I realize I promised you a blog about good fats vs. bad fats. Things have gotten busy around our house lately and some things have come up that have required some additional planning to enable us to stay on our plan and while I haven't had time to write the fat blog, I thought you might be interested in some of my recent planning.
First, my sister-in-law, my daughter-in-law and I are planning a baby shower for my daughter and we're working on a cupcake display the likes of which could probably win Cupcake Wars. Okay, I'm not biased much. Anyway, we came up with 4 cupcake flavors baked on my daughter's likes (carrot cake being her favorite) and the color scheme we've chosen for the shower. My goal was to reinvent two of the cupcake flavors into low cal, low carb versions. On Saturday we met at my daughter-in-law's mother's house to practice decorating them and sample the four flavors, which are: Carrot with cream cheese frosting, Key lime, pina colada and oreo. The two I chose to reinvent were the key lime and the pina colada.
I wasn't happy with the filling for the key lime cupcakes and will go for more of a pudding consistency (this was more like frosting, and not much different from the frosting on top). The pina colada were moist and delicious, containing crushed pineapple in the batter. For both, I used Pillsbury's sugar free yellow cake mix, which made them very easy to put together. I lightened them further by using egg beaters in place of the eggs in both batters.
I ordered some powdered sugar substitute on Amazon.com and I have some observations about it. It is lumpy, but if sifted, it has an appropriate texture. I cannot tell the difference in taste at ALL.
Frosting will have fat in it. There's no getting around that. But I lightened it up a bit by cutting the butter in half, substituting 8 oz of fat free cream cheese for the other stick of butter. For the pina colada cupcakes, I added some rum extract and coconut extract, and toasted coconut to go on top. For the key lime, I added the zest from one lime and the juice from half a lime. I LOVED the lime frosting and thought the pina colada was tasty and went well with the cupcakes. Both are COMPLETELY sugar free, so that's a win. I wanted my daughter-in-law and her mom to taste them because I admit my judgment is a little of, having been dieting for 10 weeks now, and I don't trust that I like the same things everyone else likes. They both liked them, so I think we're good. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I have posted pictures of the decorations we made for the cupcake tops in an album that is invisible to my daughter so she can't see all our secrets! (Love you, sweetie!)
I'm also planning a dinner party for Saturday night and while I would prefer to have the menu remain a surprise for our dinner guests, I thought you might enjoy seeing the thought process that went into selecting the various components.
We still want to stick as closely as possible to our regular eating plan, having a snack in the afternoon, limiting our dinner carbs to under 60, and eating dessert 2 hours after we've started dinner for our evening snack.
I have been wanting to try a new dip recipe I found online recently: Creamy Buffalo Chicken dip, which uses canned chicken and traditional buffalo wing flavorings. I was thinking that since Buffalo wings are served with celery, I could serve it with celery sticks to save carbs and calories. I will also bake off some low-carb tortillas for chips so we have options. I will serve this with "Mocktails" - our favorite before dinner treat: Half Welches diet peach/mango juice and half diet tonic water, chilled and served in a champagne flute. Total values for this appetizer marvel, including 2 T of the dip, 4 celery sticks and one mocktails: 83 calories, 2 WW points and 1 carb. Yes, ONE carb. NICE!
In planning the dinner, I started with the main dish and looked through my cookbooks for something I thought would be tasty and elegant, and settled on Spinach Steak Roulade, from Prevention's Best Weight Loss Recipes cookbook; a rolled flank steak, stuffed with a stuffing of garlic, baby spinach, toasted pine nuts and crumbled low-fat feta cheese. Can you say "Yum"? The bonus: I already have a flank steak in my freezer! The values for this dish are: 320 calories, 2 WW points, 1 carb per serving.
I like to have a full 4 course dinner including soup, salad, main dish and dessert, so I started looking at appropriate soup recipes that were both company-worthy, appetizer type, and low enough in carbs and calories to make it fit the plan. I settled on Roasted Garlic and Onion soup, a recipe I found online. Values per 1 cup serving: 164 calories, 4 WW points, 22 carbs. The recipe calls for red onions, but I'm using a combination of red onions, chipollini onions, shallots and leeks. Bonus: I can roast the vegetables ahead of time and have the soup in the pot, ready to reheat at the last minute.
My favorite all-time salad is the lettuce wedge with chopped tomatoes and blue cheese chunks. I emailed my friend, Carol this morning to make sure she and her husband both like blue cheese and assuming they do, I'm using this salad and topping it with a dressing I saw Sunny make on Food TV this week: Creamy Bacon Dressing. I'm using fat free sour cream in half the amount she used, substituting buttermilk for the other half. The values for the salad are: 77 calories, 2 WW points, 6 carbs.
As sides to go with the roulade, I went to Sam's this weekend looking for their yummy English peas and was going to cream them, using cream sauce made with Xanthan Gum I ordered on Amazon.com. Thanks to Toby Brown for suggesting the Xanthan Gum, but I'll have to wait to try it out on company, because Sam's didn't have the yummy English peas. I settled on what looked good: baby carrots and snap peas, which I will glaze with a honey-substitute glaze. Point values for a 1-cup serving of the veggies: 102 calories, 3 WW points and 0 carbs.
The starch will be Buttermilk mashed potatoes, to which I will add some roasted garlic, since I will be roasting it for the soup anyway. I will probably heat up a jar of fat free gravy to serve with the meat and potatoes, in case anyone wants any, and will likely add some fresh herbs and a little dry sherry to enhance the flavor.
That's it for the main meal, and the values are as follows (minus the gravy, which I won't eat): 764 calories (a little high, but it's a dinner party for crying out loud!), 18 WW points and 54 carbs. I'll try to remember to take pictures and add them to this blog after the party.
For dessert, which will happen 2 hours after we have started eating, and probably after a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit on Steroids, we're having Raspberry Lemon Bars (from the Splenda cookbook I bought in the Barnes and Noble discount bin last week), topped with tiny scoop of raspberry sorbet. Values: 134 calories, 3 WW points, 20 carbs.
I'm not sure if Carol reads my blog or not. If she does, she won't be surprised by what she sees on her plate on Saturday, but hopefully her mouth will be watering in anticipation.
Some planning does go into a party like this, beyond just shopping, cleaning and cooking. I tried various combinations of foods in order to limit the calories and carb counts and finally settled on the above after I realized Pioneer Woman's potato packets were just too high in calories. Sorry, Pioneer Woman. I love your potatoes but we can't have them with this meal. My trusty spreadsheet now has a Dinner Party tab, and for the next dinner party I suppose I will copy it and plug in new foods until I find a number of acceptable menus.
A little pre-planning will allow you to entertain, serving a nice, elegant meal without sacrificing your Plan for the sake of your company. That planning will have to include altering breakfast and lunch so your total calories and WW points don't exceed your target. I would be willing to bet that all of the selections I've chosen will be tasty enough that if I didn't tell them, or guests would never know they were eating diet food. I have to stop using that word. This really ISN'T a diet!!!
Happy Fat Tuesday; enjoy ...
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Handling Setbacks
What do you do when your "plan" gets derailed? Okay, maybe it hasn't jumped the track YET, but I think I'm close to the breaking point. We were on our way to church when World War III broke out. I'm not sure what even started it, except that my husband wasn't liking my "mood" and suddenly decided to turn the car around and go back home because today's communion and he didn't think I was in the right spiritual condition to take it. Okay, THAT got me mad. Who is he to decide whether I should or shouldn't take communion and since when is that a reason to turn the car around and not go to church? I was three (count 'em) THREE minutes late leaving. Of course we leave 10 minutes ahead of the amount of time it takes to get there, so we would not have been late. From this he concluded that I have no desire or intention of ever going to Sunday School. Why am I tell you this? Why am I airing dirty laundry before the entire world (or the three people who read this blog)? Because the only thing I can think about right now is going out and finding the biggest, greasiest bacon double cheeseburger and a whole plate full of cheese fries and maybe a gigantic shake - from Red Robin, of course.
So what do you do when you get the urge to emotionally overeat? Well, I've locked myself in my office and decided to blog until the urge passes. Just to bait me, said husband came up and brought me the car keys, in case I wanted to go any where. Apparently he's washed his hands of me for the day. And I'm not even sure what I did, other than the fact that I was 3 minutes late and not my usual, perky self. Like HE's always Mr. Sunshine in the morning! Hrmph...
So I guess my point is, if you are overcome with the sudden overwhelming urge to eat something you shouldn't, count to 10. Have a granola bar or a handfull of grapes, a cup of coffee, a good cry, or whatever else will help you put things back into perspective. Because it's not worth whatever momentary burst of seratonin you might get from the overload of carbs for what it will do to your health and all the progress you've made already!
