[lenjan]

Awwww, hell.

Two lousy little blood tests turned up funny, and now I have 43 doctors telling me to lose weight and exercise. I had intentions of doing both ... someday ... on MY schedule, LOL ... but they're all pretty adamant that I get started ASAP.

I have a friend who's lost 50 lbs. who said the low-carb thing helped her sugar cravings -- anybody else vouch for that? Sugar (ice cream, etc) is going to be the hardest thing for me to cut out. I could happily go the rest of my life without eating another chip, but I can't get through a day without at least a sugared soda!

I have been on every diet known to man, so I guess I'm just looking for something that's fairly practical and relatively painless, as diets go.

Thanks!

Candy

candy can you still have fruit sugars or is it sugars in general that are bad?

[lenjan]

In an interesting twist, I can eat all the fruit I please, but I can't have green vegetables! (They have too much Vitamin K, and I have a newly-discovered blood-clotting disorder.)

Fruit is fine as far as it goes, but it still isn't Ben & Jerry's.

hmmm lets think though.

You need sweet fruit. none of this apple poop.

I suggest very ripe plums, florida oranges, very ripe blueberries and rasberries and maybe strawberries would be the best.

are you allowed to drink milkshakes? The reason I ask is because if you take all these fruits or even some of them, whippem all up and add some milk - you have yourself a smoothie!

Want more ice cream taste? a great alternative is rainbow sherbet or frozen yogurt, and both work for smoothies.

missing pop? Take any kind of juice you like alot, and add some fizzy to it, I cant remember what its called. Not tonic water, that tastes bad i think - whichever one is fuzzy but doesnt taste awful. I add it to orange juice and it makes a nice orangina type deal.

Dont forget too that things like honey are sweet, and arent processed so they arent as bad. honey candy could work for a snack or honey coated granola bars.

Its not candy, but its close.

What about diabetic candies? Would that work?

[January]

((((((((( Candy )))))))))

I've done the low carb diet and it works very quickly. You can eat honey on that diet because it's a natural monosaccaride. After you get used to not drinking pop it will taste awful when you try it again. Trust me. When you want something sweet, just go have a tablespoon of honey. That will do it.

The fruit smoothies are a great idea. Just add some ice cubes to the milk and fruit and there you go!

Hugs,

Jan

ICE CUBES thats what i forgot thanks jan!

[lenjan]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I suppose I should buckle down and get to work on this so that the next time they do a glucose test, I come in at "normal" and the docs will get off my butt!

Candy

have you thought about asking the 43 docs for the ideal diet for you? and, just a thought, you can find endless information at WebMD.com (think that is the correct name). rainbow listed a ton of alternatives to the ice cream and soda regime that you love. a smoothie can be made with seltzer (i think that's what you wanted, Rain) and it can be fizzy/smoothish.....

it takes buckling down and doing what you know you have to do.

i'll trade you my blood work for yours. i'd love to be able to correct my stuff with a diet. i am improving my energy levels by eating exactly what the docs are telling me that i can have.

i'd rather feel good and go without the crap, than eat whatever i want and feel like crap. xoxox pat

[lenjan]

I'll trade you 5 weeks in the hospital and actually being dead for a time (I had to be resuscitated) for your blood work . You're welcome to all the blood and platelet transfusions I had to have, too, and the immunosuppressant and 8 antibiotics, and the clotting disorder.

But, your point is taken, nevertheless. So far I have only seen a hematologist and a vascular guy. When the state assigns me a GP (I'm newly on Medicaid here), I'll go ask for a referral to an endocrinologist, or at least a dietician. In the meantime, I need to get going on my own, I guess, like it or not.

bingo! it was seltzer.

candybear!! i'm well aware of what you've been through.

as one who knows all about bloodwork and hospitals and surgeries (11), i'm sorry that i caused you to feel defensive.

i'm really surprised that you took what i said seriously. i had no idea that joking about trading bloodwork would upset you. for me, a good laugh really helps.

sorry, pat

[h0kie]

When I went to see the bariatric surgery doctors with my mother they told us that they recommend the South Beach diet for their patients. I figure, if a doctor recommends it, it must be pretty good.

The good thing about it is if you follow the rules and cut out sugar for the first two weeks, your cravings actually go down. I was amazed.

[lenjan]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Pat}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

It's OK. My health is my biggest hot button/anxiety trigger these days. I freak out easily over anything having to do with it, including impending tests. (Hmmm -- I have some this afternoon yet -- apparently it's time for a Xanax! )

I know you have had your share of health issues as well. I just am not taking mine very well, I guess! There are certainly people who have it worse than I do. I think I just don't want to be reminded that it now seems to be payback time for the crappy, cavalier way I treated my body for my first 4 decades.

Hugs,
Candy

candy i have a teaching nurse for an aunt, I am going to ask her for recipies and help for you! on top of being a nurse she is diabetic and so is her father so.

[lenjan]

thanks, (((((((((((((((((rainbow)))))))))))))))! I'll take all the help I can get! If I gotta do this, I may as well do it right, hey?

[(JD)]

IMO the best way to lose weight is moderation. Eat what you enjoy (and doesn't upset you) and add healthy foods you know you should eat. Eat often during the day, graze rather than gorge. Eat till you don't feel hungry, not till you feel full. Drink lots of filtered water, more than you think you want to or can. Two pounds a week is excellent, and is maintainable, as is the way of eating. Pick something you can do for life, not a diet.

