OT-RA Fit Club 9/10/07 | Arthritis Information

Good morning all!!!

Well, I was supposed to get up and walk this morning before work

This is what I am going to eat today:::

Right now, I'm drinking chocolate Soy milk with my meds, I will have some fruit for breakfast (plum, apple and pear). Lunch is pasta with beans and mushrooms and whatever fruit I don't eat for breakfast. I have raw almonds at work in my desk for those hunger moments and I don't know about dinner. I will check back in tonight and let you know how I did!!

I'm so excited about this thread. I hope everyone is too!

Phats

PS, if anyone can think of a better name for our club...let's hear them !

Sounds like a great title PHATS. I did housework today and that was all as far as physical work goes. I was pretty good as far as what I ate and haven't had an evening snack yet. I will have a banana when I have my bedtime meds. Tomorrow morning will begin my real work. I'd love to lose a kilo or two before I go away next week.Dear Phats, your food for the day sounds very much like what I eat. Are you a vegetarian? I have been one for 20 years or so. I'm reading a book called "Skinny Bitches" and just read that just fruit for breakfast is the best thing you can do. I made a fruit salad last night and will eat some on the way to work (cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, strawberries and bananas). Lunch will be some red beans and not sure what else. Dinner.....let me think on that. My goal today is to increase my water and swim 10 laps this afternoon.

Juliah,

I am a vegetarian. I feel so much better when I don't eat meat or meat products. your fruit salad sounds wonderful!!!

I had a banana, plum and soy milk for breakfast. I'm a little hungry, so I'm going to have a handful of nuts.

Let me know what you think of the book "skinny bitches", I want to read it =)

Juliah, you have a great goal for today! I'm supposed to be drinking more water, but I'm having a hard time getting it down. I should have got some lemon for it, it makes it go down so much easier!

Phats

Ok, so Saturday I thought I would get some exercise and go to the grocery store and buy healthy food. I was there over 2 hours reading labels and trying to plan meals. By the time I got home, my ankle was the size of a watermelon!! Have no idea what I did to it but its still swollen and sore!

I went in for my physical therapy massage this morning so didn't have time for a proper breakfast but I did have a weight watchers bar. I accidentally left y bag of grapes on my kitchen counter at home, that was going to be my snack.

Yeah Michele!!!!

Keep up the good work.

Phats

Well...So when I went to the dr's 2 weeks ago I weighed in at 224. 4lbs less then a drs appointment 1.5 months before. But unfortunatly though all this stress w/ my grandma I eat more not less. I have a wedding to go to at the end of the month that I have to attempt to lose some weight for. But really, either way I dont have anything to wear...To bad its not causal and I can wear jeans

WTG Michelle on loosing 5lbs!! Keep it up!

30 minutes on the elliptical this morning. 10 minutes on the cruel but effective inner/outer thigh machine. 15 minutes walking (briskly) around the student center.

bowl of honey bunches of oats with milk this morning, banana for lunch, dinner is beyond my thoughts right now. Oh, add two bottles of water and 1 diet mountain dew.

My hubby is going to Italy for the month of October (business trip) so my goal is by the end of October to be one size smaller than I am right now. I want him to be able to see a difference when he returns. When I reach that goal, I will set another one. Small steps make it easier for me.

Gonna enjoy our pool before it's too late. Everyday a little colder. My husband fell out yesterday because I said it was too cold. It was 80*. I've gotten used to 82-84*. Yes I'm a brat. I got over myself and had a great swim. Same today. Just goofing around in the pool for an hour or more can burn 300 calories or more. I'm gonna try cutting the carbs for a few weeks too. That always seems to help when I'm first starting a new weight loss plan. Good luck to everyone in our boat. Wooo Hoooo!

I weigh 157lbs.

I have not ate anything yet. Not really hungry. But I was thinking of eating an egg salad sandwich.

For my exercise... which I am now backing outta.... I was going to clean the house, but my leg muscles are twitching again and were even twitching after I took a muscle relaxer. I guess I am just not suppose to lose weight or do anything worth anything yet.

Only on 5mg of pred. I have not took my Humira yet. For some reason something keeps telling me no, do not take it yet. So... here I wait. I guess probably because my new RD has not called me with my appt yet. I am going to call tomorrow to see if they are ready to give me an appt yet. It has been 3 weeks now!

you guys all sound like you are on the right track, good for you! I want so badly to lose, but am at a loss right now. I have a torn tendon in my foot and cannot put any weight on it for three wks. Ugh. I was thinking for me, I am the sole member of the "chub club"

I have always been super thin and highly active, now neither is true. The only thing I can really control right now is my eating. For breakfast, I have coffee and lots of water with my meds. and sometimes a bagel or cereal. Lunch is my biggest meal. I usually eat some fruit or leftover veggies chicken or tuna. I eat a huge bowl of air popped popcorn everyday as my snack, I treat myself with 1tsp of melted butter. By dinner I am not hungry, but I eat about 1/8 what i used to. I try not to eat at night but I have found myself starving around 11pm when I take my betime meds, so Ive started eating a very small bowl of rasin bran with them. I don't feel like I am losing weight, but I've lost that bloated heavy feeling. I try not to weigh myself and just go by how my clothes feel on me.

