Best of luck to you tomorrow, Allison! I don't think you'll have a problem with the compression stockings -- I have to wear the pantyhose version every day and they don't slow me down. In fact, I learned how to wrestle them on and off one-handed when I had my shoulder surgery (that, and putting on eyeliner with my left hand, were my greatest accomplishments ). So you'll do just fine. It sounds like varicose vein surgery has come a long way in the few years since I had it done.

I'm not Jewish and I hope Robin doesn't mind but Passover (Pesach) is a Jewish celebration (lasts a week?) of freedom from slavery from the Egyptians. You remember the bible story where Moses is all "let my people GO" and the plagues and all the first born sons are going to get killed? The Jews were forewarned and put lamb's blood on their doors, and the angel "passed over" them and spared their children - voila, Passover! So, it's a big deal holiday (to my knowledge) with special food and stories, maybe as big food-wise as Christmas?

I didn't think Robin couldn't eat Splenda because of the holiday (altough I think they skip leavened bread during Passover - I've seen all the matzah stuff at the grocery store), she didn't eat Splenda the way I wouldn't eat Splenda over Christmas (ie it's a big time holiday and I want the real stuff!). Hopefully, Robin will correct me if I got anything wrong

Megan: I'm with michele and friendlykat; I could give up alcohol but I'd struggle with giving up sweets. I was thinking of trying the SugarBusters diet, which requires you to give up all added sugar but I'm glad I decided not to do it. Congratulations to you for giving up both; you must feel great about it!

friendlykat4u: I posted a long treatise on pickling in last week's thread; it's a little too long to repost here so I'm just linking to it (look everyone! I learned something new--how to link to a single post instead of an entire thread!) Pickling is a lot easier than I thought; the only hard part is shoving all the veggies into the jars (you have to really pack them in and with veggies like asparagus or beans, you want to be a little artistic). I never met a pickled veggie I didn't like and I'd have a hard time picking a favorite. I definitely like flavors and veggies that are out of the norm--like asparagus and okra. I once picked up a jar of wasabi pickled beans at Whole Foods that rocked.

alinnell: Good luck with the surgery! How long do you have to wear the compression stocking for? I'm surprised that running doesn't count as walking; I would think that if you ran, you wouldn't need to walk for a full hour. Seems like either one would get the circulation going in your legs (which I assume is the purpose of the walking).

michele: I don't know if you can't count on college curing your DD's slobby ways. I seem to remember that all of my roommates (and I) were pretty slobby in college. I think it is a rare teenager that isn't; it seems like tidiness is a skill you acquire with age.

WaterRat: And here I was complaining about it dropping back down to the mid 60's this week. I guess I should count my blessings. And we are kindred souls when it comes to reading. Not only is Animal Dreams one of my top three favorite books of all time but I'm also a big Winnie the Pooh fan, and I see you quote Winnie the Pooh in your signature.

Meg: Putting on compression pantyhose with one hand--that is a skill! I'd be pretty hard-pressed to get into any pantyhose with just one hand.

From Wikipedia:

Passover is a Jewish holy day and festival commemorating the Exodus from Egypt and the liberation of the Israelites from slavery. It is also known as Festival of the Unleavened Bread

Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew calendar, in accordance with the Hebrew Bible.[2] The Exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place in the spring and so Passover is celebrated in the spring for seven or eight days.

In the story of Moses, God set ten plagues upon the Egyptians to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. The tenth plague was the killing of the firstborn sons. However, the Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb, and upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes, hence the term "passover" When Pharaoh then freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover, no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is also called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread" . Instead, matzah is eaten, and is the primary symbol of the holiday.



Not only do we not eat bread, but we eat nothing that contains any grains (rye, barley, oats, wheat or spelt) or kitniyos. What is Kitniyos? Kitniyos is popularly defined as legumes. Some examples are rice, corn, peas, mustard seed, and the whole bean family (i.e. kidney, lima, garbanzo, etc.)(hence, the reason I was without string beans). We also don't eat anything that isn't certified Kosher for Passover by a rabbinical authority. So it really goes much, MUCH further then just doing without bread.

