Roll Call- End of year 2016- post your update(s) in comments

Roll Call. End of the year 2016. Weight Maintenance. 

Did you maintain, lose, gain? Is your health better or the same or worse?

Post your update(s) in the comment section.  There's still time to hop off the moderation, food addiction, type 2 diabetes train. Start now, see something better in 2017. 

Ho, Ho, Ho... Santa is bringing me a device that should make it easier for me to compose short, one idea topics to my blog.

So I hope to have one personal update (weekend post) and one current topic and my take aways. 

Here's my update:

Weight: I'm currently on my most excellent and best "feel good" plateau ( for me 119's).

I expect to maintain in the 119 area for 2-6 months or more. Higher Power willing. 

Time restricted eating window: 6am to 1pm is working well, 5 lb loss in the last 6 months. It took just about a whole year to arrive at this place. No amount of experimenting was really working. Whew!

Low Carb Higher Natural Fat/Keto: I'm certainly not suffering a bland, non-satiating food template (Instagram account)

Periodic blood glucose monitoring: 60's-70's fasting to 70's to upper 80's 2 hour post. (mg/dL)

Daily weighing: and tracking

Fitbit HR charge: sleep and distance and activity monitoring,Walking, gym, rowing sprints- yep!

Onward with your eyes wide open and your mind willing to make changes to get to your best level of health. 

Day after Thanksgiving 2016, 6th food sober year in a row! Staying food sober takes a lot of effort, as does food addiction

San Clemente, Nov 2016

Instead of waking up in waves of food addiction, I woke up totally food sober, for the 6th year. I had a great time with family, a great photo session and walk after dinner.

What didn't work well for me:
Staying in food addiction takes a lot of effort. Effort to plan, buy, and eat, then feel the dopamine rush, then repent, and the pain. The physical and emotional pain.

What does work now:
Staying out of food addiction takes a lot of effort to plan, buy, eat, then clean up dishes, and get out to get on with our life- happy, sad, dopamine when you exercise or spend time with family friends, pets. Yeah. But the ending is different. There's very little or no physical or mental pain.


Abstaining for the win. Year 6. I wouldn't have it any other way. Pick your hard. Take the time to sober up. Life is pretty sweet abstaining from grains, almost all sugars, and emulsifiers.

My choice. I didn't choose my food addiction, but I can choose food sobriety and life with food addiction in remission.  

LCHF Thanksgiving 2016

The only waves this AM are in the ocean and on this funky rug, no binge urge waves

Support groups X3 , one is a best fit with my own constant vigilance of weight maintenance , ban hammering slippery slope thinking

Carlsbad State Beach, November 2016

I've found 3 great support groups surrounding LCHF and Keto, with one of the three being a near perfect fit with recovery from food addiction.

2 support groups are great for general LCHF/Keto support and asking general questions or giving my experience to newbies. These groups have more permissive & open rules.

There are awesome folks in all 3 groups.
One is a best fit for me.

The 3rd support group has a very strict set of pinned rules. Abide or the ban hammer is on you, forever. Constant vigilance. No fiddle farting around. Nipping slippery slope thinking in the bud, with an emphasis on not going back to old ways that kept us unwell.

No food photos (except weekends), no junky SAD (Standard American Diet) foods that have been "remade" into LCHF versions. Since certain food photos really trigger me, this is so welcome!

No falling off the wagon and saying Tee-Hee-Hee (yes, I know lapses and relapses happen- been there, done that), relapsing, or lapsing AND expecting head-pats, sugar coating, and pants that fit.

If you are not losing weight or you are gaining weight and need to control your weight for health reasons, well, reducing total intake calories or fat are mentioned. This is because each person who has gone through this knows that total intake, macros out of whack for your personal plan and genetics can or may be a weight loss stumbling block. Or not, maybe you can eat all you want and be great at weight maintenance. But self experimentation is key.

This expectation of you know what works (or you experiment to find what works) so do it and don't fiddle fart around fits really, really well with stone cold food sobriety, in my opinion.

