Good Morning

5 more days until Christmas

It is blistering cold here today, its in the 20's but wind chill is 0 degrees burrrr.

Whats everyone doing today ? Me, I'm just staying put, its to cold out and we are expecting snow later.

Tomorrow it will be 40 out so I'll go to the outlets then.

Coffee taste's so good when your home relaxing

Linda GOOD LUCK At Work Today !!!!







When is your next day off ?





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Thanks for the good wishes, Leenie. I don't meet him until 11am today so I get to ease back into this working baloney. I set my alarm this morning for 6 so getting up tomorrow at 4:45 isn't quite so jarring.

Got my 50 minutes of exercise in, my steel cut oats and am working on my mocha. It's not yet 8:30 here so I have plenty of time before I have to go get ready. I am not sure when my next day off is.. might be Friday the 24th and then Friday the 31st. I DO know I am off the 3rd and perhaps the 4th. The 3rd is when I go in for my routine colonoscopy. I am going to let him know the procedure is being done late in the day so I may take all or part of the following day off. Depends on the drugs I get.

It's funny, but it feels weird to not be getting as much exercise now. My body sort of feels lost. I wouldn't go as far as to say it misses it, but thinking about not doing more aerobics at 11 today is sort of weird. I know I know. I am

Whatcha cooking this week now that you are home Leens? What is everyone else up to this week?

Good Morning !

Hope your first day went well Linda. I have no idea what I'm going to cook this week, I just take it one day at a time. Yesterday I made sword fish and TJ's veggies for dinner. Not sure what today will be.

One thing I do know is as soon as DD is done eating breakfast we are out the door to go to the outlet stores

Where's all the chicks that posted they are happy this board is up ??? come out come out where ever you are

See you later, have a blessed day

Hi Everyone,
Hope you don't mind me jumping in! Just from browsing this site and finding this forum I learned of this way of eating. It is pretty much exactly how my plan of eating was anyway, with the added twist of there being some guidelines, and having the flair of the Mediterranean!
I struggle daily with my eating, being a compulsive overeater who turns to food in every situation, I will always struggle, but I have a deep desire to eat only whole natural foods. I drove 35 minutes to buy this book, about 5 minutes after finding the info here, and am just getting into reading it.
I'd really love to see recipes and examples of what people are eating. Hope you don't mind me bargind in, and talk to you all soon!
Tammy
Oh...PS: I'm 28 years old, and live in Whitehorse, Yukon in Canada. I have a significant other, 3 horses, his 2 cats, and 1 dog. I'm a horseshoer by trade, but have recently worked as a dental assistant, and just recently got my class 1 drivers lisence, so soon will be driving truck. Jill of all trades!!

I actually haven't started yet...still waiting for that Amazon box to arrive. I have been reading up on the diet on the internet and am stunned by all the highly respected organizations that are saying that you will live longer eating mediterranean style. I am all for it, and I cannot wait to start. My husband and I had Greek yeaterday for lunch just to get our toes wet

I look forward to this adventure with you ladies! I am so looking forward to being excited about what I am cooking again. My imagination has been sparked...there are so many possibilites!

YEAH !!!! Welcome Girls

Tammy you are NOT barging in, we are tickled that you are here. I see your doing wonderful with your weight loss, is it all due to the med way of eating ?

Jodie, what book did you buy ? I am so interested in reading up on it too. Starting the new year I pln on really going full force with it. I am learning alot from LindaT.

Hugs!

This is going to be so exciting.

Hi Leenie!
No, I lost the bulk of my weight doing low carb, before I knew much about any particular plans, and just had the basics from a friend who had been low carbing for like 20 years. Just went for it and started exercising after years of doctors telling me to take it easy because of a back injury. Those doc's were WRONG as I never saw any improvement at all until I starting working out.
I really struggle now trying to do low carb, the meat starts to make me nauseous (sp). I really enjoy pasta and am happy to just eat it with a bit of olive oil, lemon and garlic, so this way of eating really might click with me. Plus I love healthy, heavy breads, the heavier the better. Trying to eat well and excluding this stuff is a sure recipe for disaster with me.
I am on vacation now at home with my family, so not planning any major starts with this until I get home after the 27th. I look forward to getting to know everyone and maybe asking some questions.

I also did the low carb thing, atkins. I felt REALLY good on it and my blood work was wonderful, I just couldn't do it anymore, I wanted more variety and I really missed the simple things like peas nd my favorite Arnolds Hearty Grain bread. I really didn't miss the rice or potatoes, except SWEET POTATOES, those rule over anything else in my book. I lost good on Atkins but once I started eating regular and not watching my calories I ballooned up nicely AGAIN!. Another thing that turned me away from Atkins was I even had to count the carbs in spices !!! that really got on my nerves. I love mexican and chinese spices, oh and onions mmmmmmmm !!

