Hello, and Happy Wednesday! Today is one of those crazy kind of days. I am sure you have had them. I am trying to get everything done before I head to my Ortho appt, and then grocery shop after. It will be a late night getting home, and I honestly do not know what I will eat for dinner. It will probably be a salad, or chicken sandwich. A couple of updates from yesterday’s post. I needed more calories, and I found in my cupboard the Save A Lot brand of Strawberry Fig Newtons. I love these! I think I got them at Save A Lot, lol. I had three, and they added about 200 calories to my day. They also fit my fat requirements. My husband liked the low fat mac n cheese, but my daughter did not. This zero point food/very low fat food challenge will end next Tuesday. I will then concentrate on Brain Health.
I will not add all the nutrition info today, because I simply don’t have time. I am at a 2 pound weight loss for the 8 days so far.
Breakfast: 2 slices of Thomas Cinnamon bread with just about a tsp of my whipped butter between the two slices, and coffee of course. Each slice of bread has 1.5 grams of total fat.
Lunch: I am having a one cup serving of the low fat mac n cheese, leftover from last night, to hold me over to dinner. I have some green beans, and sweet corn mixed in with a 1/2 tbsp of whipped butter for heating. I ran out of milk. I am also having 10-15 green grapes.
Dinner: Don’t have a clue yet, lol. It will be late.
Happy Sunday! Before I start talking about the challenge I would like to do a little update. My right shoulder is healing nicely, and I see Ortho again this week. I will probably still have to be on light duty at work, but I could swim today when I was in the pool, so that is great! I am still not lifting anything over 20 pounds, so I am not sure in the strength department. I do know that I could not start the lawnmower yesterday, nor could I squeeze the trimming shears. So, I still have a bit to go to full function. The rains have finally returned to Florida, and my garden is finally showing progress. I have peaches that are almost ready to be picked. A website I was reading said to check them daily because according to them the birds definitely are checking my peach tree, lol. I have some baby cantaloupe, current tomatoes, and cucumbers that should be ready in a couple of weeks. I am kind of disappointed with the zucchini and peppers, but hopefully now they will take off.
One thing I have noticed since I started this challenge was that I am eating way more fruit than vegetables, which is not typical for me. Because, I typically try to stay under 100 carbs per day I usually limit my fruit intake. Even with the higher carbs I am proud to say I have lost 1.2 pounds as of this morning, on day 5. I won’t do fat measurements until the end of the challenge, but some reading I did said it can take years to safely lose enough body fat. That didn’t sound promising, lol. At any rate here we are at day 5 of the Health Buddy Melissa Zero Point Food Challenge. My rules are different than Weight Watchers, you can read why here. I am really missing having some red meat in my diet, but that is OK. I do not share the same images every day. So, ones I have already shared you can see the nutrition labels in previous posts. Coming soon I will be offering my handmade items for sale on this blog, that I used to have on Etsy. More about that later.
I am going to try to be more efficient this next week in my meal planning, because I am not getting enough greens in my daily diet. While I am enjoying corn, corn is not green. If I do not get time before leaving for work to post my day of eating tomorrow, I will share it with Tuesday’s.
What I have eaten already, and what I will eat later. I probably will need a snack today, as my calorie count is quite low. I don’t count drinks, as I have mentioned before, but typically my drink calories is about 100 calories per day. So, still quite low.
Breakfast: Just coffee with my Premier Protein as creamers
Lunch: We had to go out so I didn’t want to have to cheat and I was starving. So, I took a banana, and some pretzel nuggets. Both of these meet my zero point requirements. When we got home I had a nice salad with romaine lettuce, 3 pepperoni slices yes this is zero points, 1 slice of Publix low fat Provolone cheese, 3 large strawberries, and 2 tbsp of Kraft Raspberry Vinaigrette. Pepperoni is very fattening, but I Hormel I could have 3 slices for 3 grams of fat. It just adds a nice flavor.
