Yesterday at work I had to go troubleshoot some equipment 8 feet underwater, which meant doing a little diving 8 feet below the surface in water so dark and murky it might as well have been night, and rather cold to boot. We got back late and I went home and took a hot shower to warm up instead of going to the gym. I figure I burned a few calories shivering, anyways. HIIT may not happen 3x this week... but I can't do much about that. I have to go back in the water this afternoon, but I did get my gym workout in early today. I can't help that, so I can just accept it.

Food has been POP with my slightly increased calorie intake, and I'm slightly less ravenous, which is nice!

Sounds like you had a great day midwife! :carrot:

Yesterday was spot on, picture perfect. If I could be 4 lbs from where I am right now, I'd be thrilled (Again, I'm still *within* redline, just staying right at the very top of it for almost 3 months straight without seeing the bottom). So to acheive that - more spot on, picture-perfect days this week!

Yesterday came in about 300 calories under my maintenance goal, not so much planned as passed out listening to music so went to bed instead of snacked. Like Amanda, I'm right at my redline and am going to be working over the next couple of months to come back down some. Or at least get a better handle on the reasons why I'm hanging at redline now that half marathon is over and I can focus more on protein and such before ramping up for the next one.

Food has been good today so far. Whew.

There's a birthday cake in the breakroom. I'm commiting right now that none of it is for me. I'll be back later with my report that I didn't eat any.

Yeah, so, it's Passover, which means Seders at the relatives' house last night and tonight. Passover may be forcing me onto the reduced grains bandwagon, but matzoh toffee and matzoh meal cake are still toffee and cake! Argh.

What is matzoh toffee? (meybbe I really don't what to know....)

LOL Midwife, I'm not entirely sure. It's some kind of candied matzoh (if you're not familiar with matzoh, it's basically like a tasteless saltine cracker), coated in chocolate and nuts. Tastes like toffee, but is made from some kosher for Passover ingredients and matzoh instead.

A friend of mine takes graham crackers and placed them on a cookie sheet and tops them with a brown sugar/butter/vanilla mixture and then bakes them. Tastes just like toffee. I wonder if the recipes are similar. She makes them once a year, which is good cause I always eat more than my share.

Happy Passover!

Prep: 15 min., Cook: 8 min., Bake: 15 min., Stand: 32 min., Chill: 30 min. "My neighbor Marion Usher always includes this recipe for her brittle when she offers it as a gift," says James H. Schwartz, Executive Editor of our sister publication Coastal Living. "It's irresistible."

Yield: Makes about 20 pieces (about 1 1/2 lb.)
Ingredients
3 1/2 sheets unsalted matzos
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
1/3 cup finely chopped toasted slivered almonds
Preparation
1. Line a 15- x 10-inch jelly-roll pan with nonstick aluminum foil. Arrange matzos in prepared pan, breaking as necessary to fit and completely cover bottom of pan.

2. Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Boil, stirring constantly, 3 minutes. Carefully pour mixture evenly over matzos in pan, and spread over matzos.

3. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. (Mixture will start to bubble at about 10 minutes. Continue to bake to 15 minutes.) Carefully remove pan from oven to a wire rack. (Mixture will still be bubbly.) Let stand 1 minute at room temperature or until no longer bubbly. Sprinkle top evenly with morsels; let stand 1 minute or until morsels soften. Spread morsels over brittle. Sprinkle with almonds; let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Place pan in refrigerator; chill 30 minutes or until chocolate is firm. Break into about 20 pieces. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week in refrigerator.

Note: For testing purposes only, we used Manischewitz Unsalted Matzos.

From Southern Living, November 2006

I once had a Tollhouse cracker that had nuts and caramel drizzled over it. It was divine and I'd have to think fewer calories than the real thing.

Sounds yummy! Definitely not on my plan right now, though. No Easter candy. No matzoh toffee.

Yesterday food was POP. Didn't run. That's okay. I'm focusing on food right now.

I had dark chocolate and toffee matzah last night! It was good, crazy good. (Shannon, that recipe should be banned!!)
But I had a small amount and found myself scale stable since monday am,127. All in all I did fairly well with 2 nights of seders and weekend of off plan treats.

Jessica, will you be bread free for the next several days? My family rule (this year) is no sandwich bread but cereal ok. Last year I did allow pizza. Now everyone is getting a little older, I'm thinking matzah pizza only.

I brought a brisket to my friends house last night. My brisket was well received but I would have preferred it to be more tender. The success was that I originally was rushing and made it too salty and was able to correct that.

Amanda, I'm remembering back to last year's scale frustrations. How did that work out? Did you up cals, lower cals or simply ride out some karmic interference ;)

Megan, I hear you on the hunger thang. As mentioned, my food choices have not been great for several days and I am finding myself hungrier than ever. BACK TO PLAN!!!!

Midwife, I'm glad you rocked the wedding menu :)

And a little more news...I scheduled my abdominoplasty and "flank" liposuction :p :carrot: where's the nervous smilie??

Returning. I lost the maintenance attitude somewhere around the first of the year, and was beginning to slide back into some bad habits. I'm 2 days back on plan ... and feeling much relieved!

Hi ICU, glad to see you!!

So, IIRC, the idea behind Maztoh is that there was no time to allow the bread to rise before fleeing Egypt, is that correct? So the idea of the Maztoh part of remembering the Passover is to avoid any yeasty products? I'm thinking back....this is filtered through a Catholic school upbringing, mind you. I do like brisket! How do you make yours?

Congrats on schduling the sx, Kitty! Very exciting!

Welcome back, Becky! How's the swimming?