The Learning Curve

I guess I am a slow learner.

Having finally realized there is a learning curve for everything, I am free from the bondage of perfection.

Looking back I can see now that I gave up too quickly on many things.

Things that I've since returned to and found to be wonderful.

I missed out on them all these years.

The upside to my perfection is that I didn't continue to struggle with things for the wrong reason.

Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is 'give up'.

Having the wisdom to discern is key.

So treat yourself like a well loved friend or child.

I am often a cheerleader or offer the figurative cup of cold water to people in my life or who cross my path.

Giving myself the same kind treatment is a positive thing.

Give it a try.  You just might be amazed in the difference it can make in your life.

Just A Thought

MAYBE

.....it's not what we eat that matters.....

But what we don't eat .

LSMFT: Another Great Classic Christmas TV Commercial

Not sure what to get someone for Christmas?

When I was growing up everyone smoked.

Everyone who was anyone on TV smoked. The old movies are rife with it. It was glamorized--like alcohol--so it's no wonder there were so many smokers back in the day.

My parents smoked. I hated it. And I determined in my young heart I would never smoke.

When mom and dad would light up after every meal it gagged me to watch them put their ash in their plate. GAG.

I had chronic earaches as a child and I feel sure it was related to constantly breathing smoke. I smoked vicariously.

Today I can't be anywhere near cigarette smoke. I immediately get a sore throat.

I'm so thankful that nowadays we have laws that limit where people can smoke in public places.

And I'm thankful for the education programs that have informed the public of the dangers of smoking which has led to its decline.  It's a shame we don't target the dangers of alcohol and drugs with the same gusto.

I make no moral judgment on those who do choose to smoke, though I do think it is an expensive, harmful, wasteful habit that increases your risk of lung cancer.

BTW--LSMFT is short for "Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco".

Another Pound Lost and Sometimes Simple is Best: Strawberries

 Another Pound Lost

Weigh in today revealed--ta da--I've lost another pound, totaling 21.  Nine more to go and I'll hit 30 which I think is where I want to stay put.

How will I maintain?  By doing exactly what I have been doing thus far.  I love my new way of eating.  It makes sense and it fits the way I live.  The foods I eat are foods I really love .  And I never go hungry like I did on Weight Watchers.

Key for me is eating small amounts often.  If you've been struggling, try eating smaller amounts every three hours or so.  Instead of eating 3 times a day, eat 6.  I used to think snacking was a bad habit to get into.  But planned snacks designed to meet your nutritional needs as well as the desires of your appetite are beneficial.

Assign a set amount of calories per meal and per snack.  Don't obsess but do try to stay close to that number.  In a day's time a 5% overage won't do much damage...but 10% might.  

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SOMETIMES SIMPLE IS BEST

Having a sweet tooth I need a fix everyday.  When fruit can fill that need, all the better.

This summer strawberries have been abundant, low cost and flavorful.  Still on sale  here, so I bought some, wondering how they'd taste this late in the season.  (They weren't local, from California.)

Wow.  Sliced with a sprinkle of sugar, they were incredible.  But I wanted to add a little something.  No shortcake on hand, no vanilla ice cream either.  Not in the mood for fat free Cool Whip on them--these days I'm eating my CW with coffee powder and Heath mini's added.

Enter the light sour cream.  Oh my goodness!  Wonderful pairing.  I ate a full cup I'm sure of berries with a tablespoon of light sour cream.  I must say, that  tasted better to me than the other options because the good taste of the berries came through.

Give it a try.  A big serving of wonderful fruit and a decadent tasting dessert, all in one.  What's not to like?

Note:  I let my berries sit on the counter about half an hour to take the chill off--I think the flavor is more prominent when they are warmish.  Sort of  like cheese--most cheeses taste better if they are room temp.

Another Dessert Option

If you have a sweet tooth and are trying to lose or maintain weight loss you can still indulge.  You can eat that banana split.  But not everyday.  And not often.  It should be on your eat once in a while list.

However there are sweets you can eat daily and still make your goal.  Last post had one and here's another.

