Hi, everyone. Boy what I missed by shopping and going out for lunch.
Sometimes when I stop for a cappucino, which probably isn't even once a week, I will mix 1/2 ff cappucino and 1/2 decaf coffee. Less calories, and less sweetness. Some of those cappucino mixes are too sweet for me.

Vickie: if you have that Brown Sugar Splenda recipe, you can post it here instead of the recipe thread, if you want.

Oh, went to Damons for lunch. Had grilled chicken salad, thought it would be humungous like other restaurants, but I actually left there hungry. It was more like a side salad that needed something else with it. So, I came home and ate a slice of whole wheat high fiber pnut butter toast, will eat an apple yet before dinner. It's been a while since I've been to a restaurant where they didn't give you enough food.

DH says the DDR for playstation is not a good idea since the computer equipment is in the same little room as the playstation. Says it's too much bouncing around, but it does sound like fun. Might have to move the playstation.................

Was a member of Curves for a while. Came down with plantar fasciitis in my foot. Don't know if it was related or not., but got a Drs. excuse to quit. Just doing WATP and treadmill right now. Would like to roller blade or something, but i'll probably fall on my head.

Lisa

Hi Ladies
I ended up with a suprise scrapbookign expedition with my GF (her baby kept her up all night so she was too "sick" for work so thats why i didnt come back
that Dance Dance Revolution sounds cool but I only have enough coordination to do the generic white girl dance (what I lack in coordination i make up for in rythm I Can't Stand ppl who do all the moves but dance off beat)
Frouf about sharing love remember the first person you should share your love with is you hopefully with counseling things will work out for you whatever the outcome
on a food note Wow you withstood the goodiefest I'm impressed!
I got offered a job today!! which is good because aside from a supertoxic job i had for 5 minutes I haven't worked outside the house since College graduation in May
I'm a Freelance writer which is great but I need to actually see people regularly.
Tonight We're going to do the final packup at my moms her closing is tommorrow so I'm bringing dinner and paper plates Time to spring into action!

Frouf, is yogurt really all you are eating for breakfast? I think that is NOT enough. You need something to stick to your ribs, some starch, some protein, some something! If that is going to be your breakfast then you need a midmorning snack of something to get you to lunch. Just my humble opinion.

Lisa, the recipe I had called for 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar subsitute which I hate. So instead, I used 2T Splenda and 1 1/2 teaspoons of SF Maple Syrup. It worked fabulous. On the Splenda website they have a couple of substitutions, one of which was brown sugar. I think I just broke it down for my recipe. They also have a Splenda powdered sugar and a Splenda powdered sugar glace. I just noticed a couple new recipes on there while I was scrolling down. I'll have to go back and check them out! Here's the brown sugar substitute.

This makes enough to replace 1 cup of standard brown sugar. 1 cup Splenda and 1/4 cup SF Maple Syrup. (Try to find one sweetened with Splenda). Pour ingredients into a smal mixing bowl and mix well. Makes 1/4 cup. For those of you non-Cooks, there are 16 tablespoons in a cup in case you don't need to make a whole cup of brown sugar and need to do the math.

Have any of you ever tried Land O Lakes FF half & half? It's REALLY good. I drink my coffee black but started out liking it with a lot of cream and sugar. Once in a blue moon, I still like cream and Splenda. Also, I like my iced coffee with cream and sugar. It's the best I have ever tried. 2 tablespoons are 20 calories, no fat, no fiber. I think you'll feel like you're really having cream.

Just found this. Doesn't it sound yummy! I'm always on the lookout for some way to get my fruit in. Froufie, doesn't this sound like a good breakfast for you? I bet it would travel well in a plastic container. You could even take the "chill" off of it in the microwave once you got to work. I'll let you know if it's any good.

