MM Warriors Part Deux (As of October 27)

[Wisteria1956]

I have a HUGE Christmas music collection. I love the season and the music and listen anytime I am feeling down. I am especially fond of Josh Groban's "O, Holy Night". That just about brings me to tears.

Hi Tom!!!!! It's great to see you! We loved the wedding pics on FB! I feel the same way about O Holy Night. Previously, I thought the best version was Jim Nabors but Josh Groban is an angel on earth with that voice!

 

[Wisteria1956]

Carol: My son lives in Portland. I sure hope this Vitamin D works for me because I doubt he will leave and if he falls in love and stays up there I'm going to have damp grandchildren with mold behind their little ears! We're going to relocate if he stays there once we retire. I have to be near my grandchildren! It's horrible having him so far away, but his life is going so well - has a great career and is making nice friends. We couldn't ask for more.

 

[Virginiaponygirl]

HI TOM!!! Glad you came around to at least say hi! I assumed that with wedding and all you wouldnt be able to stay on plan exactly...great that you will be starting again after the holidays though! Several of us have had return trips to step 1 already, so you probably will NOT be alone there! LOL, The FB pictures were great, so keep sharing!! I agree with you too on the Josh Groban...O Holy Night is my all time FAVORITE, and I havent heard it done any better!

Lisa - so glad the Vit D is doing its job for you! We cant have any SAD MM's!!

Carol - Im not sure what the deal is with the pumpkin either...although I DID ask Diane about it several weeks ago and thats what had started our great Pumpkin debate of October! She did post that pie recipe to her blog right afterwards, I guess to appease those of us who were wanting pumpkin...I e-mail with her once a week, so maybe I will ask again when I talk to her friday....see why the higher carb sweet potato is legal, but not the lower carb pumpkin! Doesnt make sense to me either, I just try to stick with her recommendations to be totally legal and not make any slips. There have been several tweaks to the steps, so why not another one!

 

[Barb F.]

Jocelyn,
Another question on the sweet potato - pumpkin dilemma for me. We can have sweet potatoes on Step 2 but not pumpkin. Does anyone know why? You said that the sweet potato would have 60 gr carbs and the pumpkin only 27. It would seem that the pumpkin would be more appropriate for step 2 but that's not how it is. I went with the sweet potatoes because they were legal on this step and the pumpkin not. Now I'm in a quandary
I haven't been able to find any sugar free maple syrup that doesn't have sugar alcohols in it. Our WalMart is just one of those small ones that doesn't carry a lot of food. I guess I could try Smart and Final as they carry a large selection of the Torani syrups and probably have the maple. Duh...don't know why I didn't think of this before. Another "senior moment".

Nell, Hope you were able to get Marti to his appt and that it went well. I don't know what it was for and I'm sure you told us but I just don't remember. Hope it worked out.

Robin, Nice that you woke up to sunny skies again. It sounds like it puts a smile on your face. Sorry Barb, but I couldn't live in the Pacific Northwest where it rains all the time. My son lived with my sister in Portland, Oregon while he was going to grad school. He said it rains so much up there that they have about a hundred ways to say "it's going to rain" because it gets so boring to say the same thing day after day. My sister is looking to sell her house there and move back to the sunshine.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day
Carol
Step2

Feast upon the Words of Christ

Tom, Nice to see you back. Looking forward to the wedding pictures. Have a good holiday season!

Hi Carol. I got caught up in the pumpkin drama when I went on step2. I was using it as a 11-20 in pie and soup. Pony emailed with Diane and got the be very careful notice from Diane. I have to say, my waist went up an inch on step2 after a month and I can't say it was the pumpkin because I was also eating acorn squash as an 11-20..I re-start step2 next Monday. I'll probably stick to sweet potatoe once in awhile and see what happens.

I had to laugh about the Pacific Nowrthwest weather forecasts. During the winter it's usually cloudy with rain, cloudy with a chance of rain, partly cloudy with showers, cloudy with showers, cloudy with rain possible etc etc etc. They should just say it probably will rain

 

[Barb F.]

Carol: My son lives in Portland. I sure hope this Vitamin D works for me because I doubt he will leave and if he falls in love and stays up there I'm going to have damp grandchildren with mold behind their little ears! We're going to relocate if he stays there once we retire. I have to be near my grandchildren! It's horrible having him so far away, but his life is going so well - has a great career and is making nice friends. We couldn't ask for more.

