Yesterday's FiberGourmet Pasta Lunch and Today's Big Fat Greek Breakfast

I did okay with eating yesterday (better than today, turned out, as I went nuts with Mexican at lunch today).

Here are two photo peeks at my intake. Yesterday's lunch: FiberGourmet Rotini with Rao's Marinara sauce and imported Italian parmesan (grated). Coconut Water. Organic arugula with parmesan and EVOO. Simple and  yummy.

Here's today's first meal, which I dubbed "My Big Fat Greek Breakfast". I was really surprised that when I logged it into my Sparkpeople Nutrition tracker, it was 636 calories. I've been eating HUGE breakfasts that topped 800. I think this was cause I had less bread and butter and I used egg whites instead of whole eggs and I didn't have a caloric side beverage, as I had been doing all week. Anyway, what's on there: Big plate--egg white omelette topped with chopped raw tomato, red bell pepper, feta cheese, and oregano. To the left: raw cucumber with red wine vinegar and EVOO and oregano. An orange. Rye toast with imported English butter. Cucumber slice-filled water, chilled. Coffee. Filling, yummy, with 3.5 fruits and veggy servings. Worth the calories and time to fix it.

A bloggy pal and I are trying to figure out what to do as a summer challenge. When we sort it out, we'll let you know.

Have a health-filled holiday weekend, folks. Remember those military brave ones who died protecting our liberties...

Full body photo: What 267 lbs looks like on me.

I'm trying to have a better progress log in my own records. So, while most of my life I avoided taking pics if I could (even when I was slim and young)--cause I was convinced I was the ugliest thing my family ever birthed  and was and am self-conscious about my tetracycline-damaged teeth (and won't spend oodles of thousands for Lumineers unless someone wants to donate them, hah)--I'm braving more pics nowadays, at least of my bust upwards.


Sunday, we went shopping for organic produce (expensive, ouch, but tasty) and I had hubby take a couple of full body shots. Sigh.

All bodies are different in HOW they carry weight, but there is a point after which you cannot disguise that you're obese. At my weight of 267, there's no hiding it. It's there, it's out, it's unavoidable. And I carry it in apple fashion (round and in the gut bigtime). I noticed that the bit of weight I lost lately I lost in a different way than I used to before menopause hit me last year. It's going from my hips, not my waist. My waist was where I'd lose it first (and boobs). Now, it's hips. That sucks. Makes me apple-ier. Urk.

Anyway, here goes:

It's not just my food that's gone more natural and chemical-free. I've been moving to more natural hair care--hence my curls. I haven't blown-dried/straightened my hair since Nov of 2009. I try to use products that skew heavily on naturals (although with my allergy issues, some of those naturals are allergenic for me). Now, if only I could get FATTER HAIR and THINNER BODY from my quest for more natural ways. :)

Well, as always, it's up to me. Always has been. No matter the obstacles--menopause, middle age, hypothyroidism, autoimmune conditions, allergies, budget, plain old procrastinating lazy ass ways--it's up to me.


And your fat fight is up to you.

Happy fatfighting on this warm Wednesday....

DragonFire Factoid: Your Beverage May Be Making Your Kids (and You) Fat

The truth sometimes hurts, folks, so just be aware that many of the nutrition stats are far from pretty. According to Zinczenko and Goulding, beverages now make up nearly 25 percent of the average American’s daily caloric intake—a number that has almost doubled over the past 40 years. From coffee drinks to juices and from expensive waters to sports drinks, many health experts have pointed the finger at the beverage industry for the rapidly climbing rates of obesity in this country, especially among children.

--from Diet Blog's "Drink This, Not That Review"

If you watched the eye-opening video I recommended in a previous bloggy entry, you already know what Dr. Lustig thinks about sugary drinks (including fruit juices) and childhood obesity. Well, it's not just kids....

A Highly Recommended 90 Minute Video, and there goes my morning o.j. !

If you haven't watched it yet, and if you are a fatfighter who has felt out of control and ravenous, like you're always hungry, well, watch the video I link to at the end of this post. It's 90 minutes, but on a lazy evening, leave the TV alone and watch it.

