Stress = hiccups.

I have noticed that if I eat too much or stress eat (Hello, it's Friday - and the boy pulled a quick one on me tonight - and I now have five kids in This Very Small House!) I hiccup.  Forget that excitement over my buck fitty nine earlier, I'm probably regaining it as my dinner metabolizes over here.  ****er****er****er****ity****.  There, that's *hiccup* better.

Friday.

Thanks to Meagan G. for the protein bar booty she sent up to me.  We thoroughly digested them.  Bob ate all the penis butter ones, and I ate all the chocolate.  Thank you for feeding me, they're totally gone now.  I will send you some chocolate.  ;-)

Weight

• 159.  Um, hooray and stuff.

Ate

• There is no excuse in the mothereffing world for this "breakfast" at 7:45am: 
  
  • Three donut holes, actually two, because by the time I started chewing the third - I said, out loud, "What The **** Am I Eating?"   They were not purchased by me or anyone in my household - so it was totally a drive-by carbing.  And, yes, while it is very wasteful, get used to it - they are in the trash, outside, under a poopty diaper, one that contains, undigested bits of CORN.  Are you still hungry?
• While grocery shopping, 9:30am:  1/2 slice of lowfat cheese that was given to as a sample -T and I shared it.  (40 calories)
• At the mall, paying my credit card billz, 10:45am: 1/2 tortilla with cheese (150 cals) 3 hour blood glucose, because I thought I was starting to feel symptomatic sitting here writing this:  82 mg, 1/2 hour later, 79 mg.  Guess I have to eat again.  ARGH.

We interrupt your work day for this wicked important announcement.

Beth, is less fat.  A buck fitty-nine, or 159 lbs. this afternoon.  BMI 27.7, still overweight, but less obese!

Dr. Phil on Childhood Obesity today...

I have to reserve a lot of judgment on these issues, because, everyone in my household is technically overweght or obese, including myself and my husband, still... but... I'm getting very angry at my television right now.

I feel guilty saying anything - because - Who am I to say anything if I can't explain my own children's weight issues, and the fact that they still exist?  But, whatever, it takes a village, blah blah blah, and when your kids are not in your care and with others, they get what is allowed.  That makes me nuts, but I can't stop it - and it is a lot better than years past, but....

"Obesity is a huge problem for adults in this country, but now it’s becoming an epidemic among young children. Dr. Phil has advice for placing your child on the pathway to health.

Morbidly Obese Toddler

Barbra says her 3-year-old daughter started gaining weight at 6 months old and now weighs 80 pounds. She and her aunt, Dana, are baffled by what they believe is a medical mystery because they say the child doesn't overeat.

 

Is Barbra contributing to her daughter's weight gain?

 

---

Refrigerator Bandit?
Misty doesn’t know how to stop her 7-year-old daughter, Kaylie, from sneaking food at night. Kaylie weighs 145, pounds, and is the butt of cruel jokes at school.

 

"Food is her best friend."

 

---

Mom in the Middle

Tammy and her two kids are obese, and she says she can't change their eating habits. Her sister, Debbie, says the boys' portion sizes are too big and the family is just lazy.

Can Dr. Phil get Tammy to stick to a nutrition plan?

 

 

---

 

Fowl Play?
Tonya is desperate for help because she can't get her overweight 2-year-old to eat anything but orange chicken.

 

 

 

Can Tonya teach her tot to tame his taste buds?

 

 

---

Deadly Eating

Jessica says her mom, Angie, is blind to the health issues of her 351-pound sister, Jaleisa, who is only 15. Jessica says her mom never buys healthy food, and she fears her mom has Munchausen’s syndrome. Angie says she can’t monitor Jaleisa’s eating habits all day.

 

Can Angie turn this situation around, or is it too late?

Fursday.

Weight

• Almost, almost, almost!  159, but not yet.  160 lbs.  (I totally get that this event is entirely anti-climactic, but, deal.  I have been up and down so much I'm a human yo-yo, down is always appreciated.  I haven't been in this weight range except for a few days last spring after a major flu-bug hit.)

