Small Talk: We'll Be Right Back

[Prevailing Wind]

42 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

They used to have ads with stories of users.   One lady lived where it snowed a lot, and so she started using the candies, dieting, and when spring arrived, she was very thin, and had bleached her hair blond.    The neighbors thought the husband had traded in the wife on another woman, and they were very upset with him until they realized she was the same woman.  

Another woman was so big that she couldn't find a scale that worked for her, so she would go to the feed store to weigh herself.   Then, she used the AYDS candy, and lost a lot of weight, and didn't have to weigh herself at the feed store anymore.   

The original candies were just caramels, and you had them with a hot drink a certain amount of time before each meal, and it made you feel full.   After a while, the company actually had to ad ingredients to make them diet candy.     

I still remember the first liquid diet drinks, Metrecal (spelling's probably off), and their motto was "Metrical on Monday" to start your diet.   I think you had one for breakfast, and one for lunch, and a sensible dinner, so the calorie restriction worked.  

I remember those. My doc told me Ayds was killing your appetite by having you fill up on hot tea before dinner.  Metrecal had a cheaper cousin, Sego.  I had a classmate in Jr. High whose mother was always harping on her about her weight. She'd freeze a can of Sego and give it to Janet to take to school for lunch. By lunchtime, it had thawed to a cool drink, which Janet would suck on through a straw and loudly proclaim (every day, no less) "THIS TASTES DISGUSTING."

Today, Boost and Ensure taste no better.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

They used to have ads with stories of users.   One lady lived where it snowed a lot, and so she started using the candies, dieting, and when spring arrived, she was very thin, and had bleached her hair blond.    The neighbors thought the husband had traded in the wife on another woman, and they were very upset with him until they realized she was the same woman.  

Another woman was so big that she couldn't find a scale that worked for her, so she would go to the feed store to weigh herself.   Then, she used the AYDS candy, and lost a lot of weight, and didn't have to weigh herself at the feed store anymore.   

The original candies were just caramels, and you had them with a hot drink a certain amount of time before each meal, and it made you feel full.   After a while, the company actually had to ad ingredients to make them diet candy.     

I still remember the first liquid diet drinks, Metrecal (spelling's probably off), and their motto was "Metrical on Monday" to start your diet.   I think you had one for breakfast, and one for lunch, and a sensible dinner, so the calorie restriction worked.  

Oh I remember that! They pioneered the "sensible dinner" magical thinking mindset that I use whenever I sneak a doughnut.

[CrystalBlue]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I remember those. My doc told me Ayds was killing your appetite by having you fill up on hot tea before dinner.  Metrecal had a cheaper cousin, Sego.  I had a classmate in Jr. High whose mother was always harping on her about her weight. She'd freeze a can of Sego and give it to Janet to take to school for lunch. By lunchtime, it had thawed to a cool drink, which Janet would suck on through a straw and loudly proclaim (every day, no less) "THIS TASTES DISGUSTING."

Today, Boost and Ensure taste no better.

I remember the AYDS, Metrecal and Sego.  The diet candy went out of business in the early 80's when AIDS emerged.  The liquid diet shakes were the precursors to SlimFast.  Boost and Ensure are not for weight loss but for nutritional supplement purposes.

[Prevailing Wind]

35 minutes ago, CrystalBlue said:

I remember the AYDS, Metrecal and Sego.  The diet candy went out of business in the early 80's when AIDS emerged.  The liquid diet shakes were the precursors to SlimFast.  Boost and Ensure are not for weight loss but for nutritional supplement purposes.

But they taste the same, nutritional or weight loss. They taste like liquefied vitamins propped up with flavoring & some kind of crap to make them thick.

[Bastet]

1 minute ago, Prevailing Wind said:

They taste like liquefied vitamins propped up with flavoring & some kind of crap to make them thick.

I've never tasted any of the diet shakes, but way back when I was taking care of my grandpa I used to give him an Ensure sometimes when I couldn't get him to eat lunch, and I tasted a couple of those flavors.  Blech.  He seemed to drink the most of the strawberry flavor, so after realizing how shitty they were, I'd pour one of those into the blender with some strawberries to enhance the flavor, and he'd do even better.

