Just Call Me Butter Butt

I spent the last two years weaning myself from processed foods and cooking everything from scratch. All that "healthy cooking" and I gained another 50 pounds. How did that happen?

Well I started examining that "healthy" cooking. I had cut out sodas, chips, crackers, bread and a few other items. I was forcing myself to eat blueberries, strawberries, grapes and other fruits that I don't like. However I was gaining weight!!

It took awhile but I finally found my secret nemesis - FAT or OIL. I don't eat many sweets - mostly chocolate and ice cream that I treat myself to on grocery day and nothing much the rest of the month. However I load butter and mayo onto and into EVERYTHING!!!!!

A pot of potatoes - divide into two bowls and load one with a stick of butter and milk for fresh mashed while the other bowl gets a few boiled eggs and tons of mayo. Yum! A can of peas drained and heated WITH 4 tablespoons of butter. That is 400 extra calories and, yes, I ate them all PLUS several pieces of meat PLUS a giant serving of the potatoes PLUS a giant serving of potato salad. We are talking 4000-5000 calories for one meal!!!

I hate most fruits but love veggies. I ate lots of cabbage and carrots every month because they keep and I can only go to town once a month. Sounds great but I chopped and grated them into salads with lots of mayo and raisins. It reached a point that I was using 4-6 lbs of butter and around 4 jars of mayo per month.

My mayo says 64 servings per container and butter says 32 servings per pound. Multiply that out by 100 calories per serving and you get a minimum of over 15 days worth of calories (at 2500 per day) and over 19 days at the 2000 calories maintenance I am working towards.

It didn't stop with butter. As I increased butter then mayo I also started to increase cooking oil by starting to fry things. I haven't fried food since the early 80's but I suddenly found myself battering and frying my chops and chicken instead of making it into stir fries. I'm a soapmaker so I have a cabinet filled with lard and various oils stashed away. Did I go for the olive oil? No, of course not, that is expensive and I am cheap.

It seems the more fat I let into my diet, the more I craved it. I made a few other mistakes but I really believe the fat was my major downfall and the main cause of the last 50 lbs. Tomorrow I will discuss what I am doing to get past this problem.

Happy Dieting
Linda B in TN:)

She's All That and Then Some

Between a bad back, cold weather and more rain, I spent the last few days in bed. I also stayed away because I have been a bit grumpy. It has been 3 weeks and I wanted to weigh myself.

Officially my scales only go to 340. However it has a dial and has been going around to between 375 and 380 for a few months. I don't want to stress it so I have not been weighing regularly but I tried Fri morning and suddenly it is bouncing between 280 and 380 up and down hopping about with just slight movements by me. Plus there was some nasty clanging and banging when I got off of it. I may have killed it *sigh*.

I did manage to stay under 2500 calories per day so all is not lost but it is getting harder to hang on. I am out of bread and waffles and almost out of eggs and bacon. My money does not go in the bank until next Fri but that is Easter weekend so you couldn't pay me to go near the stores. Between the leftover Easter candy and the crowds I would be heading for trouble either way. I am going to try to hold out until the following week so it will be at least 10 more days.

I still have plenty of good stuff for lunch, dinners and snacks, it is just breakfast that is a problem. However I have learned that a good breakfast with a whole wheat bread product seems to get my day started well and keep me low for the entire day. Without the bread I tend to be hungry all day.

Today's lunch was very good. With all this rain and cold I wanted a warm meal. I wasn't able to make bread yet (it doesn't rise well when the weather is damp) but I found 2 slices in the freezer. I toasted a slice, added some tuna salad made with boiled eggs and a bit of low fat ranch dressing for an open faced sandwich.

I paired it with a bowl of Preggo Hearty Tomato soup. It really hit the spot on this cold day and actually had a fairly good taste. It was a little close to tasting more like spaghetti sauce than soup because, as usual, Preggo mistakes overloading things with too many herbs as gourmet or tasty. However it was borderline enough to get by and be overpowered by the delicious large chunks of tomato. The entire can of soup is only 220 calories so I could have all I wanted. I have a couple more cans I picked up on a sale and then I will try making my own from scratch.

