I'm behind again. Y'all gotta stop typing so I can catch up ;-)

Annie-you have more snow than I do. Neener neener, but I'm sorry they make you use vacation days for it. I guess you could be glad that you have a *real* job where you get a paycheck AND vaction days. I don't get vacation days at all, and I only get paid when I have guests or sell something on ebay, so this time of year is the vacation without the pay. And I still have to do all the work. Help me remember to take my weights when I go walking. I need more core work and I can't imagine working out, so I'm hoping that carrying groceries in my pack and using 2 lb. weights in each hand will help.

Petra-if you ate a bunch, then 2 lbs gained isn't as bad as it could be. And maybe when the new boss gets there you'll have less stress and lose faster and more time to be active instead of working quite so much. Just don't give up. I know you can lose even if it's not as fastas you'd like.

Fruitlady-it sure sounds like youve really thought a lot about your lifestyle and yoru food. That's really good. And brave! And brave to know when you've been too hard on yourself and look for ways to change, too. I wonder if you could find some kind of volunteer stuff to do to get out of the house a little bit. I used to volunteer at the food bank sorting out donations, and I also volunteered at the animal shelter for a couple of off seasons, just playing with the sad abused and neglected dogs and taking them out to the park sometimes, sometimes just staying at the shelter and petting them and working with them. Just a thought. Sometimes when I feel like my life is too bland, I like to see what I can do to help someone else and I feel a lot better.

Penguin-now I know why your DH wears his socks with the knitting needles still in them...SNOW! It is just amazing the weather these last couple of weeks...in TN it doesn't snow...ever...until now.

Ashley-swimming sounds nice. I wish I could afford the rec center here. It's ridiculous for a public place. I used to swim all the time when I was a kid. And thought about it for exercising until I saw the price of the pool :-( Hope you are doing well overall.

Sum-Jackson in a couple of weeks. This is a great time of year usually. Should be snow and decent temps for skiing/snowboarding/shopping. I'm not sure what it's actually like right now this year. I'll have to watch the weather. Here, it's been a lot colder and maybe windier and more snow that has stayed on the ground since any other year that I've lived here. 9 years.

Everyone else-I am sure I'll catch up eventually.

We are having greek meatballs tonight. I got a bunch of boneless/skinless chicken breasts on sale at walmart a week or so ago, so I thawed out a big package and ground some of it to use instead of turkey meat. $1.78/lb for the chicken, and I think the good ground turkey is now close to $6/lb. I had extra ground up, so portioned it into 4 oz. pkgs for later, and hten I had some that was still partially frozen, so it's in the fridge to finish thawing and then will become mustard glazed chicken on Saturday to feed to our Wii bowling friends who are coming over for dinner and games. Anyhow, the meatballs have zucchini in them so extra veg for me. And I have just a couple of servings of whole wheat noodles in a pkg, so we'll have those tonight with the meatballs, and some light alfredo sauce from a jar. Frozen veg for Robert, piles of spinach, avocado, shredded cabbage for me. We are still working on the steeple, but it should be finished by the weekend. The darn trim is taking 3 coats of paint, with drying time between each. UGH!

Havwe a greeat evening!

Barb

Good to see the place so busy!

D-veggies? How about cheating. Dried peas? Or Diced carrots?

On another D-subject... DVR... i never watch live tv on commercial channels, i really cant stand the ads at all. Everything i watch is pre recorded.

I'm away working at a uranium mine all this week, so there'll be plenty of recorded programs for me to watch when i get home (if i ever get around to watching them!).

Back to the whole restauraunt food every meal routine this week for me, i can't avoid it, but at least i've been for an early morning run each day. Fly home tomorrow though so looking forward to the weekend.

We're having 6 friends round for dinner party on Sat night (and they've all booked baby-sitters, so the pressure's on to make their expense worthwhile!!). Still haven't decided on a menu yet. Still haven't decided whether we'll sit inside or outside. Should be fun though as ages since we've done a proper dinner party.

Good morning everyone! Woke up to the sound of rain absolutely pishing down, so I just snuggled under the flannel sheets with my husband and didn't bother going to the gym. Do I regret it? No way!

