..................

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[f1jim]

The weekly weigh in is a great idea. No sense stressing every day. Keep up the good work.
f1jim

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[ncyg46]

I read your wife's journal first and this is the first time I have been to yours. I am so happy that the two of you are doing this together and I know you can do it...I'll keep this short just to say hi and maybe next time we go thru Vegas we can get together! I like your photo, you should use it as your avatar...Ed (my other half) has a beard also! Take care and your potato salad sounds great. Those purple potatoes sure look strange though, don't they? I need to make some more since we have finished all I made two days ago.....

[seestorcoo]

Kirk - thank you for your encouragement and your insightful comments. I'm rooting for you in your journey and happy to hear that you are willing to change your habits and your life. I deal with guys all the time with your leg issues and I know (well, vicariously anyway) how miserable that is. That you are interested and committed to changing that says a lot about your character. You wife seems very nice too and I read a bit of her journal this morning (have to admit, I checked out when she warned of impending cat stories). I think you will find that having a committed supportive partner makes a big difference - you will share so much together on this journey. It sounds like Jeanette is coming along more to suport you than for her own stuff but that's how I started and now I'm 100lbs down and more committed than ever for my own sake. I actually cried when my partner said she wanted us to go on a vegan low fat diet - I LOVED meat (and pizza and chocolate heath crunch ice cream). But, I loved her more and now, I love myself more. And the cooking turns out to be fun - creating new dishes for each other is a great way to show love. I've never encountered a guy with your degree of edema that was actually willing to change their life and I'm very interested to watch your journey. What an inspiration you will be (and really, already are).

I've seen lately a potato salad recipe that uses the actually potatoes themselves (watery/blended/spiced) as the mayo-y base. The comment said it was delicious. I'll see if I can find it - maybe it was on fatfreevegan.

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[ncyg46]

i used very little Nasoya fat free mayo, lots of vinegar and lots of chopped celery and scallions and of course some Jack Daniels horseradish mustard for a kick! I use Mary's suggestion on pouring about 3 T of some champagne vinegar or whatever over the cooked potatoes while they are cooling off. I also steamed the potatoes so most of the starch was in the water...It came out really good!

Please take care of your legs, my husband died 10 years ago from a heart attack but he had many problems with his legs and infections, but refused to change his diet. He saw his mother get both legs amputated starting with her toes and progressing up to the point that she could barely balance in her wheelchair. I am glad and happy that you are doing this NOW!

I still live with a SAD eater who is diabetic but I am working on him, would be a lot easier if he joined me but it's going slowly and he has lost weight. His side dishes are my meals...and that's as far as I can go right now with him. He is now under 200 lbs from 225 or so...and eating a lot less. But then I was sneaky and changed our plates to salad plates instead of dinner plates, so he is eating less!

I am so happy that your wife is joining you with this....you should both take a photo together and use it!...but you are in the background in hers...and you are a great looking guy! I wish more people would post photos so we know who we are talking to!

[seestorcoo]

I still say you are exceptional. You wouldn't believe how many self destructive people I take care of - people that would willingly trade a leg or two for a 2nd pepperoni pizza or a box of twinkies. I know how hard the struggle with food is - I've been fat since the age of 4. I managed to get ahold of the problem shortly after 300 lbs but not everyone can do that. It sneaks up on you and the more you eat the more you get fat and the more fat you are the more miserable you are and the more miserable you are, the more you want to eat. I know that viscious cycle all too well. I really believe that something led me to this plan but we get lots of opportunities in life that get missed because we don't show up. The universe requires our full participation and that's what you seem to be doing.

And, I'll try to read the cat stories next time - she seems like a nice young woman - I hope I didn't hurt her feelings. I check out of stories about grandchildren too.

[bluja000]

Don't worry, you couldn't hurt my feelings about not wanting to read my cat stories. I'm rather obsessive about cats, always have been, but I understand that not everyone is that way. I wanted to warn people so that they don't have to feel like they have to read everything if they don't want to, and I'd be happy to simply set a capitalized section of my posts aside, so that you would easily know what to skip when I go into 'Kute Kitty' mode. Just skip over the section that has a Kute Kitty caption, or something (have to think of how to do it), and then start back up when I've finished my little rant, or hey, read and laugh about the crazy things my cats do. Thanks for reading my journal, and I hope you decide to continue reading, because it's not JUST about the cats.

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[Daffodil]

I have a question about the leg problems...when it all started, did you by any chance start out with any red scaly rashes on your legs before they started that icky bursting? Just curious.

As for cat stories... I like those. I'll head on over and read some.

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[Ege Bamyasi]

.