I'm sitting here eating my oatmeal and drinking my herbal tea - it's not too bad although yesterday afternoon I really wanted to stop at Starbucks for a real cup of coffee. I took my dogs out for a run instead.

I think I have tried every diet known in my life, but came upon The Fat Smash Diet. I was skeptical at first because the name seems like it's just another fad diet. It actually is very healthy - the first 9 days is call the detox stage designed to cleanse the body of junk. I can have all fruits, veggies (except avocados & white potatoes) - protein sources - chickpeas, beans, tofu, lentils - brown rice (2 C cooked/day) skim milk (2 C/day) water, oatmeal, herbs, spices, lowfat yogurt (6oz twice/day), egg whites, herbal tea, lowfat dressing, lowfat olive oil (althought I haven't been able to find lowfat olive oil). It's been easy for me to stick with this plan except for the coffee. After the detox stage there are three other stages - each stage adds more things back into the diet. So far so good although yesterday I put a pair of jeans on and they actually seemed tighter!! I hope someone didn't make a mistake and this is actually a diet to "bulk" people up.

Penny - thanks so much for your technical support I really appreciate it. I think I may have a ticker attached to this post.

Marie - you are in my neck of the woods (sort of). Do you live outside of Portland? I absolutely love the Oregon coast - Lincoln City, Newport Beach what wonderful places to visit. I don't know about Portland, but Boise has been so cold in the mornings - I'm ready for spring. Have fun shopping at the Columbia store. We are getting a Sierra Trading Post Outlet here in Boise, I can't wait.

Nikki - is that you that just got a puppy? I couldn't see a name at the bottom of the post. Puppies are awesome but it's truly like having a two year old in the house. The key to housetraining is the crate. Some people think it's cruel, but it becomes their den and they will grow up loving it.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday. I'm off to get a scale - I also have a love/hate relationship with the dang thing.

See ya, Suzanne

Marie - I'm so glad you're coming to town and I'm looking forward to getting together with you and your DH. I'll call you on your cell. I love the Columbia Outlet - it's just 10-15 min. from here and I got some great shirts there on sale for next to nothing last year. Give your scale a kick from me! I kicked mine around a bit too on Friday, but it still wouldn't go down a measly half a pound!

Carol - I hope you have a nice time at the shower. I'm not sure what's wrong with your tracker. Those things can be tricky. If you don't copy and paste the one that starts with [url=http://www.3fatchicks.com/weight-tracker/] it won't work. Maybe you'll need to do it over again and see if that's the problem. You had asked about the kind of cream we use on the scones. It's stiffly whipped heavy whipping cream (the spray can kind is too watery). Traditionally, you should use clotted cream, which is very thick and made from rich Devonshire cream. It's a pain to make though, so you very rarely see it used outside of the UK.

Suzanne - The Fat Smash diet sounds interesting - is it mostly vegetarian? I've never heard of lowfat olive oil either. I think there is a lowfat margarine type spread that has some olive oil in it. Don't worry about the darn scale too much - those things are evil . Marie is right about judging how your clothes fit. Sometimes our clothes feel looser even if it's not showing up on the scale. I also get very bloated and retain water when I eat too much salty food and that can make the number on the scale go up and my pants get tight! Aaarghh!!

Have a great Saturday everyone.

Hello everyone well its been a nice quiet day. The wedding shower was really nice lots of desserts but they passed around to each table 6 and everyone took a little bit of each. I wasn't crazy over the bread pudding one. So I left it behind. But oh so good everything was great. I had red snapper, some vegatarin foods etc. Nothing heavy just tasty stuff. A bit too much red wine I think but oh I wasn't driving. I had a good time and nice to see my family members. We have so many gatherings this year wow! 2 upcoming babies and 3 weddings and maybe a fourth. It is suppose to be really cold here on mon. around 7 for the high of the day burr! I haven't gotten on the scale today. But will Tues. I am trying to be good. Weekends are tough I know I had some italian bread with my spaghetti for dinner. The sauce was my homemade and pretty low cal and healthy. I also had some shrimp w a little sauce on the side. Sounds like everyone is doing well keep up the good work. Spring is coming soon. I am looking at colors to paint my kitchen /open living room soon. Its so hard when both areas flow into one another. Something earthy and neutral I guess will do. Then add color with my ceramic wares which are rich blues and little brown, turq. colors. Well guess I better go see whats happening with the superbowl. No big food parties here I am kind of glad doesn't give me an excuse to over eat today. I will plan a 1/2 of cup ice cream instead. I will measure it out and add some strawberries to it. Have a great evening everyone.

