Well, as I told some of my professors, I'm neither Sooner born nor Sooner Bred, but I happily married a life long OKie, and I settled here with him. I live in Shawnee now.

I've actually thought an awful lot about having a low-carb barbecue/party. I'd love to meet some of the others of us, encourage each other as we see we aren't alone in our state or even town... If anyone would be interested in helping plan or even just being involved in a central OK LC "barbecue", please let me know. I'm busy in school, but I'd love to be a part of one.

And I've found that small requests make most restaurants work for me. For instance, I went to Chili's and got one of the steaks, but I had them leave it off the garlic toast and got the grilled veggies in place of anything else on the "side". I've also gotten the mushroom jack fajitas and have them hold the tortillas. IHOP, I ask them to substitute a veggie, or else just ask them to hold the pancakes. I ate at a Mexican place and 1) found that I could order just the fajita filler without any of the other stuff, and 2) If I hadn't done that, I was just going to give the rest of my stuff to other diners at my table (it was ladies' night out). I had my fill, I shared with others, I enjoyed people's company, and while I was aware of what I ate, I didn't have to worry about it.