Getting Back on the Bandwagon (and off the scales!)

This past week hasn't been as productive as I had hoped it would be. I think part of the reason is that when I stepped on the scales a day into the regime and realized my body was cooperating (finally!) and leaving the plateau where I'd been so comfortable for entirely too long, I psyched myself out and decided I could take it slow and still eat what I wanted to eat. Not a good battle plan.

I've also been doing some emotional eating. For some reason I've been craving potato chips. Yesterday, I finally broke down and bought some at Trader Joe's, the "healthy kind" but at 150 calories for 7 chips, I should have bought the bag of chips I saw on Friday that was lower in calories. Once I open a bag of something, anything, I have no self-control anyhow, so if I'm going to binge, I might as well binge on something that is lower in calories! The bag of chips I got had 2400 calories in it total. I've eaten about 2/3rds of that bag already. Not a good idea.

I haven't dared to buy chocolate, because I know I shall inhale and it will be gone. Instead I picked up a tray of mini-blueberry muffins. The problem with those (as with the chips) is that 8 of the 12 muffins are now gone, and with each at 90 calories, let's just say I probably won't be looking at a weight loss this week. I know, I know, I need to get ahold of myself and do something about all this eating. Sometimes I wonder if maybe the only cure is to only buy celery sticks and apples, but realistically that is probably not the best way to go about it!

I had to laugh when I looked at my list of 7 goals for last week. I definitely did not meet all of those goals. I think this week I need to be more realistic. Maybe I should just pick one goal and stick with it.

• This week I will not eat unless it is a meal-time, I will only eat 3 meals a day, and I will consciously choose the foods I place on my plate.

Recipe: Eggplant Chips (re-posted)

A week ago I went online looking for an eggplant recipe. When I came across the recipe for "Eggplant Chips" I decided to give it a go. Now I am eagerly looking forward to going shopping again so I can buy two eggplants this time! I made some changes to the recipe, but it worked out really great. If you like salty snacks, you'll enjoy this one!

   1 eggplant
   Olive oil spray
   2 Tb Braggs Liquid Aminos
   1/2 Tsp Garlic salt

Spray the baking sheet with the olive oil spray, pour the liquid aminos on the tray, then sprinkle garlic salt. Make sure the baking sheet is covered, then take your 1/4 inch eggplant slices, coat each side with the amino-salt mixture, and place on the tray. I needed two trays, so I coated the first batch and placed them on the other tray, then coated the second batch, sopping up all the remaining amino-salt mixture. Bake for 8-10 minutes on each side at 400 F. Check after 7 minutes to see if they are burning yet, remove as soon as they are golden brown. My favourite way to eat these is in a tortilla wrap with alfalfa sprouts, arugula, and a salad vegetable.

Calories ~ 130 for the entire eggplant

Choices, Choices, Choices

I absolutely love Fresh Choice! My sis and I went there for lunch today, since I had a 35% off coupon, and we ended up paying only $5.26 each. Totally awesome! I think I ate about twice as much salad as I should have, but I loaded up on the salad bar and only had two pieces of pizza, a bowl of icecream, and half a slice of the zucchini loaf that I love. Now I'm trying not to think about the extra pieces of zucchini loaf I didn't eat that are wrapped in a napkin at the bottom of my bag!

What I love about Fresh Choice is that they have the nutritional information for every single item. Even the salad bar items! Like 1/2 a cup of spinach is 2 calories. It's perfect for me because as I went down the line, I was mentally adding up in my head the calories I was putting on my plate, and ended up with a salad that couldn't have been more than 300 calories. They also have a pretty decent fat-free Italian dressing for only 15 calories per serving (got to look for one of those in the grocery store next time!) but I had to get a little ranch for my boiled eggs. You just can't eat boiled eggs with fat-free dressing!

I think I want to figure out how to make my salad my main dish at lunch time. Today, my salad included edamame, fresh spinach, blue cheese, chipotle hummus (too spicy for me!), mushrooms, cucumber pickles, kidney beans, bell pepper, chickpeas, pita bread, sweet corn, and boiled egg. Yummy!!! Okay, I'm getting hungry, so I'll stop here!