Splenda has not been certified Kosher for Passover and therefore can not be eaten during the 8 day holiday. It contains some sort of "kitniyos' (as described above) in fact, so I was told. Because I actually emailed the company to find out why the heck it wasn't certified for Passover usage.

There's lots and lots of stuff that we don't eat on Passover. Not only that, our dishes & utensils, pots and pans all have to be changed, our ovens & fridges need to be thoroughly cleaned. All breadstuff must be removed from the house. We cover our counters and sinks. It goes on and on.

At the "seder" that we have the first 2 nights, we tell the story of Passover, which can be found in the Haggadah.

Allison, I wish you the best with your surgery. I need to get that done myself one of these days.

Hi to everyone else.

Robin: While we're on the subject of passover foods, what is matzo? I've seen it in the stores and have a couple of recipes that call for matzo or matzo meal. But what is it exactly? I guess it's not made from beans, corn, or grains. How does it compare nutritionally to, say, whole wheat flour?

It all sounds very hard--both the food restrictions, but, even more so, all the cleaning. My oven and fridge are also in desperate need of a cleaning; maybe a religious holiday that forced me to clean them once a year would be a good thing. My oven is particularly disgusting--it's self cleaning but the door doesn't close properly so we can't run it in cleaning mode (and oven cleaner isn't supposed to be used on self-cleaning ovens). It hasn't been cleaned in the entire 7.5 years we've lived in this house (and who knows how long the previous owners went without cleaning it). I can't believe I actually cook in it and I try never to touch the sides of it.

Robin,
Do you eat kosher on a regular basis?
I am reform Jewish and do not eat Kosher. I have to say that I knew that unleavened breads were off limits for Passover, but I didn't know about the rest-- cleaning of the kitchen, etc.
Thank you for enlightening me!

Barbara, the cleaning part is difficult. But I gotta tell you, if I weren't forced to clean my house so thoroughly, I'm not sure that I would. I say it time and time again, thank goodness that this holiday occurs or else my house might never get a thorough cleaning. Thankfully I have a self cleaning oven so that makes it much easier. And my stovetop is one of the sealed varities so it's not so bad. We move all the furniture around and vaccum underneath, the beds too. All the linens are washed. Chairs and tables scrubbed. Blinds, curtains washed. Chandelier, you name it.

Matzo is made from flour & water. Since we were in a big ole rush to get out of Egypt, there wasn't time for the "bread" to rise and Matzo is what we were left with. It has to be cooked within 18 minutes to be certified "matzo" and kosher. It's cracker like and very good if you ask me.

Matzo meal is crushed matzo and it's used to make the famous "matzo balls", which are quite yummy. It can also be used as a breading and as a thickener.

Here's a link:
http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/6389/matzo.html

Michele, my home is kosher. There are many, many people who do not keep a kosher home all year round, but do so just for the holiday of Passover.

When I was growing up we celebrated nothing except for Thanksgiving. Which I loved and still do. It always bothered me terribly that we didn't celebrate more holidays. Thanksgiving was great and I wanted more of it!

I hated the fact that we had so little and was quite resentful of the fact that all around me, people seemed to have such nice things to celebrate and a reason to get all gussied up for and spend time together with friends and family. And we had - nothing.

So I made sure when I had a family of my own, that my kids had something to look forward to and knew of some traditions. We love celebrating the holidays, all of them, and each one is very special in there own way with their own set of rules and customs. I used to ask my mom about them and she would say they weren't important. They are now very important to me and my family and I couldn't imagine life without them.

Oh, I should mention there is one holiday which I don't enjoy very much. That would be Yom Kippur. Our day of atonement. We don't eat. So you could all probably understand how I wouldn't like it much.

Robin,
Thanks for sharing the info about your home and Passover.

WaterRat and Michele, lack of sleep is no excuse. Trust me. If I strayed off plan everytime I was up all night and had no sleep the next day either, I would be getting no where fast. I offer sympathy for sleep deprivation, but that's it!

Good luck with your surgery, Allison!

Tuesday is my weigh-in morning and today the scale said 142.5! Woohoo! I'm getting so much closer to my maintenance weight than I've been in so long. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself but I'm so excited I'm finally getting results. This is just more motivation to stick with our "no excuses" week and not blow anything! Also, pants-o meter is telling me I'm doing well. I've been able to fit into some pants that I haven't been able to wear in a while. Not all my pants, but some of them, which is progress.

