Category Archives: Food & Dieting

Jul 30 2011

Scaling Down

Last weekend a friend asked what was going on with my weight loss program. He hadn’t seen any mentions of it on Facebook lately.  So, I thought I’d spend today’s post updating everyone on how I’m doing.  From June 12th (the week of vacation) through July 4th, I don’t want to say I fell off the wagon but let’s just say I wasn’t religiously watching what I was eating.  And I certainly wasn’t counting calories.  Hey!  It was vacation time and there was a holiday in there too!

I didn’t meet my original goal which was to lose 25 pounds by July 4th, but oh well, I didn’t get too discouraged.  I am happy to say that I have since lost 26 pounds total and this being the end of July, I didn’t miss my original deadline by much.

I started by “weight loss goal” for the year on February 13th when I got a new gym membership.  I weighed 248 pounds then.  I’m proud to say I’m now down to 222 and have lost about 2 to 3 inches from my waist. I can definitely tell a difference in the way my pants fit, that’s for sure.

At first, I was also keeping a calorie journal and religiously recording everything I eat everyday – every calorie consumed – and also every calorie I burned with each trip to the gym. I abandoned this somewhere around April, but picked it up again this month because it actually helped. 

In the beginning, my goal was to avoid exceeding 2,000 calories a day and to burn at least a fourth of that with each trip to the gym. Crunching the numbers was fun to do and it quickly weaned me off unhealthy snacking.  In fact, it probably changed my eating habits entirely.  I now rarely exceed 1500 calories a day and burn about a third of that at the gym three days a week.  That doesn’t mean I haven’t been snacking.  I’ve sure had my fill of ice cream this summer, but I’m not beating myself up over it. 

What’s important for me is that I’m eating better, I’m getting exercise, I feel better, and I’m seeing results.  It’s been a slow process, but I don’t feel like I’m chained to a diet plan that isn’t comfortable.

So, for those interested I picked one of my gym days from my calorie journal to share with you here.  On average Monday through Friday at work, my breakfast consists of the same amount of calories every day.  My lunch may vary, but my gym time (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) is consistent.

Breakfast:
2 cups of Coffee with Splenda 45 calories
1 medium apple 45 calories
Apple Cinnammon Oatmeal 130 calories
Yoplait Yogurt 100 calories
320 calories total

Snack:
1 cup of plain Cheerios (no milk) 100 calories
1 serving of seedless grapes 80 calories
Calorie Free Sobe Flavored Water
180 calories total

Lunch:
Tuna Sandwich on Wheat 200 calories
1 Serving of Jolly Green Giant Broc/Cheese 80 calories
Yoplait Yogurt 100 calories
Coke Zero 0 calories
380 calories total

880 calories total

Gym Workout – 45 minutes on the elyptcle – 500 calories burned

Dinner:
Kahiki Chicken 300 calories
Side Salad with Ranch 150 calories
Sobe Water – calorie free
450 calories total

End of Day Calorie Count – 830

Most of my days fall right around this range on gym days – I end the day at just about 1,000 calories consumed after I subtract what I burned at the gym.  Most professionals would say I should probably be eating more, and of course with that, I should burn more by mixing up my routine at the gym.  Or maybe I shouldn’t count calories at all now that my hunger is pretty much under control and I’m not really snacking or straying out of the plan. 

Nope!  My plan is working for me right now.  I do take a multi-vitamin every day and keep myself hydrated.  But I don’t feel like I’m starving myself.  And remember, I only work out three days a week right now.  So, I’m content and its working for me.  I still weigh in every Sunday, but I don’t beat myself up if the scale isn’t going down.

By the end of the year, I’d love to shed those 23 pounds to put me under 200, and I’m going to do it. It’s taken 6 months to get me here, so if it takes another 6 to burn 23 more – I’m up for the challenge!

May 3 2011

Welcome to May!

I haven’t posted about my big fat weight loss plan lately!  I fell off the wagon just a bit ever since my birthday and Easter, but have slowly been getting back on.

To date (since February 13th), I’ve lost a total of 14 pounds.  I’ve still been hitting the gym two to three times a week, and though I relaxed a bit on the diet back around my birthday and stopped counting calories, I am still watching what I eat.

