Hey girls. I bought a new cook book written by a couple fellow canadians, it's called "Eat, Shrink and be Merry" by Janet and Greta Podleski. The recipes are really simple, doesn't send you to 3-4 different grocery stores for ingredients. The best part is, is that it's healthy cooking. It's filled with funny facts, tidbits of useful info and trivia. I haven't been able to put it down due to that. I just read this and thought I'd share:

~Want to burn fat like there's no tomorrow? Then tomorrow, wake up and smell your running shoes! Studies show that exercising first thing in the morning before breakfast for a mere 20 minutes is more effective in melting fat than a full hour of aerobic exercise performed later in the day after you've eaten. When you first wake up, your blood sugar and carbohydrates reserves are at thier lowest levels. So, if you exercise before eating your Wheaties, you force your body to look elsewhere for energy to fuel your rude awakening. That "elsewhere" is stored fat. Need another incentive to rise and shine your sneakers? Exercising in the moring kick-starts your metabolism when it's naturally the slowest. Normally, your metabolism doesn't peak until the afternoon, but now you've iginited a fat-burning fire that'll blaze all day long. Simply put, the early bird gets the burn!~

I think I'll try working on the treadmill before breakfast from now on! From now on when you see these tidbits of info, you know where I've found them.

Here's a little "Pop Quizine"

In the late 1800's, Chicago-native Nancy Green was better known as...

a) Betty Crocker
b) Aunt Jemima
c) Susie Homemaker
d) Mrs. Butterworth


I'll let you ponder over that one for a while. Catch ya later gators!

~Tina

Tina . . . I know the answer, but will wait to see if anybody else does. . . . BTW, I have all three of Janet's and Greta's books. They are fun in person, too. Their books have always been one of my favourite sources for Fascinating Food Facts. Just in case you care, Greta is the cook; Janet does most of the tips and trivia and dreams up those silly names for the recipes. Actually, the trivia in their first book was what really caught my eye (I think I mentioned that I'm a trivia freak) and was the reason I was anxious to meet them when I got the chance. Enjoy the book; it's good reading and the recipes are good eating, too.

Erin . . . enjoy the floating . . . no matter what excuse you use for doing it.

Ryanmi . . . absolutely great going on that walking, kiddo. You'll be down another 11 lbs in no time.

Robsia . . . never fear, that four pounds will be gone again in no time. You are a lean, mean, slimming machine.

Have a great evening, gang. See you tomorrow.

Hey ladies! Sorry I haven't done personals lately... we had my stepkids for the weekend, and my stepson brought a friend, so we had 5 kids running around here all weekend... talk about busy!!

Okay. SERIOUSLY. I've only been back on plan for NINE DAYS. Why do I expect such huge results so quickly? LOL ... I DID, however, notice that my "biggest" blue jeans were looser this weekend. I was loving it!

I went and worked out tonight... was dreading it, but had a great workout. 20 mins on elliptical (240 cals or so), cooldown on treadmill, then did some arm weights, crunches, and squats. So feel productive

Ladies, I'm kinda freaking about Wednesday. I'm going to a "girls night" with a bunch of my friends at a Mexican restaurant. I will be drinking margaritas, and my first inclination is to say "to heck with it" and just "eat whatever" (which would mean fattening stuff!!!). Please help me figure out what my best choices will be, to minimize the damage. I want to plan ahead! But the margaritas are a non-negotiable! LOL Well, unless like a mojito would be better?

Tina ~ I think I've seen a man using that tag-along... it looked pretty cool! I hope you can find one for inexpensive, and that it works good for you! Regarding your trivia, there is NO WAY I'll get up in the a.m. early to exercise... maybe on the weekends when I'm in no rush, but I'll not be rolling out of bed earlier than usual during the week LOL. I DO, however, hope your trivia fact is right about muscle. I've heard that before, and it's so frustrating when the scale doesn't move. But that's why I'm glad I have you girls, to help keep me motivated, even during my times of frustration!

Ryanmi - very cool you got a new scale, and EVEN COOLER that you are down 11 pounds! Wow! I think it's good you put it up... my weight varies depending on the time of day, so I really need to weigh less often... it would save alot of frustration on my part!

