Hi,
Hope your all enjoying your weekend. We have been doing some yard work and DH went to his hometown to celebrate Coal Miners day. Basically, people come back to town that have moved away and get to see each other. I didn't go, it was getting pretty hot and I was tired. I watched Road to Perdition and the Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood movies. Both were pretty good.
I still haven't gotten serious about my diet or exercise yet. Guess I just have to get started. As they say on Flylady, just jump in where your at.
Take care, Nikki

Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend. We were supposed to have a lousy weekend, but it turned out very nice. It clouded over late Sat. afternoon with on and off showers throughout the night. Today it's rather muggy...still cloudy. They say we may see 90 deg. by mid-week.

Watched Suzanne on HSN most of the weekend, mostly when she was doing Somersizing. I broke down and bought her electric grill. We do have a GF grill, and love it, but it's a pain to clean. Suzanne's you can take the grids out and wash them in the dishwasher so it'll be a lot easier on the cleanup. Whenever she is on I get enthused again with SSizing. Last night for supper I made her lasagna w/egg crepes. DH & I thought it was fantastic. For the time being anyway, I've decided to go back to SSizing, hopefully it will last more than a week.

I'm meeting my cousin for lunch later on this morning. We have to make sure we're at the restaurant early because it's usually crowded on weekends.

Take care and enjoy your Sunday.

Hi Everyone:

Something weird has been going on with my posts. I have had
two disapear I can't figure that out at all!

Aleka I too am following Suzanne's diet. I listened to her
audio tapes just last week at work. I ate two prime rib
burgers with cheese for lunch and I am having ribs with
BBQ sauce that is sugar free for my supper

Nikkic,with all the yard work you are doing you're burning
plenty of calories. The weather here is great, sunny, warm
no real humity yet thank goodness.

I can give you both a little update on my coconut oil. My temperature is now staying steadily above 98 degrees. It
is usually 98.4. I am really amazed with that. Lets see by the
beginning of August if I have gone down in weight. Problem is,
next weekend is our Canada Day weekend so my diet won't
be perfect on July 1.

Enjoy your day ladies!!!

Hi,
Just a quick note. Anne, that is interesting about the coconut oil. Maybe Suzanne can help you with your posts disappearing or Ruthxxx? That is strange.
Aleka, I bought the Aroma grill from HSN and it comes all apart and is dishwasher safe. The small one was $20 and then I bought the larger one with the domed lid for $29. You can only cook on one side at a time, but the clean up is so much easier, plus it has an adjustable heat knob and you can cook a pizza in there if you want. I use to have a little GF and thought it was a pain too. I keep the little aroma in the camper and use them all the time, they are so convenient.
The weather is unbelievably hot and humid and going to get worse.
I'm thinking about trying the South Beach Diet. I read some of it in prevention magazine and I'm getting the book soon. Looks kind of low carb, but they do allow more carbs than some other plans.
Got to get out to the camper, Nikki

ANNE, that's fantastic news about the coconut oil. Let us know if it helps you lose weight. I went into GNC the other day and asked the person behind the counter if they carried coconut oil. They don't, but he did say that they would probably be getting some in sometime in the future. I am almost running out of possibilities. I didn't do too well yesterday with Somersizing. Breakfast & lunch went ok. But, when I got home from lunch I was bored and just could not stop eating!

nikki, I have the South Beach Diet book. I think I have every diet book under the sun looking for the "perfect" diet. I have been looking at that diet too. There is a SB diet topic on this low-carb thread. Don't know if you've seen it or not. I figure if Prevention is promoting it, it must be healthy. I ordered Suzanne's grill, I believe it was Thurs., when she was first on, and I got an e mail notice Sat. that it was being shipped already. I hope it's a new one and not one that somebody else has returned. I've seen a few complaints on the HSN boards about that practice!

I mentioned yesterday that I was having lunch with a cousin. She has lost 20+ lbs. JUST by doing Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds and cutting back on sweets, and otherwise not changing her diet very much. She does the 2 mile walk at least 5 days a week, but mostly does them 6 days. She looks great! It took her about a year to lose those 20+ lbs. That really has inspired me to dust of my WATP tapes and my 2 lb. weights.

