Posts by bubbasgirl

Hey broccolibundles!

I've heard that sometimes when we hit a plateau it's because our activities are just the "same old, same old". Try some cross-training and see if that will make the scale budge. You know, instead of horseback riding, go bike riding. Maybe instead of the yoga do step aerobics one day and pilates on another day. Just do something that shakes up the routine a bit. Also, swimming is great exercise that works every muscle group, so if you have access to a pool, that might be a good option for you. I'm not saying give up the yoga and the horseback riding completely, just add a little more variety to your workouts, and see if that does the trick for you.

That's just my 2 cents. I hope you find the answer you're looking for, and will let us know when the plateau ends!

gijane~ will you be putting any of these homemade bread recipes online, or are they in a secret vault to which only you have the combination?

Wow! Thank you so much for your help, everyone! I appreciate each and every response.

It looks like I'll be roasting it breast side down for sure. As for what fruits, veggies, herbs and seasonings to use, you have all given such great and diverse answers, my d.h. ("bubbadan") and I will go through every one of them together before making a decision, I promise!

And yes, thermal, you have a valid point- we do need to find some balance with the side dishes as well. So thanks for the gentle reminder.

Thank you again to everyone for the time and care you put into your answers, to help us have a delicious yet healthy Thanksgiving dinner. I appreciate it and I'm sure my family will, too! Happy Thanksgiving!

I also drink herbal tea. I have many different flavors and they all contribute flavor without calories or caffeine. I'd also like to suggest putting on nail polish....specifically the kind that takes a long time to dry. That makes it harder to open bags and boxes...at least temporarily.

Best wishes for your success!

Thanks for the tip!

I'm trying not to be completely jealous as I write this! My husband and I lived in Germany for 3 years and we loved it. You're right, though, German cuisine leaves a lot to be desired....for example, it's rare to find actual vegetables on the menu there. I used to eat the garnish that came on my plate!

OK, for what to have and what to avoid: yes, the fruit & veg. markets should be open then. Just know that they will consider you rude if you walk over and start touching their produce. They expect you to tell them you'd like 1 kilo of peaches or whatever, and then they will pick them up, weigh them and pkg. them for you. In German restaurants, I always looked for sauerbraten or roladen/rouladen. Both of which are braised, unbreaded meats and positively delicious. Also the red cabbage is served with almost everything and that's good for you, and even if you don't like the sauerkraut in the U.S., try it in Germany. It's somehow "sweeter" over there. I don't know how to describe it, except that over here it tastes like wet, limp cabbage in vinegar and over there it doesn't. And that should help you with your fiber content, too.

As for other restaurants, authentic Italian restaurants are in abundance over there, and you can find some really good Greek food, too. If you've never had Turkish food, just think "kosher" with some really great flat bread.

What else? I went to an Italian restaurant over there once, and they asked me if I wanted "erbsen" (I think that's how it's spelled) in my calzone. Naturally I thought they meant herbs, until someone sitting nearby told me it meant peas. Peas inside a calzone didn't sound good to me that day! Also, beware of something else that's common in Germany: while they do have really good breads, including the high fiber "vollkornbrot", they like to serve it with something called speck. This is lard, and they use it in place of butter or margarine. So, if you don't want them giving you lard with your bread, be sure to order it "keinespeck" (KY-nuh SHPAYk). Oh! And finally, if you order bottled water (and I recommend you do) they will serve you carbonated mineral water unless you ask for it KY-nuh GAHZ. (without gas). It's a funny note to end on, but I'll stop there. Enjoy your trip!

I read in a nutrition book that some amount of fat is necessary for absorption of certain B vitamins; without the fat those vitamins go straight through your body and do you no good. (And B vitamins help give us "energy"). So I try to take my multivitamin with a meal. (Although, dairy will block absorption of iron, so be aware of that in case your multi contains iron as well).

So not all fats are a bad thing. I agree with amberrr on being careful about which kinds you consume. If you have questions about that, there's an excellent book you can read called Good Fat Bad Fat by Glen C. Griffin, M.D. and William P. Castelli, M.D. (Published by Fisher Books). It's written for "normal people" (i.e. not written in "doctor-speak"). This book also has some recipes in the back of the book. Hope this helps!

Hello ladysteele! I'm an American currently living in Alaska but I lived in Germany for 3 yrs., and during that time our family traveled to England and other countries. I agree with previous posts that English and German cuisines aren't all that healthful, but you CAN find alternatives if you look! For high protein at low cost, I suggest you check out some vegetarian forums, or even do some surfing off this site for vegetarian dishes. I love www.foodnetwork.com   ! But as a basic rule of thumb, lentils, beans, bulgur and some cereals are high in protein. (I cook my own lentils because they are ready so quickly, and bulgur is even easier, but I admit I buy canned beans since I have a job, too, and canned beans are faster and mostly fuss- free. Just open, rinse, drain and use them in your recipe.)

