Wow, that amazes me. I remember all the flack about saccharin years ago. And then they came out with the Nutra sweet and stuff. I try to keep those things to a minimum, because of the chemicals and obviously if it's not natural, there can be bad stuff in it. But it is in some of the things I eat like jello sugar free puddings. And I do add splenda to my tea and oatmeal. You're telling me I should avoid it completely?

Hi Robin,

I'm not telling you that you should or shouldn't eat Splenda. People break out into nasty arguments over this on different websites and I just stay out of it. People hear what they want to hear. MY doctor told ME to lay off that, and bacon, and anything with BHA, BHT, sodium nitrites.

The Splenda debate started because Splenda touted itself as coming FROM sugar. Heck! Opium comes from poppy seeds! The processing alters the food and it's that process that botches everything up.

I tell my kids that if they're going to drink a soda, to drink one with sugar. Sugar-free may be low-cal but dieting is better than chemo!

;-)

Good Morning!
I'll post my menu later today but the scale sang to me this morning, I was down another pound.
Diva...How about eating your oatmeal toasted and dry? Spray a cookie sheet with zero calories spray, spread the oats out evenly and re-spray and sprinkle on cinnamon. Or mix applesauce and cinnamon into the cooked oatmeal. I eat eggs a couple times a week but I'm on meds for high cholestral so I make my omelets with just the egg whites. 1 whole egg has 5 gram of fat, 2 egg whites has 0 fat. I also found FF Candian Bacon at Wal*Mart. I would thank the Lord if I had body fat of 25%. My Tanita scale could tell some scary fat tales about me. I'd be embarrased to tell anyone what my fat % is.
Imenonelse...My DD does Scrapbooking too! She loves it but has a hard time getting to it, she's divorced and raising her two boys by herself. What are water crackers, please tell me there're delicious and you can eat a ton of them!
SmartButt... Hope your low calories kick in today with a loss. About the cheesecake, sorry but I didn't think to add Cheesecake pudding. I put the ingredients into the "New Custom" food section in Fitday to make it easier to record. I labeled it Blueberry Cheesecake. I put 1 whole carton of fresh blueberries into the bottom of 8 individual containers with lids. I made the Jello brand SF Cheesecake pudding mix with skim milk and spooned over the fruit. These are small portions but very rich tasting and I always add FF cool whip for 15 calories more. I eat it very slow, savor every mouthful and my tummy thinks I've had a large serving.
Sakuya...Get those Cordials out of your house!
Valerie Joy...I tried the Walk away the pounds tapes but I get sooooooooooo bored with it. Good for you if you can hack it, I know lots of people use them.
FL-Mom... I (we) agree with you, counting calories works. Posting our calories and exercise keeps us all aware of what we're trying to accomplish. I see you have a 1200 challenge ticker, is there a thread in 3FC under that title? If there is, I'd join it since I stay at 1200 calories.
Charlene...Wow! Great calories for lots of super healthy foods. I've never tried sushi before, they look tempting but I don't know if I could eat raw fish.
Robin...Yesterday calores, fantastic! : I use the SF Jello and pudding mixes too! My DD is alway on me for eating them, she wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. She won't let her boys drink diet pop either. I think Diva and Tiffany are clones.
No offense Diva, my DD is a health food nut and won't eat anything that is not good for her. She wears a size two, maybe that should tell me something.
Well girls, I'm done gabbing for today. I think I'll go look for some hay to eat, horses aren't fat are they?

Bobbi

Hey everyone
Well on Saturday I was at 990 and on Sunday it was 1350 at least according to my calculations, as usual Fit day is different. I did not get any excerise in on Saturday but on Sunday I did. About 20 mins of the Gazelle and 3 hours of ripping up carpeting and tearing out all of those staples. I have the blisters to prove it. Well I gotta get back to work!! Keep up the good work everyone!!

I remember ripping out carpeting three years ago. 1300 square feet of the stuff. Then I installed hardwoods throughout and don't regret it a bit.

The staples I didn't remove... just pounded them into the floor. That's what the floor people told me to do. The nightmare for me was removing all the baseboards, labelling them, and then replacing them.

Petra, when FitDay is off, what do you use for your calorie count? I'm curious... I always use the higher number as I prefer to err on the side of caution.

Good morning,

Ripping out carpet! I'm impressed!

I always try to take the higher caloric number on FitDay too.

Bobbolink--sushi is yummy! You could start off with a roll made with white fish which tastes mild and is wrapped in avocado, veggies sometimes, seaweed and rice (not fried and preferably with brown rice if they offer).