[cinsays]

10 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I remember those. My doc told me Ayds was killing your appetite by having you fill up on hot tea before dinner.  Metrecal had a cheaper cousin, Sego.  I had a classmate in Jr. High whose mother was always harping on her about her weight. She'd freeze a can of Sego and give it to Janet to take to school for lunch. By lunchtime, it had thawed to a cool drink, which Janet would suck on through a straw and loudly proclaim (every day, no less) "THIS TASTES DISGUSTING."

Today, Boost and Ensure taste no better.

Never heard of Sego, but I have a Boost for breakfast most mornings and the cafe mocha is very good.

[Tom Holmberg]

10 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I remember the AYDS, Metrecal and Sego.  The diet candy went out of business in the early 80's when AIDS emerged.  The liquid diet shakes were the precursors to SlimFast.  Boost and Ensure are not for weight loss but for nutritional supplement purposes.

When I was a kid I gave my friend some Exlax telling him it was chocolate.  He probably lost some weight.  (This was the same kid who put Neet on one of his eyebrows to see if it worked.  Needless to say it did work and its surprising how long it takes an eyebrow to grow back when you are a kid.)

[susannah]

12 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I remember the AYDS, Metrecal and Sego.  The diet candy went out of business in the early 80's when AIDS emerged.  The liquid diet shakes were the precursors to SlimFast.  Boost and Ensure are not for weight loss but for nutritional supplement purposes.

I remember Carnation Instant Breakfast powder packets. Mixed with milk, they were supposed to replace the meal. It seemed to me that it was basically chocolate milk, as that was the only flavor I tried.  As far as AYDS went, they could have changed the name, as the original name didn't mean anything. I can't imagine that the candy could have been effective to help lose weight. Anyone remember Tab and Fresca, the diet soft drinks?

[mmecorday]

Quote

Anyone remember Tab and Fresca, the diet soft drinks?

I hated Tab! Naturally I tried to drink it because that's what my cool cousins drank, but I thought it tasted nasty. I know it has somewhat of a cult following.

When I was in eighth grade, I was on Herbalife. It was the same idea as Slimfast -- you drank two shakes and then had a sensible meal. The shakes were gross. I wish I had established better eating habits when I was young, but living next to my grandmother doomed me. She was such a good cook and a terrific baker. Everything that came out of her kitchen was delicious

I remember those AYDS candies. Mom kept a box in the freezer for some reason.

[madmax]

1 hour ago, susannah said:

I remember Carnation Instant Breakfast powder packets. Mixed with milk, they were supposed to replace the meal. It seemed to me that it was basically chocolate milk, as that was the only flavor I tried. 

When I broke my jaw, I practically lived on those and real milkshakes.  They weren't that bad.

1 hour ago, susannah said:

Anyone remember Tab and Fresca, the diet soft drinks?

My uncle would go through a 2 liter of Tab a day.  I tried it once and it was disgusting.  Of course, I was really young.

[peacheslatour]

Quote

My uncle would go through a 2 liter of Tab a day.  I tried it once and it was disgusting.  Of course, I was really young.

My husband told me his mother lived on Tab but it was usually just to disguise the ever present bourbon she was drinking.

[cynicat]

1 hour ago, susannah said:

Anyone remember Tab and Fresca, the diet soft drinks?

They are both still around, at least in grocery stores near me.

[Prevailing Wind]

My mom drank Tab. She'd even make ice cream floats with it, while the rest of the family was doing Coke or root beer floats.

When Instant Breakfast first came out, I compared it to Ovaltine - Ovaltine had more nutrition and was less expensive. And in my mind, it tasted better. I STILL drink Ovaltine.

[Tom Holmberg]

18 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

I hated Tab!

I actually liked the taste of Tab (the original saccharine Tab).  The taste changed when the took out the saccharine.  Fresca was awful.

[peacheslatour]

13 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

My mom drank Tab. She'd even make ice cream floats with it, while the rest of the family was doing Coke or root beer floats.

When Instant Breakfast first came out, I compared it to Ovaltine - Ovaltine had more nutrition and was less expensive. And in my mind, it tasted better. I STILL drink Ovaltine.

