Apps! They help in the Diet - Exercise - Weigh Loss Battle

Darlings, this is going to be short and sweet.   The Three Apps below have helped Mary immeasurably.  My Fitness Pal and Runkeeper work together, beautifully.   Model my diet helps with visualization.  Go! Poke some buttons!

My Fitness Pal

Runkeeper

Model My Diet

Weekly Fruit and Veggie Prep - Very Helpful Tip

Darlings, Mary picked up a helpful weight loss tip from her wondrous sister A. She picks a day (usually Sunday) when she preps her veggies, fruit, and cooks her lean protein (chicken), puts them in containers, and stores them on the top shelf of the fridge. That way, when Mary is starving, and opens the fridge, the first thing that she hits is a good choice.

Having lean protein pre cooked and ready also helps her choose a salad (from the already washed and cut up veggies) toss in some chicken, and Dinner!  Fastest, easiest, best choice.  Very helpful.



Weekly Prep List

2 pounds of chicken breast - start cooking in pan while doing veggie prep

2 Bunches of Kale, washed and torn into little pieces (including the stems), shake dry.

1 Bag of pre-washed Spinach, torn up.

1 Celery Heart (bunch of celery) washed, separated, and cut into 3 - 4 inch sections for snacking, and some chopped for Green Goddess Smoothies.

1 small bag of mini carrots - open bag, wash, pat dry, put in plastic containers with a paper towel in bottom.

1 bunch of seedless green grapes, washed, shaken dry, pulled from stem, placed in tall plastic container with a screw lid.

1 bunch of seedless red grapes, same as for the green grapes.

1 bag local apples washed and set on towel to dry.

1 Bag of frozen mixed tropical fruits - opened and broken into individual fruit pieces

Now.  Darlings.  Mary then gets out 7 quart sized freezer bags.  Opens them, and into each of them she puts:

A big handful of Kale (about 1 cup)

A big handful of Spinach (about 1 cup)

1/2 c of Green Grapes

1/4 c Chopped Celery

Half an apple cut into slices

1/4 c each frozen Mango and Pineapple pieces

She then zips the bag closed, and tosses it into the freezer.  Yes, Darlings, one doesn't ever freeze greens!  Mostly in the case of dark greens, one leaves them in the bottom drawer of the fridge until they get all squishy and smelly, then one throws them out.  Don't look at me like that, the Fab knows that you do it too.  Where was I?  Throw the assembled bag into the freezer.  When you pull it out, toss it in the blender, add a cup of unsweetened Almond Milk, whir, Green Goddess Smoothie.  Yum.

The rest of the Veggies and fruits go into plastic containers with lids (put a paper towel in the bottom). Place them on the top shelf of the fridge.  Easy snacking!  Easy salad prep.

When your chicken is done, cool, dice or shred, put in a plastic container in the fridge.  Same reason as above.  Ready for salad or quick sandwich.

Pick a day Darlings!  Go to the grocery, spend some time in the produce section.  When you get home, do your fruit and veggie prep right then.  Ready for a week of healthful eating.

The Fab believes in you.  She does.

Quick and Easy Chili Soup -

Note: Chili Soup is slightly sweet, slightly spicy hot and more soup than Chili. Great with a deep green salad!

Evelyn's Famous Quick and Easy Chili Soup

Ingredients:

2 - 46 ounce cans Tomato Juice - Del Monte or Red Gold - 540 calories

(seriously, these two taste best to Fabiola -- use your favorite -- but don't say that Fabiola didn't try to help!).

1 - 16 ounce can Bush's Best Chili Beans, Medium Sauce (or mild or hot -- but use Bush's, trust Fabiola on this one). - 420 calories

******

1 lb. Ground Beef (70/30) - 750 calories for pan browned, drained, crumbles
1 medium Yellow Onion - 64 calories















1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder -  5 calories

1/8 teaspoon Ground Celery Seed -  2 calories

1/4 teaspoon Corse Ground Black Pepper - 2 calories
1 teaspoon Salt - 0 calories

4 tablespoons Dark Chili Powder (or to taste) - 100 calories

(Fabiola likes the Kroger store brand best. Also: keep in mind that Chili Powder looses flavor as it sits in your cupboard. Buy small quantities more often rather than leaving it sit on a shelf).

********

1 cup Dark Brown Sugar packed - 836 calories

2 tablespoons Blackstrap Molasses - 116 calories

(Fabiola has a thing for Blackstrap Molasses - have you checked out the nutrition label? Calcium, iron, B vitamins ... the link takes you to nutrition data's information on Blackstrap Molasses -- click this link if you want to look up other ingredientshttp://www.nutritiondata.com/ great site!)

Assembly:

Put the Tomato Juice and Chili Beans in your slow cooker, start cooking on low heat. 

Brown (stirring frequently), the ground beef and onion over medium heat. You want the meat to brown and the onion to cook until transparent. Drain fat.

Turn off the heat, move your skillet to a cool burner, add the Garlic Powder, Celery Seed, Black Pepper, Salt, Chili Powder to the browned grond beef and onion. Stir, stir, stir. Add the brown sugar and molasses, stir until mixed. Transfer to your slow cooker, stir until mixed. Let the soup cook for at least 2 hours, but will be just fine if you leave it all day.


2835 calories for the entire recipe

Recipe makes 8 servings of about 16 ounces - 354 calories per serving

Fabiola serves the fella a big bowl of this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and Ritz crackers.

Mary has a bowl of this soup with a nice salad of spinach, kale, chopped carrots, with just a little sharp cheddar cheese shreds. 

Yes, this is a cast iron skillet. Cast Iron is a permanent non-stick, precision cooking tool - yet again, Grandma knew what she was doing.

