Hi y'all, I'm back. I haven't been on here much lately because I've been spending so much of my time in the hospital. My Dad went in to have open heart surgery and for the last two months has been in and out of the hospital a lot because no one could figure out what was wrong with him. As I come from a very close family, this disrupted everyone's life, and my way of eating. I'm not complaining here, he's worth it......

All this has really brought home to me the importance of eating right, for your health as much as for anything else, including weight loss. It has also meant learning a hard lesson about my eating habits. This way of life had become so easy for me in the two months I was on it........ Until my Dad went into the hospital.

I'd like to suggest to everyone to try and make out a plan to help you make it thru uncontollably hard times, like when you have to eat out a lot, you're under a lot of stress, or when you can't control every little thing you eat. I'm quite proud of myself over all. I only gained 2 pounds through it all, and managed to stay away from most anything sweet. That's not easy when you're scared your Dad is going to die before someone figures out what is wrong with him....... Or when you're at the hospital for several days, all day long, and after already eating a less than great salad for lunch, you're looking at the pizza, and another salad (which is wilted and rusty looking) and your nerves are shot. Believe me when I say, you will probably eat the pizza......

After the first couple of days I had decided that I didn't need the stress of beating myself up if I didn't eat "all the right foods". I tried to stay away from sugar and make the better choices. But sometimes I just said "Screw it!!" and had the pizza. (My comfort food)

The good news is that my Dad should be fine. The bad news is:

DON'T assume that just because your cholesterol numbers are good, that you'll not have any heart problems. One of the reasons they couldn't figure out what was wrong with my Dad was because ALL of his blood tests all along were perfectly normal. (In fact good) He also had no symptoms at first and when he did, he didn't have "normal" symptoms and that totally confused the doctors..... And he had major heart problems all along. They did a double bypass on him (one artery was 100% clogged and the other was 90%) and replaced his heart valve.

Another thing I learned the last few weeks:

About 3 weeks ago, my hubby and I both had full blood workups. I finally got around to calling the doctor's office back today and both our test results were great. For us anyway, this way of life did not hurt our blood chemistry. In fact it helped my husband's. He had always had high cholesterol. The bad one of course. I never have had bad cholesterol levels, and eating this way did not cause me to start having bad numbers, so..........
I'm not sure it really matters anymore, after seeing what happened to my Dad, but according to our blood tests, we're healthy!!!!

Secondly, even though I did go off it for a while, everything is okay and I'm going to go back to eating right, and it shouldn't be a big deal.

I do, however, have a question, if you all don't mind helping me. Since I've been off of it for several weeks, should I do induction again? I didn't gain a lot, and the only thing I really had any of was pizza and some bread here and there. What do you all think?

Thanks in advance for your help, and, well, just for listening.......

Good to hear your dad is fine.

I would go back on induction, but not for the full two weeks, maybe just to refresh yourself?

Welcome back.

You've been through a lot, and I can identify. (I won't bore everyone with the details, but it's in my journal from November to Feb. )

I would recommend repeating induction. I tried to ease my way back into it and had a heck of a time. That's just me, though, everyone's different.

I'm still struggling, mostly because I let myself slip back into some bad habits. 40 whomps on the head with my Dr Phil book, and I'll be fine.

Well what a thing to have to go through, but somehow I think you may be a stronger person because of it..??

You seem to be in control right now, so I don't think a 2 week induction is all that important. Just get back on the plan where you left off, if in 2-3 weeks you don't see results, then go on induction.

Good Luck Kathy

..........I do not agree with Kathy....
Life is FULL with diffeculties in every stage of our life (tons of them...of all kinds )...and those are...just....plain excuses !!!..."the truth and nothing but the truth "....:-)...we are...full full full of them !!!
Our health must be first....before anything else !!!...It is a way of life here.

Well, I DO agree with Kathy I say just get right back on the wagon and don't worry about doing a full Induction again unless you decide that it's the best thing for YOU! We're humans, not robots, with all kinds of emotions and you had a lot of things on your mind and a lot of demands on your emotions, time and energy. This is a WOL, and you can't expect yourself to be perfect 100% of the time. I'm not endorsing cheats for me or anybody else, but cut yourself some slack in this situation.

I recently got laid off from my job and as I'm the major breadwinner for my family (lc bread, of course ) and my job had benefits, etc, and my husband's did not, I had a HUGE amount of stress and anxiety about $$ and the unknown -- what is going to happen? am I going to find a job? etc. I looked at it from this perspective: I can't control the fact that I was laid off, I cannot predict the future BUT I CAN CONTROL WHAT I PUT INTO MY MOUTH! That was my mantra when I was going thru the worst of my stresses! Maybe that could work in some way for you the next time you go thru a stressful time? Just an idea...

Take care and I'm glad that your Dad is doing okay now.

Thank you all for your encouragement and advice.....

