mergthemagnificent

Here I am....back in my old form....recognize the meditating bear???

Ok, that worked. Now I can go back to saying how glad I am to find you all here still.....like coming home for Christmas. I am in for Jan +++ w30 but need to get my butt in gear about it, which takes more effort than it used to BECAUSE IT IS BIGGER THAN IT USED TO BE Well, Merry Christmas everyone See you after and may 2017 bring many delights to us all.

Oh arrgh!! I wrote a long first new reply and it doesnt seem to have posted. Will keep this one short as a trial.

Well, folks, I dunno what happened, but I had one heck of a time logging in there for awhile. At least I could read your posts and SMILE at the stories, sliding pie crusts, rebellious bread dough, bathtub negotiations, and Crimsann's incredible capacity to be around cupcakes while doing a whole 30!! You are fantastic...all of you! I am back from joy trip, all 48 hours of it, to NYC with the hubs. We had a great time, once we got through the flying stuff, which sends him to the literal edge...but we had what was almost a second honeymoon, minus the sex ( we are old) and it was very sweet. I can feel myself getting thick in the middle and a little too loose with the ISH part of whole 30-ish, so I am going to start up July 1...need the next few days to get my mind around it again. I will probably ignore the soy sauce in a few dressings in the fridge that need to be used up...but otherwise, full steam ahead. Help me out, partners, becauseI have sinned while in NYC...so the comedown may be Hard!! Susan, I get the hubby who never throws things away...and unfortunately, it is about to get worse at our house. While in NYC, we went to an antique book store where they were selling old covers of the New Yorker. My beloved says:" oh my, and I have been giving those away!! I think I will start keeping them ". Time for an addition on the house for the magazine wing. We alread have the old tax returns room, and the files from committees twenty years ago library. I don't use my Instapot much in the summer except for Bone broth and ghee...am thinking more abut how to make salads and cold proteins easier.

I am also in, Susan and Crimsann. Starting a day late (today), and will do a modified version between June 24 and 27

Nancy, so glad to see you back on the screen. I know you have been a comfort to your family, snorting and all. I believe laughter is so important at times like these. Glad you were able to give them that gift, a sell as the many gifts that come from just being YOU. Crimsann, thanks so much for sharing the meal plan....very great ideas. So, each week you plan 2 meals and make enough of it to cover all 14 meals ( minus meal 1)? That is surly one way to simplify....don't you get bored with rotating two things out for all those meals??? I've given up looking for a great 30 days ahead when some event won't interfere with a whole 30, so I am just going to do my best to be compliant all the time, except for the really special occasions ahead, and then not go crazy...then maybe I can do a very strict 60or more starting in August after I return from vacation. There is plenty I can do to make myself feel and be better...and no reason not to ramp that up right now. Otherwise, all is well here. Keep taking good care everyone.

GLOP. Went to a garden party (WAY too fancy for me) today and ate bad stuff. FEEL LIKE GLOP. Going to bed. Tomorrow is another day. Sigh. Let's hope this is a good week. Supposed to have a taste of summer here this week....a few days of that and I will start complaining about the heat OK, I am actually better than that sounded....just a bit irritated w myself for sliding off the rails.

Hi, everyone. Nancy, sorry for your loss. I LOVE my SILs...just don't see them enough. Kudos to them for living with my love able but rotten big brothers whose favorite trick in childhood was to tie me up in the garage and leave me there until Mom and Dad wondered where I was. No wonder my favorite thing to do was to go hide in a neighbors dog house, with their German shepherd who lived there, or to climb the tree behind our shed and get up on the roof, out of sight. My poor hubby, he is living with result of these coping mechanisms.... My fish...yes, 60 pounds, just for the two of us. My freezer is now so full it is a death defying act to open the door. The Fish is caught in Alaska, in season, flash Frozen and shipped by a one man outfit called Salmon and Sable. I bought 60 pounds to avoid the shipping charges, but, then again, I basically had to surrender my puny freezer space until we eat our way back into it. The fish is the best I have ever had, but it comes in season, so now I have enough halibut and sablefish to get me through to next Spring. If you are interested, check out the Salmon and Sable website...but, warnin, it is EXPENSIVE....just worth it for me to be compliant and not eat so much red meat along the way. I have an order for salmon for the fall...not in season now. Anyway, since I spent so much on the fish, I have my Julia CHild The Way To Cook here on the coffee table and am reading about how to,properly treat frozen fish....hmmm...I might have to quit my job.... I've fallen by the wayside twice this week, stopping by our health food store and the juice bar to get a green smoothie...then today, a sandwich (WHAT.???).....so will restart my whole 30-ish on Sunday as tomorrow I am meeting up with a friend from out of town at a local French bakery-her choice...cmon people....I cannot be asked to do that, can I? So I may be facing joining you all in June, for real. Or maybe waiting to jump in with Nancy in July because hubs and I are going to NYC at the end of June and I just won't feel like being compliant for a weekend in the Big Apple. In the meantime, I am going to try to I've toward compliance...getting way from those smoothies, the cappuccinos, sandwiches, etc....I feel so much better when I do!! Crimsann, any chanc you can share your meal plans? Cheers everyone!! UNiversity graduation here, so the town is a zoo!!!

