paperclippy Thanks. The bread I have is Natures own whole wheat 50 cals a slice and Sara Lee Delightful Wheat 45 cal's a slice. I did tell DH the spaghetti had ground turkey in it after he ate and he said he couldn't tell the difference. The wheat pasta I used this time was healthy harvest that I got at Walmart. It was a little dryer than the white pasta I was used to, but after not having any pasta at all in a yr. and a half, I thought it was heavenly. It was 200 calories for 2 oz.

allison, sorry to hear you are feeling bad. I am just getting over the flu and had a lot of Nausea , fever and chills, headache and sore throat with it. I mention this since you said you had chills and N/V.

Oh, I'm definitely not number 3. As DH had a vasectomy about 2 months before I had to have my hysterectomy.

Hi everyone
Meg-I wish I could be a gym rat, it's just not in me. While doing my yoga last week I fell asleep. Definitely not gym material.

Karynlee-Congrats! I love the roller coaster analogy.

Airregrll-I hope the wrist improves quickly. As for the cold, I'm watching it snow right now and huddling deeper into my blanket.

Lilybelle-I'm glad the calorie counting is going well for you and you feel better. I was having a few intestinal problems myself last week. I added some ground flax to my oatmeal and it's resolved. You might keep that one back if you have more problems.

Anne-I too am revolted by coffee. I've found if you're nauseous enough you don't even notice the headache. ;-)

Allison-Oh, come on and join the fun, lol. It's helping me lose weight, at least for now.

Karynlee Your rollercoaster analogy is perfect--although even the kiddie ones make me feel barfie. Both the real roller coasters and the weightloss type.

Robin- Hope your wrists feel better! Can you get some vioce reconition software and dictate your posts to us?

OK, I an NOT number three either! Been there done that, have the stretch marks, bills and insanity to prove it. I didn't drink coffee at all while pregnant- no coffee, no tylenol or other OTC medications, no cough syrup, cough drops, wine, etc. My doc was VERY strict about it. It was the coffee that I missed the most.

I did my leg workout early this morning, trained a few clients, went shopping for boots (there aren't many left unless you wear a size 5 or 11 ), and just finish 40 minutes of elliptical. Time to hit the shower!

Meg- you were supposed to keep that snow bottled up in western PA for me!

Mel

Hi Meg - I loved your opening post. It is soooo true that the thin people we see day to day are often people who work very hard at being thin. When I'm at my goal weight, I'm quite thin and I stay that way by working out every morning at 5 am and eating salad bar for lunch most days. When I was working, my colleagues always commented on how I never ate much and how I was afraid to get fat, etc. etc. This from women who ate grilled cheese and french fries every day and were not in very good shape. I'd get frustrated because I wished they realized how hard I worked for what I had.

These days, I'm still 10 pounds above goal weight, since having my baby 11 weeks ago. I know it has not been long enough for me to lose all the weight, but it is hard keeping on track day after day. But so far, the scale is moving down, so I'm happy with that!

Congratulations Karynlee, you sound like you are doing so well. Getting through the holidays was probably not easy, but look where you are now. Wow!

And congratulations to Anne and Joyofsix! How exciting! I can relate to the coffee headaches - they're the worst!! Hopefully the queasiness will pass soon.

Paperclippy- The best whole wheat pasta I've found is Healthy Harvest Extra Wide Noodle. It looks like an egg noodle, but doesn't have egg in it. It has a MUCH SOFTER texture than the other ww pastas and a very mild flavor, but all the nutritional properties of ww pasta are still there. We searched far and wide, trying ALL kinds of ww pastas for our restaurant. We settled on this one because of what I mentioned above. Some people who order it come back and tell us they think it wasn't whole wheat! It's that mild and good. I think you'll love it! Here is a link to the Healthy Harvest products web page:

http://www.healthyharvestpasta.com/our_products.htm

Meg and Mel, both of you were 100% correct on my calories. After my body got used to the extra carbs and fiber for a few days, I realized 1400 wasn't going to keep me full at all. I had 1800 today and will see what happens at this level for a while. I'm trying to increase my protein a little more to help me feel full longer.I am loading up on fresh fruits, veggies and whole wheat. (well, I admit I did share a 100 cal. snack pack with my grandson and I had 1oz. of fat free pringles with my turkey sandwich for lunch).

Today:

Cal's 1803, fat 30%, carbs 53%, protein 17%. I'd really like to try to keep my cal. level at this rate but find a way to decrease my carbs or fat a little and increase my protein.

It is good to see everyone! I feel like our whole maintainers family is here.

I'm drinking ginger tea instead of coffee this morning. It is NOT the same. But I had to leave work early yesterday due to nausea so I made a ginormous ginger run at Trader Joe's. Triple ginger ginger snaps, ginger candy, ginger tea. We'll see if that helps. I'm also going to see if I can find my SeaBands from the first time around. They were useless then so I chucked them into a drawer, but I'll try just about anything now.

Anne

SlimLindy - thanks for the info! I will definitely look that one up. I wish all the ww pastas had the same texture as regular pasta. We have a bag of ww rotini sitting in the closet that's been there for months because after some bad experiences with ww pasta we're afraid to eat it!

After reading all the stories about pregnancy and nausea I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't ever have kids after all. It sounds pretty unpleasant!

SlimLindy--thanks on the info for "egg" noodles. I'm planning on a batch of turkey soup this weekend and was wondering if they made a ww version.