Recipe: InstanTaste

For breakfast today, I had a delicious bowl of oatmeal. I used to hate eating oatmeal, but now that I've discovered Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal packets at Costco, I have discovered that a little sugar can go a long way to making it taste much better!!! I think tomorrow I will cut my oatmeal in half, or use 1-minute oats (150 calories for 1/2 cup is better than 260 calories for 2 packets) to reduce my total calories down to about 400.

   2 packets Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal (I love the Apples & Cinnamon one!)
   1 cup vanilla soymilk or ricemilk
   Handful fresh blueberries
   12 hazelnuts
   1 apple, chunks
   Wheatgerm

Bring milk to the boil, add packets of oatmeal, stir and take off the heat. Pour the oatmeal into a pasta bowl so it will cool down quicker. Sprinkle the blueberries, hazelnuts, wheatgerm and apples on top. Enjoy!

Calories ~ 575

Filling Up On Premium

Okey dokes, went shopping today and spent way more than I needed to. I seriously don't know how to shop for just one person! But I came home with all kinds of goodies, including

• Fresh shelled edamame
• Fat-free feta cheese and blue cheese crumbles
• Organic arugula (of course!)
• Fresh stuffed grape leaves (Costco, 20 for $9.99)
• A mango
• Mediterranean hummus
• Avocadoes
• Fresh blueberries
• Whole wheat flour and corn tortillas
• Aloe vera juice
• Quick oats
• Extra firm tofu

I tried a recipe for eggplant chips, not quite sure it was supposed to get that dark in the oven, but we'll try them tomorrow and see how they taste! I also fried up a lovely veggie curry, using an oil spray and Braggs instead of olive oil. With salads that I make every day at lunch, I have lunch for a couple of days at least.

The plan is to wake up early enough that I can eat oatmeal for breakfast, with tons of fruit, vegetables and a grain for lunch, and a soup for supper. We shall see how it goes this week! I have a huge basket overflowing with tons of fruit (bananas, mango, kiwi, oranges, apples, honeydew melon, grapefruit and clementines) and I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I get to start my healthy meal plan!!!

Recipe: Let Us Rap

Okay, so I've tried this only once before, but making lettuce wraps really is fun! I knew I had to eat some salad veggies for lunch today, and lacked creativity to throw a salad together, so I decided to wash the lettuce and chop the bell peppers and see where it led me. This recipe is really messy so keep plenty of paper towels nearby!

   4 lettuce leaves, washed
   Bell pepper, green and yellow or red, cut in chunky strips
   Cucumber, slices
   Pickle relish (I like Bubbies' relish)
   Tofutti Sour Supreme
   Salt to taste

Place a lettuce leaf on your plate, smear some sour cream on top of about half the leaf, put about 1/2 a tsp of relish on top of that, add two cucumber slices (more or less, depending on the size of your lettuce leaf), lay a strip of bell pepper on top, and salt to taste. You can either roll the leaf up like a burrito or you can fold it in half and roll it like a spring roll. Toppings can vary, I like the combination of crunchy, sweet, salty and sour.

Calories ~ minimal, maybe 15 per wrap. (the only real calories are in the tofutti)

Losin' the Wait

Okay, so this coming week the plan is to try a more natural food plan. Whole foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains. I'm not going to go raw all the way, but I am going to try eating as many unprocessed foods as I can. Been getting too lazy about the whole "counting calories" aspect of things, even though I've been pretty faithful about my exercise, and I think I've been more in a maintain mode than a weight-loss mode. Hopefully this will help me kick-start the loss, because I need to get serious about it!

I went online and Googled some lists of raw foods, then created my own in Excel. I have a list of fresh & frozen fruit, fresh & frozen & tinned vegetables, beans, nuts & seeds, grains, and then miscellaneous items like yogurt, peanut butter (healthy, not the Jiffy kind), honey, hummus, olive oil, soymilk, seaweed, dried fruit, aloe vera juice, and date sugar. That's all I can think of right now!