I was feeling crummy yesterday and I didn't want to work out, but I ended up feeling so much better (as always!) after I did. Thank you endorphins.

Robin, thanks for sharing the information on Passover. It sounds like you have instilled some wonderful traditions with your family. I used to know about Passover, but had forgotten in recent years... now I'm better informed again. I can imagine you writing to all these food companies (Splenda, the green bean farmers, etc.) trying to get your favorite diet staples certified Kosher. I do enjoy Matzo ball soup that my good (Jewish) friend made in college.

Allison, I'm sure everything will go fine with your procedure. I hope there is minimal discomfort.

Barbara, Michele, friendlykat, yup, the alcohol was easy, but the sweets were really tough. I can work a few treats into my "maintenance mode" eating plan, but I've been struggling for so many months to lose these few pounds I had to find another place to shed a few calories and just eat really cleanly. Plus both my BF and roommate said they didn't think I could give up chocolate for a whole month, so that made me really determined to prove them wrong! (Stubborn much? )

Thanks everyone for the well wishes! I'll check in this afternoon to let you know how it went.

Barbara~running does count toward walking--but I just can't see fitting it in. Imagine this: get up at 4:30, pry on the compression stocking (which I'll have to wear daily for 10 days) go running, pry off the compression stocking, shower, pry on the compression stocking. If it happens that Meg is correct and it isn't so hard to get on, I'll run as usual (although I did take this morning off), otherwise I'll do a 1/2 hour walk in the morning and another 1/2 hour walk in the evening.

My eating plan is going well so far this week (however I missed inputting my afternoon snack from yesterday and I'm sure that puts me over my calorie allotment). I hope the prednisone I have to take won't mess with my appetite (although it is a side effect).

It's interesting to read about people's different Passover traditions. I come from an interfaith family (dad is Jewish, mom is Lutheran), and while we celebrated the Jewish holidays, we were very far from being strict. We always had a Seder and matzoh, but we never actually kept the 8 days eating rules. DH grew up eating mostly kosher at home (two sets of dishes, but only one oven), but they became lax in later years and never kept Kosher when eating away from home. Now that we live in Indy we celebrate the holidays with his family. Last year we made an attempt to do it halfway -- we didn't clean out anything, but we did try to avoid off-limits foods for the duration of Passover (though we didn't make sure they were all marked kosher for passover). I think the only thing we cheated on was salad dressing with high fructose corn syrup in it. This year our local grocery was sold out of matzoh so we didn't follow the rules at all (beyond having a Seder). Obviously we are pretty bad Jews. :P

Good luck with your surgery Allison!

I'm back. I would have been back sooner, but...

My Husband Forgot ME!!!!

Did I say that loud enough? He dropped me off at about 9:40 and headed to a meeting. He was supposed to pick me up at 11:00, but they were running a little behind, so I texted him and said to come at 11:30. Well, I was done by 11:10 so I called him...got his voice mail...left a message. I figured he'd listen to his voice mail. Well, he finally did (and finally saw the text message, too). He called at 11:30 to say he FORGOT. Imagine me sitting in the doctors office...waiting...and then his call and I say "You forgot me?" The receptionists were all like "he's in so much trouble." He finally got me at 11:55. All he said was he was sorry. I said very little. Stewing...Letting him KNOW how mad I am.

Anyway, it went well. I'm still numb. Weird how when they did the laser it gave me a bad taste in my mouth--something akin to licking cigarette ashes. Ick. Then there was a bit of an antiseptic taste. It's kind of killed my appetite, but I'm getting a headache so it's time for Tylenol and a little snack to kill the taste.

Allison! Rest and take it easy for the rest of the day. DH owes you big time and should be waiting on you hand and foot to make up for forgetting you. I can't believe how much easier your procedure was than mine -- I had general anesthesia and everything! Let us know how you do with the boa constrictors, a/k/a support stockings.

Oh, Allison, I'm on your behalf. My DH used to be awful about that, and when we worked close enough to commute together, it was dreadful! Glad the surgery went well though.

Ooooooooooooooooh he is in TROUBLE!!! Milk it for all it's worth, girl!