What's Your Most Recent NSV

NewLIFEstyle4ME wrote: »

Hoo BOY do I have some NSV's TODAY!

I went to the DMV to renew my license...I haven't had it renewed in sometime and never EVER look at the weight on it--ever. Today, I looked at it and it was 40 big ole pounds MORE than I weigh today....40lbs more! I've still got a lot more to go (about 35-40lbs), but seeing how far I've come from my highest weight ever is so FUN and COOL!

When I took my vision test, I asked if I should take it with my glasses on, she said first try it without them...she said my vision was excellent! When I asked on a scale of 1-10, how good was my testing score, she told me a 9, a NINE! 187 days ago, my vision was sooo poor, I could hardly see anything without my glasses--everything was so blurry...it was really scary. Now I don't ever need them at all--I'm thrilled!

Lastly, I also passed my "Patience, Love&self control" test today too. The women doing my renewal was sooooo nasty, just as mean as a junkyard dog. I asked her how she was doing and feeling and she looked at me like she could kill me and said rudely..."not good, I'm missing lunch helping you" and then rolled her eyes at me. I was kinda tempted to either respond in kind or ignore it...but I said to myself "LOVE her, be PATIENT, walk in self-control". So I asked her what she was having for lunch, she told me Chinese food. I told her I hoped it would be the best lunch ever and then I asked her if she would recommend anyone applying for a job there. She looked horrified and said "NO WAY" among other things. Then I told her how many people are looking for a job and would kill to have her job--that even though it's a hard and thankless job, that she has a job when soooo many people don't. She looked at me and said "Ya know what, I've got a lot of my friends and family members that have been looking for a job for a long time--you're right. Then she apologized for being rude...then she told me I was one of the nicest customer she's ever had--then she thanked me again for "helping her"and gave me the most beautiful smile I've ever seen--it was absolutely TREMENDOUS her complete turn around in attitude was....WOW! I walked out of that place with sheer joy. WOW--it's FUN and COOL not to return "evil for evil or like for like" and to walk in patience, love and self-control--YAY!!!!!!

KnitterNotAQuitter wrote: »

Hamsibian wrote: »

Awesome! My mom is going to the doctor since her bp was extraordinarily high the other day. She's scared and wants to feel better
Her meds alone aren't working. She wants to lose weight too, which will help a lot, but do you have dietary advice? We'll ask about an Rd referral for help.

Hi @Hamsibian! This is probably waaaaay more than you wanted to know, but here's what's worked for me for the past month:

I'll preface this by saying I've had a really bad, just abysmal diet for a long time-- I was eating fast food once or more a day, skipped breakfast (and lunch sometimes) and when I was making food at home, it was all processed, frozen food (pizza). My weight was 349, and my doctor's office put me on BP medication, Lisinopril 10mg/day, a 1,200-calorie a day diet, and told me to get cardio exercise 3 days a week. I was also diagnosed with T2 diabetes. I really, really don't like the thought of injecting myself, so I decided to make some drastic changes to try to avoid insulin.

Now, a month later, I'm *not* small and I have a loooooooong way to go, but I lost just under 25 pounds, my clothes fit better, I'm breathing a little easier, my BP is down ... all good stuff. But out of pure fear, I did a complete 180 on my life.

First, I cut out fast food and eating out. Except for like three, four times in the last month, I've made all my meals at home. (I was traveling for Thanksgiving, and felt weird bring a full meal on a plane. LOL)

Then, I started making all my meals at home. Which was hard, because I'm not the best cook! (I actually hardly ever cooked before now.) And I started eating vegetables besides French fries. I started eating breakfast. I cut out fat, I cut out salt and except for the ones in fruits and veggies, I cut out carbs and sugars. I usually try to fill half my plate with green veggies (cooked or raw), and the other half with lean protein (mostly chicken and some fish, very occasionally pork or beef) and something a little starchy, like a piece of whole wheat bread, beans or brown rice, rarely potatoes or corn, no pasta yet, but I was going to try whole wheat pasta this weekend.