Tomorrow I'm going in to town and plan to take my list and stock up on foods on my list. My fridge is pretty empty right now, so it's the perfect time to do this. I'm already thinking about making a salad with veggies, artichoke hearts or palm hearts, sunflower or roasted pumpkin seeds, extra virgin olive oil, and lemon juice. Ummmmm!

My goals for this week are to:

   1. Enjoy a good balance of food groups
   2. Eat enough so I am not starving in between meals (snack on nuts? drink more water?)
   3. Lose 2 pounds
   4. Keep exercising every evening (or morning if I can manage it)
   5. Have fun and be creative with my meals, enjoying what I'm eating
   6. Encourage positive thoughts so I can stick it out for a week
   7. Feel like I have more energy than usual

So here's to an exciting new week!

Recipe: Breadless Sandwiches

This is a really fun plate to make and to eat. No bread, lots of veggies, and easy to prepare. I like to fry up the cutlets on Sunday and use them in pita bread sandwiches (best with thin cucumber slices). Be sure to use the kind of tofu that holds its shape well. Mori-Nu doesn't work for this, but you can use tofu from a health food store, Winco, Trader Joe's or some similar type of tofu.

   1 extra-firm block of tofu, sliced
   Olive oil to fry
   Nutritional yeast
   Seasoning salt

Fry slices of tofu in olive oil. Shake nutritional yeast and seasoning salt on one side of each slice, turn over and fry, add yeast and salt to the other side, and keep turning until both sides are golden brown.

   English cucumber, slices
   Green and yellow bell pepper, thick chunks
   Vegenaise, optional
   Salt to taste

Lay slices of seasoned, fried tofu on a breakfast plate. Dab a bit of vegenaise on each slice and top with cucumber slices. Arrange chunks of bell pepper around the breadless sandwiches and salt to taste.

Calories ~ 150 - 200 (for 1/4 of the block of tofu, depending on how much olive oil you use to fry with)

It's All About The Title

Bother. I'm flying to Europe in three months and I have to lose at least 15 pounds. About 30 would be nice :) Why? Because I'm going to see my Oma (grandmother in Dutch) and I told her a couple of months ago that my goal was to lose 30 pounds in 30 weeks for my 30th birthday. Of course, life happened, and while I have managed to lose 4 pounds since I started, it's still not going as fast as I would like!

I've changed my goals now, though. My constant goal is to figure out how to do the whole weight-loss thing while still living life. I've realized, as I said before, that life is not going to sit on its hands for six months while I work on losing weight. Life is going to keep on happening and things are going to keep on hitting me out of nowhere and I'm still going to feel stressed out. It's all about learning how to manage that stress and everything life offers while still eating healthy and working out.

I'm proud of myself, though :) I was sitting at work today and suddenly realized it was 6 pm and I had enough to keep me busy for another three hours, but instead I told myself rather firmly, "Maria, it's time to go home and exercise now." So, obediently, I packed up and went off to do my two miles. It really is becoming a habit and I'm pleased with that.

If it takes me a year, or if it takes two years, it doesn't matter, my goal is to lose the weight for good. I'm going to keep working on it, while still enjoying the food I eat. Sure wish there was a magic wand I could wave, though, and drop the pounds just like that! But it's okay. It's All About The Journey and one day I will reach my goal.

:)

Recipe: Vegan Shnickerdoodles

Adapted from a recipe found at http://www.joyofbaking.com/Snickerdoodles.html, this is a vegan version that uses simple ingredients and is fun to make and fun to eat!

   2 3/4 cups unbleached white flour
   2 teaspoons baking powder (I use aluminum-free Rumford)
   Salt to taste

Whisk above ingredients together. Set aside.

