Are you looking for support on your health and fitness journey? If you are, then this thread is for you.

There are no expectations in this forum. Post as often as you like. Post anything that you feel is relevant to your own personal health and fitness goal. Here are some ideas:

• Monthly health and fitness goal
• Daily health and fitness goal
• Progress (or setbacks) in reaching your goal
• Personal stories about why you are joining this topic
• Healthy recipes that you feel others will enjoy
• Links to articles or books that you feel others would find helpful
• Food Choices (healthy or unhealthy)

Remember, your health and fitness journey is your own. There is no one program, method, or philosophy that is right for everyone. This thread is for support only.

Happy April Everyone. Did everyone meet their March goals? I didn't. But with all the yo-yo-ing I did, I'm starting April at 245.8, which is just a few ounces more than I was on March 1st. Less than 1/2 lb. difference.

This month I'm going to do my best to get under 240 lbs. once more. I have good days and bad days, eating wise. Hoping for more good days this month.

I'm holding at 198.5 so far. Without Ozempic, I'm focussing twice as hard on eating the right foods in the right combinations.  I'm reading that eating a protein with a carb helps it to metabolize, which is the whole thing behind insulin resistance.  I used to just eat protein for breakfast, eggs and ham. Now, I add a piece of multigrain toast while keeping the quantity of ham down.  Even if I have a piece of fruit, eat a string cheese to add just a bit of protein.  I'm also planning ahead for resistant starches.  For example, I've thawed haddock for supper and I nuked a potato already to give it time to cool before I want to eat it later today.

Happy April.  I haven't met any of my monthly goals on weight.  Probably up a bit from where I ended in January.  I'm having a hard time sticking to my IF schedule and I know that is a part of the problem.

My no sugar March just caused me to eat more 'non-sugar' foods, which is not too surprising to me.  I don't do well with restricting foods.  I think that is why IF works for me.  Somehow restricting makes me think about it all the time and messes me up.

So, for April, I'm just going to try to stick to the IF schedule and see what happens.  I'm traveling 3 weekends in a row though (last two of April and first one of May) and so we'll see if I can make it work or not.

I have a paper on my wall that lists the 12 habits I tried to make during 2022.  I'm still doing fairly well on probably 10 of them.  I guess that's good because it means they really are habits.

Wishing y'all a good day.  I'm off to play Mexican Train this afternoon.

My goal has been to walk a mile on the treadmill in less than 20 minutes. Last week I finished in just over 17 minutes with a 2.5 elevation and about 3.5-3.7 mph. 

I'm going to keep working at eating a variety of plant-based foods every day. 

At 197.5 today. I'm beginning to really think there's something to the idea of combining protein and carbs, especially resistant starches. It does require planning so that my carbs have time to be cooled or frozen then thawed.  One big difference between me and many of you is that I rarely eat out or with friends.  I will be eating easter dinner at my friend's house so I can't control much. I did request that they not buy me a chocolate bunny, and she will respect my wishes. Their easter baskets will be full of chocolate but I will not be tempted. Last year she got me a chocolate bunny despite my request. I think I did eat it but I really do not want the candy!

Good job Teri.  I agree there is something about carbs and protein together.  I think it's partly the satisfaction level we get from a meal.

I was down 1# somehow yesterday, and today I'm down another 1.5# from that.  I'm trying hard not to focus on the food, but on sticking to my IF schedule.  I know that works for me, but I have to be diligent and consistent in sticking to the schedule.

Have a good week everyone, and I hope you are successful at whatever your goal is for this week.

I am working very hard to curb sugar from my diet (and I am only an occasional sweet snacker). I took the advice of a nutritionist and stopped buying low-fat anything since the replacement for the fat is sugar and I'll adjust to having smaller portions. 

Shirley, like you, I resist buying low fat anything, opting to try smaller portions so I get something that tastes good.  And those products that have no added sugar....bah! They have sugar substitutes or alternative sweeteners. I don't like any of them. I'm not sure how good these are for us.  Low fat and sugar free does not mean calorie free and I think people forget that.  Too much of a good thing is still too much.

I dread holidays.  I'm having easter dinner with friends Sunday. I'm obliged to not be sulky about going off my diet. Ham, mashed potatoes, corn and pie. I will go, enjoy dinner and know that it will take a couple days to lose the couple pounds I'm sure to gain.  She always cooks for a crowd even though there's only 3 of us so I'll take leftovers home. The nice thing about that is that after the potatoes are refrigerated overnight, they become a resistant starch and therefore digested more like fiber than starch.