To avoid buying "takeaway" foods, get a crock pot. They are SO simple to use and a really healthful option, as long as you're putting healthy ingredients in it! And when you get home from work, dinner is done and the house smells oh-so-good. We LOVE ours and use it regularly. I've got homemade soup in there right now that I made on a day off, but it will last us for several days because it's a giant crock pot. I'm fortunate that my d.h. likes it when I try new recipes and create new recipes of my own, and often that's in the crock pot as well. So ours has definitely paid for itself already!

I totally envy you the whole foods market and the clear labeling on GMO foods. We don't have Whole Foods up here. When we buy our produce it's incredibly expensive and it tends to go bad very quickly (because of the long trip up to AK). It's not unusual to see bananas at $1/lb. and tomatoes at $3-4/lb., and that's for the regular stuff, not the organics. (In the Lower 48 I fussed if I had to pay 48cents/lb for bananas! HA!) As a result, we use a lot of frozen veg. and frozen or dried fruits. I would love to see GMO foods properly labeled in the U.S. - for now it's mostly guesswork.

As for the Weight Watchers problem, you mentioned running a company. Maybe you should put out a memo to find out who might be interested in starting a W.W. style support system at work? You could bring in a personal trainer to kick things off and educate everyone on nutrition and exercise, and then, YOU could take the ball and run with it. YOU could be the moderator/support staff/cheering section. Then you could be sure it would be run in a way that is useful.

That's my 2 cents. I hope I've given you so helpful ideas, and I hope you keep striving for a healthy lifestyle.

Hello, everyone!

My husband (a.k.a. "bubbadan") recently had an appointment with a nutritionist who told him that 25g of fiber per day is the minimum amount for adults, that 25-30 is a good range, but if you go over 40g of fiber in a day you had better be drinking lots of water! Also good to note, if you don't increase your fiber intake slowly you can end up with horrible stomach cramping. And yes, that's not just from "what I've always heard" but from personal experience. Ouch!

Here in Alaska, we don't have all brands and all types of foods available to us, but my husband and I do eat Fiber One Honey Clusters Cereal. One cup has 160 cals., 13g of fiber, 3g of which are the soluble type, and 5g of protein! It has lots of whole grain goodness and it tastes good too. We've tried the "twigs" cereal before and hated it. This (Honey Clusters type) is almost like eating a treat!

 Tips on gradually increasing your fiber include: switching from white rice to brown rice, eating your fruits (apples, plums, etc.) and veggies (carrots, etc.) with the skins on, and adding whole grains to your soup, stew or chili (we love brown rice, barley and bulgur). I frequently use bulgur in place of rice or couscous in my recipes. Also, if we're running low on fiber for the day (and we're used to the 25- 33g range), we'll have some bean soup for dinner, which gives us 8g of fiber and also 8g of protein per serving. I hope this is helpful!

Hey, pgeorgian!

I started using this site Dec. 1st of ' 07, and only just recently put my first recipe online. For whatever reason that part of the site didn't want to work for me very well, but I finally got it to happen.

The recipe I entered was a knock off version of a recipe by Chef Giada de Laurentiis. It's called Tomato- Cannelini Soup with Pastini (i.e., little pasta) and because of the wholesome ingredients, rates an A-. I tweaked it from her original version to make it more healthy, including using whole wheat whole grain pasta from Hodgson Mill. It only takes about 1/2 hour to make from start to finish and it's delicious. We like to eat it with whole wheat saltines from Keebler/Zesta, and dried thyme that's been crushed between our fingers. Sometimes we sprinkle grated parmesan on top; even though it rates an "F" we've still got to have it sometimes!

Oh! I should add that the recipe calls for canned spaghetti sauce (instead of Giada's homemade marinara- another change I made), and I used that  this last time around when I made it, but then I ALSO added a large (26 or 28 oz.?) can of crushed tomatoes (and some more herbs- oregano, crushed black pepper & the like) which made it thicker and my family liked it more than usual that way. I hope you'll give it a try! It's high in fiber, protein and nutrients but low in fat, and sugar. Look it up! And if you do decide to try it...Bon Appetit!

Hi! First off, I'd like to say that we never touch Splenda, since we've read it's really just sugar that's somehow been treated with what we commonly call clorox...don't understand how that works, and wouldn't try it at home, so we won't buy it that way either. EW! Anyway, what we do is add about 1 Tbsp. of pure maple syrup to our oatmeal. It's delicious, sweet and about 53 calories (we get the grade A dark amber variety). Yes, it's expensive, but we kind of consider it a necessary luxury to keep us on our "diet", keep our taste buds happy and keep ourselves healthy, since it's an all-natural product.

I know other people who use sliced up fruit as well, like apple slices and/or raisins. If you think about it, you could conceivably try a whole variety of fruits as toppings over a period of a few weeks without needing to repeat the same thing. And fruit provides fiber, vitamins and other nutrients as well (varying acc. to the type of fruit, of course). BTW, when you do find out what you like, would you post your answer(s)? Maybe it will spark some new ideas for the rest of us (in case we ever do get tired of the pure maple, for example...)!