Ashley, I wake up angry sometimes too, maybe from a dream. I know it's unfair, but then I take it out on my husband, and he doesn't know where it comes from. I have a lot of anger left over from my first marriage as well, my ex was a selfish ******* who destroyed our entire family with his actions. But who says you have to forgive? Why should you forgive? Put the responsibility for your pain and anger on the person who caused it. I don't want to forgive, being pissed off is not stopping me from living a good life, if anything, it makes me want to enjoy my life now.

Penguin, that FitTV sounds perfect. I wish they would have something like that here. Maybe I should just download all the old episodes of Biggest Loser from the American, English and Israeli shows, keep them running, keep me motivated!

fruitlady, I know what it's like to go all day thinking about the next meal. I eat when I'm bored, happy, sad, I don't need hunger to eat. The only time I was too upset to eat was when life was so horrible when the events that resulted in my divorce took place. I lost about 10 pounds that week. And I don't ever want to be in that place again. If you're always thinking about food, like me, then maybe think about good food. Change up your routine, make new things, make things that challenge you, and make them healthy! I've started adding a lot more whole grains and veggies into my life, and I eat that when it's around. Keep the food habit going, just change the food.

Annie, listen to Ashley, DVR is one of the best things we ever did. We're not slaves to the cable timetables, and I just zip through all the commercials. Right now I've been taping ER reruns, I missed a few seasons, and have about 20 shows to catch up on...

angel, Greek meatballs sound good! I'm thinking maybe Greek chicken breasts for Shabbat dinner on Friday night now, you got me started...

ange... uranium mine? What do you do for a living? Do you glow in the dark?
:p

It's going to be a tough Shabbat for me. My girls are going to be by their father, and we have my husband's kids even though it's the ex's turn to have them. His kids make me a little crazy, so I self-medicate with food. Even if I cook just healthy stuff I'll eat a lot of that. Maybe I should just cook things I refuse to eat? Nah, then I'll just have more wine...

Just read an interesting article on Healthy Eating: Food Synergy.

Something worth trying, methinks...

Good morning. Quick post today. I made it to the gym yesterday and had a good workout. Ate my leftover cod with tartar sauce and it was delish. It's hard to type with a cat licking your fingers (kitteh kisses). I have to give her one hand and type with the other. Hunt and peck.

No change to weight, but TOM started, so I hope to see a loss in a few days.

Annie--If the office is closed, you should get paid. Sorry you have to put up with that.

Well, of to the gym. Have a good day.

Hi ladies! Another slow day here at the office, but at least I am on the clock and getting paid! I don't like being this slow, hopefully I'll find some patients to scan.

So cold here!! Had trouble keeping warm during the night. It is supposed to warm up today, but it is still only 6 degrees above zero right now.:(

Did 3 miles, 45 min. exercise this morning.

Barb-Keep your weights in your backpack so you won't forget them!!:D
I'd like to hear more about your "light alfredo sauce in a jar"!! Would like to try that sometime if it is available here.

Ange-Uranium mine?? Hope you took your lead underwear with you...sorry, radiation humor.:p Dinner party sounds fun!! What are you making?

Mirj-Enjoy your weekend.....and the rain...and any subsequent snuggling that might lead to.;) I may have to call about that DVR today...

Kitteh-How dare you try to type while that poor little cat is trying to lick your fingers!! I'd be ashamed...:D Would love to see a pic of your baby sometime. Enjoy the gym!

Hope you all have a great day/night!!

Wow, many days I miss posts then think they are new the next day only to learn they are from the day before, we are busy hear and that is great.

Annie – good to hear you made it to work, I hope the weather gets better from here. How is the whole meds thing going?

Mirg – it is awesome you are doing well after your first marriage, I just don’t like being mad is all, when I use to get TOM I could almost track it like clockwork so I would be careful what I did on the days I was susceptible to being mad, makes me feel out of control.

Kitttie, I love the Journaling idea, I have done lots in the past but now do it in spurts, thanks for the reminder!

Fruit Lady, thank you, and it is great to take inventory of ourselves and go from there I believe we can learn a lot from it, hope your day goes well and you can find some peace.

