Hello All: dipped deep into my Flex points today, had the littles over for easter egg hunt and brunch, which involves pancakes and maple syrup, and I did eat a few jelly beans, but kept it to one little lindor egg.
But then supper was DD birthday, and surprise, other DD and her husband came out too. However, I had chicken wings ( my kryptonite) but avoided alcohol and had lots of veggies. Will have to be careful for the rest of the week though. I also got out walking a lot.

Trish, I am glad you are going to work with DGS to help him finish high school. It is a real loving thing to do to make sure he has the opportunity and support to finish.

PA, I also wish someone like hagen das or ben and jerry made a regular, full fat ice cream with splenda or stevia. It would still be a treat, but would be lovely to have on occasion. Have tried making my own, but its not the same.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

I woke up this morning long before I had to this morning and stayed awake to get DGS up. One day down. We just get this boy graduated from college after all. He will have a degree in Chemistry if we make it through this year. We have 5 yrs invested in this kid. We saw him graduate from high school about the same time as his mother graduated from Nursing school.

BTW She is doing really good with nursing since she went back to FL. She has had a few different jobs but has worked into a management/home visitation nursing right now, but her old boss she worked with for almost 10 yrs whom she left to come up here and go to Nursing school wants her to come back to work with him. He was planning to expand his business before she left and had always had her in mind for a certain position when he did. Now he is ready and wants her to come back to work for him. I really hope that she will. It will be good for both of them.

I had a nice surprise when I weighed today WI day. I am down to 223.8. I have now lost 15 lbs according to my ticker and at a new low. I will have to really be careful today as I am supposed to go out for Mexican food with a friend today. I will probably just have a taco salad made with chicken unless I can find something lighter. Not to sure what that would be. I do love the chips with cheese sauce and just might make that a meal without the salad. Not sure yet. I don't have a way of checking their calories as they are a local restaurant so will have to check calories from some other restaurant.

You chickies north of me who are having a winter storm here in late March, stay warm and safe.

Carol Sue I forgot to tell you that I ordered Dr. Joel Fuhrman to The End of Diabetes. I will get it tomorrow.

Down to 201.6 this morning. So close to Onderland and I'm getting really excited!

My BFF has a lot of weight to lose as well (she's obese class 2) and she's doing this shake replacement thing. It's a sugar free low carb protein shake basically. She's asked me to try it out with her as a motivational thing. I'm having to work through lunch this week, so I'm going to give it a whirl. I'm not a fan of meal replacement shakes, but if it'll help her out I don't mind it for a week. If I end up starving by mid afternoon though, I will definitely give it up. My current diet plan is working fabulous, don't really need to shake it up. (haha, pun intended.)

Super busy today. Hope you all have a great one!

FickleHearts :carrot: YAY!!!! 201.6!!! You will be in Onederland before you know it.

Thanks for sharing about the protein shake. I am not one for meal replacement shakes much, but that might be a good idea for me to do tonight since I just heard from my friend that we are still on for a Mexican restaurant lunch. We would change it, but since DH doesn't like Mexican food and I do, she and I go there about once a year. And this is the time. LOL I will enjoy and finish the day with a shake or veggies when I take my Metformin.

Penn Gillette was on Dr. Oz today. I am not a big fan of Dr. Oz, but I love Penn and Teller. Never wanted to go to Vegas either, but I would go to see them.
Anyhow, he has lost over 100 pounds. Being a big man, he just looked very big, but he weighed over 340, and his BP was way high, and couldn't be controlled. SO he lost a lot of weight. Looks great. Has kept it off over a year. He is publishing a book about it. He is careful to say he isn't a doctor, his book is about how it felt from the inside.
Im not sure others could or should do what he did. In fact, he was in hospital with the high BP and on 8 meds for BP before someone said he should lose weight. He now usually just eats once a day. Wonder if anyone will ever tell him the swings in blood sugar could cause problems for him. Big thing, he quit eating fried food, and switched to more fruits and veggies.
Anyway, interesting, not sure I will buy the book though.
Fighting with myself a bit, having a treat day yesterday is making it hard to stay on plan today.
And am really tired. So nap or walk, which should I do?

So Fickle, did you win your Diet Bet? Wasn't today the big day? I hope you didn't go too low, but the weight loss is the biggest thing in the end. I hope you won.