Meanwhile I have planned our menus for this week. On Monday, we're having smothered salisbury steak, Pioneer Woman's potato packets and a cup of steamed veggies - whatever looks good if I can motivate myself to go to Sam's today, otherwise maybe something from the freeszer. Tuesday I'm trying a new goulash recipe, with low carb noodles, of course. Wednesday I'm making Paula Deen's Oven Fried Chicken Cutlets and apple slaw with poppy seed dressing from my WeightWatchers Meals in Minutes cookbook. Thursday, believe it or not, I have found a Pasta Carbonara recipe that has only 551 calories, and, made with Dreamfields pasta, only 21 carbs per serving.
I promised you a post about good fats and bad fats, and I suppose I'll get to that next time. Right now I have to go to sleep and dream of cheeseburgers (or risk eating one)!
Happy Sunday!
So what do you do when you get the urge to emotionally overeat? Well, I've locked myself in my office and decided to blog until the urge passes. Just to bait me, said husband came up and brought me the car keys, in case I wanted to go any where. Apparently he's washed his hands of me for the day. And I'm not even sure what I did, other than the fact that I was 3 minutes late and not my usual, perky self. Like HE's always Mr. Sunshine in the morning! Hrmph...
So I guess my point is, if you are overcome with the sudden overwhelming urge to eat something you shouldn't, count to 10. Have a granola bar or a handfull of grapes, a cup of coffee, a good cry, or whatever else will help you put things back into perspective. Because it's not worth whatever momentary burst of seratonin you might get from the overload of carbs for what it will do to your health and all the progress you've made already!
Meanwhile I have planned our menus for this week. On Monday, we're having smothered salisbury steak, Pioneer Woman's potato packets and a cup of steamed veggies - whatever looks good if I can motivate myself to go to Sam's today, otherwise maybe something from the freeszer. Tuesday I'm trying a new goulash recipe, with low carb noodles, of course. Wednesday I'm making Paula Deen's Oven Fried Chicken Cutlets and apple slaw with poppy seed dressing from my WeightWatchers Meals in Minutes cookbook. Thursday, believe it or not, I have found a Pasta Carbonara recipe that has only 551 calories, and, made with Dreamfields pasta, only 21 carbs per serving.
I promised you a post about good fats and bad fats, and I suppose I'll get to that next time. Right now I have to go to sleep and dream of cheeseburgers (or risk eating one)!
Happy Sunday!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Good Carbs vs. Bad Carbs
I never knew carbs could be good or bad, only that I should avoid eating more than my recommended allotment for each meal. But as I have progressed through the nearly 8 weeks of this new eating methodology (The Plan), I have learned more about carbs.
Carbohydrates are, in a nutshell, anything that once grew in the ground or is made from something that once grew in the ground: foods like vegetables, fruits, or starches such as potatoes (which grow in the ground) or pastas and breads (which are made from wheat, which grows in the ground).
Of course I always knew that starchy carbs had more calories than vegetables, and I also knew that fruits turn into sugar once you start to digest them.
What I didn't know, though, is that there are distinctly better and worse carbs and it's not really tied to the amount of calories each contains - at least not exactly ...
All carbs are converted to glucose (blood sugar) in the body before they can be used for energy or stored as fat. Some carbs are converted to sugar very quickly - we'll call these "fast" carbs, and others are converted more slowly, so we will refer to those as "slow" carbs. Slow carbs are generally those that are higher in fiber, and that is why if a food contains greater than 5 grams of fiber you can deduct that number from the carbs to obtain the "net" carbs to be used in calculating your daily consumption.
Slow carbs (good carbs) include vegetables, berries and low-sugar fruits and legumes. Fast carbs (bad carbs) are things like potatoes, bread, corn, rice and other grains and high sugar fruits.
Portion sizes can be kind of tricky but here's a good rule of thumb.
SLOW CARBS
Open Plate Veggies - eat as much as you want!
Pasta and Potatoes - 1 cup cooked (about the size of your clenched fist)
Today I read an article in a diabetic newsletter about snacking. It recommended combining protein with carbs in your snacks, because it helps you to stay full longer. This afternoon my snack was a small green apple and a light cheddar cheese stick from Trader Joe's, and it was delicious and satisfying!
Unfortunately, I forgot to put the chuck roast in the crock pot, so we'll be having that tomorrow and something else tonight for dinner. Darn. But I'll enjoy it tomorrow and have something yummy to look forward to!
Next Post: All Fats are NOT Created Equal ...
Carbohydrates are, in a nutshell, anything that once grew in the ground or is made from something that once grew in the ground: foods like vegetables, fruits, or starches such as potatoes (which grow in the ground) or pastas and breads (which are made from wheat, which grows in the ground).
Of course I always knew that starchy carbs had more calories than vegetables, and I also knew that fruits turn into sugar once you start to digest them.
What I didn't know, though, is that there are distinctly better and worse carbs and it's not really tied to the amount of calories each contains - at least not exactly ...
All carbs are converted to glucose (blood sugar) in the body before they can be used for energy or stored as fat. Some carbs are converted to sugar very quickly - we'll call these "fast" carbs, and others are converted more slowly, so we will refer to those as "slow" carbs. Slow carbs are generally those that are higher in fiber, and that is why if a food contains greater than 5 grams of fiber you can deduct that number from the carbs to obtain the "net" carbs to be used in calculating your daily consumption.
Slow carbs (good carbs) include vegetables, berries and low-sugar fruits and legumes. Fast carbs (bad carbs) are things like potatoes, bread, corn, rice and other grains and high sugar fruits.
Portion sizes can be kind of tricky but here's a good rule of thumb.
SLOW CARBS
Open Plate Veggies - eat as much as you want!
- cauliflower
- uncooked greens
- bok choi
- cabbage
- endive
- lettuce
- radicchio
- spinach
- watercress
- celery
- red and green peppers
- cucumbers
- mushrooms
- raadishes
- sprouts
- tomatoes
- squash
- cooked greens
- artichokes
- asparagus
- bell peppers
- broccoli
- brussels sprouts
- carrots
- eggplant
- green beans
- leeks
- apricots
- berries
- strawberries
- blueberries
- raspberries
- blackberries
- grapefruit
- lemons
- limes
- black beans
- cannelini beans
- garbanzo beans
- kidney beans
- lima beans
- navy beans
- pinto beans
- soy beans (edamame)
- white beans
- blackeyed peas
- green peas
- snap peas
- snow peas
Pasta and Potatoes - 1 cup cooked (about the size of your clenched fist)
- pasta
- couscous
- egg noodles
- linguini
- macaroni
- penne
- rigatoni
- spaghetti
- potatoes
- yams
- sweet potatoes
- 1 bagel (3-4" diameter)
- 2 slices bread
- 2 corn tortillas (6")
- 1 English muffin
- 1 flour tortilla (6")
- melons (2 cups)
- cantelope
- watermelon
- honey dew
- medium round fruits (1 medium)
- apples
- oranges
- bananas
- small round fruits (2 medium)
- plums
- tangerines
- nectarines
- dried fruits (1/4 cup)
- raisins
- prunes
- figs
Today I read an article in a diabetic newsletter about snacking. It recommended combining protein with carbs in your snacks, because it helps you to stay full longer. This afternoon my snack was a small green apple and a light cheddar cheese stick from Trader Joe's, and it was delicious and satisfying!
Unfortunately, I forgot to put the chuck roast in the crock pot, so we'll be having that tomorrow and something else tonight for dinner. Darn. But I'll enjoy it tomorrow and have something yummy to look forward to!
Next Post: All Fats are NOT Created Equal ...
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Next Week's Meal Plan
[ A note about the tables and other pictures in this blog: you can click on any picture such as the chart above to enlarge it, then use your browser's back button to return to the blog post. If I make them bigger, they overhang the blog portion of the page and it just looks funny.]
If you've read my last "Meal Plan" post, you'll see that I have added calculations to figure our daily percentage of carbs. This has proven to be sort of eye opening after I applied the formula to things we've already eaten, so you won't see some of the meals we had before showing up any time soon. But we are on track now and I like having the extra check in there. In case you're curious, the carb percentage is fairly simple - just total the day's carbs (column G), multiply by 4 to figure the number of calories that are consumed from carbs (column H), then divide the "Calories from Carbs" number by the daily calorie total (Column H / Column B) and format it as a percentage. If anyone is interested, I'm happy to share the workbook via email and you can fill in your own likes and dislikes. For me, it's a living document, and it will change and grow from week to week.
