Hi everyone- my hubby and I started Phase II of the SBD this week and have a few questions for you. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

1- I've started drinking coffee and threw out all my powdered creamers due to partially hydrogenated oils listed in the contents. I miss them terribly, though! Skim milk makes the coffee taste awful to me. Any suggestions on other things to use as creamer, or is the powdered stuff really not that bad for you?

My hubby wants to make split pea soup, but the carb count on the package of dried split peas is very high, and the SBD book says green and split peas are allowed. Would the soup be allowed, then? Or would it end up having a serving size of a teaspoon (joking here) due to the carb count?

I've heard lots of conflicting info regarding caffeine. The following info is cut and pasted from a website and reflects the same info I keep reading all over the place. Please share your thoughts and experience with this matter.

"Caffeine is very bad for you, especially if you are trying to lose weight.

It is very interesting when I see pages like this where people are constantly trying to defend their unhealthy addictions.

Here are just a few reasons why caffeine is bad for weight loss:

1)It raises Cortisol levels in the body. Cortisol is a hormone that is responsible for fat storage in the body. I dont think we need any help there. Have you heard of the weight loss product Corti Slim. It basically blocks Cortisol from doing it's worst, storing fat. The guy you hear on the radio and see on TV forgets to tell you that a MAJOR cause of Cortisol production is caffeine. So quit the caffeine and leave the Corti Slim on the shelf.

2)It causes your blood sugar to spike. Then after the caffeine begins to wear off your blood sugar plummets. This causes you to crave sugar. In other words you think your hungry when you're really not. This is obviously counterproductive to your weight loss goal. Have you ever noticed you crave carbs after a cup of coffee. This is why. Your body is tring to get you to eat some carbs to get your blood sugar back to where it should be.

3)The end result of caffeine is really fatigue. After caffeine wears off youare tired. Then you have more caffeine. Then you are tired. Ect... By the end of the day most people who drink coffee are exhausted and they dont know why. This fatigue makes it difficult to exercise which is a one of the most important ways we should be getting our energy.

I hope this is helpful. I have done major research on caffeine and can tell you honestly, it's bad for you. What you read here is just the tip of the iceberg.

What is important for everyone to remember is that the caffeine industry is a billion dollar industry. The truth about caffeines negative health effects are kept in the closet by many large companies.

So my advice is to give it up. You will be much happier and healthier in the end."

Great questions, mom2!

1. Yes, coffee creamers (both powdered and liquid) are the devil Stay far, far away!!! Instead, try (in order from most healthy to least): 1% milk, 2% milk, whole milk, half n half... Okay? They have saturated fat and calories, so don't overdo, but they'll keep you much healthier than the transfats and sugar in the creamers. Yuck! Even the low carb creamers, if you can get them, are full of so I'd stay away. If you want flavor, add SF syrups.

2. I don't have my book here, so I can say for sure about peas. Try this--are peas on the "Foods to Enjoy" list for Phase 2? If so, you can have the soup. If not, the 'allowed' may be for Phase 3 (one of the few beefs I have the with GFGCG...they don't tell you what phase they are talking about! ). Or it may be something, like chocolate, that you can have once in a while. Ruth and Barb...any ideas on this?

3. Yup, that's basically what Dr. A says in the book about caffeine too. It's best if you can avoid it altogether. But that can be hard, because most diet sodas in restaurants have caffeine, and because many of us are addicted to morning coffee! So, he says to try to stick with no more than 2 servings of caffeine a day. That's 2 cups of coffee (real cups...not mugs). If you can deal with having none, go for it...it'll help you out!

Hope this helps, hon!

Peas as in split peas are just fine for all Phases so go for the soup! They are listed under legumes in Phase I. Peas are also listed under Phase I veggies but these are the ones where you eat pod and all - Sugar snaps and snow peas.
The other kind of peas, the ones out of the pod, are "limited" in Phase II.
I hope this helps.

The new paperback says that green peas are allowed on phase 2 but gives no indication of how often. If someone had the new GFGC book it might give more direction. Looking up the glycemic index of split peas, it shows they are a 32. Lentils are 29 and canned blackeyed peas are 42. I think the split peas themselves would be fine. What else is in the mix though? Are there any ingredients that would not be allowed? I look more at the ingredients than how many carbs. This is not a low carb diet but a good carb way of eating.

Now I'm drooling for some split pea soup! Maybe tomorrow although I could throw it all into the crockpot tonight. Hmmmm and MMMMMMM!

I use the new Coffee Mate sugar free liquid creamer. It comes in French Vanilla and Hazelnut.

I use non fat dry milk, soy milk and half/ half in my cawfee...

AS far as staying away from caffeinated cawffe.... Youse can TRY to rip my Cawfee mug outta my hands when I'm dead!!!!

Wouldn't even think of it, Schatzi. I am vewy afwaid!

Kyemom... I, too, use the Coffee Mate SF Hazelnut. I'm afraid it would be downright impossible to give up (at least, for now) .

Though, in the past, I've used the DaVinci SF hazelnut syrup, with a hazelnut flavored coffee and FF half & half... and that's pretty good.

I've cut back on the coffee.... but I can't cut it out, completely, as I feel the same as Schatzi !! Gots to have the .

LOL! I'm with Schatzi! No way am I giving up coffee. There's all sorts of conflicting information about caffeine. Some say it's good, some say it's bad. I say moderation is key. I have 1-2 cups in the morning and that's it. If I have caffeine the rest of the day its in the form of tea. And I will sheepishly admit to using 1/2 and 1/2 in my coffee every morning. I don't use much and eat very little saturated fat otherwise so I think I'm OK. My body responds better to fat than sugar anyway. Plus the powdered creamers are disgusting, I'd rather drink black!

I was watching a show the other day on E!, that was talking about all of the stars drinking coffee all day because it is an appetite supressant and they are loosing weight on the "coffee" diet!- not that you will keep it off on that...but I found it interesting.