Hi everyone,
I got a new scale that I hope will be more accurate than my old one. It weighs in .2 increments. My weigh in day is Thursday, so I'm not going to post my weight until then, but I noticed the new scale weighed 1 lb. higher than my old one! I used them both side by side. Oh well, I'll just add the extra lb. to my gain (if any) for the new month.
We're still attending holiday gatherings - had the last one this weekend and am glad the temptations are over. We also took down our tree and decorations today, so that kept me active for a couple of hours. Up and down the basement stairs many times to put things away. Bobbi, I'll have to check out that thread you mentioned that had MN gals.
Congrats to the big losers in 2008. I'm hoping I can reach my goal this year and that everyone else has a great year for weight loss. I'm 61 and agree with Bobbi, we all act like we are in our 40s.
Karen31, with a view like yours of Pike's Peak I'm surprised you haven't sold that home. Such a beautiful area.

Lily

Hi everyone---- well the guy who was supposed to be here the weekend after the New Year has never shown up yet!! We went to dinner on New Year's Eve and we have been home ever since so I know we haven't missed him. It is so frustrating! I checked on the site that keeps tracks of visits and you would think that out of about 35 visits to the ad in the last 4 days someone would at least make an offer. Oh well, I know I must have patience.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Will check back later.

THE KIDS HAVE ANOTHER SNOW DAY TOMORROW!!!
boy are they happy.....

Good Morning!
Yaaaaaay, way to go kids, no school. ( Fluffy, I really should check out your bio and see if you have another name to go by unless you like to be called fluffy.):rofl: That brings back wonderful memories of bundling up and going sledding on snow days way back when.
Lily...I would love to buy a scale that measures in increments but my old one isn't that old. How do you know your old scale isn't correct? I guess in the long run it doesn't matter as long as you can fit back into your old clothes or make a new low weight.

Karen3...I just did the same thing this morning only I said I feel like chicken tonight, how about you. He has a whole package of frozen chicken wings left over from the holidays that he's going to eat. He accidently purchased them without reading the label, they have MSG in them and I get deathly sick from that, like a two day and two night migraine headache!:stress: I'm going to thaw out a chicken breast and make my own version of sauce that's calorie friendly so I don't feel cheated. Anyone have a good recipe?
Bunnbabe...That reminds me, I have to make a batch of oatmeal granola today for DH. Sometimes I sneak cut up prunes in it and DH doesn't know the difference. :sssh: Do you eat oatmeal daily because it fills you up or helps lower cholesterol, both, neither? I'm kind of nosey about what everyone eats for breakfast. Do you all mix it up or eat the same thing most morning. I personally eat the same thing, I don't want to have to get up and think about food, preparation, cleaning up the kitchen mess. I make up a week's worth of packets in snack bags with a serving of Fiber One + 1 Tbls. Flax seed. It's a no-brainer to grab a bag, toss some fruit and 1/2 skim milk on it with little mess or thinking. The pears are really good right now and Wal*Mart is selling them for $1.00 per pound, they are delicious on cereal.
Sunshine...I relied on my crock pot for a couple of meals a week when I was working but after awhile meals start tasting the same. You just have to be creative plus you can click into many recipes sites that use the crockpot. I didn't have a computer when I worked but I've been retired for a decade or so. I retired early at 48? because my feet gave out on me. (Heel spurs and Plantar Fasciitis)
Isabella...Here is the smack across your head that you asked for:club:
I copied this off the Spark site today, it might make a quick lunch.

White Bean Tapenade

Serves: 12

Great on whole-wheat crackers or even toast.

INGREDIENTS
2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1 (15-oz.) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 fresh sage leaves

DIRECTIONS
1. Wrap garlic cloves, drizzled with 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, in aluminum foil and place in a 350 degree F. oven until garlic is soft, about 30 minutes. Cool and squeeze garlic from clove, discarding skin.
2. Combine garlic paste, beans, lemon juice, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons olive oil in food processor or blender. Process until smooth.
3. Thinly slice or mince sage leaves; fold into tapanade.
4. Taste to adjust seasonings, add salt or pepper as needed.