My goal with this next week's meal plan is to use up some things I've got in the freezer, limiting my grocery expenses. The last time I made the turkey meatloaf we're having Monday, for example, I made 4 mini meatloaves and froze two of them. I also have a chuck roast in the freezer, which will become the shredded beef for Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to that one!
When I bought the ham steaks we're having on Wednesday, I bought them at Sam's so this will be the third time we're having that recipe and I think I still have about 3 left. This as a great find - they're individual ham steaks, individually packaged, and they come wrapped in netting to sort of resemble a larger ham. I love that there's no prep work on this - just pop them in the freezer until ready to use.
The mock Lo Mein recipe for Thursday, from the cover of the latest Diabetic Living magazine my dad subscribed me to, calls for 12 ounces of top sirloin, also in the freezer. So other than lunch items, produce and dairy, I don't have much on my grocery list this week. Here's my list for the menu items above, ordered by the way we cruise the store:
We do our grocery shopping on Sunday after church, and we shop at Sam's nearly every week even though there are only two of us. The reason I don't put specific veggies on the list is because I tend to get what looks good to me, and that varies from week to week. I love Sams' brussel sprouts and their hericot verts (very skinny French green beans) and their English peas are just to die for. They also sometimes have a giant package of baby spinach, which I really can't get enough of...
This week, since we don't have to buy much meat, we're going to stock up on 100 calorie packs for snacks, as well as diet pop, if it's on sale.
When we get home with the groceries, we throw away old stuff left in the fridge, and then go "shopping" in the freezer for that week's meat, which goes into the fridge at the same time we prep our produce and put away the groceries. This plays into the 30 minute cooking concept as it's quicker to pull it out and use it if it's already cleaned before I put it away. Peter also makes all of his lunch sandwiches on Sunday, plus his bags of celery and carrots or whatever he's taking for snacks that week.
In case you want any of the recipes, the following are the ones for which I have links:
Tex Mex Beef Wraps
Grilled Ham Steak with Mustard Sauce (adapted, see below**)
Blackeyed Peas with Bacon and Escarole
** Adaptations for Grilled Ham Steak with Mustard Sauce - I use sugar-free honey-substitute and sugar free apricot preserves for this recipe, and I make it indoors on the Calphalon grill pain Peter bought me for Christmas one year. Don't be mad at him or feel sorry for me - it's not the only thing he bought me and I told him I wanted it!
Finally, here are the recipes for this week that aren't online:
Sweet Asian Beef Stir-Fry
3 T low-sugar orange marmelade
2 T light teriyaki sauce
1 T grated fresh ginger
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 box low-carb spaghetti
1/2 of a small red onion, sliced
1 c julienned carrots, cut into bite-sized strips
2 t canola oil
12 oz boneless top sirloin steak, cut into bite-sized strips*
3 c shredded napa cabbage
1t toasted sesame seeds
In a small bowl, combine marmalade, 2 T water, teriyaki sauce, ginger, and crushed red pepper; set aside.
Cook pasta in boiling, salted water, according to package directions.
Meanwhile, coat a large nonstick skillet or wok with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat over medium-high heat. Add broccoli and onion, stir fry 3 minutes. Add carrots, stiry fry 3 minutes more or until vegetables are crisptender. Remove vegetables from skillet.
Add oil to the same skillet or wok. Add beef strips. Stir-fry over medium-high heat 3-5 minutes or until beef is slightly pink in center. Return vegetables to skillet, along with sauce and cabbage. Cook and stir 1 minute or until heated through and cabage is just wilted.
Serve immediately over hot cooked spaghetti, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.
* Tip: For easier slicing, partially freeze steak before cutting it.
Serving size for the nutritional values listed in the spreadsheet above is 1 cup of cooked spaghetti with 1 cup of beef stir-fry.
Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
1 pound medium red boiling potatoes (sometimes I use Yukon gold, or a combination of red & gold)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 t salt
1/8 t black pepper
2 T snipped fresh chives (optional)
Place potatoes and garlic in large saucepan, adding enough water to cover; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 20 to 30 minutes or until potatoes are fork-tender. Drain.
Drain potatoes and garlic and return to hot pot. Mash with potato masher until smooth. Add buttermilk, salt and pepper and stir until just blended. Sprinkle with chives before serving.
Recently I read that potatoes are not all created equal; that the smaller potatoes with the thinner skins metabolize differently in the body, as if they have lower carb counts. COOL! A bonus is that you don't have to peel them, and much of the fiber is in the skin, which will also contribute to less carb consumption.
Turkey Meatloaf
1 pound 93% lean ground turkey
1/2 cup grated unpeeled zucchini
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced green bell ppper
1/4 cup uncooked old-fashioned oats
1 egg, beaten
1 T ketchup
1 t dried thyme
1 t dijon mustard
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Divide into 4 portions and form mini meatloaves. Bake on cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray for 1 hour or until meat thermometer inserted in center of loaf reads 165 degrees. Remove from oven. Allow to rest 15 minutes before serving. Individual loaves can be frozen and then thawed and baked later.
You might notice that we have used the grilled ham steak and the blackeyed pea and escarole dish before. That's our favorite meal so far.
Comment if you're enjoying the blog, so I don't come to the conclusion that I'm wasting my time. :)
Next Post: Good Carbs (slow) vs. Bad Carbs (fast)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Weight Watchers Free Foods
Today seems to be a good day to share a list of Weight Watchers "free" foods, since I have just come from a wedding reception where I ate not one morsel of food (nor did I drink the delicious-looking punch with the rainbow sherbet in it!)
I ran across this list of free foods online and trust it's correct - as I mentioned, I haven't actually JOINED Weight Watchers ...
Zero Point Vegetables
arugula
asparagus
beets
broccoli
brussel sprouts
cabbage
celery
cucumber
eggplant
endive
escarole
green beans
greens
hearts of palm
jicama
lettuce
mixed green salad (exclusive of dressing)
peppers
pickles (unsweetened)
pimentos
pumpkin
radishes
sauerkraut
scallions
spinach
sprouts
spaghetti and summer squash
tomatoes
turnips
watercress
zucchini
Zero Point Fruit
kiwi (1 medium)
orange (1 small)
passion fruit (3)
peach (1 small)
Zero Point Beverages
water
tea (unsweetened or with artificial sweetener)
diet soda
seltzer
club soda
coffee (black or with artificial sweetener and/or non-fat creamer)
Zero Point Condiments & Sauces
baking powder
baking soda
capers
cocktail sauce
flavorings
herbs
horseradish
hot sauce
lemon juice
lime juice
mustard
nonfat creamer
nonstick cooking or baking spray
relish
salsa
soy sauce
spices
steak sauce
sugar substitutes
taco sauce
teriyaki
vinegar
worcestershire sauce
Zero Point Food
bouillon
broth
capers (1 T)
onion soup mix
salsa
whipped cream nonfat (1/4 cup)
I've become quite adept at turning some of the above ingredients into tasty sauces and dressings, not adding any WW points to our meals. Of course the veggies and some of the other things do have carbs, so if you're counting carbs, be mindful of that. But if you are starving and need to grab something in a hurry, it's good to have these things on hand!
And I've learned to saute vegetables with a spritz of Olive Oil flavored cooking spray (I use Crisco, but there are other brands, too). This even works with chicken breast, pork chops or steak on my Calphalon grill pan. I thought it wouldn't be enough lubrication but we really don't notice much difference in the flavor or the texture of whatever we're eating. I simply spray the pan, and then both sides of the meat. If I'm sauteing veggies, I might add a second spritz after it's been sauteing a few minutes, depending on the veggies and how quickly they dry out.
Also, using the list above you can gauge what you can put into a pot of soup without too much impact on your meal plan. I make sure to keep on hand lots of canned tomatoes, green beans, white beans, kidney beans, black beans (we love beans) ... To me, a pot of soup is comfort food, so throughout the colder months, I make one every single Sunday. Tomorrow night's variety will contain the leftover pork from Thursday and I will turn it into a low-carb, low-calorie tortilla soup. Yum Yum.
Next Post: Next Week's Meal Plan
A future Post: Good Carbs (slow) vs. Bad Carbs (fast)
I ran across this list of free foods online and trust it's correct - as I mentioned, I haven't actually JOINED Weight Watchers ...