Constant vigilance. You want food sobriety, the same size of pants, good blood markers, insurance discounts, good sleep, to be present in your family and work dynamic?  ( **you may not get these things completely, figure out what you can change and what you cannot- be good with that***)

For myself: Recovery in food addiction means constant vigilance, a quick ban hammer on slippery slope thinking. Stone cold personal honesty. Your recovery inputs and outcomes may vary. That's oaky. It's totally okay. As long as you own your own stuff.

And, that is what Food Addiction Recovery is to me. A very defined food template, exercise guidelines, and sleep, with meditation thrown in there. Instant addressing of slippery slope thinking. Hey, I ever needed medication or other interventions to control my binge urges, I would do it in a second. I will do what recovery takes.

Food Addiction, in my opinion is a chronic (sometimes acute) disease, requiring a lifetime of very defined choices. Living in remission from food addiction is a beautiful place that I am thankful for every day. I know recovery can be taken away from me in one or two bites.

Did I mention the constant vigilance? LOL. Yeah, I might guess that others in 3-5+ years weight maintenance can relate to parts of this post. It is what it is.

LOL. I have to be very, very, very real with myself, honest, and have a fair amount of black and white thinking and stay on my food template. I need to be in support with others who are similar to me.
Food addiction is a very serious disease, requiring serious support around abstaining and not going back into the food addiction. I'm thankful for those who do not sugar coat, who remain in their new normal. You know who you are. Thank you. Times 1 million.

Onward with your eyes wide open. Change up your support as needed. Head pats and sugar coating kept me way, way stuck in other support groups.

Let's face it: there's no magic money fairy that's going to come down and pay my insurance premiums or doctors visits, so I seek the support that is right for me.

What works now

1. Food template - LCHF/ Keto/ Paleo that keeps my food addiction in remission.
2. Support groups where I can get and give support who respect that I don't use remade SAD foods.
3. Constant Vigilance. There's no meal off. 365/24/7

One cat operates in vicim mode, one has constant vigilance!

What did not work in the past:

1. Food template was moderating all foods, just counting those points and gaining weight.

2. RANT: Support groups that encouraged me, even bullied me to eat ALL the foods- like WW. You can learn it they said, you can develop a habit to eat all the foods and keep your skinny pants, here have a two points points bar.... SOOO much fiddle farting. So much blame- "well you aren't tracking your points right, you must be cheating." Fruit is free, you can eat it, don't worry, they said.

Eat your cheat foods when away from home they said. It will keep you from binge eating most of the time. WHAT!!!????

Um, nooooo, but my glucose is so high it was storing body fat to protect my eyes, kidneys, and liver!!!

And, no, I cannot do Keto cookies or fat bombs. Nope. Not going back.

End of Rant

3. Using every holiday, baking for holiday, candy dish and occasion to eat whatever the h*ll I wanted. It didn't end well for me. Morbid obesity is not freedom-IMO. I was in so much physical pain and emotional pain, too.

Constant Vigilance, lots of effort, lots of payback. I'm so thankful!  Comment below if you wish to thank your support group. 

Eating (your food template) to your (glucose) Meter- Youtube video, glucose monitoring for the win!!!

I've got all kinds of holiday prep projects and I have lots of posts in my head.

So, while I'm busy getting my most important project work done, along with cooking 98% of my meals,  walking 5-6 miles per day, gym X2, with Tabata sprints, I'm going to leave this awesome youtube video, right here!!!

I never got diagnosed type 2 diabetes, however, I would have been pre-diabetic (which is STILL a T2 diabetic) had I gone to the doctor Jan-April 2011. I also would have switched back to high risk type 2 if I had not stopped eating sweet potatoes, Lara bars, and dates (yes, Paleo, yes, too high glucose for me)

I use  many of the tactics used in this video, to a large part. I make sure the foods in my food template do not spike and keep my fasting and 2 hour post glucose high.

My spikes are well under 20-30

The way your own body responds is key to customizing your food template


What doesn't work
1. Potatoes, winter squash like pumpkin, all dried fruit, and bananas are out, for me- I'll get into 100's and not come down for hours and hours or even overnight!!!