Dinner: Will be exactly the same as yesterday, as we have leftovers. I realized I did not add the pics of the bbq sauce nutrition info. So, I will add it today. It is quite yummy and I bought it at Save A Lot. It did have 8 grams of sugar per serving, but I couldn’t find one with 6 where I live, so it did just fine. I have given up on Sugar Free, because it just causes me horrible GI upset. See my post on my 24 hour pause. 3 oz of extra lean pork tenderloin, homemade coleslaw with Hellman’s low fat mayo, 1 cup watermelon chunks, 1 piece of corn on the cob removed from the cob with 1 tbsp of Land O Lakes whipped butter.
Nutrition stats for today:
Calories: 650
Total Fat: 16 grams
Saturated Fat: 4.6 grams
Cholesterol: 78 mg
Sodium: 833 mg
Total Carbs: 96 grams
Net Carbs: 86 grams
Protein: 37 grams I have a little fat to spare so I may have a hard boiled egg later to increase my protein for the day.
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Just a quick post today as we have nasty weather in our area, again. These Throwback Thursday posts are very popular. I love nostalgia and reminiscing. What year were you born? Do you know what the #1 toy the year you were born was? I was born in August of 1969, and in that same month America landed on the moon. The #1 toy for that year was the Snoopy Astronaut. I would so love to have one of these toys. I am sure it costs a pretty penny today. Leave me a comment and let me know what the #1 toy was the year you were born.
OK, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to post today. But, I knew I wanted it to have a Halloween theme, as well as be health related. They say laughter is the best medicine, and you really will laugh. Maybe some people won’t, but I guarantee most of you will. Tell me in the comments how hard you laughed. Be honest! I laughed so hard my husband had to come and see if I was OK. This post may contain affiliate links. Check out all of my Throwback Thursday topics in the archives. Read about how laughing out loud will keep your brain healthy too!
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I had some beautiful organic tomatoes that were going to go bad if I didn’t eat them fast enough. So, I decided to make some homemade marinara sauce. I had thought of doing this before but assumed it was complicated. It was not complicated and was so delicious. Even my picky teenager liked it, and it had a plum in it and she didn’t even know it. If you have CKD and don’t want to use tomatoes roast red peppers instead. I only eat 2 tbsp at a time of sauce, so I use tomatoes. Plus this is low sodium, as I added no sodium. The tomato sauce probably had some sodium, but still less than any jar sauce in the store.
Ingredients:
7 organic tomatoes
1 vidalia onion
garlic powder
sweet basil
1 plum with pit removed
Cut up all of the ingredients and put them on a cookie sheet with just a dab of olive oil. Roast at 350 F for 30 minutes. You can see what it looked like in the image below. Then let it cool for 15-30 minutes. Then simply puree all of the ingredients in a blender. Put the sauce in a jar, or container, and store in the refrigerator until you want to use it. I think this could have been just a tad sweeter, so I will probably add just a smidge of sugar when reheating.
Cooler mornings have gotten me in the cooking mood. I also made delicious banana bread, and froze potatoes to keep them fresh. I will post about those later.
Make some homemade marinara sauce and tell me what you liked or didn’t like.
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Updated 3/17/2021 When I was first diagnosed with CKD way back in 2017, one of the first things my Nephrologist told me was that losing weight would help my kidney function. Like many of us who are over-weight, I was yep here we go the fat bandwagon. But, apparently he was right. As I have been researching topics for this blog, and for my own personal knowledge of CKD, there have been a few studies on this topic. As with all things CKD there are not many studies, and they are not particularly large, and are often sponsored by companies with products to sell. But, some is still better than none. While I have very good muscle strength and do not find it difficult to build new muscle, even on a protein restricted diet, like most women who have had babies and have reached Menopause, I do carry extra weight around my middle and hips. I have never been super slim, even before children. I have always had a bulky strong look to me, and the smallest I have ever been was 20 pounds over where my doctor said I should be for my height. It is very hard for me to lose weight. I lose inches, but the weight just really takes a long time to budge. Because my ultimate goal is to heal my kidney function, or at the very least get back to stage 2, weight loss is a very important part of that goal. Through all of the trials and errors, I think I have finally found a system that will work for me, not just in the short term, but in the long term as well. It is not an easy plan, and it is not fast, either. But, when I stick to it strictly, I can lose a half a pound a day, safely. I may write an ebook, or I may make the info a pdf for my newsletter followers. I haven’t decided yet, and it will be some time before I am sure the results are not just water weight or something like that. Plus, I need to have my labs checked to be sure it is completely safe.