NUTRITION INFO
Calories: 50
Fat: 2.6 g
Carbohydrates: 5.1 g
Protein: 2 g

Being lazy this morning....spending too much time on the computer when I have loads of other things to do.....it's still snowing, the kids are still in be (no school) and the garage ceiling is leaking like a sieve.
It's time to get up and moving.
Have a great day everyone!:)
Eileen

Thanks for the smack, Bobbi. It really took me by surprise. :D I'm really back on track the last few days so I'm hoping to re-shed those pounds and get cracking on the last few to go.

Lily, when I bought my new scales last spring they weighed me 8 pounds heavier. Be happy about only one pound.

Karen31, hope your house sells soon. Certainly things should be better as spring comes closer.

Fluffy, I taught for over 30 years and I can tell you I LOVED snow days, ha, ha.

About breakfasts. I tend to eat the same thing for a few days and then go on to something else. For instance there'll be oatmeal, skim milk, 1 tsp brown sugar and a clementine orange for a few days. Then I might have toast, laughing cow cheese, egg beaters and a veggie bacon slice with orange juice for a few more days. I always go back to oatmeal though. Sunday I had yogurt with a little granola and today I had 2 slices weight watchers multigrain bread toasted with 1/2 tablespoon peanut butter and slices of banana and 1/2 cup frozen blueberries with 1/2 cup skim milk. I might have that again tomorrow because that was very good.

I just discovered WW bread. I knew it existed but I had never eaten it until last week. The slices are so skinny and small, ha, ha but it's a psychological thing about having 2 slices for a sandwich. That multigrain bread was only 110 calories for 2 slices and it tasted good. I might consider keeping a loaf in the freezer for myself to use. It's so expensive though at $3 a loaf. I got mine half price because it was almost out of date. I keep it in the freezer and use it for toast.

There's so much food out there and I haven't tasted anywhere near of half of what I'd like to...sigh...

Bobbi,

Did your feet issues improve when you lost the weight? I have been struggling with plantar fasciitis and am hoping weight loss will be the cure. My doctor is talking surgery since nothing else has worked. I'm not ready to go there.

Karen...My feet continually got worst no matter what weight I was at. DH and I used to walk with our dog and I got to the point that I had to quit walking. I'd shove a high stool up to my kitchen counter while preparing food and roll my feet on a frozen can at night. When they get inflamed, ice works wonders. I use stainless steel arch supports in my shoes, they have helped more than anything. I think they're made by Featherlight. They send you a form for impressions of your feet, you send it back to them. The supports are made to fit your feet and do not warp. I love them! Good Luck!

Good Morning!
I found this recipe today, will try it after I pick up some broccoli. It says not to use fat free mayo but that's the only kind I buy. I don't know why I can't use it, maybe it breaks down? I'm also going to use turkey bacon bits instead of the real thing.
Have a good one :belly:

The kids are finally headed back to school this morning. It's now supposed to start raining....it's snowing now. I'm worried about the roof and the basement (flooding)keeping my fingers crossed. So many other folks in much worse shape with roofs falling in etc, I'm not going to complain.
I did a lot of cleaning laundry snow shoveling etc yesterday. This snow makes it easy to get your exercise I'll tell you.
Isabella and Karen, that foot pain is the worst. I had it for months and it finally stopped. I would have surgery at the very very last resort for sure!
Bobbi and Isabella your stats are inspiring. I hope to be able to post some loss at the end of the month. I'm going to try and not weigh every day/week as I have let myself go off program no matter what the scale says...."Oh this isn't working I might as well eat".... "Oh well I'm losing so a little of this won't hurt". I need to get the mind set of "Long term and life long" WOE.
I think I'm basically a carb addict. I've tried WW for 5 years with no success. I think their WOE is really healthy but I'm just weird. For instance, if I eat a whole bag of FF popcorn I'm still hungry....so I'm doing low carb this time. I'm going to post my weights at 1 month intervals to reinforce the "long term" of this new plan.
Hope everybody's day goes well!:D
Eileen