So did I. My son used to make himself a big glass of Ovaltine every morning before school when he was in high school.

[chessiegal]

I am not a morning person, have no interest in eating for several hours after I get up. But I do like a fizzy drink in the morning. I used to drink Diet Coke until I read a study that found drinking a caramel colored soda raised blood pressure in women. I have hypertension, so I switched to Fresca, which I liked. Now I drink what used to be called Canada Dry Diet Ginger ale. It's now zero sugar ginger ale. "Diet" seems to have disappeared replaced by zero sugar.

[Prevailing Wind]

A number of years ago, I read that "diet" was a taboo for men. No manly man would be seen drinking a diet soda, but "Free" or "Zero" was manly enough for them.

I've noticed that the wonderfully flavored Vernor's Ginger Ale is now Ginger Soda.

[smittykins]

On 11/29/2021 at 3:03 PM, Nicmar said:

I remember AYDS's candies my mom used those. I got in trouble because I ate 3 thinking they were actually candy

I used to sneak my grandma’s when she wasn’t looking.  They were chocolatey with kind of an odd aftertaste.

[susannah]

6 hours ago, madmax said:

When I broke my jaw, I practically lived on those and real milkshakes.  They weren't that bad.

My uncle would go through a 2 liter of Tab a day.  I tried it once and it was disgusting.  Of course, I was really young.

How did you break your jaw? That sounds horrible. I don't remember the Instant Breakfast as tasting bad, just seemed like chocolate milk, but we had Quik for that. I drank Tab and Fresca once or twice as a kid, they tasted awful.

6 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

So did I. My son used to make himself a big glass of Ovaltine every morning before school when he was in high school.

What IS Ovaltine? Is it chocolate milk? You know the mondegreens, the lyrics that people mishear in songs? In Crocodile Rock, when the line is "dreamin about my Chevy and my old blue jeans," it always sounded like" dreamin about my Chevy and my Ovaltine!"

[Prevailing Wind]

There's chocolate Ovaltime, chocolate-malt Ovaltine, and the hard-to-find malt Ovaltine. They've all got pretty good nutrition in them. Mix with milk, hot or cold.

[Leeds]

On 11/28/2021 at 1:24 PM, peacheslatour said:

That's smart. Then there is the Asshole factor. I had a boss once who liked to regale our surveying crews about how he and his friends used to chase down the neighborhood cats in their cars. Har har har. Ugh.

How can you chase down a cat?  They're not stupid.  They just run off the road/into a garden.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Leeds
Because off off doesn't make sense

[peacheslatour]

22 minutes ago, Leeds said:

How can you chase down a cat?  They're not stupid.  They just run off off the road/into a garden.

I don't know. The whole idea curled my hair and gave me flashbacks to boys running down ducks in their speed boats.

[Bruinsfan]

Now I'm envisioning a cat zooming through a wrought-iron cemetery fence and getting the pursuing assholes to Final Destination themselves.

[Gramto6]

3 hours ago, Leeds said:

How can you chase down a cat?  They're not stupid.  They just run off the road/into a garden.

My ferals are a wylie bunch. Mama was once a house cat and comes in any time the door is open. Once I caught one of the first kittens to give it a new home since then the others saw me as the enemy and even though I feed the 2-3 times a day they run away when I open the door.  No way you can chase down a cat!!

[cinsays]

18 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I actually liked the taste of Tab (the original saccharine Tab).  The taste changed when the took out the saccharine.  Fresca was awful.

I liked and drank Tab for many years because it was the only diet drink available, but once the others came out I realized how awful it had tasted and switched.

We also had Whip'n'chill for dessert a lot when my mom and I were dieting and I really loved that.

[Tom Holmberg]

55 minutes ago, cinsays said:

I liked and drank Tab for many years because it was the only diet drink available, but once the others came out I realized how awful it had tasted and switched.

I thought the original taste of Tab was closer to Dr Pepper than Coke.  Do you dislike Dr. Pepper?