Best of luck to you all!

I always feel bloated and I can see the bloating in my belly. I wake up and my belly is smaller, but by the time I eat my first meal of the day... it looks bloated. But most times when my belly is bloated I have a lot of pain in my bladder. I guess it is a part of my IC? Not sure. Its 3:22 here, this is what I actually ended up eating today

ww bar at 8 am 220 calories

8 wheat thins light and one cube of cheese total calories 90

nuke able mac n cheese 220 calories
diet 7 up 0 calories

So a total of 530 calories. I have a lean turkey breast thawing for dinner and will have a piece of corn on the cob, not sure on the calories there but it will hopefully be around 400 calories, so that will put me just under 1000 calories for the day.

Does stress over insurances and bills count as exercise?? if it does, I will be twiggy in a matter of days...

Great posts on what you ate and your activity. I was thinking that I was too tired to walk, but I'm going! I'm going at 4:00! I'll post when I get back and figure out what I'm having for dinner. See, this is what it is all about.....helping each other thru the bumps of wt. loss.

Owie...what about doing some upper arm stuff? Can you do any of that?

Phats

yes, I will try do do some upper arms, thanks for the little push i need!

Does washing 1 bowl, 1 pot and 1 cup count as exercise?

Well, I finally got around to eating my 2 egg salad sandwiches. And here it is 3:30pm... yep first meal of the day. I also drank some red hawaiian punch. Darn hubby has drank just about ALL of my gallon of hawaiian punch!

I do not buy juice anymore. At Costco, I can get two large bottles of Real Lemon lemon juice very reasonably priced. It takes 1c. of that and 1c. of sugar and a half gallon of water. I use unrefined raw sugar and have found that 1/2c is enough. Making lemonade this way is very cheap. I put a TBL into my glasses of water for some flavor. When the kids have a nasty cough i warm a very small glass of this with a tsp of honey and it does the trick.

I always try to have a pitcher of Crystal Light in the fridge. I drink about 2 quarts of that a day. For breakfast today which was 12:00 noon (because I sleep late) I had one container of light vanilla yoplait yogurt with 1 cup of frozen mixed berries (thawed). That keeps me going for a few hours. For lunch I had a turkey and lettuce sandwich and we're having chicken for dinner. My biggest problem is that I get hungry about 11:00 pm just like owiedeb. A bowl of cereal is the best thing for me, too.

Oh yea, I forgot. I had a few tortilla chips with salsa and one glass of pepsi. Damn. My husband always buys tortilla chips and pepsi. The hardest thing for me to quit is pepsi and coke. I try to limit it to 1 cup a day.

Hope you're all having a good day!

I went for my walk. It only ended up being about 20 mins because it started to rain. BUT, it is 20 mins longer than I would have done. I feel a lot better, with just those 20 mins.

Dinner: sandwich with hummus and fake meat (don't ask

Miles...I tried Crystal Light, but it left a funky taste in my mouth. Does it do that to you?

Phats

I've decided to just eat less of our main meal at noon. Drank LOTS of water - I envy those of you that can walk or do water arobics. 43' at my house this AM -fall is in the air and the leaves are turning. I HAVE TO DECIDE IF i'LL LET THEM OPERATE ON MY FOOT

Lev

Grapefruit Juice Diet

The Promise:

In 2 1/2 months you should lose 52 pounds.

The Rules:

You must drink eight 8oz. glasses of water daily (64 oz. total per day).
At any meal you may eat until you are full.
You must eat the minimum listed at each meal. (yep, this diet list the minimum you should eat).
You cannot eliminate anything from the diet. Especially the bacon at breakfast and the salads. You must eat the bacon and salads. These combinations of food burn the fat, omitting one part of the combination will cause the whole thing not to work.
The grapefruit juice is important because it acts as a catalyst that starts the burning process. Don't add or reduce the amount of juice.
Cut down on coffee, it affects the insulin balance that hinders the burning process. Try to limit to 1 cup at meal time.
Don't eat between meals. If you eat the suggested foods you will not get hungry.
You can fry food in butter and use butter generously on vegetables.
Do not eat desserts, breads, and white vegetables or sweet potatoes.
You may double or triple helpings of meat, salad or vegetables.
Eat until you are stuffed. The more you eat the more weight you will lose.
Stay on the diet 12 days, then stop the diet for 2 days and repeat.