Zero Point Vegetables
arugula
asparagus
beets
broccoli
brussel sprouts
cabbage
celery
cucumber
eggplant
endive
escarole
green beans
greens
hearts of palm
jicama
lettuce
mixed green salad (exclusive of dressing)
peppers
pickles (unsweetened)
pimentos
pumpkin
radishes
sauerkraut
scallions
spinach
sprouts
spaghetti and summer squash
tomatoes
turnips
watercress
zucchini
Zero Point Fruit
kiwi (1 medium)
orange (1 small)
passion fruit (3)
peach (1 small)
Zero Point Beverages
water
tea (unsweetened or with artificial sweetener)
diet soda
seltzer
club soda
coffee (black or with artificial sweetener and/or non-fat creamer)
Zero Point Condiments & Sauces
baking powder
baking soda
capers
cocktail sauce
flavorings
herbs
horseradish
hot sauce
lemon juice
lime juice
mustard
nonfat creamer
nonstick cooking or baking spray
relish
salsa
soy sauce
spices
steak sauce
sugar substitutes
taco sauce
teriyaki
vinegar
worcestershire sauce
Zero Point Food
bouillon
broth
capers (1 T)
onion soup mix
salsa
whipped cream nonfat (1/4 cup)
I've become quite adept at turning some of the above ingredients into tasty sauces and dressings, not adding any WW points to our meals. Of course the veggies and some of the other things do have carbs, so if you're counting carbs, be mindful of that. But if you are starving and need to grab something in a hurry, it's good to have these things on hand!
And I've learned to saute vegetables with a spritz of Olive Oil flavored cooking spray (I use Crisco, but there are other brands, too). This even works with chicken breast, pork chops or steak on my Calphalon grill pan. I thought it wouldn't be enough lubrication but we really don't notice much difference in the flavor or the texture of whatever we're eating. I simply spray the pan, and then both sides of the meat. If I'm sauteing veggies, I might add a second spritz after it's been sauteing a few minutes, depending on the veggies and how quickly they dry out.
Also, using the list above you can gauge what you can put into a pot of soup without too much impact on your meal plan. I make sure to keep on hand lots of canned tomatoes, green beans, white beans, kidney beans, black beans (we love beans) ... To me, a pot of soup is comfort food, so throughout the colder months, I make one every single Sunday. Tomorrow night's variety will contain the leftover pork from Thursday and I will turn it into a low-carb, low-calorie tortilla soup. Yum Yum.
Next Post: Next Week's Meal Plan
A future Post: Good Carbs (slow) vs. Bad Carbs (fast)
Friday, February 18, 2011
One Week's Meal Plan
Here's what one week's meal plan looks like in my spreadsheet:
The top three rows of the spreadsheet list breakfast, lunch and snack values, the next 7 rows contain the dinner menus for Monday through Thursday, and rows 12-16 show the daily totals. These daily totals take into account if we are having 2 servings of anything that day, so they contain the total number of calories, fat, WW points, etc. You can see that Monday was a little high on calories - it was Valentine's Day, so we were okay with that as we wanted it to be special. My total daily calorie count should be around 1,500 including snacks.
According to the National Diabetes Association, the total number of calories consumed from carbs should be between 40% and 60%, and there are 4 calories in each gram of carbohydrates. This makes a nice little double-check. Note to self: add a calculation in my spreadsheet to calculate the daily percentage of carbs!
The values in columns B-F are linked directly back to my point values spreadsheet in the same workbook. One of the recipes I used this week was adapted from one I found online. It's the Thursday dinner: Lasagna Rollups. Here's the recipe as I have adapted it:
Lasagna Rollups
28 oz can crushed San Marzano Tomatoes
14 oz can tomato sauce (no sugar added)
8 oz can organic tomato paste (no sugar added)
8 Dreamfields low-carb lasagna noodles
1/2 pound lean ground turkey breast
1/2 pound turkey Italian sausage, casing removed
1/4 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped green bell pepper
1 small can green chilis
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 t salt
1/2 t basil
1/4 t pepper
8 oz (2 c) shredded lowfat mozzarella cheese
12 oz low-fat ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Heat oven to 350. Boil water in large pot with 4 t salt. Add lasagna; stir, boil 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook to al dente - do not overcook. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Mix together crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and garlic. Spread 2 cups of sauce over bottom of 9x13 pan.
In large skillet, brown sausage and turkey with onion, chilies and green pepper over medium heat. Drain. In bowl, add breadcrumbs with ground meat, 1 t salt, basil, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and egg.
Spread about 1/4 cup filling on each lasagna noodle. Roll up from short side and place in pan, seam down. Pour remaining sauce over top. Cover and bake for one hour. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese before serving.
9 WW points per rollup.
To calculate the nutritional values of any recipe, start with a list of ingredients. If you can't find the nutrition information on the packaging, look it up here. This is what my list looks like for the recipe above:
At the bottom of each column, I total the counts for each category, which gives me the total for the recipe, and then I divide it by the number of servings - in this case, 8. Remember that ordinarily because there are 6 grams of fiber per serving (fiber >5), you could subtract this from the number of carbs to get the net carbs for the dish. However, in this case, because I used low-carb pasta and used the net grams per carb as allowed on the package, I did not adjust for the fiber.
I didn't use recipes for Monday's dinner but here are the recipes for the other two nights:
Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Sauerkraut
Slow Cooker German Potato Salad
Grilled Ham Steak with Mustard Sauce
Blackeyed Peas with Bacon and Escarole
On Friday or Saturday of each week, I pull up the recipes for the following week and create a grocery list right in the same Excel workbook, transfer it to a checklist in my android phone and I'm ready to go. We typically do our grocery shopping on Sunday after church and then we're ready for the coming week.
I should add that whenever possible, I lighten recipes - even if they're within our WW point and carb counts to begin with - by using lower calorie and/or lower carb ingredients. We love Dreamfields pasta and it's what we buy routinely. It comes in about 6 varieties and we have enjoyed all of them over the years. I also routinely use Splenda and Brown Sugar Splenda in place of sugar. In addition, I have found some interesting substitutions online for things like powdered sugar, marshmallow creme, corn syrup, honey, pancake mix, biscuit mix, etc. I also use sugar free and low sugar jams and preserves, syrups, low carb egg noodles, etc. This allows us to use a wide variety of tasty ingredients without compromising The Plan. Planning our menus a week ahead allows me time to shop for or order ingredients if I don't already have them on hand.
A couple of cautions about creating a meal plan:
First, I will admit it - I am a planner. I love the nitty gritty details of coming up with a plan, documenting it and putting it into practice. By trade, I am a project manager - it's what I do. However, I'm also spontaneous. There will be times, I know it, when I will just not feel like cooking, or I won't feel like eating whatever's on The Plan for that day. If you follow me on Facebook, you might have noticed that the chart above shows Thursday's dinner was supposed to be lasagna rollups. We had them on Wednesday night because I had an extra spurt of energy on Wednesday morning before work and decided to make them. I could have left them in the refrigerator until Thursday, but I also decided the leftover pork roast should become our soup for Sunday night and I thought Wednesday to Sunday was a little long for cooked pork to be sitting in the fridge, so I decided to switch those nights.
So if you're going to create your own plan like this, always make sure you have some contingencies. Before The Plan, our spontaneous I-don't-feel-like-cooking meal was frozen pizza. We found some flatbread pizzas we really like that are within our limits, so we make sure to have those in the freezer just in case we need them.
Also, don't ever make anything you know you won't like. You will resent the change in eating and you will have cravings that will be difficult to overcome. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try new things. We tried escarole for the first time this week and loved it. But I hate lima beans and I always will no matter how good they are for me. My husband loves them, so we have a deal: I won't make him eat spinach as long as I can have it while he eats his lima beans. Sure, I have to cook two veggies on those nights but whatever. We're both happy. I shared with a friend recently that we had gone out to our favorite breakfast place and split the bacon and gruyere frittata. Her response was that I should have ordered an egg white veggie omelet because it would have been lower in fat. I'm sorry, but an egg white veggie omelet sounds more like a punishment than a treat. I would far prefer to limit the amount of times I eat out in favor of eating something I really like than to deprive myself and force down food that is distasteful to me.
Finally, examine the way you live. Unless I'm having a dinner party, I really don't want to spend hours at a time standing in my kitchen doing prep work or cooking. I have become fond of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals method of cooking and if I have to spend much more time in the kitchen than that, I'm going to resent it. I also don't like to do dishes, and although my husband does nearly all of them, I'm still prone to make things that use fewer (rather than more) pots, pans and utensils. What that means is that I examine every recipe before I make it and I determine how many minutes I will have to stand in the kitchen and how many dishes will need to be washed. I favor one-pot meals, things you bake in the oven, and crock pot meals. If I review recipes with an eye toward how I prefer to live, I'm so much happier and I know you will be, too.
