hello ladies!
fat chick b gone, i struggle with overeating on the weekends too! especially fridays. it's like the freedom of the weekend along with the stress of knowing all of the work that i have to get done before monday just make me eat eat eat! i'm trying to eat LOTS of veggie with hummus this weekend (mostly to get rid of them before i go home for thanksgiving break) so hopefully that will help! also, i've decided i need to start lifting weights, at least a little bit. i used to do it all the time in high school, and haven't really since and obviously i need to do that to burn some of this fat!

also, i have a question for you ladies. what do you put in your coffee that is vegan? as of right now, i don't eat meat, and i've been replacing milk with soymilk and eliminating yogurt and ice cream. basically, i still eat (some) products that contain milk, and also butter and coffee creamer. i LOVE my flavored coffee creamers! i've tried soy creamer and in my opinion, it tastes nasty. anyone have something they really like??

Tigger, just my take on it, and ignore it if you like (I know it's hard to understand the real picture from a post) - I get that he disagrees with you, and feels pretty strongly in his views (as do you), but I just don't get how he was mean. Seriously, I think he was bending over backwards to respect your point of view even though he strongly disagrees. Strongly disagreeing does not equal mean. Breathe, go for a walk ... I wouldn't try to talk it over with him until you are calmer. I don't think you have to compromise your opinions. But honestly, it doesn't sound to me like he's going to change any time soon just because you guys talk about it one more time. It *does* sound to me like it's possible he might eventually (not any time real soon), but I think making him defensive will work against the openness that he does already show.

Heather-most wax contains beeswax or honey. There is an epilation system called sugaring, which I've never used, but have heard good things about. Of course, who knows if the sugar used is vegan? When I was working as an esthetician this was one of the things I had to compromise on. I had to use a good quality wax to get good results. You could check spafinder.com to see if you can find an organic spa near you. You may have better luck finding vegan wax there.

Amie-I've heard of "Eat to Live", I think it's similar to the McDougall Plan, which is low fat, no processed food, etc. It's a good way of eating. I think Eat to Live allows more fats (nuts, etc.)

Dee-I know you're excited about this new lifestyle, but you're going to get very frustrated very quickly if you try to change everyone around you. It sounds like your boyfriend is actually trying to understand and make some changes, but veganism is like religion-you can't make people change their beliefs unless they want to change them. If you want people to be respectful of your choices then you have to be respectful of theirs. I'm telling you this because I've been there.

summerkate-have you tried silk creamer? I use the French vanilla flavor, but they also have hazelnut and plain. Sometimes I even put chocolate flavored soy milk in it. Right now they have egg nog out for the holidays, and I'll put that in my coffee too.

Two nights ago I made the Crash Hot Potatoes on the Whole Foods thread. They were so good I made them again last night.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your advice. I'm feeling much better now. I know I can't change my family and friends, I need to give my boyfriend time and not overwhelm him with my excitement. I think I was just emotional earlier. I talked to my boyfriend again and things are good between us. I feel so much better. Thank you all for your support, I've never had to deal with anything like this before and reading your posts helped me see my boyfriend really does support me and that I need to be more realistic in my expectations.

Dee

Hey, veggie ladies. Tigger, I'm sorry about Bf. I think being vegetarian causes people to question long standing beliefs, and makes some very uncomfortable or angry. My Bf told me he doesn't want to stop eating meat, but understands where I am coming from. Got my roast today, I am going to do it again, I guess I totally didn't follow the instructions, no wonder the tofurkey tasted like dried out leather, um, couldn't think of any other way to describe it. I guess you're supposed to baist it, and season it, so, if it doesn't work after that, I'm done. My family doesn't understand that I've never cooked a turkey or any kind of roast, so, they said they'd take care of it, which I appreciated. I don't even like handling the stuff.
Tigger, what podcasts, I'd be interested. I used to listen to Vegan Freak pretty avidly, but, got a little tired of them, might be time to check em out again.
My glaucoma has flared up again, woke up with my left eye enflamed and painful, and an awful cluster headache.
Reading back issues of McDougall's newsletter. Going to go through my CD's, and find the complete works of Benny Carter, my favorite swing music, for the cookathon on Wednesday. Can't wait. Are any of you getting your whole feast vegan, and, if so, what are yo doing fr recipes?
Oh, did I say, my daughter is the only person I know who likes straight raw tofu with soy sauce on it. Weird.
Bf always eats whatever I bring that's vegetarian, he says it's probably healthier for him, and, he enjoys not having to cook.
Amie

thanks for the suggestions darby1. i've only seen the original flavor of silk creamer-and it is not good imo! but i have also seen the silknog-maybe i'll try that in my coffee next. or maybe i'll just have to look around to find the other flavors. hmmm.

so after church today, we had a thanksgiving dinner. i signed up to bring a dessert, but then completely forgot about it until about 10 minutes before it was time to leave. i ended up stopping at the store and buying a boston creme cake-and i had fully intended on trying out a vegan muffin recipe! o well. i definitely want to try something like that for our family's thanksgiving. they all eat meat and stuff but they're awesome about trying new things and they like to eat healthy.

well, hope you girls all have a great Sunday! I'm off to work on a project!