You'll need:

• 1 Weight Watchers Latte Bar (90 Calories, 1 point)
• 6 tablespoons of fat free Cool Whip (45 calories)
• 2 bite size Heath Bar mini's (86 calories)

Crumble your mini's while they're still in the wrapping.

Place your Cool Whip in a bowl and sprinkle with the Heath crumbs.  Unwrap your frozen treat bar and proceed to dip each bite in the candy bar topping.  It's not only delicious, it is fun to eat.  And tastes decadent, all for a mere 221 calories.

Typically I'm not a fan of fat free products, but there are some tolerable ones out there. For use as a topping--not mixed into a recipe-- I do believe I prefer the taste of the fat free Cool Whip over the reduced and regular fat ones.

And choosing the fat free  Cool Whip allows me to save my fat calories for healthier fat options--like good old peanut butter.

Hmmm...now I'm thinking...I love peanut butter pie.  Wonder what some peanut butter mixed in with some fat free Cool Whip would taste like? Peanut butter mousse?  Think I'll give that a try soon.  And if I sprinkled it with a few graham cracker crumbs it might even pass as peanut butter chiffon pie.  Wait...if I add some fat free cream cheese--and the ideas keep coming.

Being a foodie and dieting can work--we just have to be a bit more creative, but isn't that part of what being a foodie is all about?  Working with food, dreaming about recipes is as important to  a foodie as eating.

We don't have to give up the foods we love and enjoy to lose or maintain losses--we can figure out how to fit them in with a little thought and practice.

Jello One More Way

Every afternoon the sweet tooth hits.  Today I was craving marshmallows...the big fluffy ones.  But in my pantry I only had the minis.  I knew better than to start eating them.  It's way too easy to consume a lot of calories and never begin to feel it in your stomach..they are like eating air.

I had those sugar free gelatin cups in the fridge from last week.  Remember the post about jello cubed on ice cream as a substitute for gummy bears on ice cream?

The brain switched on and I chopped up a jello cup into a bowl, topped it with about 15 mini marshmallows, then a dollop of Cool Whip Lite.  Perfect.  Satisfied my marshmallow craving and my sweet tooth for very few calories and fat. 

Granted it was empty calories, but when you want marshmallows it's better to eat a few than to eat around the craving.  In my experience I just end up eating a ton of stuff before I cave and eat what I crave--better to eat it in the first place.  Use your creativity to feed the craving in a less damaging way.

As a bonus I was able to use one more gelatin cup.  My supply, which started out as 16, is down to 5.

The Pros and Cons of 100 Calorie Packaging

100 calorie packs have their place.  But if your choice happens to be a food trigger, eating a 100 calorie pack will likely lead to a binge and you eating multiple 100 calorie packs.

The best use, imo, of 100 calorie packs is to meet a need using a non-triger food.

Say you have a sweet tooth, need a sweet treat daily mid-afternoon.  Here's where your 100 calorie non-trigger food can do a world of good.

I almost always desire something sweet after lunch.  Enter the Hostess Cupcake 100 calorie pack.  Three miniature Hostess cakes plus a cup of Earl Grey with splash of skim milk. Totally satisfying.

 Because Hostess cupcakes are not a trigger food for me I am not tempted to eat beyond one pack.  As a plus the Hostess 100 calorie packs have a good bit of fiber--4 grams--which is a benefit to stave off hunger.

100 calorie packs can be your friend or a foe.  Choose wisely.

Update

Not much to say here.  Still eating healthy and losing, albeit slowly.  Had some special eating including Mother's Day.  But the scale is going down, down, down, in two tenths increments...I don't count it though until it is a full pound, so I'm still at 11 pounds though I've lost more than 11...should be at 12 soon.

The thing that surprises me most is that the scale is down each time I weigh.  For the past 7 years it was down, then up considerably, then down, then up.  I kept losing the same pound or two over and over never making any progress.  There was no incentive to continue dieting.

