Good morning everybody! Its comfy day at work, this is Homecoming week so everyday the kids get to dress according to a certain theme. Today is Cowboy day which means staff got to wear jeans to work, ahhhh! LOL I've got on my lowrise jeans with my shirt tucked in and I have to say that feels amazing!

My 2 whole days of NO starches has netted me a 4 1/2 pound loss. I know its water and its just getting rid of the few pounds I was UP on the scale at WI last week. Just shows how much overeating starches makes our bodies retain water!

Amy-Congrats girlie, awesome job!

Ternoway-Congrats on the compliment, sure makes all this hard work worth it!

Lettie-Glad the NS is working for you! Keep up the good work!

Amy way to go on that hurdle! Lettie hide out here all you want.. we won't let you go!

We have become fans of Spaghetti Squash too and here is a simple and tasty way to make a great side dish.. I cook this with grilled pork tenderloin and green beans.. you feel like you are having pasta but you aren't!

INGREDIENTS
1 pound spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/4 cup reduced-fat grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
1/2 small lemon, sliced


DIRECTIONS
Place the squash halves, cut sides down, in a glass baking dish. Add 1/8 cup water and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 8-10 minutes until tender; cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the onion and cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the zucchini and cook for 4-5 minutes until the zucchini begins to brown. Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Reduce the heat; simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Using a fork, scrape the squash strands into a bowl. Toss with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Mound the squash in the center of 4 pasta bowls and spoon the vegetable mixture around the squash. Drizzle with more oil, if desired, and garnish with Parmesan cheese, if using. Add the lemon slices.
4 Servings

Joni where the heck did KimPhin go???

Kristen-That recipe just counts as a veggie right? I'm going to have to try that, it looks good!

It's a south beach recipe but all I see are veggies, 1 Fat for the oil and since it is 4 servings likely a 1/4 dairy.. it is really good.. you can also just use it as a pasta replacement and top with tomato sauce (low sodium of course Dan) and mix in some sauteed veggies and top with parmenan for a primavera type dish :)

Man, that sounds really good! I'm gonna have to go grocery shopping! LOL

I read a post the other day by somebody, Liz I think about moving to green. I was told at my COD that I wouldnt move to green until I reached 134. Like that is ever gonna happen! So if you're on gold you're likely to stay there a while!

Morning gang...

Things are going well here.. I'm going to take half a day off!!

Liz is going to start adding some more protein to her diet and see if that gets the losses going again. Since she's upped her activity by taking Taekwon Do, she thought she'd try that... She's busy as heck at work, while I'm kind of in a "down time" now that fire season and the State Fair are over.. I have some projects coming up, but nothing right now..

Sorry to prattle on... Probably shouldn't, but I'm going to have more of my chicken green chile soup for lunch again today.. I made so much I hate to see it wasted.. I wonder if it would freeze ok...

Good Wednesday Afternoon! Hope everyone is have a better on plan day than I am. We had our annual special awards day at work today to coincide with the anniversary of our organization. The lunch actually wasn't bad (stuffed chicken not much stuffing at all, veggie lasagna, green beans and carrots steamed, and fruit. I had small amounts of each but the problem is that I broke down and had bday cake. It wasn't worth it though, not very good. I've got a work out scheduled for this pm though so maybe I'll work it off:)

Not much time for personals, hopefully I can check in later.

Kristen, I think I need to buy a spaghetti squash too, that sounds too good.

Kim, Wow... I'm so jealous, just cut back on starch and lose 4 and a half pounds!!!!! I wish... I really do. I've cut back to weight loss portions for a MONTH and done 2 TO and now a plateau buster and the net result, still 5 pounds up... considering I was 3 pounds up after the first TO, well I am just getting discouraged. Oh well, I did have a few slips last week with the pizza and the chinese food lunch, so I guess that wiped out a whole MONTH of trying.. darn... OH well, guess I haven't done a FF yet.. Perhaps I'll try that... something has to work! I KNEW this would be hard, as it was so hard to get these pounds off the first time... I'm beginning to think my body just does NOT want to be that low... If only my husband weighed more than me, I'd be OK, but darned it all I think I'm back up to weighing more than him and that just sucks.... and trying to sneaky feed the man is not working... LOL..

Kristen -
I got this msg from her earlier this week when I asked for Challenge updates:

Barbara, there's NO WAY a daliance with pizza and Chinese could wipe out a month of healthy eating.. You might see a day or two of higher scale weights, but that's mostly because of your body still processing the physical food..

If I can be decidely undelicate, can I ask how your regularity is? I know my lack of it has made WI's particulary weird on occassion...

Are you getting in your water and hot lemon water? How about your salt intake?

It may also be time to visit your doctor.. Show him/her your daily menu diaries and see what he/she thinks may be the problem...

:wave:Hi All..I went to see a new doctor yesterday (6 month thyroid checkup- old doc moved) and picked his brain on why I may not be losing....of course who really knows, but he suggested that since I have been working out at the gym like crazy three to four days a week that I should try to tone it down and not go to the gym and just try walking for an hour a day to see if that makes any changes. His thinking is that while I'm doing at lot of cardio, I'm working too hard and need to slow it down to burn fat. I have a hard time staying in that heart range that says you burn fat because I don't feel like I'm working hard enough. I'm going to try it and see if it doesn't work....no more gym for me for a couple of weeks and walk, walk, walk for me. I'm hoping this will help.

TT Kim - 4.5 pounds....yay....just no carbs...amazing!

Lettie - congrats on the loss...I just may be joining you doing something different if my scale doesn't start moving in the right direction

Joni - thanks for the update on Kimphin

A big hello to everyone else.....hope your week is going well.

Liza - do you cover breaking news like this:
Carrie - Just my two cents. If you have a good workout routine going, and you enjoy it and it makes you feel good, DON'T STOP!!! I've been on this site for about 18 months and whenever someone stops working out to get their weight loss moving, it really doesn't help. Mix up your routine a bit, vary your exercises, but don't quit; continue with weights and cardio; you need them both. Go to the main 3FC site and post something on the Exercise thread and see what some of the experts on that site have to say. I used to have a great gym routine and stopped and now I'm having the hardest time getting back into it.

Thanks Joni - I know how hard it is to get back into after being out of the routine for a while. I will check the exercise thread out.

Carrie, I might try that too, just dial it down a bit on the cardio intensity and see if it helps. It does seem to me that the harder I push myself with exercise intensity, the less luck I have getting the scale to move.

Dan, I am a regular kind of gal... LOL... Perhaps I'm retaining a little water... I will drink a small lake today, break out the HLW and see if the scale is any kinder tomorrow. I've got to check the labels for sodium more carefully, as I've gotten a little lax lately and it really does not take much to keep the scale from showing a loss.