that sounds great! Yea, my family's indian, so plenty of curry lah, kurma la, kebab la... Everyone has MSN? We can exchange out email addys and have a conference to decide what time & where? Preferably on weekends as im sure most of us are working yea? Sounds like funnn!

Happy Friday to all of you gorgeous women

I have had a really great week and thankyou to everyone who has offered up their favorite recipes and goals. It has made for great reading and it seems that we all share the common theme of just wanting to be comfortable in our own skin and give more of ourselves over summer. Great healthy goals. Welcome to all the newcomers, this forum never becomes stagnant, there is always change and always exciting news to either share or deliver, we all have our down days but considering the life we have left behind its amazing how what we now consider to be a 'bad day' in some ways would have been an almost good day prior to the Cohens program. Every single day I am feeling better in myself but can't seem to crack the 20kg loss mark but then again I am not whingeing, I have only been on the program for seven weeks so am delighted with the results. I have been at 19kg for about four days now and I am sure that my exercise has something to do with it. I have stated walking again and it has been absolutely gorgeous. My three girls and I do what we call our Farm Walk, it is only about 4.5km but as we live in farming country we chat to all of the cows as we go, it's lovely. I think the muscle that is being toned is probably causing my plateau but I feel great and really that's all that matters. Never before in my life have I lost weight so quickly. I once did the Weight Watchers plan for 12 months and lost 43kg
but it took a whole year to do and yep, you guessed it, it has since all gone back on (all but the 20kg I have since shed).

In regards to recipes... I seriously had the most delicious meal last night. ( I seem to say that a lot). It was one of the nicest meals I have had, not just on this program but in general. I went shopping and thought, gawd I could really go for a bowl of Apricot Chicken, so decided to improvise. This is what I did:

I chose the 120g of vegies and 100g of chicken meal. My vegies consisted of my 2tbsp of onion, 2tbs of diced zuchini and about 8 small button mushrooms. These I cooked in a frypan with a molecule of spray on olive oil until they were really brown. I then pushed then to one side of my pan and browned my 100g of diced chicken. Once it was brown I stirred all of the vegies and meat together. Then came the special bit, this may sound awful but truly, try it out. I got my orange (part of my fruit allowance), segmented it and then sliced all of the flesh off and diced it up. The orange went straight into my chicken and vegie mix and I covered the pan with alfoil and turned the heat right down and let it stew for about 10 mins undisturbed. The sugar from the oranges caramelised the meat and vegies and by crikey it was delicious! There was no obvious orange taste but it was so lovely and syrupy. It was so nice that I did the same meal for my lunch today exept what I did differently was I added some cauliflower instead of the mushrooms and I added a couple of cups of water and also the orange peel (which I later removed) and let it stew for longer... then I did a rapid boil to reduce the liquid just slightly. It made a kind of casserole/soup dish...YUM!!! A little cracked black pepper and chives completed what is a wonderfully delicious meal.


DeDe23 - In regards to you not really liking Mozarella cheese, I find it quite bland myself so what I do is sometimes I combine my entire cheese allowance and make up my small vegie allowance with asparagus and onion, I then add a little cracked pepper and nuke it in the microwave for about 20 seconds and make a dip out of it. It goes quite stretchy but it super nice on crackers.

Mumbine - Its always nice to read your posts, you seem a lovely person and I really admire your honesty. The inspirational scriptures you use as motivation, could you share some of those, I would love to read them.

L-Jay - where have you gone? I really hope your friend has not taken a turn for the worse ... *crossing my fingers* ... I will keep you in my prayers. You are kind of like the Oracle on the Hill in the land of Cohens, you are such a stable supply of guidance and support. I really hope you are ok.

To everyone else, please forgive the lack of personal replies, I think I have taken up enough of your time with this novel of a post but I really enjoy your posts and your infectious enthusiasm, you are a credit to Cohens.
Have a wonderful day everyone!

Leanne

Magic Lea your loss so far is massive. What a way to start! Fabulous. Thanks for the yummy recipe for orange/apricot chicken. It certainly works well with mango in much the same way but I hadn't condidered an orange! It sounds delicious and I am planning to try it soon. It would also be nice with apple I think.

Thanks for all the inspiring ideas you come up with. Our members have some clever ideas but I wonder if we have any chefs amongst us or amongst our families and friends who might like to create a few new recipes for us too. Meantime I am obsessed with recipes and cooking shows! LOL They are not tempting me, just interesting me as I am thinking forward to recipes which I will be able to use in the great Life After! I doubt that I will ever be able to tolerate much carbohydrate without weight gain, so am interested in no or low carb recipes mostly. I have found a few beauties but I guess only time will tell, whether it works and prevents weight gain.

RJM, let us know how you are doing too please. You must be finished refeed and we all want to hear from you occassionally to let us know how you are going now. Terrific job by the way.

Jr_Mint I don't eat beef 'coz I am a buddhist. Initially I, too, find my options limited to only Fish and chicken breast meat (I hate chicken breast meat!). So I tried to find new ways to marinade the meat to taste nicer or to do up soups etc etc. Funny enough, I find chicken breast meat quite tasty now. I LOVE Steamed Fish! Its my standard dinner EVERYDAY, if I don't work overtime in the office. I'm a fish lover!

My email is fornight.tan@gmail.com. I definitely don't mind meeting up. Not this weekend though 'coz my mum is going thru a small operation this sat. I need to at home to take care of her.

