Maintining My Weight and Fitness

One of the reasons I have not published anything since April is because I'm happy to say that very little had changed since then. The 20 pounds I lost have stayed lost. I'm going to the gym five days a week, walking outside a few days a week, and have stopped counting carbs.

I stopped coaching wrestling over 25 years ago, but right now I am in about the best shape I have been in since then. For the past 20 years, I was going to the chiropractor on a fairly regular basis, at least a few times a month. I don't honestly remember the last time I went, but I know I have not gone since April. I attribute it to working out PROPERLY and watching my diet.

My diet it both predictable and spontaneous. I've learned how much I can eat without starting my upward climb. I know what to avoid and as long as I avoid the junk I can eat comfortably without feeling deprived.

One or two days a week we go out for breakfast. I usually have a western omlette, rye toast, and home fries. Occasionally, I'll dive off the deep end and have Belgium waffles and real maple syrup.

When I'm at home, it's usually one of two breakfasts. The first is simply coffee with peanut butter and jelly on Nature's Own 13 grain toast. The second is coffee and a bacon, egg, and cheese on 13 grain toast.

Lunch is usually a sandwich using 13 grain toast. What's in the sandwich depends on what's in the refrigerator. It could be turkey, roast beef, chicken, tuna, with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Before the diet, it wasn't unusual for me to visit McDonald's at least 3 days a week. Now the visits are once or twice a month. 

Dinner is our big meal and that can be anything.  Whenever possible it is home cooked and usually consists of meat and a few vegetables.  However, lasagna or pasta and rolls also make appearances. The key is portion control. For me, that means leaving the table when I am comfortable. Before, it use to mean leaving the table when I was stuffed.

Then there is the problem of my sweet tooth. That too, is now under control thanks to Atkins Cookies and Cream Chocolate bar and Lenny and Larry's Muscle Brownies. I could eat them all day long, but I suspect that would not be the ideal diet.

All of this is accompanied by as much water as I can take in during the day.  I used to go through a two liter bottle of Coke every two days.  For as long as I can remember, my doctors have told me I don't drink nearly as much water as I should.  I still don't drink enough, but I have substituted water or diet iced tea for Coke.   I do know I am drinking more than I have in the past and the reduced sugar intake is has factored in heavily on my weight loss.

I've always said I wanted to live to be 100.  With 30 more years to go, I really feel that I have an achievable goal, but I've always been an over achiever and am looking forward to making an entry here in August of 2044.
 

1 Minute, Low Carb, Chocolate Pudding

I just came up with this yesterday and it is my favorite recipe so far, because it's sweet, chocolate, takes only about a minute to make and is only 12 carbs.

 Ingredients
1/2 c No Fat Greek Yogurt
1   tsp Hershey's Cocoa
2 packets Truvia

Instructions
Mix all of the ingredients, serve, eat!

Nutritional Information
12 g  Carbohydrates
0   g  Fat
1   g  Fiber
11 g  Net Carbs
124   Calories
8 mg Cholesterol
10 g  Protein

Leather Tells the Tale

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this blog is one thousand ninety-three words long (counting numbers as words). This is the everyday belt I've worn for more than 40 years. Point 1 is where I was buckling it in the beginning of March, when I started my low carb diet.  Point 2 is where I buckled it this morning.  Mind you point 2 was a bit snug after breakfast, but so was point 1, and very soon I will hope to retire this belt in favor of a new one.

Shrimp Stir Fry with Peppers, Mushrooms, Squash, and Spinach

I started the diet one month ago and I've shed 12 pounds and two notches on my belt.  I've been surprised at how easy it has been to stay on a diet of 100g of carbohydrates a day.  Don't get me wrong.  It does take discipline, but I have found ways to feed my sweet tooth stay on an even keel.

The loss of weight and difference in my energy level are huge motivational factors that are convincing me that this is a life style change I will be able to maintain for the long run.  Once I hit my goal weight and go on a maintenance diet, I should be able to eat what I want, whenever I want, as long as what I want isn't junk, processed white flour or sugar.

Right now my breakfast usually consists of only a slice of whole grain toast with peanut butter and a cup of coffee.  If I get hungry before lunch or dinner, I grab a slice or two of deli turkey or roast beef, but once I hit my goal, I'll add eggs and bacon to the breakfast.

Lunch varies, but on many days I go for my Chocolate Protein Shake.  Depending on the menu for the day and the need to feed my sweet tooth, I might go with only a half cup of yogurt and/or leave out the banana to save some carbs.  Once I hit my goal, soup and a sandwich will do nicely.

My sweet treats come from Lenny and Larry's.  In most cases, it is a half of a Muscle Brownie, but there are some days that I treat myself to a whole one.  Jill found that if you put them in the microwave for 10 seconds that go from really good to OMG!

