me too.... lost 35 lbs a few years ago. I'm finding it harder to "follow" now w/ my husband here and trying to accomodate his eating habits as well. I'm mostly ok w/ eyeballing portion size but it's just cutting out/back on the bread and sweets and moving more that is my downfall.

I did low carb before and lost a lot of weight. Then I got married and let myself go. So I decided around the time of Ramadan that the time was now. So when my husband started fasting, I started my diet. I had read about this specific diet in Woman's World magazine and decided to give it a try. There was a one-time fee to join the website. I love the women I have gotten to know from it.

As with any low carb diet, you have an induction phase where it is only protein. That should be short lived (like a week or two at the tops). Then you add some lower carb fruits (berries and apples are great for this and my favorites) and some of the lower carb vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, greens, etc). Do I follow the diet precisely? No. I add in things when I crave them (no white objects or sweets though). The main thing I have found is portion control and, as strange as this may seem, eating enough calories to keep the weightloss going. There is nothing more eyeopening than entering your daily diet into fitday.com (and it is free). It keeps me honest with myself.

Twila
[/quote]

Oh I know what you mean about logging, fitday and the daily plate are awesome for that! I always notice I stick to it better when I do that.

I am off cheese (and dairy) for a while so I have been using "follow your heart" vegan cheese. It actually melts and isnt that bad! I dont think its the kind of thing you slice and have with a cracker though



throw them out or give them to coworker! or put them out for everyone to share

Argg! I gave in I needed caffine and absolutely hate coffee, so I'm drinking a Mountain Dew

Excuse me? Shhh,they'll hear you.

I ditched dairy for about a year... then I added back yogurt (occasionally) and then the occasional cheese thing (I love cheese. I cannot say that enough). There are some vegan parmesan flakes which are scrumptious.. I wish I could remember their name.

lol
its never good to waste food.
but let them adhere to someone elses a$$!!!!



the first thing i add back will be my 2% milk cappucinos.
i use some sort of rice parmesean cheese that is awesome!

Good point. I'll bring them home and give them to hubbie.

I was thinking of walking the beach but it's 28 degrees outside without counting the windchill factor in. I think I'll read a book instead. Eye movement counts right?

If eye moving and mouse clicking was exercise,,I would be a skinny biatch.

J

yes! that is it!

Jen that recipe for the fish is what Rachel Ray is cooking on my tv now but she's using schrod. She steams it with fennel, onion and olives. Looks yummie!

I want to say - sign me in but it seems like my motivation is on zero - have no idea what's up - but I am hoping that you guys will be an inspiration to me and I will do it. Back in 2000 I did shed about 60LBS on Atkins diet and serious exercise regime but it all seems like a distant past...I will give it a shot - promise...
D.

OK for all those who are on board, lets get to it!!! Everyone must have good reasons they want to lose weight. Their health, looking hot when their SO gets here, looking hot for your SO who is here, prepping for pregnancy, recovering from pregnancy, more energy for family, etc etc. Lets do it!!!!!

So here is the update on my recipes:

Miso Soup: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/103391
>>this was very very good. one of the better miso soups i have had. i used beech mushrooms and i didnt have yellow miso so i used brown rice miso. was awesome!

Spicy Asian Slaw: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefi...ecipe_id=665301
>>this wasnt the greatest, i wont be making this again.

Asian Noodles: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/maindishe...asiannoodle.htm
>>this was very good, im excited for the leftovers (with the soup) for lunch tomorrow. i think im going to put on a bed of baby spinach for lunch tomorrow. i used smart ground and diced zucchini instead of pork, cooking spray instead of oil and the peanut butter i used was freshly ground from the store this afternoon. yum!

If we cook tomorrow night i want to try using shawarma spice on my fake chicken meat (seitan) and drizzle with tahini and have with israeli salad. could be yummy! might also suck but ill go for it!

Yeah dinner is asparagus and ice water!

Ewwwwww. Olivia, apsaragus makes me feel like I'm gonna blow up!

Seriously, Olivia? That doesn't seem very healthy even if they are vegetables. Not to mention your pee is really gonna reek.

It grows wild here so I grew up eatting it and love it! Obviously it doesn't grow wild in the winter.

My dad told me that when I was a kid and I never ate asparagus again.
I have actually tried to eat it but find that I don't actually care for the taste and it always seems stringy, which is a bit of a turn off as well.

