Last night we had one of the special dinners. Seafood shells. Cheese stuffed shells (one of my favorites) but instead of marinara sauce, they are covered in an orange sauce with chunks of salmon, scallops and shrimp. I'm not sure what the sauce is but it's yummy. I would get a bite of shells and one of the seafood pieces together for a delicious combination. John said it was just alright. Weird.
Speaking of John, he wanted me to make sure to say that he's lost about 5.5 pounds in three weeks. It's three weeks for him because he went to India during the second week which eliminated whatever he lost the first week.
Oh, so the oh-so-subtle product placements on Biggest Loser are amusing, to say the least. I don't do gum (cow cud, anyone?) but I must admit to agreeing with most of the others. The frozen steamed vegetable bags are brilliant. I love the single serve bags for Nicky's meals. They have broccoli with cheese sauce that I throw some rice into for a complete meal for him in five minutes. But it's still funny watching the monotone line reading by the contestants.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Scientific Proof!
You may recall a few years ago when studies were published linking sleep deprivation to weight loss. Here's one article on that: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-12-06-sleep-weight-gain_x.htm. It basically states that lack of sleep messes with the levels of two hormones produced by the hypothalamus: one which makes you feel hungry and one which tells you you're full. Why the interest, you ask? Well, Catie woke up at 1 last night and after I got her fed and put back to sleep, Nicky woke up. And couldn't settle down until 3. Even after he fell back asleep, he kept crying out in his sleep. So I got to revisit Nosleepland. And it was noticeable this morning in my desire to graze. I kept wandering into the kitchen. I appeased the raging hormones (not just a woman's excuse anymore!) with skim milk pudding, a bite of Nicky's banana, a bit of Nicky's pear and so on. Not an excuse. Just an observation.
Lunch today was the pasta salad primavera with tuna. Another observation. I wonder if DTG ever considered substituting salmon for some of their meals with tuna. When pregnant, I made that substitution and found that salmon salad sandwiches are quite yummy. I bet the salmon would taste wonderful in the pasta salad. I added some of Nicky's spinach into my salad as a little more greenery. Yes, Nicky's spinach. My son. Sigh. Won't eat sandwiches. Only meat consumed is chicken nuggets and sausage (the long link kind). But he will eat almost any fruit or vegetable you give him. Yesterday his lunch was rice (made with a bit of chicken boullion for flavor) with spinach and a bit of parmesan cheese. I would recommend DTG use more spinach in their meals. It is also quite yummy.
Now, to bed. Perchance to sleep. I gave up on dreaming when we had our first child!
Lunch today was the pasta salad primavera with tuna. Another observation. I wonder if DTG ever considered substituting salmon for some of their meals with tuna. When pregnant, I made that substitution and found that salmon salad sandwiches are quite yummy. I bet the salmon would taste wonderful in the pasta salad. I added some of Nicky's spinach into my salad as a little more greenery. Yes, Nicky's spinach. My son. Sigh. Won't eat sandwiches. Only meat consumed is chicken nuggets and sausage (the long link kind). But he will eat almost any fruit or vegetable you give him. Yesterday his lunch was rice (made with a bit of chicken boullion for flavor) with spinach and a bit of parmesan cheese. I would recommend DTG use more spinach in their meals. It is also quite yummy.
Now, to bed. Perchance to sleep. I gave up on dreaming when we had our first child!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Boooooo
Well, not going to delay.
Week 5 Beginning Weight: 201.4
Week 5 Ending Weight: 200.6
Week 5 Weight Loss: 0.8
Total Weight Loss: 8.8
So hypotheses are either I plateau'd (plateaued? plateaud?) or it was just one of those weeks. I really hope the latter. You know how everyone says they don't have time to exercise? Well, I don't have time to exercise. At least, not formally. Informally, I exercise most of the day!
Dinner last night was a substitution for me, stuffed shells. John had the vegetable ravioli which he liked. Particularly because of the chocolate mousse which comes with it. (Add that to the list of recipes which may "disappear" from the DTG kitchen) I really liked lunch today. I'm a fan of hummus. Today, in order to make sure the ratio of pita to hummus was even (have I mentioned I'm a math major?), I sliced the pitas and spread the hummus on them. Thus, there was an optimal pita/hummus combination.
A story today about what type of diet helps you lose weight. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/25/best.diet/index.html) After following thousands of people on different diets, they determined if the calorie counts were the same, the weight loss was the same. It didn't matter if they did high-carb, high-fat, high-protein or low-fat. So basically, eat what you like. Just don't eat so much of it!
Week 5 Beginning Weight: 201.4
Week 5 Ending Weight: 200.6
Week 5 Weight Loss: 0.8
Total Weight Loss: 8.8
So hypotheses are either I plateau'd (plateaued? plateaud?) or it was just one of those weeks. I really hope the latter. You know how everyone says they don't have time to exercise? Well, I don't have time to exercise. At least, not formally. Informally, I exercise most of the day!
