Yogamom – apologize to ME for writing a book! NEVER! LOL!

I can’t agree with you more about fats. I use full-fat everything! We go through a quart of cream every week. I find if I don’t eat a lot of fat, I become very depressed and my skin dries out. The depression is the killer, though.

I agree so totally with you about the choice of foods over a period of time. That’s what I hope to see this week. How will my food choices look at the end of the week? Yesterday, the choices I made were great. Today, not what I would call too healthy because way too busy, but the amounts were good and moderate. But tomorrow, as time allows, I’ll be able to spend a little more time in the kitchen and hope to whip up something even better.

Boy, can I identify with your husband. I REALLY like tacos. There are times when I think I’ll never ever hate a taco. LOL! But make me eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner – forget it! I would grow to hate them with a passion.

I am VERY conflicted about an ongoing moderation thread on the SP board. I just don’t think it’s the right thing for me to do. People are coming here for support of a particular plan – a plan that I think is great, just wish I could follow (hope to one day make more “balance” type meals on a more regular basis…I know…baby steps). I wouldn’t want to come to an SP board for support and find someone discussing “moderation.” So, I've really been conflicted about all of this.

Maybe I could just put something under the “challenge” board, but a “moderation” approach to food is certainly not a "challenge" – at least not to me. I really am conflicted about this and don’t know where to go from here because I find the people on this board so warm and friendly and helpful. I’ve never seen anything like it, to tell you the truth, and I've seen alot of message boards in my day. I would hate to lose this, but I also hate the idea of causing problems for some who might come here.

For me, this "moderation" approach is not about just giving up on being healthy and going all out and eating as much as possible. That’s not what I mean at all, and I know that you realize that because you have succeeded at this in the past, too. But this is something that probably needs to be discussed more for a better understanding of how health is achieved by doing this.

To have health, I truly believe I MUST be moderate in ALL things at ALL times - and never give in to the temptation to eat more than I need. Afterall, why should I? I can have more later, if I want it. Like I stressed earlier, the ONLY time I overeat is when I think about going on another dietary regime.

So with this moderation approach, I have no problem waiting until I’m hungry, but I do have a problem putting that last bite down because I’ve gotten that sensation in my stomach that I’m just satisfied and don’t really need anymore. That’s the hard part for me……you mean I still have ¼ of my sandwich left and I’m already “satisfied???” WHAAA! But then, if I can push the plate away and think about how much my chickens will just LOVE these leftovers, I’ll find that I get rather hungry again a few hours later and I can either finish the rest of the meal, or I might want something totally different.....the epiphany is that it will still be here later or tomorrow or next week if I want more. It's these types of issues that I wish I could have support with, but I'm on a low-carb message board. What to do?

I've just begun this again, and this time around, I’ve succeeded at this for two days, and I’m already feeling a lot better (my ankles or no longer swollen in the evening already!). I’ll just have to wait and see how this pans out and would love to be able to have others to discuss this with....just not quite sure what the best way is to do this. For now, I keep this going because I desperately want others to discuss this with and work through these problems with. I seem to really benefit from that kind of support and hope others would too, but I still wonder if that's what I should do.

Maybe I'll just keep it all in the journal area??

Take care, Teena