Best wishes to everyone getting trying to be healthier and lose weight.

learn something new every day in mena

OMG, and I thought cabbage farts were bad . Im glad you and I sleep in separate houses honey

ROFLMAO!

I love asparagus!!! Not the way you have it though Olivia, no offense. I just toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper and put them under the broiler until they're almost crispy. YUM!!! My pee definitely stinks to high heaven after though. PU!

Thanks for the update/comments on teh recipes Chaishai! That's actually a pretty good idea-- to try and rate different things.

Yesterday i brought my stepper to work and did 30 minutes, then I went home and did my abs and arms. I had 2 carrots as a snack, 4 biscuits (two with jam), and ate 6 tacos for dinner.. no smartground in the house so I jsut had lettuce, tomato, cheese, and a soft taco shell for each one. I had one regular soda, 4 bottles of water, and 1 diet soda. Not really sure, but I should be around ym calorie goal... I didn't do very well with nutrients though. I wasn't feeling well so i didn't feel like making any effort. Ammar decided to cook for himself, so he had mushroom, a cup of olive oil, an onion, 6 garlic cloves, 1 chicken breast, and then like 6 buns. Probably was like 3000 calories he's looking thinner today too.

I love asparagus! i love it your way, Olivia.

MMM I just found this recipe I think I'll make it tonight:

Couscous and Chicken Feta Stuffed Red Peppers

Ingredients

Vegetable-oil cooking spray
1.25 cups fat-free chicken or vegetable broth
2/3 cup couscous
1 Chicken Breast cut into small pieces
4 red bell peppers
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 med zucchini, quartered lengthwise then sliced across thinly
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
15 oz canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 oz crumbled fat free feta cheese (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F F. Coat a small baking dish with cooking spray. Bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan, add the couscous, cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Cut the stems and top half inch off the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Place peppers upright in a baking dish and roast them for 15 minutes or so, until they soften, then remove them from the oven until the filling is ready. Heat oil in a nonstick skillet. brown chicken untill cooked through. Add onion, zucchini, yellow squash, fennel seeds, oregano, and salt. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes, chickpeas and tomato paste. Using a fork, scrape the couscous into the skillet and toss with the vegetables. Stir in the crumbled feta. Fill peppers with the couscous mixture. Bake 15 minutes. Serve immediately


I think I'll use green peppers - this is 4 servings at 4.6g fat per serving and 385 calories and almost 25g of protein- not bad!

Is fat free cheese any good?

That sounds awesome!

Jenn--it depends. I've tried low-fat feta from Treasure Cave? Treasure Cove? I forget what name.. anyway... the LF feta tastes the same as the real feta they sell-- but they sell a "dry" feta. There are fetas stored in some kind of briney liquid and it's not like those.. The lowfat feta is like 60calories per 1/4 cup. I've tried LF mozarella and it tasted like a$$ (well, how I imagine a$$ to be.) So it's totally a hit and miss.

Well I'm from WI and have eaten cheese all my life and find little difference between the taste. Some might disagree but the only difference I find is between whole milk ricotta and fat free ricotta - definetely different tastes there.


Sidenote: Has anyone used a food delivery service from a grocery store? Like Peapod? I'm thinking about it but am wondering how much it costs etc. The one thing I'm unsure of is when it comes to fruits/vegetables and the quality you recieve? Any advice?

Maybe I'll start giving them a try. I tend to translate "lite" or "fat-free" to "tastes like crap". Might be good to open my mind a bit, lol.

[/quote]

My dad told me that when I was a kid and I never ate asparagus again.
I have actually tried to eat it but find that I don't actually care for the taste and it always seems stringy, which is a bit of a turn off as well.

Best wishes to everyone getting trying to be healthier and lose weight.

[/quote]

asparagus is better if you peel some or all of the green off... and if you dont overcook it. it doesnt taste bitter if you peel it and it isnt stringy at all if you dont over cook it. I like it peeled, cut in cubes, sauteed in a small amt of olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper!

the main way I like asparagus is grilled w/ some olive oil or lightly steamed w/ lemon juice squeezed on it!

Asparagus is my favorite veggie I think. Yes, the key is not to overcook it and canned asparagus tastes totally different too (I don't like it). Grilled asparagus is great!

Regarding the pee thing...I did a bit of reading and apparently everyone's pee smells after eating asparagus, but some people don't have the ability to smell it!