For the most part, I'm sticking the calorie goals, though there were a few days that I went over during Thanksgiving visiting family, but I told myself that I couldn't go 1,000 calories over. (There were days I probably ate 5,000+ calories on pizza in the past.) I'm also trying to stick to the American Heart Association guidelines of 1,500mg of sodium per day, but it is hard. EVERYTHING has sodium in it! LOL

I'm single and work full time, so to keep it quick and easy, I keep frozen veggies and meats on hand, so I'll always have some option for lunch dinner, won't waste a lot of fresh veggies or have to go shopping a lot to get them, and be less tempted for quick meals at McDonald's or something. I also make several servings of something at once and freeze it!

For recipes, I have light sodium salt at home (I haven't switched over to the no-sodium salt substitute, but thinking about it). When I make recipes, I leave the salt out entirely -- some advice from other MFP pals! -- or add no more than half of what's called for in the recipe, if it's something that would taste really, really weird without it.

When I do use processed/prepared food in my meals, I shop around on store websites and look up the nutrition information to find the best option. If I can buy a salt/sodium free (best), no salt added (better), low sodium (good), I'll buy it. Like frozen chicken breasts (which I buy frozen partially for the longevity, and partially because I don't like to touch raw meat). Did you know the plain ones from Tyson still have like 20% of the daily value of sodium (and that's for a 2,000-calorie diet) -- even the ones that aren't cooked yet? That's crazy! Don't add salt I don't need to my food before I make it! So I found a different brand at Sam's Club, also frozen, uncooked chicken breasts with like 3-5% of your DV, which could be naturally occurring. Usually, if I look at a label, and it has more than 15% DV of sodium, I just put it back.

With sugar, you're only supposed to eat 22g of added sugar a day. (Also crazy hard.) I've been trying to get most of the sugar in my diet from fruits and veggies, and trying to buy sugar-free products and use sugar-free sweetener when I can. I've cut out almost all white things: bread, rice, potatoes, pasta. Nope, just nope.

For those times when I literally am too busy to make anything, I have two frozen dinners that are my go-tos: Healthy Choice Steamers Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo (the one with NO PASTA -- just chicken and broccoli in sauce) and Lean Cuisine Steak Portabella (also no potatoes or pasta or rice). The HC meals has less salt, so I'd rather have that one, but either option, even though they do have a lot of salt, is better than fast food.

I try to plan breakfast (I eat that now!), lunch and dinner, and small snacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon. If I haven't met my calorie goal AND I'm still hungry sometimes I'll have a small snack before bed. But honestly? I'm usually not, especially if I've gone to the gym. I like chips, so one of my favorite go-to snacks is the Skinnypop 100 calorie bags. Yes, it's not low-fat, but it satisfies a craving and the sodium is low. Other "low calorie" popcorn has twice as much salt, and is a little too salty for me now.

Also, I am pretty much only drinking water and tea (sometimes Diet Snapple, which I love and log, but a lot of brewed, unsweetened teas). I had a couple Jack and Diets around Thanksgiving, but otherwise, no soda, booze or juice. Once in a while, skim milk, but cereal is usually kinda disappointing and not filling, so I haven't been eating a lot. But when I do, I drink the milk. This week I've been trying the Plant Nanny app to try to drink more water. It sends push notifications to remind me to drink, and the cute little plant grows when you do.

Finally, I started walking on the treadmill at the gym. I joined up the day I was diagnosed. My neighborhood's kinda dark (not a lot of street lamps), so I prefer the warm fluorescent glow of indoor lighting. I usually walk for 60 minutes (sometimes 45 if I'm going to the grocery store afterwards and walking more), and push myself to walk as fast as I can, which isn't very fast right now. If my joints start to hurt, I trying to turn down the speed for a while. Sometimes I pause it for a minute, but I've been trying to just slow down rather than stop, and when I'm ready, I speed it back up.

I log all my exercise calories, but I don't eat them back, so I'm following a true 1,200-calorie a day diet.

I think that's it. Whew! At first I had to put a lot of time into this -- I missed outings with friends, gave up a lot of TV watching time and haven't been as "active" (ha ha) in my hobbies like knitting. But now that I'm a month in, I have more time back to myself. Eventually new habits form, and the longer you haven't eaten something, the less you crave it. And the better you do, the easier it is to tell yourself no. Do I want a large, stuffed crusted pepperoni and mushroom pizza from Pizza Hut? Um, yeah a little. But I know it will derail in flaming wreckage my lifestyle change train that's off to a pretty good start.

I think your mom can do it if she really tries! Tell her good luck!