Thanks Theresa, I am really hoping I like the taste, I gave up bread........mostly, cake is not bread ......lol.

If all goes well I can upgrade to KA Spiralizer.

You know I saw that rerun of Seinfeld a couple of weeks ago.............cringed and laughed at the same time.....

eww theresa so sorry 'bout that mandolin thing -- yoiks

@newbiebaker1 ‍ I have a sweet tooth and love chocolate.......I snack on dried‍ cranberries and raw almonds and sometimes include some dark chocolate. Its my diy mix. In the summer frozen yogurt instead of ice cream (no this is not paleo).......having grandkids in the house means I have to be creative. Fruits and vegetables are our snack foods, I find for me it helps if its all prepped ahead of time......all colors bell peppers/ celery/ cucumbers/carrots.......cut up and in dishes in the fridge......pull that out and the grandkids can pick what they want and add fruit. They now ask for celery and carrots for school snack, or peppers and blue berries.

Like Theresa said, if the junk is not in the house there is less chance to be tempted. It really takes discipline but the rewards are a better quality of life. I gave up soda......I know jaws are dropping......if you told me 10 years ago that I could survive a day without my coca cola, I would have said you are crazy. Water with ice is my beverage of choice, add lemon for a treat in the summer. Wine on special occasions. I thought it would be impossible to make the changes to paleo, I could always eat whatever I wanted and never put on weight, but middle age and a slower metabolism started to have a negative impact. Now its part of my everyday routine and my family and especially my  grand kids are benefiting also. When I started it was 100 percent paleo its the only way to see results and now to maintain I do 80/20. Which just means that during the week no grains or processed food, on weekends its like this when everyone is having burgers, my meal will be a fat juicy turkey burger no bun a side of sweet potato home-fries and a huge green salad.....glass of wine no beer.......cheesecake.....optional.

While I do not go to the gym anymore, I am very active, walk almost everywhere I need to go ( perks of living in the city) , run around with the kids in the park.......as much as my knees will let me.

K8memphis  when I say regular I mean I do the 2000 calorie a day( I call it regular because that's the way we are supposed to eat).  I still count my calories to make sure I don't go over, because I have just gotten start two months ago. I have to right down everything, It helped me to realized was snacking on some of my goodies without realizing it.  Those exercises that you see on infomercials really do work for getting the weight off. I sweat like a pig and videos are about an hour( when I first started I thought I would pass out, it was really hard, and I couldn't do the entire video). I haven't tried those ones where they promise to get you an effective workout in less time, It might kill me.  So, has anyone tried having one day of the week be meatless?

oh, I do several meatless days -- I have peanut butter, avocado, boiled eggs (is that meat?) and nuts to sub in for protein --

not all of that on one day just the usual selection

and I have fish usually every week for main protein

K8 said.............gluten free crust loaded with spinach, artichokes and that delicious fennel sausage all doubled -- with the white sauce, onions and roasted garlic...........

So Interesting how we all have such different tastes.  The above is NOT pizza to me.   Pizza HAS to be red sauce, with ham, or pepperoni, onions, gr peppers, pineapple and mushrooms -- all toppings including sauce dbl:)  Oh and you can add some spinach and leave one or two of the toppings off but loaded is best :)

As for loosing weight....UUUUGGGG it's hard!  I've piled on some 40 lbs and can't seem to loose any of it.  Of course, the fact that I have a MAJOR sweet tooth does not help.  I have no will power.  I can eat only ckn, turkey, pork (including ham & bacon) and some white flesh fish.  I love veggies....could almost be a vegetarian:)  But sweets do me in totally.  I find it impossible to stay away from them  I try not buying/having any in the house but there are always times when I can't stand doing w/o so I binge ;(    

wow i'm excited -- i just got some "halo top" brand ice cream -- the entire pint has 240 calories i got choco and vanilla those were the only flavors left and i went to two stores -- it is sweetened with erythritol mostly then cane sugar then stevia in that order but that doesn't bother me --

because for example the strawberry flavor has six ingredients before it gets to cane sugar -- stevia is the last ingredient so while it has the smallest presence in the product stevia is a very powerful sweetener so that's how they were able to do the 240 calories for the entire pint -- very little stevia is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar --

AND for the moment we've all been waiting for drum roll please....how did it taste?

it was great! my husband tried the vanilla because it's harder to hide any off flavors in plain vanilla bean and he liked it -- more importantly i like it!

"of all the calories that beat the rest, empty calories are the best" hahahahaha

however, this has protein in it too! 24 grams whereas the pints of regular ice cream i got for my husband have over three times the calories and less than a fourth of the protein --

and erythritol is a sugar alcohol but it is the least harmful one -- does not give you tummy troubles

plus i just happen to have some sugar free hot fudge topping...if it hasn't gotten fuzzy ahahahaha

http://www.halotop.com/flavors/

halo top ice cream for the win! 

