I hear so much about Fage yogurt, and I've looked in all the grocery stores between here and Anchorage (50 miles) and no one carries it. Boo. :( I'll have to look when I go visit someone Outside (which is what we call the lower 48 states - with a capital O! :lol: ) I know I could thicken up other yogurts by draining them, and I have done that, guess I just need to do it again. But what does that do to the calorie count, hmmmm. I guess I strain a measured amount, say a cup, that I know the calorie count for and then use the same count for the lesser amount. Any thoughts?

I just finished my yummy lunch of warmed up tamale pie over a spinach, red pepper and mushroom salad. And I still have an orange and some cottage cheese for this afternoon.

And yes, I want to know about grilled cabbage too!

I love the Fage 0%! Too much sometimes. I also add chopped walnuts when I mix it with honey. Yum! I just ordered a case of the quart size from my local co-op because they only carry the 0% in the small size. I really like the Trader Joe's Greek yogurt, too, but we don't have a TJ's in town. And welcome, BTW! :)

All this talk about salmon makes me want to go open a can. I can eat canned salmon right out of the can. My favorite salmon recipe comes from Cooking Light and involves a rub of cumin, paprika, salt and pepper--very simple and very yummy.

Interesting talk about fats. When I was on the RV trip with my sister, we ate roasted sunflower seeds and almonds every day, something I don't do at home, and these "cookies" she made out of ground nut meal, dried fruit, egg whites and honey. Plus we drank wine every night. At my official WW weigh-in, I'd lost 3.8 pounds. I'm not sure what that was all about, but I like it. I do hope it wasn't 3.8 lbs. of my hard-earned muscle.

Only two more days until my DH gets home. I haven't seen him for a month. I'll get to see him for the next three weeks, then he'll be gone for another five weeks. I keep telling myself this is nothing compared to what military spouses go through.

This is a very, very, very complicated recipe, so pay close attention:
1. buy a cabbage - any color or kind you like
2. cut the core out - makes a hole about halfway through the cabbage
3. dump in 1-2 tablespoons of EVOO and 3-4 smashed garlic clove pieces. If I get the really small heads of garlic from the farmer's market I just smash the whole thing, pick off the big chunks of dry husk and throw the whole thing in.
4. wrap in aluminum foil
5. put on the grill

Isn't that a tough one? I leave it on 30-45 minutes depending on how big the head is. I like it with salt, but DD doesn't, so I just salt it as I eat it. It just falls apart and is yummy. Hope you like it if you try it!

Hi everyone, I made it back from OK City today with Lacy from her EGD. The test showed some type of "foreign body" in her espophagus and the gastroenterologist is going to go over the test results with the surgeon that did her first hiatal hernia repair. The GI Dr. thinks it is surgically necessary to remove the "foreign body" and redo the hiatal hernia. Now, we need to see what the surgeon thinks. There was also a large "white patch" that indicated an ulcer and she was put on 2 new med's for this. Still calling back tomorrow to see when her appt. with the cardiologist will be (so they can see about the vascular ring indention that has re-grown). So the big gist is more tests, more Dr. appt's, upcoming surgeries.

Happy to report that I'm still 100% smoke-free. Yeah! DH made it home from work yesterday and he has agreed not to smoke in the house or when he is with me. Yeah, that will help!

I have a very busy schedule every day until next Tuesday and I'm already wishing for rest. Tomorrow though is fishing and I'll be sure to fill the gas tank before we leave town. BTW, my friend Vonda, won $12,500 in a bass tournament last week. Her DH is jealous, LOL.

Lily-- I hope you get some answers soon regarding Lacy's tests. I'm impressed that you are able to stay smoke free when others in your environment are smoking.

Hello to the newbies! I am fairly new here myself and have found so much great motivation and advice already.

Robin: I'm definitely paying a premium for freshness but the salmon I get is worth every penny (to be honest, I don't really know what I pay for it, I'm just guessing). I can get salmon for $8 or $9 a lb at Safeway, but the decline in quality and flavor is remarkable. My farmers' market fish monger has spoiled me; I can no longer eat fish from the grocery store. In fact, I always had trouble eating fish until I started buying it fresh from the farmers' market. The "fishy" taste always bothered me, but it turns out that fresh fish doesn't have that taste. Sometimes the fish my guy sells has literally been just caught that morning (not the salmon coming from Alaska, though :lol:) and the freshness makes a huge difference.