[cinsays]

1 hour ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I thought the original taste of Tab was closer to Dr Pepper than Coke.  Do you dislike Dr. Pepper?

no, i love dr pepper!

had switched to that from diet coke once they came out with a diet decaf version but i can't find it anywhere anymore, so am now drinking diet caffeine free root beer

[Prevailing Wind]

Diet sodas don't work. You only ever see overweight people drinking them.  LOL

[chessiegal]

 

7 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Diet sodas don't work. You only ever see overweight people drinking them.  LOL

I always drink no sugar soda, and I'm not fat. Regular sodas with sugar are empty calories, so that's why I don't drink them.

[madmax]

17 hours ago, susannah said:

How did you break your jaw? That sounds horrible. I don't remember the Instant Breakfast as tasting bad, just seemed like chocolate milk, but we had Quik for that. I drank Tab and Fresca once or twice as a kid, they tasted awful.

What IS Ovaltine? Is it chocolate milk? You know the mondegreens, the lyrics that people mishear in songs? In Crocodile Rock, when the line is "dreamin about my Chevy and my old blue jeans," it always sounded like" dreamin about my Chevy and my Ovaltine!"

Unrestrained passenger in a car accident.  My jaw fought the dashboard and the dashboard won.  Luckily, I didn't have to have it wired shut.  The funny thing is no one in the hospital realized it was broken until I tried to eat.  I now have a lovely titanium plate holding it together.

FYI, I, too, thought he was singing about Ovaltine for years!

[susannah]

2 hours ago, madmax said:

Unrestrained passenger in a car accident.  My jaw fought the dashboard and the dashboard won.  Luckily, I didn't have to have it wired shut.  The funny thing is no one in the hospital realized it was broken until I tried to eat.  I now have a lovely titanium plate holding it together.

FYI, I, too, thought he was singing about Ovaltine for years!

Wow, I'm not the only one! I am sorry you went through that.

[susannah]

4 hours ago, chessiegal said:

 

I always drink no sugar soda, and I'm not fat. Regular sodas with sugar are empty calories, so that's why I don't drink them.

Yes, I imagine that there are several reasons why people drink diet drinks, not the least of which is because they like them, no matter what they look like.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Folks,

The comment that "diet sodas don't work.  You can tell because overweight people drink them" is a joke.  It is not an admonition of anyone's beverage choices. Nor is it a negative comment about people of any size.  I think we can all understand that people of every size drink all kinds of beverages; personal choice prevails. 

This note is not meant to stop the discussion of beverage choices.  It is only here to resolve any umbrage taken. 

[Prevailing Wind]

1 hour ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

Folks,

The comment that "diet sodas don't work.  You can tell because overweight people drink them" is a joke.  It is not an admonition of anyone's beverage choices.  I think we can all understand that people of every size drink all kinds of beverages; personal choice prevails. 

This note is not meant to stop the discussion of beverage choices.  It is only here to resolve any umbrage taken. 

Thank you. Apparently adding LOL doesn't help.

[madmax]

3 hours ago, susannah said:

Wow, I'm not the only one! I am sorry you went through that.

Sorry you had to go thru it!

The funny part was when they took me into the hospital, they needed to put me somewhere where I could be observed 24/7 and the only bed they had left was in the Burn ICU.  I was paranoid that I got burned and didn't notice, even though there was no fire involved.

The worst part was not seeing my son - who was also in the car - for a whole day because he was too young to be allowed in the ICU.  I told the nurse I was walking out if I couldn't see him and they finally wheeled me to the waiting room where he was.

ETA: My son was fine, just a little scrape on his cheek where the cooler brushed against him.  

Edited December 2, 2021 by madmax

[susannah]

4 hours ago, madmax said:

Sorry you had to go thru it!

The funny part was when they took me into the hospital, they needed to put me somewhere where I could be observed 24/7 and the only bed they had left was in the Burn ICU.  I was paranoid that I got burned and didn't notice, even though there was no fire involved.

The worst part was not seeing my son - who was also in the car - for a whole day because he was too young to be allowed in the ICU.  I told the nurse I was walking out if I couldn't see him and they finally wheeled me to the waiting room where he was.

ETA: My son was fine, just a little scrape on his cheek where the cooler brushed against him.  