Bpaitsel, Looks like we posted At the same time, so I didn't see your post until now. Wow, two deaths in your family, I am so sorry. YOU ARE ALSO FREAKING FEARLESS to have come out on the other side of THAT as level headed as you sound....and now selling your hous? YOWZAH! so very wise of you to keep taking good care of yourself. We know we do better in times of stress and loss when we are rested and hormonally even from making good food choices.... Life is just better in or near the whole 30, especially because it includes our crew!!

Crimsann, thanks. Your logical way of approaching this is really helpful. By keeping the outcomes we want in mind, then we apply the rules (or bend them) to get us there. I like your self imposed rule of "ok if it is planned ahead of time"....and some of your other structures. For sure, when I adopt an "I will just improvise" approach to adapting the plan it is far too easy for improvising to become a full time way or acting. Lindy, I find I have a strange time with eggs sometimes....usually just phlegm in the throat (apologies for the TMI), but it does seem to happen more frequently, although not consistently, after breakfast....so, hmmmm.of course, beef is kinda hard to digest too...but I just plain need it sometimes. How do you know when you are acidic? I hate sting rays...you are so freakin fearless!! M

Nancy, Crimsann, Lindy, Bpaitsel, Susan, C Ceseaux....hi! Crimsann, thanks for your ruminating on longer programs. I love things like that , counterintuitive but true. I am planning to start TOMORROW and was thinking of only 30, but will at least go through all of June....could be longer IF I am able to do what you do, Crimsann, in allowing some flex on weekends.....is that compliant ingredients flexibility, or do you let it all go for two days and then get back to business?? I dunno, in that regard I think Nancy and I are alike...no such thing as a little baccanalia.....love that, Nancy! So, I am venturing back into 30 at least. I am not fully prepared....the freezer has stuff but not really as I like it to support w30, but, as you say. This time of year has TONS of food supports out there, with more coming in. I am not going to fuss about a little butter here or there, or even a few legumes...but I will feel a whole lot better with no sugar, no wine, no bread, cheese, and some of the other little treats I have fallen back to trying......too often. I am expecting my shipment of the spring catch of Alaskan fish this week...60 pounds of it...hope my freezer willandle it all....but I will have no excuse not to have fish 2-3 times a week now.... And, after ready Lindy, I am going back into the kitchen now to start some bone broth... Bpaitsel and Susan, hope your spirits are up a bit with the return of the sun for we Virginians....even tho it is a bit chilly☃☀️

Hi everyone! I LOVE this group - each of us on our journeys, climbing over (or carrying) our own rocks, but also seeking and finding the sun and thew cool breezes of enjoying life and FEELING GREAT. Miss Lindy, your cold water swims absolutely take my breath away - just thinking about them! I am so impressed and so appreciative of you for reminding me about bone broth. bpaitsel and nancy, and everyone suffering from deep loss - thanks for sharing what is happening in your lives. I've been swimming thourhg mud with a very depressed husband and resulting family uproars - a broken heart for me when I had to miss a weekend away with my sister - but now I am on a plan to find my feet beneath me again....rounding up all the psychological and spiritual supports I need - AND remembering that It Starts With Food!!...but, hearing from each of you, I feel your arms around me and all of us...and I know my challenges are no more or less than any of yours... I also know and see how emotional eating does not take care of the emotional stress...just makes me feel worse overall. I need to move closer to 100% for sure. so good we are here for each other. I've been trying to focus on more sleep (and hence less screen time) for the past week or so...but now, well, I just need you all....and you never disappoint. So, one foot in front of the other - each meal, each day, each decision about what I put in my mouth a vote for my well being... You are all so inspiring...and so real. So now, after watching Donald Trump wrap up the nomination (more or less) tonight...accompanied by a cup of sleep tea...I am off, with you all in my heart and prayers. What a country, what a process. Whatever we see in the candidates and the process, it all clearly points to the need for more of us to be in our bodies, not thrown from one shoal to another by bad food choices....clear and energized. We are going to need all the clarity we can get, whether we end up with Donald or Hillary.....whew. Peace out, my friends. Sleep, eat, and be well. merg

