This is a great thread for those who want support, helpful hints, friendship and a great bunch of people to communicate with. This thread has existed for a long time and we keep re-starting it whenever the old one gets too long. Feel free to stop in and chat, we are not a "closed" group and welcome newcomers. Some of us have been together for well over a year, some only a few days, but we care about each other. We offer tips, we share, we pick each other up of the floor when we've had rough times and we applaud when someone does well.

So, please do stop on by and share a bit, support is what it's all about! We can really do this together!

Good morning everyone.
I'm starting clean, fresh on this Monday. I shall plan my meals for the day here and it is grocery shopping day so I hope to buy all great stuff in order to be a very good girl this week!
I'm still undecided about weather to be CORE or FLEX for this week, I had better figure it out NOW.... guess I shall try CORE. We'll see how it all goes. : )

OK, so if it's going to be CORE, I don't have to figure out points. But that doesn't mean I can go wild and not plan for my day, does it?

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, made with Calorie Countdown Hood's milk and splenda
pineapple

Lunch:
Chick peas
grilled chicken breast
spinach

snacks: fruit, popcorn

Dinner:
Fish of some kind (whatever I see that looks good)
brown rice
salad, oil and vinegar

Dessert:
What is a core dessert?
I guess I shall make some SF/FF chocolate pudding with skim milk and have that?

So, that's all folks for today. I'm looking forward to not writing down a bunch of stuff, but still planning here with you all.
If I choose to have a WW frozen dessert, I will journal the flex points

Take care and I wish a successful day to you all!

Good morning! Happy Birthday to me!!!! I had a 2x2" piece of cake for breakfast as it is a tradition here at the office to have birthday cake for the birthday person. I have to go figure out how many points that small piece is. I'm doing salad for lunch and going out to Smoky Bones for dinner - I hope they have their menu on their website. - I have 17 flex points left for the week

Have a good day everybody!

Good Morning Chickies!!

Laura - gotta love those Oct b-day folks.

Ann - I love to cook and often get comments that people feel like they are coming to a restaurant but because of the food I cook not the variety. We're pretty much a if you don't like what I'm making too bad, but my mom was also the same way. I remember when I was about 12 or 13 and she joined ww this was when you ate liver once a week and fish 3x we were not happy but we ate it .

Linda - Good luck on core. Not the week for me to try that, although I do try to eat mostly core foods.

Tracy - welcome back.

Sandra - have fun moving And get back to WW. You and Curtis can do this you know you can.

Paige - How was your trip home? What a whirlwind weekend.

I can't remember who else posted and I don't want to go back and look so to anyone I missed sorry .

I'm hoping to get some sewing and cleaning and laundry done today. I've got an engagement party for a couple at work that got engaged while I was gone. I think I'll try not to eat and eat at home. We're having l/o "tuscan white beans and pork roast" that I made in the crockpot on Friday. It was pretty good, although I think I might turn into a bean, we had them Friday and then yesterday they were in our Enchilada Casserole I made, l/o today and then Wed I was going to do Mexican Black Bean Soup, but I think we'll have l/o Enchilada Casserole and leave the soup for next weekend, because that would make beans 5 out of 6 days . I was a little over on points yesterday but I counted them and am moving on. This week I will do better!!!

Have a great day everyone.

-Tech

Happy birthday Laura,

Hi everyone, I need some advice, what do you do when you have had a very stressful, challenging week and feel so down you just want to eat everything? That's how I feel to-day. So far I have eaten right to-day,but it's only 10:22 am any ideas would be appreciated, Thanks

Lynn- I'm probably not the best to answer this, I've been doing badly lately with this, but my favorite strategies are: 1) get away from the food, take a walk, go to the gym, if movie popcorn doesn't bother you take in a matinee, or window shop at the mall; 2) Brew myself a good cup of tea (or coffee if you like it), and sit down with a relaxing video or book or magazine to de-stress; 3) do something with my hands that doesn't allow me to munch, sewing or knitting or cross stitch; 4) drink a big glass of water to fill yourself up instead of eating; 5) last but not least my least favorite grit my teeth and bear it and try to do the least damage possible.