I agree, you have to do all you can to stay in control, even in the stressful times. That's one of the reasons I brought this up. To suggest to people to have a plan for bad times. You can't foresee every problem, but you can make general plans to help yourself through it. It's a whole lot easier to do so before a disaster strikes than in the middle of it when you might not be thinking clearly.

I also meant to point out that just because you can't follow your specific plan 100%, even for an extended period of time (meaning several weeks, not one binge night), not to beat yourself up over it so bad that you end up going crazy and eating anything and everything and just giving up. Been there done that, this time I was able to keep that from happening.

I think I might follow induction level for about 3 days and see what happens. I know from two past experiences that the first 3 days were the worst for me. If I ate enough of the wrong things to set my cravings going again, I'll continue on for the rest of the two weeks to detox. If I make it thru the 3 days with no real trouble, then I might try going back to the level of carbs I was doing well at before this all happened.....

nikkil - An excellent mantra. I never really thought of it like that before. And yes, that might have helped me a lot when all I was feeling most of the time was helpless. Scared and angry a lot too, but mostly helpless. I'll remember that because I'm sure even though he's going to make it thru, there's still going to be some hard times to deal with yet. Thank you!

Picaboo - A agree with you mostly, but to me an excuse is something someone comes up with time after time for making the same mistakes over and over. I do believe there are REASONS (not yelling, just trying to emphasize) people stumble. The difference, to me, lies in whether or not you learn from your stumble, and not do the same thing again.

I think I did learn. I was not trying to make excuses, but point out that I made it thru it alright and did not let it make me give up. I did that once before and it took me almost a year to get back to eating right. In the mean time I gained about 30 more pounds. I didn't let that happen this time. Next time, with some new plans that I thought of from this experience, hopefully I won't go off plan at all.....

I'm so glad to get back to this forum. I had never made a habit of posting much. I seldom had anything to add that someone else didn't already say. But I spent a lot of time reading, and learning here. This forum, and all you here, are one of the reasons I'm doing as well as I am. Thank you. And I'm sorry this is kinda long...... That's the other reason I don't post a lot, I'm pretty yakky....

Laura

You handled a difficult situation well. I'm not sure I would have done as well. I lost my only brother in January 03 and my father-in-law in December 03. (As my son says, our Christmas list just keeps shrinking). I tried to handle it like you did - make the best choices you can under the circumstances.

Thank you for sharing all of that. I am sorry you are having such a difficult time. Those tips are right on the money, and very valuable. When my dad was dying a couple years ago, I was in such a fog I couldn't even function, never mind think about what was right to eat. A plan of action is a great idea.

Laura - nice to see you back! What's new in your neck of the woods? How are the horses? Glad your dad is going to be ok. That must have been a very trying time for you and your family. Best wishes
V.

LC Sponge - Hay!!! I'm so glad to see you!!! You're the person I've missed the most.... Things here are crazy like always. Although, I prefer the "good" crazy times over the bad..... I was hoping you still stopped in here off and on. I lost ya.... e-mail me: hlvonk~fidnet.com Our horse life is getting better. I'm fighting heaves in my horse, but I won't give up. He means too much to me. We finally, after 3 years, found the right horse for my hubby. Do you still have Oreo? How's things going in your horse life?

Thank you everyone for the kind words. It was hard because I'm one of those people who ADORE my Dad. As far as I'm concerned, he walks on water. So I was frantic. Then I was also worried about my Mom. If Dad didn't make it, I think Mom's one of those people who wouldn't last long afterwards. And they're both young. Dad's only 63 and Mom's only 60.

Onehotmama and SusanKH - I'm sorry you've lost people close to you! I really can't even imagine going thru that. Even thinking about it will make me tear up.

Another thought that occurred to me...... As much as you can, keep your car with you. I always went with my Mom, with her driving, or we were dropped off at the hospital so we had no car. Mom and Dad have a humongous 2 year old Truck. I had never driven it and I didn't want to drive it for the first time in the city. I'm not used to driving in that kind of traffic so I didn't want to be responsible if I wrecked it. Some of my not so good choices in food could have been eliminated if I could have driven to a resturant. There were almost any resturant you can think of about a 20 minute drive away. But way too far to walk to.

Thanks again everyone.....

I am so glad to hear your dad is doing better. This post definitely hit close to home with me. My beautiful baby sister died last September, and my father died 5 weeks later. Both from cancer, and both times we spent many days with them in the hospital. For my father, I think my brothers and I hardly left the hospital for 6 days. Everyone was great and brought us what we needed, and at times like that we eat what is in front of us. But by this time I had been on Atkins long enough where I automaticaly think about what goes into my mouth. I was able to keep my weight gain under 12 pounds during this period. God bless all the people that took care of us, and for bringing all the pastas, cookies, and cakes. On several occasions, I did find myself sneaking out to Wendy's for a triple Cheeseburger/no-bun. But I didn't get worked up when I downed a cookie, or two. I figured there was time for me to get back on track later.

Brent