Newbies

OLIVEOYL: I’m glad you decided to stay with us. It’s nice to have so many different interesting ideas and thoughts to help keep us going. If you weren’t with us — see what you would be missing 🙂 And I appreciate so much the wisdom of OSSIE! Couldn’t do it without her. So, Oliveoyl, stay tuned in and keep sharing. Have great day!

Evening all you lot….I have had such a busy day! Went to town with my daughter and 7 year old grandson and 5 year old grandaughter. Came lunch time, and we were heading to the Coffee Club where I could get a healthy caeser salad with salmon and a yummy runny poached egg! Then the kids decided they were really set on Indian Curry instead of chips and salad! We gave in and I had to have a beautiful Madras Chicken Curry! Never mind…I have the salad every other day!!! We got home at around 5, so the lovely dinner I was going to make flew out the door! Lol.

OLIVEOYL….you have got a lot of feedback…you sure got the kettle boiling girl! It is good for us. I hope the things that have been said to you have been helpful. I don’t know if it is brave of me to pick myself up and keep going after a fall…it is just something I do to survive in this life! I love life, and people, and want to enjoy it! As I am getting older and wiser and slower and fatter and achier, I am not enjoying life as much as the perky lady inside wants to!!! So I have to get up and go again, or I am going to miss out on so much, and so will my family miss out on having fun with me!!! I understood that you meant that you were hoping for someone like Ossie to help and not one of us. It is fine. One thing PPEDDLE said to you that I realise may have come from what I said about “not voicing your negativity”…I certainly don’t mean on here, you can say what you feel here…as PPEDDlE said, she has had the same thoughts, and others have said what they think about how they feel. I was referring to your every day life…I believe that we need to be aware of the “lies” we tell ourselves, as they are the things that feed our negative feelings, and keep us “down”! There is a story many of you might have heard before, that I often think of…an American Indian Elder apparently made this comparison to a friend he was talking to…..

“Inside of me there are two dogs.
The black dog is mean and tries to talk me into making the wrong choices.
The white dog is good and encourages me to make the right choices.
The black dog fights the white dog all day”.

When asked by the friend ‘WHICH DOG WINS?’, the elder reflected for a moment and replied;
“THE ONE I FEED THE MOST!”

What do we allow to influence our thinking? What do we tell ourselves? That is what determines our behaviour, so we need to learn the truth about ourselves, and practice telling ourselves the truth. It is a very tough battle, but we all need to do it if we want to stay “up”…regardless of what area of our lives we are dealing with.

PPEDDLE…I love what you have said….it really encouraged me…thanks! It is so good to share this journey with so many open, down-to-earth people.

APENSA….what a flirt!!! I am so glad you corrected yourself regarding all the beautiful ladies on here!!! Lol…and I am amazed that you said I was your stablity on here…lol…that is funny! It is nice to know that I am of some help to someone Apensa….thanks mate. Pleased to hear your doctor is doing something for your taste buds too. Hope the food starts to get some flavour soon!!!

Got to go…nearly my time for bed!!! 10.30….night all! Happy sailing…Bev.

Welcome, PennyJ. Since Ossie mentioned the wonderful gals and GUYS here, I naturally had to say something. yep, you’re never alone here. Seaborn Girl is my shot of stability. Peddles is my gym teacher…yep, peddles, still hitting the treadmill every morning. Ossie is our Home Room teacher and helps us stay “In The Know”. Penny, you’ve stumbled on to a great set of “e-friends”. I don’t have room to mention everyone.

How about a horror story of having to attend a social meeting for dinner……at a place that serves an all you can eat salad bar and …..you guessed it…..PIZZA!!! I was actually pretty good. One bowl of Tomato Basil Soup….probably loaded with Sodium. A “small” salad…..with everything on it including Blue Cheese Dressing and ONLY two pieces of Pizza………..Looks like an orange and my first round of Steroid Pills for breakfast.

Hi, ppeddle. Thanks for your detailed and encouraging post. Bravo for being there for your mother.
As for your question, Multigrain Cheerios is actually fine (minimal chemicals and salt); the corn is likely GMO, but is not the whole product here.

Hi, Seaborn Girl. Adequate and well-timed sleep is indeed very, very important to your efforts here. It not only puts a lid on late-night munching, but also optimizes your metabolism to “burn fat”.

Hi OliveOyl. I could have typed your message except for a few details. My age is 38 and instead of a husband I have a mother I care for that has her own health issues.

I could cry sometimes when I look at the mirror. I’m 208lbs. My ideal weight is 135. I hate to have my picture taken. Winters aren’t so bad because I wear bulky sweaters, but summertime…ugh. But then I started to look at friends of mine that are overweight…their weight makes no difference to me with regards to friendship, so why should my own weight make such a difference to me??? I have to stop being my own worst enemy. Everytime I start to feel depressed I hang on to that thought.

I found starting TDC overwhelming, so I break it down in chunks. I used to skip breakfast and lunch, eat a huge portion for supper because I was so hungry and then binge a bit before bed because I was still hungry. No wonder I need to lose 70 lbs. I have started eating breakfast and lunch for a while, but skipping snacks, and still eating huge suppers because I was still feeling hungry. So I did the meal planner, but I only use it for a guide. I don’t like to cook…I use the planner and recipes only as a reference to incorporate into my regular meals.