I saved half of everything for tomorrow's lunch. The rain will move out and they are calling for temps in the 70's by Wed so I can start attacking the yogurt.

Happy Dieting
Linda B in TN:)

A Better Day

Today I had my basic breakfast of eggs, whole wheat waffles and a slice of bacon. After the bad eating yesterday I stuck with simply eating several Healthy Choice, Michellina and Banquet meals. They ran 210 to 300 calories. Add a few oranges and my daily ice cream cup and my total was 2085 so it was a good day. I probably should have skipped one of the freezer deals and added more veggies or another piece of fruit. However I am almost out of raw veggies and fruit and I have 10 more days before I can go for groceries.

I managed to move four 4x4's before the rain came in and pulled my back again so it will be another day or two in bed. The rain is supposed to have a slight break Sat. I am hoping it leaves so I can try a bread recipe in my bread machine for low calorie whole wheat. It is called Honey Peasant Bread from The Bread Machine Cookbook IV: Whole Grains & Natural Sugars by Donna Rathmell German. She is from the Charleston SC area and her books were featured just before I moved from there. I had just purchased a bread machine so I bought them all. The recipes are very easy and I love them.

Honey Peasant Bread (for 2 cup Medium machine)

Water 1 1/2 cups
Honey 1 1/2 tsp.
Salt 1/3 tsp.
vital gluten, optional 1 1/2 to 3 tbs. **
Whole Wheat flour 3 cups
yeast 1 1/2 tsp

flour equivalent: 3 cups
setting: medium
timer: yes
(My machine is a Betty Crocker 2 cup medium. I will try it with the Whole Wheat Light setting)

1 ou slice: 55.9 calories
0.3 g fat (0.0 g sat fat)
2.7 g protein
11.3 g carbohydrate
0.0 mg cholesterol
73 mg sodium

**I have no vital gluten and no idea where to get it. It is suggested for every recipe in the book.

"Dough Enhancers - are ingredients which are added to or used in whole grain bread dough with one of its main purposes to assist in achieving a higher rising., lighter loaf. Research led me to several enhancers with which I have tested with varying results. Vital gluten was used in the testing of each recipe.

Vital gluten is the dried gluten protein which has been obtained from the flour by rinsing off the starch. This has been the most significant conditioner I have found and is included in all recipes in this book in a range as an optional ingredient. If using a machine which has a cycle geared specifically for whole grain bread baking (longer rising times) and if you use a whole wheat bread flour or flour milled from a hard (high protein/gluten) wheat, it may not be necessary to add the vital gluten. I prefer to add it in all cases but under the above conditions I use the smallest amount."

I will make the bread over the next few days without the vital gluten and let you know how it goes. This is almost identical to my white bread recipe so I should like it. There are also versions for Small and Large that I can share if anyone needs them.

Next week is calling for sunshine beginning Tues. If it is nice I will be trying an apple bread that is low cal and looks delicious:)

Happy Dieting,
Linda B in TN:)

Don't Skip Breakfast

I was still feeling badly yesterday morning and slept in. I got up for lots of potty breaks but I didn't head to the kitchen until almost dinner time at about 4pm. I boiled potatoes to mix with chicken and cream of mushroom soup. I put in a few extra potatoes to make a small serving of mock potato salad for dinner.

Of course you know what happened. I ate all of the potatoes. Also I was very hungry and was back at 7pm eating again and then I snacked nonstop and ended up making another small dinner at 3am. Definitely a bad day. In all the big total was 2600 which is only 100 over my max but I fried the evening potatoes, onions and chicken in 2 tablespoons of olive oil so my fat intake was much higher than usual.