I got below 200 several years ago and then got stuck. I don't know if I just got complacent or what, but lately I have just been waffling in and out of onederland. It's very annoying. I'm hoping that 2016 is the year that I will finally do it.

Trish, I hope you like Dr Fuhrman's book. I liked the way that he described the nutritional factors of all the vegetables and what they do for the body. Made me very nutrition conscious. The only think I don't like is he says to limit animal protein. I have cut back, but will not eliminate meat altogether.

I have never been to a Mexican Restaurant. Neither of us have ever tried it other than tacos and I know DH would never eat it. I don't even think we have any Mexican restaurants around here. Probably in Pittsburgh.

EDIT: I googled and found a Mexican Restaurant right in my town, in a shopping plaza we go to all the time, but I never noticed the restaurant, or didn't realize it was Mexican. The name should have given it away. I looked at the menu and whatever that is in the picture looks really good!

http://www.acapulcorestaurants.com/menu/

Mad, I'm not too familiar with Penn and Teller. I find it odd that at 340 lbs someone had to tell him he needed to lose weight. I would think it would be obvious. I have a terrible time with BP and am on a lot of meds for it. My doctor's never mention losing weight, which I know would make a big difference. You would think that would be a big incentive for me.

Carol Sue I wish that had been on the menu where I was... that looks really great.

I did have the beef taco salad and ate part of the shell, but ate only about half the salad because it actually got soggy and lost its taste. I ordered the cheese dip with the chips and we had so much of the dip left over that my friend ordered some more chips to go with it and took it home to her daughter. Not really sure how many calories I used, but I did count it kind of high from other restaurant s on MFP. I think the excess carbs set me off and I ended up eating chips and pop corn instead of eating super. But I don't think I went over my limited 1600 for eating out for today. So overall I did well. Tomorrow will be 1200 to 1300 calories day.

Fatmad I'm not familiar with Penn and Teller either. I'm glad he had lost weight. After getting up so early this morning to get DGS up and then the carbs I had today, all I have wanted to do this afternoon and evening is to sleep.

At least I don't have to get up so early tomorrow. His 1st class tomorrow is 9:30 so I wont have to get up so early to get him up by 8:30. However, I do have to get up early Wednesday to do this all over again and it is going to be a busier than today was. Mon and Wed, he has 8 am classes; Tue and Th is 8:30. Starting this Thursday, I start attending a Thursday Bible Study that will meet at 10 am for the next 6 weeks.

Guess I will go fight staying awake until bedtime. LOL

Goodnight!!

Ficklehearts you are so close to Onederland! I'm cheering you on....

Trish, I don't think you did much damage at the Mexican Restaurant. A day off now and then doesn't hurt. I remember we went to Chili's years ago. I never considered that a Mexican Restaurant. They had this steak dinner that we liked. The next time we went that was no longer on the menu and we ordered steak fajitas for two. DH picked out some pieces of the steak and that was all he ate, so we never even think of going back there. At that time, it was right next to a car cruise we used to go to so it was convenient.

Carol Sue Crazy results of my carby Mexican restaurant yesterday is that I'm up 3 lbs which was to be expected because of the sodium. What wasn't expected is that my FBG was down to 157. It has been running in the 170s. Go figure. Just a few days ago DH had a 134 reading and he said to me, "I don't understand why it is that high". I just told him that it happens sometime not matter how good you are doing and no one seems to know why. How in the world could I eat soooo of carb wise and have a better reading today.

In times past, I would have decided that I need to be eating more carbs and switch to a higher carb diet. However, I am much wiser this time because I've been there and done that and things didn't turnout so good. Back to my moderately low carb way of eating today and hopefully back to my 5 to 8 hr eating window.

I'm supposed to get my Furhman book sometime today. From what you said, I think his book and the Magic Foods you and I bought a while book should give us some really wise info on food choice. I've kind of learned from Dr. Hyman, WW SP, and what I have read the right fruits, veggies and protein is a wise way to eat for good health and weight loss. I say the right ones because diabetics have to choose more carefully because of the way a diabetics system reacts to the natural sugars in those foods. The closest "diet" plan to the way we probably should really be eating is the Primal/Paleo. I think the Paleo is the one where some of the followers eat raw meat which I believe is absolutely crazy and very unwise. The one problem I have with those diets is that it cuts out all grains and even legumes. I mean they might be right, but I just can't my head around some of their stuff. However, saying that I could follow a modified version of that. Some of my problem with Atkins is giving up all fruit, because there are so many good antioxidant benefits in fruits that I think we need. I believe that because I friend of mine who owned a health food store told me that vegetables are the broom and fruit is the mop that keeps your system clean. So I've never been able to shake that thought. Just me. LOL!!!

