2018--Striving to Make This Year Our Best Possible
Replies
-
Week 1 of NS is done and I’m down about 1.5 pounds. Not a bad start, considering that I’m not completely on program and I’ve gone out to eat twice during the week. I should get my replacement foods today or tomorrow, so that will make it easier to follow the program more closely.
I’m hosting a dinner party for a friend’s birthday Saturday night, so I’m busy getting ready for that. Most of the food is already prepared so now it’s time to clean house and arrange the tables. I’m expecting 4 or 5 couples and will have to split into two groups since my dining room is crowded with 8 people. I made my homemade lasagna a month ago and froze it, and I’ve got homemade bread sticks in the freezer as well. Tomorrow I’ll shop for my fresh salad ingredients and the things I need for an appetizer platter of bruschetta and antipasto skewers, which I’ll put together on Saturday. I also baked the cake layers for the birthday cake and froze them, so tomorrow I’ll make the frosting and finish it. Hopefully, by doing so much advance prep, I won’t be exhausted by party time and will actually enjoy it along with my guests. At least, that’s the plan!
We’ve had almost non-stop rain for the past few days. We need the rain, but I’m getting tired of it. If it continues much longer I think we may need to start building an ark.0 -
Pam - congrats on finishing week 1!
The party sounds like fun!
We've been having a lot of rain, too, but since it's February that means we are much warmer than normal and that's not a bad thing.
0 -
I'll bet you have an early spring which is always welcome. We've been running 10 degrees warmer than normal. No complaints from me on that. Pam, good job on doing early prep for your party. It sounds wonderful and you'll have time to enjoy your guests.0
-
1 -
Too funny!0
-
0 -
I caught up with the Pendergast books.
Now I'm working on catching up with Kathy Reichs. Interesting factoids in this one (Spider Bones) about the efforts to find and identify missing soldiers. I had NO idea there are 78,000 soldiers missing from WWII.0 -
My dinner party went very well. Everyone complimented the food and there were very few leftovers, so I think they were sincere. I was able to pace myself and get all the work done early enough to be able to rest and relax for a couple of hours before the party, so I wasn’t exhausted by the time our guests arrived. I don’t host this type of party very often, and although I enjoy entertaining, I do find it a bit stressful. I’m glad it’s over and I won’t need to do it again for a long while. I was overdue to repay the hospitality I’ve enjoyed from my friends, so now I’m all paid up, lol!
My diet took a little hit due to the party but I got right back on track yesterday and I’m already seeing the scale start downward again. I did keep my portions small at the party, but I drank a couple of glasses of wine and had a small piece of cake, so I expected to gain.
The last time I was on NS I only did the shelf stable foods. This time I chose the plan with unlimited frozen foods and I’m finding it much easier to eat the food I chose. With a few exceptions, the frozen foods have been pretty good. I had a strawberry crepe this morning that I won’t order again, but so far that’s the only thing I’ve tried that I really didn’t like. The turkey pot pie wrap isn’t a favorite, but it wasn’t horrible, either. I know I’m fairly picky about food, so I’m pleased that everything has been pretty good. Now if I can only remember to drink all of the water and increase my veggie consumption, I’ll be doing pretty well I think. I’ve fallen out of both those habits and I need to work on getting them back.0 -
I don't seem to have trouble with vegetables most days. HUGE lunch salad (pyrex mixing bowl size), vegetables for dinner, and a lot of evenings cut up raw veggies with a little salt. What I don't have very often is fruit.
WRT the frozen foods, I think having next to nothing for lunches except wraps is lazy on their part. I can buy Lean Pockets. I LOVE the french toast. Like some of the snacks/desserts. The other night I had the ricotta crepes for dinner for the first time. I'd grade them okay (with weird prep instructions).
Jean - what's going on with the schools down there????
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/health/west-virginia-map-school-closings-trnd/index.html
I never actually went on strike during my teaching days but I was active in the union and ran strike headquarters one year when we were seriously considering it. If I hadn't ended up with the second career I did, I think I'd have ended up working for the union.
It's like spring here. A rainy spring. I'm tired of muddy and muddy dishes at the colonies.
Our internet was down over the weekend. It came back up but we still had Comcast come out this morning. They showed me the wire they replaced outside. Totally squirrel chewed!0 -
0 -
0 -
"A chimpanzee saved a piece of newspaper she'd been given for enrichment until keepers showed up the next day. She climbed up to my eye level, held out an ad for Chips Ahoy cookies, then pointed at me."
0 -
0 -
I lost half a pound last week. I probably shouldn't have - too much giving in - but maybe the cosmos is trying to get me back on track!0
-
0 -
Maryanne, even a small step in the right direction i a step. Take it and build upon it this week. That thing about the chimps i funny. I guess man and chimps do have a lot in common.0
-
Good morning, all! I've been MIA because I haven't felt the best. I had the retrograde cystoscopy on Monday so the bowel prep for it wore me out. Bottom line is that after examining the bladder and kidneys, thanks to the use of "Michael Jackson juice," it was discovered the cancer had not returned. The whole process has worn me out.
