She talks about it in her books as as lifesaver for snacking. Not sure why sometimes the skim adds more carbs than others, it must have to do with the way the stuff is processed.
Splenda is fine for this plan, and it cooks like regular sugar. The packets are concentrated about the same as Somersweet - 6 times as sweet as sugar- but the loose stuff measures one to one like sugar. That's my artificial sweetener of choice. Suzanne would love for you to buy her Somersweet, which is a Fructose/Sunnett mixture, but if you look at her earlier books she talks about Saccharine and Aspartame. Now she is down on those for health reasons, but there are lots of options out there. Stevia is a great one, Splenda is excellent and even Fructose in small quantities is ok.
This IS for real. Honest, honest, HONEST!!! My hubby just gave me a huge hug this morning for giving him his 'figure' back. He is now down 15 pounds and has maybe 15 to go, but the difference is dramatic!
HOWEVER, based on what you're saying, let me toss out a few cautions to you.
LC does work and Somersizing is one of the least painful plans around, BUT even with legal foods you can <i>still</i> manage not to lose weight if you totally pig out on high fats and eat too many carbs, even whole grain carbs.
At first just learning to eat "legally" is good, but once you get used to that you need to remind yourself that a calorie is still a calorie, and even whole grain carbs can add up if you go bonkers with them.
Careful with all that cheese, it can make you constipated! I'm a huge cheese fan and I did that at first too. I still eat cheese, all the time, but not the gobs I ate in the beginning. It took awhile for me to find a balance. I eat all the fatty things: bacon with cheesy eggs for breakfast (had that this morning), butter and cream sauces, ice cream, real mayo etc, but I don't overdo them. I don't need EXTRA cheese on everything, POUNDS of mayo in my salads and GALLONS of cream in my sauces.
I'd also be careful with a "great big bowl of Grapenuts" every morning. Grapenuts are legal, but of all the cereals you can have they are one of the highest in carbs, so if you find you aren't losing, or are going reeeeeeeeaaaally slowly, you might want to either keep the Grapenuts to the 1/2 cup serving size or have them just a couple of times a week. (warm with Splenda... yum!)
I had a big ole Grapenuts fest when I discovered they were legal, and ate two big bowls every morning. I'd guess that was probably four servings for a whopping 164 grams of carbs for breakfast!!! Needless to say, I stalled. Whereas Grapenuts have 42 effective grams of carbs per serving, HiLo cereal has 6... so even when the food is legal, your choices can still make a big difference in how fast you lose. I've got five different SS legal cereals in my cupboard right now, so I rotate them to be sure I don't go too heavy on the higher carb ones.
You might try starting a journal so you can track what you eat. If you do that here then when you want advice people can see what you're doing and make suggestions better. It's a great way to meet other LCers too, as people will visit your journal to say hi.
Don't let me be a wet blanket here... no matter how much 'legal' stuff you eat, it's way better for you than refined carbs and sugar!
Can't wait to hear how you're doing.
MB