Sugar Shakers - Sugarbusters Weekly Support Board 8/15 - 8/21

Welcome to Sugarbusters!

This is the Sugarbusters support board, where anyone following, or interested in following, Sugarbusters is welcome to come for discussion, and support. We hope you will become a part of our great group!

We try to have different themes for different days of the week.

MONDAY: MMM, or Metal Monster Monday, is when we weigh in, and post our progress. This is voluntary.

TUESDAY: Is tip day- we try to share a tip, or two to help each other.

WEDNESDAY: Is Wonderful Wednesday. On Wednesdays, we share something wonderful about our selves, or our lives.

THURSDAY: Is Thirst Day! A reminder to drink your water! Its a good day to share a recipe too! :)

FRIDAY: Is FF, for Friday funnies. Everyone needs a laugh on Friday!


You are welcome to post questions, vent frustrations, whatever, but please be respectful of others and their beliefs.


Please take some time to check out our extensive recipe boards. Our RECIPE BOARDS can be located at the link below:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/for....php?forumid=89 (http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=89)

Look for our QUARTERLY RECIPE BOARDS to post your favorite recipes and to see the most recently posted recipes. Recipes from the quarterly boards will be archived in proper categories at some point.


We have SEVEN INFORMATIVE BOARDS!!!! Please take a few minutes to visit them! New information is continually being posted, so please make sure you visit them often!!! The boards are listed below as well as the link that will take you to the boards:

THE RECOMMENDED READING BOARD
THE TOOLS & TIPS BOARD
THE FOOD INFORMATION BOARD
MOTIVATIONAL & INSPIRING THOUGHTS BOARD
MY FAVORITE SB LEGAL FOODS
SB 2002 BIO BOARD
SB 2001/2002 PHOTO ALBUM BOARD

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/for....php?forumid=87 (http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=87)

We also have a SB WEEKLY EXERCISE BOARD that you can log your daily/weekly exercises on which is located on our weekly support board:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63427



NEWBIES: To post a reply, please hit reply and NOT new thread

Challenges! Challenges!Challenges!


1. Last week was DISGUSTING! There was only one post on the exercise board, and it was mine! We all need to get those work outs in and post them! SO, challenge number one, is to get three workouts in, and post them!

2. Instead of looking for a close parking place, this week make it a point to park as far away as you can. :) This challenge will be null and void ONLY in the rain!

3. Eat a good quality protein breakfast every morning, and don't eat after 8pm every night.


Remember, only YOU can make this a good week. So, why not? :)

Well, looks like I'm the first to post on MMM, unless someone is posting at the same time. First, re MMM. :) I hopped on the metal monster first thing this morning and I was only down 1/2 pound. So I put on my walking shoes and took a 2 mile walk and weighed again about 30 minutes ago, and was down the pound I was hoping for. So I get to make a new ticker. Yay! If I can continue to lose 1 pound per week, I will stay happy. It's those stalls that get discouraging. Here's hoping that everyone else has a :) for MMM.

I will be a good board member and post my exercise on the exercise board. I have been guilty of not doing so. So I'll pop over there now. I guess Monet is off on her trip by now.

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/3;44;126;0;1/c/166/t/120/s/173/k/53bf/weight.png

Good Morning! Its Metal Monster Monday! I hope its a good one for everyone!

I was down four pounds from last Monday, bringing me to a total of seven since I started using the five rules from the Leptin book. :dance:


We are getting ready to pack up and take off. Tom made us espresso, and I need to fix us some breakfast. We should be back sometime on Wednesday, unless its miserable up there, then we will be back Tuesday! :)

Ya'all behave now! :wave:

Morning, Gator.... congrats on that one pound! Here is a dancing banana for you! :cb: I am glad you got to register the full pound! Its awfully encouraging to see the scale go down, isn't it?

Where is everyone today. It's a new week a new day and a new resolve.

Hope the scale is good to everyone today. Not me. I am totally disgusted with myself and am trying to find a solution. I have so many reasons to do this but cannot get my head on straight. Saturday morning I was down, today I am up 7 pounds. Eating was not good on Saturday, but yesterday was pretty much on track. So much of our social life is centered around drinking, which I enjoy. Happy hours with friends, weekly meeting at the Elks Club, pool parties on the weekends. Need to find a solution.

Monet, I have posted on the exercise board. I will try my best all week. Sometimes it is hard for me to get to both boards. I am determined to get 5 workouts in this week. Didn't have a protein breakfast today, just cereal and fruit. Gonna have to put some thought into that one for the rest of the week. The parking spot thing is no problem when I'm with DH, he always parks far away. Says we need the walk.

My foot seems better. It is always stiff and sore when I get up (RA) and of course that is when I like to get on the TM. I did it this morning and after a few minutes I guess warmed up and it was better. I got about 20 minutes in using an incline.

Gator, I am trying your salad dressing today. Didn't you say it was 33 calories a T?

Bob, hope you had a great weekend. Hope things are getting better at work. Get on here so we can help you get through this tough time. No better place when things are down.

Tech, Heartmom, Toni, Fillise, Country, Thin, any anyone else. Hope you had a good weekend and ready to make this a good week.

Jackie--Yes, 33 Kcal per T. Hope you like it. I actually measure it out with a real measuring tablespoon, and drizzle it over my lettuce very carefully so I get each leaf coated with some dressing.

Monet--Have a great trip. Hope it is cool. Yay for you and the 4 pounds. I know you are happy, and not having those snacks probaby has been a big part of the loss. :balloons: for you.

The reason I reweighed was because of something that BOB said: weighing about 9:30 a.m. is best because your weight is lowest then. Maybe all the "puffiness" from sleeping just takes time to settle out. I don't know. But I figured I'd try it. That's why I took the 2 mile walk before I weighed again. I'm also gonna up my calories this week by 100 and see if I can still lose a pound. I want to keep rotating my caloric intake and it's time to bump it up a little.

LOL, Home Depot is actually gonna give me a brand new dryer to replace the brand new one that I bought that didn't work. They first wanted me to have a repair man look at it, which I was not happy about. After all, I paid for a new dryer, not a "reconditioned" one. This one was defective out of the box. Well, the repair man came and could not fix it because he never could find anything wrong to make it make the bad sound. He finally said he would order a new motor. So my DH and I went back to Home Depot and complained, and they are taking care of it this week, along with a free 5 year extended warranty. So they did the right thing, with a little prodding from me, the customer.

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/3;44;126;0;1/c/166/t/120/s/173/k/53bf/weight.png

GATOR: I don't think it is passing on the snacks, as I eat more at meals to make up for it....when your metabolism is messed up, the calorie in/calorie out theory doesn't work. :) I am eating differently (less nuts, more veggies and protein) but not a significant difference in caloric intake.

JACK: I know what you mean about waking up stiff and sore and then 'warming' up. I have Lupus, and the symptoms are similar to RA. When I first get up, I feel like I am a 90 year old woman, but the years recede the longer I am up and the more I move around! :lol: I am sorry your foot is still bothering you... I am SURE those 7 pounds are water. I am not going to climb up on my soapbox about the Leptin again... :) aren't you relieved? BUT...you would find it very interesting, I think.

Tom was checking the air mattress and found two holes in it, both significant. (someone had blown it up and used it to watch TV and play video games a while back...and the kittens were always getting on it, so they are probably claw holes...) We are now going to have to go to Target or WalMart and get a new one. I predict we will get up to the camping area and get the tent set up as the sun sets.... :rolleyes:

I had hoped to have a loss this week but I think the chips blew that one for me. *smile* But I stayed the same so I guess not too bad. Eating was totally on course this last week. Except some Doritos over the weekend. I probably won't make it to the exercise board but I'll post here if that is okay. Last week I walked 4 days and am hoping for five this week. I really like the don't eat after 8 rule. I try hard to stick to it but since I stay up till 2 in the morning it does get hard sometimes.

Monet...WOO HOO on your 4 pounds that is really good.

Gator...WTG on your loss this week.

Jack-K...((hugzz)) I bet most of it is water weight and will be gone in a day or two. Hang in there and don't the higher numbers bring you down. You've lost a lot of weight and kept off way more than you've put back on. You've been through a lot in the last year and are still doing and EXCELLENT job!

Toni...the cauliflower, tomato and onion is nothing special. I just cut it all up small and sprinkle with salt. *smile*

Bob...praying for you. Hang in there. ((hugzz))

I hope everyone has a SUPER Monday.

Love and hugs,
Crystle

Good MMM....I was at 122.5# after a weekend up in the pines, eating a lot! However, I am on a no starchy carb/sweets regime for the week. I am not cutting out my yogurt or fruit, but will limit them to 1-2 servings a day. I may do this for two weeks, but will see what this week brings. Although I have only gained 2-3 #'s over the past month, I have also lost some of my muscle tone (since I have only worked out about 5 times). I tried on a pair of jeans before we left to go out of town, and I couldn't even button them; they are jeans that fit me perfectly last year....so it is time to get serious again!!!

The weekend was wonderful...it was nice and relaxing and the kids had a ball. We did get some rain, but still got out enough to have a good time.

When we returned, I had a call from my doctor's office on my phone stating that the echo came back, and I have a leak in a heart valve. They did not specify which valve or the extent, so I am unsure what to think/do at this point. I see my family dr. on Wed. of this week, and the cardiologist next Tuesday. I guess this can be caused by bacteria entering the bloodstream, and I am wondering if it could be due to that horrible throat infection that I had back in April, or the root canal that I got a few years ago (that I really didn't even need...long story). OR, maybe it was a birth defect that is just now surfacing. Please pray that it is not anything too serious.

As far as challenges: I do not plan on working out this week. I am waiting for my doctor's appts. first. BUT, I do plan on using this week to get my eating back on track. I had egg beaters with tomatoes, spinach and avocado, and a Boca burger for BF. I will eat some yogurt with flax meal and nuts for a snack in awhile, and a banana while girls are swimming. Dinner will be chicken of some sort, I am sure. As far as parking as far away from the store, I promise to do that when I am alone, but not when I am with the kids. It's too hot, and Lane gets too tired walking too far still. I never eat after dinner, so that one is an easy challenge for me.

Toni: I am so happy to hear that your cholesterol is down. I will keep praying that all tests come back o.k. I thought you only did Sobe for one week; are you still doing it?

Heart: I am so sorry to hear about your DF!! It must be so hard on the family, especially with young children. I am so glad to hear that Boogie is enjoying school; that is a huge relief for you, I am sure. Sorry your DH is being so difficult....my DH can't wait for the kids to be in school full-time, so I can start making some $ too. I guess I have to be thankful that I had these years at home. I am also thankful that I have a DH that understands the challenges of staying home with children. He is also a huge help around the house. I cook every night and he does the dishes. He vacuums, and does laundry all the time. That is in addition to doing all the outside upkeep. I have plenty of friends who are in the same boat as you...the husband thinks the cooking, cleaning is a woman's job, whether she works or not. Hang in there!!

Gator: I loved the article you printed last week. That is where I am....this has to be a lifetime commitment. I have been so lax over the past few months, and it is really starting to show. I used to occasinally allow myself a treat, and lately I have been allowing myself to eat whatever I want whenever I want to. Alcohol always puts me up on the scale. So glad the scale went back down, and you were able to show a loss today. I told my MD that I was taking CoQ10, and he didn't even know what it was.

Monet: I applaud you on being able to not eat between meals. I could never do that. If I go too long without eating, I get a headache and get lightheaded. I also find that I lose better when I eat a lot (just the right foods). BUT, I don't have the same health challenges as you do with weight loss. Congrats on the loss today!!! You did great at the reunion; way to go! Have you heard anything from Ken? Have fun camping with hubby! We look forward to hearing about it when you return.

BOB: (((((HUGS)))))!!! I am thinking about you and praying for you. I also hope you start to feel better soon!! Hang in there, girlfriend!!

I've gotta go get the kids ready for swim lessons!

Have a great day!
Nat

Howdy ho all.... MMM Monday is great for me I lost 3.5 lbs. this week. Bringing me under the 200 mark. Woopie....... Congradulations to all you losers. Just had a couple of flaxseed muffins for breakfast. Had to go somewhere so I didn't get my smoothie. But will catch that tomorrow. Think I'll have leftover crockpot chili for lunch and dinner will be grilled meat and a green salad. I'm off of South Beach now and hope I do good staying on Sugar busters. In fact I got off of it last Friday. So I'm back to bread and fruit.