Diet Plan:

Breakfast:

8 oz. juice (unsweetened)
2 eggs any style
2 slices of bacon

Lunch:

8 oz. juice (unsweetened)
Salad with any dressing
Meat any style and any amount.

Dinner:

8 oz. juice (unsweetened)
Salad with any dressing OR a red or green vegetable cooked in butter or spices.
Meat or even Fish any style cooked any way.
Coffee or Tea (1 cup)

Bedtime Snack:

8oz. glass of tomato juice or 8 oz cup of skim milk.

Things you May NOT Have	Things You May Have
White onions	Red onions
Potatoes	bell peppers
Celery	Radishes
Peas	Broccoli
Cereal	Cucumbers
Corn	Carrots
Starchy vegetables	Green Onions
Potato chips	Leaf Spinach
Peanut Butter	Cabbage
Pasta	Tomatoes
Corn chips	Green Beans
Jelly or Jam	Lettuce
Sweet pickles	Chili (no beans)
Pretzels	Mayonnaise (hence the term Mayo diet)
Fruit	Any cheese
Low-fat / fat free or diet salad dressings	Hot Dogs
	Cole Slaws
	Reg. Salad Dressing
	Green Vegetables
	1 tsp Dried Nuts
	Dill or Bread / Butter Pickles

HOT - Grapefruit Diet Resources:

1. The Grapefruit Solution

2. The Grapefruit and Apple Cider Vinegar Combo Diet

Try the Bread and Butter Diet

Click here for a FREE DIET CD

Questions? Try the iDiet4U.com Discussion Board

Ok Lev... I would literally starve on that diet

LEV

Yeah, I like meat, but not much on eating it every day. I tend to get bored with the same foods over and over again.

I might give it a try. I have been thinking about eating more salads and fruit.

Progresso 60 cal soup is pretty good. Warm foods always make me feel full and cut my appitite. This hit the spot. I had a diet dinner and wasn't left looking for more. The veggie sandwhich was good too.Hello all,
I read somewhere that people who eat soup before a meal consume 20% less calories total at a meal. I am back to work today, so I will need to stock up on some good food at work.

Ever since I have started my RA drugs I have had nausea and do not want to eat meat. I know that there is no single food that will cure RA, but I heard that the so called Mediterranean diet with lots of fatty fish, vegetables and fruit can help. Tofu may be substituted for the fish. I am going to look into it more.

I have lost about 25lbs in the year I have had RA, but that is from the nausea I think. I still need to lose another 20 or 25.

I am eating 1 serving of cream of wheat with milk every morning to help with my anemia. I am taking my coffee yogurt (yummy!) and a piece of fruit and different flavored nutra grain bars to work for lunch. I also keep Italian wedding and minestrone soup at work when I want a hot lunch.

I am going to eat whatever I make for the family, but I use a saucer for a plate. Don't laugh, it works. I always have dessert, but it can only fill half of the of the cup that went with the saucer I also go with Owideb idea of not weighing myself, at least not often. I go by how my clothes feel. I have dealt with an eating disorder since I was 15 and weighing myself obsessively has always been a problem. I have decided (along with my counselor) to only weigh myself in the first of the month and then have my husband hide the scale. Sounds crazy, but it works for me. I also don't get weighed at the docs. It bugs my RD, but heck I went through nursing school, raised 6 kids and give myself injections once a week so I think I can monitor my own weight.

We don't own a scale so I don't get to weigh myself very often. Which is probably good. LoL

I've figured out that I'm no good at "diets" the only way to lose weight for me, is to figure out what the crap food is that I'm eating, and what I can replace it with that's just as good. I've also decided that giving into my cravings short term not only makes me happier but really doesn't seem to dent me that much. IE - buying one bag of cheeto puffs and devouring it over the course of a week REALLY isn't that big of a deal. As long as I watch myself and I'm not doing it EVERY week. KWIM?

Since June-ish I've found that snacking on nuts and popcicle bars and tortilla chips holds me over A LOT more than any junk food. And I love them all! I've started eating breakfast again which has curbed my hunger during the day and helped me lose weight, I believe.

I also drink a lot more water than I used to. When I get bored I get "hungry" Not really. I only THINK I'm hungry and all it takes is a few swigs of water to realize that. So I always have my water bottle on hand.

I've also started making sure that I'm eating proprtionally(sp) As in, if I have a medium sized breakfast, then I have a medium lunch and a medium dinner. I seem to only be able to regulate my hunger that way. If I have a giant breakfast and a little lunch I find myself snacking A LOT MORE than usual. As long as I start of with a small or medium sized breakfast, my hunger stays pretty well withing normal limits.