Erin - that's awesome about your dress! Doesn't it feel wonderful when we can get back into the smaller sizes!?? Hope you & the kids had fun in the pool!

Linda - I know your nephew will LOVE the check & cross-stich! I have got so many graduations & weddings this month & next that we're going to be in the poor-house! On the bright side, I hope to be a size or two smaller for my brother's wedding in July!

Robsia - glad you are back on track ~ that 4 pounds will come right off! Just keep up your hard work, and you'll see the results!

Well, ladies... it's 10pm here, so I'm going to wrap it up... have a great day tomorrow!! *grouphug*

Hi Ladies,

Got back late this afternoon and always glad to be home. Had a great time at the car show, lots of beauitful cars, the weather was great, and the lake was beautiful. After doing great all week on my eating, bad choices yesterday and today. KFC and pizza Going to have to get up early and start mowing before it gets HOT. Hopefully I'll sweat/walk off a couple of pounds. I can wish can't I. LOL
Ozzy is back home and resting tonight. My poor baby had 8 teeth pulled today! 4 front bottom teeth, 3 top front teeth and a molar. At least he will not be in pain once his mouth heals in a couple of days.

Michelle...Congrats on your new camera and new picture of you. Love it!!!

Michelle 2...11 pounds less than you thought is AWESOME!!! BTW, great job on the exercising.

Robbin...Hey girl, glad I'm not the only one to smuggle water and snacks into a movie. 1 pound till the 230's, how excited you must be.

Erin...Yes, I was gone this weekend. Left early yesterday morning and had a great time with hubby. Strawberry Pie is posted below. Congrats on the dress being too big. Always a good feeling.

Linda...Love you food facts. After todays bug one, tofu is beginning to sound very appetizing.

Robsia...Glad you had a good trip. I'm sending the fairy fat mother your way. Here's hoping she sprinkles a little fat reducing dust on you.

Tina...We live on a 10 acre farmstead and have 7 acres of lawn to mow. It's never ending during the summer months and with hubby only getting a couple days off every other week, it's hard to keep it up. He mows with the big tractor, daughter is on the riding lawnmower and I have the push mower. It takes us most of the day if the weather is decent.

Strawberry Pie

2 pints fresh strawberries, hulled
2 TB cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 PKG (.3 oz) sugar-free strawberry jello
3TB sugar
1 reduced-fat graham cracker crust
2 cups reduced-fat whipped topping

Slice strawberries and set aside. In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in jello and sugar until dissolved. Stir in sliced strawberries. Pour into crust. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Serve with whipped topping.

Serves: 8 (1 piece with 1/4 cups topping) equals 197 cal, 5g fat, 2g fiber, WW points:4

* You can use 4TB splenda for the sugar and adjust the total calories.


This is really YUMMY girls!! I'm pretty tired, so will check in tomorrow.

Cheryl

morning ladies, just a quick check in before i go do some serious exercise. this morning i'v woken up feeling the best i have in a couple months so its back on track for me. hav weighed in this morn at 258 eek. off to update my ticker eat some brekkie and exercise. sorry not doing personals but theres just way too much for me to catch up on. hope y'all are doing well and hope its ok to just pop back in like this.

Holy Cow! I just realized I never posted yesterday. Now I have a whole day to catch up on.

Linda – Total YUCK on the FFF yesterday. I didn’t make it here yesterday cause I was so busy at work, then when I got home we had baseball practice to go to then you know the drill – dinner, dishes, laundry and baths before bed. Of course you know the answer to Tina’s question you are a bundle of info yourself.

Robsia – Nice to see your face again. You have done so good with your losses I am sure that 4 pounds you picked up on holiday/research will be gone in no time.

Tina – Wasn’t that movie just adorable. I loved the squirrel. You have really good on loosing and I think that you really do need to ease up on yourself a little. It will happen but maybe just not in a certain time frame. And to answer the quiz question I think it is A) Betty Crocker. But I really have no clue.

Ryanmi – Congrats on the 11 pounds – isn’t it exciting. You did great with the walking, keep it up.

