Weigh In week 7

No change in weight this week....again!




Oh well, at least it's not a gain!!!

Joints are much better, but did have a really bad night Friday night! The pain in my left hand and arm woke me several times! (Now, those of you that don't know me, don't know I am legendary in what I can sleep thru!) Nothing seems to help, not naproxen, or ibuprophen, or acetaminophen, or aspirin!! This is quite upsetting, as I am reluctant to try anything stronger, and I know, if this is arthritis, that any doc will recommend stronger meds, especially the new ones for arthritis!! Oh well....time will tell!

Want to mention a few blogs today....on topics I'd like to write on. Why do it tho, when others do it so well?

Dr Mike has a post today, The Bad Fat Brothers, about the AHA's attempt to continue to demonise saturated fat and his Nominee for the Reckless Award.

Dr MD also has an interesting recipe posted. Low carb tortilla soup sounds really yummy. I've never had "regular", since I never heard of it until I started low carbing, but this sounds like a great soup!

Sparky's Girl has an interesting post about Ronald MacDonald.

Dr Briffa has an excellent post today about how Resistance exercise may help to protect us from diabetes.

Bamagal has a very good post about funding for youth suicide prevention programs. There is a link on the post to contact your lawmakers to encourage passage of this bill.

Fred Hahn posted about resistance training and how it can change you.

Dr Vernon posted an excellent response to an email yesterday. Be sure to check it out.

Have a good week!! I've got a lot going on, so I doubt I'll be posting often.

Weigh In week 6

OK...I'm in a definite pattern. Once again, a week after no loss, I'm down 5 pounds!!





Over the weekend, from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening I was over my daughter's for a visit. I didn't eat much, but everything was low carb, except 1 small piece of garlic bread. My calories were only 1200-1350/day. Yesterday was better, but still a bit low.

Today, however, is a different story. I've had small breakfast, a huge lunch, and a decent size dinner....and I've had 2 pieces of sf chocolate candy. (Normally I restrict the candy to 1 day on weekend only, but missed last weekend, so had it tonight instead.) My total for today was over 1600. Again, still low carb and natural, except of course the candy.

Today I knew I had to have a big lunch. We went out for lunch to a buffet. I had a plate of salad and 4 different meats! The salad had mixed greens, cucumber, tomato, black olives, sunflower seed, bacon (real) bits, and Caesar dressing. I had a few ounces each of beef pot roast, chicken breast, pork tenderloin and some bourbon chicken. I also had a couple of small chunks of cantaloupe.

For dinner I had 3/4 of a home made pizza. A LC whole grain wrap with pizza sauce and cheese. It doesn't look like much, but it's very filling. I usually put mushroom on top, but didn't have any. Also didn't have any veggies in the house as all spoiled during a power failure.

I love low carbing!!!


I've been doing much better with my joints, although as I type this I have my left wrist wrapped and am off resistance training until it heals. This time, I think it's my fault. I've been doing upper body exercises with dumbbells and have noticed that my wrists seem weak and wobbly. After the trouble I had last week, I decided to put a wrist brace on both wrists. I have 2 different ones, but both work pretty much the same. I don't think I got the left one on tight enough, and re injured it. So...complete rest of the wrist for the next few days. I've not been doing as much lower body lately, and have been meaning to get serious....so I guess this is it.

For those that don't already know, I'm a RN and have had several job related back and neck injuries. I've also had 3 auto accidents that caused varying degrees of neck trauma. I've been told I have at least 3 "old" ruptured discs in my back and neck, arthritis in my neck and back with bone spurs in the pelvis and the neck. The bone spurs are causing spinal stenosis, luckily still mild.

I was doing great on exercising regularly a few years ago, until I was put on Lipitor and ended up with muscle problems and "exercise intolerance". Where I had once walked several miles without problem, I started having leg pain after just a few feet. I was also doing very well with resistance training, following the Body For Life program, and had at least doubled my starting weights. All of a sudden, each workout seemed to get harder and harder, and I ended up dropping weights, then stopping all together. It's has taken almost 2 years for me to feel back to "normal" with my muscles. I still don't have much strength and my endurance isn't great, but at least I'm able to reasonably exercise again. Small weights and slower pace.

