“Plans are worthless.  Planning is essential.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

 

computers gratitude itself the love in my family my youngest brother, the biggest supporter of my blog the earth delicious food

What is a one-minute action I can do now that will positively impact the entire community and the world?

 

	0-100	comments
mood:	80	feeling okay, struggling a bit with hunger, but it is manageable
energy:	80	having okay energy too, ready to make plans

	accomplishment	the reason it is important	next action(s)
1	I am getting better control of my eating: the timing (8:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 2:30 PM, and 5:30 PM) the number of calories (¼ breakfast, ¼ lunch, ¼ snack, ¼ dinner) their composition (approximately 60% fat, 23% carb, 17% protein).	Weight loss, Health in general	Implement your plans.
2	I am experiencing joy more often.	Joyful Vibrance	Keep doing what brings you joy.
3	I am catching myself when I cross my legs.	Chiropractic improvement	Do not cross your legs so often.
4	My mouth is cleaner since I started using Sonicare®.  I think I have a lot less plaque building up.	Dental improvement	Keep using Sonicare® twice daily.
5	I took my husband to the Corner Bakery Cafe with his transport chair for his birthday.  He was 100% positive and had a great time.	Celebration	Go there for your birthday.

 

 

Here is my food diary for Friday.  I created a couple of recipes, shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I pray this detail encourages you to use a tool like Cronometer, so you can make your own plans.

 

 

My weight went down slightly again this morning, not quite to its lowest point but close.  As I predicted, this is an up and down, up and down ride.  Yesterday’s food was a bit unpredictable because we went out to eat.  However, I did my best to figure it out and fortunately lost instead of gained.  We shared a sandwich between the two of us at about 3:00 PM and shared the same type of sandwich again for dinner.  Thankfully, the Corner Bakery Cafe posted calorie counts on their menu.

 

My plans are to lose 4.3 more kilograms down to 50 kg.  I predict that I am going to go up and down some more, especially since I am not taking the same amount of thyroid hormone every day.  I decided to include in my plans “Earnings Per Notch,” a Google Sheets chart that rewards me for losing and does not punish me for gaining, which you can view, even as I keep it updated.  A notch is .05 kg.  For each notch, even if I have lost it before, I get $1.00 to save.  Is that a reward or a punishment?  I see that as a reward.  The point of the exercise is to keep track.

 

This morning, I lost two notches, so that is two additional dollars or $16 so far.  By the time you view this chart, I will probably have lost more (and gained some back as well).  I will be able to tell from the net loss, divided by the total number of notches what my efficiency is.  What percentage of my daily losses am I losing for good?

 

 

I am mapping my plans in “Achieve 50 kg,” a MindMeister mind map, which you are also free to view.  I plan to review and update my plans daily as I tweak my strategy.  They are not fully implemented yet, but I am doing better lately.  I learned recently that implementing plans can reduce stress, so I am focusing on planning, which is a prefrontal-cortex, executive function of the brain, along with the related functions of setting up myself for action and making decisions.

 

Bipolar disorder impairs the functions of the prefrontal cortex in the brain, shown in this mind map, but lithium therapy can protect the brain against these effects.  I have taken lithium most of the time since 1985.  In the past, even the fairly recent past, I have actively sought to reduce or eliminate my lithium therapy, hating its many side effects.  However, now that I understand its protective effect on the critical functions of the prefrontal cortex, I am compliant with my medication.  Not being compliant with my medication seriously disrupts my plans in life because I invariably end up in the hospital, which is a disaster financially and professionally, not to mention that I typically gain 7-10 pounds in a hospital stay.

 

 

Here is today’s breakfast.

 

 

I had breakfast with ¼ of my calories.  It was delicious.  I took essential fatty acids as well.  I especially need evening primrose oil to heal eczema I have experienced lately.  I took:

 

 

Three pills of fish oil are usually enough to keep my omega-6/omega-3 ratio less than 4.0 for the day, but sometimes I need four pills or even more.  If I eat potato chips, I need more as they are very high in omega-6 fatty acids.

 

Typically, I have eaten more like 1/3 or even more of my calories for breakfast.  That has not worked too well.  I think ¼ will work out okay.

 

 

Next for today is making plans for a split pea soup.  I will cook it in the crockpot for this evening.  My plans are to make it with:

 

 

The amounts I use will depend on the nutrient content I want it to have, the room in my crockpot, and the amount of each ingredient I have on hand.

 

There.  I not only have plans, but I have also gone through the action of planning, which is critical.  Notice that Grammarly will check your notes for you if you have it installed.

 

Now, I need to put it all together and get it started.  Soaking the split peas would probably be better for our health, but my split pea soups have always worked without my doing that, as far as taste and texture are concerned.

 

 

If you wish to serve and record a recipe by weight, make sure it does not have any ingredients for which the weight is unknown.