Hey girls!

So I'm in a lovely mood today. I got a lot of work done and went to the gym. I ran 1/2 mile further than I planned :)

I was looking on the calendar and saw I go home in 27 days! I've had a great time in Ireland but I can't wait to see all my friends and family and to be home for Christmas (I fly back the 21st). We don't have a couch in my house here and I can imagine snuggling up to my boyfriend on my nice couch back home and watching a movie lol. Its the little things in life that are so great.

Now I just have to make it through 2 tests this week and then 5 finals.

Dee

jazz me girl- i listen to "vegetarian food for thought". If you go to compassionatecooks.com and then to podcasts you can see them all. Or if you search for it on itunes it will come up. They are great!

Darby1, thanks for mentioning the Crash Hot Potatoes -- I just made them and they were really good! I think I will make those for Thanksgiving instead of mashed potatoes.

So, I totally lost this challenge again!!! I threw my back out last week and just finally went to the doctor... I am on steroids now so I am sure I gained. when am I goin to actually get with it?!?!?! I drive myself nuts!

So, I am not totally out but maybe my goal for xmas will just be to get back down under 200... I joined weight watchers and my weight was 204 there... grrrr....

RDW... I have not been doing well this week either! Oh well :) I decided to order a couple books to help my mind re-focus. :hug:

Hope everyone had a great weekend! What is the one thing you are looking forward to eating this holiday? Let us know so we can maybe make it too! ;)

Hey ladies,
My eating was a bit rough this weekend. We decided to make potato skins, which I'm sure was not low fat. Especially since we coated the skins with Earth Balance to make them crispy and put sour cream on top of a cheese sauce from the Uncheese Cookbook. We made them Saturday night and found them so delightful, we made them again last night!

rdw-I'm so sorry to hear you're out of commission. There is nothing worse than when your back hurts. It just messes everything up. Take care of yourself!

tigger-good job on the run! Good luck on your tests!

Amie-I hope you're feeling better!

jillnicole-Thanksgiving is one of my favorite meals, so we make it several times a year (usually not with a tofurkey, though). My mom is making pierogies this year, so I'm excited about that. She went out and bought vegan cheese to stuff them with, so I'm looking forward to trying that. My husband loves pumpkin pie, and I usually buy one from Whole Foods, but they don't taste that good, in my opinion, so I'm going to attempt to make one that I found off of Bryanna Clark Grogan's website. I hope it turns out ok. I also wanted to make bread pudding (which I've never had), but I don't want to go overboard. I'm interested in hearing what everyone else is making!

I finished my 21 day exercise challenge yesterday. I think it did help me get into the habit of exercising. I learned that I HATE working out on Sundays for some reason. I also learned that once I put on my workout clothes, I'm ok and I'll go work out. So if I get dressed for working out first thing in the morning I won't spend the whole day trying to convince myself that I need to exercise. I'll just go do it.

Have a great day, everyone!!!

hey all, wow am i glad the weekend is over i was child-free friday so i decided to drink and i have been paying for it all weekend saturday i couldn't eat at all and believe i wanted to and i tried....and it didnt end pretty, yesterday i was still sick but could eat but of course made bad choices! yesterday i made cranberry sauce with splenda so im eating today, its good but i need to put less splenda i matched it with the 1 cup sugar it called for and it's too sweet.

thanks jill:hug: we gotta get back on track together!
Darby- your post made me drool... potato skins, then perogies?! yum! I have never had them homemade I bet they are delish! And regarding pumpkin pie, if you wanna make it soooo out of this world- add about a tablespoon or so to taste of molasses! OMG, soooo good!
haley- hope you get to feelin better! Ive been having too many drinks lately too- no more though!

Back is feeling better, stll not 100%... I did go to ww and weigh in today and was down 3.6lbs, but that put me where I started this challenge! ugh! gotta keep on keepin on tho! Got a wii fit today too for Christmas! hopefully that will motivate me to move my butt!

rdw1-congrats on your weighin, glad to hear your back is feeling better!

fat chick b gone-how did it go yesterday!?:spin: getting close to our race day! im nervous how about you lol i never see anyone running with an ipod in races so i take it thats a no-no? that's gonna stink, oh well.


I went over my cals yesterday by quite a bit but 95% was healthy.
I'm getting my accounting test back today and I can wait for that haha I'm sure I'll be disappointed because I had to rush with the time limit, but then again if I did good then I should cut myself some slack in the nerves dept. we'll see......

I've decided I'm going to give a solid effort into taking a break from drinking for awhile except though when I go to music shows though because well I already cut smoking out in the summer I want to keep my 2 beers!