This past Friday I started a new supplement called Amino Energy. Its supposed to help give you energy.  I took it before hitting the gym this past Friday and could definitely tell a difference. I did have more energy, but it didn’t feel like a caffeine buzz or jittery high from too much coffee. And I actually felt great all day after my workout and my energy level didn’t come to a sudden crash.

Wish me luck this month!  I’d love to lose at least 4 more lbs. by June 1st!

Apr 19 2011

Peach Almond Upside Down Cake

Its an unwritten policy in my department that when it is your birthday, you bring your own cake or whatever you’d like to have on your birthday.  This way, no one forgets your birthday, no one gets special treatment over someone else, and you can have whatever you want.  After a no so diety weekend at Mom’s this past few days, I decided to jump back on the healthy wagon by making a sugar free cake.  I was gonna do a pie to keep up with my year long pie challenge, but since it’s my birthday, let them eat cake!

I found the Peach Almond Upside Down (Sugarless) Case recipe at the Life Clinic site amongst good recipes for diabetics. Here are the ingredients for the cake:

Ingredients:

  • 1 can (8-1/4 ounces) light peaches in fruit juice
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 5-1/2 teaspoons Equal® for Recipes
    or 18 packets Equal® sweetener
    or 3/4 cup Equal® Spoonful™
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

You preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Then, in an 8 inch round buttered cake pan, you arrange your sliced peaches.

Next, in a medium bowl you mix the applesauce, Equal, egg, and vanilla until smooth.  I used a wooden spoon – and didn’t even use the electric mixer at all – so this is an easy clean up recipe.  Next, you mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  I saved time by combining these dried ingredients in a bowl in the beginning.  You alternate the dry ingredients with the buttermilk until all has been added.

Then, you pour the batter over the peach slices evenly and bake for about 20 minutes until an inserted toothpick in the center comes up clean.  I cook in a gas stove and it took closer to 30 minutes for mine to get done.

Invert the cake onto a serving plate right out of the oven.  I used disposable round pans and had no trouble getting the cake out.  You spread a recommended fruit spread over it and then top with almonds and serve warm.

Here’s the ingredients for the fruit spread:

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons light apricot preserves with NutraSweet® brand sweetener
    or apricot spreadable fruit
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1-3/4 teaspoons Equal® for Recipes
    or 6 packets Equal® sweetener
    or 1/4 cup Equal® Spoonful™
  • 1/4 teaspoon maple extract

The batter before you add dry ingredients.

Directions:

  • Mix preserves, lemon juice, and cornstarch in small saucepan; heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in Equal® and maple extract.

Now for my thoughts:

Despite so many ingredients involved since the cake is made from scratch without a store bought cake mix, I thought the recipe was very easy.  It’s only about 2 inches tall so you might want to make two for double layers.

The fruit spread topping was okay.  It’s a bit thick but that could have just been from the type of apricot preserves I used.

The cake itself has the taste and consistency of a good warm peach cobbler, so the taste is there and it’s very nice and simple.  It made me crave some vanilla ice cream to go with it!

I was happy that I found all of the ingredients at my local Shop N Save including the lite peaches in water, the lite applesauce, and sugar free preserves -all pictures above.  I had also never worked with cake flower but I found it too!  It really brings some relief when you can find all your ingredients you need.  I also used Splenda instead of Equal and it tasted just fine.

Would I make this cake again? Absolutely!  And I think I’d even like to try it with pineapple.

Hope the girls at work approve!  Happy Birthday to me!!

Apr 6 2011

Corn-And-Crabmeat Soup

J recently picked up a few cookbooks at a book fair and one was for easy soups and salads.  We chose corn-and-crabmeat soup as our first test, and I can’t say we’ll probably ever make it again.  Here’s the ingredients if you are interested anyway -

1 quart of Chicken Stock

1 lb of lump crab meat

2 tbs of butter

1 medium chopped onion

1/4 cup of dry white wine

2 cups of corn (about 8 ears off the cob)

1 and half tbs of salt (I also added some pepper to taste.)

1/3 cup of chives

1/2 cup of milk

You start by sauteing the chopped onion in the butter for about 5 minutes. You take two cups of the chicken stock and lightly pulse it in a food processor with the corn until you have a thick stock.  I only put one cup of the corn in the processor and poured the other cup of kernels into the soup itself. You pour this blend in with the onion and add all of the other ingredients (except the milk) and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes. Let it simmer and then stir in the milk last. As you can see from the picture, we served it with oyster crackers.