In other words, take these suggestions as just that, and figure out what works for you. This is one method. If your preferred method is (as a friend recently told me hers is) to open the fridge and see what comes to you, then know that about yourself before you go shopping and stock the fridge with things you can throw together that will be healthy for you to eat and that you will enjoy cooking and eating. Make your PLAN work for you and you will enjoy it, not resent it. Good luck!
Next Post: Free Foods
The top three rows of the spreadsheet list breakfast, lunch and snack values, the next 7 rows contain the dinner menus for Monday through Thursday, and rows 12-16 show the daily totals. These daily totals take into account if we are having 2 servings of anything that day, so they contain the total number of calories, fat, WW points, etc. You can see that Monday was a little high on calories - it was Valentine's Day, so we were okay with that as we wanted it to be special. My total daily calorie count should be around 1,500 including snacks.
According to the National Diabetes Association, the total number of calories consumed from carbs should be between 40% and 60%, and there are 4 calories in each gram of carbohydrates. This makes a nice little double-check. Note to self: add a calculation in my spreadsheet to calculate the daily percentage of carbs!
The values in columns B-F are linked directly back to my point values spreadsheet in the same workbook. One of the recipes I used this week was adapted from one I found online. It's the Thursday dinner: Lasagna Rollups. Here's the recipe as I have adapted it:
Lasagna Rollups
28 oz can crushed San Marzano Tomatoes
14 oz can tomato sauce (no sugar added)
8 oz can organic tomato paste (no sugar added)
8 Dreamfields low-carb lasagna noodles
1/2 pound lean ground turkey breast
1/2 pound turkey Italian sausage, casing removed
1/4 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped green bell pepper
1 small can green chilis
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 t salt
1/2 t basil
1/4 t pepper
8 oz (2 c) shredded lowfat mozzarella cheese
12 oz low-fat ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Heat oven to 350. Boil water in large pot with 4 t salt. Add lasagna; stir, boil 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook to al dente - do not overcook. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Mix together crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and garlic. Spread 2 cups of sauce over bottom of 9x13 pan.
In large skillet, brown sausage and turkey with onion, chilies and green pepper over medium heat. Drain. In bowl, add breadcrumbs with ground meat, 1 t salt, basil, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and egg.
Spread about 1/4 cup filling on each lasagna noodle. Roll up from short side and place in pan, seam down. Pour remaining sauce over top. Cover and bake for one hour. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese before serving.
9 WW points per rollup.
To calculate the nutritional values of any recipe, start with a list of ingredients. If you can't find the nutrition information on the packaging, look it up here. This is what my list looks like for the recipe above:
At the bottom of each column, I total the counts for each category, which gives me the total for the recipe, and then I divide it by the number of servings - in this case, 8. Remember that ordinarily because there are 6 grams of fiber per serving (fiber >5), you could subtract this from the number of carbs to get the net carbs for the dish. However, in this case, because I used low-carb pasta and used the net grams per carb as allowed on the package, I did not adjust for the fiber.
I didn't use recipes for Monday's dinner but here are the recipes for the other two nights:
Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Sauerkraut
Slow Cooker German Potato Salad
Grilled Ham Steak with Mustard Sauce
Blackeyed Peas with Bacon and Escarole
On Friday or Saturday of each week, I pull up the recipes for the following week and create a grocery list right in the same Excel workbook, transfer it to a checklist in my android phone and I'm ready to go. We typically do our grocery shopping on Sunday after church and then we're ready for the coming week.
I should add that whenever possible, I lighten recipes - even if they're within our WW point and carb counts to begin with - by using lower calorie and/or lower carb ingredients. We love Dreamfields pasta and it's what we buy routinely. It comes in about 6 varieties and we have enjoyed all of them over the years. I also routinely use Splenda and Brown Sugar Splenda in place of sugar. In addition, I have found some interesting substitutions online for things like powdered sugar, marshmallow creme, corn syrup, honey, pancake mix, biscuit mix, etc. I also use sugar free and low sugar jams and preserves, syrups, low carb egg noodles, etc. This allows us to use a wide variety of tasty ingredients without compromising The Plan. Planning our menus a week ahead allows me time to shop for or order ingredients if I don't already have them on hand.
A couple of cautions about creating a meal plan:
First, I will admit it - I am a planner. I love the nitty gritty details of coming up with a plan, documenting it and putting it into practice. By trade, I am a project manager - it's what I do. However, I'm also spontaneous. There will be times, I know it, when I will just not feel like cooking, or I won't feel like eating whatever's on The Plan for that day. If you follow me on Facebook, you might have noticed that the chart above shows Thursday's dinner was supposed to be lasagna rollups. We had them on Wednesday night because I had an extra spurt of energy on Wednesday morning before work and decided to make them. I could have left them in the refrigerator until Thursday, but I also decided the leftover pork roast should become our soup for Sunday night and I thought Wednesday to Sunday was a little long for cooked pork to be sitting in the fridge, so I decided to switch those nights.
So if you're going to create your own plan like this, always make sure you have some contingencies. Before The Plan, our spontaneous I-don't-feel-like-cooking meal was frozen pizza. We found some flatbread pizzas we really like that are within our limits, so we make sure to have those in the freezer just in case we need them.
Also, don't ever make anything you know you won't like. You will resent the change in eating and you will have cravings that will be difficult to overcome. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try new things. We tried escarole for the first time this week and loved it. But I hate lima beans and I always will no matter how good they are for me. My husband loves them, so we have a deal: I won't make him eat spinach as long as I can have it while he eats his lima beans. Sure, I have to cook two veggies on those nights but whatever. We're both happy. I shared with a friend recently that we had gone out to our favorite breakfast place and split the bacon and gruyere frittata. Her response was that I should have ordered an egg white veggie omelet because it would have been lower in fat. I'm sorry, but an egg white veggie omelet sounds more like a punishment than a treat. I would far prefer to limit the amount of times I eat out in favor of eating something I really like than to deprive myself and force down food that is distasteful to me.
Finally, examine the way you live. Unless I'm having a dinner party, I really don't want to spend hours at a time standing in my kitchen doing prep work or cooking. I have become fond of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals method of cooking and if I have to spend much more time in the kitchen than that, I'm going to resent it. I also don't like to do dishes, and although my husband does nearly all of them, I'm still prone to make things that use fewer (rather than more) pots, pans and utensils. What that means is that I examine every recipe before I make it and I determine how many minutes I will have to stand in the kitchen and how many dishes will need to be washed. I favor one-pot meals, things you bake in the oven, and crock pot meals. If I review recipes with an eye toward how I prefer to live, I'm so much happier and I know you will be, too.
In other words, take these suggestions as just that, and figure out what works for you. This is one method. If your preferred method is (as a friend recently told me hers is) to open the fridge and see what comes to you, then know that about yourself before you go shopping and stock the fridge with things you can throw together that will be healthy for you to eat and that you will enjoy cooking and eating. Make your PLAN work for you and you will enjoy it, not resent it. Good luck!
Next Post: Free Foods
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Diabetes 101
Ever since I’ve been thinking about writing this post, I’ve had this song stuck in my head.
[Insert yesterday’s disclaimer here: I’m still not a doctor and I still don’t play one on TV. Take what’s here with a grain or two of salt and do your own research and/or ask your doctor for his or her take on all of this.]
To understand diabetes, it is important to first understand the normal process by which food is broken down and used by the body for energy. Several things happen when food is digested:
- A sugar called glucose enters the bloodstream. Glucose is a source of fuel for the body.
- An organ called the pancreas makes insulin. The role of insulin is to move glucose from the bloodstream into muscle, fat, and liver cells, where it can be used as fuel.
People with diabetes have high blood sugar. This is because:
- The pancreas does not make enough insulin
- The muscle, fat, and liver cells do not respond to insulin normally
- Both of the above
When you have type 2 diabetes, the body does not respond correctly to insulin. This is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that fat, liver, and muscle cells do not respond normally to insulin. As a result blood sugar does not get into cells to be stored for energy.
When sugar cannot enter cells, abnormally high levels of sugar build up in the blood. This is called hyperglycemia. High levels of blood sugar often trigger the pancreas to produce more and more insulin, but it is not enough to keep up with the body's demand.
People who are overweight are more likely to have insulin resistance, because fat interferes with the body's ability to use insulin.
Type 2 diabetes usually occurs gradually. Most people with the disease are overweight at the time of diagnosis. However, type 2 diabetes can also develop in those who are thin, especially the elderly.
