CONFESSIONS OF A FAT GIRL

When We Eat Matters

The Short List: Tips to Lose Weight

I liked this little list. See the expanded suggestions here.

Antioxidants Tutorial

I have a Pinterest problem but the good news is, I find things to steal for the blog:

How Very Tim Burton-esque....

It's like Tim Burton decided to tackle childhood obseity. Take a look! 

Be from RingSide Creative on Vimeo.

 

"No Fumble Snacking Strategies"

Loved some of the ideas on The Today Show this morning, as dished out by Dave Zinczenko, author of "Eat This, Not That." Had to share:

 

Examples:

• Dave recommends benching fattening favorites like onion dip in favor of metabolism-boosting salsa with baked tortilla chips
• Ditch calorie-heavy New England style clam chowder in favor of tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder to save as many calories as two cups of Cool Whip
• For those people who plan on ordering in, they no longer need to worry about hidden calories. For example, going with Applebee’s Classic BBQ Wings instead of their Honey BBQ version, you can save more than 500 calories without sacrificing flavor
• With drinks, stay clear from the heavy stout-type beers and instead opt for a light beer (one example, fitting with the Patriots in the game, would be Sam Adams Light).
• If pizza is on the list of food options at the party, steer clear of fat (and sodium) rich options like pepperoni and buffalo-style chicken. One idea is to order a custom pizza, and select your own toppings like grilled chicken, mushrooms and wings sauce.

 

@BistroMD - Day 7

Today was the final day of my BistroMD plan. My microwave will miss you, BistroMD.

 

You can't see it, bu my microwave is making a sad face.

 

Day 7 breakfast: "Jungle chicken" crepe with potatoes. I'm about 12 years old, I admit, because "jungle chicken" surely means it's going to jump up and do a tribal dance for me, no? 

I am a newfound fan of crepes for breakfast. I may learn to make my own (something to add to the "33 in 2012," perhaps?) so I can keep coming up with new meal ideas. The chicken was mixed with onions, artichokes (also something I just found out I liked last year), goat cheese and pesto sauce. This actually ALMOST beat my beloved french toast for best breakfast.

Lunchtime brought me chili!!! I love chili. With a side of pudding! It was like southern lunch. It was delicious. My mom would be jealous - she is also a chili lover. She would like this more than I did because it has beans in it, which she likes but I only tolerate. 

Dinner tonight was chicken stuffed with rice. On the side? Peas and carrots. This was my good-bye meal, I suppose. And I ate it slowly. The chicken was REALLY good. I liked it with the rice. 

As I said, my favorite breakfast was the french toast. It was pretty awesome. Favorite lunch was a tough call between the chicken sausage and the steakhouse wrap, but I'm giving it to the wrap. Not the side of spinach, mind you, but the wrap was my favorite main course.

 

That's a BIG WRAP!

 

Dinner is always my least favorite meal of the day. Not just in this program but always. Because at the end of the day, you're always tired and in no mood to prepare anything. You might not be that hungry but know if you don't eat something at dinnertime, hunger will torment you by bedtime. So I guess the biggest benefit from this whole week was that my dinners require mo thought nor preparation. 

My favorite dinner was the grilled chicken with orzo. Topped with goat cheese. There are two words in the english language that will always get me to eat something: GOAT. CHEESE. 

Did you notice there was no spinach in the day 7 menu? It's almost like they were giving me a good-bye present! 

I cannot thank BistroMD enough for sponsoring me in this little adventure. I've really enjoyed it. I felt so proud of myself all week and so pleased I was eating new foods. My "33 in 2012" is all about going outside of my comfort zone and I could think of no better way to start off the year than doing so with BistroMD. Their foods are "chef prepared, doctor approved" and it shows. They do not try to deceive you by advertising rapid, dramatic weight loss -- they approach it from a healthier perspective and while they assure you will shed pounds, they also promise it will not happen super fast, which is honest and true. For as little as $23/day, you can participate and that's a pretty rockin' price compared to some of the trendy mail-order diets out there. 

 

Of course, I'm sure the BIG question is, did I lose any weight this week?

In fact, I did. I lost 3.6 pounds. :) 

Here's to going outside of our comfort zones and being healthier, readers! Thanks again, BistroMD, giver of the spinach. ;) 

 

• Bistro MD Official Website: http://www.bistromd.com/
• Follow BistroMD on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bistromd
• Like BistroMD on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BistroMD

 

@BistroMD - Days 5 and 6

I had this all written out, folks. It was POETRY, I tell you! And then I hit one little button by accident and POOF! Poetry gone. 

Seriously, that entry was a Pulitzer Prize worthy piece. You're just going to have to take my word for it.

So let me just TRY to write with that in mind, in hopes I can give you even an iota of the brilliance that poured forth before....

(So sue me, I'm melodramatic today. It's probably the caffeine I'm inhaling at present.) 