   1 cup Earth Balance Original Whipped Organic Buttery Spread (or vegan margarine at room temperature)
   1 1/2 cups cane sugar
   2 heaping Tbsp of cornstarch and soy flour mixed with some water into a medium paste
   1 Tsp - 1 Tbsp vanilla soymilk, if necessary

With a hand mixer or in an electric mixer, beat the margarine and cane sugar till smooth. Add the cornstarch/soy flour paste and blend until smooth. Add soymilk if necessary to bind the cookie dough into a smooth ball that can be rolled easily. Knead with your hands to get the right cookie dough texture.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line baking tray with parchment paper (do NOT use wax paper; it will start a fire) or spray with baking spray (works just as well).

   1/4 cup cane sugar
   1 1/2 Tsp cinnamon
   Coloured sprinkles (optional)

Mix ingredients together in a pasta bowl. Roll pinches of the dough into 1-inch balls then roll in the mixture and coat well. Place cookie balls on the baking trap 2 inches apart. Flatten cookie balls with a glass to approximately 1/2 inch thick. Bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of your oven, until golden brown. Cookies will still be soft. Use a spatula to flip the cookies upside down onto a plate and let cool.

Calories ~ 66 per cookie. Makes between 55 and 72 cookies.

Ask Yahoo First

Okay, I learned today that you CANNOT put wax paper in the oven at 400 degrees. After the fact. I really should have read the yahoo answers first.

I noticed the smoke coming up through the vents of my stove-top. Somehow it didn't register, though, because I opened up the oven, everything looked fine but there was some steam coming out and I thought maybe the cookies were steaming. Snickerdoodles, though? I mean, seriously! Maybe it was lack of sleep.

So I closed up the oven door and waited the two minutes more until my oven timer went off. Then, and only then, did I take the tray, carefully lined with wax paper and 16 snickerdoodle cookies golden-browned in neat rows, out of the oven. It was about five minutes later that I looked up and realized I was seeing my room through a haze. It's twenty-five minutes later and I've opened up a window, hoping to get the smoke out that way, but I'm realizing it probably won't work that well.

My guardian angel must have been working overtime to keep a fire from happening in my kitchen! I don't have a fire extinguisher (note to self, put it on the shopping list) and my place is such a mess right now, I don't think I would have been able to think clearly about what I wanted to save. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about that.

The exercise is getting easier. I do 2 miles every day, still aiming for five times a week but content with a minimum of three. I think I"m addicted to exercise now :) I'm using muscles I didn't even know belonged in my arms and legs. Most days when I walk a quick shuffle-step over to the admin building, I relish the brief stretch and I can't wait till the evening when I can come home and exercise. It's true what all the books and shows say—find something you love to do. I don't miss walking the Loop. But if I go too long without my aerobic exercise time, I start to miss it. Too long is about three days.

The exciting news is that I've lost 3 pounds in 4 weeks! Being the overachiever, I was kinda bummed that I didn't lose 8 pounds (2 pounds a week) but then I decided to be happy that I had lost, instead of put weight on. I've decided to take this journey very slowly. I want it to be a life-long journey where I'm eating healthy for my body, exercising for my body, and prioritizing the positive parts of life for me. Even a 1/2 pound weight loss a week will be okay. At that rate, it will take me over a year to lose the weight I plan on losing, but that's okay too. If I can do it and not have to live on a starvation-diet that is unrealistic to maintain long-term, it's worth it.

So I'm excited! Now I'm going to type up the recipe for the cookies that laughed at me while smoke filled my room: Vegan Snickerdoodles.

Recipe: Shredded Crunches Salad

One of my favourite things to eat at lunch is a tossed green salad. This recipe is a basic idea of what I like to put in my salads, but you can change it up with green olives, chopped tomatoes, baby spinach, clover or alfalfa sprouts, kidney beans, fat-free feta cheese, or anything else you enjoy in a salad!

   3 large romaine lettuce leaves, shredded

   Handful of organic arugula, rinsed in cold water

   1/4 English cucumber, chopped

   Salad dressing

   Salad Topping

   Salt to taste

Layer the vegetables and pour your favourite dressing over it. I use Briannas Homestyle Real French Vinaigrette Dressing, you can buy it at Winco and it lasts forever. Plus it's only 130 calories for 2 Tbsp and very flavourful, so I don't need to use very much. You can also make a simple dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, and Tofutti sour cream or vegenaise, and drizzle it over your salad. For the final touch and a bit of crunch, add a generous sprinkle of your favourite salad topping and serve!