Ate

• 1 ISS Oh Yeah Protein Wafer (105 calories, 6 fat, 3 carbs) + 1 Morningstar Farms Veggie Bite (53, 3 fat, 4 carbs)  (review to come, do you see how many freaking ingredients are in these puppies?!) BG 2 hours post:  90 mg.
• Miso broth (20 calories)
• 1 serving BSN Lean Dessert Protein Vanilla, 4 oz soy milk, 16 oz ice, 1 oz pineapple smoothie base (>250 calories)
• >3 oz beef jerky (250?)
• Three bites Kashi Black Bean Mango Frozen Dinner, felt nauseous and quit it, tossed in the trash. (100?)
• 1 sugar free Jello pudding (60 calories)
• 1 light mozzarella stick (70 calories)

Oodles of Shiritaki Noodles. And, more!

After gastric bypass surgery, pasta is in general - Not Our Friend. 

It is very high in calories and carbohydrates, and for some of us, makes us uncomfortable when it swells in our altered stomachs, and also can cause dumping.  Beyond those issues, it can trigger a cycle of high blood sugar/low blood sugar, which is something I am learning very quickly these days.  A single serving of your typical white pasta is a measly two ounces, which is about 210 calories and 43 grams of carbohydrates.  Sure, there are some better choices, like whole grain pastas, quinoa pasta, rice pasta, etc, but most people want the regular stuff, the good old spaghetti.  I very rarely eat the stuff anymore - or make it for my family all that often.  Sometimes, we want nothing more than a big pot of sketti and meatballs, but, *sigh* it's become a special thing.

Anyhow - another one of my past vices?  Those cheap "ramen" like noodles, floating in super salty broth.  I would kill for something like that some days.  I love me some salty noodley goodness that is so bad for me.  But, I don't eat it.  I've been searching for an alternative for a very long time.

Thanks to Dagny, I heard about "Shirataki Noodles."  She posted about them a while back, and I wanted to give them a try.  I found them, in eight ounce bags at my local health food store this week. 

(Dag added this in the comments, See! Someone Clicked On An Ad!  It won't kill you, lol.  "Yo lady, technically I found shirataki BECAUSE OF YOU! I clicked on some blinking "miracle noodle" thing on THIS VERY SITE and found them!! Looked for them at the Asian groceries in my 'hood and there were right at my corner. Yes, get the non-tofu kind. Go to any and every Asian grocery until you find them. Do you have a Mitsuwa or a Grand International Market you can road trip to? Buy a few dozen bags at a time. That's what I do. So I went to my local dollar store and bought THIRTY packages of Maruchan Ramen for $2. Opened them all. KEPT the seasonings packets, THREW AWAY the Ramen. Threw it all down the trash chute so I couldn't go dig it back out of anywhere. I boil for two minutes in chicken broth then dump out the broth. I spray I Can't Believe It's Not Butter zero calorie spray all over it and sprinkle on a little Maruchan seasoning. Amazing. I eat it every day. Every god damn day.)
 

I bought all they had on the shelf because I saw THIS nutrition information on the bag:

Ingredients: Filtered water, tofu, yam flour, calcium hydroxide.
Serving size 4 oz.
Amount per serving:
Calories 20
Calories from Fat 5
Total Fat 0.5g
Saturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 15mg
Total Carbohydrate 3g
Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 0g
Protein 1g
1 Effective Net Carb

I probably made a little gasp, because I was like, NOODLES for 20 calories and nearly no carbs?!  No freaking way.  No, this can't be!  Now, a bit of warning:  I had read other reviews online, these noodles are definitely something you will love or hate, and immediately.  I am determined to like these little suckers, due to the fact they are perfect for my needs.

