Lets get to know each other ! Options

[ykwcg]

How old are you, how long have you been with JC? How long have you been a veggie person?
I am an oldie but goodie, I am 51, I have been on JC on and off going on three years and I have basically been a veggie person since I have joined JC with an occasional Tuna melt.
What are your favorites:
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and exercise?
For me it is
Breakfast: The Banana Nut Muffin
I would love to see JC come up with more muffins such as Cho Chip, Zucchini, Carrot and Pumpkin muffins.
Lunch: Florentine Ravioli, it is Hmmmm....Hmmmmm....Good. Love it!!!
I would love to see JC come up with Baked Manicotti, Baked Ziti, Fettuccini with Broccoli.
Dinner: I love the Veggie Burger prepared like the Quarter Pounder with cheese, w/o the sauce and with ketchup instead.
I would love to see JC come up with a Meat loaf dinner, with the meat similar to the veggie burger and spaghetti and veggie balls.
For snack, I love the chocolate raspberry cheese cake. I would love to see them make the pumpkin cheese cake and mocha cheese cake in single sizes.
Favorite exercise: I love exercising in the pool but I joined Curves at the beginning of the yearand I am feeling fabulous and I am loving it.
How about you guys?

[wezlise]

Hi!
I'm Lisa. I'm 19. I've been on JC since october. I have been a veggie for 6 years now. I also love the banana nut muffin and also the french toast. I like the stuffed shells for lunch and the lasagna for dinner. My favorite snack are the cheese curls. I try to go swimming as much as possible, thats my favorite exercise. Have a great day!!!
Lisa

[sciencegeniousgi...]

How old are you? 23
how long have you been with JC? 1 week
How long have you been a veggie person? 11 years
Wrok out? Curves for almost 4 months (no change, not even an inch, so I decided to up my odds and join JC)
Favorites: penne pasta, personal pizza, chocolate cake
~JaMiE

[ykwcg]

It is good that you girls are starting JC while you are younger and before you gained another hundred pounds.
But if you do both JC and Curves and you still do not budge an inch, then you might want to have your thryoid checked.

[sciencegeniousgi...]

I have been working closely with a doctor, so I have checked my thyroid and it is normal. She wants me to do JC for a month, then if not much change, we will do hormone checks.
Ah, the joy of trying to lose weight.
~JaMiE

[ykwcg]

Sounds like you have a good Doctor. How many times a week do you go to curves?

[sciencegeniousgi...]

I go to Curves 4 times/week, plus I do an hour of cardio 2 times/week. So, in total I exercise 6 days/week. I also wanted to say that I also drink 10-12 cups of water/day. I have been doing that for at least 4 months now.
~JaMiE

[braincramp]

i am 39, i just started JC today. i've been vegetarian off and on through the years, mostly off, but recommitted recently, for health reasons and it just suits my value system. plus i like vegetarian food.
i live in new england, i love snow but i'm getting pretty tired of it this winter! i'm a grad student getting started on my 2nd career when i graduate this may, very excited.
also turn 40 in may, so - motivated. want some control back, some physical comfort with my body, mostly - want to look better too but i have really mixed feelings about losing weight for that reason, i get really defiant. i really hate how our society pressures us all to be thin and fit into this really narrow mold of what is beautiful and socially acceptable. i'm horrified by the difference in how people treat me now, as opposed to when i was 50 pounds lighter about four years ago. horrified and infuriated... and amazed. very hard (if even possible) to separate that from my internal motivation, but, i made this decision and i don't regret it either.
turning 40, knowing that if losing fat is hard for me now, it's only going to get harder, being afraid of losing the option - that's motivation too.
anyway - two months to graduation & birthday, i'd love to be ten or twenty pounds lighter by then. and four months to our beach holiday, i'd love to be twenty or thirty pounds smaller by then!!!
i don't have a JC favorite food yet - only finished my first day. i like to lift weights. i do about 15 minutes of cardio right now and then do some weight training, starting with a few sets of light snatches, then some romanian deadlifts and then some standing rows. nothing particularly heavy, just some moves i enjoy. if i don't like it, i know i won't do it for long. i would train heavier but i'm just getting back into it, don't want to hurt my back, plus i'm getting over a shoulder injury.

[tamikawatkins]

Hello All.. I'm 36 and have been a vegetarian for 15 years. I joined JC in December right before the new year rush. My favorite food right now is the Pesto Pizza. I add mushrooms (Green Giant in jar) and artichoke hearts before I put it in the oven. YUMMY!! My favorite snack are the cheese curls. I eat them everyday. I drink 96 ounces of water in the evening as I watch TV or send emails on my lap top. Oh I add crystal light to the water to help get it down. I work out by running on the treadmill 5 days a week. I just recently returned from a 3 week Italian holiday and only ganed 2 pounds. I was actually happy about it. I know it will come off next week. Good luck to everyone.

[sciencegeniousgi...]