Today's dinner was a shrimp stir fry.  It is one of my favorite meals and it comes in at 39 carbs total.  The full recipe is below the video.  Most of my dinners will continue to be my post diet dinner, but with the addition of rice.



Shrimp Stir Fry with Peppers, Mushrooms, Squash, and Spinach

Ingredients  (1 Serving)

10 jumbo shrimp precooked
1/2 medium zucchini (or summer squash)
1 red bell pepper
4 large mushrooms
1 1/2 cup fresh spinach
1 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
red pepper flakes to taste (optional)
1 tbsp Tsang General Tsao sauce


Mix the General Tsao sauce with the shrimp and set aside to marinate while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Chop peppers, mushroom, and squash and mix together in a bowl.  Keep the spinach separate.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a fry pan on medium high, add the vegetable mixture, and stir. After about a minute or two add the salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes. Continue stirring the vegetables for another 3-5 minutes depending on how crisp or tender you want them.

Add the spinach and shrimp.  Stir to mix all the ingredients.  Cover and cook for two more minutes, stirring occasionally.   Remove from the heat, serve, and enjoy.
. 

Saucy Shrimp and Eggplant with Peppers and Mushrooms

Chopped is one of my favorite shows on the Food Channel.  I had some left overs from eggplant rollatini I made a few days ago and thought I would try to come up with an original recipe using what was in the fridge.  It actually turned out to be very tasty and will find its way to the dinner table in the future.

The only thing I think needs improvement is the spices.  I didn't add enough. The recipe below is different from the video and reflects what I will add the next time I make it.



Ingredients

1 1/2 cup chopped eggplant
1 chopped red pepper
1 cup chopped mushrooms
12 cooked jumbo shrimp
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. chopped capers
1/2 tsp. oregano
garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste
hot pepper flakes (optional)

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a saute pan.
Add peppers and saute about 2-3 minutes
Add eggplant, mushrooms and spices. Saute another 5 minutes
Add tomato sauce, cover and simmer another 1-2 minutes
Add shrimp and stir until heated, about another minute
Serve and Enjoy!3 few days ago and thought I would try to come up with an original recipe using what was in the fridge.  It actually turned out to be very tasty and will find its way to the dinner table in the future.

Cookies and Brownies on a 100g a Day Diet

Last month, just two days after I started my diet, I was scheduled to compete in a charity, holdem poker tournament.  Included in the package was an Italian buffet, which would blow my diet before I even had a chance to start.

Having resolved to stick to it, I decided I would partake of only low carb food.  Hoping I would last a while at the poker table, I figured that would not be enough to hold me, so I stopped at a local 7-11 to pick up something healthy, filling, and low enough in carbs to fit my diet.

I headed right to the health-bar section and began checking labels.  Over the years, I have tried most of the bars on the shelf.  While none of them were terrible, none of them had me wanting to come back for more. Tonight, I settled on a Lenny & Larry's Peanut Butter Muscle Brownie, a brand I had never tried.

The packaging had an appealing Ben & Jerry's feel.  It looked like a brownie, rather than something that had been squeezed out of a processing tube and the nutritional labeling seemed great point for my diet.  It weighted in at just under 3 oz. and had only 19g of carbs and it was high in protein, but then I checked the nutritional labeling a second time and realized those figures were for a single serving and each brownie was two servings.

Fortunately, breakfast and lunch were only 50g total and I had 50g for the tournament. Figuring the only item on the buffet that I could have would be salad, I thought the brownie was still within range, even if I ate two servings.  As it turned out I was right on both counts. 


The salad was tasty, but wasn't going hold me for long. About an hour into the tournament, I broke out the brownie.  Hands down, it was the best tasting health food brownie I have ever tasted.  Of course it wasn't Duncan Heinz, but it was still pretty damn tasty.  The brownie had great texture.  It was moist and chewy, but not that stick to your teeth chewy that I've had with some others. There was no artificial taste and if I had a second brownie, I might have fallen off the diet wagon. Fortunately, I didn't have a second brownie, and even if I did, I wouldn't have blown the diet, because about a half an hour later my chips were gone.

I didn't win the tournament, but I was a winner none-the-less with my discovery of Lenny and Larry's line of products.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be reviewing more of their line.  So if you have a sweet tooth like me, you might want to check back regularly.

Low Carb, Slow Cooker, Chicken Paprikash

My grandmother made Hungarian chicken paprikash that was to die for, but that recipe is gone forever. Aside from that, she used potatoes and there is no way we can include that in my current diet.  A few years ago, I found a Weight Watcher recipe and tried it.  It certainly wasn't to die for, but it then again, it wouldn't kill you.  Today I revised the recipe to fit my 100 g/day low carb diet and it was really delicious. 