Ang – I’ll go for the diced carrots and I would love to sit outside and eat them.

Petra – hang in there and it is great you have a supportive husband.

Boy it sure is a big job to learn to eat right and then to do it!!!
Stayed on plan yesterday even though I thought about food all afternoon and evening – yay, got an emotional letter from my DIL and she is currently separated from my son, this is the big emotional thing in my life right now cause they have a beautiful 1 ½ year old son. They always had such an emotional up and down relationship and have split in the past so this is no surprise. On the plus side I did not want to binge after reading it. I love her like my daughter and feel so bad she is hurting and in the grand scheme of things not binging over this seems so trivial, but even the immediate temptation to binge was not even there. I really believe I am making progress. Life can hurt so much I am so tired of the hurt but such is life. On plan today and had an amazing breakfast of 2 pieces of whole grain egg white French toast with half a tsp of real maple syrup for 200 calories. Boy it was good!

Hi Ashley-So glad you are able to deal with the family issues without using food as comfort. You are doing great!! Hopefully my meds are evening things out for me. I wil weigh tomorrow and evaluate.

The knee pain I was having the other day was better yesterday/this morning, even during the tap-outs/lunges on the DVD....BUT, I am now having a different pain behind my left kneecap (chondromalacia, I've had it before in both knees). I think it might be time for a doctor visit. I may wait...not sure.

We got about 6" of snow, which is not the most I every remember getting but very close! Hubby had to work overtime last night which worked in his favor to some extent because if he had left work on time he would have been stuck in traffic for two hours. {one co-worker left two hours ahead of Hubby and got home 45min later than he did}. In other words it was a big mess! The sun is shining and the snow seems to be melting off the streets and sidewalks. Bible study {and my much needed haircut} were cancelled today, so today has been a lazy day for me!

I did do 40min of LB exercises today, and plan on an additional 30min on the TM tonight.

Ashley, good job on not binging Your French toast sounds very good.

Annie, Yay that you got to work and aren't using your vacation days but sorry its so slow.:dizzy: Mixed blessing there.

tough afternoon, by mind is telling me to eat and just enjoy it to get my emotions off the family issues. I dont want to and i wanted to weigh in tomorrow so that is keeping me going cause if I binge then I will not weigh in and I have not done it for a while. An hour to go left at work, I CAN work thru this i did yesterday and I will feel amazing tomorrow for staying on plan, yay.

PP-Good job on the exercise!!:carrot:

Ashley-Best of luck tomorrow at weigh in!!:hug:

Boy, am I in a horrible grumpy, pouty mood. Think it's just PMS...TOM is supposed to be tomorrow. Not doing anything tonight. May even have a hot chocolate laced w/ amaretto!! (No, I don't drink very often. Usually nothing more than Bud Light...and that just every few weeks.) I had a healthy supper of tuna w/ celery and vinegar (weird, I know, but very good and light), baked sweet potato w/ ICBINB spray and salt and pepper, and some yellow cherry tomatoes sprinkled w/ salt. Oh, I had 6 Ritz crackers, too. I think I had too much salt...my tongue is burning like when things are too salty. Not sure if I want to weigh tomorrow w/ this PMS raging, but will do it anyway.

Also grumpy because I haven't seen fiance in almost 3 weeks and I doubt I will see him for Valentine's Day.:( I went ahead and mailed his Valentine card just in case I don't get to see him. Sigh....things will be better, I know. It's just so easy to wallow in my silly misery sometimes.

Oh....and I get to go to the dentist tomorrow, too. Bleh. I hate the dentist. Am going to have to have a bridge prep done (two teeth crowned and prepped to attach the bridge. Read: grinding....shiver.....:mad:). Wonder if it is going to hurt afterward?? I'm happy to be getting the work done, but not happy about the process. Will also get my partial plate tomorrow to replace a few other teeth I have lost over the years. Worried I won't be able to chew well for a few days. Also not happy to be spending twice what I could buy some new furniture for.

Okay....done b*tchin' for the evening. Sorry to unload.