Shawn – We went to eat Mexican a couple of weeks ago and I ordered a Chicken Burrito with out the Sour Cream Sauce and instead rice and beans I had a double order of rice. Before my meal came I made sure the bowl of chips sat far enough away that when I wanted one I had to ask my daughter to hand it to me. I then broke off small pieces and dipped into the salsa. By doing that I only ate 6 chips. Your best bet would be to order something with chicken, make sure it is not deep fried, and leave off either the sauce or cheese (not both cause then it would be no good).

Cheryl – Sounds like you had a fun mini vacation. Don’t worry about the bad food choices, you know they don’t happen very often and you have been doing very good. I think that if we don’t have our days with bad choices every now and then, we won’t stick with this. I am sure that pushing that mower will definitely burn some extra pounds. Strawberry pie sounds yummy cant wait to try it.

Liza – Of course it is ok to just pop back in. We are all here for each other and would never turn one of our own away. Everyone welcomed me with open arms when I started and I am here with a big hug for you now that you are back.

Well girls I really ought to get to work, before the boss gets in. Oh by the way, whoever it was that mentioned frozen peaches, thanks for the great idea. I am hooked, guess what I am eating right now?

Morning Ladies,

In for a mini break from mowing and eating my breakfast. Thought I'd try Tina's tip about exercise. Already have done 35 minutes of sweating and mowing.

Shawn...Your best bet for eating out Wednesday is Chicken Fajitas without the flour tortillas for 7 points. Salads are also good choices, but who wants a salad when your having mexican. Burritos can run you from 12pts up to 24pts depending on what kind of yummy goodies they have inside. Robbin had a good idea about only taking 6 chips and breaking them up and dipping in the salsa. Watch the beans and rice as well. Go out and enjoy yourself and don't fret!!

Liza...Good to see you back and glad to hear you are back to your old self.

Time to get back to the mowing. Later ladies

Cheryl

Good Morning all you wonderful little chickies . . . The sun came out this morning, yippee . . . supposed to get dull and rainy again tomorrow but I'll rejoice in the sun while I've got it. To make the day almost perfect, it is only 18C (65F) and since the breeze is out of the north, it probably won't get too much warmer. Could it get any better? Yes, maybe I'll invent a miracle potion and get up tomorrow morning 100 pounds lighter.

Shawn . . . patience girl. You've done wonderfully well in nine days. Wowee, wowee, wow, wow. I know, we all want faster. If I get my miracle tomorrow morning, I'll bottle it and give some to everybody.

Cheryl . . . and here's an extra one for Ozzy That pie recipe sounds great . . . I've posted mine below . . . very similar, but extremely different, too. BTW, just heard on the radio that we've got an antique car show in the county this coming weekend. T'is the season, I guess.

Liza . . . wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Hope your great feeling continues . . . forever. Good for you for getting back on track and my theory is that the weight that adds on quickly subtracts off again quickly. Go, girl, go.

Robbin . . . we missed you, but glad to see you back. Try not to work so hard today; tell the boss it really cuts into your personal time . . .he'll understand.

Strawberry Mousse Pie

20 reduced-fat graham crackers, crushed
1/4 cup reduced fat margarine

. . . combine margarine and crumbs, reserving 2 tbsp, press remaining crumb mixture over bottom of 9" spring form pan and bake at 350F for 7 to 8 minutes, set aside to cool.

2 pkgs FF/SF strawberry jello
1.5 cups boiling water
1 300 gram package frozen, unsweetened strawberries (approx.1.5 cups)
1.5 cups FF/SF vanilla yogurt

. . . dissolve jello in boiling water, stir in slightly crushed strawberries and refrigerate about 10 minutes, stir in yogurt and turn into prepared pan, refrigerate at least 4 hours (until set), sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture

Makes 8 servings with 135 calories (sorry I don't know the rest of the nutritional breakdown). If you want a really low-cal treat, make it without the graham cracker/margarine crust. Only 40 calories per serving. Sort of a pie shaped pudding.

Well gang, got to get going . . . I've got an optometrist appointment to get to. See you all later. Keep moving and shaking and heading in that great downward direction (because I really don't expect to be able to bottle up that miracle weight-loss potion anytime soon. )

Shawn...I forgot to mention that a 4oz maragarita is 5pts. Boy was that a shock. I usually have a couple margarita grande's with a taquila chaser, probably my total points for a couple of days. But, boy are they good!!!
Enjoy your night out, you deserve it!!

