Hi, Potatohead, I'm glad to see how successful you have been. It is so good to see someone who has managed this for a good number of years.
Hi Rose Mary, I know all about feeling bad and tired and not being prepared because of that. I have gravitated towards simple meals and even just things that I can eat cold. I am a huge fan of sweet potatoes, hot, cold, whatever. I make several at a time in the convection oven and then refrigerate whatever I don't eat. It's a real help when I am at work, have 30 minutes for lunch, and just want to sit down. I can grab a cold potato and eat it, often with an orange or other piece of fruit.
I also have a rice cooker so that I can eat rice and then keep the leftovers warm until I want more or need to put it up for the night.
It sounds like you are beginning to figure out how to do that for yourself.
I had a really good day. For the past two months, I have gone to work, come home to take a two hour long nap, gotten up to help fix the family dinner, and gone back to bed until morning. Today is the second day that I have not needed a nap! I have also been having problems with what I call dizziness, but it is more like the buzz you get when you have had one drink too many and then move your head very quickly. Anyway, it comes in waves, here for a minute than gone, usually every 30 minutes or so. I didn't feel it for an hour after waking yesterday and didn't feel it until about an hour ago today. Also, have only been able to walk around the track for about 1/4 mile, but yesterday was able to do 1/2 mile and today did 1.5 miles! With no dizziness, need for a nap, or extreme fatigue. These are huge things for me. I am also having trouble with my speech. It comes and goes in waves, like the dizziness, but it feels like my tongue isn't working right and I speak blurry, if that makes sense. Anyway, it is still pretty bad, but we'll see what happens. It makes for an interesting question:
Would you rather eat that fried chicken or be able to talk? I have not been as heat-sensitive as usual the past two days, so I am hopeful that the eating better is beginning to pay off. I need to go back and count, but it has been awhile that I have been doing well and making good food choices. Since November overall, but more recently that I have given up Daiya cheeze, fake hot dogs, avocados, tofu, nut butters, things with natural saturated fats or added sat. fats, and diet sodas. I know that these things are allowed in small amounts on the regular McDougall plan, but I was eating more than I should have, IMO.
Today I ate fresh peaches from the farmers market, kale, collards, two different types of sweet potato, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes from my garden, cauliflower, carrots--all of the veggies were in my salads at lunch and dinner, the sweet potatoes went with the salads. One of the sweet potato varieties was the white-fleshed one from Japan; they were really good!
Fulenn