I didn’t really think the wine added any flavor.  The crab had such an overbearing flavor anyway.  By the way, we used 4 cans of Geisha canned crab meat.  It was okay except its lots of small pieces and not very much lump, so the soup ended up being very soupy instead of having a lot of consistency to it.  Had I not kept one cup of kernels whole it would have been even more runny, and this leads me to the next dilemma.  A quart of stock, plus the wine, and the milk was just too much liquid since the crab meat was so small.  I probably would have cut the stock just a bit and left the wine out all together.

That being said, this is a very easy recipe to throw together.  I liked the basic flavors and think it’d would actually be a nice base to build off of for a different take on chicken soup of some kind.  I’d probably start with this, add chicken instead, maybe some carrots and celery, or some type of noodle, and use the basics for a nice chicken noodle recipe instead.

Would I make it again with the crab meat?  Probably not.  Not even if the meat was chunkier.

Apr 3 2011

Another Weight Loss Goal Met!

Just weighed in this morning and I’m down to 238!  That’s a 2 lb. loss last week which is what I was hoping for.  I’m back in my (2)30′s again. I have officially lost 10 lbs since I started my gym/dieting routine back on February 13th.  I have also religiously recorded every day’s calorie count in a notebook since the very beginning.

My only plan this week to attempt even a 1 lb loss was to cut down on my snacks I have throughout the day.  You might remember that I talked about healthy snacks a few weeks ago here on my blog and how I ate several throughout the day to keep up my metabolism.  Well, I am slowly weaning myself off the number of snacks I have per day and I think that might have attributed to this.

Here’s my calorie consumption per day along with the calories burned on the days I went to the gym:

Sunday 3/27/11:  Burned 600 calories at the gym. Total calorie count at the end of the day was 845.

Monday 3/28/11: 1565 calories consumed. No gym.

Tuesday 3/29/11: 1760 calories consumed. No gym.

Wednesday 3/30/11: Burned 600 calories at the gym. Total calorie count at the end of the day was 974.

Thursday 3/31/11: Burned 530 calories at the gym. Total calorie count at the end of the day was 1085.

Friday 4/1/11: 1665 calories consumed. No gym.

Saturday 4/2/11: Burned 565 calories at the gym. Total calorie count at the end of the day was 820.

Notice I didn’t go over 2,000 calories at all on any given day. I read somewhere to maintain my current weight I needed to consume at least 2,000 calories per day.  So I had been using that as a target for me not to go over.  On most days I didn’t even hit 1,000 after subtracting my gym routine.  The important thing I want you to know is that I didn’t go hungry.  I’m not starving myself and I am making sure I’m eating healthy foods and getting all of my food groups in.  On gym days, I’d eat a very large balance lunch and then have Cheerios or Special K cereal for dinner with Almond milk.

I also like the gym routine of going 4 days a week: Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday.  I think I’m going to stick with this routine because it’s two sets of days – back to back.  I always hated going on Monday and Tuesday because the gym was always very crowded.  It seems to taper off a bit by Wednesday, giving me free reign of the equipment I like to use.  The gym is never crowded when I go on Saturday and Sunday.

So there you have it!  Check back next week to see how this week goes…

 

Mar 30 2011

Yoplait Smoothie Mix – Product Review

I bought the Yoplait Smoothie mix a while back only because I had a coupon for it. This stuff is expensive! I’m not much of a smoothie, protein shake, blended beverage kind of person unless its a hot summer day and margaritas are on the menu. So, this pack sat in the freezer for at least a month because I forgot about it. But this past weekend I was craving something sweet and decided to give it a try.

While it has a great flavor, I don’t recommend mixing it in a blender as the directions suggest on the back. The frozen fruit ends up sticking to the outer edge and did not blend well. You were probably supposed to wait till the fruit had thawed out but who has time for that? A food processor would probably work much better. Also, the recipe on the pack calls for one cup of skim milk to be added. This definitely was not enough and I had to add about 1/2 cup more. By the way, I didn’t even use skim milk. I used vanilla flavored almond milk and it tasted great.

In the end, I gave up on trying to get all the fruit blended well and poured the thick mash into a glass. The part that was actually smoothie tasted great although it was a bit thick and gave me a freeze headache. The parts that didn’t blend were just nice frozen fruit treats in the mix and tasted fine. It definitely could have used even more milk to make it more smooth, but I was tired of fooling with it by then.