Annie-it's Ragu. Light parmesan alfredo. 70 cal for 1/4 cup. Not anything spectacular, but quick in a pinch and edible. And prolly a lot better calorie bargain than a cream sauce I'd make from scratch with butter and heavy cream and grated cheese and...YIKES!
Ashley-good job on coping with your dear DIL and son troubles. Just make sure she knows you are in her corner and the baby's too. I am in the same boat with eating right lately. Just can't seem to get it quite righ way too many days, but at least we haven't given up, so there's still hope for us both. Hugs!

Everyone else-I will catch up to you next time or the time after or at least sometime soon.

We had Subway for lunch. A footlong. I had part at lunch and part later, but that's still right at the limit if I skip the pasta and sauce for dinner. I'll have the meatballs only, maybe with mustard instead of sauce, and I have some uncooked whole wheat spaghetti I can fix for Robert. And a ton of coffee or iced tea maybe. I should make some good earth tea. tastews sweet and spicy, but has no sugar. I've been drinking more soda than usual, diet so not a calorie issue but I'm wondering if it's giving me cravings for sweet junk food. Hmmm. Think I will try a few days without and see what hppens. Should go make a whole pitcher of iced tea.

Have a great night.
Barb

mirj, angelskeep, & Ashley- Thank you, I wish I could find a job to get out of the house. I tried for so long, then I gave up.

It's been so cold for the past 3 nights. Single digits & tonight 6 degrees. No snow in the forecast, calling for temps in the 40's & 50's starting Friday. I'm going for my walks for sure. So sick of the exercise bike, I ride it every morning just to get some exercise in for the day. Not my favorite thing to do, but it works when the weather is brutal. Rode today for 30min vigorously, went 7.5mi. I also twist my body and move my arms while riding for extra burn. At least it's an all over workout for 30min. straight. Ate a huge breakfast, there were hardly any calories left to cover my lunch or dinner. So i ended up going over by 90 cal. I gotta stop that! Now that I know why I overeat, I'm not getting cravings or the feeling that I have to eat when I'm not hungry. Let's see how long it will last! Long enough to lose some weight, I hope.

Have a great night all!

Did 30min of intervals on the TM! Now I'm tired!

Friday! Cook Day! Just popping in the say hi! My youngest (19) was in a great mood last night so we went out for sushi and then I bought her tons of luxury skin care products and now she feels good about herself. I bought myself a mask that the lady at the makeup counter said I could leave on, not wash off, and now my skin feels great!

Shabbat's coming up, gotta start baking the challah and I'm going to make Greek chicken breasts for tonight (which one of you gave me that idea?).

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, see you on the other side!

Hi everyone! Saw 151 on the scale this morning, so I'll take it. Still think I have PMS. I REALLY want to see the 140s, I am getting tired of being stuck here. Honestly thought I would be to goal WAY before now.

Dentist later today (ugh) and then going to take it easy the rest of the evening....rent a movie with the boys?? I have a coupon for a free rental.

Mirj-Enjoy your day/evening. Shopping with your daughter sounds fun.:)

Frutilady-You are such an inspiration with your exercise!!:carrot:

PP-Good job getting those endorphins flowing!!

I'm thinking of making some chocolate covered strawberries this weekend as a Valentine's Day treat for my boys. If I can find some at the store, I think we may do it tomorrow night.

Have a good day everyone.

ETA: 5 miles, 65 min. exercise this morning.

Hi, everyone.

Down half a pound, yay! My jeans feel looser in the hips, double yay! Exercised well yesterday, and again this morning. Went out to lunch yesterday and ate more than I should have, of food I shouldn't be eating. Well, I ate reasonably the rest of the day.

Ashley--Glad to hear the cravings are down.

Lunchtime. Got to eat ('cause I'm hungry, not for the wrong reasons :) ).

afternoon, busy at work today not time to catch up, ate without restraint at dinner last night...... so i did not wiegh in :P, on the bright side if there is one it was just one meal, I did not want my day to be controlled by the number, ate to many hershy kisses at work this a.m. but still went out and had a major workout at lunch which is good cause if I eat too much in the morning sometimes I skip my workout which makes things even worse.

Annie- Thanks! Your great with your exercising too, enjoy the movie.