It's got a lot of science (but trust me, it's relevant and it's eye-opening). In fact, I'm glad this physician--Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco-- took the time to go through each of the metabolic processes. It makes so much sense by the time he's done, it's like an epiphany. It's one, interestingly, that you can see manifested in Lyn from Escape from Obesity as she did MediFast (which is not a program I'm crazy about on paper, as the caloric level is really low and the food is overprocessed and is not like a real-life plan that's livable, though certainly it gives quick results). I think she eats BETTER when she makes her own lower carb meals chockablock with nice and colorful veggies. :)


What's important is what it does to the appetite (calm it) when sugar/fructose/HFCS are eliminated or reduced drastically. 


I also like how he exlains WHY exercise is beneficial to weight loss, and it's not about "calories out." I really, really like how incrementally he shows how Metabolic Syndrome can be traced to the ingestion of fructose/sucrose/HFCS in increasing quantities.

And even if you think you already know all this stuff, maybe you haven't seen it presented just like this:


Sugar, The Bitter Truth



This response to the video is critical of it, so I offer the link as a counterpoint.

This post has a very nice summary of the video and its own conclusions.

So, tomorrow, I'll eat the orange instead of juicing it. :D

Breakfast Pic and Particulars: Western Plus Scramble Feast and

Breakfast today was 787 calories, that's 341 fewer than yesterday's total of 1128.  I'd ideally like to get breakfast to 500 to 600, but this is a drop in the right direction. I still kept up the fiber and fruits and veggies and there's lots of protein. I do better with a breakfast with protein and fiber and I crave fruit in the am--the color and flavor.

Here's a pic, taken hastily as my eggs were getting cold:

What's in the pic, other than my toes?

--On large plate: a Western Scramble Plus--onions, green bell pepper, tomato, extra lean Boar's Head lower sodium ham, 2% Kraft sharp cheddar shredded cheese. Slice of Ezekiel Bread toasted with imported English butter. Half a tomato with EVOO drizzle.

-- on the left: Mushrooms sauteed in some Smart Balance with a tiny splash of white wine.

-- upper left: Papaya, fresh, with lime

--fresh orange juice, chilled

--fresh coffee, Rwanda Buf Mills

So delicious. And adding that bit of wine to the mushrooms felt absolutely luxurious. Mmmmm.

Hope you're able to enjoy a healthful breakfast (hopefully with fewer calories than mine), full of nutrients, fiber, and great soul-satisfying flavor.

Happy Friday...weekend's almost here!!!!!

Following Directions is Important: It wasn't food poisoning, it was "gentle detoxing effects"

Well, I did think it was unusual that, while I had a major day-long case of the uber-poopies (aka really liquidy projectile diarrhea) earlier this week, I didn't FEEL sick or nauseous or anything. Just "runsy".

It wasn't gastroenteritis. No, not food poisoning. It was the effect of not following directions for HealthForce Naturals Vitamineral Green. (See a post a few days before on my buying superfoods, pic included.)

I read another blogger's account of his major poopsies with it at the recommended daily dosage (eventual dosage, as the company suggests starting with less than a teaspoon--this being the advice I didn't follow). And a review on amazon refers to the "detox" bowel effect, too.

Heh. Gentle detoxing. I had to vaseline my hiney-hole cause it was so irritated. Gentle?

Anyway, instead of starting with the low dose, I started with the "serving" dose of one heaping tablespoon. And I did that TWICE that day.

Now, I know better. I will be careful. :)

So, a heads up for anyone wanting to try this product. Start small or beware the bowel boom. Unless, of course, you're majorly constipated, then, hey, go for it, two heaping tablespoonsful.

The rest of the day's intake

Okay, I woke up a bit ago (I'm sleeping vampire time again) and wanted to update on how I finished up my day after that HUGE and yumsy breakfast I documented in a previous post.

