Wow, where to start??!!

Fresh strawberries, dip in sour cream and then dip in brown sugar (I don't do this often, but it is decadent!!).

My family likes Mexican and southwest foods a lot, so sour cream on burritos, enchiladas, tacos, taco salads.....you get the picture. I get a lot of recipes from Cooking Light website, so they are healthy low calorie dishes.

I have a salad dressing recipe that I got from CL that has a sour cream base.

I put it in my stroganoff (when I make it--again kind of a decadent thing).

A dollop on my chili (I'm going to try a TVP chili this weekend).

I know a lot of people don't like sour cream, but I love it. I just can't get myself to eat the low fat or fat free stuff. Honestly, it tastes like skim milk thickened with flour--lots of flour. Kind of like eating flour paste. Ick! Thankfully I halve the fat/calories in it by mixing in the Z-Trim. that stuff is wonderful. I also mix it in our store-bought salad dressings to cut the calories there.

Hey gang

Just back from a great run I feel like I can stay on plan todaybecause of it too, so that is a good thing

Barbara -- I hear you on the cashews... I'm going to ask DH or DS to hid the large container in the basement, I keep dipping into it every time I go down there...

This weekend is full of food for me, so I doubt that I'll see anytype of loss on Monday ...

Sorry to make this so short and sweet but I gotta get ready for work, I, Allison actually WORK ...

Hi all,

Welcome back students. Hope all is well with the studying.

Yes! I think one of the keys to success is self knowlege. Be patent it takes time. I am still figuring things out.

I had a two day low carb experiment. I have to add that for me low carb is fairly high carb since I don't eat chicken and beef. They were around 50-70 grams.

I am trying to even out protien and carbs and I think the only way I could do it was to go more extreme for a few days and slowly add carbs. Kind of a fast forwarded south beach. Today I am adding a fruit and a starch. Got the idea from glory on this site. Whole wheat tortilla with penut butter and banana. Kind of decadent. Really yummy.

Then I am back to beans fish and veggies. I have still been counting calories because I just have to especially when I do something different. Came in at about 1300.

I need a new scale. I have one of those dial ones that reads anywhere between 160-170 at any given time. The 160 is definitely wrong (when I step off it is sub zero) by best guess is I lost a lb. I hope I am now being too optimistic. I really need a digital.

Happy day ladies.

Hee, hee!

I work, too. This week has actually been quite busy. My office assistant took a couple of days off, so it was just me to answer the phones, get the mail, pay the bills, do all the sending and receiving, help DH out with customer requests and problems and everything else. I usually get an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon when things are slow so I can catch up here!

Hi everyone, well I'm 7.5 lbs lighter but still getting over being sick so I am going to really try hard to not gain it back. It actually smells like spring outside I can't wait to get outside and start gardening. I have been a couch potato all week, boy Bronchitis is stinky, never had it before never want it again. Hope everyone is having a great day!!

lpgoad: Sorry you've been sick! I'm prone to bronchitis, so I've had it often. I know how bad it is. :/

Good morning everyone

Day #2 of vacation! I got up early and went to Curves to get that out of the way. I came home and walked for 30 mins on my treadmill. I love getting exercise done early in the morning and out of the way.

I am meeting a friend for lunch. I haven't seen her in a year and it should be fun. I used to work with her and she left to go work at another department. We are so bad about keeping in touch and we even live in the same town

I have to pick up snacks & drinks for the kids on my son's tennis team for their match today. I'll have to get enough for an army since they ARE teenage boys! You would think they would outgrow the snack stage but, no!

Hope everyone has a great day. Jane

It's good that I stayed on plan yesterday because I am off to Phoenix tomorrow for a week to catch some baseball games (go A's!) and for some much needed R&R. I'm sure there's going to be lots of off-plan meals.

I tried that but I hid the bag myself so the problem is that I know where to find it! I was hoping for out of sight, out of mind, but those darn cashews are persistent about wanting me to eat them.

Allison,

Please tell me more about Z-trim!

I'm doing well after a frustrating, tearful, depressingly tiring start to the day! I get so wound up when all I need is a good nap!

Anyway so my eating is angelic - I'm getting in a bathtub of greens as per SusanB! Well greens, oranges and parsnip colour... I was actually CRAVING a big tray of roastie veggies this afternoon, so I here I am feasting on Soy beans, parsnips, carrots, courgettes and green beans. I also found some stuffing balls in the freezer left over from Christmas so I've had a couple of them too

Feeling confident for the weekend

Okay, I must be doing something wrong....let me give you guys a general idea of what I eat in a day (and my weight either stays or goes up).. Yesterday:

Breakfast: 1 slice wheat toast w/1 tbsp honey adn 1 tbsp peanut butter, glass of milk (couple cups of coffee later in the morning with 1 tsp creamer in each)

Lunch: 1 1/2 slice pizza, regular cola 8 oz.

Dinner: 1/2 chicken chimichanga, few bites of guacamole dip, and glass of milk.

According to my fitday software that is 1345 calories eaten and I am allowed to eat 1867 (according to fitday) at a totally sedentary level (which I wasn't sedentary yesterday).

This is a normal day for me, maybe 200-300 calories more on average, but my weight doesn't budge!!! I am 5'6 and weigh 151. Any suggestions!

I hear ya on the cashews, I am just not happy until they are all gone!

I got out first thing this morning to run errends. I didn't get any official exercise but I walked 2 hours in 3 1/2 inch heals that has to do something for my core and my calfs . I hope to get some exercise in later but I am one of those if it doesn't gat done in the morning it don't get done. I count what I did today thiught on BTB as 30 mins

michelinwoman it sounds like you are on a plateau (I can't spell) try increasing your exercise and eating several small meals through the day instead of 3 and drink lots and lots and lots of water at least 6 8oz glasses a day. You should see some improvement. If you can possibly give up soda that would be good too or change to diet soda. Hope that helps

I first heard about Z-Trim when I read an article on Yahoo health or some such news source. The article was about a school (middle school or high school, I can't remember) that had introduced Z-Trim by mixing it with the salad dressing to halve the amount of fat and calories and the kids couldn't tell the difference and when asked they said it was much better than any low fat kind they had tried. I did a search for Z-Trim and found their website.

Z-Trim was "discovered" by researchers at the USDA. It is made from corn and oat bran. You mix it with water (if you buy the powder) or get it premixed in bottles that look like the squeeze mayo bottles. It has no taste (it is mostly water). When mixed, they call it a gel (it kind of looks like shampoo!). You mix the gel with different things that have a lot of fat in them (cream cheese, butter, sour cream, mayo, salad dressing, etc.) to reduce the fat and calories in the original.

Here is a thread with some more information:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102439

My only complaint is that it is not sold in stores and shipping is expensive! The product itself isn't expensive at all. I guess I ought to order it in larger quantities to keep the shipping cost lower overall. If you order it, they send a lot of literature with recipes for using it. The recipes are also on their website. To find the website, just google Z-Trim. I saw another thread the other day that mentioned something called oatrim which is a similar product. There are also others called nu-trim, etc. I don't know if these are exactly the same or not as I have not tried them--but they do sound like very, very similar products and some are sold in stores (I think Bob's old mill sells oatrim but only in large quantities).