I learned a long time ago to stay away from low cal or fat free foods & drinks. The artificial sweetners are actually sweeter tasting and you end up eating or drinking more because you fool yourself into thinking it's ok since it's sugar free, low fat, or diet. I always seem to gain more when using anything like that.

I do drink soda's once in awhile but not diet except for one exception. Sometimes the only caffiene free soda I can find is diet so I'll get it unless I go with gingerale. I rarely drink more than 1 can a day but I usually want it in the evenings, so I need the caffeine free so it doesn't interfer with me sleeping.

Most foods I eat are not fat free. So I do try to be careful of portion sizes. My biggest issue is I still eat a lot of ready made foods that you can nuke or throw in the oven ( like air fried chicken nuggets). And I eat a lot of canned foods that I nuke like soups, beef stew, etc. Or I eat sandwiches which means processed meats or cheese. So I'm getting a lot more sodium than I need or want. And because of the sodium I retain fluid really easily. I try to counteract that by taking OTC fluid pills to keep the sodium count down, and blood test wise, my sodium levels are excellent. But I can always tell I've had too much by how my rings fit or if my ankles get puffy.

 I just haven't been able to make myself do any from scratch cooking other than cooking with my crockpot. With it I will fix dry beans with hamburger or ham thrown in to make it more of a complete meal. In fact that's what I'm fixing for today. And I make a small cake of cornbread to add with it. I can eat that meal for 2-3 meals. With that I can limit how much sodium I'm eating. But I only fix this kind of meal on weekends.

 But my problem is still portion control. I flatly eat too much if it's something I enjoy, unless I buy single serve in whatever I'm getting. I've always been a big eater and it's so hard to change that. If I don't eat til I'm full then I find myself mindlessly snacking thru-out the rest of the day. Then I beat myself up when I get on the scale the next day. As of today I'm up 1/2 lb. Hoping tomorrow I'll see it back down but with beans & cornbread for supper tonight, I'll probably be up again a little for the start of the new week.

Friends! I'm 196.9 today! I'm happy. I will enjoy Easter dinner today knowing that it won't affect me overly even though it is not resistant starch. Leftovers will be. Also, my blood presdure has normalized. I think my weight loss with decrease in salt consumption is why.  Before I got seriously focussed on this health regimen, my BP regularly ran 140/90. I check it every other morning before coffee and itnow runs 108/74 regularly. I had to Google normal because this looks low to me, but its normal! 

I'm reminded CONSTANTLY of all the foods I can't/don't/won't eat anymore every time I turn the TV on.  Every time I drive in town! Its very hard sometimes.  But when I start whining about missing that Whopper with fries and a chocolate shake, I remind myself of the kidney disease, diabetes and high blood pressure that eating like that brought me.  Maybe I'll reward myself by shopping ebay for a smaller pant which I now need!

Everyone! Keep up the good work and don't lose focus!

WTG Teri!!!!!!!! Keep it up.

I'm up 0.7 from last Sunday but with eating a big helping of cowboy beans and cornbread last night, it could have been a lot worse. I didn't add the molasses or brown sugar to the beans as the recipe called for so actually I had 7 bean with cornbread. So good.

Happy Easter my friends

Good morning.  Way to go Teri.  You have done sooo well.

I was up like half a pound from last week - the result of eating out both Friday and Saturday.  And, I had a big meal, with dessert, at Pappadeaux's yesterday.  It was a retirement celebration for someone I had worked with.  Pappadeaux is one of my favorite restaurants and I made it my only meal, but still. . . . .

Last week I did stick to my IF schedule all 7 days - first time in weeks.  I'm entering a challenging few weeks now though because I'm traveling the next 2 weekends and then home a week and off again for a trip.  I'll just have to do the best I can do and leave it at that.

Keep up the good work everyone.

I just don't understand my body anymore. Yesterday I ate like there was no tomorrow, yet this morning I was down almost a full pound. As much sodium as I had yesterday (pasta plus pizza) I expected to see a 2-3 lb. gain. I can almost starve myself and gain weight yet pig out like yesterday ( and I did pig out big time) and lose weight. Just doesn't make sense to me.

The numbers are still going down. I'm down another 2.1 lbs. this morning. I'm not complaining but just don't really understand how I'm losing considering what I've been eating.

March passed in a blur.