FINALLY, someone in the office noticed my weight loss and commented. I wore one of my "skinny" top this morning. Its fit just nice 'coz most of my flabbiness on my back are so much smaller than in the past. I was in the pantry room filling up my water jar when a colleague walked in to refill her coffee. She stopped suddenly and looked at me and said "Wah, you look so slim!" I couldn't help that big smile from appearing on my face. I know I am not exactly "slim" slim like she said but I definitely look slimmer than before the program. Another other colleague was amazed how the diet can help to lose the weight on my love handles on my back. She had seen those "irritating" things at their most horrible stage in the past.

sassysapphire86, fornight & Jr_Mint, thanks for all the responses... I guess we can actually chat over msn to discuss anything or to decide on a time to meet up.. you can add me in at lindalim04@hotmail.com

fornight, where do you get all those spices? I need them.. my soup and food are tasting so blend... my mum added a lot of salt... which i think its not allowed... right? please tell me so that I am able to add it into my meal... Thanks in advance!!!

fornight, i cannot add you into my msn.. i am not too sure why.. perhaps you would like to add me in?

me too.. finding that my choices are limited to only fish and chicken.. so can help me? as to how you marinate or cook it? my mum always cook for me.. so i have to give her ideas how to cook my food....

mines illini2008@gmail.com for msn, so we'll add each other k! So tentatively how does next saturday sound?

Babyegg, fornight & sassysapphire: my e-mail add is jr_mint75@yahoo.com. I have no msn at the moment cuz the laptop at home has died on me and I've been meaning to get it fixed. so, just e-mail me for now, ok?
Next weekend is fine with me...Sat I work til 3pm

Fornight: hope your mum's op goes well. Take care of yourself while you're taking care of her

Tomorrow is my 4th week blood test!! Will weigh myself on Mon and change my ticker then , hopefully in the right direction

J

Lizzi and MagicLea thanks for asking about me. Things are fine. I've fallen off the wagon for the zillionth time
Am back on tomorrow. Hubby wants to lose some weight, so I've dug out some ww recipes for him, and am going to get into cooking in a major way. I need to be more ceative for myself too but by the time I do everything else, I usually cant be bothered. MagicLea, we had apricot chicken last night, the original way . So I was impressed with your recipe. Will definitely be giving that a go. I'll have to go back over old posts and find some more. I've written out my shopping list for tomorrow. Have the right things already for my Cohens breakfast, so I'm organized again.

Hi to all. Weather is really bad here in Adelaide and im sure its about 8degrees- max was meant to be 10 and its now 6.00pm. Storm approaching. DOes weather affect other pples eating?? I dont get hungry in winter and its like force feeding a child at the moment!!! Yep, it is 8degs at mo- the weather report just said!! I am struggling with water too but i think this is cos i am sick with throat infection. I am wondering if we can have throat lozenges or anything like that as its so uncomfy. Im usually a lemon and honey hot drink but i dont think the honey is allowed- i really dont want to stuff it up! Any other ideas?? I have started chugging back Colliodal Silver and hope that kicks the bugs in the backside. Ughhh why do we get sick at the most inappropriate times.

I jumped on scales and i have lost around 7kg so far with official weigh-in on Wed 19th. I know ur not meant to weigh every day but i take fluid tablets occasionally when i have fluid retention in legs- kidney issue. I hope to hit 80or less by then (or the end of July) which i will scream hysterically if i do!!!!! I think my mum is deaf now already! I wld have lost the weight i put on in the last 10mths after a knee and back injury which i had surgery for.

Is there any length of time i wld need to come off program when i have surgery on the 31st? I need to have a little more nutrients and strength to have surgery and recovery (shoulder reconstruction) and while in hospital---can u see them weighing all my meals and stuff????? My consultant suggests a week- a few days before and few days after. Any other ideas and opinions or advice for those who have gone thru it. I dont want to put much weight back on-worked so hard to stik to diet i dont want to stray from it too far.

Hope all are keeping them selves and focused. I havent deviated for almost 2wks (been it since JUne 27th) so doing really well- i even have cut diet coke out unless im out and need something bubbly. I never thort i wld but i did and feel better for it.

Dee

How many ating plans are there?
Hey There,
I would love to know if Cohens does your blood test and then puts you in to one 'diet group' out of 4 of 5 'diets' they have on their database
- or do they truly tailor to your individual needs based on the blood test information?

I know that sure slim do this.

Cheers

No offense but I was told that the FOUNDER of sureslim used to be a patient of Dr Cohen. I know my diet is taking into consideration of my weak liver and after I am on it, my blood pressure goes down, I feel great mentally and physcially. As long as it works on me, I am happy with it.

Just out of curiosity, how do you know that sure slim is not doing what you said "put you in to one of the 'diet group' out of 4 of 5 diets they have in their database".

I am very curious why you are so sure?

I am pretty sure Sureslim does put you into one of 4 or 5 categories, they do not personalise you diet to your individual needs. Of course if you had a medical problem they would alter it slightly, but the general gist i get from them is that they give you one of their five diets according to your blood tests.

That is why i am interested in Dr Coehn's diet if it is more tailored.

Cheers

Hi everyone...I know a couple of people doing the Cohen's diet and I have looked at about 5 other people's programs. Not one of them is identical to another one. The differences are subtle, but they are there none-the-less. The differences are in the number of fruit servings or crispbreads allowed, or in the gram measurements of veggies and proteins for the meal allowances. So...although I can't say for certain, I am reasonably sure that each of our diets is individually tailored. Hope that helps with your questions.

Thankyou that does help to know that betwwen 5 people there are differences.