All Hallows Eve
Trick or Treat
By Leslie Fink, MS, RD | 10/31/2006
Most kids consider Halloween to be the best holiday all year: You knock on a stranger's door and get free candy in return. But for some adults, Halloween is a nightmare. How do you resist eating the treats you bought to give out to the kids? And how do you keep your hands out of the leftovers afterward — not to mention the stash your children may have lugged home?
First things first. Keep in mind that you can buy yourself candy any time of the year. There's no need to load up on Hershey's Kisses on October 31st when you can enjoy five Kisses (POINTS® value = 3) whenever your heart desires. Second, remember that eating a little bit of candy on Halloween doesn't make a person overweight — it's constant overeating that can pile on the pounds. So don't assume you can't enjoy even a single treat, especially since deprivation is a dieting tactic that often backfires.
Slimming Tricks
Still concerned that you won't be able to refrain from gobbling up treats between knocks at the door? Simply buy and give away candy that you're not particularly fond of. If you've never met a candy you don't like, be more generous with your treats. When the influx of ghosts and goblins starts to dwindle, hand out several out to each child, and give the late-night knockers a handful or two.
As for your children's candy collections, think about hiding them away to be enjoyed gradually over time. Childhood obesity is becoming a major problem, so it's never too early to teach your kids healthy eating habits. Encourage them to eat a few pieces of their favorite candy once they've sorted through their loot (emphasize moderation, not deprivation), then put a third of the remainder in a plastic container. Cover it up and store it on a high shelf (out of sight, out of mind), then let them enjoy a piece every once in a while. Consider donating the remaining candy to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen (that's 66 percent fewer temptations in the house!).
Slimming Treats
We searched the shelves for the best candy values out there. Miniatures are a great deal in terms of portion control, while chewy candies turn out to be a big mouthful bargain and hard candies and lollipops score high for long-lasting satisfaction. And the winners are…
| ITEM | SERVING SIZE | POINTS VALUE |
| Caramel Apple Pop | 1 pop | 1 |
| Charm's Blow Pop | 1 pop | 1 |
| Hershey's Assorted Miniature Candies | 1 piece | 1 |
| Twizzler's Cherry Nibs | 27 pieces | 3 |
| Hershey's Caramel-filled Kisses | 5 pieces | 2.5 |
| Hershey's Gummi Bears | 1 package (40g) | 2 |
| Hershey's TasteTations Butterscotch, Caramel or Chocolate Hard Candy | 3 candies | 1 |
| Junior Mints | 16 pieces | 3 |
| Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats | 1 bar | 2 |
| Nestle Baby Ruth | 1 fun size | 2 |
| Nestle Butterfinger | 1 fun size | 2 |
| Nestle Crunch | 2 fun sizes | 2.5 |
| Nestle Mini Chewy SweeTarts | 23 pieces | 1 |
| Reese's Peanut Butter Cup | 1 piece | 2 |
| Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pops | 1 regular | 1 |
| Tootsie Roll Tootsie Rolls | 12 small | 3 |
| York Bites Candy | 15 pieces | 3 |
| York Peppermint Pattie | 1 package (42g) | 3 |
Go grain, one of the 8 good health habits
By Martin Booe | 10/20/2006
For most of us, the subject of grains begins and ends with rice, beans and lentils. All are good options and good for you. But don't overlook other varieties of grains that may seem exotic to us Americans but that are nutritious, adaptable, easy, and most of all, delicious. Barley, kasha, couscous, bulgur, buckwheat, polenta and — most exotic of all — quinoa, can add verve and variety to your diet, whether served as side dishes, salads, or main courses. And if you are on the Core Plan®, you should know that they are all Core Foods too. Most are available at your local health food store, if not your supermarket.
Though bulgur and couscous seem as different as night and day, they're both derived from wheat. Bulgur — wheat kernels that have been steamed, dried and crushed— is most familiar in the form of tabouli.
It can be cooked in liquid such as chicken stock, or by soaking it in boiling water. Add chopped herbs such as parsley or mint, or even diced bell peppers. Toss with sautéed onions, garlic and mushrooms for a tasty pilaf with a delightfully nutty, chewy texture.