Lisa, just think of the wonderful possibilities for shopping for the grandkids you'll have if they're in Portland. You can get the cutest rain boots, rain coats and umbrellas

 

[Seabreezes]

Good Morning ALL
Since we were talking about yogurt and the Greek style yesterday I ran across this article. The carb counts of yogurt have been debated a lot the last few years. I like the article Laura Dolson wrote as she seems to have done some research. The Frage is 9 grams for 1 full cup and, if what she says is true, it is even less. It might be that draining regular yogurt would bring the carb count down, too. If you are not a yogurt fan just skip the next part.

Eating Yogurt on a Low-Carb Diet
• How to Count the Carbs in Yogurt
It seems as though it should be simple: Read the label and there's the carb count. Or even, knowing that yogurt is just milk with bacteria added, figuring that plain yogurt should have the same amount of carbohydrate as the milk is was made from. This makes perfect sense, but it turns out to be wrong.

Yogurt is one of the more confusing foods when it comes to carbs. Here is part of an email I received: "I was trying to watch my carbs and also going with some other report that yogurt could help you lost weight -- specifically belly fat. So here I was eating my ½ cup of plain non fat yogurt morning and evening...come to find out there is 19 carbs per serving. I was sabotaging myself. So where does yogurt fit in? And where does 19 grams of carbs come from in plain tart yogurt?"

There are three issues when it comes to carbohydrates and yogurt:
1. Stuff is Added to Yogurt
Yes, even plain yogurt often has added ingredients that increase carbs. In the case of this reader, it was almost certainly nonfat milk powder, which is often added to thicken up nonfat yogurt. Milk has lactose, and powdered milk is going to have a greater concentration of it. Lactose is a kind of sugar, hence, added carbs. Moral: Read the label carefully.
2. The Bacteria That Makes Yogurt Dines On Lactose
But wait, there is good news. It turns out that when you introduce the bacteria that makes yogurt (this is also true of kefir) it eats up much of the lactose, thus reducing the amount of sugar in the final product. This was confirmed by Dr. Jack Goldberg, co-author of the GO-diet and the Four Corners Diet, who has done extensive testing of fermented milk products. He found that up to 8 grams of carbohydrate are consumed by the bacteria in a cup of yogurt, kefir, or buttermilk that contains live cultures. Under ideal circumstances, this would reduce the 12 grams of carb in a cup of milk to 4 or so grams of carb.

How much carbohydrate can we subtract? Two factors are involved in how much lactose gets eaten by the bacteria. First, you must determine that live cultures are in the yogurt. This does not mean that the yogurt was "made with" live cultures; by definition all yogurt is made that way. If the yogurt says on the label that it was "made with" live cultures, you can bet that those cultures are not living now. After the bacteria are killed, the carbohydrate level becomes stable. So you want the label to say that the yogurt "contains" live cultures, with the names of at least two kinds of bacteria (and the more the better), such as lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidus, or l. casei.

The second factor that makes a difference in this process has to do with how long the yogurt is left to ferment. Although the process continues slowly after chilling, the vast majority happens in the stage where the yogurt is kept warm. Most commercial yogurt does not ferment long enough for the maximum amount of lactose consumption by the bacteria. Dr. Goldberg says that most commercial yogurt with live cultures has 7 to 8 grams of carbohydrate per cup, but that that amount will continue to slowly diminish over time, even after purchase. He also says that by the time the carbohydrate decreases to about 4 to 5 grams per cup, the amount stabilizes because so much lactic acid has been produced that the bacteria go dormant. If you make your own yogurt, it may take as long as 20 hours to get to this point (depending upon temperature). Dr. Goldberg tells me that when he sees the whey start to separate, he stops.
3. Straining the Whey
More potentially good news for low-carbers: It turns out that most of the lactose in milk and yogurt is in the whey. Furthermore, it is easy to strain much of the whey out of yogurt, and at least one company, FAGE, sells strained Greek-style yogurt. To strain the whey out of yogurt yourself, put a coffee filter in a strainer or colander and put that over a bowl in the refrigerator overnight. What will be left is sometimes called "yogurt cheese", which has a consistency that can reach the thickness of soft cream cheese if enough whey drains off. This can be eaten any way you want or mixed with other ingredients for foods such as dips. How many carb grams can you deduct for straining? There's no really great way to tell for sure, but FAGE Classic Greek yogurt claims it has 6 grams of carb for a 7-oz. serving. Another advantage to straining yogurt is that the concentrated yogurt has more protein per cup.



Carol – I don’t know the answer to your question. I think it might be a good one to run by Diane again. She must have changed her mind about pumpkin since she posted the recipe. I haven’t looked up the glycemic number for the 2 foods – that might have some bearing on it. I’m still struggling with step 1!!

