Just made a video on Benefiber
 

You all know me. When I find a product that I like, and that I feel does what it's supposed to do, well I do my own infomercial on it.

So today is Day 3. Benefiber is still doing it's thing.

So on behalf of all diabetics who can't eat enough fruit to get enough fiber, HERE'S MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD OF GOOOOIIINNNGGGGG!!!

lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6UWto-B-tc

I'm afraid to watch! *covers eyes* :p

No, it's quite good. I'm just sitting in front of my computer holding a bottle of Benefiber.

You can look!!! lol

Melody,

I LOVE Benefiber! But I don't need to use it as much anymore since Fiber One cereal does the job. But, boy, that Benefiber works great and I only needed very, very little. :)

I am taking the two teaspoons 3 times a day (in my crystal light with splenda drink).

I don't even realize that I take it.

I now go to the bathroom every day when I come home from Dunkin Donuts, after drinking my coffee.

How much do you take??

I'm still waiting for all the loose stools that they say you get when you take Magnesium Maleate.

I haven't experienced any loose stools at all.

And I still take a stool softner. But I'm only doing this for about a week now.

Maybe it takes longer for the magnesium to get into your system??

It does help with the leg cramps though.

Mel

Oh God,

Now I'm a Mama Mel!!!

lol

Okay!!!!

I wish I had discovered Benefiber years ago.

Best thing I ever did for myself.

It's a treat to go every day.

Best of luck.

and guess what?? My sugar was 95 this morning.

Never had that happen.

My body must be adjusting to the new dose of Lantus.

Miracles DO happen!!!

lol

That is great. But I want to know about your floating ball video. lol

:Funny-Post:Hee Hee!!:D "Its a treat to go" I am lucky as I am quite 'regular"
There have been times when I can totally relate to you Mama Mel! I usually say "its a relief to go" but I have got a good giggle out of "its a treat to go" Hee Hee!
When I have had a bout of constipation I feel like the dancing chili when it is done:Dancing-Chilli:Oh ya baby...I feel good!!!!!!!!:D
I love you Mama Mel....you are such a funny chick!!!:p

I did the Metformin and glyburide thing for YEARS before I went to my primary care doctor (this was the week before I entered the ACCORD program).

My sugar was NEVER controlled. I also ate what I was not supposed to eat. I used to self-medicate with food.

So one day I am in my primary care physician's office and he saw my sugar was 200 and something and he said "Melody get off all of these oral crap and go on Lantus. He explained that it was a basal insulin, given once a day (injection). I could choose to give myself one shot in the morning or one shot in evening. I have heard that evening is better, but at the time I chose the one shot in the morning.

The week I started on the Lantus, was the week I enrolled in the ACCORD program at Cornell. I knew that if I didn't do SOMETHING, well, I just new I had to do SOMETHING.

I also went to a nutritionist. Cornell supplied me with the Lantus.

I started initially with the one shot of Lantus and two Metformin (totalling 2000 a day). They usually start you with 10 units of Lantus to see how much to increase it. I went up to 46 units of the Lantus and 2 Metformins.

Then I got smart, stopped eating all the bad stuff and slowly they reduced my meds. First to go was the oral meds.

Then they began lowering the Lantus. I am now on just one shot of Lantus (19 units). Can't tell between 18 and 19 with my syringe but mostly it's 19.

Doing just fine. I have learned what I can't eat. I cannot eat any rice, brown or white, I can't eat fruit. (sure once in a while I can have berries), but it all depends on what my sugar is in the morning.

I can eat protein. I eat fish every day (Omega 3 is good for keeping blood sugar stable, at least in my case).

I eat chicken but small portions. It's all about portions.

Oh yesterday guess what I bought myself? A baby doll blouse. It's just a cute top, in pink and white with a little ruffle at the sleeve. Never could do that when i was overweight. It's amazing how you feel when you walk around a store and you know "I can wear that outfit, or I can fit into this blouse'.

Never could do that before.

So it's been about 6 years now that I am eating this way. I don't eat in the evening. Have no desire to.

I think it all starts in the brain.

If you take a 300 lb person, and go WHOOSH, and put them in let's say for example, Beyonce's body, well you might have a person in a nice body, but the reason they weighed 300 lbs, well, the reason is still in their brain.