Couscous, a staple of North African cuisine, is a granular form of semolina, and it is easy to prepare. Add hot water or broth, then let steam for a few minutes. Couscous, with its slightly sweet flavor and woody aroma, combines nicely with meat and minced fish, particularly salmon.
Barley, especially the pearl variety, is easy to find in most groceries. It's hard to say why it's so unjustly neglected. It has a pasta-like consistency and absorbs sauces well, such as pesto. It is easy to cook, requiring a mere 30 minutes on the stove.
A final note on wheat: if you're making pancakes, make them from buckwheat. More nutrition, more fiber, and more flavor.
Polenta, a staple of northern Italy, is mush made from cornmeal and it's the ultimate comfort food. Serve it as a mush, or turn it onto a baking sheet, cut into squares and bake, then top with low-fat marinara sauce.
Lastly, perhaps the most exciting addition to our personal grain silos is quinoa, pronounced KEEN-wah, indigenous to South America. Loaded with protein and iron, quinoa is not really a grain, but the seed of a plant in the spinach family. Its flavor is mildly sweet and earthy, and it cooks in only 15 minutes. Rinse it before cooking. Cooked in broth, it makes a great side dish, and mixed with raisins, fennel and onions, it can substitute for bread crumbs in poultry stuffing.
Friday - 22 points 27 flex
Here we go for the day.
Breakfast was a little high today, 4 points, but that's ok. I ended up with full serving of Nutty Nuggets but the sam FF yogurt.
I was a little disappointed with my lunch, because I had thought I brought chili but it turned out to be the left over pulled pork. Without some supporting bread (not to mention it was two servings) it just wasn't what I wanted. I opted for the salad bar.
Salad - 0 points, various mixed greens
1/4 cup mixed nuts - 5 points
2tb blue cheese dressing - 3 points
1/4 cup craisens - 1 point
slice of bread - 1 point
That leaves me with 10 point for lunch, or 8 points left for dinner. We did have a plan for dinner but that fell through after we decided to go shopping. Instead I ran to the store, got a hair cut and picked up some sushi. Paired with some Edamame (soybeans) I managed to have a great dinner for the rest of my 8 points. Take that Japan!
I think that I'll have some brownies or ice cream for dessert.
Dinner - 3 points 33 flex
Dinner was indeed left overs. I had the left over noodle dish for 5 points, a piece of garlic bread for 2 and milk for 2. There was some cauliflower there too, but that's zero. All together, I had to dip 6 points in flex.
That's not so bad. I'll try and get a good post with recipe later tonight.
Thursday - 22points 33 flex
Breakfast - 1 point of FF yogurt and 2 points of Nutty Nuggets to bring me at 19 points left.
During a meeting I had a cookie for 3 points.
Lunch - BLT on wheat with FF mayo.
3 bacon - 3 points
2 bread - 2 points
French Fries - 8 points (damn, they were good too.)
That leaves me 3 points for dinner which will be leftovers and I think I'll have to dip into flex.
Wednesday - Lunch and Dinner
I know I've been bad at keeping this up to date and I'm sure I'll pay for it on the scale, but here is everything that I remember from yesterday.
Meatloaf - 3 points (no gravy or topping)
Smashed potatoes - 2 points (no butter)
Roll - 2 points
Water
Small Salad
2tbs FF French - 1 point
That left with 9 points for dinner. That wasn't bad, because dinner is already planned out. Thai style noodle salad with Shrimp. This one was a little putzy to make, but thanks to my wife it was done expertly.
1 serving noodles - 5 points
skim milk - 2 points
toast - 2 points
ice cream - 2 points
Ok, so I dip 2 points into my flex, no biggie.
Wednesday - 22 points 35 flex
Breakfast
Ran out of yogurt, but I managed to buy some here at work.
2 points for Lite, 2 points for 2 tbs of granola. I'm not sure on the exact type of granola, but it was a predefine portion and most granola is only 6 points for 1/2 cup (fatty granola that is.) I also had a banana on the way to work for 1 point. Yes, banana's I do count, the high fat and startch content warrants it, but I could be persuaded to leave it out.
