I accidentally came across a free copy of 17 Day Diet. I was reading through the book this morning and it's not what I thought. I guess it's similar to calorie cycling or carb cycling. The first 17 days you eat a strict diet of lean protein and vegetables mostly. The next 17 days, you add some other things, more varieties of meat protein, beans, more variety of fruits and veggies, but instead of doing it every day, you alternate it with the more strict plan. I haven't read it all yet, and there is another cycle to it. It's supposed to keep your metabolism from slowing down. I thought it was going to be a more fad diet. I don't know if it's something I would want to do, but it's an interesting read.

GeoJackie you have to be a 3FC member for 20 days, which you have, and make 20 posts, which you haven't, before you can put a ticker in your signature, so start posting! You have 15 more to go! When you go to User CP in the upper left hand corner and click on Edit Signature it is pretty self-explanatory. Here is a link to a post that gives all the information.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/anno...questions.html

Sandy, I wish I was making stuffed cabbage rolls! I love them and love to make them, but DH doesn't want them as often as I do. I could make them once a week. My mother-in-law used to make them every Sunday. Maybe that's why DH got tired of them.

Prayers for you granddaughter. Hope they get to the root of her problem soon.

Dee, I missed you and wondered where you've been! I'm sorry to hear of your hand injury, and hope it heals quickly. It's a shame you have to deal with the insurance changes. Many people have been experiencing that same issue.

April, sorry to hear of the loss of your aging dog. Sounds like he had a peaceful death, without much pain.

I agree that the more you eat lower carb the less you crave sweets, etc. I know it was that way with me, but might not work that way for others.

Andi, glad to hear you had a nice visit with your daughter and had good control with the restaurant food. No need to be perfect.

Terapet, I am lucky that I seem to have lost interest in alcohol. When we eat out, I occasionally take a sip of DH's beer. That's about it. Of course, years ago, when I drank more, I ate less and was thin. Maybe I was on to something!!

Good morning Girls!

GeoJackie, I understand your frustration. Just remember this is a marathon for us, not a sprint, but crossing that finish line will be well-worth the effort!

Dee, welcome back, and I'm sorry to hear about your hand :-( You really need to get some relief from the pain...but sorry about the crappy insurance. Let us know how your appointment goes!

Sandy, I love cabbage rolls, but don't have the patience to make them. They have to be fairly low-cal, right? With very little rice, they could even be low-carb! I agree with you how walking in the sun just makes you feel better all over!

Carol Sue, how are you? Glad to hear your knee is feeling better! I've heard that any artificial sweetener (other than Stevia) is like poison to your system, so I stick with stevia only. The Sweetleaf brand from Kroger is good, but I usually order the powder kind off the internet.

LurchMomma - haven't heard from you in several days...is everything OK?

It's nice and sunny outside now, but we're expecting rain later on I think. I had a pretty good weekend, but unfortunately am getting mired in an estate/property issue from my Uncle's recent death. The people I'm working with are his deceased wife's children, so they're not even my family. Just hope things get resolved soon <<sigh>>

I managed to lose another pound, so I'm pretty close to my Feb goal which is 169 (fingers crossed!). I went for a 5-mile hill walk with a friend on Sat. but other than tennis that was about all on the exercise side. I'm kicking myself that I didn't get out and walk on my own on Sunday. It is so more motivating for me when exercising with another person!!

Enjoy your week!

Andi

I haven't gone back to keeping track of my eating as I had been. But I am using another tool that is a lot more fun. When I think I want more to eat I do something I really enjoy. Either reading or sewing. Either one keeps my mind on something other than food. But better would be to geo cache, that gets you outside and moving. Soon as it quits raining I will be doing that. What hobbies do the rest of you have?

Forgot to thanks Wannabehealthy for the info on the ticker line. i will be using it as soon as i qualify.

cals-2400(750), ex-none. Yikes. Kinda in a pattern of one step forward, two steps backward but I am not giving up yet. I have had a busy week at work but as usual I don't expect it to last.

Hello Friends.

Andi: My youngest stepson was killed Thursday night. He was already gone while I was writing that post about my dog, Phoenix. We just hadn't been notified yet. We received the phone call really close to 3am Friday. One of those calls that no parent ever wants to get. I know you have a son, I imagine he is fairly close to James in age since you mentioned he is getting married. James would have been 28 in April. He had a three year old daughter who was daddy's girl. She went everywhere with him, she loved everything from shopping with him to fishing with him to "helping" him work on the truck. So, here is my public service announcement to you and to everyone reading this:

Please tell your son to wear his seat belt ALWAYS. Tell him that even if he is not expecting to have an accident because he is a splendid driver and a stellar navigator, he just can't factor in the random chick in a mini-van (or random redneck in a pick-up, or random old dude in a Porsche, or random fat man in an eighteen wheeler) who is out there waiting to ruin his day. Or to take his life. The difference between having a bad day and having another day, in James' case, was a seat belt. And let us not forget Terry, his passenger, who made the same choice and met the same fate. Tell him about James, tell him about James' daughter who looked around at all her aunts and uncles, her mother and family friends and named them one by one and then asked "but where's my daddy?". Ask him to tell his friends who don't wear their seat belts, and to remind those with precious little ones that they risk more than their own lives when they don't buckle up.