I'm gonna be by myself all night, hubby's at work, daughters at a friends. Gets lonely after a while, I like being alone for the first couple of hours. At least the sun is out today, but it's still cold, so I rode the bike for 30min & went 7.5mi. after breakfast. Always ride after breakfast, your metabolism raises 15% more if you exercise after eating a meal. It really works for me. When your over 40, you need that extra boost.
This is the third day of eating clean, lost 3.5lbs. Wow, processed food( no matter what kind)stops my weight loss or makes me gain. Probably all those chemicals it has in it. As soon as I stop eating it, I lose weight. Seems i can eat more calories if the food isn't processed, it does nothing to me. That means I can eat fruit all day & not gain! Calories will total 1290 today, only 20 over my limit. I'm running out of fruit, can't go to the farmer's market tomorrow, no money. I'm depressed about that, I look forward to it & i don't know what I'll be eating for the next week if I don't have fruit. Well, have to start cleaning now.

Have a great weekend!

Good morning. I hope you are enjoying your Saturday.

Ate well yesterday, even though some chips were calling my name. They healthy chips, relatively speaking, but I will be glad to finish the package (slowly, please), so I don't hear them calling my name anymore. Down another half a pound.

I need to get myself out the door and to the gym this morning before I get started on the rest of my day. Been paying bills this a.m. Blaagh.

Fruitlady--I hear you about the processed foods. Something in them, added sugar, maybe, or the extra salt, or various chemicals--don't know, but it's harder to lose with processed foods. I wish we had a bit more fruit variety in winter--local apples and imported oranges and bananas are my mainstay right now. Plus dried fruit, which is okay though not as good as fresh. I love it when the seasonal fruit comes in--strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries (picked wild, yum), cherries, and later we'll get pears, apples, apricots, peaches, nectarines and other delights grown in WA, some in Western WA, more in Eastern WA. Oh, man, I'm making myself sooo hungry.

Better go exercise--that will dull the hunger for a while. Have a good day.

Its warming up here. Its 45* but will get into the 60s and 70s this week! I'm cleaning house today. Okay right now I'm procrastinating. Hubby says I need to get outside and enjoy the sun!

Yesterday, I did 30min of intervals on the TM as well as 20min of a dance DVD.

It was a nice sunny day here, but still cold with gusts of wind about 40mph. Went to the farmer's market anyway, i was so thankful I could go. Bought peaches, nectarines, pears, oranges, grapes, cherries & much more. I eat all this during the week, so I need plenty. I did buy a piece of carrot cake, it had 1 inch thick cream cheese icing on it, so delicious. Before I left I ate lots of light chocolate ice cream. I'm dreading to step on the scale tomorrow. My calories are up to 2850, i'm gonna be sorry. For the moment it was bliss, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Gonna move on and be back on track for the rest of the week(I hope). Rode the bike longer cause of the extra calories, 50 min. total & went 10.5 mi.

We did Valentines Day today. I made Spaghetti with Meatballs, green beans, and toasted cheese bread from my bread. Then I made brownie muffins from a mix and frosted two for dessert. I'll freeze the rest for later.

Instead of buying me a dozon roses Hubby bought me a rosebush! He used to do this when we first moved to this house and I gardened more. Lately, some have died off so its a welcome gift. Its a Granada. http://www.rose-roses.com/rosepages/...a/Granada.html

Hi gang! I had a wonderful Saturday although I didn't do anything constructive. Ran around doing some things with my younger son. Went to get him a new binder for school. Then had some lunch, KFC. I had one of their boneless filets with a small serving of cole slaw and a biscuit. I didn't calculate calories, but I could have done worse....I didn't have the potatoes and gravy, at least. Then we went and spent lots of time browsing around Barnes and Noble. We are both book nuts and had a great time deciding what to buy. Younger son agonized on whether to get an Anne Rice collection or an H.G. Wells collection. He chose the H.G. Wells collection and he said he was glad he got it. He is fourteen, but some of the Anne Rice stories (Vampire Chronicles, etc.) do have some adult/sexual themes that he might not understand, so I'm glad he went with the Wells classics. Then we bought him some reeds for his clarinet and came home. I had to take some pain medication for my dental pain and just lolled around for a couple of hours. Then I made us some stromboli slices (I used turkey pepperoni and had a salad with mine). We then ran over to our local Blockbuster to check out their Going-Out-Of-Business sale and I bought The Curious Case of Benjamin Button....one of my all time fav movies. It was a nice day and warm and sunny outside. I really enjoyed it.