Eileen and Bobbi, I know that pain too. I have plantar fasciitis and spurs and thought I'd never walk again. But the inflammation died down after a few years of discomfort. I found weight loss has really helped me. Every now and then I have a flare up but mostly it's under control. I didn't know icing the area would help-must try that next time I have trouble in the foot area. I had a steroid shot in the heel which did not help me but other people I know have had that and it's helped.

Bobbi, that salad looks delicious. I'd like it with full fat and real sugar ingredients, ha, ha but I can't imagine why you couldn't use fat free dressing. I make a similar salad but it does not have the apple. That sounds like it would be an interesting ingredient.

Still on plan today. Don't know if I'll get in all my exercise today because of the clutter of packing away Christmas. Made banana bread last night so had a slice for breakfast. I actually had half of it late last night to taste the bread (new recipe using honey and whole wheat flour) and had the other half for breakfast.

We have all the Christmas boxes spread out over the living room floor so the tree's coming down today. It's what we call "Old Christmas Day" in Newfoundland. When we were little girls, my sister and I always hung up a small stocking on the night of January 5th and "Santa" always filled them but not like our real Christmas stockings. In this one we only got fruit and a few candy. Our real stocking was one of mom's nylon stockings which stretched close to 5 feet tall when filled. Our little "Old Christmas Day" stocking was just one of dad's socks. :)

Eileen, sometimes it takes awhile to figure out what works best for you. I love calorie counting. I can eat anything in moderation. Obviously, I forgot moderation over Christmas!:o :D

I contacted 3FC, they took off the December Accountability and replaced it with the new January one. Thanks 3FC!
They also told me the following:

Nova Scotia was battered with the storm. Everything was closed and lots of people lost power for several days. And a few days later they got another storm. We were supposed to get snow on Saturday and Sunday but didn't get a flake. Guess it all went to Nova Scotia.

Thanks for getting January Acc. stickied. It's so much easier to find that way.

Evening all....Having a slow beautiful sunset. The weather is so different than the rest of the country. Hoping for some rain tomorrow. It was beastly hot at bridge today and had to peel my shirt off me when I got home. And stupid gas is going up was up 15 cents this week.....grrrrrrrrrrrr

Still OP and finishing up day 5. No tempations and no sugar pangs. No leg or toe cramps. No problems. So why am I waiting for the other shoe to drop? Too easy seems to be my problem....guess I want to suffer.

My goodness this site attracts Karens. I was a kid in High School before I met another Karen. Am named for my grandmother but she died long before I was born.

Isabella...I am gonna get a loaf of ww mutigrain bread. I need something next week for change of pace. thanks

All you chicks with bum footies....you poor babies....The 1st thing you learn in nursing school is take care of your feet. Every time you could pop them up for a minute, decent shoes, and dry feet. Guess nurses are like the army and taking care of your feet/legs kept you in the battle. Boy my imagination kinda got overblown for a second...sorry.

Gotta go get a phone number for DH....hugs, Karen3

Thanks for the encouragment on my foot issue all. I'm going to keep plugging away with my stretching etc and hope for the best as I lose the weight. Those metal inserts sound interesting Bobbi and maybe I'll give them a try.
I've been kind of bummed over the whole issue. I used to love to walk for exercise and we just bought a cabin by Callaway Gardens in GA that has 22 miles of walking paths. I've been reading through the posts on this site though, reading about others who've just switched to bikes, swimming etc since they can't walk for exercise anymore and I've decided to adopt their positive attitude!

Hoping those of you in stormy weather get some relief soon!