 

ANYWAY, day five's breakfast has been flirting with me since I opened the box of frozen meals. So even as soon as day 3, I was counting down. Maybe that's a little too indicative of how much I like food and carbs but oh well... But STUFFED FRENCH TOAST? It lived up to mu high expectations. I tore into it. 

And then I thought, maybe I should snap a pic? So pardon its disheveled nature. My apologies if this looks a tad unappetizing but just know it's only because it smelled SO GOOD I couldn't wait for a bite.

 

On the side there is my fave - the turkey sausage patty - and some sweet potatoes. I actually just tried sweet potatoes for the very first time this past Thanksgiving and they were QUITE delicious. Same goes here. Delish. Kudos, BistroMD, on my favorite breakfast yet. 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, day five's lunch was turkey with cranberry quinoa. Do YOU know what quinoa is? I didn't. I had to ask my all-knower, Wikipedia:

Quinoa ( /ˈkiːnwɑː/ or /kɨˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish: quinua, from Quechua: kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocerealrather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds.

Look at those sneaky devils getting more spinach in me! BLAST! 

Dinner? Well, I am always wary of microwaved fish. But the salmon was delicious. And it was served over red and yellow bell peppers. Which is most fortunate for me, who does not like green ones. And on the side? Yes, yes, SPINACH. 

I best be gettin' my grimace and pipe on soon...

 

 

And just when I was hoping for a reprieve... Day 6 breakfast: Spinach ricotta crepes. But chopped and mixed so nicely it was like breakfast ravioli as far as I'm concerned. The side of waldorf apples were the best part. They were warm and tasty. 

Lunch on Day 6 was another small and yummy taste of thanksgiving - turkey with a fruit chutney. 

I must say for the first time, I skipped one of the meals. Day 6 dinner was beef and broccoli. And I think the only cooked vegetable I hate more than spinach is broccoli. So I decided, since I've been a pretty good sport about eating spinach every day, to skip this meal. My roommate made homemade minstrone soup with chicken and veggies and it was DELICIOUS. And healthy. So I did not feel guilty. I'm sorry BistroMD - I guess you found my bottom line! 

Just call me George! 

"I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. Now look, this is the last statement I’m going to have on broccoli. There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington. My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself. So she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in."

- President George H.W. Bush, March 1990

I am currently making my way through the final day of my BistroMD program and I'm a little sad. I've rather enjoyed the ease of having all my meals prepped and ordered and ready. I may consider spending money on it in the future and doing it for longer. And what's really amazed me is that I've felt very little need for snacking. It's all been pretty filling. 

• Bistro MD Official Website: http://www.bistromd.com/
• Follow BistroMD on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bistromd
• Like BistroMD on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BistroMD

 

@BistroMD - Days 3 and 4

No really, BistroMD, what's up with their being spinach and mushroom in everything?! 

Here is the thing. If you sign up for BistroMD, whose program I am LOVING overall, you get to list out foods you like and don't like and request specific meals. But in my case, whereas I am just trying this courtesy of their profound generosity, I opted to not be picky. 

Hence, I am eating things I don't normally eat. All for you, my readers. Which I guess ties to #21 in the "33 in 2012" list anyway so I'll try to remind myself I am actually killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. 

You know, spinach, at least, is a diuretic (read: it makes you pee) so that's handy. Cause I don't pee enough. (That was sarcasm - I pee more often than a kindergartener.) 

So consequently, day three's meals presented a challenge for me. Because breakfast  was a chicken and mushroom crepe. The bechamel sauce on that made it totally edible for me, thankfully, Dare I say it was not bad at all. No sausage with this breakfast (I do really love that turkey sausage) but the cinammon apple compte was DELICIOUS. I almost licked the bowl. Coulda done without the craisins but I'll live. 

Lunch was cheese ravioli and green beans. I have no complaints. These are all foods I eat and enjoy and the portion was good for me. OMG, how did I JUST start eating green beans last year? They're delicious. And dinner was also all foods I like -- grilled chicken with goat cheese and veggie orzo. I love goat cheese. I love orzo. I loved this dinner. 

You'll NEVER guess what was in my day four omelet: SPINACH. (I know, right?! I was shocked, too.) I lost it. I picked it out. But I basically inhaled the rest of it because there were also peppers, fets, onions and black olives. I'm sure this was intended to be greek style. Whatever it was -- it was intended to be resting in my belly next to the yummy potato hash it came with. 

Later, my favorite lunch to date, a steak wrap with cheddar, onions and peppers joined it. Side of creamed spinach? Over it. I ate carrot sticks. LOL.

Dinner was pulled pork "Carolina style." I don't know what that means but I've never met a pork product I didn't like (I'm a bad, bad Jew. I know.) and this was no exception. I should take my mother's advice (she's totally reading this and smiling) and use barbecue sauce more often. It's better than ketchup and just as tasty. 

• Bistro MD Official Website: http://www.bistromd.com/
• Follow BistroMD on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bistromd
• Like BistroMD on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BistroMD

P.S. I am totally writing this entry from Starbucks, miling the free WiFi as I do almost daily now. The addiction continues... 