I've been taking my fish oil and krill oil, and cannot believe the difference! I don't have as much discomfort in my neck and back, and really no "pain". I'm going to continue. I seem to have different levels of comfort, almost in a cyclical manner. I've noticed this over the years. Not including times when I was recuperating from an injury, I've noticed that the level of pain/discomfort came and went according to a cycle. It never seemed to be related to my periods, but a definite cycle of the pain getting worse then easing off. So I'm going to continue for at least another month, but I think I'll continue to see a distinct difference. I cannot remember the last time I was completely pain free in my entire spine! If I have that only a few days a month, I'll take it! Right now I'm taking 6000iu Fish oil and 2000mg krill oil.


I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment this Friday. It was with a new doc, and I was a bit stressed about it. I've been trying to find a new doc, but haven't had much luck. Well, yesterday I get a message that the doc has to cancel my appointment, and I can't get another one until at least mid-August! I did end up getting an earlier appointment with a different doc...and actually one I'm more hopeful of, since I saw him several years ago and liked him.

I'm tired, and going to bed now. Hope to be able to post again before next weigh in, but it's been busy!!! Work has been busy and I've been trying to get my house in order to get it ready for sale. I've also been looking for a new house and will post later on some I've seen.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!!! You've all been a great support!

Weigh In week 5

Well, true to form, at least my latest, no loss again this week. I seem to be loosing every other week. Oh well, at least I didn't gain!


Had a nice surprise this past week. I have google mail, and on there you can set up "alerts" which will send you an email whenever there is a new article, news item or blog about a topic of choice. So naturally, I set one up for low carb! Well, imagine my surprise when I see the name of my blog mentioned, but not in an article I posted! So I follow the link and find a very well written piece about low carb diets. And, near the end of the article, I see my blog listed as "Other Great Resources on this Nutritional Approach"!!! What? Me? MY blog? Cool!!!

Needless to say, I've added Mark's blog to my list of must read blogs! Check it out! His article How to Lose Weight and Keep it off Permanently, is very well written. Mark is "25 years young, Irish and hopelessly addicted to continually improving myself in every area of my life and, in turn, sharing this knowledge with others." Looks like a good site to watch!


Last week, I posted about my visit to the doc's with ankle pain. Well, since then, things have gotten interesting. Not interesting good, however.

After reading a post on Dr Mike's blog, I started taking Krill oil (2 caps/day, increased to 4/day. 500mg each) and noticed a VERY fast reaction!! I have fairly severe degenerative arthritis in my spine and pelvis, have bone spurs in my neck and pelvis, and have at least 3 (old) ruptured discs. I've also been told I have bursitis in both shoulders (L worse than R).

I took 1 pill Friday (3/30) evening, and then 1 in AM and 1 in PM daily. Yesterday (4/7) I increased it to 2 AM and PM.

Sunday afternoon....not even 48hrs after the 1st dose, I noticed my neck didn't hurt!! When I do my stretching I still notice the pull, but much less painful, but no pain at rest, no pain with movement!!! This has been pretty consistent over the week. I get a little pain, but it doesn't last long.

Now, this is the reason I increased the NKO: For several months now, I've noticed that I often have joint pains, in joints that have never bothered me before (except one knee). When I started paying attention, I found that I would have pain in 1 or 2 joints, it would last for about 36-48hrs, and go away. Sometimes another joint or two would start in, sometimes I'd have several days between episodes.

