Twelve Years of Rust: I've Finally Reached the OVER-DIET Problem

I'm pretty certain this is the furthest I've gone on any diet. Four months in, and still doing it. I think it's a nice thing to look at a typical meal plan in my old ways and a meal plan today and notice the huge difference...I've figured out what things are heavy in fat and calories so I should avoid, what things are good for me (Pretzel Sticks are the best snack food. 28 pretzel sticks are 110 calories, 2 grams fat. Lots of carbs too).

But I'm noticing that I've finally gotten TOO far on the diet. I'm having trouble eating up to 40 grams of fat a day now. It's easy to see the problem if you look in my fridge. Fat Free might as well be on the outside of the fridge. I've got fat free mayo, fat free shredded cheese, fat free meats, fat free bread, fat free yogurt, fat free ice cream. Cutting out fats is a good thing, but I'm cutting out so much, it's actually getting bad on my nutrition. This was reflected in my bloodwork. I'm really low on HDL Cholesterol. The tips to raise this level are exercise, diet, give up smoking and drinking, and add in more oils, peanut butter, etc to your foods. Except the last one, I've already done all those. And if I add in those oils/peanut butter, my fat jumps WAY up and then I struggle to stay under my daily limit.

So, here's my plan of action. Now, the doctor didn't mention HDL to me at all. I'm thinking he knew I was exercising and dieting, so he ignored it for now. But I would bet that number won't come up much with more diet and exercise. So, for one thing, I started taking a multi-vitamin. Niacin is known to help raise HDL, although I'm taking it in a small dose in the multi-vitamin. My dad mentioned someone he knew went on heavy dose of Niacin and got hives all over, so let's stick to the multi vitamin for now. I'm also SLOWLY adding the reduced fat things back into the diet over fat free. Tonight, I used just 93/7 turkey instead of 99/1. I'm also trying to add in real eggs when I make egg beaters for breakfast. We're getting "farm fresh" eggs from my in-laws now (Thank you btw, they are delicious!), and I know eggs have good fat in them, so if I add one and then use 2 egg beaters, that adds in some fat while not going crazy.

I just find it funny/somewhat proud that i've done so well, I've now got to ADD fat into my diet. Like tonight, eating a cup of pudding after dinner because I was under on all my totals. Oh woe is me, I have to eat some awesome pudding. :)

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Pan-Fried Fish, Mashed Potatoes, and Grilled Veggies

I usually blog about a particular dish I make, but since the fish and the veggies were both a bit of "advanced" cooking, and the mashed potatoes are great for my diet, I decided to do a whole meal.

So a good way to get in protein and healthy fats is fish. I love seafood. Granted, I usually love it when I can't cook it (Steamed Crabs, Grilled Shrimp although I'm sure I could do that, Crab Cakes, etc), but it's great. Brain food. We try to cook fish now and again, and more than just fish sticks, which are easy, but incredibly unhealthy. Pan frying is the easiest way I know how to do it. I know I could broil, or grill, or straight up fry it, but I haven't done those yet and I don't feel like screwing around, so I just stick with pan frying.

You can do fish with a lot of good sides, but recently, we'd done pan fried catfish with mashed potatoes and fried squash. That was yummy, so I stuck with those sides. Mashed potatoes, and GRILLED squash. Added in mushrooms too.

So, without further ado. A full meal for fish consumption.





Pan Fried Fish with Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Squash and Mushrooms

1 lb of fish fillets, divided up into 4 equal sections
2 cups white cornmeal
salt, pepper, old bay, Cajun seasoning (No specific amounts needed, just enough to season to your taste)
1 cup egg whites
1/4 cup water

2 medium to large summer squash
1 package sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
seasoning salt (We used Tastefully Simple, you can use whatever you want)

1 package Idahoan mashed potatoes
2 cups water


Pan Fried Fish
1. In a bowl, combine egg whites and water
2. In a seperate bowl, put cornmeal in. Add seasonings and stir to your liking. You should put enough in that you can start to see some particles in the cornmeal when well mixed
3. For each fish filet/piece, dip in egg white bowl several times, then transfer to cornmeal bowl and coat well with cornmeal mixture, so that entire filet/piece is covered. Repeat for all fish
4. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, place on medium-low heat, and arrange fish inside.
5. Turn fish every few minutes until both sides are crispy and browned