The article above talks about how difficult it can be for people with CKD to lose weight, especially if you also have Diabetes, or HTN. I do not have either of those, but I am right at the borderline for HTN. Again, weight loss will help keep my blood pressure in a good range. Weight loss will also help egfr by decreasing inflammation, proteinuria, and hyperalbuminuria. I do not currently have any of those, but I did when first diagnosed. I do get inflammation occasionally when I exercise too hard, but some of that is normal body response. I also have a tendency to retain water in my fingers. I always have, but if I am not careful it can get worse. Most of the time it is when it is extremely hot and humid and I have not hydrated myself well enough. I have labs done at the end of next month, so I will have a good idea how my diet and exercise plan is effecting my kidneys.
The article also talks about Bariatric Surgery for those with CKD who are morbidly obese and just can not lose weight. The study showed positive results. While I am not a candidate for Bariatric Surgery, and I believe in Diet and Exercise, if you just can not lose weight due to issues with your CKD, you might want to look into Bariatric Surgery to see if it is a viable option for you.
Obesity is such a huge problem in the USA. With Obesity being a risk factor for getting CKD, or at the very least renal dysfunction, there is every good reason in the world to lose weight. If you follow my Portion Distortion posts on Mondays, you will know that most of us are consuming way more calories in portions than is recommended. I read a blog where they lost weight just by controlling their portion size. They didn’t follow any other restrictions such as Keto, low carb, low fat, a certain amount of calories per day, etc, they just ate the proper portion sizes according to package labels. Hats off to them! Now I don’t know if they were successful in maintaining that, and keeping the weight off long term. But, if you stick with something for at least 3-6 months it will hopefully become ingrained and a habit in your every day lifestyle. Of course, family and friends are huge obstacles to losing weight. You have to have more will power to succeed than their will power for you to fail.
If I stick to my plan I can lose 1/2 pound per day, and I have already lost several inches on my arms, waist, hips, and thighs, but not my chest, sadly. Vacation was tough and I did not stick to it, and gained back 5 pounds of the 6 I lost. But, I am back on track and have lost 3 of those 5 in just a week. Follow this blog to read future updates and how I am progressing on my Diet and Exercise plan. Don’t forget to read the article. It has some great info.
I am also a certified American Kidney Fund Health Coach. This is a volunteer position. Before covid came I was setting up in person classes, but that didn’t last long. Now, they have approved for us to do virtual classes, which I am very excited about. I can reach so many more people virtually. Anyway , I am doing the first class next Wednesday. It is kind of practice to see how it goes and what I need to change. Then I will be doing them publicly. I will post the info here on this blog as well as my Health Buddy Melissa Facebook page, and my personal page. The class is free, and anyone can attend that can read and understand English. The first one for the general public will be in August, after my son’s wedding. I will try to do two a month. Right now I am using Facebook events as I am familiar with that format. But, once I upgrade this blog I can do them right here. Or, Skype and Zoom are other options. I thing Google Connect also could be used, but I have no idea how to use that. So, I will have to familiarize myself with that.
If you would like to learn about using any of my Health Coaching services, please use the contact form at the bottom of this page, after the images, to contact me. Or, you can email me at healthbuddymelissa@yahoo.comAsk about my brand new It’s A New Day, 30 day coaching plan.
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Living Life With CKD 