Well it is almost noon today so I am running behind again but I am headed to the kitchen to get my eggs and see if I can do better today.

Happy Dieting
Linda B in TN:)

A Hint From Susan Powder - Bulking Up

Anyone remember Susan Powder and the Stop the Insanity diet? Woman who shaved her head and bleached the stubble white. Did wild shouting infomercials wearing a gray leotard with a wide maroon belt. I loved her.

In 93 I had been through several surgeries, was in great pain, spent months pinned down by doctors because of various surgeries and, at one point, spent almost 2 months in the hospital. I had ballooned up to 375 pounds and was crazy to do something.

Most of my life I have resorted to the low carb diet because I am a meat eater. Also I could eat all the mayo and butter I wanted. (I will discuss soon how these two led to most of my problems.) I wasn't working so I couldn't afford a low carb diet and Susan definitely sounded interesting. I bought the book and was hooked.

One of her main things was to FILL UP on lots of low cal, low fat items. I made giant pots of rice and scooped out a bowlful for lunch and another for dinner, dumped a can of Healthy Choice soup over it, nuked it and scarfed it up. I had bagels with cream cheese and cinni sugar for breakfast and ate fig newtons, choc graham crackers and pretzels for snacks. After 4 months I dropped to 275. I bailed out of the diet at that point but I had lost 100 lbs but even more important I kept it off until I started getting in more pain and less active around 2003. I didn't lose anymore but I kept that weight off for almost 10 years.

I had planned to try that again but there is almost nothing left of Healthy Choice soups. Definitely no steak and potato, my fav. The Select Harvest and Chunky soups are disgusting and while I like a few regular Preggo soups, their diet stuff is the absolute WORST.

OK I decided I would try the frozen dinners - Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers' Smart Ones. First they are $2 to $3 each and I can find some Michelinas for $1 each that are lower in sodium and sometimes lower in calories. The Michelinas are definitely better in taste. So I added a few Michelinas and a few .88 Banquet meals.

I heat up a frozen dish with rice, noodles or potatoes and I make extra to "fill it out". For instance I made a few cups of noodles tonight. I drained them and dumped a Smart Ones spaghetti dinner in with them. Tolerable. Even better to add one or two tablespoons of sauce from a jar of Prego sauce I keep in the fridge. Lots of bulk to fill me up and the fat is low.

Most of the frozen stuff if yuk. The Michelina pizza bites and chicken Alfredo with broccoli is great especially poured over a bowl of rice or potatoes.

Since most of the frozen stuff is so bad I am working on a menu for next month to replace them. I had planned to do that in about 3 months anyway. I just thought the frozen ones would help me get a handle on portion control and making sure I had exactly enough of each item.

No lessons tonight. Pulled my back moving a piece of furniture and not a good day. Tired and achy tonight. But remember Susan - stretch those meals with lots of potatoes, rice or noodles - but NO butter or fats. Also, if you like them, fill up on things like celery, carrots, apples and oranges. All are low cal, full of fiber, slow to digest so they keep you full longer and no fat.

Happy Dieting
Linda B in TN:)

The 13 - 14 - 15 Diet Plan

In the 70's I found a diet in a cookbook that said to eat the number of calories based on what you want to weigh and how active you are. I called it the "13-14-15" diet. Supposedly it takes 14 calories per pound to maintain a normally active person; 13 for a moderately active and 15 for a more active person. So you decide the weight you want to be, multiply that by the correct calorie number and it will give you your calorie total per day. Your body will adjust itself over time.

This is fine if you are 50 lbs or less overweight. However if you are more than that you should base it on no more than 50 lbs below your current weight. Too much change would be a shock to your system and cause your metabolism to fear you are starving and slow down. In those instances you would be like the idiots on Biggest Loser (stupidest losers IMO). They are 400 lbs and put their bodies on 1100 calories per day and then spend the entire day exercising and working out. Do you have time to take 3 to 6 months off from work so you can spend 8-12 hours a day on a treadmill and bike? Me neither and no one has to be that miserable while losing weight but, hey, misery makes good TV - in their opinion.

