squealcat wrote:Hello Buns !
When I eat things off plan I notice my itchy eczema starts to come back. I , many times, think it is my imagination but my eczema has been SO much better the last few months and I have been following MWL during this time. Now, the last two days or so I have relaxed my eating (yes, let's call it that
) and I now have areas on my upper legs etc that are itchy and rough. So, I am back at it now !
-squealcat
HI Squealcat...
Not surprised about that eczema coming back. My son has psoriasis, and I've talked to him many times about eliminating triggers from his diet. He refuses to even so much as trying to cut gluten. He just lives with crusty knees and elbows. SMH. It really IS THE FOOD!
So, I got back serious yesterday with my eating and I feel so much better already. Weight down two lbs, blah, blah, blah. And my innards aren't churning
Foot a little bit better, but I expect it to be 100% tomorrow morning. My knee went weird, too. It kinda collapsed while I was at the store yesterday. But I've walked away from all of it now. It is NOT worth it. I gotta figure out how to treat myself without going berserk on the crap.
First thing I did this morning was to cook six cups of rice, so I have rice ready, and there's potatoes in the pantry, lots of frozen spinach and broccoli, several cans of peaches. I should be able to do this entire week or longer with what I have ready. Simple, humble. Starch, greens, fruit. Period.
On the FB Starch Solution page, someone posted that article about committing 100%...
The 100 Percent Rule"Put simply, it’s far too easy to waste our time, money, and energy by not committing
wholeheartedly to an important life change."
Committing 100% means that, in those areas where you are 100% focused, the decisions have already been made:
Decision fatigue can kill ambitions:
“Should I hit the gym or the bar?”
“Should I work out or go grocery shopping?”
“Should I pick up the dumbbells or the phone to get in touch with a friend?”
This 100% thing is not new to me. I get into this hyper-focus mode when I run across a new interest. This (whatever it is: yoga, mindful eating, FlyLady housekeeping methods, homeschooling/unschooling...name it.) If I got interested in it, that took all my time and attention at first...then the interest fades, the 100% dwindles, I lose my focus, drift away, and never return. The ONE EXCEPTION to this life pattern of mine is McDougalling. No lie.
I discovered the McDougall Plan in 1995, and followed it extremely close from 1/1/1995 through about mid September, 1995. Lost some weight, gained amazing energy, lost depression, gained confidence...and my family wasn't happy with no meat, so I started cooking meat as a side dish to my McDougall entrees, and eventually I started "allowing" myself animal protein on Sundays and wandered back to my omnivore whole foods ways. 15 years later, when I had ruined my gut with a high protein diet (fast weight loss but health destroyed) so I quit eating that way and gained back 35 of the 75 lbs I'd taken off. I needed to lose weight, wasn't going back to the high protein, and got thinking about what had worked for me in the past, and that was McDougall. I came back for the energy, though, tbh.
Coming back in September 2009, I was in that gung-ho place, that 100% place for a solid six months. No treats, no cheats. High energy, weight loss. I feasted on Easter, and then back strict right away no problem. I stuck with it pretty well for five years, got under 200, under 190, and for a very brief time hit a weight of 174 lbs, the lowest I'd been since highschoolthen wandered away. Started eating more SAD (though no animal flesh, but lots of processed, and don't skimp on the added fats) gained back ALL the weight I'd lost, plus 15 at my highest re-gain. Once in a while I'd post here for a week or two, and then go away again. But then in 2018 I came back
And as this journal attests, have had the hardest time "coming back" right? In July my sister was diagnosed with heart disease...my trim, fit athletic triathlon winning sister has had a heart attack, as discovered in her EKG. Familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic disorder that has pretty much packed her vessels. (BTW, I bought her Esselstyn's book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" and she read it, and has given up all fats except avocado!!!) Well that news made me sit up and pay attention and I got really serious for the entire month of August. Didn't lose any weight, but seems to me I began feeling better...I'll have to go back and check. I've been keeping track here for a reason, eh?... anyway that reveleation about my sister's health scared me and made me get serious and my mind has been a heck of a lot more in the game, even though I've continued with my stupid habits periodically.
As with the gut destruction from eating high protein, which means I can never eat that way again, and the discovery that dairy causes intestinal distress and NOTHING dairy is worth it. Nothing. Well, now I have confirmed that junky "treats" actually cause me joint pain, and I can't think that it is worth it. Having to limp around in the grocery store yesterday? because I had to have fudge and a Danish for Xmas breakfast? Or Scottish shortbread cookies, or the homemade biscuits I made from Bisquick, sour cream, and 7 up? IOW, for a few days I got away from simple, humble and ate lots of processed, high fat, high sodium, high sugar foods. Not even real food. And to be perfectly honest, most of it NOT worth it. Pistachios and chocolate ARE worth it. Scottish shortbread cookies from a tin bought in the seasonal aisle of the grocery store? NSM...Jimmy John's vegetable sandwich? BLCH WHY? That isn't even special, except my PT job doesn't ALWAYS provide food but on Xmas they do.
Well now I'm back on track and feeling better already. Soon to be pain free even in my feet and knees
and going to drop some freaking weight. Regular starch/fruit or veg, plus lentil soup since I made it and have half a gallon of the stuff
Going to re-read that 100% article and then JUST DO IT. No more fiddling around.