Traci: That cabbage recipe sounds fantastic. I wonder if I can do it in the stove, maybe by broiling it. We only have a charcoal grill; it's a big pain to use and I don't think we could keep the coals hot enough to grill something for 30-45 min. Does the cabbage hold up well in the fridge or do you have to eat it all right away? My SO won't eat cooked cabbage, so it would just be for me and I can't really eat a whole cabbage in one sitting. Maybe I could just do a wedge wrapped in foil with a little EVOO drizzled on it and some garlic spread on it.

lilybelle: I hope you figure out the problem with Lacy's esophagus. I have a health condition that causes my esophagus to narrow and food sometimes gets stuck in it, so I know how scary it can be when that happens.

That's how I would figure the calories. But I think you could just use regular plain yogurt for the parfaits. Since you are sweetening the yogurt, it's not as important that it be Greek yogurt. I also love McD's fruit and yogurt parfaits and they sure aren't using Greek yogurt. If you want the yogurt to be a little creamier, use low-fat instead of non-fat. I think it only adds around 20 calories per cup and you can make a nice sized parfait with just half a cup of yogurt (so the low-fat is only an extra ten calories).

I will also sometimes buy Yoplait light fat free yogurts in the dessert-type flavors (vanilla, Boston cream pie, Key Lime pie, apple turnover) and eat one of those as my evening snack. But they do have HFCS in them (it is the number 2 ingredient), so I'm not sure they work if you are trying avoid carbs.

Stupid, stupid computer. It just turned off and I lost my entire post. Drats.

Shortened version

Barbara, I am loving, loving the salmon that I eat. But what you're eating, I don't know, it sounds like a whole other level.

And I also think that cabbage recipe sounds devine. I was wondering if I could just bake it in the oven. Hmmm...

Lily, I am so happy and quite frankly, not surprised to hear that you have remained smoke free. Once you set your mind to something - you go out and get it done. Atta girl!! I sure hope you get some resolution with Lacy. :hug:

I have tried the Fage yogurt. And I just don't like it. It's way too smooth for me. Reminds me of sour cream, which is probably one of the few calorie laden foods that I've always despised. So I just stick with my 60 calorie Dannon Light & Fit yogurt. Yes, it contains Splenda. It comes in a variety of flavors and I love lots of them. I eat 2 - 3 a day. I eat them partially frozen and with 1/4 cup Fiber One Cereal. I really, really like them.

You absolutely can bake it in the oven if your DH won't whine about the smell. :-) Mine does. Also - on the grill you get a smoky flavor that you don't get in the oven, but it's still good.

I have done just a wedge or a half before and it works, too. And I put the leftovers in the fridge. It's not quite as flavorful leftover, but it's still good. We had a small head last night and we hadn't had it for a while, so DD and I damaged it pretty well. It melts like butter in you mouth. YUM!

Lily - My husband quit smoking about two years before I did. I don't think I could have stopped if he was still smoking, so you have my admiration. I hope everything is okay with your daughter. I just learned how to spell the long word for EGD last week in nursing school, so I understand what she's going through. We had to take our daughter for a barium swallow test once and that was strain enough. She was born with an incomplete cardiac sphinchter and was having GERD issues, so they wanted to make sure her esoph and trach were not connected by fistula. We were lucky, hope you will be, too.

Robin - who's winning the battle at your house? You or your computer? :-)

Good morning all! Just had to share my great mood. After 4 weeks of no movement on the scale (and 3 disasterous run-ins with chocolate and ice cream as I wallowed in my self-destructiveness!) I hopped on the scale at the gym this morning and whoosh - 3 pounds down! I guess my body had been refusing to budge because I've been working out pretty hard and retaining water in my muscles - and probably not eating quite enough to sustain the workouts. So I'm upping my calories to 1600 (from 1500) during the week, with 1800 on Fridays and Sat., and hope this continues. I also am convinced this is the weight loss gods' way of rewarding me for finally delurking and starting to post on here with all you wonderful maintainers! So I'm giving myself my very first carrot, :carrot:, and wishing all of you a wonderful day!