I drained the package, rinsed in cold water, microwaved for a minute, and tossed some with some of my Smart Balance Light Omega spread, and a touch of salt.  After preparing them, they taste almost like any other noodle you might use in a stir-fry or soup you might find in an Asian restaurant.  Next time, I plan to prepare some and use them in my Miso broth. 

While they were perfectly fine with just butter, I would prefer them in soup, as the mouth-feel is too intense for me as a plain noodle. 

WTF?  I have issues.  I have serious. texture. issues.  Beth cannot eat eggs, nut butters, fruit, bananas, pudding, oatmeal, etc. due to her issues.  She probably shouldn't be able to tolerate these Shirataki noodles because they do have a slime-y nature.  Not unlike a regular noodle, perhaps an overcooked noodle.  But, if she can handle 'em - you can so handle them.

For what it's worth, you can eat a whole 4 oz. of Shirataki Noodles for next to nothing.  They have "zero" WW points in one serving.  They are almost a freebie food.

These noodles ARE replacing typical noodles in my household, whether in soup, stir-fry or just plain, begone white pasta.

Humpy.

Weight

• 160.  Yeah.  I like that.  Thanks to yesterday, I am so very shooooah.  If'n I see a buck fitty nine this week, you'll see me dancing.

Ate

• 6am:  1 ISS Oh Yeah Protein Wafer (105 calories) BG @ 3 hours post:  85 mg + feeling crappy.
• 3pm:  1 vegetarian thai peanut jerky (80 calories)
• 5pm:  1/2 serving Shiritaki Noodles -review to come- (20 calories)
• 6pm:  2 ISS Oh Yeah Protein Wafers (210 calories)
• 8pm:  1 serving baked cheese crackers + .75 oz light mozzarella (160 calories) This is stuck, and I'm feeling horrible - I have like a indigestion feeling, and I swear, never again ... NEVER.
• 10pm:  2 ISS Oh Yeah Protein Wafers (210 calories)

(Dumping on purpose, is wicked fun.) My visit to Joslin Clinic.

(If you're a new reader, this one won't make much sense unless you delve into my Hyper Hypoglycemia archives.)

Really, it is fun to dump on purpose. 

When you have to drink a twenty-two gram of sugar nutrition drink in three minutes and you Just Know you're going to dump, and hard, within minutes, it's wicked fun. 

And, dump I did - in more than one way, kids.  I chugged that vanilla Ensure down, and at about five to ten minutes post-drink, my heart was pounding, then came some super-fun nausea. 

Soon, I became lethargic and cranky, and then, Diarrhea?  For everyone!  I felt the impending doom, coursing through me, but I couldn't use the facilities, I had to have a commode.  After the Ensure swirled around my insides taking whatever was left of my colon with it (let's just say THANK GOD I WAS FASTING, And, I'm so sorry to my nurses) I got hypoglycemic, at least I think I did? That was part of the point, anyhow.  That is also why I was given the portable potty - because I could have damaged myself if I got super-low while going potty. 

I say I "think I did" get hypo, because the nurses started asking me bizarre questions, and I couldn't answer clearly.  Bob says I couldn't say the kids names, and I asked for "sugar, I need sugar," and then whistled?  (He also shared with the doctor that I will do that in the middle of the night, talking and whistling, during lows, or so he thinks, or I'm just nucking futs.)

After I came out of the dump and subsequent low, I was given food to bring my sugar to a normal level. 

I then visited with a nutritionist, who gave me more information about eating to avoid lows, as best I can.  She's cool with my eating six to eight times a day, in small snack-like meals.  She asked me to add complex carbs to my meals, 15 grams per meal, and fats to slow the digestion of the food.  It's basically following the low-glycemic index, and adding complex slow digesting carbs and healthy fats in my diet.  Simple, right?  Sure.  It should be, but I'm not normal. 

The goal is to slow the reactive hypoglycemia cycles, which are right now, unpredictable at best and seemingly unrelated to what kind of food I eat sometimes. 

