Welcome to the Group

Welcome! We would love get to know you, so please tell us a little bit about yourself. You can choose any format you'd like, but most of us here share some or all of the following details:

1. History with weight loss:
2. History with Calorie Count:
3. Reason for joining this group:
4. Some interesting details about yourself, such as your job, your family, your pets and your interests:

And now just go ahead and make that first post!

1 & 2: Hey everyone, my name is Kate and I am using CC as an aid to help me gain and maintain my weight. I have been using the site since 2007 and am very happy with all the help and support I've recieved.

3: I'm joining this group since I own a small bakery and I am also an aspiring chef. I cook new recipes almost every night for dinner and am very interested in new cusines and ingredients.

4: Like I said, I own a small in-home bakery where I mainly sell cakes and cupcakes. I'm also a student, so the combination of those two "jobs" keeps me pretty occupied. I have one younger brother (my little taste tester) and four cats - Snickers, Fiona, Bazbeaux, and Homework. I love running, swimming, cooking, baking, drawing, and writing.

Hi my name is Kate. I love to cook and will be attending culinary school this August. I am always on the lookout for new recipes or techniques. I have worked as a line cook at a local steakhouse but I also love to make desserts.

Maybe we should change this group to people who love to cook and are named Kate or Katie.  I am Katie and started this group.  I am watching my calories in hopes to lose weight not gain :).  I just started last week so I am kind of a newbie.  I have had so many comments about how not to gain weight while working around food all day, I was surprised when I did not see a group for chefs.  I am the sous chef at an upscale ranch/lodge on the COlorado/Wyoming border.  I have been cooking professionally for about 8 years, went to culinary school, and have done everything form catering, to pastry, event planning, and line cooking...institutional to fine dining.  I prefer fine dining that is not pretentious.  I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better and collaborating on ideas and recipes. 

Hello, my name is Linda.

I've just lost 4lbs over the past 3 weeks by nothing much more than plan what I put in my mouth, so I am very happy to be with CC at the moment, especially as the calorie allowance seems so generous.  I just ate a huge plate of smoked salmon and rye bread for my lunch and can't believe this is a diet, having struggled in the past to keep to a mere 1000 calories and failed because it's just not very much to eat.  Well not if you want to have a life and enjoy it too.

I'm a professional chef and run my small catering business here in the UK.  Its pretty much weddings in the summer and parties, funerals and product launches at all other times.

I tend to put on weight when cooking for big events, as there is so much tasting to be done and its worst when making desserts like chocolate parfait!  You may concur with that scenario yourselves. 

I live in Wiltshire, near to the Hampshire border, and I walk my dog 2 miles in the New Forest every morning.  At the moment the ponies are having foals, and there's also a massive herd of deer that stands very still and disguises itself as part of the forest, so walking here in the early morning can be rather special.  I live with my husband and border terrier Edmund who is my constant companion, although much to his chagrin he's not allowed in the kitchen! 

I collect books, old cookery books and recipes, and am particularly interested in American cookery, with its trademark combination of sweet, sour & salty flavours.  Cooking food from scratch, I don't eat or buy much processed or ready prepared food, athough my husband eats cheap chocolate, but that's his vice.  Being English, I do like a good curry.

Well that's enough about me for the time being.  I'm hoping this will be an interesting group, not just for swapping recipes but also for dealing with the occasional problem client?!

 

 

 

Hey Linda!  Welcome to our new little group.  Congrats on your 4 pound weight loss!  I have been on this website for just over a week and it's really making me conscious of what I put in my mouth and how it adds up.  I admire anyone who is in catering.  It is such demanding work.  I was for a time and am working at a hunting and fishing lodge/spa/cattle ranch in Wyoming.  I miss being in a place that had a longer growing season, but the area is very remote and so beautiful that I feel guilty when I am not taking advantage of it.  THe long winter has also made me appreciate spring more.  Please let me know if there is anything specific you would like to know about American cookery.  I am from the southeastern area so that is the type of food I am most familiar with, but I also love learning as much as I can.  I can trade some of my recipes for some of your curry recipes! 

What a great group. I just made a post on the main forum page about this, I'm glad I found a group to join. I am a 23 year old pastry chef at a lage hotel and find it Very difficult to avoid snacking on all the sweets. I've been overweight most of my life, currently trying to lose about 80 pounds. I've lost 20 so far with the help of a personal trainer, but I know my job is hindering my weight loss. I try to eat breakfast before going to work, but I have to be at work at 4 in the morning, and I can barely roll out of bed to make it sometimes. So when I get to work, the first think I make aer croissants and muffins :( any advice? It's also very difficult to log food on CC because of all the tasting I do throughout the day.

