Rest Stop - Sugar

Rest Stop - One of Those Days - LOL

Rest Stop - New Toy

I got a new toy today.  I broke down and bought a Ninja Kitchen System from Costco.  I have been using my Magic Bullet to make smoothies and I don't think is made for the use it has been getting from me lately.  I was afraid it was going to die and it seems now that both Vick and I are eating better , it wasn't going to last much longer.  When we went to Costco today they had the Ninjia on sale.  It is not what I really want but I just can't justify spending the money for a Vitamix or Blendtec.  Anyway, I bought a NInjia today and have already made two smoothies in it.  I will say it does work better than my Magic Bullet.  I am including the recipes for the smoothies I made and both of them fit in my journey.

The first one is an Apple Smoothie and the second one is a Cucumber Blast.


APPLE SMOOTHIE

Ingredients:
2 Apples, core removed and cut into large cubes (don't peel)
6-7 Frozen Strawberries
10 Seedless Black or Red Grapes

Directions:
Put all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.


CUCUMBER BLAST

Ingredients:
2 grapefruits, peeled and quartered
2 oranges, peeled and quartered
1/2 cucumber, peeled
4-6 ice cubes

Directions:
Place all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.

Rest Stop - How Restaurants Are Killing Your Diet Plan

The following article came from an email I receive called "Diet and Nutrition"

Make smarter menu decisions to take pleasure in eating out while on a diet plan.

Anyone who's dieting may fear dining establishments, how do you know what falls within your healthy diet strategy versus exactly what should be avoided?  Roughly 75 percent of Americans dine out at least once a week, while 25 percent enjoy bistros at least two or three days weekly.  And a recent study cocluded that women consume an additional 16 grams of fat and 253 calories on days they ate out, thanks to enhanced portion sizes and misleading menus.  Luckily, there are methods that you can stay with your diet plan while taking pleasure in that valued meal outside your home.

Read more.......http://bit.ly/144kyN9  

Rest Stop - Just a Thought

Rest Stop - Joined A Gym

Maybe this rest stop should have been titled "Joined the Gym Again".  When I worked for the city, they paid for a membership to Gold's Gym and when I left the city I joined Planet Fitness with my son in-law.  Gold's was alright especially since I did not have to pay the membership dues as long as I went 12 times a month.  I didn't put a lot of effort into my work outs, so you can guess what the results were.  When I joined Planet Fitness I was going to do better.  My daughter is worried about my son in-law and we were going to go together.  Occasionally we would meet at the gym and the the work outs were lack luster at best.  Neither one of us put much into it and the results showed it.  I got a neighbor to join Planet Fitness and he would go once in a while with me and soon he dropped out.  It got to the point I wasn't going and I quit.  I got a pass to the pool at the high school and that was great for a short time, until they changed up the lap swim times and then totally closed the pool down until they get the money for repairs.  They now have the money and hopefully in the near future the pool will be repaired and reopen.

That brings us to now.  Dr. Scott wanted me to get more exercise than I am getting from walking at the mall.  He suggested joining a gym.  After discussions with my Vick, it was decided I would join Planet Fitness again because it is only $10.00 a month.  I have started doing the Circuit Training they have and it kicked my butt the first couple of times.  After the first time I thought I would die.  My calves hurt for a couple of days. Now I feel the burn but I can at least walk the next day.  And as crazy as it sounds for me to say, "I actually look forward to going to the gym".  The problem is right now I wont be in the gym for a short time due to the fact I had hand surgery this week and my Dr. doesn't want me to my than five pounds of pressure on my hand for a while.  Hopefully, next week when I get the stitches out I will be cleared to resume my work outs.

Rest Stop - Not a Diet

Rest Stop - Food Label Scams

I was reading a newsletter article on Nutrition that I receive, by Joel Marion, that I found quite interesting.  It is titled "Beware Of This Food Label SCAM".

When it comes to food labels, manufacturers are very good at finding the loopholes in labeling laws and requirements, and subsequently very good at pulling the wool over Your eyes.  One such loophole is the manufacturer's ability to claim "zero" grams of fat, or zero grams of trans fat, or zero calories on the label, when in fact the product does indeed contain plenty of fat, trans fat, and/or calories.

