SaraRiley's Journal, 27 Jun 24

Sara. You can do this. As a fellow Oz user, and one who had the benefit of nutritional counselling, a big key to this program is the elimination of simple carbs and ultraprocessed food. You have made great progress on the empty calorie pop consumption. Kudos. I did notice in some of the more recent food diaries though that things like enriched white bread and Flamin Hot Cheetos are still part of the menu. So I lay out the following challenge to you....For two weeks / 14 days..try eliminating all simple carbs (basically anything "white" go multigrain instead. And the Cheetos, the definition of ultra processed. Basically, any food which contains ingredients that you cannot stock and cook with in your own kitchen is a chemical food like substance and does no good for your body. Forgive me if I overstep here. Just want to see you succeed and get to the next level of weight loss. I also totally understand how hard it can be when your partner is tall and skinny and can pretty much eat anything (and does). Luckily my John was fully supportive of my journey and the need to protect my fake hip from excess weight wear and tear. He used to always bring me treats prior to the weight loss journey that were not good for me (with the best of intentions), and in the last year has started to bring me healthy treats that I also love like cherries, pommelos and strawberries. Maybe Chris can start doing the same for you? 

You have come a long way. Keep trying, keep tweaking.  

Thanks ladies and Annis he does help me now I have even gotten him to where he's had 3 boxes of snack cakes in the cabinet for over a month now, but there's times he forgets like the other day and bought me a ice cream and said eat it I did but it helped me go Down that day but I ate too much sodium and went back up the next day same thing as today I ate Kentucky legend ham and roll and couple other things I don't need a d my sodium intake is way too high I will take that challenge and I did go back to having him only put 2 teaspoons of whatever side items I'm having on my plate and 1 or 2 tablespoonful of other things I don't know how much calories and carbs would be in items when I do it like that, like today I ate ham and 2 teaspoons of mashed potatoes and 2 tsp of pork and beans,and I just recorded them as 1/4of cup because I am not good at converting 2 teaspoons of whatever it is I'm eating into like a 1/2 cup or 1_4cup etc. I usually just guess on it I've done it like that since I started on here. Chris has been doing so much better at helping me its funny we were in Walmart grocery shopping and I was looking at the cookies and cakes he's like no you don't need themselves in most ways he helps me decide to not eat sweets. Which isn't too hard as I usually buy them and they go to waste most of the time. But my toast which I eat with breakfast is hard to quit ,I don't eat much pasta and rice and if I do eat it it's not very often potatoes I have eaten more since surgery than anything I am back to eating more fruit now . I do have a small apple with breakfast, dinner and lunch so with my 170g carbs I'm eating daily almost 60g is from apples. I'm getting back to fasting too that's part of my problem eating around 4pm having a apple or something and it's killing so I'm back to doing that also and with everyone here supporting me and Chris helping me out more I will succeed in loosing the remaining weight I want to loose. Thank you for your help and support I will try to definitely cut out the hot fries and refined carbs to a minimum amount and see how that goes. 

So glad Sara. You have come such a long way, and please reach out if you feel the need to do so. I was in your shoes, facing the same struggles. The transition to whole grain breads was actually not that hard as they are full of texture and almost nutty in flavour. When I went back and had a regular white bread, it literally tasted like sugar. On the upside as well, it takes longer to eat/chew savour a whole grain bread and it keeps your tummy full longer. Another benefit is that your digestive tract has to work harder to digest it, you burn more calories doing so (not a ton of course but every little bit helps). White bread on the other hand, takes no effort to eat at all and almost instantly converts to sugar in your body. Try the squish test between your fingers and see how easily a white bread smooshes into a little ball. Try the same thing with a dark pumpernickel, or a whole grain ancient bread....not so easy.