So far I've lost 8 of the 13 lbs I'm aiming to lose. I'm probably not going to meet my goal of losing it by September 22nd though....but I'm blaming the Lexapro, as it seems the second I started taking it, my weight leveled off and I actually gained 2 lbs. But I think I've gotten them off again and I'm back on track.

7 more lbs to go!!!!!!!

Phats, the only Crystal Light I drink is the pink lemonade and it doesn't seem to leave a funny taste. I really like it now but in a few weeks I may switch to a different flavor if I get tired of it.

I've also been doing crunches on my exercise ball. What a difference it makes. When you come up for the crunch, count a few seconds before you go back down. You can really feel the burn that way. I do 100 every day.

My clothes have all shrunk a bit or I've grown... either way, I'm too lazy to go clothes shopping so I'm trying to get a bit smaller. I've been drinking more tea and less Coke lately. I find that if I sip tea all day at work (usually 4 or 5 cups a day), I'm less likely to raid the vending machine or guzzle 3 or 4 Cokes. I usually drink rooibos (African red tea) or green tea, with 1 sugar cube (about 4 grams/16 calories). In contrast, a can of Coke has 140 calories (about 500 calories a day!!!). I just read on the daily chat thread that someone called this the "Phats fit club". That really tickled my funny bone.

Hi all, Just checking to say HI and "way to go!" You all sound like you are giving it a great start.

One caution, if you want to try levlarry's diet...Check All Your Meds! Make sure that they don't warn to not eat grapefruit or drink g-fruit juice! This is really important. It interacts with many meds. One, off the top of my head is cholestrol medicine, for example, Lipitor, Lovastatin. But there are many others.

Check your bottle, the info. sheet the pharmacy gives you or look up drug interactions on line.

Miles, have you tried diet cola? Actually I like the flavor of Walmarts, Sam's Soda, Diet, Caffiene free. It tastes better than diet coke or diet pepsi, to me. We drink it a lot so my husband buys 20 or so 2-liter bottles when they have it. I also drink a lot of bottled water, but I only get the spring water. Costco in CA carries Arrowhead water. Do any of you get Arrowhead where you are?

Caprice, Just wanted to tell you that I LOVE Progresso Soups. They're a little like homemade.

Good night, all,

Nini

I have a feeling I will always be a day late to this thread. I normally do not weight myself but judge weight loss and inches lost by the feel of my close. I did weigh myself a month ago and had lost 15 pounds. The RD always weighs me when I have an appointment. I hate that.

Yesterday I ran 3.2 miles on the treadmill and did a 45 minute muscle class. Today is my off exercise day but sometimes when I get home from work, depending on how I feel, I will take off on the bike for a quick ride.

Yesterday I ate a breakfast bar for breakfast (and coffee, of course), mid morning snack was an ice coffee, sushi for lunch, a banana and strawberries for an afternoon snack and for dinner I had a fresh mozzarella and fresh tomato sandwich on olive bread (now that was delicious). After dinner, I had a cup of coffee.

I love coffee by the way.

Hi guys

I never used to eat breakfast, I'm never hungry before 10. However having to take these meds for the last month I've been having branflakes with fruit in and of course milk.

I do snack all day though but its on things like apricots/prunes/berrys. They are great for fibre and very filling. I drink small glasses of water throughout the day. Which keeps bloat free (doesnt that sound mad, take on more fluid be less bloated!). I eat white meat/fish and gallons of salad as norm.

I dont do scales either, my doctor says that if you feel your clothes are tight then eat less of the crap... she's right and it works.

Anyway, with the meds upsetting my stomach and making me eat less I've gone from 12stone 6 to 11stone 11.Nothing major but enough to feel better about me.

My exercise consists of cleaning, pottering about (when I'm not too tired), walking once or twice a week and my trampette (5-10 mins each day, again if I'm not too tired).

I dont know if you've all heard of MBT's (masai barefoot trainers) the trainers for posture etc. Well my pilates teacher said they were worth having. I however am not keen on closed shoes (I have incredibly sweaty feet... they dont smell

I purchased some FitFlops in June. They are the open version of MBTs. I took my measurements (hips, thighs, waiste etc) and measured myself 8 weeks later and amazingly, I was missing 1/2 inch of each thigh, and 1 1/2 inches off the hips and 3/4 inch off the waiste. I did not up my exercise during this time. Hubby noticed that the thighs had changed shape (as in looked tonned). They fitflops are incredibly comfortable, and great for the posture too, they feel light and bouncy but look much nicer than the MBT's. I'm going to get another pair in red and cant wait till they bring out a whole range of different colours!

Its nice to read about what everyone else is doing/eating.