That leaves me with 17 points for the rest of the day. My transition to indoor running isn't going so good. I'm lacking the motivation to run on the treadmill. Hopefully it's not raining at lunch and I can go outside. I'll let you know.
The weekend and new week
It would seem I'm not as good as I thought I was with updating this blog. The weekend was a wash with everything I ate. I didn't have a lot of bad stuff and most of it would have worked just fine into the program. We even had a stop at Qdoba, where I had burrito bol instead of a gigantic burrito.
Yesterday started a new week and new weigh in for me. The weight was 165.6, which is within 2lbs of my goal weight, and that makes me happy.
Breakfast - 110g FF yogurt and 16g of Nutty nuggest - 2 points
Lunch - Ham sandwich 3 points
carrots and two apples
2 tbs of FF french dressing - 1 point
Dinner - 2 cups of Pork and Fenel slow cooker 8 points
Skim milk - 2 points
Ice cream and No-Pudge brownie for 4 points and I'm right on track.
Friday - 22 points 18 flex
I know that my weekend will be pretty normal and therefore pretty tame. Breakfast was not normal because we've run out of FF yogurt. So I had a muffin, for 5 points and with my coffee, that was fine.
Lunch was provided for us by the company and consisted of a hamburger. Now, I'm not exactly sure what the size of the beef patty was, but I'll say 7 points, with 5 points for the fries that I had with that. I had plenty of water!!
For dinner, it was simple. Left overs for about 8 points with the milk. That brings me to 22 points and I may dip into flex for the dessert.
This weekend will be hectic, but it should be ok. I probally won't be updating until Monday, but I will try my best.
Thursday dinner - 7 points 28 flex
For dinner we had our standard Pita Pizza's. With a 4 point pita, 0 point sauce, 0 point onion, 0 point sauce and 2 point cheese, the total only comes to 6 points. I had some milk for 2 and green bean. Oh, yeah, also had some garlic bread for 2 points. All that together is 10 points, so I had to dip 3 into flex. Pretty good.
I managed to get some ice cream and muffin for a dessert later on. The muffin is 5 and ice cream is 2 points. For the day I dipped a total of 10 points in flex. Not bad at all.
Lunch - 20 points 28 flex
Leftover asian noodles and apple, with a ton of water. 8 points for the noodles brings me down to 12 points for dinner. I had another muffin for 5 points, bringing me down to 7 points. That will be fine since we're having pita pizzas for dinner. Those generally run only about 5-6point, and with milk, I should ok on points, maybe 1 or 2 from flex.
Thursday - 22 points 28 flex
Breakfast was simple and the same as before, 16g of Nutty Nuggets, and 110g of FF yogurt for two points for breakfast.
Dinner - 12 points 35 flex
For dinner, we had this awesome dish from one of our cook books. Asian noodles with peanut sauce. This actually contains 1/3cup of peanut butter. Man was this good. One of cup was only 8 points, and that's a lot of stuff.
1 cup Asian Noodles - 8 points
Egg Roll - 4 points
Skim Milk - 2 points
Crandberry Applesauce muffin - 5points for a snack. I made these with fresh cranberries.
Overall I had to dip 7 points into flex, which is ok.
Lunch - 15 points 35 flex
Standard 3 point ham sandwich. Add some carrots, two apples and some FF french dressing and it's a low point lunch.
12 points left for dinner.
Wednesday - 22 points 35 flex
Breakfast - 110g of FF Yogurt, 48g of Nutty Nuggets - 4 points
Small, skinny mocha - 3 points.
That's 15 points left for lunch and dinner. Lunch will be low points, as I only have a sandwich and dinner, again, is already planned.
What dinner?
Ok, dinner was planned, but I'm going to need to pick up the points somewhere. Today was tiny tots swim class, and we had planned on a slow cooker dinner. Sure it's a little bit of prep work the night before, but with the slow cooker, we know it's done before we even get home.
We had sides planned, but they didn't work out. Dinner was from page 144 of the Slow Good WW cook book, pulled pork sandwhiches. 6 points for each sandwich and I had one. Then we had to get everything and everybody packed up for swimming. Andi and I planned on eating dinner more after we got back. We still haven't and it's 9pm.