In the final week, I began spotting, and then had an already scheduled doctor's appointment, after which I was scheduled for a transvaginal ultrasound (ouch), blood tests (really good tech, no ouch!), and a mammogram (ouch, really ouch).

Result of ultrasound: nothing alarming.

Result of blood test: thyroid meds WAY too low which can be a cause of the spotting (ok, good, a reason!), and explains why I basically dragged myself around all month and got nothing done and gained weight. 

Result of mammogram - I don't have it yet! and it was on March 31. They said it might take a little longer because they would want to compare with my previous one and it would take some time to get it from KY, but really, this long?

My meds have been raised a little (I think not enough, but we'll see) and the spotting has disappeared (that's a good sign) and I am starting to catch up on things. I actually wrote my "initial" post here last week but accidentally closed the window before submitting and didn't have enough energy to repost.

Margaret, sounds like it was good you had a doctor appointment scheduled, but sorry you had to undergo the painful ultrasound and mammo.  With all the medical advances, you'd think they could find a way to do mammograms that didn't involve "making pancakes."

Hopefully, they will get your thyroid med dose right and you'll feel better and have more energy.  They might need to compare the mammogram with previous ones, but I'd think if they saw anything too alarming you'd already know about it.

Vicki, our weight does weird things, and sometimes there is just no figuring it out.  But, I know we can be eating too little and throwing our body into starvation mode which in the end means we burn less calories and gain weight.  If you were eating too little and then all of a sudden you have an influx of 'too much,' your body might still respond with a loss because it moves out of that starvation mode.  I've seen people talking about this in the IF forum.  There is a book called Fast, Feast, Repeat that goes into this.  I think it's actually an intermittent fasting plan maybe (??).  I do IF, but more just a traditional 16:8 these days.  I think this idea mixes it up with longer and shorter fasts.

Teri and Vicki - congrats on the weight loss.

Teri - I am interested in the carb/protein pairing.  I will have to research that some more.  I try to limit my carbs, but probably end up eating more sugary carbs.

I am continuing to yo-yo.  I am doing a lot of the right things - water, walking, conscious eating.  But I am also not working out enough and still eating out too much.  So I know what I need to do but .... I will resolve to do better!

Debbie, here is the article I read about pairing protein with carbs.

https://mghdiabeteseducation.com/2018/03/15/eat-balanced-by-pairing-your-carbs-with-protein/

Thank you for the link Teri!

I'm feeling a little better each day. I finally was able to clear some space to get a permanent set up for my blood pressure reader where I can sit correctly and not take any set up time. Hopefully this will mean I am more consistent with taking readings.

I had jock itch this week so couldn't go swimming, just as I was starting to make that more of a routine.

goals for the rest of the month, basically starting over.

• take BP reading every day
• take BP meds every day (I used to do fine with this, but when I started the thyroid meds that scheduling makes it harder.)
• eat oatmeal or oat bars every day.
• 40000 steps a week ( I want this to go way up, but I'm starting with an easy win)

almist forgot... mammogram results back. No problems. "Almost entirely fatty" is a good result in this case!

Apparently the Fitbit doesn't count steps when you are pushing a cart. I went up and down every aisle in Costco and it only counted the steps from my car to the carts and then from dropping the empty cart off and walking back to my car.

My weight is staying fairly consisant. It's up 0.6 for the week but tomorrow it'll probably be back down again. I yo-yo from day to day and really don't seem to be making much progress over all other than mainly maintaining now for the last 2 months ( within 1 lb.).

I haven't posted yet this month, nothing new to say, but I have been reading along with the posts. I'm still working on the same goals & habits & still trying to lose a few pounds. Tuesday I am doing something health related...my first colonoscopy. I'm 46 & thought you were supposed to do them at 50, but my gynecologist told me at my last appointment it's been dropped to age 45 so here I am about to get ready for that. I am kind of dreading the prep tomorrow & the procedure Tuesday. I think the dread is really the fear of the unknown since I've never done this before. I will be glad when it's all behind me. 

Hope you all are well & are chipping away at your goals & habits. 

Shayla, since I was 65 at my colonoscopy in October 2018 I'm assuming that wasn't my first. Can't remember but 50 would have been 15 years prior so... In 2018 they told me I didn't have to repeat the procedure for 10 years. I mention this only because I'm going to have one at 5 years, probably in January. I feel at my age (I'll be 70 this year)  10 years seems like an awful long time! Yes, I've had 2 good tests but I've had too many reminders of how fast cancer moves.  The prep is no fun but I'll be asleep for the actual indignity. So that's my plan.