Have a great day.
Aleka

HI everyone,
Aleka, I've seen the thread on the SB diet, but not read it yet. The SB diet looks very similar to what I was doing before my surgery, but I was just doing something I made up on my own, guess I could write a book myself on how to diet, I bet we all could. Don't you think every new diet is just a take off of something else with a different spin on it? Anyway, I know I can handle this one with no problem, it's kind of good to be able to eat a few nuts too. I have no real problem with sugar, my big problem has always been just trying to stop eating things that are easy and need little preparation. I hate to take the time to cook or make anything. It's just one of those habits I'm going to have to get back into.
My weight has remained the same, even though my eating habits have been horrible and I've had very little regular exercise. Gardening is good, but doesn't raise your heart rate (unless you see a snake )
I hope your grill isn't a return, Aleka. That must be a new practice, I've never heard of that before or gotten anything myself from them that is used. I've really stopped alot of my shopping with them. I still buy somethings like the Physicians Advice skin care, it's great stuff and the tony hair. But, I had to just stop most of it and watching it, cause I think I must have paid Colleens salary last year.
Anne and Cheryl, hope things are well with you, take care, Nikki

Morning All:
I feel better today. We didn't have a great weekend because
David was up all night Saturday and Sunday. Last night I got
a good night sleep so I am feeling more myself.

We are in the midst of a heatwave so I am keepint indoors
for the most part in the air conditioning. I am getting my
exercise doing alot of mall walking.

The boss has been off for a couple of days but is due back at
work this morning

Must put my nose to the grindstone!! Have a great day.

Anne.

Hi,
I'm about as nervous as I can be. The roofers are here, tearing off the roof. I'm scared what they will find under there. We know they will have to replace some of the wood, but I'm worried that they might have to replace more than they think. We've had a problem with wood ants in the past. On a brighter note, the men (very young men) that are doing it are very well made. DH said that they will be doing somethings that I won't like, but so far, I've enjoyed watching them quite a bit. Very tan, very muscular and so polite, must be because I'm old enough to be their mother.
We have had no rain for several weeks now, but there is a chance of a big storm tomorrow, just when the whole roof will be torn off. Hopefully, they will be able to get the new one on before it hits. It's a small roof and there are 4 of them.
Well, guess I'll go back to watching them, the temp will be 93 and the humidity high. I feel sorry for them, it will be miserable on the roof.
Nikki

ANNE, sorry to hear that your boss will be back to work today. How long was she out? It's hot here too with the humidity climbing. I think we're to have this kind of weather for the rest of the week.

nikki, lucky you to have such nice scenery to look at! We usually get workmen who are terribly overweight and you can see their butt crack! Although, we did have 2 very nice young men do the siding on the house...very polite. I thought to do a little matchmaking, introducing them to one of my girlfriend's daughters, but both men were married with babies. Good luck with your new roof. Hopefully it'll be finished before the storm hits you.

Have a good day.
Aleka

Hi,
Day 2 of the roofers. Poor guys, looked like old men by the time the day was over with. Yesterday, the high was 95 here and so humid. I see on the weather channel that your getting some hot weather too, Aleka. They are still putting up trim board and then hopefully, they will have the roof on before the rain starts.
I picked my first batch of beans thins morning. Not a lot, but lots more to come. Now I remember why I hate picking beans. I like them, but the bugs are bad and the beans make me itch. There is so much lettuce out there, we will never get it all eaten. It's amazing what a little package of seeds will produce. I have no one to give it too, either people have grown their own or they don't like leaf lettuce.
I still need to start the SB diet, but we're trying to eat up the food we already have in the house. I'm taking my oldest DD camping on her days off and she wants campfire food, grilled brats, fried potatoes, pork and beans with lots of brown sugar and bacon. It's so good and so hard to resist. I will have to cook over charcoal though, we're out of wood.
Guess DH will be home soon, talk to you later, Nikki

It's finally summer! It was in the 90's yesterday and it's already 80 this morning. DH & I have started walking again. We were out at 6:30 while it was cool. So, my walk is already in for the day.

