My Top Weight Maintenance Tools 2016 with Pro User tips, most low cost or free

Weight Maintenance 2016 tools

The sun is setting on 2016.  * please note, my blog is non-commercial*. This post is NOT an ad, and the tools I use are often free or low cost or just cost a bit of time.

Or they cost several months of habit change.

4 years, 11 months into weight maintenance and it takes a lot of tools to maintain my weight. Just as being food sober still takes work.

I'm here to tell you my best tools are not expensive, but they do take time to learn and to keep habits sustained.





I still have to learn new behaviors. STILL. Weight maintenance is always a work in progress. You'll age, you'll get further into menopause or aging or post obese weight metabolism.

Weight regain post weight loss is real for those of us with certain genetics. Combine my FTO genetics with my extra ghrelin. BOOM y'all. Perfect storm for weight regain. My body fat wanted  to come backkkkkk in 2016!!!  My obesity metabolism is right there, lurking, no matter how careful I am with my food template, my workouts, my sleep.

I can cycle back to overweight in about 10-16 weeks if I'm not careful. I want it all, I want food sobriety, I want weight maintenance, I want good health, I want strong muscles, I want migraine free living, I want acne free skin, I want life without sinus infections, I want fasting and 2 hour glucose that is optimal.  I want my size 6's jeans   (really , I do!!) metabolic health.

It's not too  much to ask, to have had 4 decades of overweight, binge eating, and food addition to want to escape this stuff.

You're tools will be different. Take the time to pick wisely. Right now, don't wait until 2017. 

My Top Tools of 2016 Weight Maintenance

1. Abstaining from my binge foods. Yep! Costs nothing but the emotional pain of withdrawals (which is at a cost).

My best practices: Grain free, sugar free (excluding a small amount of 85% chocolate that doesn't trigger me), emulsifier free, tough, not moderate. Yeah!!!

Pro Tip, grab others who abstain with no excuses: Stop reading and following the sugar moderators. Great for them, but huge slippery slope for the rest of us.

I'm not alone: Millions of folks who are Paleo, Primal, Low Carb Higher Natural Fat, Ketosis, Nutritional Ketosis, NSNG,  or who seek to keep type 2, type 1 managed better and other diseases in remission. Plus, let's not forget the OA'ers who are out there in force. The folks over at NSNG, the 10,000 + in several Low Carb Keto support groups.

Come on now...

Abstaining from binge foods does NOT equal food restriction

Yo! Boom y'all.  Many need an abstinence based plan. So don't shy away. Stop repeating the binge eat, repent, repeat.

2. Daily Weighing on the scale with data recording.  Yeah, I weigh in once a day and record it and move along. I would have been overweight in 2016 without getting a fair warning in 2015-2016 that I needed to change.  Once you weigh in, record it somewhere. Paper, My Fitness Pal, notebook, diary. My best practice: record where I can graph.

 Pro User tips: Scale prices are inexpensive and scales can last many years. Calibrate by comparing with a known weight once and awhile. Toss a scale you can't calibrate after it is unreliable. Change your scale batteries from time to time.

Free/ Cheapest solution: weigh in at the doctor or at a CVS or pop-up  grocery store or drug store clinic. Many have scales just sitting around and you can weigh in often.

Long Term Weight Maintenance 2016, LCHF, Keto, and Time Restricted Eating Window for the WIN!

Here's what daily weighing looked like in 2016. 1 year of daily weighing. The small or large shifts gave me a warning I needed to change up what I was doing.  And evaluating weight loss sustainability is very key for me.

3. Recording my food in My Fitness Pal 98% of the time. Data is King and I can't manage what I don't measure. I'm a food addict in recovery so carb creep and "eating this because I was active today" can still take over my brain. 

Pro User Tip: My best practice: Total intake, macros, and having a food diary are all helpful tools. My app is free, my time is only about 2-3 minutes each day, because the database at My Fitness Pal is very good and is updated frequently.

Free tool- record on index cards, paper, an excel spread sheet. No MFP ads involved. Nice records, but not backed up for loss electronically unless you scan or photo graph. 

Psssss when I don't track in MFP maybe a few days a month, I don't eat off my food template. Just saying. Don't kid yourself. I don't kid myself and it lead to long term weight maintenance.

