I must say it is so nice to have support again. I got through the morning not even a bit hungry. I had my high protein breakfast, and now I am having my celery sticks with laughing cow cheese.

Nikki

Nikki - I'm glad you jogged my memory about cutting out some carbs. I just looked back at my *********** food log and my ratio of carbs/fat/protein have been way out of whack! I like to have protein for breakfast as it does keep me full till lunch. My problem is craving carbs in the afernoon. I'll try eating a protein snack instead. I kind of like the Zone diet which is 40% carbs, 30% fats and 30% protein. My DH has successfully kept off 45 lbs. and has eaten the in the "zone" for about 8 years now. He never eats carbs without also having some protein. I quite often have a protein shake for dinner and I put in some psyllium husk powder which is very high in fiber. It's a good way to get fiber if you're not eating much fruit or grains and it has practically no carbs.

Judy - Your gluten free diet must make it easier to pass up on wheat foods. I know that wheat causes me digestive problems but I eat it anyway! I'm just going to have to keep reminding myself that it's not worth the pain. It must be extra hard for you to stay on track when you're traveling so much.

Looks like we'll have to rethink our choice for lunch today - chinese. We haven't had any in ages, but it's hard to eat chinese food without the rice!

Morning all (or afternoon for you on the East coast). I stayed home from work. My back was so sore this morning. After I got up a second time, I did an easy 2 mile walk. That helped loosen it a bit. I'll probably take the huskies out again this afternoon. I'm pretty sure walking will make it heal faster. It must be better by the weekend since DH agreed that we could go to Mt Bachelor (a real ski resort). BTW, he's flying home today.

Goldie continues to get better. I have a call into the vet since she'd wanted me to renew the prescription 2 or 3 times. This morning was her last dose. DS1 took my checkbook and will pick up the meds if necessary.

You all reminded me that DS2 said in Mississippi, he was able to buy white chocolate M&Ms but they aren't available here. So I'm going to surf to the M&M site and see if I can buy him ONE color of white chocolate for valentines day. BTW, I'm a big dark chocolate M&M fan. I eat 75 cals worth every lunch dessert (except yesterday - why I don't know). I love them and if I premeasure I don't go over. AND the latest research says that eating around 100 cals of dark chocolate per day is very healthy. Wow healthy and yummy - my kind of choice. The other two great healthy and yummy is peaches and strawberries. My very favorite two foods. I never limit intake on those. I always call them God's gift to dieters.

Nikki, good luck on the SB diet. I know you can do it. Are you still living at home with your mom that made your dieting difficult? BTW, fries always bloat me even though I bake them. I love them and the salt on them (I don't salt other foods just them). And I too had burger and fries last night. 4 oz of 93/7% ground beef, a 110 cal bun and 18 baked fries. Oh, delicious but no weighin today.

Carol, good luck with the heavy load today. I've already logged in today at work to handle a few items that were pressing. Work is always there, isn't it?

Judy, Milwaukee is close to home of my fave Packers. The midwest is where I'm from and it's definitely cold there according to my family. Zero is a bad number on the thermometer.

Penny, good job whacking down the nibbling. I swear I nibble when I'm at home. I agree with Judy, I use it to divide time up. I wish I didn't love food so much. When you watch the food network, think of ways to slenderize the recipes. You'll be paying more attention to the slenderizing then the exercising. It's a win win situation.

Well, that's about it. I'll chat later. I'm going to try my knitting machine and see if it bothers my back. If it does, I'm going to be bored...
Marie

Hi Marie-
Fries are the enemy LOL. I knew I would not have a good weigh in today because of that meal. I am still at home with mom but I went out and bought all new groceries and she is perfectly hapy to let me cook dinner every night. So hopefully this can work. I am actually excited about cooking and eating new foods.


Hope your back feels better Marie

Penny- I had been trying to watch my food intake for the last 3 weeks again and realized I was not losing or yoyoing. When I examined my food journal I realie while I was eating less I was eating 80 % carbs. That is why I am hoping this jump starts me.It is amazing how much we eat carbs.


Nikki

gOOD MORNING EVERYONE. Well its another busy work day. Off to court to help a family member with guardianship. Hopefully it goes well and no one objects. It is really a need for this young lady. Afterwards a coworker and I are going to do a couple of visits and then have chinese for lunch. Last night my down fall was pizza and some wings a big no no on the wing part the pizza wasn't so bad and the cals before that were very low for the day. So today even with going out I will try to stay away from the dark sauce and only have 1 scoop of rice. Lots of veggies! I will be extra careful tonight for dinner. Lunch for dinner , dinner for lunch cals I think a swap. Yesterdays drive left a lot to be desired on the way home. Trying to figure out which roads to take etc... oh I was so glad to see my driveway. Spring please come soon! No is oatmeal high in carbs? I know its suppose to be so healthy and then there are different types of carbs I tend to confuse some of that stuff. I know my pizza wasn't a low carb item but at least it had veggies. Well glad we are all figuring out some new stragies to tackle our lbs. who knows it might be just what we need. Lots of in and out up and down stairs yesterday for exercise. As soon as things slow down and the weather I will get motivated after work again. I can't wait to walk around the beach and Bear will be in training for that. He now sits on demand if I have a treat of course. Not bad for 12 weeks. Have a great day I have to get to work.