Roasted Squash and Mushrooms
1. Cut squash into slices and open package of mushrooms
2. Pre-heat grill on Medium-Low heat for 3 minutes
3. Sprinkle seasoning salt on one side of veggies and place this side face up on the grill
4. Baste all vegetables on tops with extra virgin olive oil
5. Heat for a few minutes, then turn all veggies
6. Sprinkle with more seasoning salt, then baste with more extra virgin olive oil
7. Turn as needed until vegetables are softened and at desired char levels

Mashed Potatoes
1. Boil 2 cups of water
2. Remove from heat and add whole package of Idahoan Mashed Potatoes
3. Stir flaked until all are moistened
4. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir with a fork to fluff potatoes


Per 4 oz fish, 1/2 cup Mashed Potatoes, 1 cup of mushrooms and squash

490 Calories
20 grams fat (14 g comes from the estimated 1 tbsp of ev olive oil that is in the vegetables)
49 carbs
31 grams protein


Notes

• For the fish, your discretion on which kind. We like catfish because it's naturally tastier, but Giant was all out when we did our shopping. I went with Tilapia, which is low fat, but still had some. The hard part with those lower fat fish are they are naturally bland, so you need to find some way to spice/season them up.


• A good way to add some flavor to the blander fish is to spoon 1 tbsp of salsa on top of the fish when serving


• Idahoan Mashed Potatoes rock. 1/2 cup is 110 calories, 2 grams of fat. And they make flavored, like Roasted Garlic, Four Cheese, etc


• 2 summer squash and 1 package of mushrooms made enough to feed 3 people. I would reccomend going with more if you can

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Spinach Lasanga Rolls

This post should've gone up over a week ago, but I got lazy. These things got some pretty high marks from Shannon, my Father-In-Law (a former chef, so that's saying something!), and my parents. Plus, Noah ripped through them too.


So, this comes via another blog, which I'll steal the picture from and give credit for the idea: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/04/spinach-lasagna-rolls.html. I did not deviate too much from the original recipe, just made sure to go fat free on whatever cheeses I could. Prep time on this takes a little while, since you need to boil the lasagna noodles, then DRY them before use. Can't use no-bake, HAS to be the full on boil noodles. It also took time for me to thaw out the spinach, but that was due to poor planning, not always going to be the case.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

10 oz Chopped Spinach (If you use frozen, make sure it is thawed and drained before use. You DO NOT need to cook it before hand)
15 oz Fat Free Ricotta Cheese
.5 cup Grated Parmesean Cheese
1 egg
28 oz Pasta Sauce
0.5 cup Fat Free Shredded Mozzerella Cheese
9 Lasanga Noodles, the boil kind, Boiled and DRIED
Seasonings as desired for spinach/cheese mixture (The recipe called for oregano and italian seasonings, but I forgot about it until it was too late)

1. Boil 9 lasanga noodles until they are nice and soft. Drain them, then lay them out somewhere they can dry.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesean cheese, egg, and any seasonings you like for the mixture (I only used salt and pepper, in hindsight I would've added oregano, thyme, maybe some garlic powder or garlic salt) and mix until they are nice and mixed
3. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
4. Make sure noodles are dry, then on a sheet of wax paper, lay out a noodle. Spread about 1/3 of the ricotta/spinach mixture on the noodle, then gently roll it up and place it seam down in a glass baking pan. Repeat this for each lasanga noodle
5. Pour the pasta sauce on top of the rolls so they are well covered
6. Sprinkle the mozzerella cheese on top of each roll so each has a small pile on top of it
7. Bake for 40 minutes

Per each roll:

218 calories
4 grams fat
31 carbs
14 grams protein

Notes:

• I wasn't thinking when I made this and made no vegetable alongside it. After two rolls, no one seemed to care.



• I had this for lunch at work 3 days later. Still tasted awesome

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Easy Turkey Enchiladas

Viva la awesome. Tonight was a grocery shopping night, so figuring we didn't have time for a big cooked meal, Shannon said "maybe enchiladas". She had a recipe on pinterest for Chicken Enchiladas, but since that involved a lot of custom spices and prep, I said let's just break out the old favorite....Old El Paso's "Easy Beef Enchiladas". But you know me, I always try to give things my dieting twist.