Calories ~ 150-200 (varies depending on the salad dressing you use)

Recipe: Fool's Quiche

This is my sister's recipe that I made some small variations to. I called it "Fool's Quiche" because it's basically foolproof. Completely dairy-free and tasty so enjoy baking with a guilt-free conscience!

   2 ready-made pie crusts (wholewheat Maple Lane Bakery from the health food store)
   5 cups corn (frozen, canned, or fresh)
   4 Tbsp cornstarch
   1 cup soymilk
   1 large onion, chopped
   2 small tins mushrooms
   3 garlic cloves, sliced
   1/2 tub firm tofu from Trader Joe's (or 1 tub extra firm tofu)
   Salt and garlic salt to taste.

Fry mushrooms, garlic and onions in olive oil.

Mix half of the cornstarch with half of the soymilk. Blend half of the corn with the cornstarch mixture till smooth. Pour mixture into a clean bowl. Repeat. Add firm tofu to the second batch and blend again. Pour both corn mixtures into the frying pan and cook everything together until firm. Pour into pie crusts, evenly divided. If you prefer, arrange pre-cooked asparagus spears on top of the pies in a decorative design. Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. Quiches are done when the crusts are golden and the filling has set. Serve with garlic fries and a large garden salad. Best served the same day; it will soften if reheated.

Calories ~230 per slice. 16 servings. Can be halved to make just one quiche.

Sneaky Calories

Did you know that there are 13 calories in 3 cloves of garlic? 100 calories in grapefruit? 461 calories in a 6" - 7" diameter honeydew melon? I wonder if there are calories in the air you breathe when you walk past a pastry shop with freshly baked donuts or a pizza parlour with triple-cheese-and-cheese-baked-into-the-crust-as-if-you-don't-already-have-enough-cholesterol-to-worry-about pizza smells reaching out to tantalize your senses.

I got onto a honeydew melon kick several weeks ago and I happily brought home a melon, set it out to ripen, and cut into it when it was just pefect. I ate half a melon one evening and half the next, feeling quite virtuous that I was getting in my daily servings of fruit and keeping my calories low to boot. I was thinking more in the range of 70 to 100 calories, however, not 230 calories!!! It was then that I realized that calories are in everything I eat. Anytime I open my mouth, I will be inhaling calories (unless I'm breathing, but I'm still not convinced there isn't a calorie count to the air I'm taking in!).

So what? you say. Isn't it better to throw calories out the window and just eat plenty of fruits and veggies and enjoy life? Sure, I agree wholeheartedly. But if you're like about 99.9% of the population, you don't eat just fruits and vegetables. You have to have something on top of, underneath, mixed in, or to the side of those fruits and vegetables. It isn't healthy, anyhow, for the body, if it doesn't have some grains and nuts and variety added in.

There are calories out there and they are determined to sneak in to everything you eat, whether it's healthy or not. Calories aren't the enemy though. It's what type of calories I choose to eat that determines whether my scales will be smiling with me at the end of the week or whether they will groan in pain as I step on them pounds heavier than last. A honeydew melon has 230 calories and a bag of multigrain Sun Chips has 140 calories, but the melon is still the wiser choice.

Two Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Exercise. The word all dieters dread. You can get addicted to the endorphins but generally, the thought of exercise is not a pleasant one. Some choose to take their pill early in the morning, rising before the Canadian geese lift off from the swamps, and lacing up tennis shoes to hit the trails or cement paths. Others hit the gym straight after work, running miles on a treadmill or lifting weights. I walk at home.