[Maven]

I agree with Sky. I normally don't read this forum, but I saw the thread in the block with the last posted thread, and checked it out.

A guy I dated a couple of times years ago, before I met my current boyfriend, found me on the Internet a while back, and my boyfriend told me to go ahead and keep in touch with him (I didn't really have any interest in it, but figured what the heck). Anyway, he changed his eating habits and gets on my nerves, because he thinks I should follow the same dietary change he did, but it's too drastic for me.

He recommends I see the website, http://www.phmiracleliving.com/, by Dr. Robert Young and his wife, Shelly. The diet requires giving up all dairy, sugar, pasta, rice, and processed foods, and you have to eat organic foods, and it has to do with your pH balance or something. He seems to think that, if I don't want to follow this diet, I don't want to change, but that's ridiculous.

While I agree processed foods aren't really good for you, and there's too many convenient-but-unhealthy foods available, I believe you can eat some of these things and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I want to be healthy, but I want to be happy, too!

[sujunew]

what about diet soda? there is no way I could live without my caffeine hit of diet cola each day, although I tried to cut down how much by drinking carbonated (soda) water instead- is that seltzer?? 1 thing I do urge you to think about tho is artificial sweeteners. They are so full of toxins/poisons it is really scary, but some food manufacturers sneak them into their products anyway. I only found out this morning that the tin of pears with 'no added sugar' and a low cal count and carb count on it was 68% pears, with the rest water and sweeteners. It was not advertised anywhere on the tin. And also on this line, if you do decide to use a sweetener, be careful that it doesn't cause a stomach upset. There is one particular one that I react to so badly I get, among other symptoms, terrible stomach migraines. (don't know if any of this will help, but maybe something to think about???).

[lenjan]

I'm still a moderate coffee drinker, but I'm trying to switch over from soda to flavored carbonated water. I'm not so crazy about seltzer, but the nearby grocery store sells huge bottles of flavored sparkling water for 50 cents apiece.

It IS artificial sweetener (Splenda) and flavors, and as you were saying, irishsj, they're horrible for you. But I'm not ready to give up *everything* tasty yet! I just have a hard time getting down plain water.

This is so hard!!!

[mymindistoast]

Who does the food shopping for your household, Candy?

I find that I end up eating sweets if someone else buys them.

I don' t know about the low-carb diet thing and sugar cravings. Never consciously tried that diet. I eat a lot of veggies and beans. I find myself going a bit nutty now and then for sweets that someone had brought home.

You could try some sugar substitutes with fruits, either fresh or frozen and also make some fruit juice, storing some in the ice box, too. Old Gatorade bottles are strong and flexible enough to withstand the expansion of freezing liquids.

There's been some controversy over a sweetner made from a South American herb called Stevia. It tastes a bit odd at first, but you get used to it.

I imagine that just going to see 43 doctors could burn off a few calories.

How about some sugar-free candies to suck on during those times when you really want some sweets?

[lenjan]

My sister does the grocery shopping, for the most part. Sometimes I go with her, and sometimes not. She's on a health kick herself and refuses to let anything "bad for you" in the house -- which means, usually, that I just go buy a candy bar or something and eat it in the car. Talk about a good way to cause an eating disorder!

I'll look into stevia. I'm supposed to stay away from herbs, for the most part (can't even have anything like green tea), because they interfere with my new med.

thanks for all the ideas, everybody!

Candy

[Maven]

I worry all the time about my health, yet I don't change my eating habits...for long, anyway. Sometimes I do better, but keep falling back.

I want to say I agree with you guys, that artificial sweeteners aren't good for you. I know there have been studies that show them as safe, and others that show them as harmful, and I have looked at information on both, and I just think they probably are harmful. I believe they do raise your appetite, maybe especially for sugary foods (which is kind of ironic), but I drink diet soda. I find myself more addicted to diet Pepsi Lime and even more to diet Wild Cherry Pepsi more than any other kind of Pepsi (which is my fave). I currently have two bottles of regular Wild Cherry Pepsi, because the few bottles I found of diet yesterday were all sticky--gross!!! The problems with the sugary sodas, of course, are calories and the problems sugar brings.

I also believe processed foods are bad for us, because most of them convert into sugar. And low-fat foods aren't always good, because the missing fat is usually replaced by sugar. Pasta and rice = sugar. But it's hard to resist temptation.

I could change my dietary lifestyle much easier if I didn't have to cook for my boyfriend or anyone else. I didn't before him, and I was able to lose weight and do much better. I keep planning not to eat what I cook for him, but once I start, it's like, I don't feel like making another meal. Plus, cooking, for me, means OCD washing, and there's rituals and methods of touching and other stuff associated with it, so it's different than it is for other people.

But I don't want to die.

I'm not a doctor, and I've never been on illegal drugs, but I believe that being addicted to food is just as addictive as heroin and other drugs. I could be wrong, and I'm not trying to belittle those who have been addicted to drugs and alcohol (in fact, I'm talking about food addiction being just as bad, not alc and drugs being not as bad as they say), but I know I'm having a hard time with this.