Hope one or more of these helps.

-Tech

Laura- Happy birthday!!!

Linda- Good luck! Good job on the planning. I've never tried core, I'm afraid I'd overeat...

Went to the Halloween party... I had some cukes, an apple slice, 2 small slices of homemade pumkpin bread, and about 5 yummy tiny cookies. Gotta figure out some points there! Ha ha.

Good Monday to you all!

This weekend was sort of screwed up. I thought that I was taking my kids to a halloween party on Saturday, so I planned out my food and thought that I would take my girlfriend and I a nice chicken ceaser salad so that we didn't have to eat the mac and cheese and hotdogs and junk that we were serving the kids. Soooo.... my friend calls me on Friday while I am at the store to finalize details, (it's really her party, but I help) and I realize during the conversation that the party is that night, not the next and that I need to bust a move to get done what I promised to do. It totally threw my day off. I didn't have time to put together our dinner, I didn't even have time to throw on a costume!! So, needless to say, I ate mac and cheese (which I don't even like the kind that comes out of a box!) and pigs in a blanket, and chips and dip..... not a good deal. I did manage to only have 2 glasses of wine, so that was better than in years past and only a couple cookies... ugh! Saturday and Sunday were a little better, but I was hungry. And the sugar cookies are sitting on the counter taunting me. I only ate one yesterday and I am staying away from them today. The bad thing is that I am not even a huge fan of sugar cookies. But because they are there.....

I did do pilates yesterday and this morning, and my neighbor just called and we will walk here in a bit, so that is good. I'll just keep plugging away!!

Lynn - I agree with all the tips that Tech gave you. They do help! The other thing that I would do is remind yourself what you are working towards and why. Visualize yourself at goal, how you will feel about yourself, what you will look like, what will you wear. And mostly, remember that food may make you feel better in the short term, but in the long run, it will only add to your bad feelings!! Good Luck!!

Laura - Happy Birthday!! Hope you enjoy your day!! I love apple butter. Two years ago I made up a batch of that and pumpkin butter (another yummy one) and gave them to the kids teachers for Christmas along with some homemade quick breads. I may have to try that again this year. I suddenly have a craving.....


Oh, I think my neighbor is coming up the drive. A little ealier than I thought!! Oh well. Everyone have a great evening!

DEAR LAURA

I hope your day is very special. Sounds like you have a good one planned.

I'm waving at the rest of you. Hope you're having a special Monday, too. Not much going on here. We go to WW in the AM. I am READY!!!!

Laura Happy Birthday from me too!


Laura, also, if you went over on your flex points today, forgive yourself and move on. Your own birthday only comes once a year. On my own birthday, on Feb. 18th, maybe I'll have a chocolate doughnut for one with not guilt!
Tech, thanks for the well wishes for CORE. It went very well today, I used no flex points and I really enjoyed all my food as well. The Tuscan white bean and pork roast things sound good. What else was in it? Maybe I want that recipe, but do tell a bit more.
I made the kids beef stroganoff for dinner (but my own lower fat version) and I had grilled haddock with brown rice and asparagus. I felt really "superior" by having such a WW friendly dinner. Why is it that sometimes I feel deprived when I eat something different from everyone else and then other times feel superior, like I'm making a much healthier choice. Interesting.
Lynn, firstly, welcome. Then, remember that no one is perfect. We all have bad days. The best things to do when you are challenged and feeling stressed is to try to do things that are calming, relaxing. Take deep breaths, and try really hard to eat well vs. junk. When I get stressed and busy, sometimes the first thing that goes is my milk and oil servings. Try really hard to get those valuable foods into your diet, especially the oils as they are so comforting. I swear that when I do make a point of having those healthy oils, that my cravings for "bad" foods are considerably released.
I like Tech's suggestions as well and was just about to launch into something similar. If you have time try taking a bath as well. Use baking soda or Epsom salts in the bath or some oils with lavender. Light scented candles (if you enjoy them), make some hot cocoa. If you have a cat, in particular (or dog I guess?) cuddle with them as well. Call an old friend, call your mom (wish mine was still around) and pour it all out.
Take care of yourself!
Tracy, sounds like you did a good job at the party, you could have done lots worse!