And next week you're going to see me in the No Excuses thread if that thread continues - I want to keep this progress going!

Debbie

You have nothing to fear Debbie. Nothing at all. There are no "ifs" about it. The *excuses* thread - it WILL be continuing. I look forward to seeing you there :smug:. Congrats on those 3 lbs. :carrot:

Traci, it's actually my phone line(s) that has been giving us lots of problems this week, not the computer. So our DSL keeps going out. As far as the cabbage goes, I could definitely see where grilling it would give it some added flavor. But for now I am going to try it in the oven.

Hi all,

Yesterday went well and I'm having another good day so far food and exercise-wise. I did 35 min. elliptical + 25 min. stairmaster (totally kicked my butt!) at the gym yesterday. Today is a low impact workout day. I'm going to skip the gym and go work in my garden instead, b/c at 7:00 I'm going to a belly dancing class, which I really enjoy as an alternative workout. I do need to watch myself - if I don't go to the gym straight from work, the "extra time" (even if I have something to do!) can cause my mouth to have a mind of its own. I've got a lot of weeds to pull in the garden, laundry to do, I don't need to eat until dinnertime!

Traci, that grilled cabbage sounds delicious, I will definitely try it. Too often I get stuck in a salad rut b/c it's easy and I know how to make it, whereas I don't have as many "on call" recipes in my head for other veggies.

Lily, sorry to hear about Lacy's ongoing medical problems. Congrats for not smoking under the stress. Sounds like DH is being supportive too, that's great.

Pat, I live somewhere they don't sell Greek 0% yogurt either. You're not alone! I finally saw Oikos brand 2% at the coop in the city (90 miles away), and had a total brain fart and just thought "why would I want plain yogurt, anyway?" I usually buy Stoneyfield farms lowfat or nonfat flavored varieties... guess I'm just too lazy to sweeten my own.

Sheila, I always find it interesting when I eat a different type of diet during a trip, or for whatever reason, and my body responds in a way totally different from what I expect. I think I know my body well, only to be reminded that I don't understand it at all sometimes... :dizzy: Sounds like you had a fun trip though!

Deb, congrats on the scale finally moving! I will also be in any "no excuses" thread there may be next week, so I will see you (and Robin) there!

Tomorrow is Friday! Have a great night all.

up and down with no explanation
 

This has been one heck of a week. On one hand, I kept my "promise", no excuses, and have stayed away from the SF caramel candies. I really really really wanted some yesterday. I'm glad there were none in the house; I might not have been strong enough to stay out of them. On the other hand, my bathroom scale and my weight has been unbelievable.

The worst was yesterday. After cutting back all week and walking to and from work and to and from anywhere I could come up with, the scale last night rewarded me by increasing 9 lbs. I couldn't believe it! I thought it was the sweats I had on, so, you got it, I stripped out of them. Nope, that only brought it down 2 lbs. I was so upset. Here I was being so careful with what I ate and I was exercising. I went to bed in a real funk. I was so upset with that dang scale. So, I got up this morning. I had convinced myself that I should really tighten it up starting this morning. Got on the scale and what the heck! It was down 9 lbs. Why? I can't make sense of that kind of change overnight nor can I figure out why my weight went up and down so dramatically. I hate when my weight does that, but I was telling my husband about it and he commented that it seemed like my weight did that about every 2 months--went up inexplicably and then went down a day or two later--weird. Anyway, I usually weigh in the morning, so I'm going to stay off that dang scale at night. I'm actually 2 lbs lower than I was two days ago. I wondered why that scale wasn't going down when I was walking so much more, but my feet were sore and my back and shoulder muscles just ached, so maybe this is about water retention. I'm ok now. In fact, I hate to say this, but I'm better than ok. I don't have to get really strict with myself (I hate really tightening it down like that for a couple days). Don't know what I can do about that nutsy change in weight that appears to happen off and on (every couple months), but I guess knowing it's happening should help to calm me down as long as I watch it.