So, let's axe the beef and replace it with ground turkey. I sprung for the 93/7 turkey to add a little fat in. And for cheese, I got some Fat Free Shredded Cheddar. But, since I needed to use up some of my 2% Mexican Shredded from a meal last week, I used that in the enchilada stuffing, and used the fat free cheese on top of them. I also deviated from my normal way to make them. Normally, I wrap them up like burritos and arrange them in the baking dish, smother them in enchilada sauce and bury them in the cheese. Smother and bury are not great dieting words, so instead I rolled them into...well, rollups. Then I drizzled lines of enchilada sauce across and back several times, then sprinkled cheese on top. Those are nicer words. Here is the result tonight...

Easy Turkey Enchiladas

1.25 pounds 93/7 ground turkey
1.75 cups Old El Paso Mild Enchilada Sauce
1 cup of 2% Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
0.5 cup of Fat Free Cheddar Shredded Cheese
8 Wrap-Itz 8" Flour Tortillas

1. Brown the ground turkey and drain (if there is any grease, I usually do not need to with ground turkey)
2. Pre-heat over to 375
3. Combine ground turkey, 3/4 cup of enchilada sauce, and 2% cheese in a mixing bowl and mix together well until you have a good combined mixture of all ingredients
4. Spray 9x13 glass baking pan with cooking spray
5. Spoon about 2 heaping spoonfuls (I used eyeball measurements) into each tortilla, roll it up, and place it seam side down in pan
6. Pour remaining enchilada sauce evenly over rollups
7. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of enchiladas
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes (Until cheese is melted)

Per 1 enchilada:

280 calories
10 grams fat
23 carbs
23 grams protein

Notes:

• I usually eat two enchiladas, so it wasn't totally lean, but this is about 33% of daily fat intake on a normal diet, so for a dinner, that's pretty good.
  


• This recipe can go leaner if you use extra lean ground turkey and/or Fat Free Shredded Cheese for ALL the cheese. You can also probably go a little leaner on tortillas, but I shopped for a pretty low fat tortilla, and I've tried the Old El Paso 97% Fat Free tortillas. They taste too bland for that it's worth.



• This recipe can certainly go heavier on fat if you need. I won't extrapolate on how, I'm sure you can figure out how :)
  


• Suggestion from Shannon...Don't skimp on the Enchilada Sauce. 1 cup poured on top left the ends of the enchiladas kind've dried out. Enchilada sauce is 0 fat, only 20 calories for 1/4 cup. So adding 1 extra cup on top equates to just 10 calories per enchilada. Much more taste, not much added numbers.



• Not sure which method of "rolling" I prefer yet. This way made for a cooler looking pan, more like Don Pablo's style, but the burrito rolling style is much neater and makes for easier serving

Twelve Years of Rust: 1st Checkpoint

So one of the hallmarks of the Spark Diet is setting goals for yourself. I suppose most weight loss programs do this, but Spark wants to get more general than weight goals, they like covering fitness, lifestyle, etc. Now, I'm doing Sparkdiet, but I'm not crazily into all the site, it's not bad stuff, but some of it is overkill to me. But I do like the goals idea, because instead of focusing on "I have to lose 100 pounds in a year" and looking at progress against the big number, you can chunk it up.

So originally, when I was dropping nearly 3 pounds a week, I'd targeted 225 by July 1st. But my weight loss settled out and I adjusted it to August 1st. In the week leading up, the scale continued to read 228. I knew I was still making progress, because I'd done good on my ranges, I've kept up my exercise, and the 228 number was more common on random weigh ins. My weigh in number changes from hour to hour, so I generally average them out to figure out my real weight, since so many little things can bump you up a pound or two here or there. So when I weighed in today, I was expecting to not hit my goal.

224.4

Yup, I got it. CHECKPOINT CLEARED! I'm going to celebrate with a Lean Pocket Turkey Sausage, Egg, and Cheese (Still good on my diet) and focus on my next checkpoints. I'm on track to be the lightest I've been since college in just a few weeks time.


8/1/2011 - 225 POUNDS - ACHIEVED
11/1/2011 - 200 POUNDS
11/5/2011 - D.C. Undy 5K
2/1/2012 - 175 POUNDS
4/1/2012 - 160 POUNDS
5/19-20-2012 - Warrior Dash MD

Twelve Years of Rust: Doctor Approved

So, another big hurdle I can cross off in my path to chisle off the crap that's built up in twelve years inside my body...I saw a doctor today.