Hi ladies-

I have a quick question. Do any of you use fitday? If you do, do you find that you cannot always find the food you eat on their list?

Nikki

Carol - I'm glad you had a nice time at the shower. It sounds like you did well food-wise. It's great when you have family nearby. I miss that as my DH and I are a few thousand miles from our original homelands and don't have any family here except our DS. We have some nice friends, though, so they are our "second family".

Nikki - I was on Fitday for a while but I'm currently using Spark People for my food journal and they have quite a good database. You may want to check it out - it's free. Also, I find most foods (even fast food) on Calorie King or Nutrition Data. Journaling my food has been the key for me in my weight loss journey.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. My DH and I had a nice time meeting Marie and her DH this morning for breakfast. We had a good long chat and it was fun to actually meet one of my on-line weight loss buddies.

Penny-How nice that you and Marie got to meet. That is always fun. I keep a daily journal of my food. I was trying to use fit day but found it annoying. I'll check out Spark People.

Suzanne- It was not me who got the puppy. I wish lol I have 6 fish tanks and working on a 7th

Carol- I am glad the wedding shower was so nice. I really like when they pass alot of dessert around but everyone just gets a taste.

Today is my weigh in day. I made it to day 8 of South beach and lost 5 lbs
I am so excited and I am looking forward to dropping another 3-4 this week.

Morning everyone, I'm multitasking this morning. Many things going ont eh computer so while they're all doing their thing, I decided to check in as I'm babysitting once again tonight (and tomorrow and the day after that...). Boy, I'll be glad when this term of DS and almost DIL's school is done.

DH and I had a wonderful mini-trip this weekend. One of the best was meeting Penny and her hubby. We had a nice breakfast and chat. BTW, she has an awesome accent!

We did dinner at the Macaroni Grill on Sat night and I had Pasta Milano - I found the calories on line and if I'd eaten it all it would have been 1080 cals. But since I ate 1/3 and have lunch for today and tomorrow, not bad at all. Of course the chocolate cake was unnecessary but wonderful. DH did help eat it. The swimming and hottub were great - the only time my back didn't hurt in the last week. I bought a whole new ski outfit (jacket and pants), a spring rain jacket and fleece jacket. DH even bought a new winter jacket. Incredible deals!!! Then on Sunday, we went to the zoo and was enjoyable until a load of screaming kids descended on the place. You could see how uncomfortable they made the animals and I had to leave. I'm an animal person and to see misery on an animals face is torture. But till the yellers arrived, it was awesome. Then we spent a ton at Costco. It was a nice weekend.

I did exercise this am 3 miles walking. The back is still pretty sore. I'd say it's about the same as last Thursday so it's not making great progress. The walking does loosen it up for the day though.

Nikki, way to go. Are you liking SB? I'd never survive on a structured diet. I like going with food that I'm in the mood for. So calorie counting is the only diet that works for me.

Carol, boy lots of changes in your family this year. That's a bunch of babies and weddings. The shower sounded like a good time and good job on staying on track.

Suzanne, how many doggies do you have? I totally agree with crate training. Only my Siberians opposed the crates. My Alaskan Husky loves her "house". There's no door on it, but that's her space. My Siberian will wander in during nap time - not night time - but always lasts about 15 minutes. BTW, nap time the Alaskan (Blizzard) sleeps with me. My golden was crate trained but now just has her bed. All 3 definitely have their own space (beds).

Well, I should get back at restarting the multitasking as all tasks have finished.
Marie

Marie-
I love south beach. I get to eat more and I get to eat foods I 've never tried before. I have wanterd to start cooking more and this is giving me that opportunity.

