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.

Eat Breakfast Every Day - Options Darlings - Chocolate Orange Coffee

Morning Coffee                                                                                            Coffee - Brewed from grounds, 1 cup (8 fl oz)	2	0	0	0	5	0
Metamucil - Smooth Texture Orange, 1 rounded Tbsp (12g)	45	12	0	0	5	9
Kroger - Whey & Soy Protein Chocolate Powder, 2 scoops (32g)	120	4	1	25	90	1
Milk - Whole Milk, 0.5 cup	75	6	4	4	60	6

242 calories

Darlings - this is Mary's almost every morning breakfast.  Minutes.  Who has time first thing in the morning?  It tastes almost ... kinda sorta ...  ok, not too much at all, but headed in the direction of being like a Starbucks Mocha Valencia latte.

Quick Note: Remember when the Fab said that Mary took a goodly 8 months to eliminate sugar and salt from her diet?  This coffee started out with about a tablespoon of Hershey's syrup in it too.  She slowly cut that back until it was gone.  Now she doesn't even miss it.

Eat Breakfast Every Morning - Options Darlings! Green Goddess Smoothie

Green Goddess Smoothie

1 cup unsweetened almond milk - 40 calories               
Handfuls of spinach and / or kale until you fill the blender. -  34 calories per cup
Blend for about 1 minute 
Add 1/2 or whole banana - 105 calories for 1 medium
1/2 c frozen mango - 60 calories
1/4 c frozen pineapple  unsweetened -  25 calories
Blend for another minute and you are done!

264 Calories and A tasty way to get greens into your diet!

Alternate Version - minus the banana plus green grapes and 1/2 an apple and celery

1 cup unsweetened almond milk - 40 calories               
Handfuls of spinach and / or kale until you fill the blender. -  2 c = 68 calories

Blend for about 1 minute 
Add 1/2 a medium Apple cored and sliced - 48 calories
1/2 c green grapes - 52
1/4 c frozen mango - 30 calories
1/4 c frozen pineapple  unsweetened -  25 calories
1/4 c chopped celery - 4 calories
Blend for another minute and you are done!

267 Calories

Darlings!  It IS a lot of getting out and chopping.  Go read this post on how to make it easier!  And remember Greens are Good!

Mary's World 4 Food Groups ... (Or you think that you have it tough)

Darlings, The Fab has realized that she has been remiss in giving you background information on Mary.  The Fab forgets that you don't know Mary.  No loss darlings, Mary is crabby and anti-social, without the Fab she would be a mess.

Regardless.





The Four Food Groups in Mary's World  are as follows:

1. Pan Fried, and Battered and Deep Fried

2. Beef and Bacon

3. Potatoes and Sweet Corn

4. Things the Fella won't eat.

Raising my metaphorical hand and swearing it to be true, I, Fabiola, declare that with my help, Mary managed to change what she eats and loose weight DESPITE the fella who insists on eating like he lives in a greasy spoon diner.  What is a gal to do?  Darlings, The Fab has no idea what you are going to do, but Mary fabricated a figment who bears a remarkable resemblance to the best possible -- Truck Stop Waitress / best friend a gal could ever have.

Mary cooks at least dinner every day and most days she cooks his while she makes hers.  It IS possible Darlings.  She grits her teeth and gets through it.  It gets easier for her the more she does it.  Of course, it is also very helpful to have the always patient, always gracious, Fab suggesting that what Mary is making is better in every way than the slop that the fella is about to eat.


For Mary, Weight Loss is partly what she eats, partly how much she exercises, mostly what goes on in her head.   Just sayin` Darlings.

You can do it!  The Fab believes in you.


The Fab is starting a list of Recipes that the Fella will eat that are easily converted or are already weight loss friendly.

Main Dishes -

Evelyn's Famous Chili Soup

If You Kinda Sorta Try - You Kinda Sorta Get Results

More on Sun Tsu later. For now Darlings, The Fab is going to share with you one of the ideas that Mary worked on getting into her head.  It is this phrase:

"If You Kinda Sorta Try - You Kinda Sorta Get Results"

She repeated it to herself when she knew that she was being a little lazy.

This Morning Darlings - Someone Ended Up Here by Searching ..

This Morning Darlings - Someone Ended Up Here by Searching ... On the phrase "How to Celebrate a 65 Pound Weight Loss"   Whomever you are Darling ...

Standing Slow Clap!!!!!   You have done something marvelous!!!!!  Yay You!  The Fab knows how hard you worked.  The Fab is proud of you.

Way to Go Darling!

Loosing Weight - Sun Tsu and the Art of Weight Loss - Ancient Chinese Wisdom

Mary is a creative type and she has to footle tootle with every idea that drifts through her noggin.  Weight Loss was no different.

So she consulted some ancient Chinese wisdom on getting difficult things done.

Sun Tsu and The Art of War.

Yes, a manuscript on waging war as a diet manual.  Darlings, I have to agree with Mary on this one, weight loss IS war.  War on bad habits, war on outside influences, war on complacency, and let's face it, war on a little laziness.


Chapter 1 - Laying Plans

Or Darlings, how in the world can you go somewhere else, if you don't know where you are?

In my last post

http://innerfabiola.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-this-weight-loss-thing-all-started.html

I talked about how Mary finally decided to start loosing weight and as she had been overweight her entire life, and had tried every form of diet out there, and every fast, easy, trick she ever read, and had not accomplished her goal, she decided to read a study done on folk that not only lost weight, but kept it off. Read the previous post.  It is interesting.