Here is law, and how food manufacturers get around it:

Zero grams of fat or zero grams of trans fat: As long as the food item has less than .5g of fat or trans fat respectively, the label does not need to claim their existence on the label.  In fact, the product can even legally market "Zero grams of fat!" or "0g of trans fat per serving!"

More on why this is a HUGE problem and how food manufacturers deepen this loophole in just a minute.

Zero calories per serving: As long as the food item has less than 5 calories per serving, it can be rounded down and labeled 0 calories.

Deepening the Loophole with Unrealistic Serving Sizes

While .5g of fat or 5 calories may not seem like a big deal, remember that these values are "per serving", and while an entire package, box, can or bottle of a product may contain hundreds of calories and loads of fat, as long as they can divide that package into small enough servings to meet the calorie and gram requirements to
claim zero, it's legal.

Legal AND deceptive as hell.

I don't know about you, but I get angry when we see food manufacturers outright LYING to consumers on their labels in the nutrition facts.  Some of these products should change the Nutrition Facts header to "Nutrition Lies" and it'd actually be a lot more accurate.

You see, it is my oath and moral duty to provide you with honest nutrition advice and information, and as such, here are my "Top 3 Violators" of this deceptive labeling practice.

1. Cooking Sprays and Butter Sprays - Cooking sprays are labeled as fat-free but their first ingredient is oil, which is 100% fat.  How in the world can this be?  Well, the serving size is about 1/5th of a second. What?  Last time I used a cooking spray (some of the organic ones are useful) it took about 3 seconds to lightly coat the surface of the pan.  Well, according to the manufacturer, I just used 15 servings.

Bottom line, no one uses the ridiculous and absurd microscopic 1/5th of second spray suggested serving, which isn't nearly enough product to be of practical use.

Cooking sprays aren't fat-free...they are nearly 100% fat.  In my example above, a realistic serving actually contains around 5 grams of fat and 45 calories.  A far cry from the 0 number reported on their nutrition facts.

Same goes for butter sprays, which are 90%+ in most cases.  For example, one popular brand of butter spray contains over 800 calories and 90 grams of fat per bottle, yet it's labeled as a fat-free, calorie-free product!  Yeah, right!

The serving size?  One spray.  Let's real here...no one is using one spray, or five sprays, or 10 sprays,  In fact, twenty-five sprays equals just teaspoon, when the servings size for regular butter is 1 tablespoon. When you balance out the serving size to be the same as a serving of butter, you're looking at 75 sprays to get the same amount.

2. Artificial sweeteners - Not only are artificial sweeteners bad news for your health, but they're also a top violator of "calorie-free" deceptive labeling practices.  Many brands of artificial sweeteners use maltodextrin and/or dextrose(which is pure sugar) as fillers in each packet, and each packet can legally contain up to a full gram of sugar and 5 calories and still be labeled as calorie free.

I've seen people put 3-5 packets of this stuff in their coffee or on their cereal...hardly calorie free and even worse, maltodextrin and dextrose are two of the biggest insulin-spiking carbs around -- the entire reason people choose artificial sweeteners over sugar in the first place!

3. Any food that contains "partially hydrogenated" oils in the ingredient list, period.  Bottom line, you should have a zero-tolerance attitude towards trans fats.  They are the most health-derailing nutrient known to man, and you should be truly consuming ZERO grams per day.

If a product claims "Zero grams of trans fat per serving", especially if they specify "per serving", they are almost always playing the serving size game and you're very likely to see partially hydrogenated oils on the list of ingredients when you flip the package over.  If so, avoid it like the plague.

Week Seventeen - Day One - Try A New Vegetable

Had my weekly visit with Dr. Scott today. He reviewed my food journals and was not real happy but also not real upset.  He said I might want to cut down on the carrots because they are high on the glycemic index. I told him if I did not  eat carrots, there would be virtually no vegetables other than lettuce and some cabbage in my diet.  I am not fond of many vegetables.  Dr. Scott said to try new vegetables because taste buds change over your life and I told him I have lived for 60 years and have not developed a taste for broccoli, cauliflower and such vegetables and I am not about to start now.  Maybe I will try something new but don't hold your breath.

Rest Stop - Apricot Bites

The recipe for these treats come from the site Wholefood Simply   http://bit.ly/12ZRmS8   I made these for my wife and she loved them.  I shared them with a number of people including the girls at Dr, Scott's office and everybody loved them.  I finally got around to posting the recipe.