The artificial sweetener debate is a hot topic. I look at it like there may be a possibility of them being bad for us and there are definitely no health benefits so I try to stay away from them (although I did have a little diet coke on Sat. night) and definitely don't let my son have them. He's allowed to have root beer on Friday nights but only the full sugar kind.

We use honey a lot and like to experiment with different kinds/flavors. Here's a little blurb I found about honey....

Honey

"Honey is not often seen on many lists of healthy foods, but don’t let that fool you. Eating honey daily increases the amounts of antioxidant in the blood, helps to prevent constipation, and reduces cholesterol and blood pressure.

If you are running low on energy, reach for the honey, not sugar. Honey does a better job of maintaining blood sugar and energy than other sweeteners. And choose dark honeys over light ones, because they are higher in antioxidants and flavor. One to two teaspoons several times a week should do the trick."

AnAbosoluteDiva--I'm picky about my oatmeal too. I usually make it with soymilk (vanilla or plain) which is sweetened and add 1tsp flaxseed oil, 1/2 oz walnuts, cinnamon, & a little honey if it needs it. Occasionally I add the real deals with a little pat of butter and a tsp of brown sugar to remind me of when I was a kid.

Have a nice day everyone! I'm trying to make it to the gym. No, I am going to make it the gym for a yoga class in half an hour. I am!

Charlene

Hello Ladies!
Glad to hear that everyone is doing well..
I am currently doing my civic-duty (Jury Duty)... Luckily, they have inernet access and I have a lap-top, so at least I can do productive things like research for school, and check in on the boards... I have been here for 5 hours and they have yet to call one jury panel.. What a waste of time!..

Anyway, on Saturday I did perfectly and stayed within the confines of my diet. Sunday morning I had a healthy breakfast, and then I was off to the cropping party... At the cropping party they had chips and dip, potatoe salad, chocolates, and spinach dip with bread for appetizers. I completely ignored all of these foods and felt great about it. They weren't even that tempting. Then, they decided to order pizza. The pizza came and was out, and as everyone was sitting around eating it I said to myself, "there is always a reason why when you try to lose weight you end up feeling so deprived that you go off of it completely and dont start back up again until the next monday.... it's not about depriving yourself, its about moderation"... so rather than not eating it at all, going home and wanting pizza so much that I order one and binge, I allowed myself once regular sized slice, and ate that with my veggie sticks. At first, I felt bad about it, but then I realized that hey, I ignored so many other of my favorite foods that were there, and I am allowed to have a nice slice of pizza every now and then as long as I dont go overboard. I left the party feeling happy that I didnt snack on all of the terrible foods there, and satisfied with my choice to have one slice of pizza... and the great thing is, when I got home, I didn't feel deprived, and I didnt feel guilty.. I think I finally have it right this time.. ...

About the water crackers... they are crackers that are very low carb so they are a good snack.. I am unsure of the calorie content because I eat them within my little ratio that the zone requires as the carbs and it is fine.. I am not at home so I can't check but I will as soon as I get home.. ....

Exercize has also been great. I have been getting a lot of walking in! ...
Take care all!

Ps. I am not going to bother with the weigh in this week because I have been working so hard, and AF decided to come to town yesterday morning so I dont want to weigh in and see no movement because I am bloated and then get discouraged so I am ignoring it all together..

(maybe thats why I had to have that slice of pizza, lol)

Hello all
Thanks Bobbi for the welcome - no there is not a "challenge for the 1200 calories" on the board but it is a personal one for me - once I lose those first 15 I will up my calories a little (who knows - I may stay that low for awhile longer) just a mini goal for myself!!

Food today -1185
BF- Hard Boiled egg, Yogurt bar and fresh strawberries (260 cals)
Snack - Yogurt (170)
Lunch - veggie soup and 100 cal cheese nip bag (260)
Snack - small banana (75)
Dinner Lean Cusine and 1 cup asparagus (320)
Snack - pudding (100)

Had 120 ounces of water and only one Diet Pepsi

Did my 3 miles WATP walking dvd and 30 minutes on the ball doing crunches, and arm exercises

Have a great night everyone - back to homework and all the fun school stuff!!

1530 calories today, which is damn good considering we had a pizza/cake party at noon today for a coworker. I stuck to some salad, and 2 pieces of cheese pizza, and no cake. Man that was rough!

Took walks on both my breaks today, so that's another plus. Headed to the gym tomorrow!