Anne--I hope your morning sickness is short lived.

Lily--I've been looking really closely at my calories, too. I thought I was eating 1200-1400 per day but have realized it is closer to 1800. No wonder I'm not losing! I'm going to be extra careful today. I had only 1 glass of wine last night and that finished to bottle, so no more temptation. I hope to make it until Valentine's without buying any. We'll see how it goes. I'll probably give into a beer during super bowl, though.

Side note, I ordered that stuff called Z Trim and it arrived last night. Just in time, I might add. I made fish tacos for dinner last night and had only 2 T of sour cream for the 4 of us. I added 2 T Z Trim to the sour cream and mixed it up and no one (even me--who is a total sour cream lover) could tell the difference! There is no taste, no change in texture, nothing. But it cuts the calories in half. They suggest adding it to commercial salad dressing to cut the fat (I can't stand low fat varieties of salad dressing). I am going to make a dip this weekend that I've made many times before and I'll see if anyone can tell the difference. Here's the recipe:

Old:
8 oz cream cheese
1 package Jimmy Dean sage sausage
1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies

Cook sausage and drain, add other ingredients and mix. Heat and serve with chips.

New:
4 oz cream cheese
4 oz Z Trim
1 package Morning Star Farms crumbles
1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies

Mix and heat.

Gee even the new recipe is easier!!! I'll report back after the Super Bowl.

Alli - that Z Trim stuff sounds bonkers. I'm completely skeptical of it - have you got any studies etc about it?

I've just googled it and I wasn't understanding at all! It's a fat-replacement thing isn't it? It doesn't magically cancel out the calories of the fat in a product, you use less fat and substitute the rest with Z-Trim am I right?

allison, let us all know how well the Z-trim works for you. I am just leaving out the butter and sour cream because I don't like the lowfat versions. I am going to try the lowfat ranch dressing, see if I can tolerate it. I always loved full fat ranch.

Calories sure can creep up if we aren't careful. I had no idea I was eating 2300 a day doing Atkins til I plugged my food in fitday. I was maintaining my wt. on this pretty well. I dropped all the way to 1400 when I started calorie counting and it was enough the first few days. Now, I'm up to 1800 and I'll see how it goes. I think I can maintain on this many cal's as I lost 2 lbs. this past week on the 1400. I may have to tweak it some, but I'm willing to give it a try at 1800.

SlimLindy, I'll try that kind of ww pasta too. Sounds good. The healthy harvest the other night I cooked was pretty good but seemed a little firm and dry to me. DH thought it was great.

Anne, hope you feel better soon. Morning sickness definitely isn't fun. That ginger tea does sound good.

I had 3 slices turkey bacon with my ww pancakes this morning. Trying to up my protein. I'll be gone til late this evening, going to my 17 yr. old step-daughters awards assembly and basketball game. She is homecoming queen. I hope that dinner this evening out doesn't throw me for a loop with my calorie counting. We're eating at one of the few small restaurants available and I plan to have baked chicken, salad and a baked potato. Will try to be extra careful with the butter and salad dressing. All along since starting my wt. loss journey, I have felt more comfortable making my food choices at home and cooking for my self.

I was really surprised with the Z Trim. I ordered 3 bottles for $10 (the shipping cost over $10!!!). I thought that should be enough to give it a good try. With it, they sent a folder with recipe book and a DVD. I think the DVD just has all the little YouTube videos that show you how to make the recipes. I haven't actually looked at the DVD yet. It also had a news article (the one that I had read a couple of weeks ago in MSNBC) and several pages on how the stuff is made--probably to prove its safety.

Lily--I absolutely cannot stand low fat or fat free dressings or sour cream. Mayo I don't have a problem with, though. That's probably because I don't use a lot of mayo on my sandwiches.

jen--yes it is a fat replacement. They call it a gel. It looks like vaseline, but isn't sticky like vaseline. It is really rather unappetizing to look at. I tasted it alone and the texture is pleasing. I can't really explain it. But there is no taste at all. And yes, you just add it to the real thing and mix it up and use it like you would use the real thing (real thing meaning butter, mayo, salad dressing, etc.--anything fat). The main ingredient is water and the rest is the hulls of grains like corn, bran, and something else. How on earth did the USDA invented this stuff? Anyway, I'll be experimenting with it for the next few weeks and I'll report back.

Hmmmm I see - sounds fantastic but I don't really use that much fat making stuff so I can't see where I'd use it but it does sound interesting

Wow, I'd never heard of this Z Trim stuff before. I always use plain fat-free yogurt as a replacement in salad dressings, sauces, and things that call for sour cream, and as a replacement for butter in baked goods (it works amazingly well, you just need to add a little extra baking soda).

Fitday is an amazing tool. I also had a revelation today when I finally finished entering in all my food from the past week and a half or so. I thought I had been eating 1400-1600 since that was what I had eaten on the days I entered it in to Fitday. But after entering in all of my info, it turns out I had a couple 2000 calorie days.

I also love their reports. Since I have been entering things over the past two weeks, my average calories per day are 1744, with 63% carbs, 19% fat, and 17% protein (and 1% alcohol from a couple glasses of wine!). I think that is a pretty good expression of my typical eating habits -- I really ought to replace some of the carbs with protein, this has been a consistent problem for me.

We're going to check out a new gym after work today, hopefully it will be nice and we can get a membership there!