 Of course, I abstain from grains, most processed sugars, and dairy (because low fat dairy has a lot of natural sugar that keeps me looking diabetic, plus it's high inflammatory for me- joint pain, extra mucus....)

2. Not monitoring my glucose at home


What does work, with some natural fat & moderate protein
1. Carrots, white onions, raspberries and blackberries and 85% chocolate are IN, limited quantities
2. Periodic glucose monitoring at home when switching seasonal foods or small changes


Onward. Who else at high risk monitors  glucose at home periodically? Very low cost compared to the mainstream medical problems from high glucose.

4 years, 9 months in long term weight maintenance,health screening tests Nov 2016

May 2011 to Nov 2016

May 2011 to Nov 2016

** Note**  October and November are my health screening months. Blood work for insurance discount, mammogram, plus I turned 50 this year, so I had a screening in the works..... yeah, a colonoscopy. More about that later in a separate blog post.  

There's a lack of colonoscopy prep ideas for folks  who are no sugars, no grains,with food addiction, so I'll be adding to the google data base soon with a new blog post.  ;)

I am probably not back at my maintenance weight since it's just the 3rd day after my procedure I expect to gain 1-2 pounds as my GI system comes back online. I've said this before, and I'll say it again, I do not get overly happy or overly sad at the scale number, but I do take actions on trends that are too high. 

You know it! STATS. Graphs,  I could just see this on the back of a baseball type playing card. LOL. Just kidding. Maybe when I retire..... LOL!!  Congrats to the Chicago Cubs on their World Series win in 2016.

Starting weight 187.4 lbs

Goal Range 115-125  lbs

Current Weight 117.8 lbs

Keeping off  69.6 lbs

Time in maintenance 4 years, 9 months

Age 50

Menopause 3 years

Height 5'1"

BMI 22.2

BMI ave this month 22.4

BMI ave last month 23.0

Ave glucose (fasting & 2hr post this month = 82mg/dL)

Ave glucose (fasting & 2 hr post last month = 77 mg/dL)

Auto-Immune Hashimotos 1997

Food Addict in Recovery: 5th year

High Risk, but never diagnosed Type 2 diabetes

Walking 11,000-12,000 steps per day

Weight lifting 1-2 days per week, took a break this week due to procedure

Sprints on the rowing machine 1 days per week , took a break this week due to procedure

Food template

Time-restricted eating (TRE) window: 6am to 1pm most days. Water only after 1pm.

My own combination of Paleo, Low Carb Higher Fat, Ketogenic sometimes, Whal's Paleo Plus (modified)

Diary free, nut free, xantham gum and guar gum free, grain free, mostly processed sugar free*

*85% chocolate, I have a square or two every day. There's a little sugar there, but it does not trigger. 

BOOM y'all!

November plans: I'm trying a coconut oil to olive oil switch, except for my scrambled/fried eggs in the AM. More on this later. This means black coffee instead of adding coconut milk and I'll try adding in some berries on and off, a couple of times a week.

I'm attempting to look back to what my ancestors would have eaten (pork and butter are not good for me), but they sure weren't eating coconut products. It should be a nice little experiment.

Holiday warning to those eating whatever they want, because YOLO, Food pushers, traditions

Okay, so it's not too late to escape the commercial, eat 24/7 food mess that the US and other countries have cultivated. I won't be eating what ever whimsical food that appears in front of me at work, at home, at relatives, or while dining out.

I'll be sticking to my food template all days, with a few foods that I don't normally have: Sparkling water, smoked oysters, some brisket. Berries. Yeah. Not outside my food template, but stuff I don't have everyday.

Just because the pendulum swings to processed foods and processed foods,be sure you are able to obtain a low risk on your health screens. There's a huge tie in with obesity and other diseases. Here's to lowering your risk as we approach all events and leftovers this holiday season.

Here's to managing the chronic disease of obesity year round. And keeping food addiction in remission. 

1 month

2 months

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1 year

since May 2011