Guess everyone was posting at the same time.

Monet, :clap: WTG on 4 lbs. I am so happy for you. Guess this new way is working. Have fun on your trip.

Gator, Yeah! 1 lb is great too. Sure glad they gave you a new dryer. I feel the same way, you paid for a new one they should give you one.

Country, sometimes we are so pleased to stay the same, especially when we have not been so good. Hope you see a loss next week. Great job on your walking.

Nat, glad you had a great time on your weekend trip. Funny how those jeans let us know when to be careful again. I'm sure they will fit fine in a week or so. Praying for your results to be not such a big thing. Have you checked it out on the internet yet? It may be a common thing.

Toni, Great job 3.5 loss is great. Guess that SoBe worked for you. Good luck this week.

It's almost lunch time and I am starving. Cereal just does not stick with me.

bf: SoBe cereal with 2 strawberries 1/2 c skim millk
lunch, salad with ham, cheese almonds, italian dressing.
snack was 8 celery sticks with 1 T pb
Dinner- Probably something quick like chili dogs (no bread) and some beans.

Have a great day.

Wow, where is everyone? So often we have 2 pages on Monday because everyone has posted their weight.

My food today:
B. Homemade meusli, with peach, cherries, apple, orange, 2 strawberries, and about 10 raisins. It was delish!
L. A Tuna melt on WW pita, all homemade. Some leftover stirfried broccoli, 1/2 cup peach conserve topped with a dab of CoolWhip, the coolwhip I then threw away so I wouldn't be tempted anymore. It was left over from when my DS came over.
D. Will be 1/2 lobster tail, boiled with a bit of melted butter, a lo carb potato pancake, salad, fried eggplant slices. About 1200 calories for the day.

I was looking back to see who has posted on the board this summer and these are some names that I remember: Toni, Fillise, Big Orange, ThinWithin, Heartmom, CountryMom4Him, Monet, Pancho, Jack-K, Talitha, Fruitloupe, CindyIcing, Techwife, teensybean, and kengjw. Did I leave anyone out? Where are some of these SugarBusters? Is keng having her baby now? Talitha, are you on vacation again? Cindy, we miss you and hope you are doing OK. Tech, how was your weight this morning? Heart, how was your weekend? We are hoping that Big Orange Babe will begin posting again as we miss her lighthearted spirit of fun. Thin, has school started for you, and what classes are you taking? How are all of you doing with your eating and progressing toward attaining your goal?

Well, my DH is home, so I need to go.

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I'm still here. I'm a little down as the MMM was not kind this am. :( Also, I went to the dr. today. They did a strep test but it turns out I "only " have a virus. Sure makes you feel yucky though! I am a school nurse so going back to school means going back to work. We went to a modified calendar this year with lots of breaks spread through the year. We went back on August 1st. It's not so bad. We have a week off in September and we are going to Florida. Low rates after Labor day and still plenty warm I'm sure! :beach:

Hello everyone,

I apologized for missing in action for so long. I tried to catch up by reading all the posts here whenever I can but replying has been a little challenging lately. Please forgive me. Since FIL left last week, I have been busy cleaning the house, doing last min shopping for the baby and hoping to do whatever I can before Jr arrives. I can't do too much at one time so I spread my "work" out whenever I feel like doing them. I am still trying to get dh to get the crib set up and bring the rest of the baby stuff up from the basement. I am hoping it will be today :) I am about 36+ weeks now going into 37 weeks soon. I am getting nervous but also getting more ready to be see Jr. I know Jess cannot wait to see him.

Jess starts school today and she is really excited about going back to school. She is definitely my biggest concern as far as how she does in school (hopefully she will be a little calmer this year...lol and less behavioral report from teacher:), how she will eventually reacts to Jr's presence in the family and that she might not have as much attention as she wants from us etc etc. I want her to feel loved and secured so we are definitely have some work cut our for us :)

Eating has been okay, not completely legal but not too bad as there wasn't any "terrible" out of control eating or terrible choices. I am more strict in being legal lately because I know this is the last few weeks that I am able to nourish Jr from within. I want to give him the best I can and not junk that doesn't benefit him and also gain the "unnecessary" weight that makes him too big for me to deliver. I am a petite women so a decent size baby will be good for me...lol. Jess wasn't big and I hope Jr is about the same. I have been craving "creamy sweet" things lately and chocolate is one of them. I could care less about chocolate when I am not pregnant but now I do crave for chocolate. Last night, I made a hot coco with unsweetened coco powder, soymilk, a little half and half, vanilla extract, Agave and cinnamon powder. Yum! That helps so much in my cravings. I believe so far, I have gained about 24 lbs or slightly more and am sure will gain a little more as time goes. I am sure thankful for SB...makes my pregnancy so much more enjoyable and healthy.

I don't know if I will be able to do any replies but I just want to let you all know I am okay and the baby is not here yet :) I will try to check in here from time to time until the baby comes. After that, I will be busy for a while but promise I won't be completely out of touch.

Congratulations to those of you who lost the lbs this week and also everyone who continue to persevere and make the best choices for your health. Pancho, thanks for asking about me and I hope your dr's appointment/test will be a positive one.

Julia

Gator, I just saw your post. Thanks for asking about me. I just posted an update above :) Hope all is well on your side as well :)

Julia

Hi all. Im a day off but this morning I was down 2.5 to my 210 mark. I somehow gained 2.5 over the weekend ! I am thinking it was just water weight. So hopefully the rest of the week I can hit a new low !
I had a virus on my computer so last night I spent most of time trying to get rid of it. What a job. I ended up having to purchase a program online to get it off but I guess it was cheaper than replaceing my hard drive if I hadnt gotton rid of it.
I had a few extra minutes this morning but have to head to work. Have a great SB day !

Just having my morning coffee and enjoying reading the posts from everyone. But Pancho is right there are so many missing. We got a great rain last night. One of the few we've been getting this hot summer. Is the weather changeing or what. I'm hopeing this will help my poor little three tomatoes on the vine get ripe. Its a miracle this year for me to get a homegrown tomato!! LOL!!! I'm proud so far of my eating. I hope I just keep going this way. I'm not having very many starches like bread right now and easy on the fruit. We're going on vacation next month and I sure would like to lose 10 lbs. before then. Haven't eaten breakfast yet so really don't know my menu for the day. Will come back later...

Jack-K- Hope you're having a good week.....

Gatorgal- I want to come eat with you. Your menu sounds so wonderful. Yum.....

Thin- Sorry you're sick. Hope you get to feeling better soon.

Julia- So good to hear you're doing fine. Hope you are getting lots of rest!!!

Cindy- A great big congrads on the 2.5 lbs..... Woo Hoo

Good Tuesday morning ladies.

Hope everyone is having a good day. It is finally raining here. I don't think we have cut our grass in over 6 weeks. It is like straw. It is raining downtown just hope it is raining at my house. The little rain we have had has been so sporadic.

Since Tuesday is tip day, I will suggest using smaller dishes. Last night I wanted some sf ice cream so I normally fill up the bowl (after all it is sf). But since I am trying to count calories I measured out 1/2 cup. Well we all know that is not much ice cream. So I got out a small lotus bowl and it filled it up to the top. At least I felt like I was eating more. I always use a small plate at dinner and give DH a larger one.

Speaking of calories. My breakfast and lunch are already 835 calories and I haven't had a snack yet. Trying to hold off but I have 2 more hours to go. My dinner may put me over my allowed calories. It amazes me how many calories we consume in a day. If I weren't counting, I would be eating legal things like cheese, meats, etc for snacks. Cheese alone is way up there for a little bitty cube. Heck I used to eat 5-6 pieces. You should try it one day just to see how many calories you do consume. It is much easier now since all the nutrition info is on the packages. I go to calorieking.com for anything I don't have.

BF; oatmeal, 1/4 c skim milk, 2 slices of bacon (was trying to get some protein added in to hold me over longer per Monet), 1/2 c cranberry juice.
Lunch, egg salad with 2 T mayo, 1 pc lcww bread, 1/2 pickle, peach and a sf pudding.
Dinner: prok chops, lima beans and broccoli or cauliflower. Portabella mushrooms grilled.

Gator, I use cool whip (sparingly). I buy the cool whip Free, no sugar no fat. Is there something wrong with that?

Thin, One of those sick kiddies probably gave you that virus. Hope you feel better soon.

Julia, glad you are doing so well. 24 lbs is awesome gain. I think I gained over 50, right after I just had lost about 40. Glad Jess is excited about school. I think they all are at that age. I'm sure with the new school friends, etc. the baby won't be a problem for her. You might want to pick up a small gift from Jr when you come home so she won't be left out when all the friends bring gifts for him. Good luck and keep us posted.

Cindy, glad you got that computer virus fixed. A hard drive would have been expensive. Here's to a new low for you this week.

Toni, we are getting some rain today too. I hope it is raining at my house my poor grass really needs it.Good job on your eating.


Gator is right the board sure is slow. I guess everyone is getting ready for school to start.

Have a great day. Will be back later.

PS. I forgot, I got 20 minutes of wts in last night and 20 minutes of TM this morning.
Off to post on the exercise board before Monet yeals at me.

Good Morning:

Gator is right; the board is awfully slow!

I did good with eating yesterday:
BF: Boca burger & omelet w/ tomatoes, spinach and avocado
Snack: yogurt w/ flax meal and pecans
Snack: Banana & a few almond clusters
Lunch: Grilled chicken salad from Chick-Fil-A
Snack: Soy dream ice cream sandwich (only 100 calories) - Sobe allows one sweet treat a day (70 calories), so I figured it couldn't hurt too much
Dinner: Salad and a turkey burger (no bun)

I was at 121# this morning, just after eating "right" for one day.

So far today, I have had an omelet with tomatoes, spinach, red onion & broccoli. I will have some yogurt again soon, and probably a banana later, before lunch.

I am taking the girls to the Sciene Center today; they have a Sesame Street - Getting to know your Body - exhibit that I know Lane will enjoy, and Britt probably will too. They have a lot of other stuff there too, so we will make a day of it. I'm just waiting for the traffic to die down a bit before we head out.

Toni: Congrats on the loss, you have been doing so well. Keep up the great work with your eating.

Jack: I have done some research online and it has been far from comforting. I am going to get a copy of all my test results when I meet with the cardiologist next week, and then probably make an appt. at the AZ Heart Institute; they are one of the best in the country. I would like a second opinion and know what my options are before I jump into anything. I am glad you are getting some much needed rain! Good job on the exercise.

Thin: I hope you are fighting that bug! Get to feeling better soon.

Ken: It was so good to see your post. I knew you were probably busy preparing for the baby. I hope Jess does well in school for you. Don't be surprised if she acts out a bit, with a new baby in the house. Take care of yourself, and keep us posted on Jr's arrival. Have you named him yet? Or is it Jr.? :lol: .

Cindy: So good to "see" you. Sorry you got a nasty computer virus; those can be a real nightmare.

Well, I better go get ready!

Take care,
Nat

Jackie--I think the only thing really "wrong" with Cool Whip, even the Free variety, is that it is pretty much a chemical concoction. There are lots of things in it that I can barely pronounce. Also, it just wants to be eaten, and 20 calories here and 20 there add up, so I threw mine away to get rid of the temptation. I actually prefer real whipped cream, but had the Cool Whip because my son and his "kids" prefer the cool whip.

Jackie, I normally have cereal for breakfast, and if I add a protein beyond milk, it causes me to have to really juggle the calories the rest of the day. An egg probably would have been better protein than the bacon, I think, and I sometimes have an egg for breakfast. But I do love my cereal with fruit, especially fresh peaches. Have you tried the Low calorie "light" mayo? I get a brand that is pretty good. I forget the brand right now and am too lazy to walk to the other end of the house to see what it is. I do remember that it has a blue top, either Hellmans or Kraft, probably. BTW, did you make the low cal italian dressing? and did you like it or hate it? Hope you liked it.

Another option for breakfast is to do like PANCHO does, and have a regular type meal, with meat and veggies, then, instead of cereal. People eat steak for breakfast, so I guess we could get used to it.

Keng--You are doing so well with your weight on this pregnancy. Congratulations.

Cindy, I'm just impressed that you could do all that to take care of the PC virus. Me, I'd have to call my computer geek friend to handle that problem. As I've always said about computers and me, I don't have to know how to build the engine to know how to drive the car. All I want is to sit down in front of my computer and have it work. I know how to do the programs, but I don't know how to fix the darn thing! :) Keep up the good work with your eating. Maybe next week you'll be down another 2.5 pounds.