Kitteh-HOORAY for loose jeans!! Here is a link I think you might enjoy. I saw a story about this cat on Animal Planet this evening. Cooper is a yellow tabby cat who wears a small camera on his collar. It is set to take a picture at intervals and his owners post his pics online and they also have put out a book of his photos. So interesting to see the world from this cute little boy's viewpoint.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael...7602652072917/

He is under Cooper: Photographer Cat on Facebook.

Fruitlady-Boy all of that fruit sounds so good! I may have to get some special things at the store tomorrow. Been wanting some kiwi, so may get some of that.

PP-How thoughtful of DH to get you a rose bush! It is lovely. I love the blooms of roses, but I just hate working around those thorns. I have a big rose bush on the south side of my house. In the back there are a couple of small roses, too. I have thought about pulling them out; that's how much I hate those thorns!

I better get to bed. Took some more pain medication and need to sleep. I'm going to get up tomorrow and try to be a bit more productive. Need to pay bills, pick up the living room and go to the grocery store. I'm going to make an afternoon meal and fit it in between older son's split shift at Jersey Mike's tomorrow. I have a pork roast I am going to do, maybe with Old Bay seasoning. I like the flavor of that and I hope it will go well with the pork. Also going to make up a pot of fresh green beans and new potatoes and maybe some bread. I also bought some strawberries this evening and going to dip them in chocolate for the boys for a V-Day treat. I will have a few, but not too many.

Love to all!!

Annie- I love kiwi, get it every week 4 for $1.00. I eat one everyday with my lunch.

Kinda a cloudy day here in Pa., the sun peeks out once in a while at least. Of course I gained 2.5 lbs. from yesterday, but I'm back on track today. I really want chocolate & peanut butter, I'm fighting the urge. If I behave today my calories will be 1265. Rode the bike for 30min. & went 7.5 mi. again. Tomorrow may be warm enough to do a power walk outside, it's still cold at 11:30am, that's when I exercise everyday, so I don't know. I'd love to do something special for Valentine's with my husband. He has to work, we haven't done anything special in 25yrs., what makes me hope we will now. I do want to make chocolate covered strawberries tomorrow for the first time. I thought I could dip hubby's & daughter's in a melted Hershey's chocolate bar & mine in melted unsweetened 100% cacoa baking bar. Less calories, no sugar, low fat is the way to go for me.

Have a great weekend everyone!

wahooo!!! finally starting to see results!
 

I put on my first non "pull on" clothing this weekend!!! That first month is rough with the lack of actually seeing results!

The combination of coming here and reading your inspiring posts and logging my food and exercise at "my calorie counter" on everyday health has made me stick to a managed plan!

Thanks guys!!!

annie - that cat cam link - too cool
 

Thanks for sharing that - what a cutie and interesting seeing the world from that perspective.

We had a little excitment last night. I heard series of loud noises last night about 230am, and made Hubby check the house. April, our second house alarm didn't even wake up, LOL, but a little while later police cars had blocked the street off a few houses down. Very strange. I'm sure we'll get details later.:confused:

Its warm, 65*, and sunny today. After church we met my parents for lunch to celebrate Dad's Bday, which is actually Wed. Hubby is having a routine colonoscopy this Tues, He cancelled the previous one due to snow if this sounds familar, LOL.

Annie, what a great idea! thanks for the cat cam link.

Just a quick note and a shout out to MIRJ!!

On a cooking forum I belong to someone posted this:

"I was at a Bakery last week and had just the Best Challah Bread. I would love to be able to make it, but I need a recipe to the flavors and the texture in my memory. I have tried many different recipes ~ and none have done it for me."

Maybe you can help me help them??

Good morning everyone! I've had a slow and sluggish February, but woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning and actually got into the gym. Might have something to do with the finale of The Biggest Loser which was on TV last night. The three finalists were all women and the winner was my favorite, and she lost 156 pounds and looked gorgeous, and more importantly, healthy!

