before I have a heart attack.

Today I will need to get to the store and buy more compliant food, but I should have enough here for at least breakfast and lunch. Exercise will be a walk if I can squeeze it in before the rain.

[Michele613]

Sorry to hear about your disappointing blood work results. Was there a reasonable expectation that they would have been better? I won't go update my blood work UNTIL I lose the same 17 #s that I lost this past Jan-Feb when I last saw the doctor. I was going on and on with the doctor about how great the MWL was and how I had embraced the lifestyle, etc. and now.........here I am starting over. I KNOW my blood work will be outrageous.

Well be kind to yourself and just regroup and get back at it. We know it works so, as they say in all of the Anonymous programs, 'it works if you work it'.

You can do it!

[keithswife]

Sorry to hear about your disappointing blood work results. Was there a reasonable expectation that they would have been better? I won't go update my blood work UNTIL I lose the same 17 #s that I lost this past Jan-Feb when I last saw the doctor. I was going on and on with the doctor about how great the MWL was and how I had embraced the lifestyle, etc. and now.........here I am starting over. I KNOW my blood work will be outrageous.

My problem was Michele, I truly believed if I ate all things in moderation I would be fine. I was eating much healthier than I was years before, and my husband and I were taking walks here and there. But, we eat out a lot. It's a form of entertainment for us. Bored? Let's go get ice cream. No one wants to cook? Let's go get pizza. Or go through a fast-food drive-through. And my BMI is 22, so why wouldn't I be ok? And I totally understand what you're saying about not going to the doctor until you relose the weight. I'm not going back to mine until I get my cholesterol down. She wanted to put me on statins for my high cholesterol. I told her I'd try diet first. That was a year ago. I just went to a local lab for the bloodwork to avoid her.