For my first snack, which ended up being lunch, when all is said and done: I had 3/4 of an Oskri coconut pineapple bar with some Chocoperfection sugar-free dark chocolate. (Like having a high-fiber, semi-organic, non-sugary Mounds bar, really), a cup of cherries (amazing, so crunchy and perfect), a wedge of watermelon (and a very good one, too, juicy and supersweet, heaven), and a tablespoon of Vitamineral Green mixed in water (before I read about the starting lower or have the runs effect).

For Supper: A cup of Dr. McDougall's vegan Black Bean soup (the one in the box) with a cup of boiled calabaza squash (mmmm, makes me think of my mom). I put EVOO on the soup, drizzling.  On the side, I had the "junk" item of the day, imo: tortilla chips. I had some Eat Smart salsa and Eat Smart Salsa con Queso with it. I also had some home brewed iced tea (Twining's Orange Pekoe).

Calories for Thursday:  2324
I was low on zinc, folate, calcium, magnesium, and potassium (though I got really close for a change, due to the fruits and coconut water and calabaza no doubt. I didn't take my usual supplements, so I gotta keep on track tomorrow with the zinc and calcium in particular.

With all that, I got on the scale and was down a pound and change from the day before. Hey, okay.

Today, I'm aiming for 2000 cals.  Root for me, k?

I'm rooting for you!

Need a bit of inspiration today? Read some successful weight loss stories...and gasp at the huge breakfast I ate (confession time)

Here are some big loser-winners over at Good Housekeeping.  To see some success stories of ladies who lost 100 pounds or MORE, go here.  Here's a snapshot of the eating plan of someone who lost 122 lbs (no big surprises here on what she ate, right?).

This lady lost 227 lbs. Here's a quick summary of her eating and exercise plan. Her after picture is amazing. Whoa.

No big revelations. It takes work (ie exercise) and planning (ie lighter meals) and consistency.

Okay, so I'm a bit jealous. :)

I had a HUGE, HUGE breakfast. (Woke up ravenous after missing dinner due to sheer pooped-out-edness.) It consisted of healthful stuff, just TOO much of it:

1. Greek scramble made with fresh chopped onions, green peppers, tomatoes (about a cup and a half of veggies) with 2 large eggs and 2 egg whites scrambled in EVOO and then sprinkled with some feta cheese (a bit over a quarter cup). Oregano liberally sprinkled on top.

2. Mushrooms, 1.5 cups, sauteed in a bit of Smart Balance.

3. 1.25 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (man, the oranges were great this week).

4. 2 slices of Ezekiel Bread (the one with sesame seeds which I adore), toasted, with Smart Balance spread and some Nature's Hollow sugar-free apricot jam (amazingly fresh-tasting stuff, love it, and 20 calories per tablespoon, made with xylitol).

5. 2 cups of coffee made fresh from Rwandan Buf Mills beans (soooo good).

6. 10 ounces of organic coconut water (to counteract the salt in the feta) and hydrate me. (I'm getting over a mildish case of food poisoning I got from a take-out moussaka a couple days ago).

Lotta food, huh? It totals 1128 calories (so says SparkPeople's nutrition tracker). That's two-thirds of my daily intake if I wanna lose weight.

Doesn't leave me much to work with for the rest of the day, even if I aim for 2000 instead of 1800. But it's certainly not impossible, and I got tons of nutrition from what totals five servings of fruits and veggies in one meal. I ate what for some dieters is their day's calorie count.

I guarantee those success stories gals don't have 1200 calorie meals anymore. But there it is. I went breakfast hog wild.

But it sure was pretty--all colorful and flavorful. And I love, love the taste of EVOO on my tomato. Mmmm. One of the best things on earth: a tomato with EVOO and a pinch of coarse sea salt. AHHHHHH.

Lunch will be soup (preferably some legume) and something on the side, not sure what yet other than cherries and watermelon (which are both lovely now, too). Maybe some greens?

I was gonna make a super-high-fiber/lower-carb veggie lasagna for dinner.  I might still. Not sure. Will recheck fridge for options that hubby will accept.

Please have your fresh produce and lean proteins and whole grains today. And please don't have a 1200 calorie meal like me. Okay? :)

Happy Thursday, folks...