Dinner last night was a substitution for me, stuffed shells. John had the vegetable ravioli which he liked. Particularly because of the chocolate mousse which comes with it. (Add that to the list of recipes which may "disappear" from the DTG kitchen) I really liked lunch today. I'm a fan of hummus. Today, in order to make sure the ratio of pita to hummus was even (have I mentioned I'm a math major?), I sliced the pitas and spread the hummus on them. Thus, there was an optimal pita/hummus combination.
A story today about what type of diet helps you lose weight. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/25/best.diet/index.html) After following thousands of people on different diets, they determined if the calorie counts were the same, the weight loss was the same. It didn't matter if they did high-carb, high-fat, high-protein or low-fat. So basically, eat what you like. Just don't eat so much of it!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I Like To Move It
There's no aerobic instructor as demanding as a 3 year old. If you've never seen Madagascar, I would recommend renting it just for the song. It's a very happy, hoppy, danceable number. Anyway, after dancing around the room four times to the Thomas the Tank Engine theme, he started singing "I like to move it, move it". So I loaded the DVD and we listened to the credits a couple times. My dancing, however, was judged lacking as I was told to "jump higher." Sigh.
I probably needed to after last night's dinner. Italian chicken, green beans, cous cous pilaf and the largest piece of rosemary bread this side of Macaroni Grill. Once again, I express amazement that we get this amount of food to eat. John enjoys chicken and could eat it every night. I realize that red meat isn't as healthy but I admit that I miss it. I did really like the cous cous pilaf. I had cous cous years and years (okay, decades) ago in a foreign language class and thought it was quite nasty. I'm glad to see that it was a result of poor preparation on the part of the teacher. It was a french class and not a home ec class after all.
Now it's been five weeks and we're starting the menu cycle again. It will be interesting to see if the enjoyment of the food is more than just the novelty.
I probably needed to after last night's dinner. Italian chicken, green beans, cous cous pilaf and the largest piece of rosemary bread this side of Macaroni Grill. Once again, I express amazement that we get this amount of food to eat. John enjoys chicken and could eat it every night. I realize that red meat isn't as healthy but I admit that I miss it. I did really like the cous cous pilaf. I had cous cous years and years (okay, decades) ago in a foreign language class and thought it was quite nasty. I'm glad to see that it was a result of poor preparation on the part of the teacher. It was a french class and not a home ec class after all.
Now it's been five weeks and we're starting the menu cycle again. It will be interesting to see if the enjoyment of the food is more than just the novelty.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Hard Habits to Start
Way back when I started this program (a month ago), I talked about it taking 28 days to learn new habits. Well, it's been over 28 days. Already. Time flies. Anyway, have my habits changed? Let's see. On Saturday, I went to the commissary and got a bit hungry while I was there. I ate a banana on the way home. (to the shock of everyone who knows me. Yes, I eat bananas now) I have yogurt for a mid-afternoon snack. So I think that my new habits have kicked in. That and the fact that I really, really hope to crack 200 this week.
Lunch today was a Mirkin Burger. A vegetarian burger with lentils and other things which I'm unsure of. It was pretty solid, unexpectedly so for vegetarian I thought. In keeping with the new habits, going to the food court for Nicky and then Mrs. Fields for him a frosted cookie (we were on our way to the doctor so he got a treat) did not break me. Tempt me, yes, when faced with TCBY. (It IS the country's best yogurt, after all)
So 28 days later, unlike the zombie movie, I am not eating any old brain that I see. I'm sticking with healthy brains.
Lunch today was a Mirkin Burger. A vegetarian burger with lentils and other things which I'm unsure of. It was pretty solid, unexpectedly so for vegetarian I thought. In keeping with the new habits, going to the food court for Nicky and then Mrs. Fields for him a frosted cookie (we were on our way to the doctor so he got a treat) did not break me. Tempt me, yes, when faced with TCBY. (It IS the country's best yogurt, after all)
So 28 days later, unlike the zombie movie, I am not eating any old brain that I see. I'm sticking with healthy brains.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
But Whyyyyyyy
Okay, so a couple of questions/observations/complaints. However you want to take them. So first, the salmon dinner last night came with a pineapple crisp. Pineapple pieces with granola and sunflower seeds on it. Quite yummy. But I always pick out the sad little brown raisins. I guess the pineapple juice pickles or pines them more or something. So q/o/c #1 is why are the raisins a light brown.
Next topic, oranges. I like oranges. They've got a lot going for them. However, they are not the most low-maintenance of fruit. Most of the breakfasts and lunches are very portable. A spoon or fork is needed at time but that is all. An orange, however, requires additional necessary equipment. If you don't have fingernails, you've got to have a knife. Now knives are kind of difficult to put in a sack lunch. We went through a lot of cutlery before we figured that out. Anyway, you also need facilities for washing your hands afterwards. Maybe a little lemon water. A nice hot toddy. Therefore q/o/c #2 is why include oranges instead of another easy fruit like grapes, peaches, or plums. I understand why bananas are not included. Most people don't like black bananas which is what a refrigerated banana ends up.