Mary realized that she needed to take some time to record what she ate, and when she ate it.  She needed to know what made her exercise, and what silly excuses she used to justify parking her behind on the couch staring slack jawed at the Tee Vee.

So, she got herself a journal and started writing down notes.  She didn't try to change anything in her life right then, she wanted to know where she was.  People that loose weight and keep it off, do it intentionally.

Part of that intention is to know where changes need to be made.  She took a month and jotted things down:  food, cooking, activities, work hours, tee vee watching, reading, stresses, joy.  As I, Fabiola, said:

How can you go somewhere else when you don't know where you are?

I believe in you Darlings.  You can do it.

How This Weight Loss Thing All Started -

This post is about how Mary started loosing weight. Darlings, read, or don't, pass it along, or not, Mary has lost 60+ pounds, those pounds are gone forever. Know anybody that could use some help?

For those of you that just want to know what to do and do it fast.  Go about midway down this post. There is a list of things to do.  It isn't a secret, you know what to do already.  It isn't fast, you have done fast and it either didn't work, or it did but you ended up feeling tired and depressed, it isn't easy, but you Darlings have done "easy" and the weight came right back on.  Mary was right there with ya. Then she decided to find something that really works.


March 10, 2013 - 262 pounds her walmart size 20 jeans (and we all know what that means those jeans were vanity sized 22s) were getting tight. She decided then and there that she had had enough of that nonsense. 

As Mary had tried every "Easy", "Fast", "Simple", "Painless" diet in the world, and they kinda worked for a few weeks, then didn't, She decided that it was time to figure out this weight loss thing. 60 pounds later, clearly, for her, she did.

Now, Darlings, you and I both know that Mary tends to over-analyze.  She is one of those annoying people that has to know how, why.  Don't even mention the words "Secret" or "Magic" or "Trick" to her. Sigh, no really, she glares, curses, and throws things at unicorns and fairies.  She does. Embarrassing.  
Of course, too many purveyors in the 20 Billion Dollar Weight Loss Industry repeat those words to you over and over, now don't they?   Shrug.

Back to the beginning:

Mary realized that she had to decide where she wanted to go. She had to know where she was. Then and only then could she figure out how to get there.   Step 1: She read this:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long

It is a clinical study on people who have maintained weight loss.  Darlings, not just lost those 5 easy pounds (and then put them right back on).  MAINTAINED weight loss for a minimum of a year.

Mary's take-away?

From a group of 100 overweight people:

40 will attempt (in some manner) to loose weight

20 will loose 10% or more of their body weight. Of that 20 people ...

5 will keep that weight off for 1 year or more.

Rather than being all discouraged about those numbers, Mary said to herself (she talks to herself, she does) What those 5 people know about weight loss is what I want to know. 

This, generally, is what they did.

They lost weight intentionally. - Meaning that they decided to do it and worked towards that goal.

They ate breakfast every day.

They ate a low fat, low simple carb diet. Low simple carb = low processed flour and sugar.

They tracked what they ate, every morsel, every day.

They followed that plan every day. No "weekends off", no holidays, no vacations.  They tracked what they ate.

They exercised for an hour a day (walking, running, weight lifting, cleaning house, something) every day.

Diet and Exercise - who knew that would work?

Mary started working on getting the idea of following the practices in the list into her head. Not with any grace or style, mind you. For the first 8 months, she was inconsistent in recording, she drug her feet about exercise, she pondered and grumbled, but I, Fabiola, kept nagging her to get back to that list. Despite her stubborn ways, Mary SLOWLY removed added sugar and salt from her diet.  She walked, sometimes.  At the end of 8 months, she had lost 15 pounds, and was ready to take this weight loss / fitness thing more seriously.

Long-term weight loss maintenance

ajcn.nutrition.org

There is a general perception that almost no one succeeds in long-term maintenance of weight loss. However, research has shown that ≈20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10% of...

Darlings! Mary Has Been Busy working on Health and Weight Loss

Darlings! Mary Has Been Busy working on Health and Weight Loss, and we all know what a drag she can be even when she isn't dieting and exercising.

Sigh.
However, Darlings, THIS!




A year and a half (so far), #Diet and #Exercise, who knew THAT would work?

62 pounds lost, 23 pounds to go, and bless her heart, Mary wrote a journal of the entire trip.

The Fab is going to interpret it for you.  The Fab is going to reveal every secret, every challenge, every success, all for the low, low price of free.

If you just have to start right now.  Go to this website - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

This Darlings, is not a paid promotion, The Fab doesn't do that.  That site is what Mary used to track her calories and progress.

http://www.runkeeper.com  is where she tracked her exercise.

Sign Up.  Set up.  Start tracking what you eat, every morsel, right now.  Start tracking your exercise every step, right now. Both sites have handy dandy Apps that you can download to your smart phone, and they update each other too. How wonderful is that?

Do it Darlings!

The Fab believes in you.

***** A Quick Note Darlings! ***** Disclaimer!  *****

Nothing on The Fab's Blog is intended as advice or a recommendation. The Fab entertains.  Also, The Fab is a Figment.  Most importantly,  The Fab is not a nutritionist. The Fab is not an M.D. The Fab is not you, you are not The Fab.  Neither of us is Mary (thank the stars!).  The Fab is simply sharing what Mary did, what worked for her.  You are responsible for seeking professional advice, thinking, and applying any or none of Mary's ideas or actions to your life.