Category: New healthy lifestyle tips

Accountability

What’s a really good way to help you stay on a diet? Write it down! During the eighty weeks I was on the “long diet,” I wrote everything I ate down. Even the bad stuff. I printed out a sheet today which has boxes for each meal, a snack, water and exercise. And so far so good. Excellent breakfast, in control lunch with the excellent null soup of an earlier post, and an hour and a half of singles tennis. Of course, it’s only 4:45pm and that means that the dreaded munchie time is near. Followed by the usually overindulgent dinner. We’ll see.

Beware the Dollar Menu

In our travels, John and I usually stop at McDonald’s for breakfast. The other day we stopped at the one in Primm, Nevada. Typically, we each get an Egg McMuffin with no cheese and coffee. But, at this McDonald’s, the Sausage McMuffin with Egg was on the dollar menu. Hmmmm, $2.19 for the Egg McMuffin and $1 for the Sausage one. I stuck to the Egg McMuffin and John got the sausage one. In looking at the nutritional information, this is what I found. If you have an Egg McMuffin with no cheese, the values are 240 calories, about 7 grams of fat and 2 grams of fiber. Not the best but not a terrible breakfast on the road. The Sausage McMuffin with Egg (which also includes cheese) is a whopping 450 calories, 26 grams of fat and 2 of fiber. I think spending the extra $1.19 is worth it. Another tip, carry a little plastic knife with you and cut anything you get at a fast food place in half. It makes it last longer and is tidier to eat.

Wonton wrappers

Yesterday I made butternut squash raviolis using wonton wrappers. You peel and chop the butternut squash, toss it with some salt, olive oil and maple syrup and bake it until it’s soft. In the meantime, you saute some shallots and add some pecans and sage at the end of the saute. Then you mash up the squash and mix in the shallot mixture. It is really yummy. But when I made the raviolis and cooked them, the wonton wrappers were really flabby and really didn’t add anything to dish. I guess it would have been better to make actual pasta but this seemed easier. I know this isn’t really a diet tip but this is quite a good, not-too-high in calories, vegetarian dish. I served it with a wild mushroom ragu and garlicky greens.

Whole Wheat Pasta

Last night I decided to try a recipe from Vegetarian Times called “Pasta with garlicky white beans and Swiss chard.” I thought it was pretty healthy sounding but I had never tried whole wheat pasta. I figured it would taste like some nasty imitation of the real thing. But it didn’t. It tasted just like regular pasta. Here’s the important point, though, regular pasta has 210 calories and 2 grams of fiber per two ounce serving and whole wheat pasta has 180 calories and 5 grams of fiber per two ounce serving. This is an easy switch to make which will reduce calories and increase fiber.

Reality Check

I admit I’ve been whining over the last few days about the whole diet thing. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth the sacrifices, especially when you are a bit over the hill and are never going to look great again anyway. But, John told me yesterday that a business colleague of his, whom I knew and liked a lot, was out riding her bike, had a massive heart attack and died. She was 51. So, you know, it’s not really about whom you are trying to impress, it’s about being healthy and having a long and wonderful life.

Water

One thing they always tell you when you are trying to lose weight, is to drink a lot of water. In fact, here in my diet tips even I have suggested drinking water if you are hungry because maybe you are just thirsty. But, here is my dilemma about water ala Dr. Seuss –

Water Is A Paean

I do not like it in a jar,
I do not like it in a car,
I do not like it by my bed,
I do not like it blue or red,
I will not drink it in a park,
I will not drink it as a lark,
I don’t have it instead of food,
because it does not help my mood.
I don’t like water you can see.
Do you have a tip for me?