Apricot Bites

1 cup dried apricots

2 cups desiccated coconut

Add the ingredients to your blender or food processor.  Blend, blend, blend!  This takes

a while to come together, you may need to use a high speed blender.  Press the mixture into a lined loaf pan.  Refrigerate to set.  Once set chop into pieces and store in the fridge,  Enjoy!

Rest Stop - Weekly Weigh In

I would normally have an appointment with Dr. Scott today but instead I had an appointment with Dr. Branko for hand surgery.  This required changing my appointment with Dr. Scott until tomorrow.  I did my weekly weigh in this morning though.  I lost 3 pounds last week.  It is kind of neat to step on the scale and see it stay under 340 when just a short time ago it was not stopping until it went over 400.

Week Sixteen - Day One - Loss is Over 60 lbs.

Lost a couple more pounds this week.  I actually opened and walked through the  60 lb loss door this week.  Lovin' it.  I am happy with it but Dr. Scott asked me if I had been cheating and I said yes.  He then asked me to get back to following the diet and I told him I would.  Vickie wants to follow the diet now because she wants to lose a few pounds.  It fun to have her along for the ride.

Week Fifteen - Day One - Still Losing

Lost a couple ore pounds this week.  This whole program has been great for me.  I have never been able to lose this much weight and continue to keep it off.  With other diets I would be good for a couple of  days of maybe even a week or so and then I would go back to my old ways and all the weight I lost, which usually wasn't a lot, would come back and then some.

Rest Stop - Video Version of 200 Calories

The other night I Was listening to the news talk about obesity in the US and they happened to be talking about how the portions have increase over the years.  They used McDonalds as an example.  When Mickey D's first opened the had one size of hamburger and it weighed 1.5 ounces and now depending on which hamburger you order, the size has increased by up to 500%.  Is that a surprise to anybody?


I know in the last couple of posts I wrote about a link to what 200 Calories looks like, but here is a video version.  Both of them make you think.  The link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMGUmcveQeg&safe=active

Rest Stop - LOL

Rest Stop - My New Motto

Rest Stop - Another Thought on What Really Causes Heart Disease

My last rest stop had a link to an article about what the real culprit to high cholesterol.  Here is another one along the same lines.  In it Dr. Lundell also says it is our diets overloaded with highly processed carbohydrates and excessive consumption of fats and oils.  He makes some very valid points.  Here is the link:  http://www.sott.net/article/242516-Heart-Surgeon-Speaks-Out-On-What-Really-Causes-Heart-Disease?ref=nf  Since I have most of these things from my diet I have been feeling a lot better.  as I said before I have gone off the grid a few times and boy can I tell.  I am learniog to pick my battles and chose my fights when it comes to eating crazy.

Week Fourteen - Rest Stop - What Really Causes Cholesterol

I am sorry I have been so lax in posting to my blog.  I have been sick for the last few days and haven't felt like doing much of anything and that being said I did not get to my appointments with Dr. Scott and so the week will start with a Rest Stop and not a day.  As I checked my email today I had over 600 emails in my in box.  I think I am in trouble, it is going to take some time to get those emails checked.

Anyway, back to my Cookie Zone.  I lost just a couple of tenths of a pound more than I gained last week and I was thankful for that.  A sixty pound loss is within reach.  Hopefully this week.  Vick and my friends have commented on how baggy my clothes are getting.

I am linking to an article that talks about that fact that saturated fats are not the reason for the rise in cholesterol in our LDL's.  I am not taking a side either way, just giving food for thought.  It is titled "It Ain't The Fat People."  The link is:  http://authoritynutrition.com/it-aint-the-fat-people/

I will have to admit I have gone off the grid a little more lately than I should have, but that is life.  I will also admit I feel better when I eat clean.  So I always end up going back to it. But as I have said before, some of the habits I have made over the last sixty years are going to be hard to break and will take some time.

Vick commented tonight I seem to have lost my enthusiasm for the program Dr. Scott has me on and I told her I was still behind it.  She then asked if I had been keeping my food journal and doing everything the Dr. asked me to do and that I had committed to do and I had to admit I hadn't so I now commit on this blog to get back to being serious about my program.  My goal is still to lose 100 pounds by the end of the year.