My food today:
B.- 48 grms Shredded Wheat 'n Bran with 1/2 fresh peach and 1/2 cup skimmed milk.
L. One open faced sandwich (SGWW bread) with sliced onion, sliced tomato, 1 oz. cheddar cheese, melted, topped with 2 slices crisp bacon. 1 cup peach conserve.
Dinner will be 2 oz. WW spaghetti with 1/2 cup homemade tomato/meat sauce, 2 T. grated parm. cheese, and a small salad.
I have French class tonight, so will be eating earlier than normal.

Have to go post on the exercise board--lifted weights for 1/2 hour.

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/3;44;126;0;1/c/166/t/120/s/173/k/53bf/weight.png

Gatorgal- everytime you mention that peach conserve I want some. I can just taste it... I'M JEALOUS......

Good afternoon. A storm is blowing through so this is gonna be a quickie to just say hello. ((((Everybody))))

Good to see you Julia...I was wondering if that baby was here yet. My son's girlfriend is due in Oct. Time is going SO fast. :)

Better get ya'll. I'll try really hard to sneak on later.

Love and hugs,
Crystle

Nat, good eating yesterday and today. I agree ethat you shoudl get a second opinion before doing anything major. The science exhibit sounds like lots of fun.

Gator, I normally eat either cereal or an egg for bf. The bacon was only 90 calories and I'm sure the mayo boosted the count. I used to always use light mayo until SB and since you could have the real thing, I did. I normally use the whipped cream in the squirt can. I can avoid it. Not one of those things that call my name, like these SOBE cookies in my drawer. I have been so good today, I have not had one thing between meals. I was looking at your menu and it looked high in calories, what was yoru count for today? I know you said you were raising it some.

Country, hope you don't get a bad storm.

Toni, :wave:

Bob, how are you doing? Thinking of you.

Tech, where are you?

Heading home. Gonna do some wts and take a walk tonight. Fixing stuffed shells for tomorrows dinner tonight and have some ironing to do and a load of towels. I'm already tired. :tired:

Have a great evening.

What's SOBE? Sorry, but that's all I have time to post tonight!! Will catch up tomorrow...

Heartmom thats South Beach Diet. I was doing phase 1 of it for two weeks to get me off the sugar and carb cravings.

Morning all. Where is everyone? Waiting for the lady to come clean. Have some laundry going and my coffee drank. Also had a couple of flaxseed muffins for breakfast so I'm ready to start my day. Check back later...

SOBE- south beach

Gator, I forgot to answer you about the salad dressing. Yes I tried it and it is very good. Can't say it is my favorite but good. I will be using it for awhile.

Got in a 2 mile walk and 20 minutes of wts last night and got my treadmill in this morning. I am so :tired: today.

Laurie, hope things are going good with you. Has Boogie started school yet?
BF: 2 hardboiled eggs, 1/2 c strawberries, coffee.
Lunch, tuna, 1 C strawberries
Dinner, stuffed shells, salad.

Be back later.

Toni, we were posting at the same time. Have a great day.

Good Morning:

Yesterday was a blast....we stayed at the Science Center for almost 4 hours, and could've stayed longer, but didn't want to end up in terrible traffic on the way home. I was pretty good with eating; I got a salad for lunch, but also ate two small slices of Lane's personal cheese pizza. AND then on the way out of there, the girls talked me into ice cream. They had a coffee flavored one with chocolate chips, so I ordered myself one scoop. Had I known the scoop was going to be as large as my head, I would have passed. I ate most of it, but did throw the cone away and the remainder of the ice cream. I was good the rest of the day, and was at 121# this morning. I'm back on track for a legal day with no starchy carbs and no sweets.

Today, we have a tour at Cold Stone Creamery, and I promise not to eat any! I am then taking Britt to meet her dad for lunch and go to his office for awhile. She has wanted to go to his work all summer, and now here we are at the beginning of the school year (Monday). I will take Lane to the doctor with me (I see my family doctor today).

I made an appt. at the Arizona Heart Hospital to see a doctor named Dr. Ted Dietrich.....I believe he was the first doctor to do a heart transplant with an artificial heart. He seems to be very good at what he does...so I hope to be in the best hands possible. I see him on August 29th at 6:30 a.m. That should give me enough time to get all these records together from all these other doctors, and go in there armed and ready.

TONI: Do you know of any good "heart" support boards?

I gotta go get myself and the girls ready.

I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Take care,
Nat

Jackie--I think my calories were almost exactly 1200.
The shredded wheat is 150 if I stick to 48 grams, 1/2 fresh peach is 30 and the sk. milk is 45.
The open faced sandwich with the cheese and bacon is 270 (70 for the SGWW bread, 110 for 1 oz. cheddar cheese, and 70 for 2 slices crisp bacon. I add 20 for the slice of tomato and onion.) The 1 cup peach conserve would be 100.
The dinner was fairly low as the whole wheat blend spaghetti that I get at Publix is only 180 cal. per 2 oz. and I make my own spaghetti sauce which is only 104 cal. per 1/2 cup. I have gotten used to not ladling a lot of spaghetti sauce over the noodles, although I'd love to. I just love to slurp down the delicious sauce, that is just about the best I've ever tasted. But I feel like I'm having a treat just to eat the amount I do. I do splurge and add 2 T. of grated cheese, which is 60 calories. My salad is normally about 50 calories, just lettuce, a few cherry tomatoes and one T. of my low cal dressing. But I added 15 grams of walnuts to it which brought the salad count up to 150. Then I had about 100 calories worth of fresh cherries. Which brings it to just about 1200. Not bad eating for not a lot of Kcals, eh.

Jackie, I do love all those good bottled dressings, like the Caesar dressing, ranch dressing, etc. They are thicker than the low cal Italian that I fix, ala my recipe. But I like the low cal homemade stuff a lot better than low cal bottled dressing that has that gelatinous texture, and I want to save my calories for other stuff. One day, on a splurge, maybe I'll be able to include the "real" dressings occasionally.

Food today:
Breakfast--oatmeal (old fashioned fixed my my DH :) ) enhanced with dried cherries and topped with 1/3 cup skimmed milk.
Lunch--1/2 cup peach conserve, 1 tuna melt sandwich (1/2 pita stuffed with low cal tuna salad and 1 oz. cheddar cheese and then baked till cheese melts.)
Dinner will be baked chicken, a nice salad with avocado in it, and a vegetable, maybe summer squash, and if I have enough calories left, some brown rice.

I got my walk in today and probably will have to walk tonight again if I want to get over the 10000 mark. Yesterday I got only 3500 because I had to hang around for them to bring my new dryer. Then I went to work out and was so whipped from the workout that I didn't feel like walking in the intense heat that we are having right now. Last night was French class, so couldn't walk at night. I'll go post on the exercise board in a minute.

Pancho--It sounds like you are making some very good choices in following up with your heart health. You are fortunate to have a good doctor close and I hope that it ends up being not much of anything. Has school started for the children in your town yet? Are either of your girls old enough to be in school yet? You sound so busy now with the trips you are doing to the creamery (ice creamery!!) and the science center.

Toni--Wish we lived closer. I could drive over and bring you a jar of conserve. If you can get a hold of some good peaches, and some granny Smith apples, you could make a batch yourself. It's not hard, and you can just make a small batch, enough for several people to have a small bowlful.

Cindy--I was rereading your post and was thinking that you are really close to 199. Just 11 pounds and you'd be under the 200 mark. Might I suggest setting a goal for reaching that by a certain date, kind of like Techwife does. Then we all could watch those numbers go down with you. :)

Country--Hope your day is going well.

Heart--How are you doing with sticking to the plan you've made for yourself? I hope that by the end of the year you will have reached your goal, or just about be there.

I "cheated" and stepped on the scale this morning. I got on shortly after I got up, just before I got dressed in my walking clothes. Then I went for a walk, and even had breakfast, and then went and got my shower to get ready for work today. I decided to check again and the scale actually registered lower, which surprised me. But BOB said that we are lowest about 9:30 and this was right before 9 a.m. I wonder if she is not on to something.

Well, I'm gonna go. My DH and I are going to lead a study of the book of Hosea, in the Bible, in our Sunday school class, and I need to do some studying of it myself so I am prepared to lead the discussion this Sunday.

For all of you out there that are reading but not posting, we miss you. Just one word would keep us happy.

Howdy ya'll. I'm just sitting here at mama's house wasting time on the computer. :) Eating has been okay. I did get out and walk yesterday even though the road was quite muddy.

Gator...Your menu always looks so nice. I agree about the salad dressings. My favorite is Ceasar or Blue cheese but I usually just eat them dry or add a little parmasean cheese for flavor.

Poncho...have fun at the creamery. Praying that your heart will end up being fine.

Jack-k...wtg on getting in the exercise.

Mama just got up so I need to scoot.

Love and hugs,
Crystle

Alright, now I have more time to post. Eating hasn't been the greatest or the worse. It seems like I have an OP day and then an illegal day. Yesterday I had 3 triscuits, 2 sl lunchmeat, 1 sf yogurt for breakfast. Lunch was Mickey D's- dbl cheeseburger, medium fries. Supper was 1 serving of hamburger helper and salad. So not legal at all. Today is better. BF- was 1/2 cantaloupe and sf yogurt. Lunch- was a big salad made with tuna, veggies, some lite cheese, and lite Ranch dressing, 1 granny smith apple. Supper- making spinach and mushroom quiche(made with sausage and lots of cheese), green beans, and mixed peas and beans

Yesterday I went and filled out applications, etc...I even had to take tests one which included a typing test. I got a call back this morning from a finance company to come back in the morning for the "final" interview. It isn't the best pay, but better than minimum wage and will do considering I haven't worked in years. But the last time I worked, it was around $10 an hour compared to around 7 with this one. So hopefully tomorrow will go well and I'll be hired. I like the hours, M-F, 8-5 with weekends off. I noticed they had a small kitchen in the back, so I'll be able to take my lunch most days and keep legal snacks around. The only thing I'm bummed about is knowing that I won't be able to workout like I do now. So I'll have to figure something out like doing more strength training when I do workout to keep from losing my muscle tone. I'm starting to actually look forward to rejoining the workforce. Change of pace. Maybe I'll start back losing again, now that I won't be home to eat from boredom,etc...At least that would be nice. I also seemed to hit it off with the ladies at the office yesterday. We chatted for awhile before I left. That's always a plus to get along with your co-workers. CTS- My weight is still way up from my low, but out of the 170's, just barely...it was 169 this morning. Still 9 to go to be back where I was. Now I have more incentive, I'll have to wear dress clothes at work and I'm absolutely refusing to buy any a size bigger,lol. Boogie is doing well with Kindergarten. He surprised me at how well he's adjusting. He missed the 1st day because he was still at the hospital. On the second day, I couldn't take him to the school because I was getting ready for the funeral, so he took the bus. He got in his seat and just waved at me and said "bye." Very surprising because he had been crying about going to school prior to that. I'm glad that I followed my gut instincts when everyone else was against him going this year. Alright, gotta run...

Pancho- check out www.tchin.org there's an adult heart support group there and lots of info that might help, not for sure since I've always used it for the CHD part.

Heading home soon.

Plan to get my workout in while dinner is cooking and then we are going tot he Elks Club for the weekly drawing. It is up to about $2300.00, sure wish DH would win that one. I plan to have only diet coke. I could have a glass of wine in my calorie count, but I'm better off not starting that.

I have gone 2 whole days w/o eating between meals at all. It has been hard, but I think about adding another 100 calories here and there and it makes me stop. Gum has helped also.


Nat, I'm glad you got an appointment with a good doc. Pray everythign goes well. I thought the science museum sound like lots of fun. Glad the girls like it.

Gator, I beleive the trick is to find lots of foods with low calorie count. That is why I have given up on cheese and things like that for snacks. I coldn't beleive I made it right over 1200 yesterday and today. I like the dressing better than some of the bottle ones I have bought. I will use it. Have you shared your spaghetti sauce recipe?

Country, hope you are having a good day and visist with your mama.

Laurie, keeping my figners crossed you get the job. Who will keep the kids for you?


Have a great evening everyone.