For instance, I’m super picky for breakfast. All I want is a bowl of multi-grain cheerios, some berries and skim milk. Oh, and I also sprinkle some flax seed in. That’s it. I’ve tried other things, but I don’t like it. I’ve been meaning to ask Ossie if multi-grain cheerios are on the good or bad side of the healthy eating spectrum. But for now, I’m not changing it, so that’s what it is.

On to lunch. Same deal…I don’t prepare a fancy lunch. I want a ham sandwich. That’s it. Every day. I used to have white-bread, and whatever lunch meat was on sale. Now I have SWG bread, and gluten free ham. I still use miracle whip, but put on less, and add flax seed in with the mayo. I love the taste way more than the white bread. I also have a little piece (1 oz) of either marble or cheddar cheese.

Snacks. Used to skip snacks…can’t gain weight if I don’t eat. Wrong! So I looked at the snack suggestions in the planner. And I have the same thing every day. Celery sticks with some organic ceaser dressing and a 1 oz piece of cheese in the morning. Amazing…I find I’m not as hungry lunch time! In the afternoon I have a banana. Same thing every day. Suddenly, I’m not starving suppertime. I’m hungry, but I can now eat normal portions for supper.

And as for supper, I used to use a lot of package foods…instant rice, boxed meals, frozen meals, etc. Stuff really high in sodium. I can’t throw out food, so as I use it I don’t replace it, and use healthier alternatives. Lasagna is made with brown rice pasta. Uncle Ben’s Bistro rice is replaced with brown rice. I made awesome chicken wings the other night using swg bread crumbs instead of white bread crumbs. I use swg hamburger buns instead of regular rolls. Small and simple changes.

I also get organic wherever I can. Organic cream cheese for my swg bagels and english muffins (a lot of people mentioned goat cheese but I can’t aquire a taste at all for that). I’d like to try yogurt, but I’m not sure yet what to get…I don’t like plain yogurt, so that’s tabled for later review.

Now I can at least see where my challenges still are. I still don’t drink enough water. And I still binge at night. The binging is habit…one I’m having a devil of a time breaking. Since I used to starve myself all day I would often wake up at night hungry, so I’d eat before bed so I’d sleep through the night, and I can’t shake that urge that I have to eat before bed. I become almost obsessive over it. Well, I spent years building the bad habit…I guess I can’t expect to shake it overnight. I did switch to healthier popcorn with organic butter, and organic tortilla chips. However, the problem is that I often have them both at night. 🙁 I just can’t help myself.

The other problem is exercise…I go through spurts when I do real well, then periods where I am so lethargic I can’t get out of my own way. I’m in the lethargic period now. I know some of it is the anxiety and depression, but it’s a heck of a catch-22. Need exercise to lose weight and gain energy, but need to lose the weight to get the energy to do the exercise. Summer will help because I’ll be in the garden a lot.

I will say though that I feel so much better. I can’t remember the last time I felt heartburn or had a bad stomach (I suffer from reflux and IBS). I’m always skimming through the postings to see what tips I can pick up from other people. But I don’t let other’s failures or successes sway me…we are all different, with different bodies and we all have to find our own path and what will work in our lives. Just take one day at a time. Tomorrow supper is burgers and fries…extra-lean ground beef, swg buns, and organic waffle fries. Yum! And reasonable portions now.

Hang in there…we’re all in this together! Post your frustrations…it’s not negative. I know I feel the same way a lot and it does help knowing I’m not the only one, because there’s days I feel I must be.

Night all!

Morning all…..
OLIVEOYL….so good to wake up this morning and find you on deck! I thought we had lost you mate! We are so similar in the way we eat, and what we are going through. I am sure things will get better…only you can make that happen though hey? And I am very pleased to see that sense of humour coming through as well as CHIA! I hope to see more of you on deck as you find your footing.
OSSIE,I am pleased to see you too, and as I am similar to OliveOyl, it is good to read all your comments to her. I have been below deck so I could get over my tiredness and depression from it. Still eating right, but found the constant thinking about food as well as everything else going on in my life, was stressing me out! I will be ready to begin again with the plan soon. I am not on prednisone, but I do find that night time is a temptation to binge as well. I reckon I just need to go to bed earlier. I enjoy what I am doing after dinner…we watch a show together, then play a game of scrabble before Bill goes to bed, and then I clean up a bit, and do some digital scrapbooking, editing, etc, a bit of reading, play a few words with friends on FB, and off to bed by 11.30 usually. I would go to bed earlier if I could just go to sleep then, but I have to train my body clock to set differently….so it might take some time. I decided a couple of days ago to just have a container of free vegies that I like ready to munch on….like carrot sticks, capsicums, zucchinis or cucumbers, I don’t find that exciting, but know they are the things I could eat that won’t cause me to stay awake. I am also going to set an alarm to make sure I go to bed by 10.30. I have to make some changes, so will see how it goes for me. It will be the ablility to fall asleep that will be the problem as usual for me!
Anyway, have to move now…got to go into town soon. Apensa and Chia, Jackie, Anna, and anyone else who is on deck….have a great day. OliveOyl, I do hope you have a better night. Obviously you are in America somewhere!
Bev.

Hi, Apensa. Regarding your sense of taste: if you are taking any medications, note that some do cause loss of or change in taste; sometimes even a change in the medication can make a difference. It is possible that your sinuses never fully opened back up after the cold/URI – smell is more important that your mouth for the actual taste of the food (the tongue senses what you did write that you are sensing). Other possibilities include heartburn and/or reflux, as well as conditions that change the lining of your mouth. It is great that you are going for a check-up.