Annette, you are not rambling! I appreciate your input and suggestions!
I bookmarked the site for the podcasts.
I hope I like amaranth, what didn't you like about it? What does it taste like? I figured I had to give it a try since it's new to me. It was only $4.38 for the bag, so if I trash it I won't be heartbroken, but I'm hoping to find another starch staple for the rotation.
I only sampled the farro yesterday since I had made the spicy white bean pitas recipe for both lunch and dinner, and I had the last of the batch of barley I cooked for today. Starting Wednesday, the main grain for my meals will be farro. I have enough for at least four meals, maybe five. We'll see. Tomorrow we are going out for lunch and I am having a natural peanut butter sandwich for dinner. The farro will easily keep, I probably should have waited to cook it though. Didn't know I'd change my mind about my meals planned.
I ordered the reusable produce bags for rinsing the quinoa. I also saw online that there is a brand of pre-rinsed quinoa available. I will have to look for it at my next Whole Foods trip. I only go about once every 4-6 weeks and just stock up on that one trip.
I will still eat potatoes, but NOT 24 oz in one go. I am steaming a bag of sweet potatoes this week, but will break them up between a few meals instead of eating the whole bag at once. I really don't want a repeat of the bloating and heaviness...and I went three days without a bowel movement, which made me even more miserable. I have potatoes as part of my plan to stay compliant in restaurants anyway. I will not eat potatoes every week, but won't completely cut them out of my diet either. I know so many McDougallers love their potatoes. I love my barley like that.
One thing that is new in the past three days - I usually take one Aleve caplet with breakfast (to keep inflammation down in my arthritic spine) and one 50+ multivitamin. I have been getting dizziness about two hours after breakfast. I don't know what's causing it, but it's definitely not my food, that hasn't changed since starting McDougall in early October.
I am wondering whether I don't need the Aleve anymore, and it is raising my blood pressure too much (that is a side effect). Or maybe I should listen to Dr. McDougall and cut out my multivitamin. I have just been using up the jar, but maybe I should stop those. I am going to stop the Aleve as of tomorrow morning to see if that makes a difference (and just use it as needed for severe pain, but not every day), and I will reduce the multivitamin to once per week, like my 1000 mcg of B12. I have had a Vitamin D deficiency previously (only 14) so I am reluctant to give up my vitamin completely, since I don't go outside much for sunlight. I think once a week should be sufficient though.
The weight loss of almost 100 pounds has made a profound difference in my spine pain. I used a cane for 13 years but left it behind two months ago. I have been taking the Aleve out of habit. Maybe this is just one more aspect of McDougall success, that my spine pain is reduced once I cut the inflammatory dairy out!
I'm also cutting out my Citrucel, starting today. I am mostly getting 35-40g of fiber a day on this WOE, so I don't really think I need Citrucel caplets anymore. I have just been using up the bottle. I'll keep it on hand "just in case," but I probably don't need that either!
Today's nutrition:
B - 1/3 cup oats in Silk vanilla yogurt
L - Barley/chickpeas/kale/sundried tomatoes/corn/onion/peppers/ 1/2 tbsp pepitas
S - snap peas
D - Whole wheat rotini with Hunt's oil-free canned tomato sauce