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Got right back on the horse
Learned something important this week. If one takes a hiatus from eating within limits but sets a time limit, one can recover. Time toward goal is lost but it's not the end of the world. Last week, friends from out of town came for the eclipse. I used this as an excuse to eat whatever and as much food as I wanted. I took a…
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Lower calorie spanakopita (lower calorie way to deal with filo sheets)
Most recipes for using filo sheets for spanakopita involve melting whole sticks of butter or pouring on olive oil with reckless abandon. Since fat is calorie dense, I've come up with a way to make spanakopita using only 1/4 to 1/3 cup of olive oil for a whole pan of the stuff using an entire sleeve of frozen filo sheets.…
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Found a great TDEE, Macro-, Micro-Nutrient calculator!!
https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/interactiveDRI/ Just put in your stats and click what you want to know. The TDEE it came up with is a bit higher than the calculator I usually use but that may explain why I'm losing more than a pound a week at my chosen TDEE-500. I currently use https://tdeecalculator.net/ but will use this…
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No one can live on foods of penitence
An annual joint conference sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Culinary Institute of America came away with a bunch of findings and perceptions. One particularly struck me. Too often, we view our improved eating as a diet of penitence. Food should be an enjoyable factor of life not a punishment for…
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Yet another rant about physicians!
My doctor and I just had another one of those rushed discussions where he pooh-poohs that I have lost 13.5 pounds in 40 days by watching calorie consumption and he insists that if I exercise 30 minutes a day and eat fewer processed foods I will lose weight. I am 130+ pounds overweight (recently 150ish) and we've had this…
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Hunting for sports bras with lousy support -- seriously.
My elderly mother needs bras that don't bind at all. She needs them more on principle than for support. I thought, where better to find a group of people to recommend sports bras that don't work very well -- wimpy sports bras, if you will, that you actually find not very useful for providing support? I have easy access to…
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Of the three things bread dough won't stick to, one has zero calories.
While making pizza dough today, I remembered that fresh bread dough does not stick to water. There's no need to dust the counter with flour or coat it with oil. I spritzed my hands, the dough scraper, and the counter and was set to go! No worries of added calories.
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How do you all with spinal deformities calculate height?
I have pretty severe scoliosis and have gone from 5'4.5" (at least) to 5'2" (just barely). I'm using 5'4" to calculate things like BMI, goal weight, etc. Am I kidding myself?
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Hot reading for a hot afternoon.
Something else I was reading referenced Fanny Hill (1749) and I thought, "Well, gee. I've never tried to read it. I bet it's available free online." So I just read it for an hour or so. I have just one thing to say, and I'm hearing the voice of George Takei as I say this, "OH, MY!" My little English major brain is going,…
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Diminishing calorie goal slowly
To continue losing weight, we must lower our daily calorie goals. Some folks do this in big lumps of 50 or 100. I've decided to recalculate TDEE7-3500 each time I lose a new pound. That way, my calorie goal goes down by about 10 calories at a time which is much easier to incorporate in my eating choices without noticing it…
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Cooked spinach makes non-mayo potato salad creamy.
Bear with me. I wouldn't have believed it either until I experienced it. I planned to make a vinaigrette potato salad and I had a bag of spinach that absolutely needed using. I can only digest cooked and wrung out spinach. So, into the potato salad it went. The spinach taste was negligible, the mouth feel was creamy. Go…
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Cheese trick
I am a cheese junky but it's awfully calorie dense. These tricks help me satisfy my daily cheese cravings when other things are crowding the diary. 1. Strongly flavored cheeses go further to satisfy with small amounts 3. Freshly grate or shred them Right now, the strongly flavored cheeses our fridge include smoked gouda,…
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Sweet, tart & purple
A different but easy & nutritious vegetable side dish. Beets, red cabbage, shallots (or onion), dressed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Chinese Five Spice powder (or other spice) in the oven. No numbers given because the calories, etc. will vary with your own amount of each vegetable, * Preheat the oven to 400F. * In…
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Year 'round cranberries are yummy
Fresh cranberries only appear in the grocery stores from Thanksgiving to Christmas but they are good year 'round, especially as cranberry sauce. Just throw the bag of fresh cranberries, as is, in the freezer where they will keep a couple years with no ill-effects. Small-batch cranberry sauce is simple to make. Put 1 cup…