You CAN`T Fail at this diet ... Or ... The Great Cream Horn Incident of 2013

Darlings!  You are fabulous, you are! Working on your food journal?  Working on walking or other exercise?  Slowly eliminating added sugar and salt from your food?  Excellent!

As the Fab has told you Mary discovered umm, finally listened to the advice that has been out there forever and a day, that if she tracks the calories that she eats, and burns more calories than she eats, even by a little bit, she will loose weight.  Even if, say, one day when she drove to town to pick up the fella's lunch, and a few items at the grocery, and there on the display, by the check-out, was a stack of vanilla creme horns. Five curled pastries on a tray,  all greasy and sweet and golden, sparkling in their plastic packaging, they got the best of her.  Mary bought them.  Then.  She ripped them open as soon as she got in the car.  As she drove the three blocks from Walmart to the McDonald`s -- she ate three of them in the MOST undignified manner.  She was, in fact, still chomping as she placed an order for the fella's lunch.

Why in the world would the Fab tell you this?  People have weak moments.  Mary has bought into those diets where you have to eat exactly this, at exactly that moment, some sort of food combining, chemical hocus-pocus, where one misstep, and she had RUINED the diet mojo entirely.  Have you been there?  Guaranteed failure.  Mary never unlearned one bad habit by following a trendy diet.  She never developed good eating habits either.   Now, the Fab is not saying easy, or fast, but tracking calories, eating consciously, exercising, DID become habits with Mary.  She does, however, have moments from time to time, like the Great Creme Horn Incident of 2013.  And that too, is ok.  She is human.  So are you darlings.  Keep at it!  The Fab believes in you.

Fiber is Your Friend ... Eat your Veggies!

Darlings, that awful Mary has had the Fab locked in the bottom drawer of the vidmar for the last few days.  The vidmar (in this case) is a heavy set of tool drawers, where Mary keeps her grinder.  Just as well darlings, Mary has spent a goodly part of the last few days with said grinder, inside a steel tank, removing rust and rough spots.  Great arm work out by the way. The Fab is thanking her lucky stars that she was nowhere near that dust.  No beehive do could withstand that amount of powdered steel, or the flying yellow hot sparks that come flying off the grinder.  The Fab's do would go up in flames!

Where was I?  Oh, yes, fiber.

Darlings, fiber is your friend. Fennel, celery, spinach, apples, broccoli, cauliflower, kale are all full of fiber.  It will keep you feeling full longer.  Plus Bonus!  The time you will spend brushing and flossing after eating these items gives your stomach time to let you know that it is full.

Now, Mary when she knows that she is going somewhere where the food pushers are going to be out in full force, grabs a glass of water and a tablespoon of fiber in a jar, mixes, drinks.  Takes the edge off.  Makes it possible for her to say a polite "No thank-you" to tempting treats instead of just, oh, say, grabbing that cookie or whatever out of the offering hand and stuffing it in her face as fast as she can.  Please note Darlings, I am telling you what Mary does, not suggesting that you do it.  Consult your medical professional, nutritionist, read and follow all label directions all the usual.  I mean, Mary also downs two shots of brown liquor before she goes out too.  She has social issues.  But she is as regular as all giddy-up.

Some of Mary's favorite ways to add fiber to her diet?

Green Goddess Smoothie


 

The Fab's Case for SLOW Weight Loss ... Still On Sun Tsu's Chapter 1 - Laying Plans

The Fab's somewhat fractured case for SLOW weight loss.

1. Sorta Sciency - You are a complex biological system Darlings. You are. In complex biological systems, major changes made fast are, in reality, shocks to the system.  In the Fab's opinion, shocking can be useful for swimming pools that have gone all green and slimy.  Shocking is 'a thing' in the electric eel world. Are you a slimy green swimming pool?  No? You aren't, by chance, an eel?  No? Then maybe consider slow. Slow is Graceful, gradual, like a swan gliding on a lake Darlings.


2.  Sorta Scary - Imagining yourself as a Swan on a lake not working for you? Let the Fab tell you a Mary story.  Now, we have mentioned that Mary is crabby and anti-social, she is also, (how to say this delicately ...) Mary is old.  Okay, maybe not exactly old, not cool old like 80 or 90, just aint no spring chicken no more old.  Over 50 old.  Darlings the Fab has a point, truly she does.

When she was young, Mary's skin would snap right back after one of her endless repetitions of a 5 or 10 pound weight loss.  Not so much anymore. As Mary was contemplating the bio-mechanics of loosing weight, to her horror, she hit on a visual of visitors arriving at her home after she had lost weight.  She imagined herself springing from the porch waving madly.  Springing and waving, stepping off the porch while her jiggly loose flaps and folds of skin followed along 2 steps behind her like those of an old bloodhound.

Call it vanity, call it what you will, Mary decided on slow just as much because she wanted her skin to keep up with her weight loss as because a weight loss of 1 or 2 pounds a week is wise.

Motivating the motivators - A Quick Note From the Fab

Darlings, you look marvelous today!  You do!  You have been working on your food journal?  OUTSTANDING!  The Fab is proud of you!


A quick note to folk that are acting as either a good example, or a support group member, Mary told the Fab that playing the long game in weight loss (30 pounds or more) is the hardest thing that she has ever done. -  Fab is whispering here, Mary aint all that smart, so she has to be tough, in fact her nickname is the Ice Queen if that gives you an idea of what she is like, and she said HARDEST THING EVER.  

Be proud of the loss of every pound that your friend looses, tell them!  Be giddy over every changed bad habit.  If you have never had a significant long term weight problem, you have no idea what a battle changing those bad habits is.  Believe in your friends. The Fab believes in you.  You can do it.

Real Life Math

DLF > DNF > DNS

Translation:

Dead Last Finish is greater than 

Did Not Finish is greater than 

Did Not Start.