VickiSLaw wrote: »

Re eating sugar

Sugar is like a drug for me. I watch my friends and relatives have a little here and there and I wish I could do that.

If I eat a little, within a couple weeks I've got donuts hidden in my desk, I'm having an ice cream cone everyday and there's a box of chocolates under the seat of my car. And I can't wait for my husband to go to bed so I can either sneak out to buy, or so I can raid my stash. It's ridiculous. Seriously, none of that is an exaggeration. It's an addiction for me. And when I'm on sugar, I'm an emotional wreck, I'm unorganized, forgetful, mean, spend too much money and cry a lot. If I stay away from it, life works pretty well even if things get hard. Probably 20 years ago I came across the book, Potatoes Not Prozac. The book seemed to be all about me. If your interested check out radiantrecovery.com. There's a whole community there.

I'm glad to be here. Stayed on track today because of this group. 2 days of success.

@VickiSLaw
Over my time on MFP, only two things have *almost* made me leave.

1. “Cheat days”
You wouldn’t tell an alcoholic “you can drink whatever you like; it’s your Cheat Day!”

How I solved this. “I am a person who doesn’t believe in Chest Days because I’d only one I’d be cheating is myself.” I do not eat with abandon, for it would reactivate my earlier eating patterns.

2. People arguing with me over the effect of sugar on my eating.

We know our bodies. I tested sugar at least 10 times over a few years. Finally said “uncle” & we stopped buying it. My husband just gave up the last of his sugar. This morning he said, “Yeah, I stopped eating it. Just not fun having to fight the urge to have another piece or not”

It’s real. Why jeopardize all we’ve worked so hard to accomplish?

My focus now is on Insuring my success & making it as easy as possible.

Kudos to you for a very important post.
🌸M

@MadisonMolly2017

I've tested it that many times over 20 years. It always starts with me telling myself I can be like everyone else and have a little. Telling myself it's just about will power. It ends weeks or months later and I'm a wreck. The times I've really gone off the rails was when someone close to me dies. When my dad died, I was on a sugar-fest for 18 months. My husband finally pulled me back. I'm glad someone else here knows how I feel. I know most people can indulge without losing all sense of reality. I cannot. Lol. You should check out the link I posted. You'll find a whole bunch of people who can't eat sugar and be sane at the same time.

Thank you!

Spent yesterday with my 2 sisters and our mom. Oldest sis has recently been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, but her health going in was fantastic. Major surgery didn't show any surprises, and they got everything they went in for. 2nd chemo was last Thursday and she feels good all things considered. Docs have given her a good prognosis. Other sis, mom and I walked for 40 min or so. Not fast because mom is 86, but not slow either. I stay masked inside and we have a good airfilter going. They are all a pod and I'm dangerous because hubby, son and I are in a mostly unmasked community and out in public a lot. I'm just grateful I get to spend time with them, even with the mask.

Thanks so much for your responses @biketheworld and @Mrs_Hoffer 👩‍🌾 this is my first year starting seedlings myself. Usually we purchase the seedling plants at the greenhouse. We do have many perennial flowers, bulbs, fruit trees and shrubs, and grasses that we’ve been working years to increase to lessen the work load each year for those areas of the garden.

For a number of years I was in a wheelchair and so accessibility planning became key to allow me to continue to garden. My garden had failed for a number of years and was such a sorrow until I admitted that this change was necessary. I am not in the wheelchair now and God willing, will keep the tremendous mobility I have right now. All the planning in our garden and our home is with accessibility at the heart, as there is no way to tell when or if things will change. I try to live in the today. 🥰

We now have four CedarCraft waist height beds which will double my space for growing zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I also have some cascading vertical planters, some deck balcony boxes, and many patio pots all of which were elevated on brick columns and that I use for greens, herbs, and whatever else I decide to put in. My husband built me a long raised bed (waist height) along the length of the back of the house and the hardscaped patio that we put in to allow me to get around outdoors. I use that plant bed solely for flowers (as it was only hindsight that caused either of us to think about the problem of using a treated lumber bed for any food production). But no worries — as I love my flowers too and always plant his favourites.