I may have gone too far with mine. I decided I am such a slug because I am bedridden 80% of the time and do very little activity. I based my calories on 10 calories per pound because I read a couple of places it takes 10 calories per pound to maintain someone in the hospital. At 380 I decided to make my first goal 300 so that meant I could have up to 3000 calories per day for right now. In actuality I am eating between 1900 and 2300 a day, mostly the lower amount. Mostly because I tried to buy a bunch of Healthy Choice, Smart Ones, Michelina and Banquet dinners. They are mostly disgusting and I also bought too many sweet snacks instead of salty snacks.

Today's Lesson - Forget loading up the fridge with a bunch of things you don't like:

Don't make a bunch of dramatic changes all at once. You will be making a lot of changes - cutting back on fats and sweets and changing the type of snacks you eat. If you do too much at once you will load the house up with things you hate. You can only FORCE yourself to eat things you hate for a limited time and then you will rebel. This is when we fail. You are better off making just a few changes every week or two.

I tried to buy a bunch of fruit and veggies a few months ago. I don't care for most fruit and most of them ended up going in the trash. Try introducing one item every few weeks and reduce one bad item every few weeks.

Happy Dieting,
Linda B in TN:)

Starting Over

What do you do when you suddenly realize you let things creep up on you to the point of being 380 pounds!?!?!?

No it didn't happen overnight. Part of it came from an injury in 1985 and subsequent surgeries that left me bedridden for many months. Another surgery and massive infections in '94 meant a few months in the hospital and a bit more weight. I dropped a little of it and held around 285 until about 8 years ago. The pain from my '85 injuries got worse and I became more and more immobile. I cut back on work to 4 then 3 days a week. I finally went on disability 2 years ago. Finally another major injury 2 years ago, the much lower food budget and quiting smoking 6 months ago have all added to some pounds that I didn't realize I was adding.

I have to admit that the last 2 years I have become more and more like a slug. Movement of any kind whatsoever is painful. Each time over the years when I reached what I thought was my maximum threshold of pain I found that I soon crossed it and had to learn to deal with a new and higher level. Right now I consider sitting on a stool and putting together 3 meals a day as a major accomplishment.

I had been doing several things the last few years to better my diet and make it more natural so I was surprised that I had picked up almost 50 lbs during that time. After many plans, many diet ideas, etc, I am working on calories for right now. I will talk about it more other diets I have done over the years as I progress with this journal and tell you what I kept from those diets.

The lesson for today - eat what you like just trim the calories.

I began the diet just over a week ago. Every morning I have had 2 pieces of precooked bacon that I heat up in the frying pan (to make them crisp so I can crumble them). I remove the bacon and fry 3 eggs over light with runny yellows (my fav). I pour the eggs onto two pieces of whole wheat toast. Some mornings I also have an orange or an apple with the meal.

Bacon, 2 pc 90 calories
eggs, 3 x 80 = 240 calories
whole wheat bread 70 x 2 = 140
Total 470 to 520 with apple

I had bought granola bars and yogurt for breakfast and my plan had been to just have the eggs now and then but to push for a much lower calorie breakfast. However it has continued to be cold here sometimes even snowing or icy so I have been having the eggs & toast.

Today was in the 50's and felt good so I ate yogurt and a granola bar.............and fruit...........and an hour later chips........and an hour later ...........and so it went all day. I have eaten all day and am still craving something. I loved the egg breakfasts whereas the yogurt is more like doing penance but also the eggs and toast left me full. I had to force myself to have another meal in about 6 hours and had very few snacks in the evening. With the yogurt I feel empty and hungry all day.

Soooo I will buy yogurt for afternoon snacks on hot summer afternoons. However I will continue with my bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Happy Dieting
Linda B in TN:)