OK, a slight revision to my dinner. I will have 4 oz. roasted chicken, 1 ear of fresh sweet corn, :yikes: 1 salad with avocado and lo cal dressing, some stir fried broccoli, and 1 cup fresh canteloupe and honeydew balls. That will bring my total calories for the day to 1198 and will keep me totally legal except for the corn. However, it is fresh and very tasty and not to be resisted. :D Actually a pretty healthy day for my eating. We will take a walk after dinner.

I heard on the radio (Clark Howard) that you can get a really free, not a fake free, credit report, and so I checked mine out at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/
You can get your report from all 3 major credit companies and it is free. You have to pay something to get your credit score, but I didn't do that, and just got the report itself. Up until recently the 3 biggies in the credit reporting business were advertising free reports, but then charging people $80 and up after they had gotten their report.

Gotta go cook.

Just a fly by...Monet is back from the woods! We had a good time, relaxing and being lazy. It was around the corner and up the hill to the bathroom, so I am sure I got some exercise, but probably not more than at home! We walked along the lake and went swimming yesterday. The water was incredibly cold. We packed up today, and stopped in Dahlonega at the wine tasting room and got some wine, then drove off the main road to a ghost town called Auralia, which was the sight of the first gold strike in Georgia back in the early 1800's. A few brothers from Auralia went out west and struck gold out there...and started another Auralia which is now called Denver, Colorado! I took a few pictures of the general store, and will post them later.

Eating was pretty good over the few days we were gone. I will come back later and post my menu, but right now, I need to go unpack the cooler and put stuff away! (I would make Tom do it, but I made him wash dishes in addition to setting up camp and breaking it down with very little help from me! ;) )

:wave:

This had better go through. I posted twice yesterday, but neither are up. I don't know what the deal is.

Anyway, I'm back from Illinois. I did pretty well with the fair food. Instead of ordering tons of food and gorging myself, I made sure I had a bite or two of everyone elses. Corn Dog, Gyro, Ice cream, French Fries, Funnel Cake, Mini Doghnuts, Lemon Shakeups..... YUMMM. The only thing that I ordered and ate for myself was a cream puff on the last day (we went 3 days). So, although I ate some of everything, I think I did pretty well by not eating a WHOLE of everything by myself.


I'll write more after I see if this post goes through..

Talitha, welcome back. Sounds like you did great. We missed you and are happy you are back safe and sound and victorious over all those temptations at the fair.

Monet, welcome back to you too. I love to camp, but my DH no longer likes to sleep in a tent. He also says he doesn't want to camp as long as we no longer have the kids to run around to scavenge fire wood!

This is just a pop-in visit. I need to go for my walk. I have someone coming to do some work on our koi pond and want to be here when they are doing the work. So I need to go.

The board is slow this week. I didn't sleep well last night, I've been up since 5:30. I weighed around 6, it was still 169, just too close to 170 for me. It may actually be a tad lower considering I weighed a couple hours earlier today than yesterday. I have tried(twice) weighing myself around 9 or 9:30 to see if I weigh less and I weigh MORE, so that may apply to everyone else but me,lol..figures. Also, FYI...weighing after exercising is not your true weight. For instance, you drink a glass of water before your workout, exercise and then get on the scale, you'll probably weigh the same. But if you don't drink water before the workout or during, weigh yourself after exercising, then you're likely to be down a pound or 2 simply from not being adequately hydrated. Alright, I'm trying to kill a few minutes before I have to finish getting ready. I have an interview at 10 with a finance company, actually my second interview, so it looks promising. BUT I also have a second interview for a bookkeeping position(they provide training) that pays alot better, but that interview isn't until 1 today. So I'm faced with a little bit of a dilema. What if I get hired on the spot for the first job, but the second job is better pay and learning a trade...but what if it's not a sure thing and I take it instead of the first one and it doesn't turn out like I thought...hmmm....I think I will just go to both even if I get hired at the first one, besides they aren't going to ask me to start working today. I need to go and finish checking email before I have to fix my hair...check back later.

Talitha- You did well, you got to indulge without overindulging.

Ok, so that went through. Yippie!!!!


I've had my Protein/Fiber shake for breakfast with 1/2 a banana and 1/2 a peach. It was really good.

I'm getting ready to go outside and paint our picket fence. Trav preasure washed it for me . The people who had the house befoer painted it green. Weirdos. They also had gravestones in the back yard....

I'm working on creative ways to add activity, since exercising is kind of hard. My back has been really bad this week. I suppose I'm still paying for walking around at the fair and dancing at my cousin's wedding.
I would love to go swim laps at my mom's house, but it's too far away. Gas prices are killing me! I'm on E right now and I just would rather stay home than go fill up at those prices.


Monet- Where did you go camping? We always bo near Talulah Gorge. There are some great sites right along the river. I lve getting out of my tent and being only 6 feet away form the water!!! WE may be going next month.

Gator- I keep getting emails form this company offering a free report, then when I go through to do it, I'm told I'm 'not elligible'. What are they smoking? I'll try that site. I love Clark Howard...


Jack- I think I'm behind. ARe we not supposed to snack now?

Pancho there used to be a good heart board on WebMD. Just put it in your search engine and it will find it. I made some good friends off there and got allot of good information.

I'm having a really busy day today. The lady is here to clean the house and then I'm going out of town to grocery shop and hit Wal Mart. Going to make a roast tonight for dinner. Think I'll get a sweet potato at the market to put in it. Breakfast will be 2 flaxseed muffins and don't know about lunch. Better run......

Good Morning! We went to bed really late, and slept late too! I LOVE vacation! Since I woke up first, I got elected to make espresso for both of us. I also made my smoothie and took my supplements while I was making the espresso...inbetween unloading and reloading the dishwasher. I have a stack of camping gear that needs to be washed, which Tom usually runs through the dishwasher. I am going to wash it by hand though, as it is all aluminium, and had gotten all corroded and yucky from being run through the dishwasher. I really think he needs to trash the aluminium stuff, and get lexan dishes and stainless pots and pans, or titanium ones, but he is Scottish, and doesn't want to spend the money.

I did happen to check out the scale today. I was down another 1.5 pounds, so I hope it holds until MMM.

TALITHA: Snacking is ok, I just don't do it anymore after reading this book on Leptin, because it made so much sense to me. I will tell you about it when we get together. BTW, when are we going to do that, anyway? :) We camped at Lake Winfield Scott, up north of Dahlonega. I highly recommend it. They have bath houses, with showers. Its a great place to camp with kids. We used to go there all the time when the kids were young. Another good place that would be easy with kids is Vogel. All their campsites have water and electricity! (oh, gee! isn't THAT roughing it?) We camped there some with the kids, and also with church groups.

GATOR: Tell that hubby of yours not to be such a wuss! We camped three days and did not make a campfire the whole time! We did not need it, as we cooked everything on the Coleman stove. I even fixed filet mignon in my Calphalon saute pan on it! :yes: It was so relaxing to just sit around with no pressures...no phone, no computers..(I can't say no TV, as we never watch it anyway!) They have a lot of RV campsites at the place we went to, and there always seems to be a few retirees there, in a RV. The scenery is beautiful, the lake gorgeous...

HEART: Good luck on your interviews! If one place offers you a job on the spot, certainly you can ask for an evening to think about it, and discuss it with your husband. I am sure any company would be willing to give you a bit of time, and then you can weigh your options better. Keep us posted!

PANCHO: I am glad you were able to get an appointment with a top notch cardiologist. I hope all is well. Did Britt enjoy her time at work with her daddy?

COUNTRY: Have you planted a fall garden? Tom is about to put in collards. I am dreaming of some broccoli, but I am afraid to ask! I think we may plant some bok choy and nappa, and see how that does.

TONI: Don't go hog wild in Wal Mart! :) (That is what I always end up doing! Its dangerous there! They have yarn! )

JACK: Not eating between meals gets easier...but why are you limiting your calories so? Limit your saturated fats, for sure, and starchy carbs, but don't worry about the calories. Do eat good fats, like olive and almond oils. They are satiating, as well as have essential fats. Do you take fish oil? Maybe try the Carlson's Cod Liver oil, for the Omega 3's. I think the calorie in/calorie out theory is too simplistic and doesn't take into account metabolic differences in the different types of calories and how they are processed. SB is after all, based on the Glycemic Index, which is definitely not in keeping with the cal in/cal out theory. Can I talk you into reading Mastering Leptin, by Byron Richards? I think you will find some helpful information in it.

I need to go rustle up some breakfast for Tom. Why are men so helpless in the kitchen? :rolleyes: I think he would starve if I were not around to make him breakfast and lunch and dinner...... :lol:

Good Morning:

I got to the grocery store last night once my DH got home. I hadn't been since before our trip up north. I got a lot of good veggies and fruit and lean meats for my meals. Has anyone tried Broccolini? I had never heard of it, but found some last night; it looks delicious. It is just baby broccoli with long stems, and I bet it will cook up nice and tender.

I was at 121.5# this morning. I think I will be back to exercising next week, at least a few days a week, and see what happens. I am sure I will stay the same with weight or even gain a few once I start to put a little muscle back on. I always seem to weigh more when I work out; I am sure a lot of it has to do with water since I drink a lot more when I workout; I usually eat a bit more too though. Last year, I weighed the same as I do now, but I could easily get my jeans on and zip them up....my stomach was much smaller. That's where I put it on when I gain weight. I guess you can say I am an apple.

The girls enjoyed the tour of Coldstone Creamery; they both had a child size ice cream and I just took a few bites of theirs (cheescake flavored...yum). We then all met daddy for lunch at Peter Piper Pizza. They have an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is a great deal for $3.99. BUT, I was a good girl and stopped at Wendy's on the way and got a small salad and a chili and ate that instead. I had about three bites of Lane's pizza, but that was it! Britt then got to go to Daddy's work with him, and Lane had to go to the stinkin' dr. with me.

My doctor didn't seem too concerned about the leak, and pretty much told me what I thought....."you need to talk to the cardiologist about that." She said it is in the tricuspid valve, but is very small. She said that the cardiologist will probably want to prescribe beta blockers for the palpitations that I have at night. I am VERY leary of ANY medication, and would have to research them thoroughly before taking. I have been sleeping in a semi-sitting position lately because it seems to be a bit better that way. Time will tell.

Today, we get to go meet Britt's teacher and then she is supposed to have a playdate with a friend. Lane has a follow-up eye appt. tomorrow to see if the glasses are working for her. AND, then back to school for Britt on Monday.

Gator: I love cereal or oatmeal w/ fruit for BF too. It is tough to get myself to eat eggs. I have eaten eggs for the past 4 days, and miss my cereal a lot, but think the protein in the morning is really a good way to go. Once I go back to SB, I am going to MAKE myself eat eggs at least 3 days a week. Ken's Steakhouse has a Lite Balsamic Vinegar dressing that is delicious. My grocer just had a sale, and I picked up a few types to try; even the lite ranch is good. The Balsamic Vinegar one has 70 calories per serving (2 TB), and 5 grams of fat. I still plan to try your recipe; I printed it out, so I don't forget how to do it. Most schools here have already started; Britt starts later than most...she starts Monday and will be in 2nd grade. Lane is 3 and will start preschool after Labor Day. I think BOB is on to something; it seems I always weigh less when I weigh between 9-9:30. I'm right there with you on that corn; I love it this time of year.

Country: Good job walking even tho the roads were muddy!

Heart: Wow, that was quick. It should make you feel good that you are still so marketable after being out of work for so long. I often wonder what it will be like for me to go back to work after being home for 8-10 years. I am sure I will not be making the 50K I was prior to having kids :lol: . BUT, I also don't want the responsibility and accountability that I did before having kids. That is why I plan to get my personal training certification, and then be a little more flexible with hours...it's also not bad money. Thank you for the support site; I will send it on to my friend, Elaine as well. I'd definately go to both interviews. If you get offered the first one, take it....you can always call them back and tell them that you got a better paying one; they may counter it and offer you more.

Jack: Did you avoid that wine? How 'bout that pot; did your DH win it? I hope you had fun.

Monet: Welcome home. I am glad to hear you had a good time. It's always a bummer to clean up after a trip, even a short one. I hope your loss holds over until MMM. I'm Scottish and don't have a problem spending money :lol: . Are you sure it's not just a man thing? ;) . Britt loved the time she had with her dad. She gets so much attention there, and feels so big.

Talitha: That's the way to go! You did very well. Those little bites don't add up so quick and you still get to enjoy a bit of everything! I did the same yesterday with the girls pizza and ice cream; I just had a few bites of theirs, and don't feel guilty at all.

