diet starting today

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I Like this diet idea, since August I have slowly lost 20 pounds, mostly by cutting out carbs, I need to lose a bit more but it is slow. My diabetes really came to the forefront this year so I am also trying to watch my sugar... I am over 60 and for the past 25 years my weight has been constant at about 230+/-7 pounds, but now it is a problem, my blood pressure has also been running on the high side so there plenty of room for improvement. Trying to find time to exercise and control my urges is an issue for me. I think being part of a non-judgmental peer group would be good.

I like the idea of a late afternoon soup to curb cravings, got any suggestions for the late evening cravings. The wife and I have been using probiotic drinks to try to deal with that middle of the night munchies...

The wife has also been having trouble with high sugar swings, sometimes it jumps to 280+ after dinner and then in the morning it falls to 50 or 60...

I have been taking my blood pressure twice a day just to see where I'm at....
 
I use to get my blood pressure taken at the local drug store kiosk and it was always a very low, "High" blood pressure. With my walking and dieting, I really wanted to get my blood pressure back to "Normal". I went out and bought my own blood pressure watch style band blood pressure device, and been using it since my diet began.

My home device was constantly elevated and it didn't matter what I ate, how far I walked, or how much salt was in my diet. I mean...it was 20-30 points higher than it ever was, which of course, scared me and caused me even a higher reading!

Well, dumb me, I didn't read the instructions correctly. I would sit in a chair, turn it on, then drop my arm down to my lap. Well, I finally read the instructions and must have missed the bullet point that said the BP machine must be at the same level as your heart.

Now, when I check my blood pressure, I keep it at heart level and have never seen such low BP results!
 
Well I have a change of plan.
I got on the scale this morning, it was not good. I have gained more than I thought.
So starting now I am getting back on my program.
It's not KETO but I do severely restrict carbs.
The number one thing that helps me is I track every bite I eat.
There is a web site called MyFitnessPal. It great for tracking.
You enter a food and it will give you a complete nutritional detail.
It has a place to enter your meals, keeps track of your macros so you know if you have eaten too much or to little.
It's free, they do have a paid plan but I have never subscribed.
To keep myself honest I will post my weekly loss so you all can help me stay on track.
Today my weekly loss was 0 pounds.
As an added issue my BP and sugar levels are both up.
Thanks @sonya123. I needed a kick in the butt to get me off my butt.
Calorie Tracker & BMR Calculator to Reach Your Goals | MyFitnessPal
 
UrbanHunter said:
I Like this diet idea, since August I have slowly lost 20 pounds, mostly by cutting out carbs, I need to lose a bit more but it is slow. My diabetes really came to the forefront this year so I am also trying to watch my sugar... I am over 60 and for the past 25 years my weight has been constant at about 230+/-7 pounds, but now it is a problem, my blood pressure has also been running on the high side so there plenty of room for improvement. Trying to find time to exercise and control my urges is an issue for me. I think being part of a non-judgmental peer group would be good.

I like the idea of a late afternoon soup to curb cravings, got any suggestions for the late evening cravings. The wife and I have been using probiotic drinks to try to deal with that middle of the night munchies...

The wife has also been having trouble with high sugar swings, sometimes it jumps to 280+ after dinner and then in the morning it falls to 50 or 60...

I have been taking my blood pressure twice a day just to see where I'm at....
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I'm not an evening snacker, but just in general, fats (good) keep you full so if your late afternoon/evening meal has good fats, it helps keep you full.
And just in case (take it or leave it - your body, your decisions, I'm just sharing) cholesterol levels have no direct correlation to heart disease but processed food do.
This is kinda for everybody I guess - not just UH. We've done a ton of health/anatomy research. Let's just say as in so many other areas what the gov. says and recommends isn't always true or healthy.
 
I used to "diet", but I lost the weight I wanted. Now I may fluctuate 5 lbs or so. When I was dieting. I only ate once a day, which was a BIG salad with whatever veggies I wanted to cut up fresh out of the garden along with whatever protien. Some times it was cubed ham, but my preference was baked chicken straight out of the oven while it was still warm. My favorite dressing was a homemade Honey Mustard. Mayo, Mustard, Honey and then add in a few dashes each of onion powder, garlic powder and red pepper. I ended up losing around 80 lbs within a few months. Sorry but once I hit 226lbs I didn't weigh myself again until I lost a substantial amount. Not ever willing to get back up there again.
 