Tom – nice to see you. There is a local group of girls called Na Leo that do O Holy Night that is beautiful, too.

I am making a couple of Christmas compilation cd’s right now for the car as I don’t have an i-pod connection and I see I have over 5 hours of Christmas music on the i-pod. I still have some more to add, I think. I just put the new one on, though.

Nell – sorry Marti won’t get up. Does that do in the appointment?

My freshman year of collage was spent in Washington. I could not wait to get back to California. I am definitely a sunshine person!! My husband was going to be transferred to a job in Portland by the company he used to work for right after we were married. He already knew me well enough to know I would not survive there. He had to leave the company!! It was the best decision he made - as it turned out. He is not fond of wet and cold, either!!!

The sun is really shining in on me right now. I’ll be outside shortly!!

Robin – I see you already had the same idea about the pumpkin/sweet potato and Diane.

Have a great day everyone.

 

[Virginiaponygirl]

Ok Jocelyn - now I am COMPLETELY confused on the yogurt!! So so we not to trust the carbs that are listed on the nutrition panel? I am totally NOT a yogurt fan in the first place...only eating it since it is supposed to help with belly fat, be good for you, and all that jazz...but if I cant trust the carb content, how do I know if it is actually counting as an 11-20 or not?!! Wouldnt hurt my feelings at all to give it up completely!! but Im sure if we got right down to brass tacks, the carb counts on just about EVERY nutrition panel arent totally correct!! OMG!!!

But seriously...how can the greek kind be only 7-9g for a full cup, when the regular plain is like 18-20 for a cup?

 

[Seabreezes]

Ok Jocelyn - now I am COMPLETELY confused on the yogurt!! So so we not to trust the carbs that are listed on the nutrition panel? I am totally NOT a yogurt fan in the first place...only eating it since it is supposed to help with belly fat, be good for you, and all that jazz...but if I cant trust the carb content, how do I know if it is actually counting as an 11-20 or not?!! Wouldnt hurt my feelings at all to give it up completely!! but Im sure if we got right down to brass tacks, the carb counts on just about EVERY nutrition panel arent totally correct!! OMG!!!

But seriously...how can the greek kind be only 7-9g for a full cup, when the regular plain is like 18-20 for a cup?

Her article did say that some companies add fillers -
nonfat milk powder, which is often added to thicken up nonfat yogurt
The Greek is drained and just the whey. I used to drain regular yogurt to use as sour cream and it definitley is much better thicker. This Fage brand is not even like yogurt it is so good!!! But, you have to be able to find it to have it!!!

It might be interesting to get Diane's response to the theory that the carbs are eaten up. I have been reading about this for the past several years on low carb spots. Sour dough bread is supposed to have less carbs, too, because of the fermentation.

And -you are sooo correct that the counts on labels are not terribly accuarate as they can round down on everything. I know someone who wrote to Walden Farms and most things are really .5 carbs per serving so they do add up after a while, too.

The nice thing about MM is that as long as it is a gentle carb and doesn't immediately cause a sugar spike it can be worked into the diet. Are you diabetic? or prediabetic? I can't recall if you check your sugar. It might be interesting after eating yogurt to see if there is a response. Again - I think a quetion for Diane.

The exercise clothes are on so am off. It is really windy again today so don't think a swim is going to happen.

Speaking of wind - when we looked out this morning it was to see a very large sailboat caught on the reef in front of Waikiki. It is still there. Not sure how they will get something in close enough in the area to pull it off. The keel must be firmly wedged in the reef. Not good for the reef, either!!

 

[Wisteria1956]

Jocelyn: That was so interesting about the yogurt! I guess I was blaming my plain yogurt too much for my weight gain before MM. It was especially interesting to read why the Greek yogurt is so good. We noticed on their website that they make fruit ones also with proper carb count for us. Might be easier than trying to stir spreads in. Supposedly, Raleys and Bel Air carry it around here as well as Whole Foods so we are on the lookout during out next shopping forays. Thanks again!

 

[Wisteria1956]

Lisa, just think of the wonderful possibilities for shopping for the grandkids you'll have if they're in Portland. You can get the cutest rain boots, rain coats and umbrellas

Awwwwww! And we can take them on vacations to the beach!

 

[gettinhealthy]

Good evening everyone.
Tom, hi and nice to see you back! Loved the pictures on FB!!

Robin, I was up bright and early, around 5:30, but had a busy Monday morning, so didn't get here before I left for work

Nell, Hope Marti managed to get out of bed, and not miss the appointment. Noticed you hadn't posted most of the day, so maybe you did make it. Glad you enjoyed your BBQ yesterday.