No, sorry I wasn't clear. I meant that I wasn't the only one who thought EJ was singing about Ovaltine. The accident sounds just awful.

[madmax]

11 hours ago, susannah said:

No, sorry I wasn't clear. I meant that I wasn't the only one who thought EJ was singing about Ovaltine. The accident sounds just awful.

Sometimes I read too fast and don't think. 🙂

[peacheslatour]

Regular soda is not great either.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by peacheslatour

[bankerchick]

On 11/30/2021 at 2:37 PM, Prevailing Wind said:

A number of years ago, I read that "diet" was a taboo for men. No manly man would be seen drinking a diet soda, but "Free" or "Zero" was manly enough for them.

Diet Coke and Coke Zero are not the same, even though both are zero (or zero-ish) calories.  Coke Zero is supposed to taste like Coca-Cola but with no calories, but Diet Coke has its own taste.  As someone who always preferred Pepsi to Coke, I have been drinking Diet Coke since it was introduced and will continue to do so (even though it apparently messes with my blood pressure - never heard that before.)

I don't really know what it is, but I always hear the word Ovaltine in Frau Blucher's voice (whinny!)

[peacheslatour]

Quote

 (even though it apparently messes with my blood pressure - never heard that before.)

It's the caffeine. That's why my Dr. switched me to de-caf tea.

[chessiegal]

7 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

It's the caffeine. That's why my Dr. switched me to de-caf tea.

Yeah, I tried the caffeine free Diet Coke, and decided it tasted like nothing. That's when I switched to Zero Sugar (then Diet) ginger ale for my morning fizzy drink. Left to my own devices, I'd have Prosecco for my fizzy morning drink, but that comes with a whole other bunch of issues. 😏

[cynicat]

2 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

 Left to my own devices, I'd have Prosecco for my fizzy morning drink, but that comes with a whole other bunch of issues. 😏

None that matter.  

[peacheslatour]

Just now, cinsays said:

they have a decaf version of diet coke

I'll stick with my de-caf Constant Comment, thank you. ;-)

[madmax]

15 hours ago, Scout Finch said:

I really liked the Etsy ad last year when the son brings his boyfriend to spend Christmas with his family. Boyfriend is feeling out of place and not sure of their acceptance. He watches everyone else exchanging presents and suddenly the father hands him one and warmly says, "we didn't forget about you." It's a Christmas ornament with his son's and the boyfriend's names on it. 

Brought this from the Commercials that Annoy thread

My son's first Christmas with his boyfriend, he told me that we'd see him at Christmas.  I assumed it would be the big full family Christmas Eve celebration and not our smaller, only us Christmas morning celebration.  I already had a gift for him, all wrapped and ready to go to give to him Christmas Eve.  Imagine my surprise when on Christmas Eve, about an hour before we had to leave for the big Christmas Eve celebration, my son told me that his boyfriend was looking forward to my big Christmas breakfast.  OK, but stockings are a big part of our Christmas morning and I didn't have one for him.  I didn't want him to feel left out, so I ran to the closest store, a Dollar General, and bought the most generic things to put in his stocking.  The stocking didn't match the rest of ours and that made me feel bad as well as the generic gifts.  So this year, I got new stockings for everyone that match as well as gifts that are more geared towards him and not just any guy. .

[susannah]

1 minute ago, madmax said:

Brought this from the Commercials that Annoy thread

My son's first Christmas with his boyfriend, he told me that we'd see him at Christmas.  I assumed it would be the big full family Christmas Eve celebration and not our smaller, only us Christmas morning celebration.  I already had a gift for him, all wrapped and ready to go to give to him Christmas Eve.  Imagine my surprise when on Christmas Eve, about an hour before we had to leave for the big Christmas Eve celebration, my son told me that his boyfriend was looking forward to my big Christmas breakfast.  OK, but stockings are a big part of our Christmas morning and I didn't have one for him.  I didn't want him to feel left out, so I ran to the closest store, a Dollar General, and bought the most generic things to put in his stocking.  The stocking didn't match the rest of ours and that made me feel bad as well as the generic gifts.  So this year, I got new stockings for everyone that match as well as gifts that are more geared towards him and not just any guy. .