Do Not Buy Bottled Zico Coconut Water: Tastes Nasty!

On this blog for a couple years I have touted the benefits (and yumminess) of coconut water--low calories, high electrolytes, good debloater, refreshing chilled, subtle sweetness. I probably mentioned how much I liked Zico natural coconut water.

Er, no more. They have a bottled version now, and it's from concentrate, and it tastes horrible. It's not at all like old Zico. Skip it.

Alternatives to try. O.N.E. has one in the tetra pak that's pretty good. My new fave , however, is Nature Factor's organic coconut water. Not from concentrate. Super numnum. If you exercise vigorously in this warm weather time, coconut water is a great refresher and replenisher. Try it! Both of those are available at Amazon.com (and Nature Factor's coconut water is in the subscribe and save program, and I took advantage to order 3 cases.)

But please, don't buy bottled Zico. It's a letdown bigtime.

Argh, Double Argh; Loading Up Pantry with Superfoods Powders; Have you tried MSM for saggy skin?

I do NOT have a handle on my eating. Just as the scale started going downwards with the combo of delivery meals and raw meals, I got sick. Allergy season is kicking my crappy respiratory and immune system to the curb. I've been congested and wheezy (I have bad asthma since childhood) for two weeks, but last week was really bad and I haven't been able to leave the house. Sitting still lets me breathe. Moving means I need more oxygen and I feel gaspy. It's like a fat person is pushing a knee against my sternum and strangling me at the same time.

Sucks.

So, hubby has been bringing in soups and meals, and I've been eating comfort foods and the scale is up to 269...again. Crap.

I visited iHerb (love this site, my newest online discovery and addiction). I have ordered a bunch of powdered raw and green supplements from Healthforce Nutritionals (just got them a couple days ago) and Madre Labs (should arrive in a week or so).

I was pretty much an invalid 20 years ago and had to quit work due to my immune and respiratory issues. I began to supplement big time back then and found it actually helped. When my blood sugar started soaring, I avoided getting on pills for it by switching the composition of meals (didn't really lose much weight, just didn't eat carbs or sweets without a full meal with protein, fat, and fiber) and adding cinnamon supplements and alpha lipoic acid and beta glucans. Worked. My labs came back great within a few months. And although I didn't lose weight until several years after (and only 30 since my high), I've pretty much kept the habit of not eating carbs by themselves and taking cinnamon when I cave to sweets.

The combo of whey protein, barley grass, acai/berry juice, and amazing grass has given me a bit of extra perk for working out, especially when I don't sleep well. So, I know that these things do work for me to some degree.

I've used Green Magma and Berry/Acai Splash for years and added Amazing Grass recently to my pre-workout regimen, but I decided to try some new "more packed" powdered nutritionals. I saw the link for the Healthforce Nutritionals raw food supplementary powders on The Skinny Online and the website for the products piqued my curiosity.  I do find the taste has that mild freshness to it, but it's not great tasting. I pretty much gulp the stuff down fast. :D

From Madre Labs products, I'm ordering a bunch of free powder and beverage samples (like an instant coffee and mushroom, cocoa and mushroom, vitamin c, etc). From the superfoods, I got the Midori Greens (redundant as, being a Japanese  manga fan, I know "midori" means "green") and the Eureka Berries. The former (Midori) has some superfoods not already in my rotation. The latter includes chokeberry, and after reading about it in a blog at Diets in Review, I decided I want to add it to my supplement line-up.

The other things I'm getting from iHerb I had never heard of until I watched a video linked from Melting Mama.  The info wasn't on THAT video about a woman who was on her own reducing plan that included multiple 100 calorie shakes per day plus two very light meals and a lot of New Agey spirituality. Her loss is impressive. But what was MORE impressive to me was her lack of loose, hanging, stretch-mark-riddled flesh. Her belly looks amazing for someone who's lost like 100 pounds. She posted another video, with some of her own humor added, where she theorizes on why her skin handled the loss well. I figured it was worth trying the MSM (sulfur supplement and moisturizer with the stuff). I ordered capsules and the cream.