Stupid computer! I was on the phone for about 3.5 hours trying to get my internet back up and working. I'm just now going to post my Sunday's menu:
Fiber One-59 calories (4:15am)
Vitamins, etc-13
Breakfast: French Toast
3 slices bread-120
2 egg whites-32
1 T. FF sour cream-24
cinnamon-0
Smart Squeeze-5
SF Maple syrup-15
Total...268
Lunch:
Flatout-90
2 slices turkey balogna-50
FF mayo-15
lettuce-7
FF milk-80
Total...242
Supper: Large Tuna Salad
1 can Albacore Tuna-175
Arugula/lettuce/cabbage/green pepper/onion/cuke/tomato- 27
Vinegar & Olive Oil dressing-119
Total...321
Evening snack:
1/2 Cottage cheese-80
popcorn-100
FF milk-80
Total...360
Goal 1200 calories, actual.....1,191.
65 minutes of exercise at Fitness center.

Hi everyone! great deficits!

I do eat splenda. quite a lot of it actually. I do try to use stevia for some things but strawberries and other fruit I need splenda!

I'm high on the calories. I'm just really exhausted and it shows in my eating.

Monday: 2156 calories, 774 deficit, cardio, weights

I'm going to ammend my former post. I actually wound up at 1473 total, because I didn't eat my planned dinner. The brown rice casserole that the man made, was terrible and flavorless. I had one bite and opted to have 2 whole wheat low-cal tortillas, and some hummus instead.

That leaves me with a deficit today of 534. Yay.

Hi everyone,

Monday: 1285 calories

B: Smoothie: 1/2cup Odwalla Citrus C Monster, 1 scoop soy protein powder, 1 tsp flaxseed oil, 1/2cup mango, 1/2cup raspberries, 1/2cup lowfat Kefir, 1tsp honey

L: 1/2cup bulgur wheat pilaf, 1cup spinach, 2.5oz tuna, 1tsp olive oil, 1.5oz tomato, sun dried tomatoes 1oz, handful of blueberries

S: 1 bottle of HonestTea Heavenly Honey green tea, 2 squares Newman's Own Sweet Dark Orange chocolate

S: handful of roasted sunflower seeds

D: Burrito: South Beach Whole Wheat wrap, 1.5oz turkey, 1/2cup beans, 1/4oz cheese, wedge of tomato, green onions, lots of salsa, few carrot sticks (while cooking)

S: 1 square Newman's Own sweet dark orange chocolate

IMENONELSE: I liked your pizza story. I am a compulsive eater and I have been doing the deprive/binge cycle for my whole life it seems. For the past two and a half months I've been making life changes concentrating on what to eat rather than what not to eat. Granted, I'm losing weight slower (but losing even thru the holidays-miracle!) but don't feel like I'm dieting for the first time in my life. I do what you described by making very healthful choices most of the time but occasionally having something I really want in a smaller portion and compensating in other areas. It's such freedom to not be on a diet in that way anymore. Congrats!
STEPHANIE-Good job! I see we have similar weight loss goals too.
SMARTBUTT-(I hope it's okay to call you that ha!)..Good job with the pizza and cake. Cake is really hard for me.
BOBBI-You always get that exercise in!
VALERIE JOY-You've already lost 51 pounds, that's amazing. It seems so monumental to me to lose ten.

Sorry if I left anyone out! Have a great night.

Charlene

I post frequently here and there on 3FC, but could use the support of you Calorie Counters so I thought I'd start jumping in on this thread!

I have been counting calories in a food diary for years, using a digital scale and FitDay for a little over a year. I've lost my weight to goal several times, but have not yet been able to maintain. In the past I've always stuck with 1200 calories, but I'm very active (usually 2-3 hours of exercise per day) so this time I am experimenting with 1500 calories/day.

Also, I try to stick with a mostly whole foods menu, high fiber, lots of lean protein, lots and lots of fruits and veggies. Very little sugar or white flour. And, I do use splenda. Too much, I am sure, but that helps with my crazy sweet tooth. I even put splenda in my cottage cheese (my DH thinks I'm crazy ).

Last summer I lost all the weight I wanted to lose, but when I reached my goal in the fall I faced a lot of stress in my life and regained almost everything I had worked so hard to lose. I've done this SEVERAL times, and as disheartening as it is, I keep reminding myself that success is falling down 9 times, and getting up 10! Anyway, now that I am through the busy-ness of the holidays and all that entailed in our lives, I am back on track. Last week I was right at 1500 every day until Sunday (yesterday) which ended up at 2475 .

Today I'm back on track. Total for today was 1347.

B: apple, light cheese stick
L: huge salad, tuna wrap on ww tortilla
S: banana, 1 T. peanut butter
S: apple
D: butternut-apple soup, broccoli, lentils
S: tuna wrap on ww tortilla, clementine

Thanks for listening to me! I've enjoyed following your stories!

Lindy