Nikki

Marie - It was great to meet you and your hubby - let's get together again the next time you're in town. I'm glad you found the things you wanted at Columbia, etc. - shopping is always fun! Thanks for the compliment about my accent, but it's just an accident of birth! My family in the UK always think I have an American accent. I hope your back is feeling better today.

I can't believe they let the kids go wild at the zoo, scaring the animals. I always feel sorry for zoo animals too. The kids obviously weren't properly supervised so the adults are really the ones to blame. You'd think the keepers would ask them to pipe down and be considerate of the poor caged beasts. It makes you wonder who should be in a cage?

Nikki - Congratulations on your 5 lbs. loss! You're doing great - keep up the good work.

I'm down a half a pound (unofficial) so I'm hoping for a whole pound by Friday.

Carol & Judy - Hope your week got off to a good start.

Penny, way to go on the 1/2 pound. I suppose your accent is diluted by living here for so long. Your DH's accent is still very strong.

Nikki, that's cool that you want to cook. I found a copycat recipe for the Pasta Milano and I'm going to slim it down. I might even do that tonight depending on DGS mood (cranky = no cooking).
Marie

Hey, I'm still here, a little crazed, though. Sorry I haven't been more present. I will check back in when I have time for personals. Things are good, just very COLD and busy....too much to do in the few days I'm in town....

judy

Marie and Penny great you got together how cool! Marie the pasta dish sounds great when you figure out your recipe feel like sharing? I of course love to cook and eat too. I am trying to stay on track it isn't really too easy. Our weather is so cold that it makes you want comfort food. Today I was up a little in cals but thats cause I had a white cocoa at Dunkin Donuts at least I didn't try the sweets only the cocoa. So my end of the day cals are 1720. I bit high but counted non the less. Better to beaware of what I had than not. I will try to be at 1400 on tues. I have had enough of the bitter cold weather whom ever sent in our way can have it back for sure. Bear doesn't like it so well either training has been a little effected by it. But over all he is doing good. We had to cancel the vet appt. do to the weather conditions today. I will reschedule for the end of the week. Penny congrats on your loss.Way to go and you too Nikki thats is great. I will do the scale on wed. this week and friday. Judy hope all is well. Suzanne I am the one with the little puppy. He is 13 weeks old. I guess training him in the summer weather would have been better but thats life and I am dealing with it. He is a cutie and worth all the puppy care I guess I am learning as he is. I tried to buy Dog Whisper today but the store was out. Marie has been very helpful on this site giving me some tips etc. Well gotta go girls its getting late and I have a book I am reading helps me from snacking.

Morning-

Carol- congrats on the puppy. I have een dying to try the dunkin donuts white hot cocoa. But now I can't. I found a recipe for cocoa that is on sb . I will have to stick with that one.

Marie- Did you make that recipe? Let me know how it was.

Judy- will catch up with you when you have more time.


As for me I had a weight blip this morning but I am trying not to freak. We are talking tenths of a pound. I had the same thing happen on Saturday when I had my boyfriends chili. I think it is something in the chili. I ate it again last night. Hopefully tomorrow things will be better.

Nikki

Hi all, I didn't play with the recipe yesterday. I tossed a 1/2 of a frozen ultra thin pizza in the oven and was done. Since I don't get help with the dishes or babysitting by DS2, I'm not making him dinner. He was a little surprised when he came out of his room. too bad I say.

Nikki - a 1/10 of a pound - a dash of salt will do that to you. don't fret about it. I'm actually learning not to fret about 1 pound fluctuations.

Carol, I will share the recipe when I do make it. I like the idea of making it but just not for the slugs that currently live with me. I think they believe I'm their slave. And 1720 cals is not bad at all. sometimes it's is the only choice to enjoy the "forbidden".

I did 3 miles walking this am and added a set of lower back stretches I got. Hopefully something will make the back better.

Judy, stay warm.
Marie

MMarie- I am trying not to worry to much. Today will be a light eating day since I have class until 8 and hate to eat past 8. I am sure by tomorrow I will be back down and maybe even weigh a little less.
Nikki