What is happening with the schools? It is really the entire public employees who depend upon the state insurance program. For the past three years, the Republicans have not funded the program necessary to keep pace with inflation and rising costs. As a result, it was proposed that increases in premiums, deductibles, co-pays, etc. would take place further eroding the net salary. I know the Gov. has now said he would propose changes, but the reality is that the Legislature has to pass the laws to make it happen. The Gov is a billionaire, a businessman and owns the Greenbrier Hotel. His promise of using his business skills to advance the state haven't happened. We were once about mid-point in pay but now we are 48th. The State Superintendent is paid more than the California Superintendent of Schools. We haven't had an increase in salary for several years and the one percent increase originally proposed would not take care of the increase in the insurance.0 -
0
-
Jean -
The Gov is a billionaire, a businessman and owns the Greenbrier Hotel. His promise of using his business skills to advance the state haven't happened.
Gee, where else have we heard something like this?
The world has gone mad!
0 -
Maryanne--The Gov and the Donald have become big buddies and he actually changed parties so he is now a Republican. Now, this would seem to indicate he has some aspirations that have little to do with the State. In fact, the Gov made his announcement of changing parties during an appearance of The Donald in our state.0
-
I’m having a laid-back week and enjoying it. Since the last two weeks were pretty busy, it’s nice to have a slow period. My only commitments for this week are a birthday cake tomorrow for my volunteer commitment for a 7 year old, and on Friday I’m going with a friend to a yarn shop to look for some nicer yarn than I’ve been able to find locally. We want to learn how to do stranded knitting, or what is also known more commonly as Fair Isle patterns. She’s a far better knitter than I, so I suspect she will be helping me a lot more than I can help her, but hopefully between the two of us we can figure it out.
I feel like NS is doing a bit of a bait and switch with their programs now. When I signed up this time, it was for their 28 day program with unlimited frozen and shelf stable choices. Last night I was updating my order since my second month will be shipping soon, and noticed that in every category I was only able to select 24 items. So I did an on-line chat with a CSR and was told that the 28 day program is actually a 24 day program because they assume that you will eat out at least once a week. Nowhere on their site or in the offer materials did I see any mention of this. When I pressed the CSR a little further, he politely informed me that if I need more food, I could order off the a la carte option to fill in any gaps. I’m really annoyed that they don’t explicitly inform you that you’re really only getting 24 day’s with of food on the 28 day program. It seems very dishonest to me. It’s probably in the fine print somewhere, but I think this should be made obvious before you commit to a program. Okay, rant over.0 -
Pam - NS customer service has never been great but sounds like it's gotten much worse. 28 day program has 24 days of food. Say what???? Bizarre!!!!!0
-
From the web site front page, if you click on "shop plans". Looks like they are trying to sell sending less food as a plus - and without really saying they are sending less food. Why am I not surprised? And how very deceptive!
With all of our 4-week plans, you will
Eat 6 times a day
Enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables
Learn to eat healthy on your own with 4 flex meals a week. Dine out or cook one of our easy recipes!
Lose an average of 1-2 lbs. per week
Plus each 4-week plan is delivered right to your door!0 -
So my takeaway from this is that I have to provide 1 breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack on my own each week, but they don’t really tell you that. Realistically, I will likely eat dinner out once a week, and I occasionally eat lunch out, but breakfast is rarely a meal I eat away from home unless I’m traveling. I agree that this is very deceptive on their part. I’ll do the 4 months I committed to in order to get the lower price, but I’m sure I’ll be cancelling after that.0
-
Pam--That is one day short of "Weekends Off" program. Sneaky!!
I also think the muffins looked like they were getting smaller the last time I got them. The lemon blueberry breakfast bar is great but I often have it for an evening snack instead of the dessert selection.
We love this senator:
https://www.facebook.com/raelyn.smith.16/videos/10214399984849931/?notif_id=1519861761680820¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic0 -
So far, I’ve mostly been pleased with the food as far as quality and size of the servings. I just finished a blueberry muffin for breakfast and it was what I’d consider a normal size. The frozen food has been quite good for the most part, although I agree with Maryanne that there should be more variety in the lunch offerings. Almost every choice is some kind of sandwich melt. I’ve enjoyed most of them, but it does get a bit monotonous after a couple of weeks. After two full weeks on the program, I’m down 2 pounds. It would probably have been more if not for my dinner party last Saturday, but I didn’t feel like I could serve my guests the dinner I cooked and then eat something different myself, lol!0
-
Pam - 2 pounds - way to go!!0
-
I can't believe we allowed CPAC in our beautiful city. Boo, hiss! And they surely are getting emboldened. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cpac-white-nationalists_us_5a971c92e4b09c872bb0e7700
-
0 -
from Lin-Manuel's twitter feed (I confess):
0