One thing this did bring home to me is that I haven't been as good about measuring as I should. I'm certain I was overeating on fruits--it's strawberry season, and I love strawberries! So, I am going to start weighing and measuring again. I need to be more careful. I think I was reaching that tipping point where I would start to gain because I was overeating in a healthy way.
Hope everyone else is having a good week. My new no excuses goal is to either ride my bike 20 minutes or walk the 20 minutes to work. Since I really prefer to be outside, I've walked every day this week. Tomorrow, though, might be a bike day as I don't have to work on Fridays and need to get my day moving early. This weekend, I'll be away from home, a challenge I am all to familiar with on weekends, so I'll be looking for ways to exercise. Thankfully, Sat a.m. is free, so I'm hoping for a beautiful morning (for a walk) or a great exercise room at the hotel.

Hi everyone, I must admit I am still 100% smoke-free. (tomorrow will be one full week, Yippee). I'm still very much wanting one at times, but not as much as I did the first couple of days. Now to get my eating back under control. Uggh, it's been ugly.


traci, if DH would quit smoking it would make it easier on me, but I can only change myself. He made it a grand total of one hour before lighting up outside after he got home this week. Uggh. At least he's being respectful and smoking outside.

Thanks everyone about Lacy. I hope we get the answers soon.

I'll catch up more tomorrow on the chat, I'm very sleepy right now.

I wish that, just once, my body would lose weight when I wasn't expecting it. I've never come back from a vacation lighter than when I left, that's for sure!

I love love love :love: my Trader Joe's FF plain Greek yogurt and I eat a cup of it unsweetened every morning. I think it is much better than Fage. I can tolerate Fage if TJ's is out of their brand, but I consider it a distant second.

Robin: I do think Greek yogurt is very similar to sour cream. In fact, I use it as substitute for sour cream all the time, even on things like tacos and potatoes. So if you don't like sour cream, I can see where you wouldn't like Greek yogurt.

Goal: My guess is the weight gain you saw was just water weight, especially since it disappeared overnight (either that or it's time to invest in a new scale :lol:). Sore muscles retain water, more water than you'd think. Whenever I am sore, my weight is always up quite a bit. On the one hand, I like the soreness because it means I'm making progress, but seeing the weight on the scale can be frustrating. Sometimes I just retain water for no reason that I can think of. During the early part of this week, my weight was up for no reason--my eating was POP (my calories were even low for a couple of days), my exercise was normal, my muscles weren't sore, it wasn't TOM, I wasn't taking any medication other than what I take every day, I drank my normal amount of fluids, I didn't eat anything particularly high in sodium, I hadn't drank any alcohol...there was simply no explanation for it but I was retaining water. So long as I know that I haven't been eating off-plan, I don't worry about these fluctuations. It's all calories in, calories out. I'm not going to gain weight without consuming a lot of extra calories; if I haven't eaten enough to gain weight, I know it is just water and my body will release it eventually.

lilybelle: Congrats on staying quit from smoking. I can't imagine trying to quit with another smoker in the house. Heck, kudos to you for living with a smoker for so long; it's always tough when one person smokes and the other doesn't. That must make you some kind of saint ;).

Traci: I'm definitely trying the cabbage next week. My SO will get over the smell; I made baked tofu this week and that smelled pretty bad; I can't imagine the cabbage could be worse.

Good morning all! I've had a great week food and exercise-wise, and am feeling really strong heading into the weekend. Which is good, because my husband and I are heading up to a bed and breakfast in the Hudson Valley to celebrate our anniversary. I've gotten really great about managing my intake at restaurants (with planned treats, of course - including an anniversary dessert!), but the wonderful breakfasts they serve at B&Bs are just evil. All those delicious breads and pastries, egg dishes, pancakes ... yum! I will be strong though, will do my best, and will be back on-line Monday morning (and joining that No Excuses thread to make sure I get RIGHT back perfectly on plan).

Megan: Hope you enjoyed the gardening. I'm a city girl. The one time I lived in a house with a garden I found the novelty of weeding wore off really fast!

Lilybelle: congratulations on nearing the one week mark smoke-free. I'm really impressed.

Blue: It's great that you are able to not let those crazy annoying scale fluctuations get you down. I'm actually getting better at that all the time, but it's still hard. I think it might help now that I'm trying to switch my mind to a "maintenance" mindset instead of "losing."

Goal: I just have to say: STRAWBERRIES! I love them, and could eat them in bushels! Definitely tough to stop after a reasonable portion.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Debbie