Mandy, who loved to cook and had a boyfriend/husband who was studying to be a preacher?

Yes, that's me! :)

3 years married, he's done with grad school and will be ordained this summer.

Kukkie I am right here with you. :hug: Though I do plan and just don't stick with it, smh. Like you have said ... we can do this and we will do this because we can. I know May isn't going to show any victories not even by .2 but June will be a better month I am promising myself :) and Mandy still likes to cook :) Mandy you can post those recipes here again also ;)

Mandy, good to see you :) LOL yes your other name was hard to type k00 something right? Glad to have you back. You know how we do, weigh when you want, but do check in, it sure has helped me to have you all here in previous years and now. :hug:

I can say I am proud of myself. I have been trying to do the 5:2 diet for some time now and never did a full low day. Today I have done it. I am gonna toot my horn and after church I may have my planned CarbMasters yogurt and water. I will not ruin this day.

Hoping everyone has great weigh-ins tomorrow.

Hi Rennie! :) :hug:

You want a recipe? How about a yummy low-cal fish recipe? This is one that's become a favorite of mine, after playing with it for a while and figuring out amounts... and can be modified pretty easily to fit the number of people you are feeding.

Start with frozen tilapia filets, thaw them out, and pat them dry.

Line a baking sheet with foil and cooking spray or parchment paper and lay the filets out.

Heat your oven to 350.

Top each filet with (in this order):
-1tbsp sour cream (and spread it out)
-1tbsp panko bread crumbs
-1/2 tbsp parmesan cheese
- sprinkle with black pepper and garlic powder

Then stick them in the oven for 20 minutes!

I had 2 filets last night (7.6oz of fish) and it was below 400 calories and *tons* of protein! Tastes a lot like Parmesan crusted fish you can get at restaurants. YUM. :drool:

edit to add: What is the 5:2 diet plan? I've seen lots of people talk about it and know it's some kind of intermittent fasting, but haven't gotten too far into it. Good luck! :)

Hi Mandy!!!!!! I had to be sure :lol: Happy to hear that your husband is done grad school, that's exciting!

Rennie, I hear you. June will be a better month for us both!

Mandy, that sounds really good :drool: I will definitely give it a shot, thank you :)

I'm still learning myself. You eat 5 days regular/high calories and then 2 days are at 500 calories. Today was my first OP day since I started. I keep falling off the wagon. I have gained almost 10lbs this month (depending on the day).

Kukkie it has to be :crossed: ... I don't want to disappear because I've gotten discouraged.

Mandy - that recipe sounds delicious! I love anything with sour cream lol

Rennie - noooo, don't disappear lol. So let me ask you, when you say it's hard to "stay on plan", what makes staying on plan so unattractive? I ask this because in the past, my idea of "on plan" was bland food with no flavor. I would run away from that too! But now, I have come to the understanding that eating healthy and nutritious food can be prepared in ways that make it absolutely delicious and you can still lose weight and not feel a bit of deprivation. I would never be successful on this journey if my on plan food was not as good as the off plan stuff lol.

Today I'm down 0.50 lbs to 175.75! Yippee! Moving right along ;) Hitting this next mini goal is huge for me and I'm getting close!

Morning y'all.

I'm down 1.1 to 194.5. I'll take it. Yesterday wasn't the best day, but it was better. Today will be even better. It has to be.

:hug: Olivia I'm not gonna disappear, but I had to put it out there just in case, since I have fallen off the wagon really hard before. My meals are great. I prepare them all. I just have a major major issue with carbs. I'm starting to really pay attention to what I read and eating more protein will keep me full longer and prayerfully not want any bad carbs. I also learned reading the OA site that sugar should be the 5th or lower ingredient on food labels. I have been reading food labels since 1997 but never paid attention to that. Now I know ... it's the little things to remember (or that are a wake up/V8 moment :D) also I didn't know anything about OA until yesterday. A friend on another thread recommended I check it out, so I googled it and printed off some info. I'm following their low carb eating meal plan today.

Olivia :woohoo: on your weigh-ins :high: You'll be joining me in the 160's soon, Way to go, keep up the good work :)

Kukkie :yay: on the 1.1 down, good job my friend :high: Yes we are speaking it ... TODAY WILL BE BETTER :dust:

Mandy, how are the kitties?

I did my fast yesterday on the 5:2 diet, first one I've done correctly. I am proud to say I am down 3lbs of bloat to 164.8. I am so happy with myself. I have all of my meals planned and cooked for today, I will heat and eat :) Hoping for another nice weigh in tomorrow.

Olivia - (Pretty name! One of my friends just had a baby and named her Olivia Renee) Let me know what you think if you try it! It's really quick to prepare, but the sour cream isn't really what you taste in the final product, it's mostly there to hold the bread crumbs and parm to the fish!

Rennie - The kitties are doing well. Brownie (the one in my pic) who just had surgery a couple weeks ago doesn't act like it at all... crazy playful critters. Love them to pieces. Worse than a new mom with all the pictures lol.

Hubby is out and about doing man type things like getting the oil changed and getting a hair cut, sooooooo that means I get to exercise in the apartment without him watching and joking on me! I do step aerobics, mostly, and tend to sing and dance while I do it... he thinks it's a riot. Much easier when I'm not telling him to shut up 800 times in 30 minutes :P

Mandy glad to hear Brownie has fully recovered, and furry baby's are still our baby's :) I'm so glad that my husband would fall asleep (his nap time) when I would workout with the Wii or a DVD. It use to make me so uncomfortable when he was awake. I don't want to be watched. You'll probably burn more calories also.

Kukkie I just reread your post you have a loss but you're not smiling my friend, is everything ok?

Morning!

I'm up again to 195.3. I checked twice. Sigh. TOM is here, I think I forgot to mention that.

Rennie just tired this week. We've had a couple of crisis situations at work, so having to deal with that has thrown me off what I actually needed to get done this week, so I've been working all day at work and then at night for a few hours after Peanut goes to sleep so that I can get caught up and back on track. Haven't been focused on what I'm putting in my mouth. Hubby (bless him) talked me out of ordering a pizza last night because I just didn't want to deal with dinner.

:hug: Kukkie, hope you get to rest this weekend. Make sure you nap when Peanut naps, I don't care what you'r doing if he falls asleep go lay down :hug: Sorry about the up. YAY for hubby. My husband doesn't like pizza but won't object if I were to get it. He doesn't like conflict so I would have been eating pizza. The kids are the ones that will say, "You aren't supposed to eat that!" or "That's not diet food!" :D so YAY for your husband, good call. :)

I was a little nervous yesterday (last night) my SIL showed up with spinach artichoke dip from Applebee's and I ate a few forks of it. I chalked it up to half without chips. The calories are 765 and the sodium is just ridiculous. But I did well throughout the day with food, water and green tea and I am down 1.6 to 163.2. Losing more of this bloat. TOM is trying to show up so I may have the bloat from that adding in also.

So far....down 8.2 this month.....:-)

:cheer: LGW :cheer: Keep up the good work :)