The doctor explained to me that they are in the process of trying to study this condition, the postprandial hypoglycemia after gastric bypass surgery, as it is becoming more prevalent.  (Which is why I went to her- I've joined the study of this condition, and will be part of the medical journaling of it, and I had to sign my life away to become a numbered test subject.) 

She was also sure to tell me that the stories I read of other people dealing with this issue are very extreme, and are not the norm.  One article, that she co-authored, followed just five people. who had dealt with extreme hypoglycemia resulting in the surgery to remove the pancreas tissues.  She explained that while it is very serious, it's generally rare, but becoming more prevalent as more people have gastric bypass.

Her goals for me is to keep my blood sugar level in a "safe" and manageable range, to avoid putting myself (or anybody else) in danger.  Low blood sugar can kill, either by putting you into a coma or causing you to do something stupid while you're low, like crashing your car.

I am to:

• complete a food diary and fax it her her, with pre/post blood glucose levels
• train Bob to test my blood glucose at night when I make unusual sounds/movement while sleeping in a "nightmare"
• train everyone to give me a Glucagon shot if needed in an emergency, (I've got the RX, which was refused to me previously by my PCP's office)
• eat a slow-digesting bar twice a day to maintain blood sugar (she gave me samples, but.. I think I need to find an alternative, this one has maltitol = death by intestines)
• Take two of these bars a day:

I go back for a glucose tolerance test next week, and I'll send her my food diaries in a few days, and we'll plan out treatment as necessary.  The first line of defense for this condition is diet, then medication, then series of medications and finally surgery if necessary, which, is really The Last Resort.

Beth is whining. G'way.

I ran out of dog food, cat food, paper towels and milk at the same time.  I had planned to stay home today, but, it couldn't happen. 

So, off to Wal-Mart. 

Now, first let me share with you something. 

The baby?!  The sweet, round cheeked little angel? 

 

No Longer.  No Longer!  She is the debbil.  She's discovered the thrill of SCREAMING in THE SHRILLEST OF TONES to get your attention.  It's not like, "OH MAH GAWD I'M SO HAPPY!"  it's "YOU ARE RIPPING MY TOENAILS OUT ONE BY ONE, MOTHER, AND I WANT A PREZZEL GOD DAMN YOU!"  I ain't havin' it.  Right now, right this very second?  She is was SHRIEKING in her crib.  I finally just tossed her in there, and said, "Go to sleep.  See you when you wake up."  BUTIDONTWANNASLEEEEEEEEEEEP!  Sleep, child.  Now.

There will be no shopping with this child if this continues, nor will there be going ANYWHERE.  I loathe dragging a crying, hissy-fit throwing toddler out in public.  Been there, done that, got three hundredty t-shirts.  This better pass.

Anyway!  Back to dog food, aiight?  So, I get to the store, screaming toddler in tow - and note a car I have seen in the parking lot a bunch of times, since I tend to park in the same general location.  The bumper sticker, on the SUV-type Lexus, of a Wal*Mart Employee:

I drag my screaming child around the store, who subsequently tossed my cell phone on the floor, to make some photo holidaze cards, when I realized that I didn't bring the edited + cropped photos on the memory card.  Ack.  Then, I note the cost per card?  40 cents?  That seemed high - and I quit/canceled/walked away.

I get through the store, check out, get to the car and drop the two half-gallons of skim milk On The Ground.  One is smashed, not leaking, but soon enough will be.  I start to feel funky - stupid - shaky.  I drop another bag, my head = getting cloudy.  Crap.  I get in the car - look around - I have no real food, no sugar, nothing, if I need it.  I think back, "What did I eat?  When did I eat?"  The last meal - a packet of sugar-free oatmeal.  Prior to that - a protein bar.  Nothing that "should" trigger a crash, in fact while I ate, I considered that I might want to go somewhere - and that I did not want to deal with a crash.  I fumble with the glucometer, and, again - I'm at a normal 90 mg.  I think I am either becoming hyper-aware of the symptoms, or I am crashing faster. 