That sounds a wee bit inconsiderate of your son, not only to not make clear when they were arriving, but then to expect you to have appropriate gifts/matching stocking for his partner ready at such short notice. It seems like the son should have brought a stocking and gifts for his partner himself.

[madmax]

1 minute ago, susannah said:

That sounds a wee bit inconsiderate of your son, not only to not make clear when they were arriving, but then to expect you to have appropriate gifts/matching stocking for his partner ready at such short notice. It seems like the son should have brought a stocking and gifts for his partner himself.

He knew I had already purchased a gift for his boyfriend.   He didn't expect anything else. He actually made fun of me for worrying about the stocking. 

The only quasi-inconsiderate thing was not telling me exactly when they were coming, but I could take the blame for assuming it was Christmas Eve.

[Haleth]

That's very sweet, Max.  Very thoughtful of you to make a last minute effort to make him part of the family.

I cross stitched stockings for my family.  When my son had been with the same girlfriend for a couple years I made one for her that matched the rest of ours.  Unfortunately they eventually broke up and when he started dating a new woman I had a dilemma - should I tear out the name of the old GF and replace it with the new one?  Would that be tacky?  But I'd spent weeks making the thing.  

(I ended up making a new one.  And they are engaged.)

[Leeds]

On 12/5/2021 at 7:18 AM, bankerchick said:

Diet Coke and Coke Zero are not the same, even though both are zero (or zero-ish) calories.  Coke Zero is supposed to taste like Coca-Cola but with no calories, but Diet Coke has its own taste.  As someone who always preferred Pepsi to Coke, I have been drinking Diet Coke since it was introduced and will continue to do so (even though it apparently messes with my blood pressure - never heard that before.)

 

This is a link to the results of a study about the potential ill effects of diet sodas -

https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2017/march/diet-soda

Highlights include:

• It leads to more weight gain
• "So, how exactly does diet soda contribute to weight gain? It’s simple: while diet soda doesn’t contain real sugar or calories it does contain a lot of additives and artificial ingredients including sweeteners. These ingredients are full of unnatural chemicals that can cause your body to crave more high-calorie and sugar-laden foods. Artificial sweeteners may also confuse your body into miscalculating the number of calories you are actually consuming which can then cause your metabolism to slow down, making it more challenging to burn off calories and lose weight."
• It has been linked to type-2 diabetes
• "Think diet soda is safe for diabetics due to the lack of sugar? Think again. The artificial sweeteners in diet soda can actually cause a spike in blood sugar and insulin levels which in turn can lead to diabetic shock for those who have already been diagnosed with diabetes.
• "Don’t have diabetes? You’re not out of danger, either. Diet soda may greatly increase your risk of developing type-2 diabetes. As previously mentioned, diet soda can cause weight gain and a lower metabolism rate. These two elements alone can be the beginning of a recipe for diabetes in the future."

 

[madmax]

9 hours ago, Haleth said:

That's very sweet, Max.  Very thoughtful of you to make a last minute effort to make him part of the family.

I cross stitched stockings for my family.  When my son had been with the same girlfriend for a couple years I made one for her that matched the rest of ours.  Unfortunately they eventually broke up and when he started dating a new woman I had a dilemma - should I tear out the name of the old GF and replace it with the new one?  Would that be tacky?  But I'd spent weeks making the thing.  

(I ended up making a new one.  And they are engaged.)

I admire your creativity.  A friend of mine made stockings for each of her daughters, then each of her grandchildren.

I used to cross stitch, but never completely finished a thing.  Oh, the pattern itself was done, I just never framed it or made them into stockings.  I actually did four Snoopy stockings for the family.  they're still in their plastic bag, waiting for me to put them together.  😄 

[Shelbie]

I may sound like the Grinch here but I stopped doing stockings for my kids once they were living with their partners. 
I used to gently advise women who were pregnant with their first to not buy huge stockings but instead to get quite small ones. I said it was easy to fill them when my kids were small but as they got older I found it much harder and ended up using crap to fill them. 
My kids were in their thirties when I finally stopped and seem to have suffered no ill effects.