I've found the silver lining of all the stress of the last month.. I've lost down to 154 lbs!
I don't know how much I've lost exactly but I'm working now to not gain it back.
I want to be 150. That's been my goal for a while now and I almost got there last year.

I'm having oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast, cutting way back on salt when I cook.. I'm using pepper and herbs to flavor my food.
I've just switched to real butter and I'll use that sparingly. No more artificial margarine! I'm hoping to get my kids to switch, too.
If we need soy sauce I only use a DROP on my food, and it's not often that I use soy sauce anyway.
Fresh veggies and stir frying them.. and cutting down on meat a lot.
The kids still have it but I've cut mine way back to a little bit with dinner and sometimes none. (Though I did have a nice steak dinner the day of my pastor's funeral because I needed comfort food!)
I've gotten onto a beans and brown rice kick.. so I've been eating those.
I have not been exercising at all.. no time and not being able to leave dd alone.. so this is all just from small changes to my diet.

It's an ill wind that blows no good. I'm glad you've had a nice surprise on the scales. I also get on rice and beans kicks.

I LOVE black beans and rice, with pico on top.
It's so good!!

I've been forced into losing weight since being diagnosed with (ssssshhhhh) diabetes last month. I can't believe it and it makes me sad thinking about it. I went to the doctor for routine blood work because I hadn't had any done in a long time. That was January 16. Over the New Year holiday I realized that I was ridiculously thirsty and having to take a lot of potty breaks on my trip to NC. That's not normal for me. My blood pressure was doing odd things, going up a bit. 140/80. Not terribly high, but I'm normally 117/70 or less so I knew it wasn't right. Then two days before my visit I noticed my distance vision was awful. I even called the eye doctor to make an exam. Thought I needed new glasses. When I got to the doctor's office they told me my sugar was 422. I had an inkling that it may be something sugar related, but I didn't envision the whole diabetes thing. My a1c was over 9 when it's supposed to be around 6. Now I'm on 1,500mg of Metformin (which tears up my gut) and Lisonopril for my BP which is now very low (94/60 or around there). It took a couple of weeks for my sugar levels to drop from the 200 range to 100. I stay mainly around 117 during the day and 130-40 in the morning. I've dropped 7lbs so far.

The doctor was confident that if I dropped the weight and managed my diet, that I'd be able to get off the meds in the future. For now, he wants me on them to protect my kidneys, liver, eyes, etc.

(((Neesa))) I'm so sorry! I'll be praying for you.
The 7lb loss is great, though! My cousin lost a lot of weight and is now off of all meds.. he was diagnosed with diabeties about 5 years ago.
Hang in there.

Tory, I've been using Bragg's Aminos instead of soy sauce for years

http://www.bragg.com/products/la.html

I have two soup recipes that call for soysauce, lentils and split pea, that way it cuts the amount of salt I use.

Sorry to hear about the diabetes diagnosis, Neesa. It runs in my family and I've been avoiding it since 1993 when I was diagnosed with the precursor, hypoglycemia.

_________________
"...with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

Thanks, Briva, I'll try that!

Mmmm - love Bragg's on the rice and beans!!!

Can it be found in stores or must it be order from the online site?

Braggs is a big brand - available in just about every health food store that sells food (as opposed to supplement stores that call themselves "health food stores" while having no food at all - except maybe candy bars )

Many groceries also sell it in the health food section.

_________________
http://stuffedveggies.blogspot.com/