Evaluating The Holiday and ReSparked

I had gotten pretty busy and didn't spark for a couple days. Holidays sort of make the focus go onto something OTHER than the routine, than journaling, etc.

But, I never had my mind totally off what I needed to do. I didn't exercise Thursday or Friday, so I have my sneakers on and plan to do my alloted cardio before showering for whatever we're gonna do this evening. I've eaten fine today, and I'm not terribly hungry at the moment, either.

So, the holiday and Black Friday:

Thursday: I ate breakfast, cause I knew dinner would be round 4 or 5 pm, depending on the turkey's doneness. We outdid ourselves this year, as the food was especially delicious (and plentiful, of course). My contribution was an organic salad with arugula, watercress, pears, dried cranberries, blue cheese with raspberry vinaigrette and toasted pecans. I thought it was great, the blend of sweet from the fruits and dressing, earthy and peppery from the greens and pecans, and the sour-deep taste of the cheese crumbles. I also took a veggie platter with assorted raw veggies. This way, I knew I'd have lots of F/Vs to select from. Instead of making the low-fat chocolate cake and baked apples, I spazzed and got pumpkin pie and key lime pie at Whole Foods. It worked out. I had about two tablespoons worth of the insides of key lime pie (I hate the crust of those pies, graham crackers are icky to me). And that with a bit of whipped cream did me fine, along with a couple bites of dark Belgian chocolate (60% mini bites, not truffles).

Later that evening, at home from my family's gathering, I got peckish. In order not to totally go into food depravity, I heated up some lentil soup, had a pear, called it a night.

The scale was fine the next day, other than a little salt uptick. Salt has continued to bedevil me, so I have not returned to 266 (I'm at 268 and change). I have been in stasis, not losing, but the salt regain hasn't left cause I've indulged in the salties. My bad.

It's still thrilling to see me in the 60's, but I"m really ready to move on, here, peops!

Black Friday: I had a beef craving (again, what up with dat), so we went to Chipotle. I had part of the Barbacoa Bowl (I asked for very little rice and extra beans to give me fiber-fill-me-up) and had the guac for the good fats and flavor. Hubby let me have one of his beef tacos. That satisfied my beef craving, so I had a very light dinner of leftover turkey breast in light gravy with some organic whole cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes and fruit (papaya, orange).

Today, I've only had one meal--egg white garlic-tomato omelette with Ezequiel toast and St. Dalfour four fruits jam, Trop 50 orange juice lite, coffee.

I have noticed that when I have several 400 to 500 calorie meals in a row, my appetite is a bit quieter. When I have a a couple big meals in a row, my appetite readjusts upward. This makes me want to not binge, I can tell you. I like that I'm feeling calmer in terms of appetite, and I am so afraid to set up a binge by having a huge blow-out.

Anyway, I haven't lost this past week, I have held on except for salt bloat variations, and now it's time to lose a bit before Christmas sets up its obstacle course.

I have done some Sparking today--my breakfast, read some articles, etc--and I want to get my head on straight for a new week. I have my horrible tasting Zinc liquid supplement (since I kept coming consistently way low on that in my nutrition profile from my online food journal), and my B-complex/B12 tabs. I've got my Amazing Grass for an afternoon pick-me-up. I'm ready to tackle the next seven days.

On to my Saturday cardio, ab work, and stretching...

Enjoy your weekend, gals and ladies. And be very healthy in your choices~

If It's Lifelong, Then It Better Fit; If it's Forever, It Better Taste Good...

I've tried various diets over the last 4 decades. When I was younger, it was out of a magazine or from some book. I think you know what I mean? This time, I'm trying to figure out what to eat myself.

I figure if this is forevver (or however long forever is in a finite/mortal frame about to hit fifty in a couple months), then I better enjoy it or I won't do it. I am not a martyr. I cannot eat a plan that I can't actually get some pleasure from.

So, while Sparking my nutrition and trying to fill voids, I'm trying to gauge how much pleasure I'm getting from what I eat.

I don't like spinach and egg whites as much as I like garlic and tomato and egg whites. One feels virtuous. The other makes me ridiculously happy.

I like swiss or mozzarella or parmesan cheese in omelettes, even reduced fat. I like reduced fat american or cheddar or feta a lot better.

I like strawberries. I love raspberries.

I like dried fruit. I really like freeze-dried fruit.