Hi there, T&T buddies! After a LONG vacay from following this thread (when I actually missed you all) - here I am plugging back in. I'm up to date on all the posts and cheering you on, everyone. Love the shopping basket discipline, Crimsann (and the sneaky workaround, Nancy)...and appreciate all the tips and recipe ideas, etc. I believe the last time i squeaked up was when I was screeching off road in my speeding car...I was staying silent then about starting another W30 in April since my birthday was in the first week and I didn't want to rain on my own parade... But, let me tell you something....my own theory that I think is interesting During my post-January slow slide into bad habits, I didn't go whole hog bad....just a breakfast croissant here, a latte there....more wine than usual...and then - god forbid - an actual sandwich (or two). It wasn't every meal, or even every day...just the drip, drip, drip of decisions that had consequences. I started to notice some joint aches (like some of you) - and then some change in my, eh...elimination patterns. THEN, I was exposed to a GI virus when I visited someone in a nursing home - and I was hit HARD for more than a week. I think my system was already out of balance and the virus found a happy home. I'm just coming out on the other side of this....and now thinking about getting back on the horse. I do believe that each w30 helps to lock in better habits and preferences....adding bread back in was really a last resort....and sugar has still not been of great interest.....so there is some progress. The good news about my illness: NO INTEREST IN WINE....yay. Nancy, I am so with you about believing it must be all or nothing....and so hopeful you can believe in your ability to get to a place where that isn't true....maybe it is just chipping away at it with each successive w30.... Miss Lindy, your polar bear swims are an inspiration - and will likely stay that way for me...brrrrrr....and Crimsann, bpaitsel, and Susan, thanks for all the strategies and recipes....I've had an IP for a year now, but never went on the Facebook page....that is NEXT. Anyway, happy Spring everyone (Fall for you, Lindy)....and has everyone seen the recent spate of articles debunking the FAT myth...and then pointing to sugar as a demon? Good stuff out there these days. Cheers to all! merg

Btw, in case any of you also are struggling with alcohol restriction....I got an email todayom the whole life challenge people (I did one of those before I found w30).... Anyway, the writer said that it takes the liver 10 hours to process the toxins in alcohol from one drink....and during that time the liver is NOT processing the fat from the food you have also eaten....so, give the liver a break and let it do its whole job without overloading it with alcohol.... Are you listening, Merg???

Hey everyone, so glad to get some time to check back and catch up. I have been Slammed at work, struggling to keep up good eating plan but responding to stress by, guess what? Stressing my body with crappy foods and wine...feeling.not.so.great.now. Miss Lindy, I love your cooking lesson. I think you were around when I first learned how to make bone broth and several moderators and forum members rather gently suggested I might be growing jars of bacteria instead...hmmmm. Now, when I've had some broth in the fridge for a few too many days, I just pour it out....weeping a bit as I do. As the weather changes here, the bone broth is less appealing, although the salutary effects of it remain...want to get back on that p,an and I have some chicken b.b. In the freezer now. I am so grateful to you all for the conversation about how to maintain...whether to do regular w30s, or intermittent w14s...or the shopping cart plan....or a combo thereof. I told myself, well yesterdayI think it was, that I would have no wine except when we went out to dinner....which we almost never do....not even at official functions where there might be a bar. That lasted until tonight when I slugged down a couple glasses watching my team play ball in the NCAA. Tomorrow is another day. I also need to do some batch cooking and make it easier to eat well AND interesting things. When I think of getting back on the program I feel a little BORED....so clearly is time for some recipe infusion. I would like to lock in some good food guidelines for myself, but am struggling to do so...hate to think about another 30, but clearly I need at least a two week reset....problem for me and starting up again in April is that the 4th is my birthday....send me some cake, Crimsann! So I am goi to keep reading this dialogue and writing to all of you. I hope we can stay together here, even if other forums are calling. OK, now WAY PAST MY BEDTIME, and I am watching two teams I don't even care about....but glad to have this time to check I with my pals. Cha cha cha