Cheryl

MMMMMMMMMMMMM margarita's. Sounds so good.

Good morning! And what a great morning it is!! The fairy fat mother has finally paid me a visit. I am now sitting here 2lbs. lighter!! Picture if you will...me...doing the happy dance!! I know scale measuring isn't the only "weigh" to measure your progress, so after much searching for my tape measure to no avail, I bought another one this morning. I'll be doing my measurements later and re-do them after a week of working out with weights. AAAAAAAAAANnnnnnd....I...me...ME folks! Got up at 6:30 AM to do my walking on the treadmill. It feels so good to have it done. Now..can I take a nap?? hahaha!

Ryanmi, great improvise! Love that girl! Keep up that awesome effort! And that is terrific about your beginning weight being so much lower than what you thought. That had to be so exciting.

Erin, love your measurement idea! LOL! My daughter is four. She is a little big to be pushed around, but she wanted a break and saw the floaties. Who am I to turn down a chance to swim without having to worry about keeping her head above water! LOL! Woo Hooo for your hubby! Looks like you guys are being active as a family. Way to go!

Linda, I didn't know anything of them till this months issue of Readers Digest. They had an introduction of who they were, examples of their trivia and fun facts and a few sample recipes and I said I got to get me some of dat! I really like it. I may email them because they have stated on their recipes how many it serves and how much nutritionally is in each serving..but I would like to know roughly what is a serving size measured. Seeing that I will be making the majority of the recipes for me, myself and I. BTW - your strawberry mousse pie sounds great!

Shawn, we all wish we'd get results overnight. You're not alone, trust me! You did have a great NSV though. Feeling my pants a little more baggier pepped me up big time. Sounds like you had a great workout too! Keep that up and you will be getting results faster than you may think. The only advice I think I may be able to give for your ladies night out would be...don't do anything you think you'll regret later. We've all had those "in the moment" moments and unfortunately wished we'd handled ourselves a little better. Is there anyway you can go the restaurants website and navigate around their menu to make the best choice for you? You can use this as a test, because I'm sure this isn't going to be the only time you're going to be in a celebrating situation. So if you can handle yourself now..then you'll probably be able to handle the rest of your life living your new lifestyle. All in all, have fun with the girls!

Cheryl, I've been there done that with the KFC this weekend. Don't sweat it, just get back on plan and I'm sure it will have no affect on you. It in fact helped me get the scale going again. I'm living Robbins theory of a cheat to lose! And girl if I had that much to mow..I'd invest in some goats and them handle the grass! LOL! The pie sounds delicious!

Liza, I'm so glad to hear you back to yourself again! You can do it girl, you've got it in you! You better keep popping in, I'm looking forward to it!

Robbin, okay you're the second person whose had tried frozen peaches in this thread. Time for me to get some! LOL! Hope your day is a little less busier than yesterday!

Well girls I'll leave the answer to the "Pop Quizine" for a bit to see if anymore of you care to guess. Hope you're all having a great day! I know I'm on cloud nine! hehehe!

TTFN!
~Tina

BTW - Hi Michelle, if you're out there! How are you doing??

Ok I want to hear everyone chant

30's 30's 30's 30's

I want to hit the 30's so bad I can taste it. LOL hahaha I am so funny.
I know I just hit 240 but I want to be in the 30's, I will even settle for 239.9. Of course once I am in the 30's I will want the 20's but for now 30's will make me happy.

Michelle, wow you're a busy bee today! Sounds like fun, if that's all shopping! LOL! Thanks for the congrats. The melting couldn't come fast enough! **kidding** I tell you, time limitations suck! They're good for nothing because you do feel pressured. And if you're not on schedule according to you, you are defeated before you even started. So that puts you in a bad frame of mind and full of negetive self-talk. You've got the right idea...let the chips fall when they may!

Robbin, I know how that feels. Trust me. I sat at 49.5lbs. lost long enough. So close to my next milestone (-50) but felt like so far away. Hang in there, it'll be here soon enough! And like you said you'll be waiting and wanting for the 20's then. LOL! I'm five and a half pounds away from getting to my half-way point and I'm already starting to taste that!