Seeing that it was normal, I started the car and figured I should get something to eat.  I find myself in a Wendy's drive-through, screaming toddler in the back - ordering a meal with ****ing french fries, so I can pass some back to her while I nibble on half a burger without the bun.  (I only mention that because normally I would just order a small burger, and eat the whole thing if I can.)  I eat four bites, and I want to puke.  It doesn't settle.  This stupid mothereffin' burger is going to be in my taste buds for the entire day.  I got one bite of a old chewy onion, and it disgusted me.  I came home, brushed my teeth, and I'm now sucking on mints to kill this onion that won't die.

She's still screaming, intermittently, but still.  I went down and settled her down, but she's still too wound up.

So, anyway.  Tomorrow - I'm up and out of here at 6am to join rush hour traffic to Boston for my reactive hypoglycemia testing.  My appointment begins at 8am.  So my thought now is - "What if my blood shows normally even after they trigger me with carbohydrates?  How the hell do I explain my crashes then, huh?"  I hate to say it - because I don't like when it happens - but I hope to swoosh down as low as ever so that it's documented for once.  I've never been tested during a low - only on my own.  Imagine if they've poked me a million times to find out that it won't happen?  That would suck.  I reach the 30's after eating a meal, if I don't follow up and eat AGAIN within 60-90 minutes, so they could totally hand me a sandwich and wait for it, I have a feeling the liquid meal isn't going to trigger a reaction - it's just going to make me dump.  I guess we'll see.

She's not screaming.  She's now babbling to Elmo, I think.  Oh crap.  The kids will be home in seven minutes.  So much for getting her to sleep AT ALL.

The Good Food Fight.

G'head.  Go start a Good Food Fight.  Find health-ifed recipes, too, after you throw your dinner, at Eat Better America.  (Pick Ruth as your grub slingah.  She's wicked cool.)

Hollydazed Card Hell 2007.

One of my SILs had set up an appointment with the woman who photographed her wedding last year, to take some shots of all of us and the kids for cards or gifts this Christmas. 

(She's the woman who took this photo of us and my really pregnant belly, and some really gorgeous shots - but I don't think they're online anymore..)

So, I brought my camera along, figuring I might get one shot of all my kids together at once (unlikely) that would be card-worthy.  Ha.  Right.  As if.  It didn't so much happen.  I think she may have gotten a few shots that aren't cringe-worthy, but... mine?  Take a look...

So happy I could splode!

So happy I could splode!, originally uploaded by Melting Mama.

Just The Cheese.

I probably did this review before, in fact I know I did - but it was so long ago, perhaps before this reincarnation of the blog.

I picked up a bag of Just The Cheese Crunchy Baked Cheese Snacks today, something I haven't had in quite a while, since, well, you don't see this stuff in the regular mainstream grocery stores.

I remembered the cheese rounds as being SUPER SALTY and dry, and that's probably why I hadn't bought any more.

This time, I found a bag that was labeled - "lower salt."  I was intrigued - seeing as I thought they were sorta like licking a salt-lick before.  I tore into the bag, and I'm pleasantly surprised.  These little cheese rounds are dry, crunchy, salty bits of baked cheese - and that's exactly what they taste like.  If you dig that burnt piece of cheese on the pan when you make a grilled cheese - this is for you. 

It's a very low carbohydrate food - because, it's cheese.  The ingredients?  Semi-soft cheese.  It's been baked to a crisp.  It's not something you can over-do, or really over-indulge in, because of it's saltiness and intense flavor.

I've been poking around online at other people's opinions of the product, and overall - it's bad reviews.  Folks don't like dry crunchy cheese.  I do - considering my nutritional needs and dietary issues - dry crunchy cheese is SO on my plan.  I live on cheese, much of the time and so do many of my peers.  Just The Cheese fits in a WLS'ers diet, because it has no carbohydrates and is unlikely to cause distress from dumping or in a growing number of us - unlikely to help cause reactive hypoglycemic issues.