Oh..... I do know what you're going through.  And at that early hour you want energy foods.  But I think I may be able to help you. 

When you eat anything from now on, make sure it contains protein or even better, a complex carbohydrate plus protein.  Protein will switch off the insistent eat message in your brain, and it will satisfy your hunger for longer.

Examples: ham and wholemeal bread sandwich (I use Dijon mustard instead of butter). Cheese omelette or boiled egg and toast. A packed meal of wholemeal pasta, tuna in water and mixed salad vegetables.  Even a steak sandwich.

Our local bakery in Salisbury make bacon sandwiches for their staff breakfast about 7am (the aroma is delicious) - is this something you do at your work too?  Perhaps you could have eggs instead of muffins then.

There was a very interesting programme recently on BBC - here's the link to watch it on iPlayer:http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ksh7c /10_Things_You_Need_to_Know_About_Losing_Weig ht/

I hope you can watch this.  If you can't, get back to me and I will type up a synopsis of the show for you. 

On tasting: One thing I do is to spit out most of what I taste, if at all possible.  Of course I zone out and forget sometimes, but I make an allowance in CC of say 200 calories for this.  I build in a wider margin if I have to taste a lot of sweet stuff though, as its so delicious!   If you eat a satisfying protein meal beforehand, you should find that if you are not so hungry when you taste, and then you won't taste quite so much.

Well done for the 20 lb weightloss just through exercise - it represents a great deal of effort on your part and is a terrific result so far.

With best regards from Linda

EDIT: 

The BBC1 programme I mentioned is being repeated on Saturday 6th June at 1.25am but not in Scotland.  As it is on BBC iPlayer it should be available to see for about a week after that.

How exciting to join this group.  I am not a professional cook, but did get my Grand Diplome at a cooking school in my home town.  I am an avid home chef, and also help out at the cooking school on a periodic basis. 

I started the culinary school in a casual fashion.  As my classes started to rack up, I decided to get my diploma. One of the greatest experiences of my life!

I learned the pleasures of real butter, cream, and all kinds of gastric delights! And over the years, gained weight - in pursuit of perfect and delectable recipies. 

At last, when I was bulging out of my largest size of clothing, I decided to get a personal trainer, and knew it was probably my only hope.  Otherwise, my "diets" lasted a few hours, maybe a few days, and if I was lucky, a week.

In the past 5 months, I've lost about 22 pounds of fat and gained about 8 pounds of muscle.  I have dropped two sizes.

How has my cooking changed?  Well, most of the time, I am probably cooking more simple.  I've been introduced to "clean eating" and try to abide by that, using healthful, seasonal and delicious ingredients.

One of my original inspirations was Pamela Anderson, the Chef, not the movie star.  She visited our cooking school, and I bought her cookbook, Perfect Recipes for Losing Weight.  I knew SHE would have high standards for her cooking, while losing what turned out to be about 50 pounds.  Still, the book sat on my shelf, and I continued to gain weight, feeling helpless, and not sure I wanted to "give up" my delicious cooking and indulgences. 

But I was taking notes...

I ignored at first, the "skinny" chefs at the cooking school.  I remember somone asking one of the female chefs how she stayed so skinney, and she responded that "working out" was her "other profession."  I was not ready to act on that.

Another chef with whom I had taken classes confided that she did not make at home, the recipes she made in class - often with cream or puff pastry!  Mmmm... I on the other hand, WAS making all those recipes with cream, butter, and pastry!

I am shocked, really, how well I eat.  I also have "high standards" for cooking and eating.  Lean proteins, fruits and veggies, complex carbs.  I guess its all choices.

I am very interested in continuing with this group, and learning from all of you - how you are combining your love for food, skills in the kitchen, eating well, and losing weight or eating healthfully and with tons of flavor and satisfaction - but doing so healthfully.

What do you eat?  Where do you get your inspiration for healthful eating and recipes? What changes have you made?  What did YOU have for dinner?

I took a little more time with dinner tonight.  I made an Eating Well Chicken in Chive Sauce; a great recipe for baked brown rice by Alton Brown; grilled asparagus (should have remembered to eat seasonally - what was I thinking, asparagus in September); and Cantaloupe, Red Onion, and Walnut Salad by Giada de Laurentis. 