I like turkey and veggies in a hoagie. I much prefer flatbread. I had been having Subway's turkey and veggies on whole wheat. I switched to flatbread and raised my enjoyment 100%. Today, trying to make it even BETTER, I switched my post-Pilates order (the Subway is one floor below my Pilates studio) to a turkey and veggie salad and, when I got home, I used a low-carb Joseph's Flatbread (shoving the turkey and salad into it). I liked it, too, with 100 fewer calories than Subway's and more fiber. Ya see, experimenting.

I am okay with WW lite bread. I like Nature's Own whole wheat. I much, much prefer Ezekiel bread. It has more flavor and mouth texture.

I like green tea iced to hot. I prefer black tea and coffee, iced or hot.

I like skim milk in my lattes, but I love 2%, and I feel bouncier.

So, today, I nixed the skinny latte at Starbucks and had a sugarfree one in grande (not venti, as I had for two years prior to this month), and went for low-fat. It tastes a lot better, so I can drink a smaller one and feel really satisfied. I might even notch it back to tall and go whole milk. Let's see. :)

I'm gonna work with what to bring Thanksgiving. I want to have big taste and satisfaction with lower calorie/lower-fat/lower-additives and crap/higher health.

I've found in the last two weeks that I'm a bit calmer (for now). This weekend brought a lot of challenges, and each of the three times I was in trouble, I made compromises. I thought it through.

Like at my family's for a birthday party. I asked for the teeniest bit of chocolate birthday cake--cut off the top with the frosting, left myself a 3 in by 1.5 inch rectangle of only the chocolate cake part. Why? Frosting is fine, but it doesn't do it for me like chocolate cake. So, I had the part that gave me smiles and left what only was "okay." And I made it a smaller serving.

Also at the party we had assorted Cuban pastries and appetizers on the table. I only allowed myself to sample one of the savory ones. Avoided the dip and crackers and the sweet pastries. However, part of the lunch included special Puerto Rican meat pies, homemade, stuffed with seasoned ground beef. These are a specialty of my SIL, and she only makes them a couple times a year. They're FRIED. But they're relatively small. So, I weighed it and decided to have one. Context: Just about everyone else had from 3 to a half-dozen. I had one, and made the best of it.

I didn't have the noodles. I had the low-salt, lower-fat chicken breast and rice with creole red bean soup (one of my favoritest things on earth, Puerto Rican or Cuban style red bean soup. I could eat it every day.)

Because the party had been pretty devoid of veggies, I had for supper a big bowl of berries and watermelon, and a bigger bowl of arugula with minimal dressing. :)

I ended up 100 calories over my limit, cake, ham croquette, alcapurria and all.

Today, I'm doing great. Did the egg white-tomato-garlic omelette and was happy. Did the Subway substitution and was fine. And I'm planning to have lots of veggies with some leftover low-carb, high-fiber pasta for supper. My energy is really, really good and got me through Pilates fine. I'm not missing the venti-ness of latte, cause killer yummy grande is perfect.

And for dessert tonight, I'm thinking of leaving calories (60) for a sugar-free vanilla pudding. After decades of sticking mostly to chocolate (with slight deviations to butterscotch now and then), I realized this past month I really love the vanilla one. It makes me happier than the chocolate one.

I know I have to find a way to shove as much food and beverage pleasure into 1700 to 1800 calories. For life. Or I may as well just stay fat, cause I won't be happy settling for "Oh, well, this has few calories, so I'll settle for it." (And some stuff of what I've sampled at Hungry Girl is really "settling". And those Progresso soups suck. And Stevia makes me gag. But Amazing Grass is nice! And some of those WW concoctions you hear about at meetings are icky. But Just Strawberries rule!)

I was reading that people need to find what fits, whether it's low-carb, low-fat, flex, low-cal with splurges, etc. We don't all like brussel sprouts or kiwi or broccoli or tofu. I think forcing ourselves to eat what we hate backfires.

So, in your dieting explorations, what have you discovered you love?

(Oh, and I really love raw cacao powder on bananas. Ooh. Who needs drugstore candy bars!?)

The Steak Dinner: Making Choices, Good and Bad

Five days of in-range calorie eating, five days of nearly perfect nutrition, and I got a mad craving to go out for steak. So...we did.