The cheeses vary in caloric content by package/variety and there are flavors, like, white cheddar and pizza - but the pack I have here is 75 calories per serving and 6.5 grams of fat.  I can easily eat two servings in a sitting - so it's 150 calories and 13 grams of fat.  Just The Cheese has lots of protein, 5 grams per serving and calcium too, 16% DV per serving.  I sometimes "dump" on fat - but cheese apparently does not cause a reaction.

I made my husband try a piece, he's super-picky and very reluctant to try anything new.  He said, "it's cheese, so?"  That's your review right there, eh?

A 2.0 ounce bag cost me $3.49 at a health food store, but online it would have cost me $2.00-$2.50 per bag.  Just The Cheese = Pouch-worthy.  I'd totally buy it again, but online in a pack of twelve, to save money.  You can click on the bag of cheese to check it out yourself.  This is an unpaid review, just something I bought for myself.

I'd like you to meet my back fat.

Why, hello Back Flap!  It's nice to meet you!   I know a plastic surgeon that can and will, for the Right! Price! slice those back-flaps and pull 'em to the front for a nice set of melons!

The surgeon I'm using actually does do that - he uses the excess redundant skin on the upper back to create a type of breast lift without using any implants. 

"In the massive weight loss (MWL) patient, the upper body and breast must be treated together for optimizing results because the two regions are adjacent and one affects the other.  After MWL, upper back rolls are a common annoyance, on the sides and back.  Extending around to the front, the upper back rolls become continuous with the lateral (outside) of the sagging breast.  Even patients who have been large-breasted their whole life can find themselves with excess volume loss and "pancake"-like flattening of the breasts.  The breasts can be completely deflated, with only the significant skin excess contributing to volume as the patients roll or stuff the excess skin into a bra. Even if a C-cup is required to hold the sagging breasts, this is a false sense of size if the volume is comprised mainly of skin rather than breast tissue or fat.
 
Treatment of the back rolls cannot be adequately performed by liposuction alone.  Open removal of the excess skin is required, usually with a scar extending within the bra-line around the back, sometimes all the way across the back.  The sagging breasts are treated with a mastopexy procedure, meaning a breast lift. The lift usually requires incisions around the nipple and under the breast.  The nipple is relocated much higher to a normal position.  The skin excess is reduced.  Many such patients will end up with inadequate volume with a breast lift - only.  They require some form of breast augmentation.
 
Breast augmentation is done in most non-MWL patients with breast implants.  However, we have generally been disappointed with procedures that involve implants as the only means of breast enlargement in the MWL patient.  Instead, we usually prefer using the patient's own tissues (the side and back roll tissues) and rotating them into the breasts to act as breast implants."

Swooshes, and new finds.

Weight

• 162

Ate

• 7am - ISS Oh Yeah Protein Wafers (210)
• 11am - Just The Cheese Crunchy Cheese Lower Sodium (review coming!) (140)
• 1pm - ISS Oh Yeah Protein Wafers (210) + 1/2 serving Kay's Naturals Protein Pretzels (50)
• Dinner out -  Two big bites portabella mushroom with feta/red peppers/vinegar, lots of baked Brie (about half of what was served to me as an appetizer, two bites turkey club, 1/2 glass red wine

I took a trip to the health food store today and picked up some new to me things, some tofu shiritaki noodles, Guayaki Empower Mint! Tea, Quinoa pasta, and a strawberry smoothie drink that is meant to "stave off hunger between meals."  I'm hoping to get some review-like posts done this week.  I'm not working tomorrow or Tuesday, but I will be stuck with needles all day long for the hypoglycemia testing.

Yesterday, while working and being very busy/active for a stretch, I got a serious "oh no, here we go" feeling.  I felt that I was going to take a serious dive.  I told the kid I was working with that if I got dizzy or faint-like, that it's normal for me - and I would be fine once I ate.  I hate to say anything - but I wanted to let him know, just in case I like, fell down.  He was all, "What?  Go, get a burger or something."  Uh.