You might wanna check out this article, too.  It mentions other vitamins and zinc along with MSM. After Sparking earlier this year, I learned I'm continually deficient dietarily in zinc (and zinc in those multivitamins tends to be poorly absorbed), so I purchased ionic liquid zinc. It tastes AWFUL. But now that I see it relates to skin health/elasticity, I need to be more diligent.  I already have saggy skin, and if MSM and superfoods and zinc can help in any way with skin, general immune  health, and weight loss, why not?

If you've used any of these superfoods or the MSM products with some good result (or no result or bad result), do let me know.

So, there it is and here I am, just plain NOT doing well due to an assortment of reasons mental and physiological and seasonal, but not giving up. Nope. Uh-uh. Hanging in there.

Hope this spanking fresh week we've been given to live is a fat-reducing, health-producing one for us all...

Fiber Gourmet's Got Lasagna and Spaghetti now, and I Found A Crazy Yummy Supermarket Latte without Sugar and With Whey Protein Made with Skim Milk

Okay, so I'm trying to stock my kitchen with stuff that I like but in a lighter/better versions for weight loss.

First off, while I need to really cut back on my sugars (I have been way too indulgent in Godiva chocolates due to hubby's romantic and generous impulses, and well, my dark chocolate obsession), I really love pasta and have been having nearly daily desires for it (though I haven't had any since, er, Monday, when I had half of a take-out serving I shared with hubby of fettucine marinara).

I had used Fiber Gourmet back when I first started this blog and found it okay if you had a really tasty sauce. Claims that it's just like regular pasta is horsepucky. It's not. It's got a different texture and a blander taste. However, it does have INSANE amounts of fiber and so it did actually fill me up for an extended time. With a good marinara and some parmesan, or a light Alfredo with chicken, or some broccoli and garlic and EVOO, it was okay and filling and gave me that pasta fix. So, I'm gonna try the lasagna. (If you want to try it, too, and are ordering either lasagna or spaghetti, the two new items, then just use code FREE SHIP to ditch the shipping costs.)

I need to start cooking again (been eating out, take-out, and delivery diet meals), and I need to make stuff hubby can eat and take for lunch. Lasagna is a winner there, since it freezes great, reheats great, and can be modified in so many ways (lean ham and light swiss or ricotta, veggie and low fat cheese, lean ground beef and marinara, mexican style, etc). 

Since they have a free shipping special now, I decided to give it a shot. Got the lasagna and got some rotini pasta (that I can use when I get a mac-n-cheese jones). Due to the high fiber, these don't affect blood sugar like regular pasta (and affects it less, I hear, than the Dreamfields pasta I use now that is higher-fiber, lower digestible carb than regular pasta).

We'll see how that goes.

I'm also a latte junkie. I normally go twice a week minimum to Starbucks for a sugarfree vanilla latte fix. However, I don't like the Starbucks latte with skim milk. I get it with 2%. I find the skim milk one just too watery. However, this week, I discovered Emmi's Caffee Latte Light over at Fresh Market and I am in love. It comes in a small serving (a bit under a cup) in a nicely shaped container reminiscent of coffehouse take-out cups.  One serving of 7.7 ounces has 80 calories, no fat, 440 grams of potassium (great for those of us with HBP), 12 grams of carbs, 1 gram  of fiber, and 8 grams of protein. The first three ingredients are: fat free milk, espresso coffee, whey protein concentrate. It's sweetened with Sucralose, not sugar.

This stuff tastes so good, I like it better than the skim milk latte at Starbucks, and I like that the ingredients are pretty simple and calorie-counting friendly. For me, as I'm lazy about making lattes at home (having to clean the espresso thingie makes me just opt for tea most of the time), I want to stock up on these for when I get that "gotta have a latte" moment. It offers 25% of daily calcium needs, so that's a happy thing.  (And for WLS peops, it seems to be suitable from what I see in the stats and can, doubtless, be supplemented with extra whey and still taste good.)

I can't remember how much it cost, but I'm assuming less than a tall Starbucks latte.

Any great happy calorie food finds out there this week?