I sat and made concessions. None of the usual sides with steak, ie. mashed or fried potatoes or baked loaded, plus veggie souffle. Or that dreaded blue cheese and creamy dressing salad that steakhouses lure me with. :)

I started with their simplest salad and a vinaigrette (sorry, blue cheese). I had these sides: a baked sweet potato, plain, and sprinkled diet-friendly cinnamon on it ( not sugar). I had broccoli steamed, plain, no salt. I I had a couple ounces of merlot to balance its heart-healthiness against the saturated fat/cholesterol in red meat. I had unsweetened iced tea. I skipped the usual fruit tart or chocolate mousse (that I'd usually give in to at this particular eatery) and made do with a double espresso with Splenda.

That's what I did right. What I did wrong, besides eating too many ounces of NY Strip: I had not one, but two slices of French bread (it is a French restaurant, so the bread is really enticing). I used EVOO, not the butter they served with it.

What else I did right, knowing we'd be having dinner out: I had a moderate braekfast and a very light lunch that, together, totalled 650 calories. Enough to keep me from being utterly famished, but not so much that I didn't have some leeway at supper.

At the end of the day, after, yes, five days of great caloric containment, I went 500 calories over the maximum SparkPeople nutrition tracker allows me. I would have only gone 400 over, but I decided to have a coconut water to get in some potassium, and I had a fiber mix to push the meat through my system a bit faster. :)

I drank my water, good. I didn't make time to exercise, bad.

A day of good and bad choices.

After the restaurant, I asked hubby to drive to Barnes & Noble. I wanted to load up on health/fitness magazines, low-cal holilday cooking ones, too, in order to get myself motivated for the coming weeks of temptations.

It starts this week. Holiday eating. Lord, help us plan and help us make the better choices!

Tomorrow, a family birthday party will likely set all sorts of minefields. But I have set aside healthy snacks and beverages to take to minimize temptations/damages. Will I be perfect? Doubt it. But I will be...better.

Happy Weekend to all Fatfighters!

Impromptu, Organic Substitute for "Chunky Bar"--all healthful stuff with yummy taste!

I was doing great foodwise today. Had no overt cravings until about a half hour ago. I was eating small meals, watching my F/Vs and nutrients, counting calories.

After dinner, I still had a few hundred calories to use, so I thought I'd have some more fruit, maybe a treat.

But a bit ago, I got this urge for a CHUNKY. Now, I remember I had a CHUNKY craving around early October and after a bite, I threw it away. It didn't taste as good as I remembered. It didn't taste chocolatey enough and it tasted too sugary.

That memory didn't stop me from wanting one.

So, I scrounged around in my kitchen for:

1. organic, unsalted peanut butter that I got from a local farm
2. organic Thompson raisins
3. organic raw cocoa powder

I smooshed a couple teaspoons of peanut butter, a teaspoon of raw cacao powder, and tossed in some raisins to my taste--about 12. I stirred it up and I'm eating it off the spoon. Under 120 calories.

It's not pretty visually, but the flavor is AMAZING. Using quality ingredients makes a difference. The burst of the flavor combo on my tongue is delightful. It's got a CHUNKY vibe, but better--more chocolatey, more nutty, more raisiny. And this is much more healthful than a candy bar--all the components are good for me, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no bad oils, heart-healthy fat, minerals, vitamins.

But for my craving tongue, the most important part is: Ahhhh. Yum.

I'm sure there are all sorts of ways to make this prettier and tastier, but for something that is treating the craving without falling into a candy stupor, I can't complain.

The Micro-Awareness Upside of Tracking Food: What Ae You Lacking? What are you overdoing?

After tracking my food intake for a couple weeks, I noticed something interesting--and slightly distressing: I am consistently ranking way, way low on zinc, and often ranking low on folate. I almost never make the recommended minimum for potassium, and I wouldn't make magnesium without my regular supplementation (and from what I've read, few Americans do make it to minimums on these two nutrients). Also, I just about always go over the recommended maximum for salt\--no surprise-- and often go over for cholesterol, easy if I have two eggs in the AM. I sometimes don't make the minimum for calcium (now that I've drastically reduced pizza, takeout Italian, and cheese enchiladas!) without a pill.

I have started using my nutritional report to see what supplements to add to dinner or my evening snack. I was already long accustomed to taking calcium and magnesium and vitamin D--I am after all female and don't want osteoporosis. I'm asthmatic and pre-diabetic, so I've taken magnesium supplements for about 10 years for those particular conditions.

Since Sparking my nutrition, I've consciously been trying to add even MORE potassium to my diet via foods, but even on really conscientious days, even with 11 or more fruits and veggies, I don't make the 4500 mark (though I can get real close). So, I'm gonna start tweaking. I have high BP, so this is important. And I need to wean myself of my sodium addiction (that is gonna be tough.)