I'm glad your going to join in w/us. I"m sure we can learn alot from you too. It will be fun to try to lose together

Hi Leenie, thanks for the welcome. I ordered "Mediterranean Diet Cookbook : A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health" by Nancy Jenkins. I saw so many options on Amazon, but this was the one that had the most reviews and overall people liked it. I read somewhere, either here or on Amazon that the author even includes a general shopping list to take to the store which I think will be helpful just getting started. I am just so looking forward to this!

So here I am again at work. They really did not need me to start back until after the holidays. I have spent most of my time the past few days just sitting here twiddling. Ugh. Oh well. It's paid twiddling.

Man I started this a couple of hours ago and just got back to my desk. I had to fill in a million pices of paper with the company and then had a nice visit with a former coworker. I was feeling kind of stupid yesterday because I kept running into problems here at work but today my new boss said " I am very impressed with your work so far." That made me feel good. I did tell him I needed more work. I know that sounds crazy, but I do.

Hi Tammy and Jodie. Welcome to the newest forum here at 3FC. I lost all my weight following the Med diet principles and it is now part of my life. I never have read the book on it, just a few articles online. Once you get the hang of it, it is very easy to "Mediteranean-ize" most recipes. Just think olive and canola oil, veggies , veggies, veggies, lean meats, whole grains, fruits lower saturated fats dairy, lots of water and exercise! I can't wait until those of you that ordered the books get them, as I may be missing something important! I don't know everything about this way of eating, but I do know a lot. Any questions I'll try and answer for you.

Today I was up at 4:45 and boy it was tough. I guess I can't expect to snap back right into work mode again, but it would be nice. I got in 45 minutes of aerobics, steel cut oats and hit the road at 6:30. Tonight is lower body weights before dinner and tofu and veggies in peanut sauce over brown rice for dinner with some spaghetti squash on the side. YUM. Since I have tomorrow off, I am going to try and get 100 minutes in of exercise. Friday I am making homemade rolls for dinner. The dinner won't be very Med friendly but I'll concentrate on things that are okay and eat small portions of the other stuff. I know it's only one day a year, but eating the "wrong" way now makes me feel awful so it's actually less painful for me to stay OP. Of course, I am NOT turning down homemade dessert... just having a small portion.

I need to toddle off to another building for a bit and then come back and prepare for a conference call. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hey Jodie, the book sounds wonderful, please let me know what you think of it once you get it. I feel lost too because there are soooo many diets in my brain right now I just can't think strait. It may be simple to others but its really not. Wish I could take an eraser and start over LOL !!!

Linda glad things are going okay at work. What exactly are steel cut oats and where do you buy them, and how do you prepare them ?

Nothing much going on here today, really sosdd. I might start baking some raisin cherry oatmeal cookies later, not sure yet gotta find a yummy recipe.

TTYL

Leenie, the first paragraph of your last post could have come straight out of my mouth. I get so jumbled between low carb, low fat, high protein, body for life, calories, fat, carbs, fat, calories, carbs....ahhhhhhh!!!!!! I just want to eat healthy! On any given day I'm so confused about what I'm supposed to eat, that I just say screw it and eat anything and everything!
How do we break the cycle?

Leenie, this site explains it all

http://www.mccanns.ie

Linda, all I can find locally are the quick cooking type. Are they as good? Congrats on the good start of your new job!

Jodie, I have that cookbook The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of photos. I like pretty pictures, lol. There are a lot of interesting recipes in it, and they include the nutrition data for each one. Just about every site or article on the Med diet that I've read recommends this cookbook. It's loaded with recipes for breads, flatbreads, pizza, grains, seafood, vegetables, and includes a small dessert section of mostly cakes. They do use real sugar, white flour, potatoes, and other foods that some of the current popular diets don't allow. But, one of the things the Med diet stresses is moderation, so don't let it throw you off. The vegetable dishes in the book are really good.

Tammy, I think I have something in common with you, I love my carbs They don't affect my weight, that is determined by the amount of food I eat and the amount of exercise I do. I eat pasta, bread, etc, but I watch my portions. I don't eat much meat at all, and have recently given up land animals completely. I only eat seafood now, which works very well with the Med diet. I eat a lot of salads and grilled vegetables, too. I guess that was the appeal of the Med diet for me, that it works well with the foods I enjoy anyway. It's very flexible, and just about any diet plan can be adapted to it.

Has anyone read The Fat Fallacy? I just started reading it, and it's interesting so far. It encourages the Mediterranean lifestyle, though they concentrate on French food, with little reference to other countries in the Mediterranean regions (that I've noticed so far).