Some of grandma's recipes were passed on with results almost as good hers, but then were never quite the same, because there are a few things grandma used that just aren't readily available. Even if they were I would probably pass in order to save my arteries.  Chicken fat was one of the secret ingredients to her  stuffed cabbage recipe. It was also one of the ingredients and her chicken paprikash recipe.  She used it in with the potatoes.

In this recipe I stick with cooking spray and my new favorite vegetable, the rudabega. Up until I started this diet, I had never tasted rudabega. What a waste youth!

I'm going to give you two ways to prepare it.  The difference is two ingredients and 10 minutes.  It not only results in two different tastes, but it also has a significant impact on the carb content.

Chicken Paprikash Ingredients

12 oz Mushrooms coarsely chopped
1 medium onion or 1 tsp onion powder
1 medium clove garlic minced or 1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 medium sweet red pepper diced
1 tsp paprika (If you like it spicy use hot Hungarian paprika.)
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts  (4 half breasts, each cut into 4 strips)
1 medium rudabega, cut into bite sized pieces

(Optional)
1 Tbsp all purpose flour.
1/2 cup No Fat Greek Yogurt

Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking oil and saute the red peppers and mushrooms for about 5 minutes.  Stir in the paprika, onion salt, garlic salt, salt, and  pepper and saute for about another minute.

In a 4-5 quart crock pot, combine the sauteed ingredients, rudabegas and chicken.  Add the chicken broth and cook on low for about 5-6 hours.  Stir occasionally, primarily to make sure the rudabegas are getting distributed.

If you aren't going to add the yogurt, you are ready to do.  If you are going with the yogurt, mix it in a bowl with the flour and then stir it into the crock pot. Let it cook about 10 minutes more to thicken up. Serve and enjoy!

This yields four servings, but I pigged out and only got three.  Here's the four serving nutritional information with and without the yogurt.

Without yogurt - 13g carbs, 4g fiber, 204 calories, 6g fat, 60 mg cholesterol, 23g ptotein
With yogurt  -     23g carbs, 8g fiber, 282 calories, 12g fat, 65 mg cholesterol, 35.5g protein

As you can see, the yogurt adds considerable carbs, but it helps with the fiber and protein. My breakfast and lunch today only totaled 49g carbs, so I had plenty to spare and went the yogurt route and had two glasses of wine!.

That should hold me until later this evening when I'll munch on about a 1/4 cup of salted sunflower seeds.  At the end of the day, I will have a grand total of only 89 carbs!
  

Egg Plant Rollatini and a Typical 100 g Carb Day

My morning started out as usual,  with a slice of Nature's Own 100% Whole Grain Bread, topped with a generous tablespoon of peanut butter.  It was washed down with a cup of coffee and Truvia sweetener, for a total of 18g carbs.

Lunch was one of my chocolate peanut butter shakes, which was the high carb meal of the day, weighing in at 40g carbs.

Dinner was egg plant rollatini, which turned out to be only about 30 carbs.  I got the original recipe from Weight Watchers and tweaked it quite a bit, primarily to dramatically shorten prep time.  The orginal recipe included two rounds of sauteeing and one of baking.  Simply by substituting onion salt and garlic salt, I eliminated all of the sauteeing without sacraficing flavor.  Here how I made it. 

Ingredients:

2 medium egg plants sliced lengthwise into 1/4" slices
1 small-medium zucchini chopped
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
2 cups crushed tomatoes with basil
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded skim mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Spray two baking sheets and place the sliced egg plants on them without overlapping.  Bake, flipping once when they just begin to brown, about 7 minutes per side.  Watch them though. If some are thick they will take longer. If some are thin or unevenly slices they will brown quickly.  I try to make about 14 slices, because a few may have to be discarded. Remove them from the oven and put aside.

Drop the oven temperature to 400.

For the filling, in a bowl, mix the ricotta, Parmesan  cheese, parsley, egg, chopped zucchini, garlic salt, onion salt, salt and pepper. 

In and 8" x 8" or 9" x 9" glass backing sheet, spread about 3 tablespoons of crushed tomatoes on the bottom.  Next you are going to fill and roll the egg plants.  Place about 1 1/2 Tbsp. of filling on the small end of an egg plant slice and carefully roll it.  Place it seam side down in the baking dish.  You should be able to get a dozen in the dish.

When done, top with the remaining crushed tomatoes and sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese. Depending on your carb count for the day, you may want to add more mozzarella.  At only 4 carbs per cup for the skim version, it will only add about 2 carb to your meal for each cup.  If I hadn't already been at 58, I would have done just that!