Toni: Thanks for the website info. I think I did some research on that site, but didn't see a board; I'll have to go back.

My sister bought tickets yesterday to the Keith Urban concert in December; we are going to go together. It s/b a lot of fun...I can't wait. Britt will be so jealous; she loves him, but is a little young to be amongst all those panties being thrown onstage :lol: . I better go buy a nice pair :lol: :lol: :lol: !

Have a great OP day. I hope to check in later today!

Take care,
Nat

Good afternoon ladies.

It has been a crazy morning and I'm just getting on here. We had 2 jobs bidding and it was wild.

Got about 25 minutes of wt training in last night. Got up this morning and got 18 minutes of TM in. So Monet, I am 4x this week.

The scale was down 3 today so I am back to where I was last Friday.
Now to keep it going in the right direction.

BF: Quaker Q-Smart bar, coffe
Lunch, salad with a little ham, mushrooms, cheese, cabbage and Gator's dressing. SF pudding
Dinner, burritos (homemade)

I swallowed my salad in about 10 minutes so I saved an apple in case I need it later.

Gator, that's one thing about counting the calories, if you do have something off plan but it is till within your cal count,you don't feel like you are cheating and continue to stay OP instead of binging. It's been a crazy day so I have only had 335 cals so far.

Monet, glad you had a great time and glad you are back. The board has not been the same w/o you. Congrats on the loss. I was having such a hard time with the fluid retention and not losing that I thought I would count calories along with SB. I am desparate, Yes I am interested in reading that book, I just need to find time to get it and read it.

Talitha, glad you are back also and had a good time. Sounds like you did pretty good. Snacking is ok on SB. I have just been counting calories along with SB and trying not ot snack between meals. I was shocked how many calories I was "snacking on" during the day.

Laurie, good luck on the interviews. Hope you get the one you want.

Toni, have a great day.

Nat, I love having a fridge stocked with good veggies and fruits. Yes I did avoid the wine and no one won the pot so they gave out 4 $200 and he won one of those. Better than nothing. Hope he shares with me. :D

Got to run get some regular work done now. Have a great evening.

I thought I ought to get on here and post my menus to keep me accountable. Breakfast was espresso with cream, and a smoothie made with strawberries, blueberries, 1.5 scoops of protein, 2 tablespoons of oil, and a cup of water with a squirt of agave. Lunch was lots of raw veggies with just a tad of bleu cheese dressing to dip them in (its amazing how far a little bit can go when you eat slow!), a heaping tablespoon of almond butter, one wedge of Laughing Cow lite on four triscuits, a couple of black olives. I am not sure what we will do for dinner. Tom had said something about going out, but seems to have changed his mind. :(

I just ordered from Vitaglo- we needed protein and vitamins. I feel like I ought to take a nap now...why do I get SO sleepy in the afternoon?

Later! :wave:

Jackie--I hear ya re bingeing if I've messed up during the day. I used to do that so much. Not "bingeing" like someone who had an eating disorder like bingeing and purging, but the kind where I figured, "Oh the heck with it, I've already screwed up this day, might as well go whole hog and worry about eating right tomorrow." So now I feel like I have some control over that, and just try to do my best to meet the parameters I've set for myself. I'm like you with combining SB with watching my caloric intake. I think that, for me, just SB alone, was too loose, and I was not really losing because there are plenty of "legal" foods that were sabotaging my being able to lose. Like those snacks of cheese, an extra dab of peanut butter here and there, real cream on whatever, etc. etc. I know you know what I'm talking about. And, re. the SB plan, I remember very specifically that the authors were quite strong on the point of only putting enough food on your plate to cover the flat bottom/middle portion, not having so much that any would touch the flanged edge. I always figured that was the authors' way of "counting" calories, and just avoiding the dreaded "counting calories" restriction. For me, my present program, combining SB with keeping a daily eating diary and trying to keep my food intake to a limit, not by plate size, but by calorie amount, seems to be slowly and steadily working.

Here's the way I fix my wonderful spaghetti sauce. My family LOVES it and it is 104 calories per 1/2 cup.
Dice one large onion, 1 large carrot, 1/2 green pepper, and, if wanted, 1 stalk of celery, including the green leafy part. Meanwhile, in large heavy bottomed pot, heat 2 Tbs. olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the diced veggies in the oil until starting to get soft, about 5 minutes. Add 3 large cloves garlic, chopped.
When veggies start to soften a bit, add 1 pound very good quality ground beef. I use Maverick beef that I get at Publix as it is about the lowest in fat I can find, and tastes good. It is also hormone free! Stir meat, breaking up the clumps and mixing in with the veggies. When the meat is all cooked, add 1 TBS worcesterchire sauce, 7 whole cloves (Yes! Cloves! those things you decorate a baked ham with. Trust me on this!), 1 bay leaf, 1 Tbs. basil leaves, 1/2 tsp. ground pepper, and 2 TBS. dried parsley or 1/4 C. fresh, chopped. Stir well with the meat/veggie mixture.
Then, add the following:
One 28 oz. can tomato puree, 1 6-oz. can tomato paste, 1 8-oz. can tomato sauce, 1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes, 1 6-oz. can mushroom pieces undrained. Mix well and bring the pot to a simmer. Simmer on low for 3 hours or so, stirring occasionally so that the veggies don't stick and burn. If they start sticking/burning on the bottom, don't scrape them off the bottom or you will ruin the sauce with a burnt taste. After the sauce has thickened to the consistency that you like, it is done. You can fish out the bay leaf and cloves if you want, but I never bother. They just turn up when I serve. I measure this out in 1 cup scoops into a plastic bag and freeze, and when I want a quick, easy meal, I just thaw out one of the bags and have a meal for two. If you want more sauce, of course, you can do this part differently. Enjoy!

Monet, it would be interesting to see just how many calories you were actually eating now, just for "research" sake. And it would be especially interesting, but something that probably couldn't be done, to compare that with how much you had been eating before you started on the Leptin program. Just for informations sake. I would not be at all surprised that leptin "sluggishness" might really have something to do with our metabolism rate, but as I think back on how I was eating before, even "legal eating", I know I was taking in way too many calories to make any difference in my weight. So, as your are our "guinea pig" on the Leptin program right now, I am just wondering about the REAL data here, and if the no snacking, etc. has had a bigger effect than one might think.

Not much happenin' here. The lady came and cleaned my koi pond and it looks great. I need to study french and to clean up the kitchen. I have 1500 steps to go to reach 10000. Other than that, zippo. Catch you later.

I didn't paint the fence. Trav wouldn't let me because he thought it would rain. OF course, it hasn't.

Here's my menu so far

B- Just Go Shake w/ fiber, 1/2 banana and a handful of grapes

S- I slice of Ezekiel Bread w/ Smart Balance

L- Tossed Salad
Chocolate Just Go shake w/ Banana only

S- 1 c Canteloupe
2 Berry chews

Dinner should be red snapper w/ sauteed kale and corn on the cob.

Monet- We do need to get together soon. I could do tommorow morning, or I'm open alot next week. You've got to see the dishcloths I jsut knitted. They're almost too pretty to use.

Jack- That makes good sense with the snacking. I'll try to make myself stick to fruit and veggies for snacks and see if it makes a difference.

I'm back from both interviews. Okay, first one...went well, they will be calling me back this evening to let me know. This is the one with collections(past due accounts, finance company). Is okay I guess. The second one is a wonderful opportunity. The other day I went and thought I was having an interview but a whole group of people(including myself) were called back to a room and given a timed test that was divided into 5 parts(very hard). Before the test the guy asked everyone to tell a little bit about themselves and so on(I may have said this already)...well, I sat there and listen to everyone and felt so inadequate. I had people around me who had accounting jobs and degrees etc...I was the last one called and I haven't worked in more than 5 years and am a SAHM, real impressive. But the ad did say learn bookkeeping without prior experience, so I took the test anyway, didn't really expect to hear back from anyone. And yesterday they called and told me to come in today for a one on one interview. So I figured it was standard procedure. While waiting there I asked the secretary if it was standard procedure to be called back and she said no, not at all. So when I get back there with the owner, after talking with him awhile he tells me that out of almost 50 people, I made it to the top 3. I couldn't believe it. I beat the accountants and others at the tests. Wow. I took a personality test when I got there and he gave me the printout of the results and I was amazed at how well it described me as a person. He said that is exactly what he is looking for. BUT then he told me that out of the 3 called back for interviews, I am still competing with another woman for the job(the third person was eliminated). SO it's between me and someone else. It is a Christian workplace and they even gather one day a week for prayer before work. He said that he has to pray over who to hire and will call me back tomorrow and let me know one way or the other. I hope and pray that it's me who gets the job. What a wonderful opportunity it would be for me to learn a trade like this(plus the pay is WAY better). This would be such a blessing for my family. But I'm so used to hearing NO or things never go my way....but on the other hand, even if I don't get the job I should feel a sense of accomplishment in getting this far without a degree. So please say a prayer for me! Alright, now that I've rambled on and on(can you tell I'm very nervous?)..here's my menu for the day:

BF- was a big peach and plain yogurt sweetened with splenda and cinnamon
Lunch- was from Bumper's ...grilled chicken salad(chicken, veggies, american cheese, real bacon, ranch dressing)
Snack- piece of fruit?
Supper- hamburgers and legal coleslaw, debating on whether to eat legal bread with it or not...

The "grilled" chicken from Bumpers tasted fried to me, so I wonder....it was breadless, but had that fried taste. Oh yea, I changed clothes when I came in awhile ago and decided to weigh out of curiousity and I weighed 167 which is 2 pounds less than this AM. Might not amount to a hill of beans come tomorrow morning, but it was still nice to see. Funny how your weight can flunctuate from hour to hour.

Talitha- I think snacking depends on personal preference. Some people do better sticking to 3 meals, others do better with snacks in between. I like snacks but I make sure they are light for calories sake. I think it actually helps keep my metabolism going. But your body can get adjusted to anything so it's good from time to time to do it differently.

GATOR: I have Diet Power and will get it up and current, and let you know what the calorie count is if you are interested. I have enough old data on there to compare it with, as I used it faithfully for several years. I do occasionally drop using it and then come back six months later, so my data is probably six months old, but fairly similar to how I was eating all along....

HEART: I will be praying you get the 'right' job...God knows which one it is! :)

TALITHA: Tomorrow is iffy, but if I plan ahead, next week will work out well. Tom is home this week and next for some of his vacation, and will probably still want to just hang around. Do you want to meet at DFM? I can't wait to see the dishcloths! I was so proud of myself camping..I forgot a dish cloth and potholder, and had my kitchen cotton with me so I just knitted one of each Monday night and Tuesday morning and we used them! So fun!

Hidee ho..its almost FRIDAY.. Yippe yea.
Ive had a pretty good week so far. Works been a little slow ( what a switch, huh) so the weeks been going really slow.
The good news is... I weighed yesterday and I am at a new low 208.5 !

Gator- thats a great idea ! I should make me a new ticker up. But let me warn you 11 doesnt sound like much but its taken me 3 months to lose 9 1/2 pounds. So Ive given myself a goal of Christmas to hit 199.5 which is only 9 away.

Heart- good luck on the job. I hope you get it.

Jack-k - great job on the no snacks!

Talitha- gravestones? Were they real?

Monet- did you tent camp or Rv? We havnt had a chance to go camping at all this year . Maybe, just maybe we can get at least one weekend in before winter comes.

Well off to exercise then some housework before bed.
Have a great eveing !

Good evening; Getting ready to go cook my pot roast in the pressure cooker. I don't think I've done as well at eating today as I have been so tomorrow I've got to really get back on track. I'm just having to much bread or starches. Need more protein. Its about 97 here and the humitiy is just awful. Off I go....

Just a test..to see if my ticker showed up :)

Boy is it hot outside. I just went out to check the grill and pick a few okra. I'm amazed at how fast the okra puts out once it really starts producing. Next year we are going to plant twice as much and put a bit more for winter. I've already put back a couple of bags. Considering I fried everything known to man yesterday at Mom's I didn't do too badly...LOL A couple of homemade onions rings, two fried pickle slices and a chicken nugget. Eating today has been light. One salad spread out over a couple of hours. I cut all the veggies into teeny tiny bites. I love the different texture of everything being so small. Even the olives and cheese were cut that way.

Heart...Praying that you get the best of the two jobs. Congratulations on doing so well on your interview.

