Are you close to your TOM? Since going on this diet I have turned into a complete freak show around this time. I have never really had PMS but I guess there is something going on with estrogen and fat stores (as it was explained to me). Anyway, it makes me want to attack people and steal their food, basically.

Veggies, Shrimp & Chicken is really good cooked on the Grill! You can cut Sweet Potatoes up like French Fries & Grill them in a basket they're Yummy! Hang in There!

Inittothinit (what a cute name)....hey, I gained 2# back today....I KNEW what I did wrong...had a bottle of lowcarb beer last night at bike night...and ate 2 restricteds...cuz I didn't have time to sit down and make dinner.

Are you weighing yourself at home, or do you have a coach??? I am bad..cuz I weigh myself everyday...and of course, am discouraged now because I am supposed to weighin today. I NEED to do what Stacey41 is gonna do...once a week...a tough habit to break tho.

Geez...I have gone to stores looking for my beloved rhubarb (I think it is PAST season here). I KNOW I won't find Kale..where is THAT recipe? Wonder if spinach would work?

The magic # of carbs I believe is 40.

I'm on the same boat as you. If I see another piece of broccoli on my plate, I might have to find out where my coach lives and throw it at her lol. With that being said, I haven't bought broccoli in my last two trips to the store.

As you, one of my things right now is rhubarb. I made a good 3cups of rhubarb sauce last week. And since my rhubarb bush is out of control right now, it was a good thing for me and the garden. I'm not normally a cranberry and turkey person when the holidays roll around but earlier in the week, halfway through eating my portion of chicken, I got sick of it. So I added some sauceand mmm, it was good! Almost like cranberry and turkey! So yesterday I used my rhubarb sauce with my spinach + chicken salad.

I find that the rhubarb boiled itself down so much, the sauce is like having 3x the rhubarb raw. When I make orange pancakes, I cut it in half and spread the sauce like jam in between the two pieces and kinda have it like a thin piece of toast. Depending how much you use, you don't have too much veggies to make up for your two cups after that

Life has its ups and downs and unfortunately, so does dieting, you'll get through this Brit. You'll look back when you've reach your goal and tell yourself it wasn't all THAT bad as you made it out to be this one week

bbbbAAAAHHHHAABBBB- Kelly you food theif, ROFLMAO, that is so funny, I sniff peoples food at work I am sure they want to kill me, I love it, I thought I was the only one who had visions of tackling people for their lunches.

Today was MUCH better. Made some egg salad with WF mayo and rolled it into some pieces of iceberg lettuce. Very yum!

So what is the difference between turnips and rutabaga? I bought purple top turnips and yellow turnip. I'm not sure which is ok? Anyone have any info???

It isn't the same as bread but, when I want to hold a burger in a bun like way, I grill two large portobello mushrooms, then put everything else between them. It works pretty well.

If the potassium doesn't work (use the extra for only up to 3 days unless you see a result according to my handout instructions), try increasing magnesium. You can buy magnesium supplements at a health food store. For some people, they will cramp when they are magnesium deficient.

25 net carbs is what I have heard or 40 total carbs I don't know which is right and it may be something you play around with to see where you lose best.

Don't be discouraged! The scale only marks a point in time. It doesn't account for a different set of clothes, time of day, if you have eaten much of your meals before hand, if you are eliminating well, if you had a lot of water or liquids before the weigh in (did you know a 1/2 gallon of water is 4 pounds! That is only 2 liters of water and we get more than that a day!), and, it fails to report... "no worries, your time of month is just around the corner. for that we give you a 2 pound handicap! " It is just a number, a number that will change again, the next time you step on the scale. My objective is the beginning to end of month. I watch the days, track the weeks, and cheer for my month. It is really the best indication of how you lose on a continual basis.



I don't know about anyone else, but I am not allowed sweet potatoes or other root potatoes on my sheet. Does anyone else get sweet potato?? I am sad. I love sweet potato!

I have bought my rhubarb frozen and I know the frozen is available to buy online too. The Kale recipe works for any hardy green leaf (mustard, kale, dandelion, chard, etc.) I am not sure how it works on spinach.