So, supplements take care of adding calcium, magnesium, Vit D, and, as needed, when I fall short of B12 or some other B (I have stress B complex that I use on hard exercise days).

So, what about zinc and folate?

Foods highest in zinc and my issues:

Shellfish and oysters--can't eat them. I have terrible seafood allergies. I end up in the E.R.

Pine nuts--hate them in anything except pesto sauce (which can only be eaten in moderation, as it's pretty calorie-rich)

Brewer's Yeast--Hey, I used to take that as a kid (my sister was into it in the seventies). A possibility, as long as I am not sensitive to it these days. (I am hyperallergy-prone.)

Wheat Germ--excuse me, ugh. Have tried many times to eat this. Ick.

Wheat Bran--well, I do eat whole grain bread, just not as much as my "eat what I want" periods. Weight loss = less food= fewer nutrients. Geesh.

All Bran Cereal= I'd rather take a pill. Another Ew.

Pecans--Like em in salads, but again, oodles of calories.

OK sources and issues:

Liver--you have got to be kidding? My mom used to force me to eat this in my kidling years, and I would gag unless there was a layer about an inch and a half thick of onions on top to mask the nasty texture/taste. I'd rather take a pill than eat even one forkful of liver.

Cashew Nuts: Love them! But again, high calorie price.

Parmesan cheese: Adore it. Use it regularly. But it's not a huge huge source, unless, I guess, I gobble a wedge.

Fish: Um, I really hate going to the ER.

Eggs: Eat em almost every day, gotta watch the cholesterol a bit. Not a great source, unless I eat like 10 eggs.

OK. I understand now why I keep getting low on this one.

Onto folate...

Foods richest in folate and my issues:

Brewer's Yeast: OK, I'm really gonna have to research and try this again (as long as there isn't a connection with Candida or anything else for my immune system). Two birds with one brewer's spoon.

Lentils: Oh, I like lentils. I didn't like Dr. McDougall's version, but I could try to find a great recipe and freeze batches or use them in salads or as an appetizer on bread. Yeah, maybe this could work.

Edamame: I have to limit soy products (I love tofu and soymilk, but the thyroid does not.)

Romaine: Eat it frequently.

Pinto Beans: Like.

Okra: Like a lot sauteed with tomatoes and onions.

Black Beans: I am Cuban-born. Need I say more? We'd kill for our black beans.

~More good sources--spinach, kidney beans, asparagus, broccoli, fresh o.j., papaya, whole wheat bread, etc.

All right, folate is doable. Lots of my fave foods on earth and lots of foods I eat regularly are on here. Have no idea why I'm lagging here. Maybe I need to see if the foods list at Spark is not listing folate properly. I eat some of those foods many times a week.

Still, the point is that this is making me more aware of choices. So much so, that I like to leave a 100 to 200 calories for an after-dinner snack to make up "voids" in my day's nutrition.

I also know that there are supplements I can take, but I'd rather get it from food. Since my 20's, when I first started learning about nutrition (at college, in a class on it, and later on in my own readings to try and improve my chronic conditions), I always believed the food itself, the way God created it, supplied more than science even knew, so it was the better way. Supplements were merely aids, to fill up gaps that imperfect choices make. Not something to utterly rely on to make up for crap eating all the time.

I still believe this. I think back on how much we know now compared to the sixties and seventies about what's in stuff--tea, coffee, fruits, veggies, chocolate, etc. How color is indicative of benefits. And we'll learn more.

Even if you aren't feeling the mojo to reduce calories or diet right now, I recommend you do some nutrition tracking with a free online tool to find out where there are nutritional holes in your diet. You don't want to find out LATER, when your bones are Swiss cheese, that you failed to get enough calcium and Vitamin D and magnesium. You don't want to up your risk of HBP cause you eat too much salt and not enough potassium. You don't want to risk stroke or x or y condition cause you failed to ingest vitamin this or mineral that.

Do a tracker for a couple weeks. It might be a revelation.

So, let's see, gotta make up a new shopping list. :)

But, it does make me stop and consider. So, I did a web search to remind myself what foods are rich in these.

Dr. McDougall's Lentil Soup. Salt Cravings, and the Joy Effect

I had another high salt eating day yesterday. I think something hormonal is going on to make me crave saltiness so intensely. Last night, I went for sushi and salad with miso dressing and a ginger-honey stir fry with brown rice, with all but the rice soy intense, meaning SALTY. I had some--okay get ready for TMI, you've been warned--spotting from my nethers, so I do think the salt vampirism has to do with my female fluctuations.