Gator...I agree about calories. They matter. Both the amount and the types. If I'm eating mostly veggies I don't worry about it. The cloves are definetly something I wouldn't think of adding to my sauce. Do they really stand out or just add that something you can't put your finger on?

Poncho....You are doing such a great job at maintaining. Cheesecake ice cream sounds wounderful.

Monet...Welcome back. We sure did miss you. It sounds like you had a very relaxing time. I'm so glad for you.

Talitha...good job at the fair. I think a bite here and there helps you not feel deprived and keeps you from over indulging.

Jack-K...He'd better share with you! :) ((hugzz)) WTG on your exercise this week. Mine has been pitiful. It alwasy is if I go to mom's too much. Her treadmill is a pain to drag out and her streets are so busy compared to mine. Jessica and I walked slowly (she's pregnant) last night. I didn't want to kill her..LOL Last time she walked with me she had blisters on the balls of her feet. It was not pretty.

Toni..Just send that cleaning lady my way. :)

Cindy...I beat the next 11 come off faster than the last 9. You have been under a lot of stress and I really think that slows down our weight loss. And even if it doesn't come off faster you are doing an EXCELLENT job. ((hugzz))

Bob...if you are peaking in today you are loved and missed. Hang in there.

I hope I'm not missing anyone but I have three hungry youngins fixing to riot...LOL It's amazing the amount of food they can eat and not gain an ounce..it's wrong I tell ya...just wrong. :)

Love and hugs,
Crystle

Checking in... I am about ready to pop I am so stuffed! Tom took me out to dinner, and we went to an Indian restaurant an Indian man he works with has taken him to for lunch. The food was fabulous. We got their dinner which included a bit of everything so you can really try a lot of stuff. It came with soup, naan, lentil curry, lentil soup, yogurt, dessert and basmati rice as well as the entree. I got a vegetarian dish of Paneer and spinach. Paneer is a cheese, kind of like cottage cheese, that is cut into cubes and sauteed. It was really good, and I ate way too much! I bet the scale is up tomorrow! :yes: The dessert was very odd, I think it was carrots, and I don't know what else, and very sweet. It was tasty, but I did not eat it all. I did, on the other hand, eat just about everything else! I am thinking I need to go back there for lunch one day. They have a buffet and Tom says it has a wonderful variety, and its cheap.

I got a huge box delivered today from Knitter's Warehouse. I now have all the yarn I need to make all but two of my Christmas presents for extended family. I need to get busy! :)

:wave:

Crystle--The cloves just add something that you can't put your finger on. But what they add is gooood. It just is a good sauce. My mother fixed it. I have also added stuff like peas, or other leftover veggies near the end of the cooking time. I made a double batch today and froze 10 portions to use for quickie meals in the future, with 1/2 cup left over for my lunch tomorrow.

Cindy--Your ticker looks good. Now that you have the 100's in sight, maybe you could up your exercise or something so that you would lose that one pound a week. Then by Halloween you'd be there. Are you one of those hypothyroid gals like Monet and me? We lose slowly too. Although I've been losing at 1 pound per week lately, and just praying not to have the dreaded plateau any time soon.

Next week may be a plateau. We are celebrating our 42nd wedding anniversary on Wed, and my DH wants to go to a nice restaurant that night. Then we are going on Thursday to visit his aunt who lives out in the country. More food that I can't control. Then we will leave there and go directly to a very nice resort hotel out near Disney World. We are planning on spending the weekend there as an anniversary celebration. We have reservations at 2 nice restaurants, for Fri. night and Sat. night. So next week will be a challenge, and if I stay the same and don't gain, I will be happy. It is very hard when going out to restaurants!!!

Fillise--We miss you. Where are you? Are you OK?

BOB, you too!

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/3;44;126;0;1/c/166/t/120/s/173/k/53bf/weight.png

Dinner last night was AMAZING. I sauteed the Kale in BUtter and white wine with onions and garlic. Soooooo good! It was organic, too. Only $160 for a huge bunch at the Farmer's Market. I also made a corn,lima bean and tomato Sucotash out of my Organic Style magizine this month. VERY good. I accidently pulled the grouper out of the freezer, instead of the snapper. But it was great.

So, I've had my Go Figure Protein shake for breakfast, and I'm off to my mom's house to swim laps. It's about 30 minutes away. I know that Gas is expensive but I really want to exercise.

MONET- THere's nothing like knitting while you are camping! Next week is great. I'm pretty much open every day.

CINDY- Yes, a REAL gravestone. BUt the skeletons in the closet and the skull they had on their coffee table were plastic. Not my idea of deco. The budah shrine that they built in the middle of the house was real. We are turning it into a pantry. THe house was built in 1918, and the gravestone is from 1904. We don't know if it was original or if they stole it form somewhere...

HEART- You should be proud of yourself either way!! I was an employment manager in human resources before my kids. A degree is good, but doesn't hold a candle to someone who is teachable,responsible, dedicated and has integrity. I can't wait to hear the outcome!

Happy Friday everyone.

I am so glad it is here. Ended up going to a mexican rest. last night for drinks no food. I had 2 maragaritas but I will still under my calorie count so I feel better about them. Got home and did 30 minutes of lower body exercises. Got on the treadmill this morning, even though I wanted to sleep an extra 20 minutes.

Tomorrow night we have a party to go to with DH's work. We have to take a snack type dish. I need to find something legal. I hope we eat before we go so I will be better off.

Today is my 1 year anniversary from finishing treatments. It's hard to belive it has been a year. A year later I have hair, normal nails and am alive. I have many blessings to count.


Monet, How ingenius of you to knit up an dishrag while camping. Have fun with your goody box. That knitting sure helps to keep you from eating doesn't it?

Gator, I totally agree with your post. Calories in/calories out have to come into play. I lost before just doing SB, but for some reason (still think it has something to do with my thyroid) I'm having trouble. Damn cancer. I was doing fine until then. Last night DH wanted to go to a mexican rest. and have a drink. We had to meet DD and pick up something from her there. I was really dreading it b/c I love margaritas. We went, and of course I had 2. But when I figured them in my calorie count for the day, I was still under the 1200 mark and I felt much better about it. Before, that would have been the start of a weekend of wild eating. Now I am really thinking about what I am eating and it is helping. Thanks for the recipe. One winter day when I have nothing to do I will try it. On restuarants, If you stick to a meat, salad and veggies you should do ok. It's all the fancy stuff that gets us in trouble.

Talitha, fruit and veggies would be the best snack for your body. I know I perfer cheese, etc, but it is higher in calories and not that good for me.

Laurie, I think you are a shoe-in for the accounting job. You have such a cute personality, I am sure he loved you. Sending prayers your way that you get it. See how the scale fluctuates during just one day. We should remember this and not let it get to us when we see a bad number. Let us know about the job.

Cindy, :clap: on your new low. I bet your new goal will be easy to reach. It is slow here to and I just hate it.

Toni, you stay inside with all this heat you hear. Sometimes starches seem the only thing to eat. Hang in there.

Country, I sure couldn't visit your mama with all that fried foods. I would be in hog heaven and end up being a hog.

Bob, hope this was a good week at work. We miss you.

Got to run, hope I didn't miss anyone. The boss is calling me. Be back later.

Hey guys. Not alot of time to post. My stomach was a little upset this AM, think it's my nerves over these jobs. My luck, I won't get either one. Anyway, good news is that I weighed this morning and got good results...166! So I was holding onto some fluid. Figures since I ate can tuna and pork sausage the day before. I didn't expect to that # so soon though. My stomach and thighs are going "down" as well. Yesterday, I didn't have enough cals though. I need to watch it today. I'm thru with my workout today, didn't want to do a lengthy one, so I did a 30 minute one. It's the Walk and Jog from Leslie Sansone. It equals 2 1/2 miles in 30 minutes and boy is it a good one, I'm still red-faced. If you can't jog because of the impact then they have a low impact version on it that she says still uses the same cals because you are keeping the pace. 10 bucks at Walmart. Well, I need to go...I need to start getting dressed to run errands in town. I'll check back later. Don't know what my menu for the day is but it will be legal. For BF, I had an orange and plain yogurt with splenda and cinnamon. The only thing I've eaten off plan this week is the dbl cheeseburger and med fries on Tues. but I made a point to get back on track and was still in my calorie allotment for the day. It felt good to be able to indulge without it starting a binge cycle. Also, last night on the way home, DH called and begged me to stop at the store and get him and the kids some peanut M&M's(my weakness). It was tempting, but I got theirs and that is it. Taking it one day at a time...didn't I say I needed to go?

Good Friday Morning:

I was at 121# this morning, so we are going in the right direction. I have yet to find a turkey bacon that I like, so I found some Jimmy Dean turkey sausage patties at WalMart yesterday, and had one for BF, with my egg beaters; it was awesome! I am not a sausage person AT ALL, but this was really tasty. I have been doing really well with eating. I am allowing myself a small "sweet treat," so I don't feel deprived. It is usually a small bowl of the Only 8 frozen yogurt, which is next to nothing in calories (35 per 1/2 cup). I usually put some ground nuts on top of it too, and it really hits the spot. I bought a quart of the chocolate cake yogurt a few weeks ago, and it is still good. It's not as creamy as when you get it at the shop...it's a little more grainy, but still good.

We went to Britt's school yesterday and found out who her new teacher will be. Her teacher looked real familiar to me....turns out we went to high school together (20 yrs. ago). She is a year older than me, and she didn't know me. I only recognized her, but didn't remember her name either. So, it shouldn't be too akward for Britt to be in there. It would be strange if it was someone I hung out with back then. Also found out that the high school soccer coach was my "first date" in high school. He was student body pres. and was a senior when I was a freshman. I was only 15, but begged my parents to let me go out with him since he was the big man on campus. I wasn't allowed to date until I was 16. They let me...but I had to be home by 10 p.m. We live in such a huge metro area, but I still run into people I know all the time.

CAN I PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO BRAG!!!! I picked up Britt's SAT scores yesterday from her 1st grade class. They compared the kids' scores to the national averages. Britt did not score 1st grade equivalent on anything. The lowest she scored was in math, and that was 3rd grade equivalent. In some subjects she scored 6th & 8th grade equivalents, and in one category she scored AHS (above high school) equivalent. I am so very proud of her!!

Today, we will take Lane to her eye appt., and then go by Blockbuster to rent Winn Dixie; Britt has wanted to watch that for awhile. I think I may take the girls to Desert Swirl for a yogurt. This is Britt's last weekday off before school.

Jack: Glad your DH won some $. Good job avoiding that wine. Your posts always sound so familiar....I used to be a Controller for a commercial general contractor. I know all about those bidding deadlines. Exercise after 2 margaritas? That is truly an accomplishment ;) .

Gator: Do you think you could make that spag. sauce in a slow cooker? I have a Nesco, that I could cook everything in, and then lower the temp to slow cook all day...what do you think? I have always wanted a good pasta sauce recipe. I have found some good jarred ones at Trader Joes and Whole Foods, but would love a homemade one...Thanks for sharing. Your anniversary only rolls around once a year...go enjoy yourself!!! Congratulations on all those wonderful years together!

Talitha: Do you eat Kale often? The way you prepared it sounds yummy. I bought some a few weeks back, and then we went out of town, and it sat in my refrigerator for too long, so I threw it away. I have to get some more to try it.

Heart: CONGRATULATIONS on placing in the top 3; that is a huge accomplishment and you s/b proud. It sounds like an awesome place to work, and I will say a prayer for you. Congrats on the 166#. You are doing great staying OP; stay strong! I can't believe your DH would call and have you pick up candy for them....I'm sure they don't need it either ;) .

Cindy: Congrats on the new low!! Keep up the great work!

Country: It sounds like you did well with your eating at your Mom's house; it could've been a whole lot worse. I guess we should be happy our kids don't put on weight like we do. They are so much more active. Britt has been eating like a horse this summer, and has finally hit the 50# mark; it's about time...she is so tall and skinny!

Monet: That restaurant sounds yummy and interesting. It does seem like you are getting by with not much food...I'm sure your stomach has shrunk. I'll be curious to see how many calories you are taking in.

I gotta go get myself and the girls ready to go!

I'll try to check in later!

Take care!