Granted, he wasn't doing anything more than talking to me and doing slight exam, but it was a big step for me. See, every time I thought about going, I knew I was going to have to talk about the number on the scale, and address how I was going to fix it. And I just didn't want to think about it. So instead, I just went to Minute Clinics every time I needed antibiotics and just ignored the doctor. But, with the recent plan in place, I felt now was the time to get this cleared medically and make sure I wasn't missing anything troubling that needed to be addressed...

So let's start with the vitals, which is probably the biggest news from the visit. Weight was about same as at home...228, but that was also with jeans and flip-flops. Height was the first suprise. I did a quick check at home when I started this diet, and I had my height as 5'7". At the dr's, they have me at 5'9". That will help my BMI a bit. They took my pulse and BP. I didn't catch the pulse (They said it was lower, but attributed that to exercise), but the BP was outstanding. 112/70. That is normal range, no monitoring needed! When I had pneumonia earlier this year, my BP was 164/92 or something crazy like that. High blood pressure runs in my family, so to hear that after just a few months of dieting and exercise, my BP is in a totally normal range, alright! I'm kicking ass and taking names!

Apart from vitals, not much to report. Doctor just went over my history, said I'll need to go for blood work for a full metabolic panel to check out all the routine screens. Need to fast for 12 hours before, so I can do it after 9:30am tomorrow. He gave me referrals for a dermatologist (for mole check, since we've had some mole issues in my side of the family as of late) and a urologist (for snip-snap day) and that's that. But the overall feeling I got was I'm on track now and no concerns.

The next goal I have, outside of the diet and exercise...to donate blood. I've never donated and I've always been slightly afraid of the process, but I want to give. That'll come soon though, since I don't have any prep work to do for it.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try... - Broccoli Chicken Cheese Braid

So, I'll confess, I got the original recipe/idea from this blog which Shannon found on pinterest, but I did it tonight with my own twists and used the Spark Recipe calculator to figure out the damage. This was one of the few broccoli recipes I liked when I was still living with my parents, and this was a kind've unique twist on it, so we gave it a try. It was "billed" as a quick recipe to make if you're running late from work, but the prep time for me was about 15 minutes, then about 30 minutes to bake, so it's still a bit of a hassle if you're running low on time, but it works well.


Broccoli Chicken Cheese Braid

1 3/4 cups of Perdue Short Cuts Carved Chicken Breast (any style)
1 3/4 cups of Kraft Natural Cheese Fat Free Cheddar Shredded Cheese
1 3/4 cups of cooked, chopped broccoli
1/2 cup of Kraft Olive Oil Mayonaisse
12 Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls (Dough, not cooked...The ones I got from Giant were 8 per container, so I used 1.5. Pillsbury might be 6 per container so if so, get those to avoid waste)
1/4 cup Egg Substitute
Rosemary

1. Steam the broccoli
2. While the broccoli is cooking, cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces
3. While the broccoli is cooking, combine the chicken, cheese, and mayonaisse in a mixing bowl
4. While the broccoli is still cooking, preheat oven to 375 degrees
5. On a paper lined cookie sheet, unroll all the dough rolls to form a large rectangle. Press or roll the edges together so it forms one continuous layer.
6. Chop up the cooked broccoli into fine pieces and add into the mixing bowl. Stir the mixture up well
7. Pour the mixture onto the dough sheet, forming a "log" in the center of the dough
8. Along the long dimension of the dough sheet, on the sides of the "log", cut the dough in strips 1 inch wide
9. Pull each strip up and cover the log, alternating sides of the log to form a braid
10. Brush the top of the braid with the egg substitute
11. Sprinkle rosemary on top
12. Bake for 30 minutes

Serves 5 2-inch wide slices

439 calories
17.5 g fat
39.5 g carbs
31 g protein

Notes:
-Ok, so this recipe is kind've high in fat, even with the olive oil mayo, the fat free cheddar cheese, and the reduced fat crescent rolls. But, for how tasty it is, that's pretty worth it. And 17.5 g is only 27% of the reccomended fat intake for a 2000 calorie diet, so that's not too bad
- I wonder if you can prepare the braid ahead of time, which would halve the time needed to make it.
- One way to speed up the recipe would be buying chopped frozen broccoli, so no chopping is needed. I only had broccoli florets here, so I had no other option