Morning
Trish I love that analogy.....veggies are the broom and fruit is the mop!! I will remember that to. Eating lower carb I gave up my apples but switched to berries. As long as I eat a few strawberries etc a day I dont feel like I'm depriving myself.
I have company coming this afternoon , then lots of Easter activities this weekend...it's a busy week. I'll try to check in.

And 200.8 this morning. Replacing lunch with a shake obviously did something, even though I still had a huge dinner and 1200 calories for the day. Not liking the shakes at all LOL. She brought me a different flavor this morning, so here's hoping it's better. I don't think I'll last the week honestly. I like food.

Yep, I won my dietbet. Closed it out yesterday at 201.6, 4 lbs under my goal but not too far under thankfully. I'll know how much I won tomorrow after everyone has done their final weigh in. A little over half of the participants won. I've decided to do another one in April to help me stay on track after my planned b-day cheat this weekend. Going over on carbs, but going to stay low on calories is my plan.

I used to love Penn and Tiller on Showtime with their BS show. I'd seen that he'd lost a lot of weight recently and was really impressed. I like Fluffy (Gabriel Igelsias) too, he's lost a lot of weight too.

Our local Mexican place is run by some immigrants from Honduras and the food is really really good. I get a dish called Popeye a lot; grilled chicken with sauteed spinach covered in melted queso with a side of mixed grilled veggies (squash, zucchini, carrots, and broccoli). Every now and then I'll splurge and eat the tortillas and get the fajitas. They have one called Fajita Mexico which is chicken, steak, and shrimp. They have a really good taco salad too. It's my hubby's favorite place to eat here in town. We go so much I am honestly content never eating Mexican again most days LOL.

Meh, at least the shake takes the decision making out of lunch. I might actually get one today.

FickleHearts CONGRATULATIONS!! Winning dietbet and reaching 200.8. You will probably be in onderland within a day or two. Great job.

DH and I will go out to eat tomorrow and he always ends up going to Golden Corral. I am beginning to be so tired of it because it is the same food all the time. The only good thing for me is that it is easy to get a lot of veggies in for the day. I'm actually tired of the roast and fish I usually eat. But he loves their fried fish. We go there so much that my favorite dessert doesn't even interest me any more.

This morning while making my breakfast, I thought back to years ago when I was in Overeater's Anonymous. They had 2 plans you could choose to follow back then which we called a grey sheet and an orange sheet. From what I can remember (was about 40 yrs ago) the only real difference in the 2 was that the orange sheet allowed a slice whole wheat toast at breakfast that was not allowed on the grey sheet. I followed the grey sheet. Back then I always had to be the one who chose the extreme which I did enjoy most of the time although there were times it wasn't always that easy for me.

As this came to mind this morning, I decided that would start enjoying toast with breakfast and the eat only lower carb meals/snacks the rest of the day and see how that affects my weight and BG. This is my plan today. Still tracking on MFP and I've got my exercise done for today as well. MFP seems to work pretty good for me overall.

Having baked chicken tenders with salad and broccoli for lunch and a chicken salad for dinner. and water, water, water. Hoping to get those 3 lb off that I gained yesterday.

am back on plan, have eaten low carb today. Going slow on the weight loss, but it is going down in the right direction.
Im loving hearing about Fickle getting into onederland.
I have been collecting vegan recipes for a family gathering the weekend after Easter. I am working Easter so we will have the family gathering and celebrate my father's 85th birthday the next weekend. He wants to meet my nephew's girlfriend. They just moved in together, so its a command performance. Nephew is a natural vegetarian, never would eat meat, but she is vegan and apparently very good for him, as she works hard on the nutritional aspects, which is good, because DN would eat peanut butter for every meal otherwise. SO several friends sent some yummy sounding recipes, and I will try a couple of them out before the day to make sure they are as yummy as they sound. The rest of us will still eat meat, but I can make them welcome this way.
Got out for a nice walk again. But freezing rain tomorrow night, will have to go early for my walk tomorrow.