Annie, what food forum are you on? I'm a host on Food.com (which used to be Recipezaar). I've got a ton of challah recipes, what kind of challah is your friend looking for? Here's a link to my blog post where I talk about my favorite challah recipe, the one I make every week:

Barge Pole

My recipes usually start out as a story but end up with the actual recipe and in this one there's even a video how to do a 6-braided challah. I hope it helps!

My weight has been up for the last week or so and I haven't even bothered getting on the scale. Tonight we're going out for Valentine's Day to this gourmet vegetarian restaurant -- MC2. They have a special chef tasting menu, I'm hoping to get a good blog post out of it, with lots of pictures.

Penguin, what happened, did you ever find out? BTW, big points for hubby on the rosebush present. Flowers fade and die, that bush is going to last a long time!

Silly Cat -- congratulations! Doesn't that feel good?

fruitlady -- I like your idea for Valentine's Day! Maybe you could add a drop or two of Splenda to your chocolate just to sweeten things up a tiny bit.

Annie -- I started reading Anne Rice when I was around your son's age, maybe a little older. I think the sexual content might be a bit too much for that age, but wow, I'm impressed with his choices! HG Wells is also an amazing choice. My stepson is 12 and all he's interested in is comic books, and I don't see that changing for a loooooong time. He's not even interested in Harry Potter (unless they end up doing that in comic book format translated into Hebrew :( ).

Have a glorious day, everyone! Happy V-Day!

Good morning and welcome to Monday. Happy Valentine's Day :val1:

I was so-so this weekend on the eating--Saturday I ate all my chips. :mad: I guess that takes care of getting them out of the house. Not buying more. Nope, not gonna do it. For a while, at least. I was good yesterday, but the damage was done--up half a pound. :(

Well, onward and up--er, downward. This is a new week. Off to exercise this morning, and I've got my food collected for work, and some chicken I cooked yesterday will be my dinner tonight--maybe a salad with cold chicken on top.

Annie--I bought one of those pet cams a couple months ago. My boykitteh has taken some photos for me. When it starts getting light before I leave for work, or stays light after I get home, I will be using the pet cam more. It doesn't have a flash, so the light needs to be good. I just wish the camera were smaller. I tried taking my own photos of my fingerin-lickin' girlkitteh this weekend, but she was her usual squirmy-wormy self and wouldn't sit still. I deleted a lot of 'kitteh departing the frame' and 'back of furry head' type pictures. I also forgot to turn the flash off, so the few I got of her face on (before she started turning away when I pointed the camera at her) show her with her eyes half closed. So, no pics.

Fruitlady--I have done the chocolate covered strawberry thing with sugar free Hershey's. Works just fine. The only thing I did different was that I drizzled the SF chocolate over the berries instead of dipping them, 'cause too much of the sugar free stuff can have unintended consequences for me.

PPenguin--I hope everything is okay. Keep us posted.

Sillycat--Way to go!

Okay, I'm off to the gym.

FL – it is awesome your farmers market has cherries and peaches this time of year, growing up I lived in orchard country where they grew peaches, pears, apples, cherries, apricots, plums I got so spoiled and nothing seems the same since then when you get it right off the tree.

PP – 60’s and 70’s that is like spring, lovin it.

Annie- hope your mouth is feeling better and you get to see your fiancé soon!

I know I have missed some people but will try and catch up this week. I saw people are making chocolate covered strawberries what agreat idea!

Son’s bday party on Sat ate cake and icecream and other things I should not have, had a donut and cappichino for breakfast, now have to detox AGAIN. Which is fine I still did better last week and am moving forward so have to be positive about that or I will just give in again.
Oh and there are cupcakes and chocolate at the office this morning, ugh….

Hi everyone! Happy Heart Day!!:chockiss:

Mirj-Thanks so much for the link! I belong to discusscooking.com and have learned so much there. Most of the members are definitely not worried about cooking on the lighter side, but there is alot of good experience and food there. I'm not sure the actual type of challah the poster was looking for, but hopefully your link will help. I enjoyed reading it! I posted the link and told her to let us know if she tries it and how it turns out. I will let you know if we ever hear back. She was a first-time poster and sometimes people do that and never come back.....we'll see. Hope the veg restaurant was good!