One pack only makes two servings, so it’s definitely not worth the money. Sugar content is also 10 grams. That’s a bit much. In the end, I could probably use my own fresh fruitstand fruit like blue berries, strawberries, and bananas and end up with a treat that is just as nice, lower in sugar, and lower in cost.

Would I buy this product again? Nope…not even with a coupon.

Sorry, Yoplait!

Mar 22 2011

My Personal Meal Plans ~ With Snacks

For the past 5 days, I’ve discussed several different snack options for dieters that I myself enjoy each day.  My current daily meal plan consists of attempting to eat something almost every hour Monday through Friday, especially on days that I go to the gym.  I try to eat healthy snacks, like the ones I’ve discussed.  And I count calories.  Some out there may argue that I’m eating too much but this plan currently works for me.  Would I be willing to try something else?  Absolutely!  But this is the plan that helped me lose 7 pounds the first month.

So, now I’d like to share with you a few days from my Calorie Journal that give good examples of how I added these snacks into my daily meal plan.  Yes, I keep a calorie journal.  I write down everything I eat every single day!  Haven’t missed one day since I started.  I also write down the calories of every food, and then I record how many calories I burned at the gym each time.  It’s really helped me to stick to my plan and to watch how much food I’m consuming.

Here are two days worth of snacks and calorie counts as examples:
Breakfast
2 Cups of Coffee with Splenda 10 calories
and Nondairy Creamer 20 calories
1 Yogurt 110 calories
1 Oatmeal 140 calories
1 Banana 110 calories
____________________
390 calories

Snack 1.5 hours later
1 Cheese Stick 80 calories
1 Beef Bites Snack 100 calories

Snack 1 hour later
1 Servings of Raw Carrots 12 calories
______________________________
192 calories

Lunch
Healthy Choice Meal 230 calories
with no calorie Snapple to drink
1 Apple 50 calories
_________________________
280 calories

Snack 2 hours later
Welch’s Fruit Snack 80 calories

Gym -500 calories

Dinner 400 calories
Orange Juice 100 calories
_____________________
500 calories

Daily Total 942 calories

…and here’s another day…

Breakfast
2 Cups of Coffee 20 calories
with Creamer 30 calories
Yogurt 90 calories
Breakfast bar 120 calories
Apple 50 calories
________________________
310 calories

Snack 1 hour later
Grapes 50 calories
1 Omega Nutrition Mix 280

Snack 1 hour later
Almonds 100 calories
________________________
430 calories

Lunch
Salad w/ dressing 400 calories
Clementine 40 calories
________________________
440 calories

Gym -700 calories

Dinner
6″ Subway Chicken 360 calories
Baked Lays 140 calories
_____________________________
500 calories

Daily Total 980 calories

Notice both of these days were below 1,000 calories. I chose them specifically for that reason. On average, I do consume 1 to 2K in calories per day but I wanted to show you mainly how I work the snacks in to keep from getting hungry and it helps keep the metabolism up too. Notice I still ate a healthy lunch and dinner too and tried too.

And with all of the different snacks I’ve discussed the past few days, I have quite a variety to choose from each day to keep things from getting boring. In the past, dieting always meant starving myself or drinking weight loss drinks for meals. I’m much happier with this plan and so far I’m happy with the results.

So, tell me what you think?  What snacks do you enjoy each day and are they helping you meet your goals?

Mar 20 2011

Snack Food for Dieters ~ Part 5

I’m ending this segment by talking about breakfast bars.  This is another snack that I generally buy based on coupons.  Over the past few years I’ve tried several brands and the only one that has really remained a constant is the Fiber Plus bar by Kellogg’s.  As a coworker once said, they taste like candy!

I recently tried the Market Pantry (Target Brand) Fiber Bar and it just didn’t compare in flavor or texture.  I tend to like a softer gooier bar. I do not like dry crunchy bars!

I checking nutrition facts, most bars (any brand) average about 8g of sugar, 50mg of sodium, and zero cholesterol and fat.  Most bars I’ve bought average about 120 to 140 calories per bar.

This week I tried Kashi Bars for the first time.  I bought a box of the Cranberry Walnut Fruit & Grain and also the Pumpkin and Pecan.  While I like the jelly-like substance on top which adds a nice flavor, the bars themselves are still a bit too crunchy for me. I do not know if I’d try them again although I am anxious to try the Kashi Go Lean cereal.