Hope to hear more from all of you!

 

 

 

 

How cool to find not only a group dedicated to chefs, but to see the members are female chefs lightens my heart.  I am a chef by trade but gave up work to raise my children, Samuel (2 yrs) and Lilly (6 mths). 

I never had trouble keeping the weight off while working. As you all know it is such a physically demanding job.  I never really worried about what to put in my mouth or how many calories I had consumed, because I guess working 14+ hours a day burns phenomenal calories!  But now I've been a stay at home mum for nearly 3 years and I've slowly gained 20kg.  Thats a bag of potato's!!! 

Having the knowledge of food and how to prepare , healthy, fresh meals is such an advantage, but my main problem is portion control.  I know how to cook low fat, tasty meals,  But how do I stop myself eating too big a portion?

 

One thing that helps me on the portion control (I like to feel full, who doesn't?) is to fill up on the lower calorie things - fruits, large servings of veggies, a salad - and then make the less of the higher calorie item.  I dont know if this is using what is called Volumetrics?  High fiber also helps with feelings of fulness. 

As far as portion control, you may need to weigh and measure your food for a while, and make yourself stick to that amount.  Maybe not measure your "green beans" but do measure salad dressings, oils, meat portions, starches. 

I know I go through a lot of measuring spoons and cups to watch my "portion control" and use my kitchen scale a lot, too. 

Last night, I made a "Stuffed Pepper Soup," loaded with peppers, tomatoes, small amount of ground meat.  Separately I added 1/2 cup brown rice (so it wouldnt soak up all the liquid, I add it later).  With a large bowl of cantaloupe,  hardly had to worry about "portion size" but was totally full and satisfied. 

I am sure Samuel and Lilly keep you busy and running around, too!  I just sent my youngest of four children off to college, but when the nest was full, I had to get over the idea that "good mothers" have baked goods around all the time. Its easier, I guess, to cook healthier without small children's palates to deal with, but what a great chance to instill good eating habits.  I know a mother of slighly older children who "lets her kids pick out one new fruit or vegetable" each time they go to the grocery store, and Help Prepare it!  That's a far cry from picking out a new junk candy, huh? 

After going through cooking school, I had to learn how to be a good cook without all the butter, cream, puff pastry, etc. 

I am pretty puny about metric - 20 kg. weight gain.  How many pounds?  No matter.  You can do it; your're in the right place to receive encouragment. 

I would love to hear more about your background, or what inspires you in the kitchen.

 

Thanks for the advice stxenia, I will make more of an effort to weigh and measure...    I do try but i will just have to be more dilligent.   

 

I was also brought up with lots of baked good in the house, but luckily I really don't have that much of a sweet tooth, so rarely do I binge on Sam's biscuits.  We never have lollies (candy) in the house, I buy him dried fruit  or yoghurt clusters to snack on if he feels like something sweet...

I was a late starter in the commercial cookery world, in comparison to alot of chefs over here. I was 20 and alot of youngsters start their apprenticeship at 15 or 16.  So I was the 'nanna' at cooking college!  I served my time at a large-ish hotel for four years and was trained in the classical french style of cooking, so I can understand the butter, cream, pastry thing you were talking about.  It can be so heavy and cloying and for a long time I struggled with the lighter style of cooking which I was beginning to see emerge.

But then I moved to the North west of Western Australia,  Namely a small town called Broome, and my palate and attitude toward cooking changed dramatically.  In Broome the average summer temperature is 40 degrees celcius PLUS  ( which I think is around 115 farenheit?) and in the winter it is rarely under 30 (maybe 85 f?)

I spent two years cooking in the hottest kitchen in the world in one of the hottest places in the world and had to re learn nearly everything.  No more cream reductions and emusion sauces or Monte au beurre everything.... my cooking was stripped bare and i learned to let the ingredients shine on the plate with very little tampering.  This, i think , was the greatest lesson learned and I believe it is the essence of Australian cooking.  Simple, outstanding ingredients, cooked simply. 

BUT:  hot toast and butter is still my most favourite meal!!! 

Ummmm, I think there is 2.2 pounds in a kilogram, so I guess that makes it 40-odd pounds weight gain.  I weigh 81.5 kg. 160-odd pounds.  **** that sounds like alot!!!!!! 