I'm going to have 3points of Nutty Nuggets, 1 point of FF yogurt and at least 2 pieces of toast. That will bring me to 0 for the day. How about that for a plan.
Tomorrow I will post the meeting topic for today as well as the discussion.
Lunch - 19 points 35 flex
Lunch was good and fulfilling. My standard large salad. I had 1/4cup of mixed nuts, because I like mixed nuts, with craisens and 2tbs of FF French Dressing
Huge Salad - 0 points (got my veggies in)
1/4cup nuts - 5 points
dressing - 1 point
craisent - 1 point
I'm left with 12 points for the night. I should be all right, I have dinner already planned.
New Week - Not too sick, back on track
I weighed in at a whopping 166, which is only 2lb's above my goal. Not bad ( I was also fully dressed.) I'm done feeling sorry for myself and back on track.
Breakfast - 110g of FF yogurt for 1 point and 32g of Nutty Nuggets for 2 points, which means my points are down to 19.
I'll update after the WW meeting.
The week in reivew and yet to come
For the rest of the week I can't be too sure that I'm going to keep score of what I am eating. Holy crap this is going to be a bad week. I really haven't been too bad. We've still planned out our meals and I have still been measuring out my breakfast. Last night we had tuna noodle cassarole and I measure out a cup of it. Part of what is good, is that when I am sick I'm not always that hungry enough to eat alot. With some milk and such, it's not been soooo bad. Of course, I have had ice cream (because it feels good on the throat) and because it's tasty. And...there might have been some peanut butter on the ice cream too. I can't be to sure. I may have test it again to be sure. ;)
Tuesday - Still sick and new week
Ok, I stayed home from work today and cancelled the WW meeting. I actually weighed myself at home and I came in for the week at 161.2. If you can imagine that's a 5lb drop from the previous week. I must have just had an off week last week. It was wierd.
For Tuesday, I had a full breakfast, that means 48g of nutty nuggets and 110g of FF yogurt for 4 points. Lunch was two pieces of toast and left over chili (hopefully to clear the nose) for 4 points. Dinner was a little tough because we had Tiny Tots swimming with the boys. It was such a harrowing experience I needed some comfort, and that turned into a Double Cheeseburger from McDonalds. That was 11 points, with the soup we had, Onion and Cabbage with Turkey Keilbasa, comes to 22 points for the night. Then I had some ice cream for an additional 2 points taken from flex.
Man, this cold is going to be brutal.
Follow up from the Weekend - It's been a while
Oh man, I'm sick. My boys gave me the cold they had last week and I got it on the weekend. While that doesn't affect my eating habits per se, it does affect my decisions to eat well or within the alloted points for the day and flex points for the week. Comfort food always seems to be in the right type of food to eat, doesn't it?
Well, Friday for lunch I went for Mexican and it would seem I can't resist good Mexican food. I had Chicken Mole Tamales, mmmm-mmmm. Man, that's good stuff. 6 points apiece! With non-fat refried beans and rice, I'm sure I'm sitting somewhere at 18 points at lunch. And would you know it, I can't remember what I had for dinner. Crap, that's why writing down is so important. If I remember correctly, I had a chicken sandwhich with left over vegetable chowder. Not so bad really.
Saturday was the doozy (so will Sunday) as I helped a friend move. You know what that means, pizza and beer. Only I didn't have any beer, odd I know, and opted for water. That was good, however, I had about 6 slices of supreme pizza from pizza hut. If I calculate right, that's about 42 points. Ummm...did I mention that I had a normal breakfast and lunch too. Also, I was in no mood to run or work out or anything. I know this week is going to be bad, so I won't be expecting a loss.
Oh yeah, forgot about Sunday...normal breakfast and lunch with a splattering of pizza and breadsticks for dinner with a little bit of home made apple pie. I'm sure that was only like 1000000000 points.
Today, I still don't feel that great, and I managed to eat a normal breakfast for 4 points and small lunch for 3 points. Dinner will be Pita Pizzas for 5 points. I'm just not feeling up to being bad.