Carol- Good luck in court today. Oatmeal that is not instant is made of good carbs. Instant Oatmeal is bad because most of the fiber is processed out of it. At least that is how I understand it.

As for me I made it through day 1 wooohoo. I was not even hungry. According to fit day I had maybe 7 % carbs which is a huge decrease for me and they were all healthy carbs like those from salad. I am excited about today but it may be a bit tricky I have class at 4 so I am thinking I will eat dinner before class and a light snack maybe lettuce wraps after class. I cant believe how many ways you can make lettuce wraps. I think I am getting addicted to them lol.


If any of you are interested there are some creative alternatives to carb snacks on the South beach diet forum here. I am going to try crispy pepperoni tomorrow. It is suppose to taste like the pepperoni on pizza except less greasy. Oh and it is turkey pepperoni


Nikki

Hi everyone. I've been working hard at reducing my carbs the last couple of days and I'm hoping it will pay off at the end of the week with a lower number on the scale. We did go for chinese yesterday, but I had only 1/4 cup of rice (which I spread out to make it look like more!) I ate less than half of my entree - "Happy Family" which is shrimp, chicken and beef with lots of veggies. My DH ate only half of his meal too, so we had great leftovers for our DS who came over for dinner. I reduced my toast to half a slice at breakfast. I didn't feel hungry all day and wasn't tempted to snack. My total carbs were 120g where they had been 250+ before.

Nikki - I'll check out the SBD forum. Lettuce wraps are great - I used to make them when I was on Atkins. They are good with chicken or tuna salad inside. I even made a "fish taco" wrap with a bit of salsa that was good. I used some leftover fried fish I'd made for lunch and had it for dinner as a wrap. I'm thinking shrimp and avocado with a dab of cocktail sauce would be a good mix.

Carol - Oatmeal is a bit high in carbs, but the health benefits are worth it in my opinion. Be sure to use steel cut or slow cook oats not the instant kind, which is full of sugar and junk and is very processed. Bear is going to love it when you take him for walks on the beach when the weather warms up.

Marie - I hope your back is feeling better. I'm also managing to fit in a tiny bit of chocolate into my diet. Most days I have one square of Lindt Instense Pear or Orange dark chocolate and nibble it slowly to savor the taste. A real treat for 55 calories and 5g of carbs!

Hi, guys--a quick hello from your very sleepy friend! I was up at 4:30AM to give myself time to wake all the way up and empty out all of my kitchen cabinets...yes, after much complaining from me and I expect other tenants, the building management is exterminating all the apartments at the same time (yaay!) on Saturday (boo!). The notice was under my door when I got home late last night, so I just focused on packing going to bed, and did my best to clear all the counters and take all the food, dishes, cookware, etc., out of my little kitchen. But that takes a long time, and eventually I had to rush to the airport. Oh, well. I hope they'll do the best they can, and I'll come home Saturday night to a smelly, disheveled apartment.

We're cooling our heels for a awhile at the Milwaukee airport before heading downtown for our meeting. I've been walking around a lot, and avoiding the junk food. But I did have the brat-knack plate for lunch, complete with saurkraut and a few bites of potatoes. When in Rome, as they say!

I think that while oatmeal is definitely "high" carbs, it is relatively low-glycemic. One serving doesn't set me off on a binge, thank goodness. And it does have so many benefits, especially with a little milk and cinnamon. I grew up having it with canned "sweet" milk, which was a typical way to take a perfectly healthy meal and load it up with fat and sugar .

Marie, take it easy on that back! I hope that everyone else is feeling good today.

judy

Hi all, I called in sick again today. My back is taking longer to ease up then I'd thought. The good side was that I spent the morning with DH. We watched The Devil Wears Prada then we took a slow doggie walk. BTW, the book is better than the movie although I loved Streep in the role. DH is now at work and I'm surfing. We decided to by an automatic doggie door. After $400, our energy bill should go down and DGS won't be able to crawl out to the pool this summer. Well spent money but I'd would have rathered keeping it. Alas, safety and my heating bill won.

Cals have been good. I've walked everyday with the painful back (it's the only thing that loosens it up) so I guess I've exercised however, in no way was it aerobic. Slow and sure.