Linda - it was a Cooking Light recipe, had fresh sage and bay leaves, garlic (lots of garlic but it didn't taste garlicy), salt, dry navy beans (they soaked over night), water, and a pork shoulder (Boston Butt). It all went in the crock pot and cooked on high for 8 hours, the meat just fell apart, and the beans were smooth and creamy. It was really good, plus I love coming home to dinner already done, the house smells great.

Let me know if anyone wants the recipe I'll type it up.

-Tech

Happy birthday Laura.......

Hello to everyone elese. I have been so busy so It has been a while since I last posted. I am doing well in the exercise but I still am not recording Argh.... I have not gained but would love to lose if possiable.

I finally canned..Everytime I wanted to something came up. So today I did and am I glad I am done. I am soo tired today. Have no idea why....

Tomorrow we carve pumpkins. Any idea how bad the seeds are, that is my most favorite thing in the world....I LOVE HOMEMADE PUMPKIN SEEDS... If they are bad to bad it only happens once a year and i can not resist.

NOthing is new here just plugging along. I will try to read more post next time. Better go put the kids to bed Chat tom BArb

We're moving to the ranch in the AM. I may not be able to be online much for awhile till I can get net service out there. I'll be back as soon as I can.

Happy B-day Laura

Ann: I am not sure how many steps I got b/c I dropped my pedometer and it lost my steps (oh well) I have to start over tomorrow.

RNR: welcome

paige: so how was it being at the game!!!!1

ontarget: I hope moving went well

I I hope everyone else is doing well, I am sleepy today so I think I may go to be early today. I will check in tomorrow again.

Tech:
I found the recipe, I think:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/re...ipe_id=1662889
Is this it? I think I might try making it, sounds good. I might modify it a tiny bit, though. We're not big fennel fans in this house, but I think the rest of the ingredients sounds really good.
By the way, everyone, this recipe has navy beans in it and it reminds me that I am craving Boston Baked Beans and I'm wondering if anyone has seen a CORE recipe for them that makes a mock baked bean thing? If not, I may look up a typical baked bean recipe and modify it to CORE or something. Most of the ingredients could be CORE, but the ones that are not, I could find substitutes for, probably.
DJN, I lost my big WW food companion awhile ago, not sure what happened to it, so I can't look up the pumpkin seeds for you. I love them too. I had some on Sunday, but had many flex points left and it was the last day of my tracker, so I just let it go and didn't find out how many points. We carved one pumpkin and I divided the seeds and used my WW scale to weigh them, giving each family member a small zip lock bag with their allotment in them. By the way, I divided them by each person in the family, my own portion wasn't that much. The big mistake to make is letting a bowl of them sit on the counter and grabbing a few each time you walk by.
Good luck with the move, Sandra. I hope it won't be long before we hear from you again.
Janelle, sorry you dropped your pedometer and lost your steps, how annoying! Since the WW one I had and returned seemed so bad at really keeping track, I have lost interest in wearing the one that I got from them when I exchanged that bad one.
Well, here goes my plan for eating today:

CORE - only tracking flex points, yesterday was fine with 0 flex points used!

Breakfast:
Plain yogurt mixed with strawberries
sautéed onion, pepper and finely diced tomato in olive oil with a pinch of basil
3 egg whites
fat free mozzarella

snack: pear

Lunch:
Tuna
spinach
black eyed peas
skim milk

Snack (after weigh in)
banana

Dinner:
Ham
baked potato with fat free sour cream and butter spray
mixed vegetables

Dessert:
sugar free/fat free chocolate pudding with lite cool whip