So eventually that person will weigh 300 lbs again, because that person never found out why they were over-eating.

I have had to make major changes in my outlook towards food, and how I look at life.

Baby Steps.

Yesterday I was around the corner and met a lady who has lap-band surgery last year. She was a cute little thing and she lost 60 lbs so far. She has a 18 month old baby.

Ever see those adorable fat babies with the thighs that you love to bite. Everybody was oohing and aaahing over this baby-doll, but I knew immediately that genetically, this kid is going to have BIG PROBLEMS.

She must have weighed 40 lbs and at 18 months old, NOT GOOD.

Genetics play a part, and when they do, (like in my case, my mother weighed 200 lbs till she was 18 years old, then took it off and starved herself for the rest of her life, because she was 5 feet tall) I'm five feet 7.

I never knew my mother as an overweight person. I always thougth she was this little thing. But genetics played a part.

So I had to overcome genetics, overcome depression, and overcome self-medicating with food.

It took a long time. But I did it.

And the fact that I didn't have to become diabetic, well, I tell myself, "If I could go back 30 years and talk to myself".

BUT WE CAN'T DO THAT!!!

So we deal with the present.

So you hang in there.

You can do this. Check your sugar and don't eat anything white.

Melody

You want to know how it's done??

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW?? You'll get a kick if I show you!!

Melody

I don't want to know...I NEED TO KNOW! :p

I just made a video GIVING AWAY THE SECRET.

You will probably be doing this in front of your family 5 minutes after you see how it's done.

I'm uploading it now.

Be back and will insert in on this thread.

Melody

I've been using Benefiber for a while now, and it's the only "helper" I can tolerate. I put it in my yogurt or just in plain water. It's tasteless and you don't even know it's in there.

Yesterday's Sunday paper had $2 off coupons enclosed.

I just did the $3.00 rebate thing.

Next time I'll try and buy it from Costco online. Maybe I'll get the jumbo one.

I noticed in the drug store, that they have generic drug store brand of this stuff.

Is this the same as the Benefiber? It says "tasteless, mixes in any drink, etc. I don't want to make any mistakes.

Today I'm making Swiss Chard (I Hate this, but it's a green leafy vegetable, so what the heck).

I must eat more greens. But it's great to get the fiber in the Benefiber. Takes the worry out of getting your daily fiber load.

Mel

Sandy:

FINALLY, IT UPLOADED!! Have a good laugh!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=POvJp7wqzI4&feature=user

Hi Melody!! Thank you!! I will get it sooner or later!!
I had quite the day yesterday!! I went for a mammogram and a bone density scan. To begin with my doctor forgot that I have a lump in my breast and it screwed up my opportunity to gt an ultrasound yesterday!!
It appears as if there is another lump now...radiologist has to have a look and compare my last pic's!! I am trying to get a new doc but I have not heard back from her yet. Then I went to get my bones scanned and the ladt doing it asked if I had gained alot of weight recently? I said yes and she onformed me that I am 50 pounds heavier than my last scan in 04!!!!!!!!!!This has made me feel sick!! I gotta go...I just cannot talk about it anymore. Thanks again Melody!:hug:

Don't go, my dear friend:

We all have had this happen to us. We gain weight, we don't want to look in the mirror, we don't get on scales (I still don't look at the scale, but at least I get on one, lol).

It just takes time to get your head wrapped around what you need to do.

I have also had a lump in my breast that was removed.

You have a lot on your plate right now. Don't beat yourself up.

You'll get through this.

Melody

Oh for Pete's sake! lmao

I TOOOOOOLD YOU!!!! lol

Now you can do this to your whole family and they won't have a clue how you do it.

You shall become Magical Sandy!!!

lol

Melody...:hug::hug::hug:Thank you for your support....I just cannot wait to get my head wrapped around it...I don't know what it is with me....why can't I get it together? Now the whole thing makes me want to cry. Today I feel like poop...I think it is a bit of depression...feels like it anyway...just blah.

Hey we all go through stuff one way or another.

You'll find your way!!!

Be at peace!!!

Melody

I was on the weight loss forum and Donna said the perfect word to desribe how I feel....I feel like I am in an enormous "funk":( I just gotta find my way out!
Keep holding that light up for me Melody!!!!!!:hug:

I'm holding up the light, believe me. Now follow your instincts.