Family history and genetics play a large role in type 2 diabetes. Low activity level, poor diet, and excess body weight (especially around the waist) significantly increase your risk for type 2 diabetes.
People with type 2 diabetes should eat at about the same times each day and try to be consistent with the types of food they choose. This helps to prevent blood sugar from becoming extremely high or low. Meal planning includes choosing healthy foods, eating the right amount of food, and eating meals at the right time. You should work closely with your doctor, nurse, and registered dietitian to learn how much fat, protein, and carbohydrates you need in your diet. Your meal plans should fit your daily lifestyle and habits, and should include foods that you like.
Managing your weight and eating a well-balanced diet are important. Some people with type 2 diabetes can even stop taking medications after losing weight.
Exercise can help your overall health by improving blood flow and blood pressure. It decreases insulin resistance even without weight loss. Exercise also increases the body's energy level, lowers tension, and improves your ability to handle stress.
Those are the dry, clinical facts. On a more personal level, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes about 6 years ago. I am on insulin and 3 oral meds, and have adjusted my diet according to the number of carbs my doctor and nutritionist instructed me to consume at each meal: 30-45 each for breakfast and lunch, 45-60 for dinner and 20 for an evening snack.
That wasn’t really enough to lose weight and I still experienced blood sugar spikes. I will also admit right up front that I do not get much exercise. Okay, any. I sit at a desk all day (or I work from my recliner, as I'm doing right now!) and once a week I go grocery shopping. That's pretty much it. Once I’ve lost more weight, I will be more inclined to get out and move but for now, I’m simply adjusting my diet and measuring the results.
Since my doctor suggested Weight Watchers, I embarked on a journey to create a personalized WW plan that would incorporate my recommended carb levels for each meal. Since my husband is so supportive, he’s eating what I eat. Don’t you love that? Of course the food is so good, he’s not suffering, and since we have started snacking between meals, neither of us is hungry, so that’s good.
In addition to monitoring WW points and carbs and eating 100 calorie low-carb snacks between meals, we have also started consciously drinking a lot more water – aiming for 96 oz or more per day. Some time ago we got off the bottled water kick by installing filter under the kitchen sink for our cold water, and we use 24 oz reusable bottles. I make sure I drink 2 of these bottles of water before lunch and one after lunch, and then I start one with dinner and finish it before bedtime.
Next Post: This week’s menus and recipes
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Snacking to Boost Your Metabolism
I must start with a disclaimer. I am not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. I'm also not a nutritionist and don't pretend to be an expert in how the body works. Except that I have dieted over the years with poor results and with great results and I read a lot. What I am sharing here is not rocket science and it has been documented by medical and nutritional experts. But you should always check with your doctor before changing your diet, and I encourage you to do your own research. This has been working for us and has the ring of truth to it so I share it with you now in case it may help you, too.
Metabolism is defined as the chemical reactions in the body's cells that convert the fuel from food into the energy needed to do everything from moving to thinking to growing. If you take in more food than you need at any given point, your body is efficient enough to store it for later use (as fat). If your body thinks you are starving it, your metabolism slows in order to become more efficient and instead of burning the calories you consume as energy, it stores them for later, thinking it will need them because you are starving.
If you've ever dieted, you have probably noticed that after a few weeks of extreme dieting, your weight loss slows and then stops. You may even begin to gain weight even though you aren't eating much at all. This is because you've essentially shut down your metabolism. Often going off of an extreme diet causes a person to gain back most, if not all of the weight they lost, simply because their metabolism has gone into survival mode and made quick work of storing all that fat for next time!
For diabetics, especially, it is important to eat at regular intervals to keep blood sugars level. By eating more often throughout the day, you actually speed up your metabolism and level your blood sugar, which in turn helps burn off excess body fat. The key is to eat every 2-3 hours all day long. This regularly scheduled intake of food lets your body know there will always be plenty of fuel to burn and there is no need to worry about starving to death so it can stop storing so many calories as fat.
So after reading several articles on the subject, we have begun eating a 100-200 calorie snack between meals every 2-3 hours throughout our day, ending one hour before bedtime. We eat our first snack within 30 minutes to one hour of getting up - for us, that's 4:00 a.m., so I typically have a Trader Joe's "This Fig Walks into a Bar" bar at 5:00. At 8:00 I have my daily breakfast, consisting of a granola bar, a small can of V-8 juice and black coffee. At 10:30 I have another 100 calorie snack, and between 1 and 1:30 I eat my lunch. I have another snack at around 4:00 and then dinner between 6 and 6:30, and a final snack (usually our low-cal/low-carb evening dessert) around 8:30 - 9:00 (we go to bed at 10).
We make sure that our WW points do not exceed our daily allotment, and we try to limit carbs in our snacks to around 20 or less. There are so many 100 calorie packs now that it is really easy to do this, even on the fly - we just have learned to carry snacks with us and when we're out, we stick to things that are easy to carry, like granola bars. But here are some other ideas for snacks with fewer than 200 calories:
Try it and see if it doesn't work for you, too!
Next Post: Diabetes 101
Metabolism is defined as the chemical reactions in the body's cells that convert the fuel from food into the energy needed to do everything from moving to thinking to growing. If you take in more food than you need at any given point, your body is efficient enough to store it for later use (as fat). If your body thinks you are starving it, your metabolism slows in order to become more efficient and instead of burning the calories you consume as energy, it stores them for later, thinking it will need them because you are starving.
If you've ever dieted, you have probably noticed that after a few weeks of extreme dieting, your weight loss slows and then stops. You may even begin to gain weight even though you aren't eating much at all. This is because you've essentially shut down your metabolism. Often going off of an extreme diet causes a person to gain back most, if not all of the weight they lost, simply because their metabolism has gone into survival mode and made quick work of storing all that fat for next time!
For diabetics, especially, it is important to eat at regular intervals to keep blood sugars level. By eating more often throughout the day, you actually speed up your metabolism and level your blood sugar, which in turn helps burn off excess body fat. The key is to eat every 2-3 hours all day long. This regularly scheduled intake of food lets your body know there will always be plenty of fuel to burn and there is no need to worry about starving to death so it can stop storing so many calories as fat.
So after reading several articles on the subject, we have begun eating a 100-200 calorie snack between meals every 2-3 hours throughout our day, ending one hour before bedtime. We eat our first snack within 30 minutes to one hour of getting up - for us, that's 4:00 a.m., so I typically have a Trader Joe's "This Fig Walks into a Bar" bar at 5:00. At 8:00 I have my daily breakfast, consisting of a granola bar, a small can of V-8 juice and black coffee. At 10:30 I have another 100 calorie snack, and between 1 and 1:30 I eat my lunch. I have another snack at around 4:00 and then dinner between 6 and 6:30, and a final snack (usually our low-cal/low-carb evening dessert) around 8:30 - 9:00 (we go to bed at 10).
We make sure that our WW points do not exceed our daily allotment, and we try to limit carbs in our snacks to around 20 or less. There are so many 100 calorie packs now that it is really easy to do this, even on the fly - we just have learned to carry snacks with us and when we're out, we stick to things that are easy to carry, like granola bars. But here are some other ideas for snacks with fewer than 200 calories:
- 1 carton of lowfat fruit flavored yogurt
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
- 3 rye crisp and 2 wedges of laughing cow cheese
- string cheese
- skinny cow ice cream sandwich
- sugar free pudding, topped with fat free cool whip
- small box of raisins
- 1 slice of whole wheat toast with 2 T creamy peanut butter
Try it and see if it doesn't work for you, too!
Next Post: Diabetes 101
Monday, February 14, 2011
Valentines Dinner for Two
You won't believe this is diet food, and I really need to stop using that D word because, really, this is a lifestyle change. But believe it or not, all this yummy food was on our plan. The Plan (TP) calls for us to eat between 45-60 carbs for our dinner meal and a total WW daily point total of 38.
I planned this meal in advance and got the two smallest top sirloin steaks I could find at the local Jewel store. They were each about 3 oz. I also bought 2 lobster tails. I researched the best way to cook lobster tail and while mine didn't look exactly like the picture, it was very delicious. I bought frozen creamed spinach for me (I make a fabulous creamed spinach but hey, I'm not making it for one person if I can get a reasonable facsimile with the nutritional information right on the package!) and lima beans for him. A friend of mine asked me if lima beans are punishment and I told him my husband is a glutton for punishment - at least this kind of punishment!