Have a great OP weekend.
Nat

I can't believe its afternoon already! We slept late again, and just have been lazing around. If retirement is like this, I can't wait! :) Tom has been swimming and I have been knitting. I have a baby blanket I started for a baby that is now about a month old, and I want to get it done. Tom is going to drive over there with me next week to take the blanket and a dinner if I get the blanket done. He knows where the family lives, and I do not. I really hate driving anywhere new, where I have to figure out directions and such, so this is a good incentive for me. The pattern I am using is more complicated, and knits up really slow, so I have been doing a few rows, then working on something more 'fun' instead. This has been going on for five weeks now...its time to quit procrastinating, or I am going to have to make the blanket twice as big for the kid when he is going off to college!

Breakfast was one sausage patty and one egg and coffee with cream. I still felt full from dinner last night... Its time for some lunch. I am not sure I feel hungry even yet...

TALITHA: Pick a day...Tuesday is good for me. Does that work for you? Call me. I would call you, but I smeared your phone number on the white board, and now I can't read it too well. You know, you could come here and swim too. Am I closer?

PANCHO: That is so funny about the teachers and knowing them in high school! It can be good, AND bad to have a relationship with your kids teacher prior to them being in the class. We had that with our son's first grade teacher. She had one child at the time, and wanted more desperately. I was pregnant with a surprise, and she was SO jealous of me, she took it out on our son. It was not a fun year... My husband on the other hand, had one of his parents best friends for second grade. He knew he had to stay in line, or she would tell them he had been naughty. Because she knew him so well, she was able to motivate him and also told his parents he was one of the smartest kids in the school. It was a big surprise to them, but pivotal in his academic career... :) Anyway, I hope Britt has a great year in school this year!

JACK: Yes, knitting has helped me not to snack. :) Of course, it has not helped with the housework that needs doing, or the kitchen, etc. I think I have an addictive personality. :rolleyes:

HEART: Any news?

Where is TECHWIFE?

Ok, off to find some lunch. :wave:

Hmmm, using different browsers is so interesting. I was reading 3FC on IE, and the page did not have the "Quick Reply" on the bottom like my Safari Browser does on my iMac. Interesting.

Pancho, Yes, you could do it in your slow cooker. I would probably do it on high, but the only drawback is that when you cook it on the stove it cooks down and thickens up, because you leave the cover slightly open so that steam can escape and the sauce thicken. With a slo-cooker you really can't leave the top open at all. However, you could slow cook it to meld the flavors, and transfer it to another pot about 30-40 minutes before you wanted to eat, and then simmer on medium to reduce the sauce somewhat. Actually, the sauce I made yesterday I cooked for 2 hours and did not have to cook it any longer for it to get to the proper consistency.
Congratulations on your daughter doing so well on the test. I know you are happy about that, and we hope that she will turn her high abilities into some real fruitful achievements.

Techwife--Wheeee-eee-rrrr-ee ARE you?

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/3;44;126;0;1/c/166/t/120/s/173/k/53bf/weight.png

Oh gee I forgot to post here today. Am I losing my mind? Got on this scale this morning and it looked like I had gained. I was afraid adding back starches and fruit might do that. I've got to really watch it. Its hotter than blazes out again. So I'm staying tucked safely in the house. I made me a smoothie for breakfast.... 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup apple juice, 3/4 cup frozen fruit. Its really good, easy and filling. For lunch I had leftover chili, Dinner patti melt and salad. Hope everyone has a good week-end.

Heading home, or not home but to happy hour. I have decided I wil lhave 2 glasses of wine tonight. It will be in my calorie allowance.

Went out to lunch with a friend, got a chef salad with a raspberry vinegarette dressing. Had to guess at the calories, it didn't have much meat in it.

Dinner will probably be a piece of fried fish at the ballpark.

Laurie, happy you saw 166 today. WTG on passing up those M&M's. Let us know when you hear from the job. Who will keep the kids after school?

Nat, It's a small world isn't it. We can't go anywhere that DH doesn't run into someone he knows. That is awesome about Britt. I know you all are proud of her, as you should be.

Monet, I'd much rather do about anything else than clean the house. Don't blame you. Enjoy your weekend of vacation.

Gator, Toni, and everyone else, have a great weekend.

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I GOT THE JOB!!! I can't believe it. He called this morning after I got off the computer and asked me to come to work for him on the 30th. That will be the day I start my training. He said the training takes up to 5 months. I'm so excited, I'm still in shock that I could have beaten almost 50 other people to the position. It's given this housewife a boost of confidence. So that gives me next week to relax. I'm glad that it's the 30th because Boogie has an appt in Jackson(2 hours away) on the 29th. Good. My parents and friends are really happy for me, and so is hubby, but I think he would have been just as happy if I had gotten a job at Walmart. He just doesn't understand what this has meant to me. I was so composed when I was talking with David(owner and now my boss), but when I got off the phone I shouted very loud and even cried. I put my faith in God and let him decide what was best for me and for David's situation. Okay, I'm rambling again...are you guys sure the SOBE cookies are legal? I just ate 2 and they are great. They have sugar in them but not listed until the 4th ingredient and they have 4g sugars. Glad they are individually packed. Today I have been snacking, here's my menu...

BF- was orange and plain yogurt with splenda and cinnamon
Snack- milk and PB
Lunch- protein bar at Walmart
Snack- milk and 2 SOBE cookies

Supper- will be at Lapinata...will either have the chicken fajitas(minus the beans and tortillas, but all the toppings) or I'll have their big salad which has lots of cheese, veggies, and chicken, ranch dressing. I've already had 735 calories and will probably have that many with supper alone. Restaurant food is always high in calories and they use alot of oil in the fajitas, plus the guacomole(can't resist)and sour cream add alot. Alright, I need to go and freshen up..we're(the kids and I) are meeting friends at Lapinata at 5 pm, at least I'll eat early. Thanks for keeping me in your prayers.

Pancho- that yogurt sounds great, wish I could find some here. You must be so proud of Britt.

Oh yea, I forgot who asked, but the job is for a bookkeeper(training first).

Jack-k- I'll get the kids to ride a bus in the afternoon to my parents house. They probably won't have to watch them no more than an hour before I get there.

Just a quick, quick, quickie....I've been in Vermont all week with NO computer. And no scale :s: . I'm only here for tonight and then tomorrow, then on Sunday I'm off to Rochester for two family reunions and to go school shopping and to Seabreeze again...since we have season tickets...

I've been OFF plan...and being very bad. So, I won't go into it. After next week, it's down to business...NO FOOLING AROUND :mad:

I'll try and post tomorrow and tell you all about VT. It was sooo fun!!

Kris

PS...thanks for asking about me ;) ...any news about BOB? :( I only skimmed the posts...

Good afternoon:

Hmmmmmm.....confession time. I haven't been very good today. The day started off well...BF turkey sausage and an egg. Snack was a banana w/ almonds. The girls wanted to stop at Subway for lunch, so I got a six inch sub on a hot wheat bun (not legal). All the inside ingred. were legal. I just don't care for their low-carb wraps. I ate a few of the girls' chips. I then got home and ate 1/2 of a huge lemon poppyseed vegan organic cookie, and that was after stopping for the Only 8 frozen yogurt (I got a kid size of Snicker flavor w/ walnuts on top....that was legal). I also had a handful of Cheetos. Tonight, I am making a taco type casserole to eat on a bed of lettuce, so I'll get back on track.

Lane's vision has not improved at all, so we will need to patch her "good" eye for two hours each day to allow her weak eye to get better. She sees fine now, but that is because she is relying heavily on her good eye. Bummer!

Monet: How sad for your son and how immature of an adult to take out her sore feelings on a child, regardless of the circumstances. Shame on her! I am glad that I don't know this teacher of Britt's well. I just recognized her; I am good with faces. She doesn't remember me at all. Good luck getting that blankie done in time.

Gator: My Nesco has vent holes, but probably not enough to make the sauce turn out like it should. I think I would start it in the Nesco, and then slow cook it, and then take the lid off or vent it and turn the heat up for the last 45-60 minutes. When I try it, I'll let you know how it turns out. I love cloves.

Toni: Glad you are doing well with those smoothies....I always seem to gain when I add smoothies to my menu.

Jack: Have fun and be good at Happy Hour!

Heart: CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I am so happy for you. I can feel your energy from here! You don't plan to dessert us, do you? You will still check in from time to time, right?

Well, Lane needs some toileting assistance.

Take care,
Nat

Hi Everyone. Had a really good friday. After work I came home and cooked DH's dinner than went to the gym ( got 6 days of exercise in this week , 3 of those at the gym ! ) then over to my moms for dinner and then we looked through pictures. She has boxes and boxes of them and we are going to go through them all ( well at some point we will get through them lol) and sort and keep the important ones and trash the ones that arent.

Heart- Congrats on the job !! Thats fantastic !

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Just flying by... Dinner was bbq chicken in the pressure cooker, made with low carb sauce, fresh tomatoes out of the garden and TWO ears of fresh corn!! :yikes: I said to myself, I was going to have corn on the cob once this summer, and now I am over it! :) I LOVE it, as it brings back memories of when I was a kid and we would drive out into the country and get fresh corn from the farm stands. I doubt there is any country left around Chicago now, but the best sweet corn is DeKalb, developed in DeKalb, Illinois... :hungry:

I have been researching stitch patterns and I have found a ton of free stuff online tonight. We ran errands this afternoon, and I stopped and got a circular needle to use on this baby blanket. It will make it go MUCH faster...and I won't run the risk of the stitches coming off the needle in my tote bag anymore. :yes:

HEART: :dance: That is AWESOME! Congratulations on getting the job! I was NOT surprised, mind you... :)

Well, its late and about time for bed, and Tom has finished his movies, which means he is going to want to turn off the lights in here! What nerve! :lol:

Heart--We are all so proud for you and send big C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S!! :balloons: your way. Even though you didn't want to work at first, in hindsight, this may be a really wonderful thing for you. Right off the bat it has shown you how special you are, and that others can see that in you. I think it will also give more structure to your life, and perhaps will be just the thing to get you back on the path to reaching your goal of 140. And the extra money won't be bad either. So, you rock!

I decided, just for fun, to see how my weight was doing this week so far. And I didn't wait for 9:30 to hop on the scale! :) I was so surprised to see that I was down one and one half pounds. And I had upped the calories this week, so I was really happy about that loss. I hope I'll see the same thing on Monday.

Food yesterday:
B. 48 grams Shredded wheat 'n Bran with strawberries, blackberries and 1/2 peach, topped with 1/2 cup skimmed milk. Yum.
L. 2 oz. WW spaghetti with 1/2 cup homemade spaghetti sauce and 1 T. parmesan cheese (double yum) and a small salad. 1/2 cup peach conserve and 15 fresh bing cherries
D. 4 oz. tilapia cooked in parchment paper with aromatic vegetables, stir fried broccoli, 1 low carb. potato cook "pancake" style, with 1/2 T oil.
20 fresh cherries. That all was about 1220 calories.
I walked 19500 steps yesterday!! and worked out with the weights for 30 min.

Jackie--I knew that rotating the caloric intake would be good, and that often when the calorie level goes up, the weight loss is even better. But I was really surprised to see over a pound loss this week after only 5 days. And the benefit is that when I up the level I feel like I have "extra" calories to play with. Like, often for dinner I have 600 whole calories that I can have. I think I'll just keep that level up for next week, too, with all the eating out that we will be doing. I'll will definitely take your advice and try to stick to meat, veggies and salad. I have not been having any alcohol (wine) because I didn't want to spend any calories that way, but when we go out to dinner the two nights we will be out at the resort, I probably will "go off the wagon" and indulge. Oh well, this only comes around once a year, and I want to try to live normally without being @n@l about eating. I do think that I will take a couple of baggie packages of my shredded wheat so I won't be at the mercy of the junk that is often served at breakfast. And normally, restaurant oatmeal is cooked to death and has turned to mush or gruel by the time it is served. Congratulations to you for doing so well lately. I hope you see a result on the scale on MMM.

Monet, I know the corn was delish. I had an ear the other night. My DH and I no longer put butter or even salt and pepper on our fresh corn on the cob. I only will buy it if it is wonderfully sweet, and I cook it tender crisp--about 3 min. per ear in the microwave (with the silk removed but with the husks still on). It is so good that we found that the butter etc. actually detracts from the taste. But I really don't see any problem with having an ear occasionally when it is combined with healthy eating. And with SB, with all the whole foods and grains, that definitely is healthy eating!