Ok, going to clean up supper dishes, then take Tyson for a walk. Catch up with you all later.

 

[Daniele]

I have a HUGE Christmas music collection. I love the season and the music and listen anytime I am feeling down. I am especially fond of Josh Groban's "O, Holy Night". That just about brings me to tears.

Tom, O Holy Night is my absolute all time favorite Christmas song. I'm so glad you've come to share with us again. How is married life so far? I hope your both thrilled and loving every day together!

 

[Wisteria1956]

We're going to the So You Think You Can Dance Tour tonight with Mom and Dad. Can't wait to see those kids in person! I hope I picked good seats!

 

[Daniele]

Carol: My son lives in Portland. I sure hope this Vitamin D works for me because I doubt he will leave and if he falls in love and stays up there I'm going to have damp grandchildren with mold behind their little ears! We're going to relocate if he stays there once we retire. I have to be near my grandchildren! It's horrible having him so far away, but his life is going so well - has a great career and is making nice friends. We couldn't ask for more.

Lisa, if you have to move up to the damp then you can fill your house with bright therapeutic SAD lights and take extra vitamin D. Just having little ones around will thrill you too! If you'd like then take some of your vitamin D as cod liver oil. You can't do all the milligrams you want to because it would be too much vitamin A, but doing some as cod liver oil helps you stay more on the natural end with the vitamins. Some people believe that it is better assimilated than the manufactured kind. I'm so happy your feeling upbeat!

 

[gettinhealthy]

Don't forget if you take fish oil to take 400 iu's of vitamin E also. Fish oil can deplete your E reserves.

 

[Carol-Fish]

Robin,
Yes, please ask Diane about the sweet potato vs pumpkin dilemma. I want to make a pie for Thanksgiving and was jazzed to find the recipe for the sweet potato pie but if the pumpkin is lower, I would make that one.
Thanks,
Carol
Step 2

Feast upon the Words of Christ

 

[momtozac]

Natalie - dont know why you are having ambivalent feelings about church, but do try to get yourself back to HIM! Faith is the greatest gift we can give ourselves and it helps so much to get us through the toughest of times. There are many services broadcast on sunday mornings...dont know if you can tune in to Thomas Road Baptist church or not...but Pastor Falwell is an amazing preacher, and his sermons are very easy to relate to modern times and our current struggles...not alot of fire and brimstone stuff!! I always feel so uplifted after the hour is over...in fact I find myself wishing it would go on for ANOTHER hour instead of wishing it would be over like I did when I was a kid!

Lisa - we were doing SO well, and then you had to ruin a good hot tub with olives!! I have looked high and low for the greek yogurt...my daughter will have nothing else BUT that, but to no avail here...my store brand plain yogurt is 18g per cup, with 9 sugars...so I usually do a half cup with some of my Torani SF raspberry syrup and about a dozen raspberries thrown in for good measure! YUM...

My Gluten-Free menu for this week:

8:30am - yogurt with raspberries

1pm - 1 cup milk with turkey rollups and salad, or tuna salad

5:30pm - tilapia with brown rice and asparagus, or black bean chili

10:30pm - Shakeology

3:30am - frozen grapes

I usually have a handful of almonds or some celery with cream cheese or PB when I get home from the gym...exercise makes me hungry!!!

And I have my decaf at work around noon with some vanilla atkins shake stirred in...then I finish off the shake later between lunch and dinner...

What do you think? Look gluten free to you?

This is the first couple weeks I have had any beans at all, so they couldnt have been causing the bloat, hopefully eating them this week wont bring it back on!

HI--Totally have faith in Jesus, just not the church! Disappointments through the years. I'm in the process of finding another church, one where I feel accepted. or maybe its just like that everywhere!! just thought church with christians would welcome with open arms--I ran the Womens Retreat last year and still feel like an outsider. (ug, maybe it me--I haven't felt so social lately) anyway, thanks for your concern!!

 

[kater]

Kate I am saying prayers.

Thank you. My neice is still unconsious and on a ventilator. The doctors said that it is still touch and go.

 

[momtozac]

Don't forget if you take fish oil to take 400 iu's of vitamin E also. Fish oil can deplete your E reserves.

I've heard vitamin E helps the fish oil not get rancid in your system??

 

[Wisteria1956]

Thank you. My neice is still unconsious and on a ventilator. The doctors said that it is still touch and go.

Kate: I am so sorry to hear that she is still so ill. We are praying for your family. What happened, if you feel like sharing?