In the plans for starting seedlings:
Rosemary, basil, thyme, mint, garlic chives, tomatoes (yellow pear-shaped, early girl, black plum, and moneymaker), cucumbers (muncher burpless, space master bush), zucchini (dark green).

I will seed in the ground when the magical date arrives: dill, three kinds of lettuce (butter crunch, red sails, prize head), pea snow Taichung, and other veggies.

Will still purchase some seedlings from the greenhouse (tarragon, sage, etc) and will supplement whatever seedlings don’t thrive.

Things that return each year in my garden include chives (in a big patio pot), rhubarb strawberries, raspberries, haskap, and an apple tree.

Our growing season is only about 100 days, so starting or purchasing seedlings is really the only way to get a diversity of produce. We compost too, but as our season is short, we haven’t had a huge amount of production output. We have two compost bins and hubby rotates and waters it to get the greatest production we can.

@Cowphilosopher

Here's what I do about evening cravings.

Once I put my son to bed and feel "free" for the night, I really really want to sit and eat a sweet snack. I have tried giving it up several times over the years, but trying to resist always results in eating ALL the sweet snacks.

So instead I preplan the snack - generally 1 cookie and 1/2 cup whole milk frothed in the steamer. On my current fiber kick I have been experimenting with oatmeal or frosted mini wheats instead. But if there is something in the house I am craving I will often tell myself I can eat it at night and then resist the nibbles all day and eat it at night. But the key here is to eat only what I have preplanned and budgeted and not ALL the things.

What helps me do that is:
- Before eating, I preplan and prelog the next day in MFP - that way I get that done and also it puts me in the right mind frame.
- While I eat, I read MFP forum and nutrition books (but not the parts with recipes). This also helps me keep the mindset and is better than reading Facebook or news which will get me upset before bed which is not great for not eating and also not great for sleeping.
- When my snack is done I get up and immediately brush my teeth so that I won't want to eat any more.
- I try to go to bed pretty soon after that. If I stay up for a few hours, I will eat again, but if I am to bed within an hour or so I don't get hungry again so pretty easy to resist. Once I am in the bedroom on the third floor even if I get hungry I am usually too lazy to head down to the kitchen.

This is not 100% by any means - I still sometimes keep eating beyond what I have planned. But I would say most of the time I am satisfied and happy from having my ritual, and I have still managed to lose weight while doing that.

Hi everyone! I very rarely post in “what’s on your mind” but I wanted to tell everyone I am following the dash diet per dr’s orders-Much easier to stay in range and track right away/pre track and bathroom issues are resolving! Lost a pound since Friday and blood pressure is behaving

@LazyBlondeChef I am sorry you're so stressed! Here are things that have helped for me - with the caveat of depending on what is causing the stress, sometimes those things make it impossible to do some of these coping methods - so the fundamental one is just self-forgiveness and knowing you will get through it and rebuild whatever you need to on the other side.
- Doing a brain dump list of everything I am worried about. Then separating out from that list the things I have some control over and trying to make a plan to tackle them. Also separating out the things that are very unlikely, and reminding myself that they are unlikely when I start to spiral over them. It does always leave a list of bad outcomes that are likely and not under my control, but it is a smaller list and I feel better. Even just acknowledging that last list does actually make me feel better - I am not worried about nothing - so I can forgive myself being off my game because of worry.
- Trying to still stick to my routines and basic self-care
- Exercising and consciously trying to shake out/work out the extra adrenaline. Sometimes a walk around the block while deep breathing. Sometimes release work with a lacrosse ball working out the knots and breathing.
- Talking to someone about it (therapist or kind friend)
- My wife has a thing that she does in her mind that I laugh at her about - and I am not always sure it is healthy, and sometimes it makes me crazy but sometimes it helps. She classifies things as "too early to worry about" - because she doesn't have enough information, it probably won't happen, it's still far away, etc. and "too late to worry about" - because it's definitely happening and there's nothing you can do about it. As a result she is worry free because it's never the exactly right time to worry about something. Like I said it makes me crazy but sometimes I do find myself using it and it helps.

Good luck - I hope your stressful time passes without too much trouble.