Julianna absolutely no offense, only helpful constructive thoughts here - but isnt 6 tacos specifically 6 soft taco shells kind of alot? I feel horrible saying this but I have thought things were healthy in the past and ate alot of them and then found out from others that they werent! if you are talking regular flour soft taco shells I wouldnt eat more than one (but i would eat other stuff with it, veggies beans etc! Do you have beans in the house? you could have beans vs. smartground for protein.

Again, this is only with love here!

The only time i'll use fat free cheese is in an omlette because that way you can't tell as much. I normally buy the Kraft 2% or fat free shredded cheddar cheese and put that in an omlette with either real eggs or egg beaters. Put that between a potato roll and you've got yourself a low fat high protein breakfast sammy that normally takes me through till noon.

I think that fat free ricotta is OK, but I prefer the skim or 1% cheeses vs. fat free mozzerella.... But not by itself! If I am going to eat cheese by itself, I would just eat a smaller amount of the good stuff. But before I was off dairy I used to make pizzas out of ezekiel tortilla, fat free ricotta, rao's marinara (my favorite!), basil, sometimes the smart ground brand of fake pepperoni... it was really yummy even my 5 year old liked it!

I don't know? kind of alot. Hmm. Well, maybe? i can fairly out-eat most people so this was 6 of the small shells (about 6 inches in diameter), 8 leaves of greenleaf lettuce, 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded, and 4 small roma tomatoes. I didn't think it was particularly healthy in that I mentioned it was really lacking in the nutrients for teh day... but wasn't feeling like cooking. The only thing that's in my taco shells is flour, water, olive oil, and salt-- because I use the pita recipe sans yeast.

I need to lose 20 pounds , but the thing that scares me most is what if my "Eve suit" starts hanging?? That's such a scary thought to me!! I know I should diet AND excersize so this doesn't happen, but i soooooo wish i could do this with someone else, just to keep me on track.

I did diet one time, and people started to ask if i was ok!! Overdoing the losing weight can be bad too . So I'm just trying to watch what I eat, but I don't like to think that i'm dieting cause, as soon as i do that, i get all these cravings ughhh.

During Xmas, since I was sort of depressed, I didn't eat that much, so I lost 5 pounds, but I know that's not healthy!!

Soooooo, I'm going to ask a big favor from anyone who has the time...

Could you please put up a healthy menu for the week, so I can stick to that. I would greatly appreciate it and we'll see if it works.

Perhaps we can call this the VJ weight vigilantes , since the name Weight Watchers is taken .

Anyway, let's see if i can down those "few" extra pounds in a healthy way insha Allah.

Love you all,

Ayesha

What is an "Eve Suit"?

My body without the clothes

if you truly only need to lose 20lbs i doubt anything will be hanging (well, maybe your breasts. lol) especially if you exercise and tighten up that eve suit!


i loooooove asparagus. blanched (not overdone though! yuck!), grilled, roasted, you name it! i also like to blanch it and cut it up and put it in salads.

non fat cheese is pretty bad imho. if you can stand using a smaller quantity of low fat cheese it would give better flavor. i agree with amanda about the non-fat ricotta being horrendous! lol

Well the healthy diet can depend on a few factors-- how much activity do you have and what height and weight are you and what do you wish to be weight wise. It also depends on your frame to a degree. Like I have a small frame-- I am 5'4", but I have size 6 (or 5.5) feet, my ring size is 4 to give an indication of my finger bones, and my hands are like 5.5" from wrist to top of the middle finger. My wrists are about 6.5" around at the widest part of my bones. my ribs are like 24" around at their base. So i do fine with 110 as a weight because of my frame. But 120 can look equally as good or even thinner on some people my height! Also you see a lot of people going for a "weight" like 150, but never taking into account their height. 150 for a taller person could be too thin. 150 for someone my height could be on the overweight side. 150 for someone like my mom (5'1.5") could be classed as obese. Take the reality of your body and the reality of your activity (marathon runners can eat like crazy while training! If I ate like that, I'd be over 200lbs really quick.) level, then you should get a caloric estimate of how much you should be taking in. This should be based in vegetable carbs with some protiens and whatnot tossed in.