I'm sipping a Starbucks unsweetened passion green tea as I blog. I used this to make up for giving up my venti 2% sugarfree vanilla lattes. I had a tall vanilla latte instead, iced and skinny style. It gave me that vanilla coffee flavor kick with fewer calories and fat. The tea is to make up for lost flavor volume. :)

Interestingly, I got a lot of compliments today about my chipper personality--one lady called me delightful, one effervescent, and one gal at Starbucks gave me a spontaneous size upgrade and a free latte. Surprised me. I guess smiling and being nice to people can bring rewards. I will admit, post Pilates, my muscle pain lessened by the activity and stretching--pain leftover from the hours of labor when the water heater flooded my kitchen--that I am a happy camper. Maybe my Joy Gravity Field is pulling people in. Heh.

Now, on to the soup:

I really, really liked Dr. McDougall's Vegetable ready-to-serve soup (which I reviewed earlier). Even my super-nitpickey, veggie-unloving hubby liked it when I packed some for his lunch earlier this week. I didn't feel the same way about the lentil. Now, normally, I dig my lentil soup. But I like my lentil soup savory/herbally/garlicky/oniony (pick one or several of that list). This one tasted very vegetable-ey, notably celeryish and carrotish. I do not care for celery much, but I can tolerate celery (raw especially) in salads and soups if discreet. This was not discreet. For me, this lentil soup needed more spicing and less celery flavor. But, YMMV, as you may be a celery and carrot fiend.

The texture was just as nice as the veggie one--thickish, without being too thickish. It had lentils and rice as the notable main components, offering more protein than the veggie soup, naturally, and a complete protein, of course. A cup is 115 calories (contrasted with 75 for a cup of the veggie soup).

So, while I won't repurchase this one due to its not suiting my taste bud needs, I think some of you will just love it like mad. It's healthful for a convenience food and not high in calories with a good mouth feel... and it's vegan. So, it hits a lot of spots and lets you get some veggie and legumes into your meal plans without a big caloric punch.

I'm super lethargic after having a late lunch, so off I go to try and stay away. ::sipping tea:::

Happy Thursday, y'all!!!

Denise Austin's Top 5 Tips

Coach Nicole over at SparkPeople interviewed fitness expert Denise Austin. Here's one of the Q&A's:

CN: Share your top 5 tips for staying fit and healthy in your 50s.

1. Body toning. Nothing will droop or sag if muscles are firm and taut. 2. Do cardio to burn fat from the entire body. 3. Stretching to stay flexible and lean. 4. Eat healthy and organic meals (lean protein, fruits and vegetables) and drink 8 glasses of water every day. 5. Be optimistic. Always think and stay positive. Don't beat yourself up. Think and act young with a positive attitude and always keep laughter and humor in your life. It's the best medicine.

Okay, Sorry, But I'm Not Digging TBL Resort

See it here, if you haven't already.

When I first heard about it while reading a blog post today, I thought, Ooh, lemme see, lemme see. Sounds great. After all, I'm the gal who has wanted to go to one of those weight loss program places since ages ago--like Green Mountain or Structure House or the Pritikin in Aventura (near to me, but just not affordable) or "insert name of cool resort for weight loss here". Since I was old enough to read VOGUE and other women's magazines and see gorgeous pics and recipes and articles touting the beauty/wellness benefits of these places, well, it's seemed right up there with my dream of going to Tuscany.

Sadly, when I was healthy enough to travel, I was poor. And when I had enough money to travel, I was too sickly and would get terribly ill at hotels, any hotel. (I went deaf after a three day stay in one, my chemical sensitivities went haywire. And it was not a cheapo hotel, either.)

So, of course, I hadda see TBL resort.

Er...not impressed.

I'm sure the results are great and, were I to win a trip there, I might even risk it, on the hope that it's fresh and new and maybe not too toxic on me.

But, er...I find it ugly. I find the scenery ugly and the buildings ugly and the rooms uninspiring. It strikes me as...well...institutional, not resorty. (Note: Zion Nat'l Park has lovely vistas, as I've seen in photos, but around the resort itself, it looks bare and stark and kinda lonely.)

