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.

Goals for July:

• weight down 8 pounds, to 237 (I think if I get below 240, that will be a breakthrough!)
• take BP reading 5 days a week
• eat oatmeal 5 days a week
• follow IF plan strictly (no "dirty" fasting)
• do all of the PT exercises every day
• repeat the PT exercises 5 days a week
• ride bicycle 5 days a week (at the gym if the weather or air quality means that outside is a bad idea)

Happy 4th of July weekend. Hope it's a wonderful, fun-filled weekend for you all. Hope this is also a good month for all.

Margaret, you can do it. You have some good goals for the month.

I weighed this morning and I gained 6.3 lbs from June 1st to today. Starting out the month at 257.4, which doesn't make me happy at all. I will be going thru my kitchen cabinets and bagging up foods I know are trigger foods and will donate them to the local food bank. It's time I put my big girl panties on and do what I need to do to make getting my weight down a reality. The thought of really pushing another diet makes me cringe but if I don't do something I'm just going to get larger and larger and my body just can't take anymore weight on it. So I'm going to start eating 2 small meals a day, staying around 1000 calories a day. I know you're supposed to have no less than 1200 calories a day, but I'm not very active so I think staying around the 1000 calorie mark will work out ok. I'll see how it works out this month.

Good luck everyone with reaching your goals for the month.

I didn't weigh this morning (it just isn't part of the Saturday routine)

I also started eating before the fasting window.

The only thing I have done so far on my daily goal list is to eat oatmeal. But I still can do the PT exercises; I just haven't done them yet.

My weight is still climbing. I'm 257.7 today. Not happy about it at all.

Good morning.  Weighed yesterday and was up about half a pound.  For a week where I ate out nearly every day, I guess I am okay with that.  This week is better in that regard.

Still trying to get that focus again and to follow the IF schedule completely with clean fasting.  That's the goal this week.  I think I also will stay off the scale this week.  Not good for me to be so consumed with that number.

Whatever your goals, keep striving and I wish you success.

I sent an email to my nephrologist to ask if taking Berberine GlucoGold would be okay. It is a supplement touted to aid appetite suppression, blood sugar control, blood pressure control, weight loss. I thought it best to run it past her before taking because of my kidneys and my BP is running around 115/70.

Tomorrow I'll be picking up BBQ chicken from the fire dept fundraiser. Its good!

ETA:  My doctor gave me the okay to try Berberine GlucoGold. I am also to cut one of my BP meds in half because berberine could cause my BP to go too low.

Teri, Let me know how it works for you. Maybe it's something that would help me.

Vicki, okay. I get it Friday.  Here's the link so you can read about it. 

https://www.amazon.com/Whitakers-Berberine-Supplement-Cholesterol-Concentrated/dp/B098TZ865L/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?hvadid=153677203359&hvdev=t&hvlocphy=9002975&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=17970308507353235641&hvtargid=kwd-143643112848&hydadcr=21195_9334289&keywords=berberine+glucogold&qid=1688431751&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1&smid=AY8FY3OHL7W44

I just haven't been feeling well - dragging around, so I'm not meeting all of my goals.

I looked it up Teri. It's a little more expensive than I'm comfortable spending right now. Let me know if it helps you though. I may have to bite the bullet and order it. My doctor won't help with a weight loss medication because I'm not a diabetic. He feels I should be able to lose the weight on my own, and honestly, he's right. But this morning I'm 258 lbs, so all I'm doing is watching my weight climb higher. So something has to give.

Margaret, I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well. I hope you're feeling top of the world soon.

Happy 4th everyone.

Yes, the Berberine is a bit expensive at $50/month.  I'm willing to at least try it to see if it can kick start my weight loss. I wonder if my kidney disease will  get better if I can lose 50 more pounds to meet my goal.  My blood pressure improved with the first 50 I lost.  I'll let you know if and how much it helps me. Having put out over $200/month for Ozempic, $50 seems doable.

I'll really be interested in how it works for you.

Teri, do you think there is a difference in how something like the berberine would work for weight loss for those who are diabetic vs those who are not?

Just a question I wondered if you saw in all your research.

Well, I bit the bullet and cleaned out 5 bags of food that are trigger foods for me and took them to the food bank this morning. I've let my girlfriend know she can't be bringing me surprise fast food meals anymore or picking up donuts, etc. and bringing me half of them. She's promised to be good. I watched 2 episodes of My 600 lb. Life last night and it's made me more determined that this weight has to come off. I know I'm nowhere near those women's size but I know how easily it is for me to pack on the pounds, so I'm making the changes necessary to keep it from happening. And my friend said she'd support me in my weight loss journey. I'm here alone all the time so there's no excuse for me not to get this weight off. So here's to losing it once and for all.