I saw a really interesting show on Oprah yesterday. I hardly every watch Oprah. Did anyone else see the show. It was about people who were the only fat members of their family. One guest was a twin; her sister weighed 120 and she weighed 420. The other guest was a 20 year old daughter who had 3 siblings and 2 parents, all of whom were perfect weights. She felt rejected by her father because of her weight. The show was very interesting because of the dynamics going on behind the eating. The daughter was, subconsciously trying to "get back at" her father by continuing to eat fattening foods, even though she desperately wanted to lose weight. And, in fact, her mother would take her out after the father went to bed to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts to eat. (Sounds like the mother had issues with the father and wanted the daughter to "love" her more than she did the dad.) Anyway, what was the most interesting in both cases is part of what the expert said, and that was that both of the women had choices and truly had the free choice to eat properly if they really wanted to lose the weight. She also said that the women should first attempt to find out what was "eating them" so that they could then get beyond it and have a succesful experience at losing weight. Case in point re. the daughter: what was "eating" her was her anger at her father because he disapproved of how she ate, and her feeling of being unloved by him because of it. As I ponder about this, I think that what may have been "eating me" was the strong need to be in control, and the feeling that if I were to curtail what and how much I ate, the food would be in control. So I had this rebellious attitude that I would eat anything and everything I WANTED, which would definitely show who was in control. The truth is, of course, that I was totally out of control. Oh well, enough of my musings.

Techwife--we are glad to see you back and to know that you had not abandoned us. Hope your trip next week is GREAT.

Cindy--Aren't those old pictures just so much fun to look at! You can learn a lot about family history when you go through them. My DH has tons of old family pictures taken in this area of Florida, and he is thinking about giving them to the local historical museum. He just has to sort through them, which he has not taken the time to do.

Pancho--I'll be interested in seeing how the spaghetti sauce turns out in your Nesco. I bet it will do just fine. The ingredients give it all the taste, and the smooth tomato products give it that thick wonderful texture and vegetable sweetness, but the trick is getting it to the right thickness, which is an individual taste to everyone. I normally do a double batch because I like to have batches on hand to quickie meals. They are SO easy and tasty.

Hi Toni--Hope you have a great weekend.

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/3;44;126;0;1/c/166/t/120/s/173/k/53bf/weight.png

Jackie--Here's a good website for kitchen scales. I have the Salter in the middle of the bottom column. Except the one here is even better because it is sensitive to 1/8 oz. or to 2 gms.
http://www.kitchen-universe.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=70

We got up late again...and had espresso. Then we went for a walk. When we got back, I got in the pool to cool off and run on the slope. I need to do that every morning, as it is so pleasant! I realized as we were walking that I never ate any breakfast. I did not feel hungry until about ten minutes ago either. I am postponing 'breakfast' in favor of eating lunch, and just skipping breakfast, so my schedule will not be so messed up the rest of the day. I hate eating dinner at 8 or 9, and having to stay up until 12 or 1 to have my full three to four hours before bed.

Tom is going to plant collards in the garden. He got the area all cleared out and raked nicely, and today, he went out to check it and prepare to plant. Unfortunately, the amaranth came back with a vengeance! There is probably 500 or more little plants just filling the area he had cleared! He got the rake and raked them all up and under, and will repeat that tomorrow. Then, maybe they will be dead enough for him to plant the collards and pac choi. I was shocked to see the red leaf amaranth selling for almost $2 a pound at the farmer's market! Its a weed for heaven's sake!

I hope everyone is doing well. I am going to go prepare some lunch, and tank up! :)

:wave:

Gosh is it almost noon. I've had such a slow relaxing morning I didn't realize it. Its to hot outside today to stick my head out so I'm staying in. Just doing a load of laundry. Breakfast- turkey bacon and scrambled eggs with rye toast and 2 cups of coffee. L- is unknown D-shrimp scampi on brown rice.

Heartmom- Congradulations on the Job!!!!

Gatorgal- Wow you really keep track of how much you eat. No wonder you keep it off.

Monet- Oh that corn sounds so good. I saw some beautiful ears at the market while shopping but passed on it and now wish I had some for tonight.

Cindy- great on your days of exerciseing....

Pancho- Opps we all have days like that with our eating..

tech- Howdy to you!!!

HELLO EVERY BUDDY!!!!

Sorry I haven't been around, but things are really getting bad at work! http://bestsmileys.com/sad/1.gif The HEAD CONSULTANT is now moving upstairs where we are, and we've found out that WE ARE HER LAST TASK!!! http://bestsmileys.com/office1/12.gif
Yesterday, our Boss gave us TICK SHEETS and we have to log EVERYTHING that we do! http://bestsmileys.com/office1/25.gif I've just about had it...I'm one who NEVER worrys about my job, but this woman is really upsetting the apple cart! She's going to use one of the Cubbies right in the middle of all of us http://bestsmileys.com/office1/11.gif

BOB is just not a happy camperhttp://bestsmileys.com/camping/2.gif

Sorry that I haven't read all the posts, but I did see LAURIE'S post about her JOB....CONGRATS SWEETIE!!!!!

I"ll try to get on here next week to let y'all know how everything is going!http://bestsmileys.com/anxious/3.gif

BOB

BOB!!! Good to see you...I am sorry things are so bad at work. Hang in there....


Lunch/breakfast was pretty good! I had a smoothie with strawberries and 1.5 scoops of whey protein made with water, and a bit of nf ricotta and 2 T. macadamia nut oil, and about half a cup of chana dal and stewed tomatoes and okra mixed in it. :hungry: It sure was good! Of course, I WAS getting pretty hungry! :)

Hey guys! Man, I'm tired today. I managed to get my workout in this morning, but boy I didn't feel like it. I just realized that I have worked out 8 straight days. I can't remember the last time I did that. Made a point not to weight train consecutively. I'm taking tomorrow off! I weighed this AM and I'm down another pound to 165, woohoo! Although I'm stuffed at the moment, I'm about 140 cals shy of 1200. I think. For BF, I had plain yogurt sweetened with splenda and cinnamon, and a peach. My so-called "lunch" was right before I headed out the door...it was a tbsp of PB, a cup of 1% milk, and 2 SOBE oatmeal cookies. I just got thru with supper. I made a "pizza" using ww flat bread, nsa sauce, veggies, turkey lunchmeat(out of pepperoni), and 2% cheese. I also had salad made with veggies, some 2% cheese, bacon bits, and lite 3 cheese Ranch dressing. The flat bread is found in Walmart's bakery and has 15 g fiber, so only 8g starchy carb. I went to town today to find an outfit for work. It took more than 3 hours to find just ONE outfit! I couldn't tell you how many clothes I tried on and how many stores I went to. I had only 50 bucks, so I needed to make it stretch. I can wear a 10 in one designer, a 12 in another, and even as high as a 14 in another..ridiculous. Why aren't they made the same?!! If I found something to fit in my waist then it look horrible on my thighs. If one size was too small, then I would get the next size and it would be too big and so on... finally I found an outfit at Cato's. The top was $20(size medium) and the black skirt(size large) was $16. I found a pair of earrings for $4 which matched perfectly. Man, I hope I have better luck when I have to buy another one. Anyway...tomorrow we are having company over for supper. So tomorrow I will be legal, but my calories will be alot higher and so will the fat. I'm cooking barbecued chicken(carb well sauce), baked beans(legal, but high in everything, made with pinto beans, legal sauce, sf syrup, splenda, onion, bell pepper, sausage, and my spices), probably green salad with cheese, etc..and green beans. I'll try to eat lightly for bf(yogurt and fruit) and lunch. I hope it doesn't mess with my weight come Monday morning. I need to put some clothes on to wash...

Thanks for all the well wishes! BOB it was good to hear from you, sorry your boss sucks.

Pancho- you didn't do too bad, at least you got right back on track.

Laurie: I'm so happy for you that you got the job you wanted!! That is wonderful...and a great opportunity for you, not only professionally, but you'll probably make tons of new friends and a whole new world will open for you. I'll bet all your yo-yoing with your weight will be fast history, as well!! ;) Good luck to you and have fun with it!!

BOB: What a horrendous position you're in with your job. Bleh! I wouldn't want to be in your shoes AT ALL. Hugs to you...hope it's over soon!!

Well, we're off to Roch-cha-cha (Rochester) until Thursday. TWO family reunions today...the first is my mom's where the families of my great grandparents get together. Wait...I think that's two greats. :dizzy: Yes, because my great grandfather is their child and he was one of about 8 kids and all their families get together as well...my grandfather was the second youngest of 14 children!! :eek: I asked my grampa how his mother handled it and he said that first of all, she was my his father's third wife and that she didn't raise him, his sisters did while his mother ran the farm with his father. What a crazy life!! Anyhow...my great grandfather's branch of the tree is the largest by far with all those kids...but the good news, bad news is that all these little old German ladies get together and there'll be more German potato salad and chicken pies and...desserts...My gramma and grampa are no longer with us and this is the first reunion where at least one of them won't be at. :( So, it'll be different, but the food will be good, that's for sure!!

Then the second reunion is my dad's and that's just his brothers and sisters and their families, so there won't be, literally, thousands of relatives there. But the food will be good :D ... :^: And at least I'll know everyone there...just my immediate cousins.

So, I'll be back on Thursday and then it's time to stop the madness...I've been waiting for these reunions to be over so I can get serious...I'm not even going to weigh myself for a week after I'm back on plan...don't even want to know...

Okay...gotta load the van...see you guys!!

Kris

Just a fly by! I've eaten the right things this week end but just to much of it. Wonder what the scale will show. Well I'll just have to take it and then do better next week. Guess I'll go get busy.... Have a good day all.

Bob- I'm thinking of you. I hope this all gets over soon.

Quick check-in. I'm still holding at 165. My menu has changed for the day. DH made me a 3 egg ham and cheese omelette with 2 slices bacon for bf(380 cal). Lunch was a little lighter. I had a big salad made with veggies, a little 2% cheese, and a spoon of bacon bits topped with lite 3 cheese Ranch dressing(around 200 cal). So I have around 600 calories for supper. Looks like we won't be having company over this evening after all. We may go out to eat where I promise to stay legal. I went to the store earlier to get dh a pack of cigarettes and I was so tempted by the peanut M&M's that I even had a bag in my hand BUT I put it back! Figured it simply wasn't worth it. So I'm making progress. Alright, I need to run!

DID I BREAK A MIRROR AND NO ONE TOLD ME????


If work isn't enough to deal with, Kate went down in the bathroom yesterday.
The good thing is I was behind her so I just sat her down. She didn't break anything or hit her head, but she was in short stay for the last 24hrs. We just got home! She has a severe UTI that is moving toward her kidneys. Our Doc put her on Cipro and another really strong antibiotic. She didn't qualify for our rehab unit at the hospital or any other....BUT...she has an order for OP PT and the good thing is they will pick her up and bring her home!

I'm pooped, so I'm off to recline!


BOB

Food for today:
B. 48 gms. shredded wheat 'n bran with 1/2 peach and 1/2 Cup skimmed milk.
L. 1 cup canned Wolfgang Puck tomato basil soup with 1 egg salad sandwich made with 1 slice bread, 1 egg, 1/2 T lo cal mayo, 1 tsp lo cal ital. salad dressing and some yellow mustard. 1/2 cup peach conserve.
Snack: 1 slice SGWW bread topped with 1 T natural P-nut butter.
Dinner: 4 oz. rare roasted rump roast, 1/2 pkg frozen chopped spinach, jazzed up with garlic and nutmeg.
If I get 300 more steps I will reach 10000.

BOB--Hang in there, gal. I was telling my DH about what is going on at your hospital and he says he really feels for you and knows it is difficult because he sees so many friends go through that kind of stress. We are hoping that she sees that it takes 8 of you all to do all the work.

We just got in from Athens, where we went to church and stayed all afternoon visiting with old friends. Tom drove and I knitted. I am doing to 29 rows left to finish the baby blanket...its getting closer and I am working harder to see it happen. I can't wait for it to be finished now! I told myself I can't start on the next project until its done!

Meals today were a bit off. Breakfast was a smoothie with strawberries, made with water and whey protein. Lunch was some odd concoction at church..it was ww noodles, with a peanut sauce on it, with lots of veggies (which is what made it weird...there were Chinese pea pods, red peppers, and cilantro in it), and fresh cooked green beans. I did have a small bowl of dessert...a small brownie with ice cream. Dinner was on the way home at a sandwich shop in Athens. I got a roast beef and provolone sandwich on their wheat bread. I am not sure if it was whole wheat, but it was definitely home made and good.

I am off to knit! I am hoping MMM is a good one! :wave: