Phew!! You had me worried there! I like the taste of the SF dulce de leche syrup but always wondered exactly what it was...by the sounds of what you said, is it carmelized sweetened condensed milk flavour? Cool! I always thought it was kind of caramelly, but not quite butterscotch or toffee. My fave syrup is still English Toffee. I haven't bought it in a while though because I keep buying new ones to try and right now we have about 8 on the go! Cola, Caramel, Dulce de leche, Hazelnut, Butter Rum, Strawberry, French Vanilla, German Chocolate Cake and Cookie Dough. Hmmm, I guess that's NINE. Whoa Nelly! I'd better stop buying until we finish these ones!

I'm going to make Kathy's warm oatmeal tomorrow I think. I am in a warm oats mood now that it's fall. Even though the weather has been gorgeous and warm, but typical of fall, cool in the mornings. Perfect for warm oatmeal. How I miss the instant quaker oatmeal maple and brown sugar flavour. I used to eat a package of those every morning at work for my brekky in the winter.

have a great night!
Lily

What do you do with all your flavors of syrups? I have vanilla and caramel. So far that is the only flavors I can find around here. I make a soy milk latte every morning, and add the syrup to that. I tell my husband, that is my drug of choice. I look forward to my morning lattes!! My parents are coming for dinner tonight. Menu- BBQ ribs, salad, squash, broccoli,homeade ice cream with hot fudge sauce. I know it isn't a low carb meal. They are leaving for Arizona for the winter soon.

WOW!!! Those sound so good!!! I would love to find some of those!! I've been using the Caramel, chocolate, English Toffee and (When I can find it) Kaluha Caffe', creme de mint. I miss the SF Toasted Marshmellow though It is so good in the Marshmellow cream recipe!!!

Mmm, I sure do love my SF Syrups!! Oooohhhh, Seto Kaiba! I've never tried the toasted marshmallow one (I've seen it before). Does it have a strong flavour or is it hard to taste a real flavour? How do you make your marshmallow creme? I'd love that recipe!!

June, as you know they're great in coffees, I always have some in my decaff. I love making sweet eggs and "mock danish" and in my sweet eggs it depends what I'm in the mood for as to which I use (I add a bit to the eggs, quickly beat with a fork, pour it in a hot pan and cook it till firm and let it coo...then I add a bit of syrup to 2 Tbsp (or 3!) of cream cheese and spread the cream cheese over the top of the cooled egg "pancake" and roll it up. It's like a egg crepe!!

In the mock danish, I usually add French Vanilla or the cookie dough, but I saw they have a Danish flavour now and I'm wanting to try that with it.

I also add some to cream cheese to make the cheesecake or to whipping cream to sweeten it. I love using the syrups!!

Lily

I'm reading a lot about hating the huffing, puffing, and sweating of workouts. Listen, people, remember what you're doing this for. If you really want it , you have to work at it. If tapes, videos, music, etc don't work for you, just imagine yourself 10 times larger if you don't. That ought to do it. Good luck! Hang in there. I'll keep you posted on my workouts-as soon as I get all this stuff out of the garage!

Whoa Mex! LOL!!

There are many aspects to working out, there's the resistance training that adds muscle mass (which is dense and metabolic and burns calories consistently) and cardiovascular exercise, which is critical for pure calorie burning. The effects of cario workouts don't last as long as resistance training because muscle burns calories even while at rest, so it makes sense that the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn at rest (your BMR, basal metabolic rate will improve). Obviously, cardiovascular exercise is vital to burn calories on the spot and lots of them (as well as improve heart health) and I know we all do it, but the balance is to try and find a cardio exercise that you enjoy doing and that fits in with your lifestyle.

Personally, I love resistance training, I love seeing the physical changes, I love seeing the increase in what I can lift/push/pull, but I have limited time for cardio, so I want to get as much done in as short a time as possible. Because of that, I choose to do High-Intensity-Interval-Training, which means I exhaust myself in a shorter time frame (usually 20-30 minutes), sometimes to the point of tears because I'm burning and so wiped! I want to find a cardio exercise that won't BREAK me every time I do it, but which I can do in an acceptable time frame (walking for 2 hrs, for instance will burn as many calories as running for a much shorter time and I'd enjoy walking more but I don't have 2 hours to spend.) I have bad knees from basketball when I was growing up, so running and even bike riding (the forward press phase of the pedal push) is hard on my knees. True, I don't like the huffing puffing dripping sweatiness of the type of cardio I do, but I do appreciate the value of it. That's why I do it, I know it's good for me and it must be done for the health benefits. I just wish I could find that cardio workout that I just cannot wait to start after work or beginning of the day. I work out at lunch too, so the limited time of my lunchour means I just can't get really sweaty and need a full shower again. I'm determined to find the right cardio exercise (or something to distract me from the sheer boredom of one that's effective but that I don't enjoy). I'll find it, it's out there, I just have to keep trying new ones and asking for help from people on this forum for advice! Thank goodness for this forum, if it wasn't for the helpful tips from all the members, I'd be lost!!

What do you do for cardio workouts? Do you find working out at home helps or running outside (for the change of scenery...that was suggested to me, so maybe I'll give that a go...but the knee situation, gotta wrap it and all, so I'm not sure). I like going to a gym, it keeps me focussed becuse there's not much else to do there than work out.


Have a great night!
Lily

As I said before I love step class, and have just started yoga. Yoga isn't my favorite thing, but I figured it will help me with my terrible balance. Plus the yoga teacher has awesome biceps!!
I need to get back into weights, I was doing so well then summer came. I can tell my arms aren't as defined as they once were.

Hey Junebug!! I checked out my gym's class schedule and there IS a step class that I can make it to after work on Monday's and Tuesday's!! I'll just have to be diligent about leaving work on time and not let anything get in my way! Thanks so much for suggesting that earlier, I think that may be the challenge and change of routine that I need right now!