Dani said:
I used to "diet", but I lost the weight I wanted. Now I may fluctuate 5 lbs or so. When I was dieting. I only ate once a day, which was a BIG salad with whatever veggies I wanted to cut up fresh out of the garden along with whatever protien. Some times it was cubed ham, but my preference was baked chicken straight out of the oven while it was still warm. My favorite dressing was a homemade Honey Mustard. Mayo, Mustard, Honey and then add in a few dashes each of onion powder, garlic powder and red pepper. I ended up losing around 80 lbs within a few months. Sorry but once I hit 226lbs I didn't weigh myself again until I lost a substantial amount. Not ever willing to get back up there again.
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Bragger bragger bragger 😋 If you're so good at it, here take these 10 lbs. I'm giving you and see if you can lose them. They are sticky! 😂
(Note: that's a joke. Good job for taking your health into your own hands.)
 
Just an example of today. First time I ate was at almost 1 pm, a bowl of leftover 10 bean soup with some leftover ham and sausage with rice. Tonight for dinner tonight @ 6:20ish was some steelhead trout cooked in a spaghetti sauce along with a big salad with my Honey Mustard salad dressing. Won't eat again until tomorrows lunch.
 
just what i do...early on in year i counted calories..often rounding up or rounding down. i also measured my food mainly with a 1/3rd cup and a phyrex little bowl i have that real roughly one cup.

i never eat more than 2/3rds cup of rice when eating rice and most time i eat 1/3cup. i dont limit meat or vegetables in rest of bowl and i fill up a big bowl when i eat. i use the lowest calorie 'seasoning' in it i can find because often they are full of sugar if i dont use homegrown or real garlic,soy sauce etc.

i bake chicken breasts in oven and let cool and put in fridge to have to use during the week. i just slice them thin and add to whatever it is i want to eat. if i crave sandwich/subway type thing i slice up whole breast on plate and on second plate i add all the fixings i want...those are all basically free because of no to low calories...i.e. dill pickles have no calories but bread and butter ones are full of sugar..so i only get dill.i use real mayonnaise on chicken.i call it fake subway.

i also eat what i call plate burrito..i fill bowl full of pinto beans i cook and dump in colander and rinse off all the sludgy juice...does this help..i dont know for sure but i think it takes away a few calories. i microwave them then add a few seasonings. i dump on plate and then top unlimited lettuce,tomatoes,salsa,black olives,jalapenos and then limit myself to 2 tablespoons of real sour-cream. if i am craving red beans and rice i do the same thing only limiting rice to 1/3rd cup on plate and covered same way with red beans and toppings.

craving hot wings i slice up the baked chicken breast and warm it and use sweet baby rays wing sauce.its only 20 calories per tablespoon.

this week i am doing version of budda bowls with chick peas and rice leaning to being chinese take out. using beans instead of meat because i have a big container full needing rotated out of pantry.tossing in unlimited veg and i eat a big bowl.

one breakfast i eat is 5 or 6 eggs scrambled with 1/3 or 2/3rds cup ground turkey i season turkey like breakfast sausage.

craving french fries i fix homemade ones in air fryer and then open a can of salmon. i eat whole can of salmon and the little air fryer holds about half a plate of fries.

its what works for me yall...i dont eat like this all the time but mostly.

saturday i weighed and wasnt happy as i gained while family was here. so last 3 days i skipped breakfast and yesterday(monday) i skipped lunch too. i hiked over the weekend so in just 3 days i already lost half of what i gained so i should be good by this weekend easily if not before.
 
Happy Tuesday!

Let me try and ‘circle back’ to get to this thread topic.