Have any of you tried Ben & Jerry's non-dairy "Ice cream"?  It's made from almond milk.  I can't have any dairy so for me it's super great.  They taste is almost the same as ice cream.  I doubt anyone would know it's not.  There are only 3 or 4 flavors - coffee/fudge; triple choco; and peanut butter & jelly (I think or at least similar to that)  It's not cheap - about $5 per pint but so far one pint has lasted me 3-5 days.  

i haven't tried those , lynne, but they sound great -- my problem is sugar and empty calories though not dairy -- 

those ice creams have about four times the calories of halo top ranging from 800 to 1,200 per pint -- and the protein on the pb & cookies is only 16 grams per pint which is odd considering it's base is almond and it's got peanut butter in it -- the chunky monkey has the highest calories, over four times and only a quarter of the protein of halo top so it's a special diet food but not a weight loss/control food --

it's really cool though to be able to get all these specialty foods in our own particular versions that make it safe and delicious for us though huh -- 

and what ever happened to newbiebaker our op? where are you :)

point being on the halo top ice cream - I mean sure I could over eat it if i wanted but a half pint is a nice

serving and the protein in there keeps you from over eating -- I'm satisfied -- could be I'd like a little something salty after that but I'm finished with sweets -- very nice 120 calories

and I just tried the strawberry and the lemon flavor -- excellent

caroline, did you like your spiralizer?

so an update -- i am now at 158.6 as of this morning -- and yesterday i ate pizza and brownies but i used a stevia/sugar blend put out by pure leaf -- and i made the pizza crust with mostly cauliflower -- super super super good --

my main problem is that i can get away with one green coke aka coco-cola life -- and still lose weight but i want two - ahahahahahaha-- but i have done well --

three more pounds and i will indisputably be in my correct bmi -- so three to go and if i lay off the dang cokes i'd be there already -- but think of it this way -- i not only did not gain over the holiday i lost pounds --

how y'all doing with your challenges?

Hi k8memphis. Great job!  A friend of mine always says, 'nothing tastes as good as healthy feels'!

 I have finally found a plan that i think works for me. I started a boot camp class back in July: two days a week at 5:20 am. It is SO early! But that way it doesn't require me to rearrange my day around working out  I also started 'clean eating'. The class a great group of ladies and we all hold each other accountable for showing up to class and eating healthy. 

I've also found that tracking my daily food intake using the my fitness pal app and tracking my steps with my Fitbit helps. That way I can see small weekly and even daily goals. Having to fess up to mydelf and enter 4 Tablespoons of buttercream frosting into my fitness pal is a bummer. That is a LOT of fat and sugar!

Which brings me to cakes: it's kind of silly but before I get started baking I make a conscious plan to not snack, and also make sure to have other things around (ie cut up veggies) to snack on besides cake scraps and frosting.  

Those are things that have helped me!  Great job and keep up the good work!

Hi k8memphis. Great job!  A friend of mine always says, 'nothing tastes as good as healthy feels'!

 I have finally found a plan that i think works for me. I started a boot camp class back in July: two days a week at 5:20 am. It is SO early! But that way it doesn't require me to rearrange my day around working out  I also started 'clean eating'. The class a great group of ladies and we all hold each other accountable for showing up to class and eating healthy. 

I've also found that tracking my daily food intake using the my fitness pal app and tracking my steps with my Fitbit helps. That way I can see small weekly and even daily goals. Having to fess up to mydelf and enter 4 Tablespoons of buttercream frosting into my fitness pal is a bummer. That is a LOT of fat and sugar!

Which brings me to cakes: it's kind of silly but before I get started baking I make a conscious plan to not snack, and also make sure to have other things around (ie cut up veggies) to snack on besides cake scraps and frosting.  

Those are things that have helped me!  Great job and keep up the good work!

newbiebaker -- hats off to you, my weight loss conscious friend -- having a plan is half the battle -- working it even better hahahaha

i love that quote "nothing tastes as good as healthy feels" so so true -- that's a keeper -- i mean i have candy and chips in the house -- doesn't matter -- ain't gonna solve any problems to eat it -- just gonna cause some right?

and because i started last may saying i wanted get into the 150's and i am in the 150's i called it -- no more trying to lose weight -- just gonna go into maintenance -- started the meter on the next five years continuing to send my weight to my brother daily -- because winter will turn to spring turn to summer and i will naturally  drop a few more pounds -- especially doing laps in the pool and toning in the water -- 

because i am bone weary tired of losing weight -- i lost over the holidays too :)

so of all things i dropped a pound overnight hahahahahaha 157.6 yay!!

newbiebaker, i wish you the best in your endeavor!

I know this is an older post, but I thought I'd ante up with my two rusty cents...I'm in the process of losing 30 lbs (lost 20, 10 to go).  I bake several times a week.  

Keys for me:  

1. eat a nutritious meal and drink a large glass of water before working on a project. If I'm not hungry, I won't sample.  

2. Scrapes go straight into the trash.  i place a trash bag at my workstation so there is no hesitation in trashing all scrapes. 

3. Use an app like myfitnesspal not just to track what I eat, but to plan what I eat a day in advance.  That planning gives me total control.  It's allows me to choose my path.  It reinforces my commitment to myself.

4. Changing your relationship with your body image...I've stopped looking in the mirror and criticizing myself. Now I look in the mirror and tell myself I'm beautiful.  It's sounds hokey, but your internal conversations are the most important conversations to have.

great stuff, siftandwhisk -- having a plan yes! and internal conversations make the world turn...or grind it to a halt --

brilliant

and congratulations on the twenty pounds -- way to go!!!

insert >wildly clapping hands< smilie face

best to you