Nikki, good job on day one. I'm glad your mom is being supportive - I know that I'd love it if someone else made dinner.

Carol, I hope court went okay. Spring is getting closer. My most hated month (this one) is almost over and sprint is around the corner. DH got 2 cushions for the pool deck chairs and we sat outside for a while before he left. It was gorgeous out but I know that winter is still in control.

Judy, aw, you had a brat??? True Wisconsin food (my degrees are from the UW system). I'm very partial to a state where wearing cheese on your head is the in thing. I love cheese.

Penny, yes, I too love my little dark chocolate. If it's portion controlled, it's great. I read a cool article in Costco Connection about everything chocolate. I learned how it was made, the history (I knew Christopher Columbus had some redeeming qualities as he brought it back to Spain), and the aphrodisiac aspect. It just made me like it more.

Well, that's about it. TTY tomorrow. I do believe I'll be going back to work. I can sit there just as well as here and I'm sort of bored.
Marie

Marie - Take care of your back. It's a good thing you can still go for walks because I know you'd miss that a lot. I liked your typo "sprint" is around the corner! That's what I keep hoping - one of these days I'll be sprinting along .

Judy - I'm a brat fan too, but these days I just have a chicken asigo sausage now and then - a bit of a disappointment after a real brat, but they taste pretty good. When we lived in Swizerland I used to love having a bratwurst on a big crusty roll - just the thing on a winter's day.

I went to try a Tai-Chi class today and was enjoying it very much when I suddenly felt dizzy as if I was going to pass out and had to sit out the rest of the class. It wasn't strenuous at all, so maybe I'm coming down with something. I hope not! I don't have time to be sick - we're just starting to organize our big fashion show and tea that's coming up at the end of March. I had to lie down in bed for a while when I got home but I'm feeling a bit better now. I'm going to take one of my Emergen-C, Airborne and Echinacia cocktails and hope for the best!

Woohoo I made it through day 2. Everyone keeps telling me that day 3 and 4 are the worst. I am looking forward to getting through to Saturday.

Marie- Take care of that back

Judy- That sweet milk sounds good.

Penny- Watch that dizziness are you eating enough?

Talk to you all tomorrow
Nikki

Well ladies I made it through day 3 perfectly I hope everyone is having a good day.

Nikki

Hi all, I did go to work today as my back is slightly better. I had to do WATP this morning and it doesn't relieve the back pain nearly as much as walking outside on the hills. Oh well, at least I'm not falling farther behind at work. And calories are right on target. I'll be weighing in on Friday as TOM is mostly gone.

Penny a sprint to spring would be nice. I'm tired of winter. Without snow it's yucky. Mt Shasta is about to close for lack of snow and the temps are too warm to make any. The Mt Bachelor trip looks like it'll have to be postponed because of the back. BTW Penny, the fashion show and tea, is it to raise money? What group are you part of.

Nikki, I'm so glad you're back!!! Good going on Day 3. Saturday will be here soon and you'll be in the groove. How is the exercise going?

Carol and Judy, I hope your day was great!
Marie

Marie - Glad you are feeling a bit better.

I have not been exercising to much my body hurts lately. However, I am doing abs 4- 5 times a week. I'm hoping I feel better soon and can increase the exercise again.

Nikki

Nikki - Good for you staying on track! I was bad today and had around 200g of carbs. I felt yucky from whatever it is that I have (hopefully not the flu coming on) so I went a bit overboard. Believe me, I wasn't dizzy yesterday from lack of food! I usually eat around 1650 - 1750 calories per day. That's why I lose so slowly - but that's fine with me because it's something I can stick with for the long haul. Over the holidays I was eating around 1900-2000 - hence the 5 lbs. gain.

Marie - I'm ready for spring too. I think I may have a slight case of SAD as I definitely crave carbs more when the days are dreary and small problems get magnified out of proportion when I wake up in the middle of the night. I'm on the board of a non-profit british women's group (I prefer not to say the name as you never know who's lurking and I like to stay a bit annonymous for that reason). We raise funds for Oregon charities and a retirement home for elderly brits. It keeps me pretty busy but since I work at home doing the bookkeeping, etc. for my DH's business it works out well. My chapter has about 25 members and we put on an annual fashion show and tea. The statewide organization also puts on a large holiday bazaar and tea where we serve around 600 teas in one day. We have several other events thoughout the year, so there's never a dull moment!

Carol & Judy - I hope things are going well for you.

I have a slightly sore throat and have been really dragging today so I may be in for something. That may explain my dizzy spell yesterday at the Tai Chi class. I'm very disappointed as I was really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can have another go at it when I'm feeling more energetic. At least I managed to print the tickets & flyers and send out the mailing for the fashion show.