[(JD)]

I can do this. I NEED to do this.... ok? Going to watch what I eat, and eat less each time I do eat, maybe even eat more meals! Plenty of water (safe kind hehehe) try walking around the back yard a bit...

[ozzie]

You can do this! You can do this! Repeat over and over.

[kimmydawn]

(((((((((((((((((((((sky))))))))))))))))))))))))

good luck!

kd

You can do it. I've lost 19 lbs since we started our healthy eating regimen. down three sizes!!

[dottie]

wow...good for you. I am battling the bulge for the first time in my life. Don't know if I am gaining from all the meds or if it's just menopause. ::Or both! Every day is a trial...on this road!
TGC

[(JD)]

I can't seem to change anything. I'm so depressed, so stressed... I'm not eating garlic rolls though... and not having much pasta at all (but I can't recall if that matters to my body or not) I can't remember. I just can't get it together.

[ozzie]

Give yourself a day or two and try again. Maybe you aren't ready yet to take on a task like this. ((((((((hugs)))))))))

[(JD)]

stress = cortisol = FAT! I weighed today at the pt office (though I didn't get pt grrr) and I weigh 194 again. So now, the 5 lbs I wanted to lose is weight I already lost this year! sigh.

Ok.. I do better if I can list what I eat.. 1/2 grilled chicken, broccoli sauteed with garlic, salad (ranch dressing) iced tea with lemon

[(JD)]

sigh. Ate angus burger, (ff) and a salad.. well 1/2.. I have the other 1/2 for tonight. It wasn't what I originally ordered, they were out of that. I don't do sudden decisions well.. thus the fries. phooey!

[LMo]

I need to lose 15 pounds. However, can I tell you my theory on meat? One of the reasons I rarely eat it is because I'm very suspicious of the growth hormones they use in cattle and poultry. You are what you eat. The agricultural industry benefits by making their animals as big as possible... but by eating food with growth hormones, how can we be sure it isn't affecting us as well?

I'm not saying not to eat it, but on the rare occasions I buy it for my husband, I always make sure that it's hormone-free, even though it costs more.

Just a theory - I don't have anything to back it up.

Love,
LMo

[(JD)]

Yes LMo, I agree. The beef I eat is only black angus (no fillers, etc) and the chicken is only Perdue.. also no additives to speak of.. (now, my allergy to weeds hehehe (marigolds?) )

I have to eat more beef because I am so anemic (was a 8.6 or so?)

I am allergic to the hormones and the antibiotics they give the regular animals. sigh. It isn't just a theory. Free range is really good, if you can be assured of it. In the USA, for instance, there are only 3 chicken plants... Perdue, Tyson and all the rest... which means anything that isn't Perdue or Tyson is contaminated with whatever else the farms allow on those farms... Tyson adds some stuff .. but I find it interesting that the the Southerland or sumerland or whomever it is... still is processed at the 3rd place? I think I have this right, I spoke to the buyer at the restaurant for info to verify what I already knew. I don't eat "fast" food at all (maybe a milkshake on a really down day after T, but not lately.) I rarely eat anything that is fried. I don't eat much bread... I DO have garlic, olive oil, salad, once a day. I don't eat spinach, peanuts nor black tea hardly ever (for 3 years none at all, but recently I found the "peanut free" can of nuts I had for hurricane had the option of being soaked in PEANUT oil! grrrrrr And this last week I drank iced tea for the change. (phoeey on the iron, ya know?) Usually I have broccoli or green beans along with a salad. My main meat is usually grilled only.

I don't know where else to cut my calories fat grams etc.. If I add anything for breakfast (plain oatmenl, lowfat breakfast bar) I gain. I also realized after seeing the dietician who pushed me to add juice with meat meal for added protein absorption, that juice has too much sugar (even 100% juice) my body can't handle it... I gained weight.. which I lost prior to the hurricane but now... I don't drink hardly any soda as my body doesn't do the sugar, nor the carbonation...

it all makes for very boring eating, as I can't taste or smell (well I might get a hint of very very sweet or serano pepper hot maybe) I think the nerves in my mouth are going south also, as I need really strong textures to sense them too now. But with the TMD I can't push chomping.

OK I rant. I don't think anyone asked for all this information. I wish I could just fast for 2 weeks....

[LMo]

Wow - great research, Sky! Thanks!

wait - what's wrong with black tea and spinach?

The last few times I tried to give blood, they said that my red blood cell count wasn't high enough. They said that if I'm not comfortable eating beef, that prunes and raisins are a great substitute.

I know that you have some disabilities (but don't know the details)... but is there any way you can do something else to BURN calories since there isn't anything left to restrict?

[(JD)]

My oncologist/hematologist asks FIRST thing when he sees everyone ... do you know what NOT to eat? He says that PEAnuts, black tea (includes orange pekoe) and spinach all form an enzymatic bond to the iron in your system and causes the body to THROW it off/out! DO NOT ingest these if you battle anemia. sigh.

I am unable to exercise. I go to physical therapy 3x week just to get stretched out so my muscles don't atrophy. (Yes, I do home stretches, but am not able to do them well enough to prevent digression.) Since the hurricane I have spent 30 min a day or almost outside puttering... I've lost my landscaped circles/areas in the back yard and am removing dead items, extra dirt very slow, methodical and no lifting to speak of...but more than normal. I shouldn't be... as I haven't had enough PT of recent..