Typical LCHF Day in Weight Maintenance 2016

LCHF Keto breakfast 2016, weight maintenance

4. Time restricted eating window, Dr. Panda for the WIN!!

Basically, this is an intermittent fast or (IF) every day. I Fast for 17 hours and eat for 7 hours.

Pro users tip: Yeah, in 2016, I've lost 6-8 pounds by simply eating within a 6 am -1pm (approx) time window each day. I can tell I've not changed my total intake, my total carbs or my activity. But, hey, my back fat is gone and so is hip and thigh fat. yeah!!!  

Additional reading and resources: Doing the 14 week My Circadian Clock study out of the Salk in La Jolla, CA- Dr. Panda's lab was a real great intro to Time Restricted Eating. More info here on my post study update.  

Additional free tool. There is a new app that is free and is modeled after Dr. Panda's work via Kevin Rose - the App is called Zero. I'll review it soon. 

4. Glucose meter- spot monitoring for the win

I know my time restricted eating window is working great for my blood glucose. My balance was good before my 6am- 1pm window, but just as good if not better after

Pro best user tip: Get a glucose meter, eat to your meter, then monitor if you change your food template OR just to do some spot checking. I act as if I had type 2 diabetes (never diagnosed, but almost) and use food to control my readings. 

Cost is low $30-50 a year after you get started.  I can't change my genetics, I can modify the foods I eat to make sure I stay disease free. 

Low cost or free option: Eat very low carb and don't test.  Get once per year blood work. Go from there.

5.  Diving into regular life: Taking time for family, friends, hobbies, photography, walking, hiking, house projects, financial planning,  batch cooking, gardening, my cats, continuing education, attending seminars like Low Carb USA 2016, talking to experts, talking to people just like myself. Learning new skills on the job. Coffee.  

Food addiction used to keep me from fully diving into my life. Now I can engage in life fully and functionally. 

Yes, my shrink was right. My whole life is a lot different now that I've abstained from grains, most sugars, and emulsifiers. 

Here's to 2017 and another year of weight maintenance. 

Walking for Long Term Weight Maintenance 2016

What are your best tips or tools for 2016? What are you willing to habit change for 2017?

Please, don't wait until 2017, start now, right this second Dec 23, 2016

Surfing Santa 2016

Please, if you are an abstainer or kidding yourself that you don't need to be and REALLY need to abstain for weight loss, weight maintenance, or food sober living, consider dumping the junk right here and now. Don't wait until 2017.

Ghost of Christmas Past

What worked then: In 1980, when I was a freshman in high school, I gave a sibling my Christmas stocking candy, all of it. I knew I would feel better. I knew I could not stop if I started. And, I promptly got my Richard Simmons- Never Say Diet and did those exercises like the 16 year old boss that I was. LOL (

(photo credit)

What works now: 37 years ago, my solution, abstaining was there. It's not restricting. Abstaining is simply choosing to not eat my trigger food. If I'm hungry, I eat from my Paleo/LCHF/Keto food template.


What I know will work for me in the future: Please know you are not alone and that millions abstain from our additions (food, drug, drink, shopping and others). Join me and the rest of us in a Food Sober 2016 holiday.

What didn't work for me in the past:  Moderate eating and counting WW points. My obesity genetics are not going to allow for that. It's not my fault, I'm not a bad person. I just have crap genetics, way beyond calories in and calories out- many of us do. I needed different tools. Like Abstaining and LCHF/Keto/Paleo


Don't wait until 2017, it may be too late. Onward and here's to cultivating a deep food sober practice.

Holiday Eating post links from Refuse to Regain, Barbara Berkeley, MD and my best food sober tips

Use the weight maintenance force, 2016

Use the force in 2016 for Holiday Eating!

What didn't work for me in the past: I used to use the time from Halloween to Jan 1 to eat whatever the heck I wanted and then I took 6 whole weeks off until Valentines Day to start up again. I chose sugar highs and salt endorphin rushes.

Sugar, salt( think chips/popcorn tins) and moderation eating were my DOPE.
There's no food photos in this post, you are welcome!

Sweaters and winter coats did not hide morbid obesity. But, I was too busy getting sugar high to care. It was sweater season and I could  thought I could hide my rolls inside my bulky clothes.

Not only was I sick much of the time and hiding and buying the next highest clothing size, I also fooled no one.

I was slowly killing myself by my own hand with food. It wasn't totally my fault- hey, my WW meeting just told me I could eat anything I wanted. Moderation of all foods. That doesn't work well for food addicts. I had to take responsibility for my own actions.