It took me until I was in my 50's to completely change my brain thought process. Before.....I looked at food as a cultural thing (we are all brought up to have great conversations over dinner, enjoy the meal, sit there and eat until we are full, etc. etc), BUT.. if we have the kind of metabolism that does not cooperate with that way of living, well we are going to pay for it down the road with diabetes, cholesterol, etc. etc.

I come from an italian family (mom had 9 siblings). Mom was short, 5 feet tall (I'M NOT SHORT). Mom was obese till she was 18 (so I never saw my mother's weight problem). Her sisters and brothers are short skinny people. My mother obviously inherited some sort of gene thing, so she was BIG until she was 18, when some guy made a crack about her weight, she got upset, she went on a diet, AND SHE NEVER LOOKED BACK.

So she married my father at 31, had me at 32. Both my parents were regular sized peope. My mother was determined that I WOULD NEVER BE FAT.

Didn't work out that way. We never got along, she was a nasty piece of work sometimes, and I did the only thing I knew how to do. I ATE!!

She would hide food in the linen closet. Never saw such a thing in my life. I opened the linen closet and saw loaves of bread. We had company in the kitchen, they were having coffee and cake. I said "why on earth is there loaves of bread among the dish towels. She blurted out "Because you eat everything in sight".

Now if you don't think I grabbed two pieces of cake and hid out in my room, then you don't know me. I remember this like it was yesterday.

Food and cake made me feel good. I didn't have to deal with her. But it destroyed my body, my self esteem, etc. It hurt me BUT at the time, I only knew it made me feel good.

That's why some of us self medicate with FOOD, and others self medicate with alcohol or drugs.

Food was my drug. It simply numbed my brain. I tuned out my mother who would scream at me all the time. She would say "don't you know what you'll look like when you are 30? don't you know what kind of menopause you'll have when you are 50???" You are so stupid". etc. etc. Not a good role model. So I ate more. When I was stressed, I ate more. And now we know much about stress hormone called Cortisol.

And when I married, the first thing he said to me was: 'Please don't get pregnant, you'll have a lousy pregnancy".

Then a few months later when I was pregnant, I turned to Alan and said 'oh brother, now I have to make the call to my mother and tell her (they lived in Florida).

I call up my mother and said: "I have something important to tell you". She blurted out "PLEASE DON'T TELL ME YOU ARE PREGNANT".

See???? All my life, I reacted to her viciousness by EATING. It just made me feel good.

But I learned. I learned LATE IN LIFE, but I did learn. I went to Cornell, I went to a nutritionist. I went on message boards. I learned that I ate to combat stress and that FOOD is my drug of choice.

I had to look at food completely different. Probably if I wasn't a diabetic, I'd either weigh 400 lbs or be confined to a bed.

But I had to look at food like fuel for my body, and not like "if I eat three cupcakes with a nice cold glass of milk, I'LL FEEL BETTER".

I believe, (in my case), I changed the wiring of my brain, to look at food completely different. Not the most easiest thing to accomplish and it took me the past 6 years to do this.

When my son left us, I went through a bad head trip. I took out the ding dongs, the twinkies, the Susy Q's (oh my god, those chocolate cake things).

I ate all night long. I FELT NOTHING, I just drifted off in a sugar haze. I did this because I KNEW I'D FEEL BETTER.

But something finally clicked after I went to Cornell. Alan and I went to a nutritionist. Actually it was Alan's appointment but I went with him. She addressed all information to me because I was the cook in the family and Alan said "show her what we can eat because I don't know my way around a kitchen".

I had been on what they call the Mediterrean diet. Olive Oil, no butter, no trans fats, but I had lots to learn. I learned about the importance of fish (the kinds of fish also). I learned how many carbs a day we should be eating. How to balance the portions.

I also asked the nutritionist one question that I had been dying to ask SOMEONE.

I said 'how come my girlfriend's husband can eat day and night (and I mean day and night), and he's 6 feet 2, weighs 195 and if he doesn't eat the ice cream at night, he loses 5 lbs. How come I can starve and I don't lose weight"???


She explained "you can't starve, your body will shut down, your metabolism shuts off, and your body thinks it's starving". Can't remember the whole conversation, but I learned that to lose weight, you have to EAT. It's how you eat and when you eat and what kind's of food you eat, that makes all the difference.