I just ate a cupcake....:(....a gal at work had posted pics on her FB last night of the cupcakes she made and I jokingly posted something about wanting one. Well, she brought me one....I couldn't say no, and I ate it!

Kitteh-I can never get good pics of my little doggy-girl, either. Can't wait to see the pics from your cat-cam in the future!!

:wave:Hi Ashley!!

We may go out to supper tonight (me and the boys). Either our fav mexican place or a new grill that opened up near us. Neither should be too bad with the Valentine crowd. Not really romantic rendevouz places. Not sure if fiance has anything planned, I'm sure he would have let me know if he had. We have never been huge celebrators of these types of things, but I sometimes secretly wish he would send me a small bouquet of flowers or a teddy bear or something. I'm such a girl:p....I don't need something like that to know he loves me, but every now and then it would be nice.

Have a great day everyone!!

P.S. I noticed some daffodils and crocus peeking up in my flower bed this weekend!!:flow1:

Annie -- I noticed on my blog stats that I've been getting a few hits off your discusscooking.com, thanks! I hope I can help this woman out. However, as I posted once in my blog, nothing tastes as good as a memory...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I will make dinner at home tonight so I know what I am eating and know I will like it! I will make personal meatloafs in heart shaped muffin cups, scalloped sweet potatoes, red hot applesauce (for the boys), strawberry milk (for the boys), and a nice salad. Should be good, I hope I can get everyone to sit down at the same time tonight.
So this is E veggie week. Eggplant or Edemame anyone?
Mirj, I have something funny to tell you. Yesterday, I was looking at my saved cookbooks at Food.com (formerly Recipeezaar) and I was looking for a salad dressing to make. There was a creamy italian recipe that I had saved a while back and was looking to see if I had the ingredients, looked over and guess who was the chef? Mirj! How strange is that? Didn't end up making it because I didn't have sour cream on hand, but it sounded good! I will definately give you 5 stars if/when I do try it! :D
Annie, I wonder if my spring bulbs are starting to pop out, it has been in the 40s here, so they may be starting. That is such a welcome sign that spring is just around the corner!
I am so behind on personals. Hope everyone has a great V-day and a wonderful week!

Here is a link to the thread on Discuss Cooking regarding the challah question. Someone talks about how "entertaining" your blog is. Thought you'd like to see it.:)

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums...tml#post969423

Jo-Love the sound of your valentine dinner!! I hope your family enjoys it!!

wow - you guys are famous!
 

Tell me Annie - what is discusscooking.com? another forum site for recipes / cooking advice?

kitteh - ha ha ha - squirmy wormy kittens... well i can't tell you how many bad / out of focus cat hind end pictures i've deleted - thank goodness for digital cameras!

Had a sort of bad weekend eating wise - guess i got too excited about being able to actually zip up my fat jeans... oh well.. doing better today will do a full hour of circuit training..

Sillycat-Discuss Cooking is just what it sounds like....a forum to discuss cooking.:D There are all kinds there from who I think might actually be chefs to home cooks like myself. It is fun to read and discuss and share there. I recently took a lovely lemon cake recipe from there and lightened it up a bit and was very happy with the result. There really isn't a huge light cooking area there, but I hope to contribute to that area. I believe you can go check it out without actually joining.

Cool - i think i will - always looking for tips
 

also - anyone here do "the firm" exercise dvds? i just got the "wave" series - kicks my tail..

wondering if anyone else here does those..

That would be a great idea about tips for cooking, I know I can always use some.

The weekend ended up as an eating disaster, I had about 7000 cal. total for Saturday & Sunday ( most of it peanut butter)combined. I'm gaining weight big time, i need to stop. Today was fine, wasn't even hungry. Probably cause I ate enough calories for about 5 days. So far I'm at 1280 today, still have to go out for V-Day though. I'll get the salad bar & just get veggies. I made the strawberries today, didn't even make any for myself, just not into it today. At least I got to take a walk for 30min. & I'm riding the bike for 15min. before we leave to go to dinner. Have a great day everyone!