We had a medium sized baked potato with 1 T of lite sour cream and snipped chives, the steaks cooked to a perfect medium-rare, our veggie of choice and a glass of wine.
This is mine, with the spinach. I thought the envelope on my card said "To my lovely, scary wife" but it's just his horrible hand-writing - he assures me the word was actually "sexy" ...
His, with the yucky lima beans.
Dessert will be our evening snack, which we can eat in exactly 12 minutes from now. I can't wait. I combined a couple of different low-cal/low-carb recipes with an idea I saw on Fox and Friends on Friday morning. They made what they called "whoppie pies" by taking a sheet cake and cutting it into heart shapes with cookie cutters, then putting some kind of filling between two of the heart shapes and sprinkling it with powdered sugar.
In anticipation of just such an occasion, I had already bought some powdered sugar substitute online and it was waiting for me in my pantry. I didn't even know they made such a thing!
The first recipe I used was the cake portion of a S'more Please Trifle I found on the Taste of Home website. I made it in a sheet pan, and I would say this isn't the best method for a thin cake, because it developed cracks, which I had to cut around. Next time I would try the same cake mix but baked according to the directions on the package. I lightened it up even more by using a sugar-free cake mix. Pillsbury makes them in both chocolate and yellow cake varieties.
The filling is from this Chocolate Raspberry Torte recipe and I lightened it by using sugar free seedless raspberry jam but made it more "fluffy" by adding cool whip. I didn't use much of it, so later this week I will re-engineer it into a mousse by adding some sugar free pudding.
I sprinkled them with additional powdered sugar substitute and topped them with some fresh raspberries. Here's the finished product, which I am about to devour:
Hope your Valentines Day was as special as mine!
I planned this meal in advance and got the two smallest top sirloin steaks I could find at the local Jewel store. They were each about 3 oz. I also bought 2 lobster tails. I researched the best way to cook lobster tail and while mine didn't look exactly like the picture, it was very delicious. I bought frozen creamed spinach for me (I make a fabulous creamed spinach but hey, I'm not making it for one person if I can get a reasonable facsimile with the nutritional information right on the package!) and lima beans for him. A friend of mine asked me if lima beans are punishment and I told him my husband is a glutton for punishment - at least this kind of punishment!
We had a medium sized baked potato with 1 T of lite sour cream and snipped chives, the steaks cooked to a perfect medium-rare, our veggie of choice and a glass of wine.
Dessert will be our evening snack, which we can eat in exactly 12 minutes from now. I can't wait. I combined a couple of different low-cal/low-carb recipes with an idea I saw on Fox and Friends on Friday morning. They made what they called "whoppie pies" by taking a sheet cake and cutting it into heart shapes with cookie cutters, then putting some kind of filling between two of the heart shapes and sprinkling it with powdered sugar.
In anticipation of just such an occasion, I had already bought some powdered sugar substitute online and it was waiting for me in my pantry. I didn't even know they made such a thing!
The first recipe I used was the cake portion of a S'more Please Trifle I found on the Taste of Home website. I made it in a sheet pan, and I would say this isn't the best method for a thin cake, because it developed cracks, which I had to cut around. Next time I would try the same cake mix but baked according to the directions on the package. I lightened it up even more by using a sugar-free cake mix. Pillsbury makes them in both chocolate and yellow cake varieties.
The filling is from this Chocolate Raspberry Torte recipe and I lightened it by using sugar free seedless raspberry jam but made it more "fluffy" by adding cool whip. I didn't use much of it, so later this week I will re-engineer it into a mousse by adding some sugar free pudding.
I sprinkled them with additional powdered sugar substitute and topped them with some fresh raspberries. Here's the finished product, which I am about to devour:
Sunday, February 13, 2011
A Diabetic's Guide to Eating Out
In the past six weeks I have become an expert at reading food labels and researching nutritional values on just about everything I put into my mouth. But I don’t want to cook 7 days a week, so I need some healthy choices when eating out. What I have been surprised to learn is that some of the assumptions I had made about food were upside down. In this post, I will debunk some common misconceptions I had that you might have too.
MYTH #1 – When eating out while dieting, you’re best sticking to salads.
Sure, if you make a salad yourself and you know what goes into it, you can be pretty sure that it’s going to be a healthy choice. But here are the nutritional values of some restaurant salads:
Macaroni Grill’s Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad: 840 calories, 21.5 WW points, 26 carbs
A better choice: Lasagna al Forno: 670 calories, 16.5 WW points, 40 carbs
Garfields Chicken Quesidilla Salad: 940 calories, 22.5 WW points, 69 carbs
A better choice: Ultimate Nachos (Chicken): 232 calories, 5.5 WW points, 16.39 carbs
MYTH #2 – If you’re dieting you can’t have fast food.
Okay, so I have given up whoppers. BUT .. we do find ourselves on the go, and we have learned that we can have fast food if we limit ourselves to more healthy choices. Here are a couple of examples:
McDonalds – 1 hamburger and half of a small order of fries = 390 calories, 9 WW points and 48 carbs
Taco Bell – 3 hard shell tacos = 510 calories, 11 WW points and 36 carbs
Wendy’s – ¼ pound single with lettuce, tomato only: 410 calories, 9 WW points, 38 carbs
Subway has 4 6” subs with fewer than 300 calories, 6 grams of fat and carb counts ranging from 45-47
Both Wendy’s and Subway have extensive websites listing all nutritional information for their menu items.
MYTH # 3 – Vegetables are better for you than potatoes.
A medium baked potato (about the size of your clenched fist) has 145 calories, 3 WW points and 34 carb. 1tablespoon of sour cream will add 23 calories, no carbs and negligible WW points. Often vegetables at restaurants are swimming in butter, which is far worse than a baked potato with a little sour cream.
MYTH #4 – Avoid pasta and foods with sauces.
Okay, this one’s not really a myth, but go with your eyes open, for example:
Cracker Barrel’s Homestyle Chicken has 1420 calories, 100 carbs and 31 WW points, while their Homemade Chicken ‘n Dumplings have only 390 calories, 9 WW points and 45 carbs.
(also see Macaroni Grill Lasagna vs. Salad reference above, under MYTH #1)
MYTH #5 – Fish is a healthier alternative.
This one will probably seem obvious to you but I thought I’d throw it in. If you’re going to eat fish to be healthier, make sure it’s not fried. Red Lobster’s Admiral’s platter has a whopping 1280 calories and 92 carbs, YIKES. However, their cheddar Bay biscuits, much to my delight, weigh in at only 4 WW points (150 calories and 16 carbs). For bread, that’s darned good and they’re SO yummy! A good choice for a meal at Red Lobster would be pretty much anything that’s not fried and that’s devoid of heavy sauces. Steamed Clams have 430 calories, 10 WW points and 10 carbs. Rock Lobster tail has only 90 calories, 2 WW points and no carbs.
Many restaurant chains are now offering healthier alternatives to the high-fat, high-carb menus they have pushed in the past. My favorite right now is Applebees, and their under 550 calorie selections have WW points right on the menu. They even have low calorie alcoholic beverages.
Finally, a pretty safe choice is a steak house - my two favorite chains right now are Lone Star and Texas Roadhouse. We stick to the top sirloin, which is very lean, and we avoid the rolls at both places. At Lone Star, I love the steamed broccoli in place of a potato, but have to remember to tell them not to put the butter sauce on. Trust me, you don't need it - this broccoli is steamed to perfection and just delicious on its own! At Texas Roadhouse I usually opt for the baked sweet potato, high in vitamin A and pretty WW-friendly if you don't load it. Try it with a tiny bit of the cinnamon butter they give you with the rolls you're not going to eat. :)
I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s time to put away the assumptions you had and start researching before you go out to eat. There are Android aps that you can download to your cell phone for free that have restaurant searches and you can look up nutritional information on the go. The key is (and I’ll be talking about this a lot in upcoming posts) do not deprive yourself or you will fail. Make this a lifestyle change, not a diet. That will inevitably include eating out because we live in a real world and have busy schedules. It is unrealistic to think you can cook every meal for yourself.
Next Post: Snacking to Boost Your Metabolism
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Plan
Everybody needs a plan, and every plan has to start with some basic assumptions. We knew we couldn't follow a straight Weight-Watchers plan because it's not really diabetic-friendly. By that, I mean that we need to eat a certain number of carbs per meal, and that doesn't always correspond with low WW points. Our plan is based on the carb limits set by my doctor: 30-45 carbs each for breakfast and lunch, and between 45 and 60 carbs for dinner, plus a 20 carb snack in the evening.