Apple Berry Mock-Cobbler
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 apples, cored and diced (leave skin on)
1 or 1 1/2 c. frozen blackberries or berry melange (no sugar added)
3/4 c. steel cut oats
1/2 c. water
2 tsp. sunflower oil (or other Core healthy oil)
cooking spray

Spray a 9x9 or 9x11 baking dish. Place apples in dish. Add frozen berries. Sprinkle oats evenly over fruit. Drizzle with oil. Add water. Cover and bake at 400 for 20 min. Uncover and stir well to moisten the oats and blend all juices. Re-cover and continue baking until desired texture. The oats will form a yummy thick mixture with the juices from the fruit.

Serve with FF Cool Whip or use that frother!

Hey, Linda, if you're reading I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you. Hope Flex is going well for you!

Evening everybody, I'm back with the 8 minutes worth of exercise card from the January issue of O Magazine. The trainer guy advocates the exercises be done in the morning since he claims it will rev up your metabolism for the rest of the day. I wonder about that! Anyway, the card of exercises has drawings and a paragraph for each exercise and it's printed front and back ... do you think I'd be better off to try scanning it and saving it as a Word document and then e-mailing it to those of you who want it? What do you think? Or I can start a separate post and copy the descriptive part of the exercise and omit the drawings obviously ... what would work best for you all?
Let me know and I'll try my best to get the information to you.

I made a batch of polenta tonight, intending to eat a couple of slices for breakfast tomorrow. We'll see how I like it ... I didn't even taste it. I used one of the microwave recipes from a really interesting cooking website ... cooks down under, I think it was ... and it was actually pretty simple to make. Much better than stirring and stirring over a hot stove!

Deborah

I was able to scan the card of exercises and it was legible when I printed it off so anyone who wants a copy, let me know. If your e-mail address isn't in your profile, I guess you can send me a private message so that I'll know where to send it. Be forewarned though ... it's going to be a large file and I know some ISP's have size restrictions on incoming mail.

We are all going to be so buff, aren't we?

Deborah

I'm here to say I had a BIG SUPPER - yes beyond the comfort zone! and white flour to boot - ha ha ha.

Came home and made the fajitas (chicken w/orange, yellow, red peppers and red and white onion - very colorful)...and found what I thought were tortillas and decided to treat myself to 2 of them (of course did not look up points at this time). Also made some brown rice...and GUACaMOLE -ohmygod - it was delish - had 2 gorgeously ripe avocados - and also garnished w/ff sour cream and grated soy cheese - SO YUMMY! I at alot - probably more than I should have - finished of the guac w/my dd - did I mention how good it was??

Went to check the tortillas box and discovered I was eating Old El Paso soft tacos (who knew!). Searched in my expanded food book and lo and behold 2 of the soft tacos are only 4 points!.....while it says a tortilla is 3 points each? Why would this be?(they look pretty much the same to me!) No problem in any case - I really enjoyed it.

Vickie - that cobbler thing sounds like a very yummy froufie breakfast! I was actually going to try and experiment and make some sort of apple crisp thing - but this sounds super good and I might have to try it - warmed up w/some lf cream - wow!

...and of course no such thing as ff cream in canada - the best I can get is the light cream at 5% which isn't too bad - I did try the 2% evaporated milk this morning and it might do in a pinch!

It's 10:30 now and my tummy is feeling slightly empty which is good - don't want to sleep on a full stomach - UGH!

Oh ya went to the mall while dd was dancing tonight - and inquired about the Dance Revolution stuff - software around $60 bucks (they're all sold out) and mat is around $50 (they're all sold out)...but I noticed they had two kinds of mats - one had "connector things" and one was "wireless" (said it worked from 30 feet away??? - oh ya that should work in my "indoor ballroom"..ha ha). Angela what kind of "equipment" do you have?

Might have to wait til my birthday for this - and drop a few hints??