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Pesto Pumpkin Wedges
Small pie pumpkins are looking cute on the grocery shelves. Roasted pumpkin tastes more like any other winter squash than like a pumpkin pie. Just cut the stem end off and cut the pumpkin into 8 wedges. Remove the seeds & stringy bits. Rub the wedges with a mixture of 1/2 pesto and 1/2 olive oil. Bake, skin side down, at…
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Super easy baked felafel (chickpea patties) approximately 50 calories each
My recipe is here: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/breakfast/breakfast-other-breakfast/super-easy-baked-falafel-chick-pea-patties.html?p=1
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Cooking as Jazz
Don't you find cooking is sometimes like playing jazz? Somebody introduces a melody (e.g. a recipe for an original Greek moussaka from the web), then you listen to a few variations (other web recipes, Bobby Flay is good for adding bells and whistles), and then it's your turn to do a riff on the theme. Sometimes it works,…
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Calories in hand-sliced bread
I'm probably "late coming to the party" that figured this out a long time ago but the light bulb is finally over my head. Do you make or buy whole loaves of bread and hack them off as you want a slice? Better than guessing how many calories in a slice, just weigh the slices as you cut them and divide by the total weight of…
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Bulgur wheat with capers, olives & feta
Cook bulgur according to package instructions or your preferred method. While still hot, toss in chopped capers, chopped olives, and crumbled feta. Very yummy -- and a good way to give strong flavor to a whole grain. We had it as a side next to green beans and a lemon-pesto coated tuna steak.
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Nutella: Healthy or Not?
This is a great article discussing the pros and cons of Nutella by looking at its ingredients. Labeling foods as good or bad may be a false dichotomy but consider her conclusion: "The bottom line: Why try to make out something is healthy when it’s not? And clearly not, when you look at the true list of Nutella ingredients.…
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Turnip greens are surprisingly pleasant, just FYI
I'm generally loathe to try what I view as "bitter greens" -- chard, kale, collards, etc. Shudder. But there were good looking turnip greens in the store last week. Turns out these are pleasantly mild and not bitter. They also didn't leave my teeth feeling rough as the others do.
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Ham-and-Cheese-on-Rye "Risotto." Get More Whole Grains!
Rolled rye flakes cook up like oatmeal. Stir in diced ham, cubed cheese, and some whole grain mustard and you have a great, risotto-like whole grain dish for supper! Great with a sour veggie or kraut on the side. We had mushrooms and broccoli cooked in Balsamic vinegar tonight. Rolled rye flakes are available from Bob's…
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Decadently Dressed Green Beans
Dress steamed green beans with crumbled blue cheese, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, and a balsamic reduction. Nutrition numbers will vary with how much of each ingredient you use. 1/2 an ounce of blue cheese, half a dozen walnut halves, and 6-8 dried cranberries go a long way toward making a tasty serving! To candy…
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Easy cheap homemade light butter spread
No need to buy light butter spread when you can make it at home and avoid mystery ingredients. -Whip 1 stick (1/2 cup, 4 ounces) softened butter with an electric beater (best is the balloon whisk on a Kitchen Aid) or food processor. -Slowly pour in while still whipping 1/2 cup olive oil or other healthy oil. -Slowly pour…
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Indian spinach recipes (Saag, Palak)
Looking for new ways to incorporate a bag of spinach into your healthy meals, a wander via Google for Indian recipes using spinach will pull up lots of great alternatives. Two common words that mean spinach are "saag" and "palak." Tonight, we had a side dish of Palak Aloo, spinach and potatoes. There are many recipes…
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100 fruits & vegetables on a dog's head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDJEyAVZM80&feature=youtu.be Are you hunting for fruit and vegetable ideas?
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Latest fat recommendations in a chart
I made up this chart based on my reading of "Is Butter Back" from the latest nutrition newsletter of the Harvard School of Public Health. Any errors in the chart are mine and I offer this simply as an attempt to reduce the article into something that can live taped inside a kitchen cupboard or under a magnet on the fridge:…
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"Is Butter Really Back?" Article explains fat findings
A new article from the newsletter of the Harvard School of Public Health: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine-features/is-butter-really-back/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Nutrition Source - October 2014 (1)&utm_content=
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What to eat or not is complex!
Yes, I know. One can eat anything and lose or gain weight. What I am talking about here is the complexity of choosing what to eat. The human body is complex and our understanding of the nutritional needs of it is still under development. For those of us who have a smorgasbord of health issues, it's very complex. For…