I usually include a breakfast bar as a snack only once or twice a week.  What about you?  Is there a particular breakfast bar that you just can’t live without?  If so, what brand and why?

Check my blog tomorrow where I’ll recap some of these snacks I’ve been blogging about for the past 5 days and show you some of my daily meal plans.

Mar 19 2011

Snack Foods for Dieters ~ Part 4

I’ve blogged about Yogurt before when I first tried the Prairie Farms Yogurt thanks to B2G1F coupons a while back.  I stopped buying for a while and went back to Yoplait because there always seems to be a coupon for that every week.  I think the shape of the Prairie Farms container is more user friendly than Yoplait, and it’s actually more dieter friendly too if, like me, you count calories in your diet.

Prairie Farms only has 90 calories per serving, and Yoplait ranges from 100 up to 140 per container. Prairie Farms also has no cholesterol, whereas most Yoplait flavors have 1%. Yoplait is also slightly higher in carbs and sugar by 1 to 2%. Prairie Farms is only slightly higher in sodium.

So, you’d think I’d buy more Prairie Farms than Yoplait, right?  Why don’t I?  The price.  It really only comes down to cents but since I am a huge coupon clipper, I tend to lean where the coupon is.  Yoplait does have more flavors to choose from too. I like the variety, but tend to lean more toward vanilla or cherry flavors in the end.

This past week I only bought Yoplait flavors that were 110 calories or less though.  I eat at least one yogurt every weekday when I first get to work, and often will have one as a snack on the weekend. Despite the sugar, carbs, and sodium (which are all generally low) everywhere you check will tell you that yogurt is very good for you.

Is yogurt part of your diet or do you eat it on a regular basis?  If so, what brand do you prefer and why?

 

Mar 18 2011

Snack Foods for Dieters Part 3

For the past two days I’ve been discussing some of the daytime snacks I consume at work between meals. I’m going to talk about nuts and oatmeal today. What a combo right? Well I don’t eat them together!

After landing some coupons for a new product called Planter’s NUT-rition Snacks, I decided to give them a try. There are several varieties available which support different nutritional aspects. This week I sampled the Omega-3 Mix which only has 180 calories per pack. It contains walnuts, cranberries, and dark chocolate soy nuts (yep! chocolate).

Nuts are a good source of potassium and have no cholesterol. This particular Omega pack has 70 mg of potassium, no sodium, but does have 14g of sugar for those of you watching your sugar. There is also a South Beach Diet pack and Heart Pack variety. They are available in cans or in individual packaged servings.  I prefer the packages because that’s one less thing I’ll have to split into portions.

They are quite yummy for a quick snack or pick-me-up. I don’t eat a pack everyday but do enjoy one once or twice a week just to have some variety. Unfortunately, they are a bit expensive at regular price so search for a coupon if you want to try them!

Most of the time I consume plain almonds if I take nuts for a snack. I like the Blue Diamond Whole Natural variety. Unfortunately, if you are a calorie counter like me you can only have about 28 nuts. This equals 160 calories, so I actually pack a few less (in my Ziploc snack bags) just to keep the calories closer to 100.

210 mg Protein per serving here and 0 cholesterol and 0 sodium. And don’t forget 6g protein. Nuts do have a high fat content according to the Nutrition Facts on the packaging but from what I’ve read the fat in nuts isn’t all that bad for you. And most diet plans do include plain nuts of some kind.

One of my favorite breakfast foods 3 times a week is Quaker Oatmeal. I particularly like the Cranberry Walnut variety and usually prepare it with water in the microwave. One pack contains 140 calories. I have prepped it with milk before which adds a few calories. I like eating oatmeal on the days that I don’t go to the gym because oatmeal is very filling. On the days that I have oatmeal, I usually end up skipping one of my other snacks that I would normally have before lunch. That means I save calories!

I don’t have to begin to tell you all the healthy benefits of oatmeal. Search the web for yourself and you’ll find lots of good information.

So that’s it for today. Tomorrow I’m going to discuss yogurt which is probably the one snack that I do have every single day. Then, I’m going to talk about breakfast bars. I’ll finish up this segment by showing a few samples of my daily snack plan and the total calorie count.

Do you eat nuts or oatmeal on a daily basis?  If so, what kinds do you like?