Can't hide in big clothes

Luckily, this year, Barbara Berkeley, MD has two blog posts on holiday eating strategies. 

If you are a weight maintainer, you know how hard in many cases the holidays can be, food addiction or not.  Even seasoned weight maintainers like me. Even 6 years food sober, it's a lot of work.
First the Refuse to Regain Blog posts for 2016 are here:

Holiday Tips 2016
http://www.refusetoregain.com/2016/12/holiday-maintenance-tips.html

Holiday Parties and waking up the same weight the next day
http://www.refusetoregain.com/2016/12/how-to-go-to-a-holiday-partyand-wake-up-the-same-weight-tomorrow.html

2016, no need to hide

6 years food sober, here are my own ways of dealing

Family Meals and Pot Lucks ( in Indiana we called them Pitch-In's- who's with me on that? :) )

• Bring foods like Nom Nom Paleo's Mexican Beef- because holy heck it's good.
• Grab a bag of oranges  or avocados from the Farmer's Market
• Grab items that are in season- root veggies and roast them up
• Bring a prepared meal if I cannot or do not have time to bring something. 

I save money and feel great while people gorge themselves sick. Okay for them, those days are over for me. It's pretty hard to watch, though.

Meals out: 

• Get a menu before hand. Pick something out OR
•  Eat before I go and order a coffee and visit. 
• I let the server know I'm on a medically required orders and I'll tip like I  ordered. 
• Don't cave and eat the SAD or eat to people please, they will get over it, trust me. 
• Keep my fasting, Keto, LCHF, Paleo food template. 

Food brought to your house, after the party:

• Trash it after the event if it's sugary or junk food. Nobody needs that.
• Place it in the freezer or on a pantry shelf where I do not go, but other family members can eat it later
• Don't moderate foods that take me away from food sobriety. Food addiction is painful. 

Home Cooking

• Continue cooking and batch cooking on your food template during the holidays
• Staying food sober means 365/24/7. So, cook at home like a ninja. My food sober living depends on my habits. So I act like it.  
• Make meals I can bring with me and either heat up or eat refrigerated. 

My food sobriety means I'll do what I need to do and everyone else can adjust to my new normal.  If people respond negatively, and and they will, I will limit my time with them.

 I am always pleased when I hold my ground and after a year or two, some people will have the light bulb turn on and will learn from their trainers, another person or co-workers that yes, they need to pull away from the SAD and stop eating themselves to death or very painful and avoidable diseases. Yay!!!! 

On the other hand, lots of people will eat themselves to death or dismemberment with diabetes. Painful. I know. 

Here's to adopting food strategies and eating that keeps you well all year. Safe Travels. How do you deal with the holidays? 

4 years and 10 months in long term weight maintenance & arrival at a fabulous plateau- love it!!

May 2011 to Dec 2016, long term weight maintenance

May 2011 to Dec 2016, long term weight maintenance

Starting weight 187.4 lbs

Goal Range 115-125  lbs

Current Weight 119.2 lbs

Keeping off  68.2 lbs

Time in maintenance 4 years, 10 months

Age 50

Menopause 3 years

Height 5'1"

BMI 22.5

BMI ave this month 22.5

BMI ave last month 22.6

Ave glucose (fasting & 2hr post this month = 72 mg/dL)

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

Auto-Immune Hashimotos 1997

Food Addict in Recovery: 5th year

Holiday Seasons that I've been food sober =6 years

High Risk, but never diagnosed Type 2 diabetes

Walking 11,000-12,000 steps per day

Weight lifting 1-2 days per week, 

Sprints on the rowing machine 1 days per week 

The plateau I'm on:  It's pretty fabulous. 

I've got to love the great plateau of the 119's. I'm not overly happy or sad, but I must say pleased and loving it on arriving at 2 weeks of solid 119 maintenance. This weight seems to be my best weight, along with 116's. Either place is best fit for my clothes, body, bone structure, exercise and just plain steady long term weight maintenance.  

Long term weight maintenance, Nov 2016

I even endured some binge urges early in Nov 2016. I believe that the drugs for twilight sleep and pain killers (colonoscopy- screening Nov 2, 2016) may have caused me to have some epic "I'm eating my binge food and I do not care thoughts". Turns out I was having vivid dreams. 