Froufie

Holy moly cow! I went and bought that Gazelle thingy and it totally kicked my butt!! I was all smug after I got it put together thinking ... "Oh this little wimpy thing? No big deal!" Boy, was I ever wrong!! I felt like a total klutz, managed to live thru about 8 minutes of it, and collapsed in the chair. Now my arms and legs feel like I've been on a 10 mile hike.

In other words, I recommend it for a good workout and it's well worth the $99.

So you must have "worked off" the whole burger just putting the thing together! Good for you - that thing sounds scary to me!!! Sure they give it this gentle name like "gazelle" but it's really A KILLER BEAST!

ohohoh - speaking of beasts you GOTTA CHECK THIS OUT - my brother and SIL (who live in Gainesville, Florida) got a new pet - you won't belive this. Go to www.africanserval.com and tell me they are not certifiably insane? This is NOT A PET - this is a wild animal. (check out the details under "temperment"). Now my SIL is planning a surprise 50th birthday party for my brother in July (and yes all 5 of us are packing up and heading down there)....now we are supposed to stay with them for a weekend but there is no way I feel safe w/this thing around. Told my brother I would never come visit them (he is unaware of the party and that we are all coming)...he of course mentioned this to my SIL this and she thought I was JUST KIDDING - like "boy you really convinced Jeff that you would never set foot in our house"...ya cuz I meant it!

She has since assured me that "Nyiko" (african for "god of the grasslands"??) is very gentle but they will keep him in his "facility" when we are there - and I said of course you will - and I'm bringing my own padlock - just in case (he will definitely want to eat our youngest son!.

Of course we also hope to visit Mickey and the gang as we will most probably be flying into Orlando! ...and by the way this triip played a MAJOR ROLE in my deciding to join ww as I definitely want to lose some of this weight before we leave! (gotta keep that plane up in the air right? )

Frouf

hi everyone! i was reading your thread. i am trying to decide flex or core. your thread is very helpful. what caught my eye is your discussion about ddr for the playstation and thought i'd mention we have a thread on it over on the exercise forum. i just got mine so i haven't tried it yet, but there is a lot of usefull info at the beginning of that thread. websites, etc....

i want to thank all of you, sometimes you are more help than you know for us lurkers.
kathy

kathy--

coming your way today, this special day in your heart.

Froufy, your supper sounds yummy and isn't it always a nice surprise when something is less points than you expect? Linda, I think your supper was the best of all but I think your plan to concentrate on maintaining, rather than losing, will probably work best for you when you are working such long hours and since you are already so close to goal ... lucky you! Congratulations on your new gazelle ... I wanted one for Christmas and my husband refused to entertain the idea (he doesn't like Tony Little for some reason) so we ended up getting the elliptical for a lot more money. I guess I taught him a lesson!

I tried the polenta stuff for breakfast this morning. I tried "frying" it but it never got crisp and in fact, didn't really get warm all the way through. It was okay ... pretty bland stuff actually. The SF maple syrup was the only thing that gave it some flavor. Surprisingly though, it seems to be sticking with me ... so we'll see.

Vickie, the cobbler type recipe you posted looks very good. I think it sounds like a nice change for breakfast too. I have a stupid question ... what is the difference between steel cut oats and regular ole oats? I've seen posts on different sites that the McCann steel cut oats are "to die for". They have steel cut oats at Publix ... McCann brand ... at $7.29 for a regular size container. Can you imagine? Just because they're steel cut are they really worth triple the price of regular oatmeal?

Deborah, I'm sure it is a texture difference. The steel cup are much bigger, fatter, and chewier. They are also supposed to stick with you because there is less of the outer portion removed so it takes longer for your stomach to digest and therefore less of the calories stick with you. This is my "unscientific" description. There are others here that I am SURE can give a better explanation! I think I'm right though. I'm planning on buying just a small box if I can find one. I think I saw some at Trader Joe's.

CornigKat, if you decide to Core please come and join us here! Would you happen to have a link to that thread? I don't want to buy the whole playstation. Does the tread talk about the kind you can just plug into your TV?