One of those step classes is called "BodyStep" and they do cardio/step and then focus on upper body muscles with free weights and bands. That sounds like a nice combo to get my arms more defined (I feel the same way you do!!) I want to have Jennifer Aniston's shoulders ( LOL, yeah RIGHT, it's good to dream though, right?!!)

I want to try yoga for the same reasons, to improve my balance - there's nothing medically wrong with it as in ear imbalance (but I always say that's what it is!!) - because I'm a HUGE clutz. I'd like it to improve my posture too and help with stretching and flexibility. I am not a very patient person though, so I have a feeling I'll be the one in class thinking "LET'S GET ON WITH IT" while everyone else is sitting peacefully holding their poses!

Lily

hi guys-
just wanted to say hi! glad to see things picking up in here =) lily- you are gorgeous!

Hi Satihap-
I noticed that you are following your own plan.
Could you share with us your typical way of eating?
How long have you been maintaining?

Thanks!

Lily,
Here's the Marshmellow Creme recipe (From Low Carb Luxury):
Ingredients:

* 3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
* 5 Tablespoons Splenda®
* 3 egg whites
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup cold water
* 3/4 cup boiling water
* 1/2 teaspoon marshmallow flavored oil (I've used whatever SF syrup I've had around)

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a mixing bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes to soften. Add to boiling water in saucepan; cook and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat. Cool to consistency of thick syrup. Stir in Splenda® and vanilla (and marshmallow flavored oil if using.) Beat egg whites till soft peaks begin to form. Very slowly, trickle a small stream of gelatin mixture into egg white, beating until all gelatin is mixed in. Continue beating until light and fluffy (but not until they're dry.)

If you're making marshmallow crème, pour into a jar (jelly jar, peanut butter jar, etc.) and refrigerate. If making marshmallows, continue...

For Mini marshmallows -- Pour into greased and floured pan, cool to set, and cut into size desired.

Marshmallows - For larger marshmallows, or marshmallow "eggs" -- Fill large square pan with a mixture of 2 parts vanilla protein powder to 1 part dried milk powder (the new Keto milk powder works well here.) The pan should be about two inches filled. Take a dry raw egg and make indentations in the powdery bottom with the fuller base of the egg for making marshmallows, or with the oval side of the egg for making marshmallow "eggs" (see figure 1.) Then pour Marshmallows - the marshmallow creme filling into the little "moulds" , sprinkle a dusting of the powder mixture over tops of marshmallows, and allow to set. If you make the "eggs" and want to cover them with chocolate, melt the dark chocolate low-carb bars in the microwave till very soft and almost liquid. Dip each formed marshmallow egg into the chocolate quickly to coat and place flat side down onto waxed paper to set.

The Toasted marshmellow isn't too strong a flavor, but it's definately not weak. It tastes just like marshmellow.

As far as Cardio: I've always hated it. (I've done it, I just hated it LOL) I finally joined a gym (again) a couple of months ago and bought and iPod. That REALLY helps my working out. I really like the Elliptical machine for cardio. Other than that I do Belly dance and try to do yoga or pilates a couple of times a week.

Sati Thanks - you're too kind though!

Seto! OMG, that recipe sounds outrageous! I bought the SF Davinci Toasted marshmallow today (as well as the Danish Pastry and my fave, English Toffee), so that makes HOW MANY in my pantry now? I think it's 12 now (but we're nearly done the Dulce de Leche, so nearly 11. Still, that's a lot!

I can't believe we can actually make marshmallows! I'm so pumped!! I'm going to do this soon and then have my hot water with Fry's cocoa powder, german chocolate SF DaVinci, with a little cream for a hot chocolate, then put some homemade marshmallows on it. Wheeee!!! Thanks so much!!

Oh, I also forgot to mention to Junebug that I also make italian sodas with my syrups. Just add some syrup to the bottom of your glass, a bit of cream (or half and half) some ice cubes and then pour club soda over the top. It's deeee-lish! I don't always add the cream though, depends what I'm in the mood for. Give it a try. I usually do this with my strawberry syrup and I've had SF Root Beer syrup before that is awesome done this way, it's just like a RB Float.

Thanks again for the recipe Seto!

Lily

Lily,

I feel the exact same way with yoga. I guess maybe it will teach us to slow things down a little in our lives. The body step class sounds awesome. I hope you have a rockin teacher. That root beer floats sounds yummy. Where do you get your syrups? Walmart only carries sf vanilla. I have also found a few different flavors at TJ maxx.

Hi Junebug! I get my syrups from this place called Diabetic Depot. They carry tons of low carb, sugar free and diabetic stuff (and VERY reasonably priced!) Try looking at the coffee shops, not the real mainstream ones, like Starbucks, they'll probably only have SF Vanilla, but try the smaller ones, quite often I've seen a variety of SF syrups sold there. Also, health food stores have them too, but sometimes they price them wayyy too high. Check out online stores, i.e. Netriton, etc. or right from the DaVinci website. At least check out the DaVinci site to see all the SF ones available. We bought a "Torani" brand SF syrup and they aren't as good as the DaVinci ones!

I'll let you know on Thursday how my class went. I'm really excited for it now! My friend also told me about an "Aerobathon" at the end of the month where you do aerobics for 3 hours. They do a little bit of each of their classes so you get to bring it down a bit so you don't die after an hour into the marathon!! I think I'm going to do it. You get sponsors for breast cancer! I love doing things for "causes" so I think that'll get me really motivated!

G'night!
Lily

Aerobathon sounds awesome. I would die trying, but I definately would do it. Even though I'm 42!! Sounds like you have alot of neat things where you live.