I woke up in tears several mornings because I thought I had gone back into the food addiction. Oh, me!!! Thankful to have told my medical team and my support people not to give me any crackers or juice or cookies post-op. I know myself. I had to tell them "If I ask or beg or cry, say NO".  More on that later in another post.

Oooooooh Yeah!!!!   I hit my plateau around mid-Nov 2016. I expect to stay here for a long time, probably months, if not years. Time will tell if I drop down to 116's or not. Either way, I can't go wrong. 

I'm only 5'1", small bone frame. I can say that

What's working now

1. I feel better in my body in the 119's (22. 5 BMI) than at higher weights. 

2. My clothes fit better. Almost all size 6's fit very well. This means I can shop off the rack or at Costco for certain clothes without trying things on and come out pretty happy. 

3. I can eat a little more or a little less or whatever I need without stressing much about it. As long as I'm choosing from my food sober template. 

4. Backing down 2-3,000 steps/ day may have helped me drop the weight. Not sure, but I think I need to take it down to 10,000-12,000 steps if I need to switch plateaus and go lower.

Weight maintenance and stable plateau's mean I can walk 20,000 or more if I want for big hiking or photo days. Or 13,000-15,000 during the summer months, or 10,000-12,000 steps during the winter months. 

5. Paleo, LCHF, winter months mean Keto for me,  some occasional foods that are season are seasonal might be the following: I'm using the ends of oranges, key limes for dressings and as flavor enhancements in my food. In So. Cal, citrus are in season in some places. I can tolerate a tablespoon of pomegranate seeds on a salad for my family dinner, if one is around. One tablespoon, one meal.   Berries are out because they are not in season in my area.  Also, bell peppers are a no go until I can get cheaper, in season produce.   Here's my Instagram account for current food stuff (link)

6. Restricted feeding window - AKA daily fasting. I eat 6am to 1 or 2pm most days. Exceptions for holiday meals or traffic patterns. I only drink water or a little bit of Natural Calm supplement after about 1pm most days. 

So easy, and wow!! I'm 5 pounds down since July 4th, 2016. Same food template. Could be a little less total intake over time to account for the loss, or better sleep. I may never know.  6am to 1pm or so. Yep, all  the yeses. I'll likely continue this style of eating for many years.

I'll do a separate food post about satiety and hormone signaling soon. Because if you are prone to extra or messed up metabolic genetics, you MUST, MUST, MUST go the extra step of getting trigger foods the heck out of your food template if you want long term maintenance. Really. it's not our faults, but getting proper food satiety signals is key, I've decided... 

What didn't work in the past

1. Picking maintenance weights that were too high. I'm super short and small boned. The 130's and higher  feels, well, pretty terrible.

2. I would stay in too big or too small clothes for a long time. Too long. 

3. Moderate eating of all foods, without being honest about my trigger foods. Anything to get a food high and stay firmly in food addiction. Sigh. No, intuitive eating is not going to work if you have genetics that yield extra ghrelin. Wish someone would have talked about this. 

4. Chronic cardio and half marathon training. LORDY!! Add fueling with Clif Bars in there and it was a recipe for plantar fasciitis and a huge inner-tube of visceral fat around my middle. Anything but fat burning- it was a recipe for type 2 diabetes and heart/stroke problems. Thank goodness I stopped that stuff. Ughhhhhh and ouch!!!

5. Weight Watcher's point counting and moderation bullying:  The worst idea ever. Kept me binge eating and in Food Addiction for over a decade. Terrible idea to eat foods that make you sick. Yikes. WW needs to vet people at the door- get to an abstaining group, really. But hey, they like to sell those frozen meals and 2 points bars. Whatevs. Thankfully, there are online abstaining groups a plenty now.

6. I ate from 5am until I got so freaking sick at about 10pm. Skinny Cow ice-creams with 1 point of M&M's embedded in the sides. No wonder I was morbidly obese.

Onward to all and here's to the power of the plateau. :)  Hope you are all making food choices that fit your goals this Dec 2016. 

Year 4 of long term weight maintenance 2016

More, MOR graphs!!!! Santa brought me a sweet iPad Mini 4, so my graphs look pretty optimal. LOL. ;)  Love, it. Very easy for me to see the plateau and to evaluate what is and what is not working. 

Onward. Always. 

Add caption

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

3 months

6 months

1 year

since May 2011