Lisa, berberine is beneficial to nondiabetics as well because it helps with several metabolic problems.

https://www.healthydirections.com/articles/blood-sugar/what-is-berberine-research-and-benefits

Thanks Teri.  I appreciate the link so I don't have to do my own research.  :)

Hope everyone is going to have a good weekend. As of this morning I'm 254.7, so down almost 3 lbs so down 3.3 lbs since the 4th.

Good morning.  I decided to 'bite the bullet' and resubscribe to the coach part of the IF app I use.  I am sure it's partly that I'm not sticking to it really well that is the problem, but I think that might be because I'm bored with it.  Without subscribing to the coach portion your fasting schedules are very limited.  I tend to choose the same one every week, which I know would work if I followed it faithfully.  But, I think I do better with the variety in schedules that the coach portion gives me.

I have a friend that has committed with me to do IF and to get our steps every day and to exercise 3x a week.  Hoping that accountability will help.  I'm up probably 3# from last Sunday and that's just not where I want to be.

I weighed in at 200 this morning, a slight improvement. I've had lots of nonstarchy veggies. I like being able to walk out to the porch and pick a zucchini!  I started the Berberine GlucoGold this morning.  On the bright side, I put on a pair of sweatpant shorts I wore last year and they were too big!  So I cut off a pair of stained jeans.

I have fallen in love with cabbage. I don't make slaw because I don't want dressing. I sautee it in flavored olive oil, boil or steam it. I want to try roasting it.   I have sauteed it with some local bacon that, while some fat is rendered, actually has quite a lot of meat. Its almost like ham sometimes.   

I have a bunch of fresh spinach in the frig. Asparagus season is over but that was  my go-to veggie. No potatoes, pasta, rice. I want to try some farro, which is a whole grain. I have some "diet" bread with 45 calories per slice. Not the really good bread full of seeds (and more calories).  I want to check out youtube videos on learning to cook Mediterranean. Its not as easy and simple as saying just buy this and this and now you're doing Mediterranean. Cooking involves techniques, spices and pairings that at this time are foreign to me.  I'm used to a style of cooking that uses red meat, carbohydrates, sugars.

Good Morning. As of this morning I'm down 3.8 lbs. for the week, bringing me down to 254.2. What seems to be working for me at this point is that I'm drinking a boost drink in the mornings when I take my BP pill and all the vitamins I take, then I don't eat until 4 pm and I'm eating a normal size meal but not a heavy meal. Then around 8pm I'm eating 1/4th of a cup of raisins as a snack. I drink 1-1/2 cups coffee in the morning that since I have it in a travel thermos, it stays hot til I finish it around 11am ( I just sip it all morning), then I drink a liter of water that has 3 "to go" flavor packets in it). That lasts me til around 5pm. Then I switch to plain bottled water and I drink 2-3 bottles of those by bedtime Those bottles are 16.9 oz each. And I have one by my bed for during the night cause I tend to get dry mouth during the night, thanks to my overhead fan. I've counted calories the last 3 days and I'm staying right at 1400 calories a day. And yesterday I brought my exercise bike into the family room so I can ride it while watching TV. Right now I can only do about  15 minutes at a time on it. The seat isn't at all comfortable.. It's a very old exercise bike from around the 60's with none of the bells and whistles but I figure 15 minutes riding it is about 2-1/2/ 3 miles. That's about what it was on the gym exercise bike. I plan to build up to riding it 30 minutes, which would be about 5 miles or so. I thought about putting my pedometer on my shoe and riding it til I got the 10,000 steps showing. See how that works out. Anyway, what I've started doing is working so I'll continue in this way and see what happens.

Teri, I love cooked cabbage. I get the Glory seasoned canned cabbage, open it and drain the juices, then put in a microwave bowl and heat, then I add a can of drained water packed tuna to it. Makes a really good meal. But the roasted cabbage steaks are really good too. I'll eat cabbage just about any way. I rarely eat slaw though.

Lisa, I hope having the coach will help with your IF plan. Let us know how it goes.

Vicki, I didn't know canned cabbage was a thing! But, why not?

Sounds like pretty positive things you've put in place Vicki.

I was down .4# this morning from last Sunday.  I was surprised because mid-week I was really out of control.  But, I guess a couple days of paying attention and sticking to the IF schedule helped.

We'll see how this week goes with the schedule the app chose for me.  Then next week I will go to Denver to see my kids and so I'll probably be all messed up again.  Sigh!

I'm in Kentucky to visit my son. I'm not eating many meals but they are all going out, so who knows what the scale will say when I get back to Iowa?!

But I am getting a few of the exercises done in my hotel room.

Teri, I love canned cabbage and it's not expensive.

You can do it Lisa.

Margaret, enjoy your visit with your son. Mine is in the Philippines and I have no idea when I'll get to see him again in person. Thank goodness for Skype.

I'm down another .2, so currently 254.1. So far what I'm doing is working.