Danzgal, back in early November, in preparation for the big ol' Thanksgiving feast, we went to Sam's Club and loaded up on a lot of stuff... including inexpensive powdered coffee creamer. I haven't been using it since I started SBD; I've been using fresh heavy cream. Anyways, a couple of days ago, I looked at the ingredients list for this stuff. First thing on the list:
CORN SYRUP SOLIDS! 
What I would recommend, Danzgal, is a field trip to your favorite grocery store. Go right after a really big meal--leave your money & checkbook at home so you can't buy anything. Peruse the aisles and read the labels on all those favorite products you used to buy. It could be the most eye-opening hour of the year... maybe of your
life.
It's been said so many times that it's a cliche by now, but in the past 15 years, I've literally "tried it all." Herbalife, Deal-A-Meal, Dexatrim, Rotation Diet, T-Factor, "Cabbage Soup," Atkins once or twice... and through the course of four or five membership periods, I've dumped close to $2K into Weight Watchers, International.
Now admittedly, I enjoyed some success on WW. My most successful period, January-May 1998, I probably lost close to 50 pounds, going from 338 down to maybe 295, 296. It was very important at the time, as I was also going through some fairly intense psychotherapy over some childhood abuse issues. Everything seemed to be falling into place at the time, and I was quite pleased with myself.
I'm beginning to see that,
for me, the major selling point of WW that is so "good" for a lot of other folks is the same thing that has done me in so many times on that program, and that is the idea/concept that,
"You can eat anything you want." You can have the cake, or the pretzels, or the popcorn, as long as you "budget" for it.
My grandfather died at age 89. A dryland or "dirt" farmer all his life, he and Grandma raised 8 kids on this little farm. At times they grew cotton, corn, hay for the cows. They had anywhere from 40-60 head of cattle, sometimes a few hogs, couple dozen chickens, guinea hens. My mother says when she was growing up, they even had some turkeys. Always a big vegetable garden on one side of the house. Grandma canned a lot of vegetables, homemade peach & pear preserves for the homemade bread.
When I spent my weeks out there during the summers of my childhood, there was cornbread for breakfast most every morning, baked in an iron skillet. Stone-ground cornmeal from the local grain mill, fresh butter, eggs from the henhouse. Grandpa milked a cow twice a day, straight into a clean steel pail. When chicken was on the menu, Grandma went to the hen house. When the deep freeze was running short on meat, Grandpa hauled a cow to the meat market for butchering & processing (when all the kids still lived at home, butchering and processing livestock was a "family affair").
Fresh milk. Fresh eggs. Fresh butter, cream. Fresh cuts of meat. Fruits and vegetables from the garden or the tree. Fresh baked breads. Even a little pie or pound cake once in a while. (The amazing thing about Grandma's baking, is that she
measured nothing! Handfuls & pinches.)
Grandpa died of cancer. He was a tobacco user much of his life, but he never had a gut. Grandma's been in a nursing home for the last 12 years or so. Turns 96 next month.
Food for thought.
Creamer
Good and bad! 
Always, Always Read The Labels!!!