Here is the link for the kale chips recipes (see post 20) I think a few other people posted their recipes too. I put all my stuff in a bowl and toss it like a salad then lay it out to bake. For me, it seems to get thing more evenly coated.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...pes-2-a-2.html

I love to stuff hollowed cucumbers and celery sticks with egg salad. It is a nice change of pace!


From various sources:

A rutabaga was called a Swede or yellow turnip, until 1967 when its name was changed to avoid confusion with the turnip. Rutabagas are larger, rough yellow fleshed with a light purple top.

A turnip is a smaller cousin of the rutabaga. It has smooth, white flesh, with a purple trimming. It has a sharper taste and is most frequently available during the summer before the new crop of rutabaga. While the flesh of Turnips remain whitish after cooked, the Rutabagas changes to yellowish-orange after cooking. Coming to flavour, the Turnips have a bitter flavour than the Rutabagas. In sweetness, the Rutabagas are a bit sweeter.

Coming to the green leaves, the Turnips greens are widely used than the Rutabagas greens. Though Rutabagas greens are also served cooked and the tender leaves are used in salads, the Turnips greens are more a favourite.

They are often grouped with parsnips and vary widely in carbs. The least carbs are for the turnips, in the middle for the rutabagas, and the most for parsnips (too high for this plan and quite similar in carbs to carrot and potato). Rutabagas are wonderful substitutes for potatoes in stews and casseroles. Turnips are a little sharper in tast. You can cut some of the carb values by using any or all of the above root veggies mixed half with cauliflower, then mashed. Cube up the root veggies, nuke with a tiny bit of water til about tender, then throw the fresh cauliflower, cut into florets, on top and nuke til THEY are very tender, then drain well and mash right in the same dish with an immersion blender or a hand mixer, adding the a little olive oil (butter or cream if you are comfortable with it. I don't have a problem with these once in awhile in small quantities because the recipes on Dr Tran Tien Chanh's website use them.) A little salt and freshly-ground pepper and you're good to go.

Thank you Carla!!!

The IP protocol sheet that I was given lists "potatoes (all)" under restricted veggies, so no sweet potatoes.

Has anyone noticed if their weight loss has slowed after introducing restricted foods? I haven't added them to my diet yet (been on IP since the beginning of April) and i'm afraid it's going to slow my loss down. My mom started at the same time as me and has a restricted food every day. I feel like adding them at this point would help some of these insane cravings i'm having.

I didn't have any restricteds until 2 weeks ago. I believe I had 4 or 5 over the course of the week, no cheating. I only lost 1.6 lbs that week. Last week I cut it down to 2 (again no cheating) and I lost 4.2 lbs. I think the key might be to introduce them slowly and spread them out.

Thank you. I'm only going to pick up a few at my weigh-in tomorrow. But i really need some variety. Things are starting to get very boring. I've tried my mom's salt and vinegar ridges, and omg they're delicious. So i'm looking forward to those.

On a naughty note, i'm know i'm going to be cheating Saturday night and Sunday morning. Going out to a really nice restaurant for my dad's birthday/father's day and i won't have much choice with the menu (pre-fix/five course meal). I'm going to make the best choices possible with what the menu has to offer. I'm feeling rather guilty about it, but on the other hand i feel like this mini-break might help me get out of my food rut.

Maybe it will be what you need.

With restricted items it seems to be a unique response for each person. Try them, add them slowly, and see how you do. If you add slowly you will be able to tell when you reach your threshold of how many you can have in a week.

Hey Brittstar: Re: restricteds, I usually take a bar and slice it into say 8 pieces, or have a couple chocolate soy puffs, or have 5 pieces of BBQ soy puffs watching a movie. I'd say I average 3 a week. I'm losing pretty good. What I've learned is that spreading out restricted's doesn't affect weight loss, but if I allow myself 1 a day it actually increases cravings. I think the sugar alcohols in the restricteds are to blame for this. That said, there have been a couple of times where eating a restricted item spared me from a bigger cheat, and didn't affect ketosis. I'm also kind of wondering if I knocked out all restricteds would help with the hunger that I still feel on a daily basis. I've stayed in ketosis since day 4 of this diet, but I've never really had the hunger dissipate like most people have.

Thats' my take on restricteds. To me, it's the part of the diet that I struggle with the most.