Pilotgal,
Thanks for your offer for the spreadsheet. I think I have the numbers down pretty well- at least for now.
You make it sound so simple and delish... Maybe I should just stop over analyzing this and jump in. Protein, veggies and tons of water... I think I can do this.
Thanks again.

Yes, but it could just be because I only eat canned chicken breast. I think about a nice, big, juice steak or fried/cheesy eggs and beef sausage every day.

Do you mind posting the broccoli soup recipe, Pilot? It sounds great!

Nancy, why don't you make them with ground almonds? That's what I did this summer. I've seen your posts about your love of them and I often experimented with different flavours too. Carbquick is hard to find in Canada (I didn't look too hard though!) I just used the ground almonds/ almond meal and sometimes some ground flax seed. That would make a gluten-free muffin for ya!

I could do ground almonds for sure, but they're awfully fattening. Flax seed is that way too. I think for now I'll just have egg/pumpkin based things and later on, when I'm eating high carb, I will add in rice flour or something.

If you only use a 1/2 oz of the almond flour, it is not that calorie dense.

Have any of you felt really tired lately? I know that I mentioned my sleepiness last week, but I thought that I was getting sick. This Friday it was raining all day (and I had the day off) so I had planned to go to the gym and then come home, shower and run a few errands (like buy my sis her b-day present!) I was so not motivated to do anything. I woke up at about 7:45am (I am used to 5:30am) and I ate breakfast and watched some tv then I went online to post and check email. By 11 I had to take a nap. Then I woke up at 3! I didn't even want to crawl out of bed to watch Dr. Phil! Yikes! Weird thing is, I still was tired enough to sleep at about 10 that night.

So, I can understand the sleepies if I had been up late all week, but I have been hitting the sheets at about 9 every night (and getting up at 5:30). I was quite sleepy again today too! I think that I have been getting enough iron, protein, and vitamins, but what do you guys think is up? Even if I was bored or lonely or something (I live alone) I don't think I would be able to fall asleep so easily. Maybe it is the lack of calories?

Yeah, I'd suspect that or your thyroid is tanking for some reason.

Nothing much to report here..I keep gaining and losing the same weight since my break..this morning I was 153.5 again. I might do a refeed soon to get things stirred up. Have been feeling pretty good, although I noticed I was starting to feel a bit cold again last night.

PB, the almond meal is too calorie dense for PSMF sadly. There is something like 300 calories in a quarter cup or something like that. A lot anyway. In fact my almond meal goodies is part of what made me gain weight last year....that and overindulging in nuts.

It is hard to give up old ways like muffins and bread and so on isn't it.

Had a training session on weights today...now have a program and will get trained fortnightly from now on. And my gym has some new classes that I might do- yoga, flexibility, dance etc.
I am otherwise overly sedentary....so this is needed.

Re pumpkin soup. I don't think we have canned pumpkin over here. We have many varieties of fresh pumpkin and most people just cook it themselves. Some pumpkin is fairly high carb.

Yah, I haven't eaten any almond meal since August. During PSMF I have just been eating my NF cottage cheese, egg whites, broccoli, LF/NF cheese, some (occasional) veg meat, protein puddings, lettuce, and a new low cal/low carb dressing that I found (roasted red pepper and garlic--it is even low fat!)

Nancy-- as far as the thyroid-- yikes! That scares me! I recently ordered some kelp supplements to help the thyroid and they should be coming this week sometime. I keep thinking that the weight should be coming off faster with my new program.

My start weight was my highest weight ever! It was the result of daily bingeing to deal with stress. My dinners would be so large that I would have an overly-full stomach when I went to bed. Now, I feel a grumble in my tummy when I go to bed. I know, one extreme to another but at least I am on the good end of it now! Anyway, the weight should come off because I am not eating so poorly anymore. It came on fast, so it should go fast. *Sigh* I guess it doesn't work quite that way!

Hey PB Girl, sure thing.

It's quite simple, really.
I took 4 heads of broccoli and steamed them til soft.
I took a couple of large chix bullion cubes and put them in the water in the pot to steam.
I took all of that mixture and pureed with a boat motor (I think that's what Nancy calls an immersion blender). I pureed them, adding more water to dilute. I threw some cumin and curry in it, a whole bulb of roasted garlic, and that's it. Diluted it enough to make a semi thick, semi thin soup.

I threw a dollop of FF sour cream into each bowl before we ate it.
The kids loved it, I loved it....... so it was a hit here.

That's about as FF as you can get

I didn't realize how high the fat was on this... I keep a concoction around for my hot cereal, which is what I'm making my bowl muffins with.

Its: hazelnut, almond, and flaxseed meal, with unsweetened shredded coconut, chopped walnuts, splenda, vanilla protein powder, and cinnamon.

The fiber count alone is extremely high, and I figured it was very healthy for me.... I guess I will have to limit my bowl muffins to twice a week..... bummer!

Yeah! Flax seed is surprisingly high calorie at 60 calories per Tablespoon! Eeek! In fact, pretty much everything you listed is. That's why I like the fiber and brans I've been getting from Honeyville, although I'm avoiding the oat fiber because of my gluten test, but they're basically all fiber and no calories and stretch the other ingredients so it really takes down the calorie count.

Pilot can you send me that spreadsheet? I had made on of my own but the other one is probably better.. capyle at gmail dot com

Good grief, it has taken until NOW to drop another pound..153 this morning. That has been about 2 weeks, probably more- I lost count. And I can feel the telltale signs of very slowed metabolism too the past few days..feeling colder, body not as lively, a bit more achy. I guess I need to do a refeed. I hate gaining the water and being back at square one etc. As I am doing a heavy 45 min aerobics workout this morning I think I may need to do a small carb-up for breakfast to cope...I will have two slices of rye bread toast (87 cal, 25g carbs) with my eggs. That's still allowable calories, but a bit higher in carbs of course.

Lynne, the problem with having pre-ground seeds and nuts, never mind the high calories, is that their unique nutritional goodness has pretty much gone. You really need to grind them and eat immediately..especially flax seed which loses its omega-3 really fast, and when cooking, altogether I believe. When I think about it, it was all this sort of stuff along with the fat calories that put on my extra 14 pounds the past year or so.

Nancy, what other brans are you able to use?

Horray, Val! Good for you sticking it out.

Wheat, oats, rye and barley are out for me. So pretty much rice and corn are my best options. I just found some rice flour so I'll probably try having a bowl muffin later at my next "break" made with rice flour and corn bran and "stuff".

I keep my ground flax in the freezer. I think the nutrition holds true there. It is when it is exposed to air and heat it looses its goodness.