The past few years I have certainly been put through some physical challenges. Sheesh. The last big one, November 2022 was COPD/Emphysema. Two weeks in the hospital on O2 and I was able to leave with no external O2 required at night. That didn’t mean I was out splitting wood that afternoon or anything, just that I could go to sleep without it needed. 😊

So the past year I was learning how to breath differently and rearrange my life to accommodate this ‘new normal’. This lead to a deterioration in my general health. I could feel it happening, gradually. But like first responders, you take things in a certain order and breathing/lung health was at the top of my current list. So I spent many months getting all that squared away. This led to a general deterioration of the stomach and leg muscles due to a different breathing pattern and minimal for exercise. Yeah, it is odd, but it is what it is.

I am not really overweight, #220 instead of my old standard of #190-#195. BP has been good, 132/78 was the last, but all within that range. Heartbeat good, strong, no anomalies. My main goal is to gain strength back now that I am breathing more ‘normally’. I can’t run any marathons, a grocery shopping trip will take it out of me for half the day. But I am to the point I can start to work on getting some stamina back. And that will start with diet, and that brings us to this thread! 😊 The little red haired gal would be proud of me for the circle back, right?



I started a few weeks ago at the one year anniversary when I had a visit with the Pulmonologist and my GP. I am not a pill guy and let them both know from day 1, been there done that, not going to happen again. I KNOW most issues can be taken care of with diet and let them know we can start there.

So the plan of attack was to just adjust the diet and lifestyle. This includes a little bartering and negotiating. There are just certain things I am not going to make concessions on, and I bargain around them. Yes, for my health also. I am not going to give up my morning coffee or the splash of Half and Half in it. I will cut down on how much I have. I am not going to give up fresh, warm bread either… nor the real butter that goes on it! Other things we can talk about. I gave up alcohol many years ago as one of those concessions, cheese/dairy for another and quit smoking the day I went in the hospital with COPD. So push comes to shove, I CAN make drastic changes.

The bread I bargained and changed it to a whole wheat bread instead of bleached enriched bread flour. I played around and came up with a recipe that even added Museli! It wasn’t like I was slamming bread all day anyway. I love bread. Fresh, warm bread with butter! I used to make a half loaf of New York style Italian every morning. (1.5 cups bread flour) The old woman and I would eat maybe half of it, maybe more if we had sandwiches or something. Ha.. I can smell it right now!! LOL!! So my concession: I can still have bread, no more no less, but a much ‘healthier’ version now.

I can still have that morning cup of coffee and smell bread in the oven... No, not the nice Italian bread, but I made that concession. 😉 I gave up my one can of Root Beer a day and replaced it with a slice of lemon in a glass of water. Oh.. And that scoop of ice cream was not necessary anymore without the root beer. Vanilla ice cream in lemon water is not the same as a Root beer float, so another concession made! Lol! And I now keep a container of lemon slices and put them in about every glass of water I have.

White potatoes gone, sweet taters in, gave up the half teaspoon of sugar but kept the half and half in the morning coffee, gave up the two slices of bacon, but kept the eggs… I did not have to give everything up, but made enough of a change to where I am noticing a difference and I am not deprived of some enjoyment in what is left of life! I could sit at home, eat kale and run around the block all day, but what does that leave me for enjoyment? That is right.. A few more years so I can eat more kale and run around the block more! 😊
 
Cabin Fever said:
Whole food, plant-based diet (WFPB). In the first year, I lost 80 pounds and was taken off 5 prescribed meds for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes. Five years later, I am still WFPB, and still down the 80 pounds and still medication free.
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what do you eat exactly? Never heard of that or is it just vegan? Either way congrats on your weight loss and improved health
 
Day 2 went well, I didn't eat anything after that substantial lunch. The lamb ribs turned out really good.

Day 3: today will be tough, we have to go shopping ( plus I want to go swimming but not sure we have time)
So I will make grits and eggs early before we go and then cook later when we get back. It needs to be something fast.
I think if I put my mind to it, I can resist eating at night. I did feel a little actually hungry around 9 pm last night but just had some water
I am not going to weight myself until a week is up.
 
