Just started

[purplequeen]

Place for new people to talk about how they are starting this diet and how they plan to continue it.

[purplequeen]

Correction: not diet but lifestyle change. Diet would be a wrong word to use since its a taboo word for many of us.

[Frank]

I started losing weight before I joined this program, but I had problems because I also kept gaining the weight I lost. My weight keeps going up and down. This is frustrating AND bad for my health.
I joined because I am struggling to avoid the so called “yo-yo” effect, so my focus is to change my lifestyle in a way that will keep my weight down for good.

[Annie]

I quit smoking almost two years ago and put on about 15 lbs., I was hospitalized twice with an illness in the last year and during my recovery, I gained another 15 lbs. I’m once again feeling good, but I would like to unload the weight I put on as the scale keeps creeping up and up.

[Jean Ann Dimick]

I am a bit overwhelmed with the menus. Many of the recipes use food I’ve not been familiar with. I guess I can start out slowly. I don’t want to give up.

[Frank]

Don’t give up, Jeaner! Beginnings are the toughest… once you get going, it will be easier.

Dannie, I think I know how you feel. Although my scale oscillates, I still have the feeling that it’s merciless on its way to the bigger numbers. Uh! Just don’t wreck yourself with diets that are too strict. Your health is always in the first place, so above all, we should be moderate – and this is a lesson I am yet to learn…

[margie]

my first breakfast is 4 tbs. uncooked oats, 1/2 an artichoke, 2 eggs. What am I supposed to do with the uncooked oats? Very strange menues

[Ossie-Sharon]

We are currently working on the menu planner application to be more precise. In the meantime, I have the following suggestions:
Cook the oats in about a cup of water. If you don’t want two eggs, you can substitute with about 3/4 cup of organic or raw milk for the oatmeal; if you don’t want an artichoke, you can substitute with a small piece of fruit or 2 tbsp dried fruit (1/4 cup fresh fruit).

[lorri]

Substitutions are key, I think … we really owe it to ourselves, as creative human beings, to educate ourselves nutritionally as much as possible so that when we see something on a menu that we don’t know, and don’t want to know, we are able to conjure up fair substitute. Diet is nothing if it does not start out with self-education. I have been taking every opportunity to educate myself for well over 10 years now, so the Menu Planner is not stumping me at all, but I do understand how some may be frightened by it without the provision of automatic substitution offerings .. . you know – click on the menu item and up pops 3 or 4 substitutes.

I have only been on this diet for 2 days now and have already lost 2½ pounds … I have been a conscious eater for quite some years now, so was quite surprised when I started putting on weight this last year … probably menopause related … 10 pounds in all … and now I know why … although I was eating well, I was eating far too much … I had no idea how much the metabolism slowed down during menopause … with this TrimDownClub tool, I know exactly how much to cut down my food intake by while being safe and not inadvertantly slowing down my metabolism further … rather, I do feel that this diet will speed it up because of the gentle prodding by the Menu Planner to significanly broaden the variety of foods I eat in a given week.

The one question I do have is how to incorporate the recipes into the Menu Planner. The Menu Planner consists of straight-laced food items, but the recipes of course are multi food groups and calorie values combined in one … so planning a day’s Menu becomes difficult and not at all automated … I’m OK with plain straight-laced food for now, but I imagine that will get old, and my husband will certainly not go for it, so I need to be able to bring fun and intersting things into the Menu without all the figuring-out that will entail under your current Menu Planner software … I certainly hope you will consider this as you work on your Menu Planner appilcation.

I am very thankful and feel very blessed to have stumbled upon this program … very useful for menopausal women who want to avoid the customary thickening at the waist!!!

One final note … I am noticing as I am using this Community Board for the first time, that the word-processing aspect is a little wonky … it is missing a few basic word-processing features and it is very slow … I don’t type extremely fast, but fairly quickly I’d say, and the word processor is not keeping up with me … just thought I’d mention it.

Cheers and be well,
Lorri

[Nancy]

I agree with Lorri. I think the menu planner is very vague. I get that I can substitute and that I need to do some research for the available options but how does chicken salad fit in with an english muffin, yogurt and raw cheese. It’s not very intuitive and it certainly doesn’t appear appetizing.

[Flamingoshirl]

I just started, too, and find the menu planner very disappointing. Vague, to put it mildly. Combinations are odd at best, and severely lacking in detail. “One cup of lentils” – really? I assumed there would be several lentil recipes within the program’s cookbook (and. ideally, one should be able to click on “lentils” in the planner and be directed to recipe(s)….but the cookbook isn’t much help in expanding upon items in the menu planner. Plus, there are so many unfamiliar items (Raw milk? Yech!!), having substitute options would be appreciated. I’ve made three trips to the health-food section of my grocery store in the last two days, and have spent a bundle – without coming close to having everything I’d need to follow the plan to a “T” . . . . . Feeling a little ripped off.

[Ossie-Sharon]

Thanks for the great ideas. We are currently working on fine-tuning the menu-planner, and are grateful for any and all feedback. In the meantime, when you select foods from the individual food groups, be careful to select only those that you know and like. Note also that substitutes for some raw products may be under a different category (for example, raw milk is in one group, where the alternative organic skim milk is in another). Also, do feel free to substitute with foods that are more famililar and to your taste – noting that the most important thing is to steer clear of processed foods and lighten up on fats, salt, and simple sugars.

[lorri]

@ Flamingshirl … Ossie said it very well … only choose the foundation foods that you actually like so that when the Menu Planner spits out your suggested Menu, it will only contain foods that you actually like.

Now, as for the health food store, it is your best friend, my dear, and stocking up on healthful basics doesn’t have to be done all the first week … spread your purchases out over a longer period of time … nothing has to be perfect here … you’re on a journey … a life-long journey … and as TDC says themselves, this is not a quick fix … if you’re looking for instant gratification, you’re using the wrong program … and for having started my journey many years ago, successfully for the most part, I can tell you that this Menu Planner is the best thing to come cross my path since my first visit with a naturopath 15 years ago. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater … the Menu Planner is a fantastic idea, precisely because it uses only the foods that YOU LIKE … but the software is clunky and the link to recipes and suggestions is vital … Ossie says they are working on it and taking our comments, suggestions and ideas under advisement, so let’s take all the great good that issues from this program and help the designers at TDC make it the best it can be … all in due time, my pretty :-)!

[dippygoof]

Thought there would be a lot more recipes. Don’t even know what half of the items in these recipes are. Not sure I will like this program.

[Jean Ann Dimick]

I’m feeling the same way. Raw milk? I did buy some quineau flour and some spelt flour. Will regular oats (oatmeal) be ok to use?

I used Agave syrup over bananas, strawberries and blueberries and they were delicious on my “homemade” pancakes. I’ll give it a little more time because I would really like to lose this tummy.

[Author]

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