All that said... I bet if a few of us came up with a few plans, we could piece together enough meals in order to make a week

I'll post my menu when I get home tonight

Hmmm. I'll, post one. Serving size is the whole thing, which probably makes like 4-5 cups of this and calories are about 550:

1cup zuchini sticks (like carrot sticks)
1 cup summer squash sticks (you can use 2 cups of both, I just like color).
1 cup carrot sticks
1 small onion
2 large leaves/stems of bok choy
4 large leaves nappa cabbage
2 cups mushrooms (i counted with button)
1/4 block lite extra-firm nasoya tofu (1 chicken breast, 4 oz is also good)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbs soy sauce

I use an electric wok set at 250*F. If you have a real fire or a higher heat, cooking times will need to be reduced. Cooking is also reduced or increased depending on how you want your stuff-- crisp or mushy. The times and temp I gave are for a medium crispness.

Chop the onion roughly, and fry it in the olive oil for about 2-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and the stems of the bok choy, stir, and cook another 3-6 minutes. Add the zuch, squash, tofu, and carrot, stir, cook another 3 minutes. Add cabbage and bok choy leaves, stir, cook until wilted (probably 3 minutes or so). Add soy sauce and stir it in. I then pick it up out of the wok with tongs, which tends to leave behind the oily residue more.. but it's up to you.

If you use chicken, I will add it in the beginning just after the onion but before the mushroom and bok choy stems. I make sure it's cooked before I add other vegetables. I also will turn the wok up to about 350.

Sereia, you have me in stitches with the breasts comment, for some reason when i lose weight, mine seem to disappear .

Julianna, I agree with you. I was told by that my ideal weight should be between 125 and 130...but when i've been 130 it felt good... when i got to 125 was when people started asking if i was sick . I'm also 5'4 but my bones and feet are definitely not like yours and my ring size is 7 1/2, so I do agree with you that it depends on many factors.

But coming up with a weekly healthy menu would be a great help to me nonetheless, cause that's something i can stick to, instead of eating whatever. Plus it would be great to see the progress of those of us who follow this.

Amera, I love you! I'll be waiting for that menu insha Allah.

I don't know if this has happened to any of you, but, for example yesterday, I went to the closet to get dressed and the clothes felt larger, so of course i thought yayyyy i'm losing weight! But when i went to weigh myself i was disappointed in seeing the same 145!! I don't know what's going on!

Anyway, I'm thinking of losing those 20 pounds and disregarding some people's comments on how sick or drained i look.(of course I'll be happy even if i lose just the 15!, I just need to get a start on losing weight).

Hugs,

Ayesha

you make your taco shells? thats great!!!
my two cents is less shells, more stuff inside the shells!!!

that sounds like my kinda recipe!!!

I have a question - is plastic surgery "done" in parts of MENA other than israel? ie, morocco etc. I mean I am sure it is done, but is it popular?

In israel I know its not the case but it just SEEMS like more women have plastic surgery than not....

Just curious.

So my dinner tonight I think is going to be:

I saute an onion in cooking spray with about 6 cloves of garlic and some pine nuts. After the garlic gets soft I usually add a cup of white wine and let it cook down. After that I add zucchini, squash, tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli and saute a bit. Then I usually add chicken soup powder and hot water, but I might try to leave that out tonight I dont think thats so healthy. Maybe i will buy healthy veggie broth and add that. I make this all the time and love it! Its epecially good the next day. Oh and I also add the rice fake parmesean.

Oh yes! My Husband was studying under the most famous plastic surgeon in all of Cairo for awhile. I posted pix of them together even because I was so proud he got that coveted internship. From time to time he was commenting on medical tourism business in Egypt. Why do you ask?

I was just curious.... I was sure there were plastic surgeons, I was just wondering culturally if it was the norm to get some of the more superficial plastic surgery. No offense to anyone in calling it superficial, I have had some myself and I know its superficial!

Is your husband studying to be a plastic surgeon?!

You could be gaining muscle weight somehow. I didn't change my weight from that freaking 144 in 2 weeks... but I did lose inches around myself. So obviously somehting was happening, but it wasn't weight loss. I could have lost fat and tightened up my muscles and maybe gained some muscle weight as well. People don't ask me if I am sick until about 105 or so. Right now I've had a few poeple come up to me at work and ask me if I am over 170lbs! I'm like no, but thanks for the confidence OTOH, I have a friend who is floating between a size 0/2 and she's 1 inch taller than me, and she weighs 125. So this time what I did is measure my clothes and figure out my inches. I'm actually thinking that although my goal is 110lbs, which was the size I was happy with, I may be at 120 and that size because I'm working out to obtain it.

My chest dissappears too and i love it. Right now they are all up in my business and I do not like this! Cannt run or wear clothes, etc.