I havent been updating recently as we were on vacation for the last ~3 weeks. I managed to lose 2lb while away, depsite eating lots of lovely food! Hope to lose more in August so I will try to post my daily diet here, it helps to write it down. This was yesterday:

B: 2 slices multi-grain bread w sunbutter
L: slice of veggie pizza
S: spinach and cucumber salad
D: brown rice cooked with onion, jalapenos, red pepper, lots of fresh tomatoes, chick peas and a few almonds. served over some spinach leaves. delicious! 2 glasses white wine.

Exercise: 30-day shred level 2

Sarah, I love halloumi and am very envious that you live where its so readily available! I buy it occasionally here and love it grilled with lemon juice squeezed over.

Sunbutter is a brand name - its a butter made from sunflower seeds. We use it instead of peanut butter because my kids' school doesn't allow any peanut products.

Halloumi is a cheese from Cyprus (i think Sarah, or "CardboardCutoutCat", lives there). It is made from goat/sheeps milk and melts at higher temperatures so you can grill or fry it and it holds its shape and just browns on the outside. I can only find it at my local WholeFoods Market for a rather high price!

Good for you, gardenermom, for the 2 pounds on vacation!!!
today:
cereal and skim milk
wrap
smoothie
large salad
walking 45 minuets every day
dropped two pounds-do not like the way my neck looks scrawney and my butt is still big!!!! Age!!!!!
Charlie Cooper is a doll!

p.s. Thank you pilgrim for the recipe offer!!! I like one pot meals
I have trouble following this thread sometimes--is it me or are all of the posts mixed up?

Thanks Ping, good for you dropping 2 lb too! You are very close to your goal, it must be hard to lose those last few pounds.

This was yesterday for me:
B: 2 slices multigrain bread w sunbutter (i usually try to eat granola w milk but I havent had time to go shopping since we got back from vacation)
L: leftover spinach linguine w roasted tomatoes and peppers (a disappointingly small amount of leftovers, still hungry, drank lots of water)
S: spinach and cucumber salad
D: gratin made from 2 small potatoes sliced thinly, about double the amount of fresh tomatoes sliced, layered with chopped onion and herbs, and baked with a tiny bit of blue brie on top. with spinach/tomato salad, 2 glasses red wine.

Exercise: Pilates for Weight Loss DVD, 30 mins.

Yesterday:
B: 2 multigrain bread w sunbutter
L: salad bar from work cafeteria: leaves, cucumber, peppers, olives, chick peas, lentil salad, corn.
D: homemade spaetzle (german egg noodly things) w mushroom bourguignon. cucumbers and fresh tomatoes. 2 glasses red wine.

Exercise: 30-day shred level 3

I dont think I eat enough protein most days, i often eat carbs and veggies, so lunch was good with both chick peas and lentils. need to try to add more legumes at home.

how is everyone else doing?

Gardenermom, well done for losing on vacation! I just got back from mine, and I gained back 2lb. I guess that's not too bad - hopefully it will come off again quickly now I'm home. I mostly managed to stick to Sonoma foods, but I did eat a few forkfuls of potato and a white flour chapati, and a cheesecake for dessert as a treat on the last evening. I think the main problem is probably that I didn't stick to the portion sizes as well as I should have done, though - I found it difficult to "eyeball" portion sizes when I wasn't sure how big the plates in the different restaurants were. I made sure to get in at least an hour of walking every day, which probably helped me avoid a larger gain.

The most interesting thing to me was how I felt after the few times I ate non-Sonoma foods, though. The potato and the white chapati really spiked my blood sugar, and I ended up feeling far hungrier than normal and also getting indigestion. After the cheesecake, I actually had trouble sleeping. I will definitely try to avoid those experiences in future!

Ping, I will try to look out some of my one-pot recipes for you. The thread looks fine to me - what are you seeing that looks wrong?

Thanks, Lady Windsong!

Here's what I ate yesterday:

B: Wholewheat pancakes, vegetarian sausages, banana.
L: Wholegrain giant couscous salad with corn and avocado, raspberries.
D: Wholewheat noodles with broccoli cooked in coconut milk (I won't be making this again, though, I didn't realise until it was too late that the recipe had too much oil in it.)

Exercise: 30 mins walking, 1 hr Wii Fit.