@BistroMD - Day 2

Dinner tonight? Still TBD. Not sure how I feel about prepackaged Tilapia.

That said, every BistroMD dish thus far has been a delightful surprise! 

For breakfast, it was cinammon potato pancakes with lite syrup and a turkey sausage patty. Not only was it DELICIOUS but boy did it make my apartment smell yummy. My roommate wandered into the kitchen wanting some -- but I'm not sharing my rations! 

I was considering what it reads on the box of each item, that you should plate your food with some artisitic integirty to make it more appetizing so to that end, I replicated the photo from BistroMD's website as much as I could:

At times like this, I wish I had a better camera. And I clearly did not have any berries in my fridge to add for color, which looks pretty nice, right? 

But regardless of how it looked on my sad plate, it was, as I Said, DELICIOUS. And I would eat it again if it were on my menu. 

Lunch was chicken sausage with a dijon sauce over barley spinach and mushrooms. 

I cannot tell a lie - I picked out every single mushrooms. I already braved them for you yesterday but these didn't look doable to me. Mushrooms SO gross me out. (Side note to BistroMD - why is there SO much mushroom in this menu?!)

But holy crap! I like barley! I don't think I've ever eaten it before. It was like a thickened rice. At one point I thought it might be like mini gnochis. I don't know... It was good. And the spinach was minced enough that it mixed well into it. 

On the side was braised cabbage with apples. It was sweeter than I expected. I love cabbage but have never had it cooked before and so I did not know how it would taste. Not bad at all. 

At this point I abandoned pretty plating because I worried about transporting so much to a plate. I was convinced it woud end up on the floor (you may succeed - I am just perpetually clumsy so don't go by my behavior here). 

And right now, after a later-afternoon snack of a little cheese, I sit here typing with a full, satisfied belly, sipping on a delectable Diet Pepsi. 

• Bistro MD Official Website: http://www.bistromd.com/
• Follow BistroMD on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bistromd
• Like BistroMD on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BistroMD

 

It Begins! @BistroMD: Day 1

And so it begins... 

You may recall I mentioned a desire to try out a helthy food delivery service so I was SUPER excited to be appraoched by BistroMD. I get to give them a test run for a whole week! it should also be said in the same entry, I expressed a strong desire to sit in a tropical setting in a hammock so if anyone wants to send me one of THOSE for a test run, I'm totally down. 

But anyway, kudos to BistroMD. They boast restaurant quality food prepared by chefs, that are supervised by a bariatric physician and a team of registered dietitians. They seek to provide a healthy and nutritious way to lose weight without getting hungry and compensating the taste of the food. They also have a track record of helping new mothers lose the weight post their pregnancies. Clearly that latter bit of information is for my readers, not this girl. 

I love that every package comes with chef's tips and I thought it was cute they suggest not only eating the food (of course) but also presenting it well. If Iron Chef America has taught me anything, it's that presentation gets points, right? 

That said, I must tell you, my breakfast, which I had very little time to make and eat, I confess, presented just fine to me in its container. Here is what it looks like on their website:

And just before I devoured it, it looked like this:

Not quite a masterpiece but it doesn't look gross. And let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS. I am glad I kicked off the program with this meal, in fact, because I LOVE crepes and I LOVE sausage. It got me excited for the next meal, and the next... 

Lunch was greek chicken with lentils. I'm not a huge fan of lentils but I vowed to do this for the week and I ate them anyway. FYI, I'm STILL not a fan of lentils but they weren't bad and the chicken? Totally delicious. 

I allowed myself some carrots for a snack. And a huge black iced tea. Which is why I am typing at the speed of light right now (caffeine is my friend). 

Dinner is going to be beef tips with mushrooms. Again - mushrooms? Basically my LEAST favorite food but this is what I am willing to do for you, my dear readers and loyan fans. I am going to - YES! - EAT. MUSHROOMS. 

Somewhere in the city, my mother just fainted from shock. 

So far, in just this day, I can tell you the food beats the crap out of any Jenny Craig meal I ever ate (except maybe the turkey burger but that burger was a pocket-sized joke anyway) and since it's from this program, I am not worried about its nutritional contents or anything like that... I mean, I'm just so pleasantly surprised by how DELICIOUS that breakfast was, I'm not really going to worry about anything else. And I'll tell you what else -- there is some stuffed french toast on my menu in the future and I am SO looking forward to that! 

I should explain that I seldom even eat anything at all for breakfast (I know this is not healthy - do not do as I do) so I get very excited for breakfast food. 

I don't feel any physical difference so early on but I sure am proud of myself for trying this. And trying new foods. Embarking on this adevnture is going to be great! 

My fridge is full of BistroMD food adventures! I will continue to update.

And yes, I am aware the only other things in my freezer are vodka, susages, big stick popsicles, bread... More evidence I should not shop when I am hungry or PMS'ing. 

• Bistro MD Official Website: http://www.bistromd.com/
• Follow BistroMD on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bistromd
• Like BistroMD on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BistroMD