 

The split pea soup is cooking in the crockpot.  It will be ready by dinner time.  Here it is, cooking.  The condensed steam on the lid makes it a little cloudy.  I wish I could share the way it smells.  It already smells delish.

 

 

Let me turn to my other plans for the day.

 

 

If I had to do the soup over, I would probably use dried parsley instead of fresh and not as much.  The parsley was kind of stringy.  I might have added some salt, but salting it afterward was okay.  Then I could salt it according to my sodium allowance.

 

It was kind of good.  I liked the flavor, even though the texture was not perfect.

 

My carbohydrate profile for the day looks like this:

 

 

 

My day has less than 55 grams of sugar with a fiber/sugar ratio of 1.08.  For the soup alone, that ratio is 3.05.  Both are actually greater than 1.0 for the day.  According to Robert Lustig, M.D., this ratio is the “key to the kingdom” in terms of preventing metabolic illness, including type II diabetes.  So, for all my soup’s shortcomings, it has excellent nutrition.

 

 

My budget is set to maintain my weight, though I know my budget is a bit less than what I actually need.  If I stay in budget, I can expect to reduce a little. Cronometer allows flexibility in setting up the calorie budget.  Fine-tuning it can take some patience.

 

I planned to lose at least a half a pound a week, but my appetite does not permit that much calorie restriction.  I was always going over-budget.  So I adjusted the budget to what I could more realistically stick to.  That makes my macronutrient targets more meaningful too, so it just works better.

 

My husband seems to like the soup.  He asked for a second bowl of it.

 

 

This split pea soup has a caloric density of .81 calories/gram, which is less than 1.0 calories/gram.  Barbara J. Rolls of PennState College of Health and Human Development recommends meals that are less than one calorie per gram for weight loss.  Most of the meals in my cookbook, KaeLyn’s Korner Kitchen:  Complete Meals for the Healthy-Minded, meet this criterion.  Each recipe in the cookbook has the caloric density calculated and listed.

 

 

The day’s nutrient balances are pretty good.  The omega-6 to omega-3 balance is 3.857, which is less than 4.0.  It required four capsules of fish oil to do that today.  The other balances are good.  The calcium/magnesium balance is so low because I take 1500 mg of magnesium oxide at night to prevent constipation the next morning.  The sesame seeds in the split pea soup are so rich in magnesium that I actually got the RDA of magnesium before taking my bedtime supplements.  I do better with greater than the RDA of Mg though, so I plan to take my supplements as usual tonight.  The zinc/copper balance is as high as it is because I took a zinc supplement of 22 mg.  A vegan or near vegan diet will likely necessitate a zinc supplement.

 

 

Fish oil reduces inflammation in the body.  Inflammation is involved in just about every disease.  If you take fish oil, I recommend a pharmaceutical-grade fish oil, which has had dangerous toxins removed.  I order pharmaceutical-grade from Canada at a reasonable price.

 

I am now looking at my plans outlined in my pen and paper mind map for the day.  I have severalth questions I wanted to answer.  However, I am a bit tired to do the research for all of them tonight.

 

 

EVENING Prayer

Dear Lord,   Just having plans is not so valuable; it is the act of planning itself that is essential.  I hope I have encouraged my readers to create eating plans and recipes for themselves.   Today, I have immersed myself in the act of creation.  The split pea soup turned out okay.  My husband even asked for a second bowl of it.   Lord, I got excited the other day and started exercising by taking the stairs up four flights in this building.  Now my left knee is killing me.  I have obviously overdone it.   Again, I ask for a healing, this time for my legs and back.  My left middle finger is coming along nicely.  Thanks for what you have done to help.   Lord, tomorrow I need to go to the DMV and register the jeep.  That is the main thing in my plans for tomorrow.  I can also post this entry.  I do not think I will get it all done tonight.   Tuesday Afternoon The DMV errand went quickly.  My husband and I had some leftover soup for lunch.  He asked for it.  Not only that, but he took a walk in the hallway with his walker afterward.  He has not done that for a while.  I am so glad to see him active.   It is now the first of October.  The weather is cooling abruptly.  I think I am going to like it.   Lord, help me to write what will be of most benefit to my readers.  Just now I got some live sauerkraut for probiotics.   I think I should make a content calendar for my blog, but it seems that topics arise as the events of life present themselves.  Am I doing it a good way or can it be improved?  Help me to know.   Lord, my knees feel quite a bit better today.  Thank you for that.  Help me to strengthen them without hurting them.   Lord, in Psalms 37:4 it says, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  What does it mean to delight in you?  How soon can I receive the desires of my heart?  Are there any other questions that would help me with this?   Help my readers to receive the desires of their hearts also.   Amen.

 

If you would like to join me on this journey from the beginning, please start with Day One.