Both ankles, knees, elbow, wrist and various finger joints. About 2 weeks ago I ended up in urgent care for my right ankle, which was now also red and swollen. Doc first said gout, then strain, and gave me the name of a new doc (long story, but no PCP for over a year). Since then, I've continued to have various joint pains, but only my left knee was red or hot. Well, over the last few days I've had red, hot, swollen joints: right (inner)wrist (Friday), base of right index finger (Saturday), and now (Sunday) the last joint of my right middle finger. I see the new doc 4/20. I've done some research, and think I might have rheumatoid arthritis. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm a bit concerned, as I'm figuring the NKO is helping to at least lower the degree of inflammation, but yet I'm seeing redness, swelling and a fair bit of heat in the joints...I mean, what would I be seeing if not for the fish oil and NKO!?

Anyway, whatever this is, at least my neck and back don't hurt!!

I've been following Protein Power pretty cleanly since Jan 2. Few processed foods, cooking/preparing almost all my own foods, mostly keeping under 50g carb a day. I also take Mg, CoQ10 and a couple of other supplements. I still take fish oil, but cut back to 4/day.

I've read a bit on anti-inflammation diets, and the only thing I eat that they say I shouldn't (except more fats than allowed) is red meat. Beef is big in my diet. I love beef. I'd be willing to cut back or even stop it, but I'm not sure it would be worth it.

I am planning on calling the doctor's office and see if I can move the appointment up some, but I doubt they will have anything.


I've only been checking my blood sugar in the morning, fasting sugars over the past week have been running 84-86. I did check after one meal, but I had been drinking tea (with milk) so I'm not sure the after meal reading (95 after 1hr) was really accurate.

Weigh In week 4

I didn't post last week, and my weight remained stable.

This week, however, I've made up for it and lost 5 pounds!!! I almost expected the scale to say "April Fool!!", which actually would have been pretty amazing, as I don't have a talking scale! LOL

My calorie intake has been low most days this week, I just don't have an appetite!! Today is a great example. I had poached eggs on toast for breakfast (25g total with 5g fiber), then didn't even think about food until about an hour ago! That's over 7 hours!!!

I also measured myself today. Now, it's been almost 5 months since I measured, so I did expect to see some changes, but wow!!

neck: -1/4 inch
bicep: no change
forearm: -1/4 inch
chest: no change
waist: -1 3/4 inches!!
hips: -2 1/4 inches!!
thigh: -5 inches!!!
calf: no change

I'm amazed! And thrilled! That's a total of 9 1/2 inches!!

Krill Oil for Inflammation:

I took fish oil, and flax oil, for quite some time when I first started low carbing. While on them I had "normal" CRP level for the first time in heaven knows how many years.

I have degenerative arthritis with bone spurs in my neck and pelvis. In my neck I also have a fair degree of spinal stenosis, although luckily not enough to warrant surgery. I also have at least 3 damaged discs, loss of a natural spinal curve in my thoracic spine, and I've been told I have bilateral bursitis and likely arthritis in my right knee. Oh yea, and TMJ. (I get the back issues from dad and the rest from mom I think)

My CRP levels never concerned me, until they started linking it with heart disease. I had been taking statins, but stopped due to nasty side effects. After stopping the statins I started low carbing with induction (Atkins) levels of carbs, fat, protein for about 3 months. During this time I saw, for the first time in many years, CRP levels within normal limits. I stopped the fish oil and flax shortly after, due to nausea. I've since found it was the flax causing the nausea and went back on fish oil. I currently take 6 caps a day (100mg, EPA 180mg, DHA 120mg, OMEGA3 340mg each) I'm seeing a new PCP soon, so I'll let you know what my levels are, but i feel so much better!!

I still take aspirin fairly frequently, but no longer do I take ibuprofen 800mg 4X/day and even pain medications and muscle relaxants....and still find that I'm hurting!!

I still have random joint pains, which does concern me, and I've been wondering if increasing my dose even more or switching to Krill would make a big difference. (I check the Fish Oil at least weekly for freshness and buy a "quality" product)

After reading Dr Michael Eades' latest post on Krill Oil, I decided to give it a try.

So, on Friday I bought some Krill Oil. Pretty pricey, around $22 for 1 month's supply, but if it works, it will be worth it!

I'm starting out with 2 caps a day, which is the recommended dose on the bottle, but may increase to 4 a day.