I'm actually quite pleased with my exercise routine, but it didn't come easy. I choose to do 2 miles of low-impact aerobics every day with a Leslie Sansone Walk-at-Home DVD. The first time I ever even heard of Leslie was when my sister bought me a DVD at the Salvation Army store. She knew I was trying to find a good exercise DVD for those days when it was cold and raining and dark outside, or those days when I just didn't feel like seeing a zillion exercise enthusiasts on the Loop and saying hi every single time we passed. The DVDs I'd borrowed at the public library weren't much good. They were all about 20 years out of date, with everyone wearing those leopard-print leg warmers, frizzy-hair-in-a-headband and jumping up and down behind someone who would say "now plie" and everyone would suddenly put one leg behind their head and stand on their other toe!

One day, I decided to pop in the DVD and try it out. Now I own three additional DVDs and absolutely love the workout! There's different levels of intensity, you can do a mile in 15 minutes or in 12, and it's all low-impact. You walk in place, you do some kicks and knee-lifts, you step to the side, and you add some slight variations to it all. Easy to follow along, quick to learn the steps, and no fancy equipment required. All you need is a DVD player/laptop, some space to move about, and comfortable exercise clothes, and walk away!!!

When I first started walking at home, I was rather dubious about it all, plus I struggled with doing it on a regular basis. But I've made exercise a priority in my life and every day when I come home from work, I pop in the DVD and walk away. There are days I absolutely don't feel like walking at all. All I want to do is sit down and veg out in front of the TV, eating brownie bites and potato chips by the handful. But on those days, I know that if I exercise I'll feel even better than the days I want to exercise, so I push myself to do "just two miles." The time flies by, Leslie's encouraging words keep me smiling, and before I know it, those miles have gone by and I've accomplished my goal for that day.

Diggin' a Deeper Hole

Okay, so suppers are my Achille's heel. I am really not very big on breakfasts and it's easy to keep the calories to 400-500. Lunches are also pretty easy to gauge, particularly when I can eat a ton of veggies. But suppers? I come home, exercise, and then I'm hungry. I seriously need to figure out how to handle this, whether I eat the exact same thing every evening, or keep lunch and supper to 400 calories each so my supper can be slightly more, but then you're supposed to eat a bigger breakfast and a smaller supper. Bother!

If I'm hungry, I think I need to eat a small snack rather than wait too long. Tonight I was hungry at 5 pm already (lunch wasn't as filling as I thought it would be) and when I came home an hour later, I drank a glass of water to keep my stomach full while I did my exercise. Then I began to eat, and eat, because there was a huge hole in the bottom of my stomach and it wasn't filling up!!!

I need to come up with a plan.

Then again, I also need to affirm myself for the positive choices I am making. It's been three weeks now and so far I've managed to

1. Keep a 1 lb loss per week
2. Exercised between 3-5 times per week
3. Cut down on chocolate
4. Cut down on snacks
5. Eat more veggies and fruits

My future goals are to

• Find a plan for suppers that works
• Eat one fruit a day
• Prioritize regular shopping for fruits and veggies
• Have a salad every day
• Try to eat more soups

A Chip or a Bite?

I've figured out that a chocolate brownie bite has less calories per gram than sweetened chocolate chips. Unless you decide to only eat 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, portioned out one or two at a time, to get a sweet fix, which is 80 calories as opposed to a 110 calorie brownie bite. My only problem? I can't eat just one or two chocolate chips at a time! I eat about 10 at a time.

Read a great blog on Calorie Count today about a young woman who lost 40+ lbs. That's my inspiration for the day! She had some great tips: find an exercise you enjoy, find a low-calorie treat you enjoy, don't get upset about a bad day but just start again, and celebreate successes.

I don't like eating foods that I have to guess at their calorie count. Like the food I took home from the International Dinner. I have absolutely no clue how many calories I ate today, but what I did do was keep it at smaller portions since the majority of the dishes were fried or oily.

Excited that I've figured out how to make sure I get my extra half liter in before the end of the day: drink it in the middle of the afternoon! I am pretty religious about getting in my 4 17-oz glasses a day for my 2 litres total. 1: Breakfast. 2: Lunch. 3: Mid-afternoon. 4: Right before exercising.

It's 11:30 pm and all I can think about is eating a cheese stick. But I really don't need an extra 90 calories today.