I heard the pesto pizza isn't considered vegetarian because it has "Renit???" in it. The lady at the center said it was shavings from cow's hooves. I don't believe it, but can anyone comment on that.
~JaMiE

[sciencegeniousgi...]

Ok, so I just did my own research. The cheese that is in the jc pesto pizo is made with rennet in it. Rennit as per webster's dictionary:

Main Entry: ren·net
Pronunciation: 're-n&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from (assumed) Middle English rennen to cause to coagulate, from Old English gerennan, from ge- together + (assumed) Old English rennan to cause to run; akin to Old High German rennen to cause to run, Old English rinnan to run -- more at CO-, RUN
1 a : the contents of the stomach of an unweaned animal and especially a calf b : the lining membrane of a stomach or one of its compartments (as the fourth of a ruminant) used for curdling milk; also : a preparation of the stomach of animals used for this purpose
I am guessing the cheese is made from the stomach lining to be curdled into milk and then processed into cheese.
I just thought I would warn ya.
~JaMiE

[Bastet]

Hi everyone,
I posted information about this on another veggie thread a while back.
The pesto pizza, shells, mac and cheese, spinach & cheese tortellini and the cheesy enchilada all have rennet in them.
The chocolate and peanut butter anytime bar contains gelatin.
Only the items marked with a carrot are considered meatless foods. I did my own research when my consultant told me those other meals were vegetarian.
Of course that depends on your definition of vegetarian. There are quite a few defintions of what a vegetarian is on the boards.

[braincramp]

rennet is part of normal cheese-making so you are going to have a hard time finding rennet-less cheese, i've heard it's out there, but it has its own types, not substitutes for the usual fare (cheddar, american, mozarella, parmesan, etc). if i remember right rennet-less cheeses are mostly very soft cheeses.
yes there are a lot of levels of vegetarian. i have a really hard time giving up cheese, but i use cheese substitutes or go without most of the time, because it's just inconsistent with my reasons for going vegetarian. other dairy products i have no problem giving up. eggs i still eat, although i stick with free-ranging chickens.
people who eat NO eggs or cheese are considered "vegans," right?
anyway going on JC i'm making some compromises because of the cheese and eggs, i rationalize this by telling myself it's temporary. but for many vegetarians it would be no issue at all. just depends on your reasons for your food choices, i guess.

[panina]

I'm 44 and have been on the program 5 weeks with great results. Prior to this program I was on Weight Watchers and lost over 20 pounds in a year following the program. This program is working much faster for me. I think it's the combinations of food. I have been a vegetarian for as long at least 20 years, but I am not a vegan. I do the Leslie Sanosone Walking tapes for
exercise. I actually do not have a favorite JC Food, but the one I dislike the most is the Vegetable Soup. It is way too salty.
Start 219
Wk 1 213
Wk 2 209
Wk 3 206.8
Wk 4 nw
Wk 5 203
total lost 16 lbs
goal 144

[Bastet]

Not to belabor the point, Braincamp, but not all rennet is animal rennet. I have found Cabot cheeses without animal rennet in them.
The JC items that are marked with a carrot contain rennet-less cheese.

[braincramp]

really? i honestly didn't know, that's good information. i buy Cabot too... would have figured i would notice. glad to find out!
i'm curious - the planned menu i got for my first veggie week doesn't have mac and cheese or cheesy enchiladas on it, so i just realized i haven't had a chance to try the JC version of my two favorite foods. Is this typical of the first week planned vegetarian menu? I will ask my consultant on Saturday why they were omitted - but just curious. This is the preprinted menu i'm looking at, not just the groceries they gave me.

[Bastet]

Braincamp,
Those two foods are not considered meatless because of the animal rennet, which is why they are not on the planned menu.
As far as I know there is only one planned meatless menu. If you do not create your own menu, the menu never changes.
On the other hand, the ravioli is meatless, and it is not on the preplanned menu either.
Just a clarification - not all Cabot fits the description. The low-fat cheddar does though.

[sciencegeniousgi...]

I found that Trader Joe's has a wide variety of rennet free cheeses.
~JaMiE

[Veggie Eater]

Hi everyone. I am 27 and have been doing Jenny for about a year and a half. I have been maintaining for a little over a year, after losing 35 pounds. I still eat the JC food because I like it, and it is easy. I have started to get a little burnt out on the same meals time and again, though, as many of you have as well.
One comment about rennet. After doing some research on this recently I found that Kraft's Swiss cheese slices (including the lowfat versions) do not use animal rennet.

[Veggie Eater]

Oh, and as for my favorite foods and exercise--
I really like the JC pizza (the regular version of the pesto pizza), the veggie burger and the chocolate cake. I have yet to find a veggie burger I like better than Jenny's.
I'm really bad about exercise. I never, ever do it. Over the winter I have started to see the pounds come back on a little, though, so I think I need to start going to the gym. I am thinking of joining a spinning class or something--I need something that won't make me too bulky. If anyone has suggestions, let me know!