She then said "Your friend's husband has a fast metabolism, it's genetic. Nothing you can do about that. That's life. It's not fair, but that's the way it is. But he should not be eating ice cream all night, and all the cakes and cookies because some day, this will bite him in the stomach and in his health. She was right. His stomach is shot, he sometimes can't eat for days because of his stomach.

So this nutritionist knows what she's talking about.

So that's how we learned. Now Alan is different than me. He doesn't look at food and say "where is this fish going in my body?, should I have this cereal bar".

Alan says "I eat what Melody puts in front of me".

Alan is NOT diabetic. So he eats fresh juice I make for him every morning. All the blueberries, antioxidants, etc. He can drink this because he's not a diabetic. I can't.

I CAN have a bit of fresh fruit. But this man eats fruit at night till the cows come home.

He also pops a BIG bowl of unsalted popcorn every night. EVERY NIGHT. He then sprays Ken's honey mustard spray on it.

All this fruit and popcorn makes him go to the bathroom twice a day. He maintains his weight and he gets to eat fruit and popcorn.

I can't do this. I eat half of what this guy eats.

But I don't miss it BECAUSE I LEARNED WHAT ALL THAT SUGAR AND CRAP DID TO MY BODY.

Dorrie, I'm a work in progress. I ate because I was depressed. But I know that now so my brain realizes what I was doing. So I don't do this anymore. Took me a few years to get this down to a science but hey, if I can do it, maybe you can too!!

You have my support and encouragement.

And I still don't get on scales. I don't want to see numbers that I don't like. So I let the people at Cornell weight me and write it on their charts.

But I've lost over 100 lbs since my highest weight. And I buy pretty tops.

And guess what? Yesterday for the first time I bought a WHITE PAIR OF PANTS.

Imagine that??? Me, in white pants.

My god. Never thought that would happen.

This is a woman who wore everything black till I was 50 years old because as we all know Black is slimming.

This thought process starts in the mind. Mind started when my mother would verbally abuse me, and it became a habit all my life to self medicate with food.

I'm lucky I got a chance to realize what I was doing to myself.

So when you get down and out and want to eat something you know isn't quite good for you, just read this post.

You'll have a smile, and maybe, just maybe, you won't reach for that cupcake (or whatever food is your nemesis).

We all have them.

Hope I didn't sound preachy.

I really do want to help.

Take care,

Melody

Thank you dear Melody! You are not preachy...I know how much you care!!!
White pants!! Wow! Bet they look great on you! You are a very beautitul lady...I have seen your photos! You would look good in a burlap sack:)
Thanks again Melody!! I do read your posts and I will get there!!!! Luv ya, Dorrie:hug::hug::hug::hug::hug:

Dorrie:

I just realized how LOOOOONNNGG that post was. Good God, do I come off as know-it-all or what?? lol

But honestly, in my heart of hearts, I DO KNOW what you are going through.

We all walk in each others shoes at one time or another.

We just have to get through it one day at a time.

I was sitting on my friend's porch last night. Everybody was saying what they are happy about. Some were saying "I have a flatscreen tv." Some were saying "I'm going on my next cruise". I just looked at my friend and said:

"I'm just delighted that I went to the bathroom this morning".

Everybody laughed.

It takes SO LITTLE to make me happy. lol

:laugh::Excited::ROTFLMAO::ROTFLMAO::Thats-Funneh::ROTFLMAO::Thats-Funneh:Mama Mel......
You fill my heart with laughter...thank you for being the wonderful lady that your are!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are quite welcome.

I just came home from the same porch I sat on last night.

Everybody was sitting on the porch with me.

I opened the conversation with "Let's talk about soluble fiber and insoluble fiber". They all looked at me like I was bonkers.

I said: "Imagine I have a plum in my hand. The skin is the insoluble fiber and the pulp is soluble fiber". "We are now going to talk about our colons"

The 75 year old said: 'Our WHAT??

Her daughter was wearing a halter monitor and she just about died when her daughter came on the porch. She said "why are you wearing this? did you have a heart attack".

I said "Relax, she has mitral valve prolapse and they are just testing her for 24 hours".

She said "She has what??"

We laughed for 2 hours.

We talked about cleaning our colons and Benefiber.

And PLUMSMART LIGHT!!!

She gave me some last night.

Wow, did the trick.

lol