I'm going to keep repeating this everywhere I can with the firm conviction that somewhere, someday, a life I don't even know about will be saved because of it. That's the only sense I can make out of this and it breaks my heart. Anyone who comes across this just randomly reading these posts...maybe it was meant for YOU to be the one to see it to and pass it on.

James' obituary was in the Dayton Daily News today, or if you are interested, it's on their website as well.

I probably won't be on here as much for a while. I just felt compelled to get this message out, as this is another place where folks just browsing might see it and talk about it to someone they love.

April

I don't know why Phoenix ended up orange and underlined. I didn't do that intentionally.

April I am so sorry to hear of the passing of your step-son and his passenger. May they rest in peace. Prayers go up for their families.

Andi, cabbage rolls can be made healthy. You can use very lean ground beef, or some use ground turkey. I use very little rice, and it's brown rice. If you don't want to make the rolls, you can make Cabbage Roll Casserole, where you layer the ingredients in a casserole dish and bake. You get all the taste without all the work.

Here is a link to a lot of recipes, and some are made in the crock pot.

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?...&hsimp=yhs-001

April, Words cannot express the shock and sadness for the loss of your stepson. Yes, my oldest son is the very same age. I read the obituary and it was lovingly written, as was your message to all those who drive without using seatbelts. I posted your message on facebook and many have read it already.

Praying for your family at this difficult time...

Andi

Hi Girls,

Hey, who was it who had the great recipe for carrot salad? I would love to have it!

Thanks, Andi

April I'm so sorry you all lost your step son and his friend in the auto crash. So sorry for the pain each of you feel.

Keep sending out the message about seat belts, I've been preaching it all my life and the kids used to recite my words as I would NOT start engine till all seat belts were in. When I was in my 30's and my friend and neighbor was in her mid 60's I refused to start engine till she buckled up and she fumed and fussed. I simply relaxed and told her. We are going to that extra good restaurant to eat and play bridge. It is 15 miles from here. You can walk. Or, you can buckle up as I have done and we'll drive over. After quite a lot of "blue air" she buckled up.

Andi Look back a page or two. I put the carrot salad recipe on here.

Our beloved granddaughter, in her 20's, just had a damaged and diseased womb removed. Hopefully her intense pain will give here a break from now on. She is so up beat! DH and I'll go over, bringing really great reading material, to spend some time with her at her home, tomorrow. I always enjoy that gal.

Massage therapy can do marvelous things. Kelly helped my right shoulder yesterday and it is doing so much better. Next week she will again work on it and I bet that will fix it.

April-Sorry for your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

April, my thoughts are with you. I will help spread the word,WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT EVERY TIME YOU DRIVE OR RIDE.

I have not lost any weight. I am exercising but not cutting enough calories to lose the pounds.

The thread has been quiet for a few days, time to wake it up! Looks like it's going to be a nice day today, a little warmer and some sun. We don't get a lot of sun in PA.

Sandy, I couldn't find you carrot salad recipe on this thread but I did find it on another thread, so I copied it to paste here in case anyone wants it. I hope you don't mind. I do have a question. I see that you heat it in the microwave to plump the raisins and then chill it until the next day, but is it served cold or warm?

I don't use a real recipe for the salad. I grate 6 large organic carrots (they are sweeter), Drain 1 can unsweetened pineapple tidbits, use 1/2 cup of pineapple juice and add 1/2 cup (approx) raisins to it and heat in Microwave to plump up the raisins. Add about 1/2 cup organic yogurt to juice/raisins, about large pinch salt, squeeze or so of honey, less than 1/4 c lemon juice. Add liquid & pineapple to carrots and refrigerate. I stir it up several times because the juice goes to bottom. Next day I stir it all good and put in beautiful blue pottery dish to really show it off. No exact measurements, sorry.

Geojackie, keep on with that exercise even if you're not losing. The exercise is good for other reasons and the weight loss will come eventually.

Andi, how are you doing with the tennis lessons and the walking? You always seem to get good exercise in.

Terapet, it doesn't matter if your weight goes up and down, as long as the net value is down. You do well keeping track of your calories.

April, I hope you and your family are doing well at this sad time. It helps to be surrounded by loving family.

Hope you are doing well, Dee, and your hand is healing.