Well, time to wrap this up for now. Or is it . . .
To Be Continued . . . .
Next topic, oranges. I like oranges. They've got a lot going for them. However, they are not the most low-maintenance of fruit. Most of the breakfasts and lunches are very portable. A spoon or fork is needed at time but that is all. An orange, however, requires additional necessary equipment. If you don't have fingernails, you've got to have a knife. Now knives are kind of difficult to put in a sack lunch. We went through a lot of cutlery before we figured that out. Anyway, you also need facilities for washing your hands afterwards. Maybe a little lemon water. A nice hot toddy. Therefore q/o/c #2 is why include oranges instead of another easy fruit like grapes, peaches, or plums. I understand why bananas are not included. Most people don't like black bananas which is what a refrigerated banana ends up.
Well, time to wrap this up for now. Or is it . . .
To Be Continued . . . .
Friday, February 20, 2009
A Few Minutes with Me
I had the turkey ham salad on pretzel roll today. What I love about this meal is that the salad is mustard based. The roll is nice and solid with a good flavor. Combined with a side of lentil chili this makes a yummy lunch.
Interesting article on CNN today. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/20/journey.giyen.irpt/index.html
It talks about reaching the 10 pound milestone and how that affects the dieter psychologically. It also talks about recommended weight loss goals. I like this article because I get so annoyed with those pop-ups (that for some reason my pop-up blocker won't block. Traitor.) that talk about losing 20 pounds a month by doing this one simple thing. I don't know what the one simple thing is because I'm not about to click on it. I suspect it has something to do with the magical, miraculous Acai berry. There is no magical weight-loss berry. You can't take a pill and lose 10 pounds while you sleep. At least, not that I'm aware of. Oh, other than the Doctor Who episode when you lost 1 pound of fat every night because the offspring of an alien hatched from the pill you took and used the fat to form its body. Anyway, no quick fixes, people! Losing weight is about lifestyles, not tricks.
Sometimes people ask me if they would lose more weight on the low-carb plan. At which point, I ask them if they eat a low-carb menu now. In my not-so-humble opinion, switching to low-carb for fast weight loss is yet another trick. If you don't eat pasta, rice, potatoes, etc, do the low-carb plan. You'll be very happy with your half roasted chicken, ribs and catfish. But if you normally eat carbs, going on the low-carb plan will not teach you anything. Do the menu plan that you would cook for yourself (if, of course, you had the time to shop, cook, and clean).
At this point you may be saying, what makes her such an expert? If she knows so much, why does she need Diet to Go to help her lose weight. Remember, I've done this before. Diet to Go helped me lose over 50 pounds and I kept it off for almost two years. No roller coaster, no rebound. Just babies : ) I came back to Diet to Go to give myself a kick in the pants. I've got pregnancy eating habits that need to be broken. And I knew that they would be able to get me back on the track of proper eating.
Whoops, that's the bell. For your homework tonight, read CNN article mentioned above and write a 15 page paper about your favorite flavor of jell-o. Class dismissed.
Interesting article on CNN today. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/20/journey.giyen.irpt/index.html
It talks about reaching the 10 pound milestone and how that affects the dieter psychologically. It also talks about recommended weight loss goals. I like this article because I get so annoyed with those pop-ups (that for some reason my pop-up blocker won't block. Traitor.) that talk about losing 20 pounds a month by doing this one simple thing. I don't know what the one simple thing is because I'm not about to click on it. I suspect it has something to do with the magical, miraculous Acai berry. There is no magical weight-loss berry. You can't take a pill and lose 10 pounds while you sleep. At least, not that I'm aware of. Oh, other than the Doctor Who episode when you lost 1 pound of fat every night because the offspring of an alien hatched from the pill you took and used the fat to form its body. Anyway, no quick fixes, people! Losing weight is about lifestyles, not tricks.
Sometimes people ask me if they would lose more weight on the low-carb plan. At which point, I ask them if they eat a low-carb menu now. In my not-so-humble opinion, switching to low-carb for fast weight loss is yet another trick. If you don't eat pasta, rice, potatoes, etc, do the low-carb plan. You'll be very happy with your half roasted chicken, ribs and catfish. But if you normally eat carbs, going on the low-carb plan will not teach you anything. Do the menu plan that you would cook for yourself (if, of course, you had the time to shop, cook, and clean).
At this point you may be saying, what makes her such an expert? If she knows so much, why does she need Diet to Go to help her lose weight. Remember, I've done this before. Diet to Go helped me lose over 50 pounds and I kept it off for almost two years. No roller coaster, no rebound. Just babies : ) I came back to Diet to Go to give myself a kick in the pants. I've got pregnancy eating habits that need to be broken. And I knew that they would be able to get me back on the track of proper eating.
Whoops, that's the bell. For your homework tonight, read CNN article mentioned above and write a 15 page paper about your favorite flavor of jell-o. Class dismissed.
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