I hid out back for a moment and tested my blood sugar after I started misjudging my aim while spilling making coffee, and when I started feeling like a complete moron.  It was "normal," 88 mg.  Perhaps I was just starting to crash, and I caught it?  Probably.  I ate some glucose tabs and tried to make it through the rush of customers without getting too trippy - and eventually I felt normal again.  I hate when that happens when I am out of the house.  And, it frequently does - many times when I'm being active, like, walking?!  Argh.  This is why I'm to become a human experiment on Tuesday.  To figure out how to fix this!

I'm headed out to get our photo taken this afternoon for a Christmas gift for MIL - and perhaps if the photographer takes single family photos - for everyone else too.  I hope, at least - to get a decent shot of the six of us - we don't have any pictures of our family together, because I take the pictures.  There's no hope in teaching me to self-time, I won't.

I is alive.

So, I'm breaking out into a rash.  I had some highlights put in my hair about two hours ago - and I've now got a spotty hivey rash on the back of my legs.  Why?  Related?  Maybe?  Who knows - but I'm over here thinking, "Dr. House, it started like this..." and then I drop dead.

Weight

• 163

Ate

• 8-12 oz soy milk
• 75% of a small cheeseburger from McD's (180 calories)
• 1 oz turkey, 1 bite stuffing, 1 bite squash, 1 small handful cashews

That's about it.  I worked 7:30am - 6pm, so that's why the lack of food, and the fact that all of it was eaten at 6pm-8pm.

Bars, designed by you? www.youbars.com

I made my own nutrition bars.  Seriously.

At this website.  Huh?  Well, at You Bar, you get to choose your healthy ingredients, and Build-A-Bar. 

I had way too much fun adding, removing, re-adding ingredients, and calculating calories.  I got a box-o-MeltingMamaMade bars. 

I don't want to tell you what combination of ingredients I picked, because I apparently have no bar-building skills, and my MM designed bars weren't good.  BUT, the company sent along samples of their more popular blends (Not MM-Made!) and they are delish!  My bars, not-so-delish.  I know what the problem was, I didn't use any sweeteners, natural or otherwise, and I used mostly nut butters as a base, and I do not like nut butters.  I'm an idiot, and my bars are icky. The remedy for this?  I can totally send these back and get another box on them - because I am a poor judge of ingredients.  They guarantee the bars. Although, my husband liked the bars I designed, and has eaten two of them, deeming them, "really good, but, filling."  I won't be sending them back, but I could.  I may try again though - making a few changes - because the bars came super-fast, fresh and how cool is make-your-own anything, right?!

So, go, play, try building your own YouBar! 

Black Friday.

Weight

• Didn't.

Ate

• 8 oz soy milk
• 1 scoop Matrix 5.0 Orange Dream/4 oz fruit puree/ice
• 1 light mozzarella stick
• 1 piece fudge.  Shoot me.  I dumped on it, so there.  (In my defense, this fudge was a gift from a well-meaning elderly -who'd kill me for saying that- aunt who knows how Bob and I love a bite of fudge, and we had purchased her a box or three over the summer, and she got more at the same shop this week to share.)
• 1 ISS Oh Yeah Wafer

I've been trippy all day - like I'm about to crash at any moment.  (Pre fudge, which was not long ago.)  I hate this feeling.  I'm sure most of it was due to not eating this morning while working from when I woke at 3:30am to about noontime when I had a protein shake.  But, it's still on now - and I feel all fuzzy headed and it is The Suck of Sucks.  Rawr.

It's 4:30am, and I'm...

...headed to work.  Just sayin', because you're probably asleep, yanno.  Off to behead the throes of crazed mommy shoppers.

<--- So not a crazed mommy shopper.  Point > click > Santa!

DSC_0237, originally uploaded by Melting Mama.