If I'm gonna be away from my beloved hubbypoo and my family and my comforting belongings, I at least want beautiful scenery. I guess I'm too firmly in the "I like trees and flowers" catgory, being the daughter of a gardening-mad mom born in the mountain boonies of Cuba, having spent most of my life in the subtropics (though born in the Caribbean), and the owner of a yard chock full of hibiscus, bougainvillea, a really nifty pink flowering bush whose name I don't know but that makes me so happy, palm trees, a resilient gardenia that bursts into white fragrant blooms twice a year, assorted little "don't know what they are" bushes, and one humongous Royal Poinciana that burns with orange-red blossoms in June (and shadows my front yard, kinda killing my grass, but, oh, well). My mom used to plant anything she could in our yard when I was a teen/twenties--flowers, herbs, veggies, fruits.

I'm used to being surrounded by lots of green with punctuations of bright colors and white.

I'm just not a desert girl. Although Sedona always looks cool to me on television (maybe the color or something).

Now, put a resort near the Yosemite Nat'l Park--or just put it right in the Ahwahnee--or in the highlands of North Carolina or in the Pacific Northwest and I'd be okay. :D I's gotta see some green.

So, there it is. I really am not feeling the beauty of TBL's resort's aesthetic.

Anyone out there find it beautiful?

A Salty Day Puts the Kibosh on My Losing Streak

Well, the streak hadda end, and this time, it wasn't a binge or overeating. (I stayed in my calorie limit and I ate my 11 fruits and veggies and drank my water, and I had about 41 grams fiber, so I did well.)

No, I simply went nuts with salt/salty foods. It put me up a few pounds, which I know is water weight, and it will come off.

Yeah, I have a weakness for the white stuff, which is ubiquitous in convenience foods, too.

I had cheese at breakfast and dinner, I oversalted my eggs and avocado slices, and I used a salad dressing that even to my salt-benumbed tongue tasted salty. Oh, and jarred salsa with supper's low-fat veggie and cilantro quesadilla.

I wish I had some fresh coconut water to help desalinate here.

Oh, well. All I can do is keep on my plan and try to control my salty urges if I want a nice downtick again.

I need to get to the store and get me some papaya and cantaloupe. I ran out. That'll help, too.

So, what's your white weakness? Salt, sugar, white flour, marshmallows...? :)

Dr. McDougall's Vegetable Soup and...Down Again!

I've had a loss on the scale every day for about a week now, and it's really encouraging. I started fiddling with my eating almost there weeks ago, but until I got my caloric intake UNDER 2100, I didn't see movement, and until I got it under 1900, I didn't see daily downs.

Yesterday, my body was "off" from the sleep interruption posed by the flooding--see previous post--and I ended up eating two meals and a snack, instead of three with two snacks. My calories were lower than usual at just over 1500. I figured it would be a minor change (possibly even upward, as I ate a very salty dinner and had salty feta with breakfast), but I was nicely surpised:

266.0

That's 1.2 lbs less than the previous day.

Yes!

It's still so cheering to see the different "decade" on the scale. I'd wanted to see it for so long, and there it is. Now, I want it to be a very brief visit and be in a new decade by New Year's Day.

Now, the soup:

I was beyond lethargic last night, so, being hungry, I looked for the easiest thing to fix. Ended up with reduced-fat kosher hot dogs and veggie soup with fruit and Amaretti cookies and cinnamon milk for dessert. I didn't make it to 11 f/v's yesterday. Only made it to 7, but the lack of a third meal made up for it, I guess.

The veggie soup was one of the ready-to-serve from Dr. McDougall's. It's only 75 calories for one cup, 150 for the whole package.

I love this soup. I will be buying this soup as a staple 'hunger control/get veggies/get fiber" diet tool. It had a lovely, satisfying texture (not overly brothy, not overly thick). It had lentils and rice (for complete protein), and that made the texture shine. I didn't find the taste overly salty. The broth was tomatoey, but not aggressively acidic. Chunks of potatoes, bits of peas, carrots.

I liked this soup very much for a packaged soup (nothing's as nice as homemade). One can't quibble with the calories. I had one cup and sprinkled imported parmesan and it was great.

I like the Hebrew National reduced-fat beef franks. I cut off one-third of the hot dog bun to reduce calories, and I don't miss it. Since I'm not a piler at home (ie, lots of stuff on top of the hot dog) I don't need the extra height of bun.

We try not to eat these often. Just when I get a craving. I don't consider hot dogs a healthful food, but they do make me feel like a kid again. Can't deny that.

I'm planning to make a veggie lasagna for supper today....

May we all have a health-advancing day!