I can't eat prunes, as just 1 causes extreme reactions (allergy?) and raisens have almost NO iron in them, compared to other stuff. I have used chlorophyll in the past... think it looks like green tea (which I drink when I'm up to making it) speaking of anemia. My body refuses any iron pills or such. grrr Some of the breakfast bars have much more iron than raisens. Oatmeal is supposedly a good source too.. if you like porrage.

I thought my chlosterol ratings were ok considering I increased my meat/protein by 4 I think. sigh. what's the use?

[LMo]

ah - only if you battle anemia. I thought you meant in general. I drink a ton of tea.

Sounds like you've tried everything Sky. That stinks. You got dealt a lousy hand. I wish there was something I could do for you.

[(JD)]

tks LMo well, it still binds the iron... which could be a remedy for those with high iron in their blood, right? Imagine how good your blood would be if you cut the amount of tea down? I used to drink gallons of tea, also, prior to becoming anemic. sigh.

yeah... but the difference between a bad hand and this is... you can turn in a bad hand.

[LMo]

Good to know about the tea... although it's a bummer. However, not compared to your bad hand that you can't turn in

Good luck - I can't do much other than listen, I guess.

[(JD)]

Could you or someone computer the thermodynamics of cognac within the human body?

Sky...please do not eat Tyson meat, of any kind. I KNOW what they put into their feed and it is not healthy AT ALL. I have a cousin who has a chicken farm, for Tyson, and what they do is so gross that I wouldn't tell you in a post here. PM me if you want...but please do not eat Tyson or Pilgrim's Pride meats.

Any meat that has hormones or antibiotics added is very harmful for us. One of the main reason that there is MRSA (antibiotic resistant infections) is that we've had too many antibiotics. And where do we get so many antibiotics...if we aren't getting them from a doctor? We are getting them in meat. If the average consumer knew how many antibiotics cattle receive in about 15 month period, they would be appalled. And the hormones? The cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens grow too fast and too much. Sometimes the chickens grow so fast that their legs won't hold them up. They cannot walk. And it all comes down to increased profits for the producers.

Beans, tofu, etc. is what I depend upon for protein. Even peanut butter has more protein than most food.

As you can tell, I've researched my info on our food supply. It is something that I study and I stay up on brands and such. MRSA is going to be so out of control in about 3 years and people are going to start losing limbs and dying from it.(actually, that is already happening in 2005)..MRSA is NOT curable. You have to remove the site of the infection to get rid of it. No one needs antibiotics for a simple cold or a virus. Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections. Not viruses. Too many doctors give in when a patient walks in and asks for "an antibiotic", so I can feel better soon".

End of food and antibiotic and hormone rant. Pat

[LMo]

As I understand, Sky's concern isn't protein but rather iron. Right, Sky?

*****Perdue, Tyson and all the rest... which means anything that isn't Perdue or Tyson is contaminated with whatever else the farms allow on those farms...*****

perhaps i misunderstood..but i read it to mean that Sky believes that Tyson meats aren't contaminated by what is allowed on other farms. sorry, if i was wrong. my ranch is about 2 miles from my cousin's chicken farm and since he supplies Tyson with all of the chickens he raises...i thought she might like to know the truth about Tyson.

[LMo]

Right - I got that too. I was responding to the part about beans/tofu for protein. I don't know which food companies produce contaminated meat... so I just avoid it altogether. But she has some iron requirements and I don't know what I'd do in that case. I get enough protein from beans/tofu as well, but I haven't heard that I need more iron (except when I try to give blood, so after reading Sky's thread, now I'm thinking I should pay more attention to that).

[(JD)]

Tks I don't eat Tyson, but only knew it has it's own plant...I thought it added garbage too Yeah my problem is iron but the same thing happened when I saw the dietician, she ranted about protein.. and juice and ???

Tofu doesn't like me (nor does soy, but I don't know why that popped into my head now) I do fine with beans... but usually the menu is salad or soup (pasta fajoli or ministrone) so I don't want to give up the salad for the soup... I try to remember to buy vegetarian baked beans (does that mean vegetarians are the bakers? heheh) when I buy dog food... but that doesn't happen but once a month or two... I also buy kidney beans to eat, cold....

I knew about the additives to products since the 70s and 80s as my allergist was top notch in country... he actually sued KFC and won the rights to know the secret recipe so he could desensitize patients so they could eat the stupid stuff! But I was too sensitive to be treated for the hormones, even my own which I am allergic to... my own body hates itself. I don't get sick hardly at all, because my immune system is always in overdrive... but it also goes squirrelly, you know? Ithink that's what's happened with the iron. It also blocks potassium from bananas.. Icould eat them till I swung from trees and my body would not assimilate the potassium!

The nerves of my body don't do signals correctly much of the time. I know there are times when they tell me I'm hungry and I know I'm not. I'm trying to convince myself that I can live with those false feelings all the time (even when I know I need to eat) so that I don't eat even what I do now. I don't plan on dying fat.