In the past I used to do this :
https://www.gmdietworks.com/general-motors-diet/gm-diet-indian-version.html
It totally works but it is hard to do here. First I have to make 2 meals , one for me one for husband and son. Second it makes you feel cold , so it can really only be done in warm weather ( no problem in Florida, but problem here) , third I worry about the large amount of potassium since I now take a low dose blood pressure meds. And last, we only go shopping for groceries every few weeks, and this diet requires lots of fresh fruit and veggies which will go bad in a few days. I did this anytime I was up a few pounds in Florida and it worked great. Easy diet for me but here I can only do it in summer when we have lots of fresh fruit and veggies in the garden. It's still a huge hassle since I can't send the rest of the family to go get take out while I do my diet. It's a time consuming diet.
 
sonya123 said:
what do you eat exactly? Never heard of that or is it just vegan? Either way congrats on your weight loss and improved health
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Veganism is a philosophy, almost a religion. WFPB is like a healthy version of vegan. A vegan that eats potato chips and beer all day is compliant. The attached PDF explains a whole-food, plant-based diet (it's not a weight-loss diet, it's a lifestyle) better than I can.
 

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Ok,

a quick sidetrack on scales to measure your weight. My other half will weigh herself just once a month, and will go by how her clothing fits. Me, I am a fanatic on weighing myself daily. She said I will get discouraged when it jumps a pound, or happy when it drops a pound. My biggest issue is I have an old spring loaded scale, so depending on how I stand on it, I can manually adjust 5 pounds in both directions. This is not good. I went out and purchased a glass plate electronic digital scale, that lights up in big, bright numbers, and should be pretty spot on. It gets delivered on Saturday, so I will let you all know how bad my old scale was with my true weight.

Carry on, this was just a side topic but really enjoy how it seems many are jumping on this thread and I love all the input.
 
1701796183246.jpeg
 
havasu said:
My biggest issue is I have an old spring loaded scale, so depending on how I stand on it, I can manually adjust 5 pounds in both directions. This is not good. I went out and purchased a glass plate electronic digital scale, that lights up in big, bright numbers, and should be pretty spot on. It gets delivered on Saturday, so I will let you all know how bad my old scale was with my true weight.
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Welcome to the future present!:huggs:
A glass plate digital is what I have been using for years.
A quick tutorial on how to embrace the 1/10th pound accuracy:
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/rant-for-the-day-keep-it-clean.912/post-538180
 
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Day 1 didn't go well.
My Aunt took me to lunch after I drover her to her doctors appointment.
Day 2 will be better.
We have a glass top bathroom scale. It is usually very accurate.
My wife was telling me it was not correct because she was sure her pants were tighter then they had been.
So I checked and realized she was right.
You can push down on the scale and when it displays 0.0 you let off and it will calibrate it's self.
I did that and she immediately gained 10 pounds. She wasn't real happy that she was right.
I guess we need to recalibrate the scale more often.
 
backlash said:
My wife was telling me it was not correct because she was sure her pants were tighter then they had been.
So I checked and realized she was right.
You can push down on the scale and when it displays 0.0 you let off and it will calibrate it's self.
I did that and she immediately gained 10 pounds. She wasn't real happy that she was right.
I guess we need to recalibrate the scale more often.
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That is a great tip! :D
I weighed myself, 192.0 lbs.
Then I used your trick, 189.4 lbs.
(this is my 'fully-loaded' weight;))
 
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sonya123 said:
I have tons of good Asian recipes if you need any. And yes, Miso soup will definitely be on my diet. The only thing I haven't figure out how to store tofu once opened, since you only need a little bit for the soup
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Long ago in a galaxy far away…I worked in a health food store, we made sandwiches, some with tofu. It was bought from an elderly Japanese man in Baltimore who made it himself. He advised that tofu be kept in a container, refrigerated, with good water covering most of it, otherwise open, no lid, and to change the water every day. Ymmv.
Sure, where do you want to put the recipes? I’m not using much meat these days.
 
Patchouli said:
Long ago in a galaxy far away…I worked in a health food store, we made sandwiches, some with tofu. It was bought from an elderly Japanese man in Baltimore who made it himself. He advised that tofu be kept in a container, refrigerated, with good water covering most of it, otherwise open, no lid, and to change the water every day. Ymmv.
Sure, where do you want to put the recipes? I’m not using much meat these days.
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Maybe someone should start a plant-based recipe thread?
Speaking of tofu and soup, below is a photo of the pho my wife makes.
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