You have some great experience and education behind you.  I also think its great you are devoting yourself to the raising of your children now. 

Wow, Australia is a long way away for me in the US!  I love how you describe quintessential Australian cooking!  Can you give me an idea of what that would look like on a plate?

I am a 23 year old, currently a Food Service Specialist 3rd class, in the Coast Guard. I'm stationed in Alameda, CA, although I'm originally from Austin, TX.

When I was actively cooking on my ship (USCGC Morgenthau for 3 years) I had such a stressful schedule (18 hour days on my feet in combat boots, cooking 4 meals a day for 180 personnel) that when the time came to sit down and eat a meal (after the galley was all cleaned up) I would have little appetite, so I would just snack a little, drink lots of water (being sandwiched between a 350 degree oven, and a 350 degree griddle, in the tropics, on a moving ship will dehydrate you pretty bad) smoke a cigarette, and get back to work.

I was also suffering from anxiety attacks pretty regularly, so I wasn't getting much rest either. I lost a lot of weight (too much in my opinion) going from a healthy 130lbs (I'm 5'4") to an unhealthy 117lbs.

I hated it, so I started eating more, and eventually got stationed on Coast Guard Island. I now work a desk job, and my metabolism has responded by slowing down considerably.

I currently weigh about 155, and while I'm not obese, I would like to get back to 130. I found this website while looking for a BMI calculator, and decided to join.

 I'm now waiting to get medically discharged from the Coast Guard (for said anxiety issues, in addition to depression and PTSD) and am trying to motivate myself and lose weight.  When I get out, I plan to use my G.I. Bill to pay for a degree in Culinary Arts (hopefully from C.I.A) and become a professional chef in the civilian sector.

Back home in Texas, I have an identical twin sister who weighs 200+ lbs. I don't want to end up like that. I love her to death, but I have a lot more dicipline than that. (I hope anyway) My mother is also overweight, so I'm fighting genetics, and my metabolism. I know they say never to trust a skinny cook, but I'd like to be a healthy cook. 

I've found that if I only eat until I'm no longer hungry (not til I'm full) I have an easier time of things, but I was brought up by my family to "clean my plate" and I've been doing that far too often. I live by myself, and my (now ex) bf has one of those gifted metabolisms that means he can eat at taco bell everyday, and LOSE WEIGHT!  Frustrating in the extreme. I believe that real women have curves, but I'd like to get rid of my "kangaroo pouch" that seems to be developing. Every time I've worked out in the past, however, my bra size gets considerably smaller. I'm okay with the size it is now, I just want to get rid of my belly. Does anyone know good ab workouts that will do that? 

Grrrlvamp,

Good for you for trying to take charge of your life, health and weight.  I cant imagine the stress you are under with your position.  I think its a wise decision to get that medical discharge.  Do you  know how long that will take?

Also, it takes some real willpower, and discipline to go against the grain of your family - both genetics and influence in general as you were growing up.  But you do not have to follow in their steps, with weight, and you know that.  You are obviously a very strong person to have done what you have done so far. 

You also seem to have a lot of insight to me, and that will help  you on your road to "recovery" in many ways. 

I hope when you get out, you can get some counseling for your anxiety, stress and PTSD.  That might be the foundation for healing in your life at many levels, and will help you get your overall health picture in order. 

I think that will be the best for you - to look at your overall picture - emotional, physical, and career. 

Really, the only way to get rid of a belly is to lose weight.  Sure you can exercise, and do ab exercises, pilates, yoga and other core strengthening activities - you might get good advise on other groups here with that.  That is all good, but I think as you lose weight - slow is usually best - then you will find that belly disappearing.

I am 5'4, too.  Six months ago, I weighed about 150, and now I am down to about 130 - or a little less.  I definitely carry my weight in my tummy, and it has been the "last" place for me to see the best results.  My legs and butt responded the quickest to my weight loss, and exercising - but the tummy is going down, too.  And the toning help, too. 

I recently did a 4 session pilate class - and that is sure a core toner.  Maybe get a video of that. 

That would be GREAT if you could get a degree in the culinary arts!  And yes, there are definitely chefs at a proper weight!  I try to stay away from high fat things, and have found myself not preferring them anymore. 

Like I said, I think you sound like a strong, smart woman, with good insights into yourself and environment.  That will take you a long way as you find a new life for yourself.  You deserve to have a career that you love and a body that you feel good about, too.