Had a Dr. appt. yesterday. She asked about my weight and I told her it was about the same. She said that it was good. I won't argue with that I told her that after vacation I had totally lost my motivation on WW, and she surprised me by saying that probably that was not the plan for me. HMMMM. My last cholesterol test was high. I'm not sure if it was because I was doing a high fat diet, or because there was a possibility I had been taking 2 months worth of fake Lipitor. I'll have it rechecked towards the middle of July. Because the SB diet seems to be lower in fat, I think I may give it a try. I'm kind of leery about all the bacon and cheese I've been eating. Like you nikki, DH & I have started to eat some food like fruit that you can't have the first 2 weeks.

nikki, how is the new roof coming along? It's hot here and it seems like we've gone from one extreme to the other. Believe me, I'm not complaining! We've had threat of T/storms, but so far we haven't seen any storms. Do you have a farmers mkt. near you where you could sell your produce that you don't use?

ANNE, is it still hot in Toronto?

Take care and have a good day.
Aleka

Hi There Ladies!!

It is as hot as heck here!!! We are being threatened with
brown outs due to the electric Toronto is using during this
heat wave. When I leave to go home on the subway at
nights the folks just look half dead. It is awful.

Hey wasn't I just complaining about the snow not too long
ago

Have you guys had any extreme storms lately??We are
being forcasted Thunder Storms possibly tonight. I don't like
that!

Keep cool!
Anne.

The roofers finished the roof, and then the rain started. I had to thank God for that and the guys worked really fast to finish up. DH isn't happy with the roof, but then he's like me, pretty picky about somethings. I think it looks pretty good and it hasn't leaked, so that's the important part. DH just doesn't like the way the roofing was put on, something about the pattern. It looks just like any other roof to me.
We've had a down pour of rain. The front yard looked like a river and there was a small stream running through the basement. It's worse now, we had them remove the gutters and will get some new ones soon (I hope). I just keep everything off the floor and mop if I have too. Big thunderstorms, lightening everywhere. But, beautiful cool, less humid air is behind it for tomorrow. Anne, I was just thinking about that too, about we were just complaining about how cold it was, snow, etc.
Aleka, we have a farmers market 2 x's a week. I went by last Tues and everyone was sitting there trying to sell lettuce, with very little luck, from what I could see. I don't think you could give it away right now.
Have you been to the prevention website? They have a forum for the SBD and there are 2 threads that are really interesting. They are for phase 1 and phase 2 recipes. I haven't seen some of them in other low carb diets before, so they are kind of exciting.
Of course, this isn't a completely low carb or low fat diet, but it makes sense to me. I like the lower fat content, but it's also not fat free which should give a person enough satisfaction to feel full.
Anne, they have the complete article there from their little magazine that I read, if you want to look at it closer.
Talk to you tomorrow, take care, Nikki

Nikkic & Aleka:

I had terrible news tonight. My 21 year old cousin David
drowned. He was my fathers brother Bill youngest son. We
just feel like a truck hit us. He was up at a friends cottage
swimming and he took a terrible cramp. The paramedics think
it may have been a kidney stone. They managed to get his
vital signs going again but he died in the hospital in Toronto
upon arrival. The police went to my Uncles house to deliver
the horrible news. This young man didn't have alot of money
because he was a student so he was really happy to get the
invite for a little holiday with his friend.

I feel numb at the thought of going to the funeral parlor and
facing my aunt & uncle and cousins. I have had the runs all night.

Funny thing I had scheduled Friday and Monday off as vacation
so I would have a long Canada Day weekend.

Who would beleive I would be spending my weekend with this
sadness.

Talk to you Thursday.
Anne.

Anne,
I'm so sorry. I wish there was more I could say or do. I will be praying for you and your family, for comfort and strength.
That is so sad and I feel for you, Nikki