There are numerous websites out there that will tell you how to calculate the number of WW points you are allowed, based primarily on your gender and weight. Here is the one that I used to calculate ours.
According to the reader comments below the article, the above link is a bit outdated, and one reader cautions that you should never use more than 44 WW points or fewer than 19 WW points. Our number came in between so we decided to use this.
Next I needed a simple way to calculate WW points per food item. I kept digging and found this simple formula for calculating WW points in food and put it into an Excel spreadsheet:
Calories / 50 - (Fiber * 0.2) + (Fat * 0.08)
This means that you will need columns for Calories, Fiber and Fat, plus a column that contains the formula above. If Calories are column C, Fiber is column D and Fat is column E, then your formula in Column E will look like this for each row of your spreadsheet:
=C2/50-(D2*0.2)+(E2*0.08)
Armed with this simple formula (plus a column F for carbs), I am quickly and easily able to calculate the WW points and carbs for each and every item we wish to put into our mouths. I use this spreadsheet to plan meals on a weekly basis, using one sheet for point counts, another for the weekly meal plan, pulling from the point counts sheeet, another for a weekly grocery list, etc. It's installed on every computer in the house, complete with links to recipes and notes we take as we go along.
We are also creatures of habit and comfortable eating the same exact breakfast and lunch every day of our lives. Well, okay, not really, but mostly the same Monday through Friday. Here is my breakfast (Peter's is slightly different):
small can V-8 juice: 30 calories, 1 fiber, 0 fat, 0 WW points, 7 carbs
1 granola bar: 160 calories, 2 fiber, 7 fat, 3 WW points, 22 carbs
black coffee
Okay, it's only 29 carbs and I'm supposed to have 30, but close enough.
Our meal planning spreadsheet contains two rows at the top with each of our breakfasts and lunches, and then the dinners for Monday through Thursday. I grocery shop for 4 meals per week and we eat out on the weekends, except for our Sunday evening meal, which typically consists of some kind of soup made from the week's leftovers. More about that in a future post. Here is a sample dinner - this one's for next Monday:
Surf and Turf (Hey, it's Valentine's day!) with a small baked potato, 1 oz reduced fat sour cream and snipped chives, creamed spinach for me, baby lima beans for him. Total carbs: 48 for me, 45 for him; WW points: 15 for me, 12 for him.
So once we combine our WW points and carbs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, my Monday looks like this:
1291 calories, 29 WW points, and my carbs are within limits for all three meals.
A note about carbs: Foods that are higher in fiber will result in lower carb counts. If a food has more than 5 grams of fiber, you can subtract the fiber number from the carb number to obtain your net carb count. I have used an IF statement in my spreadsheet to come up with this - (IF fiber >5, CARB - FIBER, else, CARB).
Finally, to find nutritional values in foods - easy these days because labeling is required and has been simplified over the years - check out this nifty website, where you can enter virtually any food or ingredient and get the nutritional information. I also have an ap for my android phone so I can check things when we're out.
That's about it ... I'm off to the nail salon, followed by a trip to the grocery store, armed with my grocery list for next week's meal plan!
Next post: Eating Out and Sticking to The Plan
There are numerous websites out there that will tell you how to calculate the number of WW points you are allowed, based primarily on your gender and weight. Here is the one that I used to calculate ours.
According to the reader comments below the article, the above link is a bit outdated, and one reader cautions that you should never use more than 44 WW points or fewer than 19 WW points. Our number came in between so we decided to use this.
Next I needed a simple way to calculate WW points per food item. I kept digging and found this simple formula for calculating WW points in food and put it into an Excel spreadsheet:
Calories / 50 - (Fiber * 0.2) + (Fat * 0.08)
This means that you will need columns for Calories, Fiber and Fat, plus a column that contains the formula above. If Calories are column C, Fiber is column D and Fat is column E, then your formula in Column E will look like this for each row of your spreadsheet:
=C2/50-(D2*0.2)+(E2*0.08)
Armed with this simple formula (plus a column F for carbs), I am quickly and easily able to calculate the WW points and carbs for each and every item we wish to put into our mouths. I use this spreadsheet to plan meals on a weekly basis, using one sheet for point counts, another for the weekly meal plan, pulling from the point counts sheeet, another for a weekly grocery list, etc. It's installed on every computer in the house, complete with links to recipes and notes we take as we go along.
We are also creatures of habit and comfortable eating the same exact breakfast and lunch every day of our lives. Well, okay, not really, but mostly the same Monday through Friday. Here is my breakfast (Peter's is slightly different):
small can V-8 juice: 30 calories, 1 fiber, 0 fat, 0 WW points, 7 carbs
1 granola bar: 160 calories, 2 fiber, 7 fat, 3 WW points, 22 carbs
black coffee
Okay, it's only 29 carbs and I'm supposed to have 30, but close enough.
Our meal planning spreadsheet contains two rows at the top with each of our breakfasts and lunches, and then the dinners for Monday through Thursday. I grocery shop for 4 meals per week and we eat out on the weekends, except for our Sunday evening meal, which typically consists of some kind of soup made from the week's leftovers. More about that in a future post. Here is a sample dinner - this one's for next Monday:
Surf and Turf (Hey, it's Valentine's day!) with a small baked potato, 1 oz reduced fat sour cream and snipped chives, creamed spinach for me, baby lima beans for him. Total carbs: 48 for me, 45 for him; WW points: 15 for me, 12 for him.
So once we combine our WW points and carbs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, my Monday looks like this:
1291 calories, 29 WW points, and my carbs are within limits for all three meals.
A note about carbs: Foods that are higher in fiber will result in lower carb counts. If a food has more than 5 grams of fiber, you can subtract the fiber number from the carb number to obtain your net carb count. I have used an IF statement in my spreadsheet to come up with this - (IF fiber >5, CARB - FIBER, else, CARB).
Finally, to find nutritional values in foods - easy these days because labeling is required and has been simplified over the years - check out this nifty website, where you can enter virtually any food or ingredient and get the nutritional information. I also have an ap for my android phone so I can check things when we're out.
That's about it ... I'm off to the nail salon, followed by a trip to the grocery store, armed with my grocery list for next week's meal plan!
Next post: Eating Out and Sticking to The Plan
Friday, February 11, 2011
The beginning of a journey ...
When I went to see my endocrinologist in December, she asked me if I was thinking about losing weight. She's so sweet that way - she doesn't bludgeon me over the head with it, just friendly little "suggestions" and the occasional guilt trip. Anyway, I said that we had been thinking about trying Nutrisystem D (for Diabetics). She made a face and when I pressed, she said she didn't recommend it - it's too expensive and you don't really learn how to eat right - they do all the cooking for you and you turn into a mindless numb robot who just eats whatever is put in front of you on a plate. And that's what got me to this point in the first place. She recommended Weight Watchers.
Well, I'm really not one for going to meetings and getting weighed in front of a bunch of people. No, not me. But it got me to thinking, and being the queen of Google, I decided to see what information is online and do it on my own.
So the first of the year, we embarked on this journey to discover a healthier way of eating that would lead to weight loss and (more importantly) lower our blood sugar.
Because of my previously mentioned proclivity to exposing secrets like how much I weigh in public meetings, I wasn't about to actually JOIN Weight-Watchers. But I thought I needed some accountability so I began posting our evening meals on Facebook.
We've been doing this for nearly 6 weeks now, and numerous people have asked me for recipes, tips and secrets. As long as the secret you're asking me ISN'T my weight, I'm happy to share, and decided to start this blog.
So if you're interested, check back in the coming days and weeks and as time permits, I will blog my thoughts, recipes, meal plans and other tidbits so that if you're a meeting-phobe like me, you can join me in secret.
Happy trails!
Well, I'm really not one for going to meetings and getting weighed in front of a bunch of people. No, not me. But it got me to thinking, and being the queen of Google, I decided to see what information is online and do it on my own.
So the first of the year, we embarked on this journey to discover a healthier way of eating that would lead to weight loss and (more importantly) lower our blood sugar.
Because of my previously mentioned proclivity to exposing secrets like how much I weigh in public meetings, I wasn't about to actually JOIN Weight-Watchers. But I thought I needed some accountability so I began posting our evening meals on Facebook.
We've been doing this for nearly 6 weeks now, and numerous people have asked me for recipes, tips and secrets. As long as the secret you're asking me ISN'T my weight, I'm happy to share, and decided to start this blog.
So if you're interested, check back in the coming days and weeks and as time permits, I will blog my thoughts, recipes, meal plans and other tidbits so that if you're a meeting-phobe like me, you can join me in secret.
Happy trails!
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