My biggest change this time compared to the recent past is lower caloric intake overall, lots of fiber and trading out some foods for fat free foods.  Guessing my body is burning my fat since I'm cutting out some of the fat.  I still eat good fat, but small portions. 

I've learned to like mustard on my sandwiches as much as I like mayonnaise.  I haven't found a reduced or low fat mayo that is worth eating to me, so I go for the mustard.  Today I had a delicious sandwich for lunch--what could be simpler?--of 2 slices of 50 calorie high fiber bread, an ounce and a half of smoked turkey breast, a wedge of LCL cheese, lettuce, a sprinkling of dill weed and a smear of mustard.  All for 200 calories. 

Planning to report 12 pounds lost very soon.

Product Review: Wheat Thins Fiber Selects

Image from the Nabisco website.

These were on sale this week 2 for $4. Now,  I love the Wheat Thins Flat Breads spread with Laughing Cow Light (4 flatbreads + 1 wedge LCL is 155 calories).  But when I noticed that the fiber selects have 5 grams of fiber in a serving--15 crackers for 120 calories --and a good ingredient list I decided it was a great time to try them.


I'm glad I did...they are very tasty alone as well as with the LCL.  And the extra fiber is a giant plus.  (2 flat-breads have less than one gram of fiber, so my serving of 4 would have less than 2 grams of fiber.)


Alternately I use reduced fat cream cheese seasoned with lots of garlic powder instead of the LCL--it saves a lot of cash with the cream cheese costing about $1.25 for 8 ounces while a box of LCL is 3 cents shy of $3 for 6 ounces ( 8 wedges ).


I enjoy the French Onion LCL too and I imagine I could add some dry french onion dip powder or some onion powder and a little powdered beef bouillon for a knock off with about the same calorie tally.


I use the reduced fat cream cheese  which is 35 calories for a half ounce.  LCL wedges are 5/8 ounce, so the reduced fat cream cheese is about 5 calories more than LCL.


One could combine some full fat cream cheese with some fat free cream cheese for 50 calories an ounce/25 calories a half ounce, thereby rendering  5/8 ounce about the same calories as the LCL.


Lots of choices for not a lot of calories or fat and some good fiber as well as taste satisfaction.


Note:  The WTFS come in two flavors--I purchased the one pictured above-- 'garden vegetable'.  Also, it's best to eat whole foods but having a couple of options--one sweet, one savory-- for those times when you are hungry for snack food will help you stay on course and not eat so much junk food.

Next post I'll tell you how to save some money on flavored water.

What I Am Learning

"If at first you don't succeed, try try again".

Weight loss is hard.  Maintenance is even harder.

There is always something new to learn, something new to try, good examples to follow.

Cravings:  When I eat very few processed foods my cravings are almost non-existent.

Hunger:  When I eat plenty of fiber my stomach feels fuller faster and takes longer to empty.  It takes less food to fill me up and I don't feel empty very quickly, hence I am able to eat less food and less often.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, a good example is priceless.

I have discovered a good example...someone who has been and continues to be successful losing and keeping her weight off.  I have been reading this blog:  My Healthy Living Through Weight Control .  Here is what I have learned from this blogger:

• Keep it simple.  She and her husband eat simple, easy to prepare foods.
• I have been eating too much food and too much fat overall, hence too many calories.  This blogger is 7 inches taller than I am  and  I was eating twice what she eats in a day,  my exercise is nil while hers is routine--and I was expecting to lose weight.  Doh!

I set myself a goal of 4 weeks to try out the changes that I have incorporated into my eating.  Every change is something I can do 'forever' with minimal fuss, inconvenience or expense.  At the end of 4 weeks I will post my results. 

If you need some insight or a new dose of motivation, head over to My Healthy Living Through Weight Control and read this post: What About That Sandwich?  The blogger makes a lot of good, down to earth points.  That's what we need isn't it?--a down to earth approach?  For sure, it's  what I need .  You can read all your experts and understand the ins and outs of it all, but nothing beats simplicity and a  good old down to earth strategy that works and is workable.