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted. 3 rolls are only 30g carbs and 240 calories.
ENJOY!

Diet Milestones and Inches Lost

The goal of my low carb diet is to get rid of inches around my waist. Watching carbs and taking measurements is what I am doing. However, measurements are what motivates me. I have been wearing the same belt on my genes since 1964. That belt contains the 50 year history of my waistline.

I started my low carb diet 16 days ago and am I'm shooting for about 100 carbs a day. I'm not looking at calories or any other factor, though I am tracking most of the nutritional values. By watching the carbs,the others are being held in check

One thing I am not tracking is sodium. I am a saltaholic. I used to salt my food before I even tasted it, but now at least I taste it first. It is my belief that the salt warnings are for people who are sensitive to salt intake. My blood pressure is under control and as long as it is, I will continue on my wicked salt ways.

 I have lost about four pounds so far, but pounds are not my goal. Inches off my waste is the way I will measure my success. Here is a picture of a the belt I bought when I was still in college. Marked on it are where I was at my worst, where I was when I started my diet, where I am now, and where I hope to be in a few more weeks.

Peanut Butter and Banana, Chocolate Protein Shake

I guess Skinny Elvis would be a good name for this chocolate protein shake made with peanut butter and banana.  My daughter sent me the original recipe, but I changed a few ingredients to lower the carbs to fit my 100 gram a day diet, and adjusted most of the proportions to suit my taste.

In this version, I'm using Dole Dippers instead of a frozen banana, but that's because I bought the wrong variety for my wife's diet treat.  Waste not. Want not. Besides, while it adds some additional calories, the number of carbs remain almost the same.  The ingredients and nutritional information below are based on adding 1/2 of a frozen banana.

At 47 grams of carbs, it's just about 1/2 of my daily allowance, but on this day my breakfast of vegetable omelet and toast was only 13 carbs and my planned dinner will bring me in right around the 100 carb limit.

Ingredients

1 c 1% Milk
1 c FAGA Greek Yogurt
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp Hershey's Cocoa
1 or 2 tbsp Peanut Butter Powder to taste
1 tbsp Chia Seeds
1 packet Truvia (You may want to add an extra packet or substitute honey)


Nutritional information from the packaging and FatSecrets.com .

Start Your Engine with a Low Carb Diet

A little more than a week ago, my wife and I decided to begin dieting again. It was supposed to start last month, but she was part of a taste test at Lindt Chocolate, and was given a five pound thank-you bag of chocolates.  That both delayed the diets and made them all the more important. 

She has a class reunion in August and I could stand to lose a few inches around the middle.  By starting now, we can do it the right way. However, we have chosen slightly different paths.  She is focusing on watching calories and I am focusing on watching carbohydrates.

Normally, I would have chosen the same path as Jill, but just by chance, almost on the same day we started our diets,  my friend Claire started a blog called The Carbometer, which talks of her success with a low carb diet. 

After reading it, it made perfect sense to me, but it's  not my intention to duplicate Claire's efforts, either in dieting or in blogging, because not only am I taking a different path than Jill, I'm taking a different path than Claire.

Claire is really counting carbs and is dead serious about losing weight while eating healthy.  She is limiting herself to 30-50 grams of carbs a day with amazing results.  My needs are different. You see, I'm a junk food junkie.  I know my diet is literally killing me. I know if I do nothing by cut out junk food like McDonald's, Tastykakes and Coke, I will lose weight, but more importantly, I'll feel better and live longer. Of course an early death is both a reason and motivation, but that's too distant and abstract. It has never been enough for me to change my ways, but watching and listening to Jill, Claire, and to some extent, my conscience and common sense offer more immediate and tangible motivation. Being accountable and tracking what goes into my body is the important.  Jill's determination and Claire's blog are catalyst for my efforts. 

I plan on eating healthier by cutting the junk and tracking what I eat. I've set a goal of keeping carbs at 100 grams a day, something I find surprisingly easy to do.  I track most of the nutritional value of the foods I eat with an eye on the carbs. By doing so, without even looking, I've reduced my caloric intake by 50-60% and am averaging about 1250 calories a day.

If you are serious about losing weight, you'll definitely want to follow Claire's blog.  If you are like me, and primarily interested in eating healthier, without depriving yourself while shedding a few pounds, you'll want to check us both out. 

I'll be talking more about how I'm changing my habits and supplying some recipes that are healthy, but like the chocolate shake, stuffed cabbage in my next two blogs, probably a little to high in carbs to make it onto Claire's radar. If healthier eating through reduced carbohydrate intake and portion control is your goal, I hope check back soon.