CABBAGE SOUP (Lynne)

Today I went to Heaps for lunch with six friends. I ate whatever I wanted, which was a salad and mini pizza.

Top row, Cindy, Helen, Pam--who co-authors this blog. Bottom row: Venise, Annette, me and Faye. (Thanks to Pam for having pictures taken and for organizing the get together.)

So, because I ate whatever I wanted, I decided to eat cabbage soup for dinner. Jo--also a co-author of this blog, who may someday post--when she stops being up to her ears in house selling and house buying--send me the recipe. I four times'd it.

CABBAGE SOUP--This made a LOT because I'm planning on eating it non-stop until I loose weight. Okay, not non-stop, but you get the idea. I added tomato sauce and mushrooms, just because.

3 diced carrots

1 large--or two medium--onions, diced

a whole head of garlic, chopped

1/2 pound mushrooms, halved

12 cups fat-free broth (beef, chicken or vegetable--I used vegetable and chicken)

1/2 cup diced zucchini

1 whole green cabbage, chopped

2 cans green beans

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

2 (8 oz.) tomato sauce

2 tsps dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

Spray a large saucepan with nonstick cooking spray. Heat. Sauté the carrot, onion, garlic and mushrooms over low heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add broth, tomato paste, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and salt; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer. Stir in zucchini, cabbage and beans. Cook until cabbage and zucchini are still quite a bit crunchy. Eat every day for a week. Honestly. It makes a LOT.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW--EVEN THOUGH THE REVIEW IS B-A-D. By Lynne

"You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."-- Mary Pickford

This week has been the pits. I've had craving of unbelievable intensity. Un. Be. Leeev. Able. And also not ignored. Then today, the cravings are gone. I'd like some good food but, because I've been galloping toward failure--at full speed--and because I want to eat a delicious dinner tomorrow that will be probably 25 points, I'm going to have a 4 point dinner and call it good. Or maybe call it good with a Skinny Cow added--it will be my 2nd today. Thank you Pam for giving me the Skinny's. Now if I'd just get that way. The skinny part, not the cow.

I drank an ounce of barley grass juice today. Do you think that is why the cravings are gone? I'd sure like to think so. That would be an easy fix. And I've had great energy ever since. If that is the reason I'd even grow the stuff myself. We have a super-duper juicer--THAT WE NEVER USE because it's a pain to clean, and it's capable of juicing grass. I'll try another ounce on Monday and Tuesday to see if there is any correlation. And it only cost $1.25. A bargain.

Anyway, that's my report. Failure, failure, failure. This week was, what? A learning experience? A glimpse into my true nature? A walk on the wild side with mint chocolate chips clutched in my sweaty little hand? Or just a bend in the road? If that's it, I missed the bend and drove ninety-miles-an-hour, straight toward the cliff. I think one wheel teetered off the edge or maybe the wheel fell off and it bounced down, down, down, splashed in the river, and made it's way to the sea. Who knows? At any rate, the week is almost over and thank goodness it is.

Here's to non-failure, cute white cardigans, barley grass juice--which was so incredibly nasty, by the way--and a good friend who encourages me, who goes to the dreaded WW meeting with me where we have to face the numbers-beast, and who brings me low point treats.

On the positive side, I bought a white cardigan in a size too small because it will be good motivation and it was $5.00, originally marked $40.00. Marked down two or three times, then another 25% off and I had a coupon for another 15% off. There is no pleasure like finding a bargain. Except buttered popcorn and chocolate. So, since that's out, the cardigan will have to do.

Here's to success, yours and mine, in whatever form you are working at.

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."-- Henry Ford

LESS THAN A MEASLY POUND

Ack. Less than a pound loss this week. What's up with that? I'll tell you what, I didn't keep track toward the end of last week so obviously I ate too much AND I didn't exercise. I should exercise first thing in the morning but I sit in front of the "Blue Light," hopefully getting un-depressed while I read the Book of Mormon. I sit there for 28 minutes, trying not to be sleepy. By the time I'm finished the day has begun in earnest. A weight loss of less than a pound is enough to depress anyone so maybe the Blue Light won't help.

I decided to weigh three times a week, that will keep me on track. Guess what? I went to Weight Watchers today and my weight was the exact same as on Monday. Ex-act-ly the same. Like I said, depressing.

For dinner I made Jessica Seinfeld's turkey burgers. I tweaked them just a bit. They come out to three points each. Here's the recipe. I doubled the recipe and will freeze most of them.

Turkey Burgers--originally from Jessica Seinfeld--tweaked a bit--3 points using the whole wheat flour, probably 2.5 using the whole wheat bread crumbs, assuming you'd maybe get 10 burgers with the crumbs.

1 pound ground turkey

1/2 pound button mushrooms

1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs--I misread this and used 1 cup whole wheat flour. That took the points from 2 for the bread to 8 for the flour

1/4 cup shredded zucchini--I used one small, which was probably closer to a cup

2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbs. Ketchup

1 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. black pepper

I put the shredder blade on the food processor and shredded both the mushrooms and zucchini. Then I mixed everything together with the dough hook in my mixer--remember I doubled this recipe so I had a lot of goop.

I sprayed three cookie sheets with Pam and used a rounded 1/4 cup mixture for each burger. I baked them, turned them and baked some more. I didn't keep track of the time. They made 23 burgers with the double batch so 11 or 12 for this recipe. Probably 10 using whole wheat bread crumbs.

With two slices of bread this is a 7 point sandwich. 8 if you load on the ketchup. It was very filling and satisfying. Doesn't taste like a burger but it's pretty good. And let's face it, when you are on Weight Watchers you are desperate for something filling and low in points. If you didn't want to use the bread you could even have two burgers for 6 points.

PS My goal was to exercise four times this week. Am I making myself a liar? Is it too late to pick another goal? Will Marion (our instructor) fire me, do you think? I'm going to take a paper bag and when she asks who kept their goal I'm going to put it over my head. She won't be able to see me then and I'll be safe.

PAM'S SECOND WEEK: One Baby Step at a Time

My bathroom scale is digital and displays weight in pounds and tenths of pounds, at two/tenth intervals. In other words .2, .4, .6, .8, and .0 I'm sure it was made with dieters in mind, because I doubt anyone else really cares about tenths of pounds in the whole scheme of things. From what I've read, weighing every day is not recommended (I don't know Weight Watchers' stand on this), probably because it puts too much emphasis on results rather than efforts. I don't know, that's just my guess. But still, the lure of the bathroom scale first thing in the morning is beguiling to me because, as long as I'm doing what I should the rest of the day, it will show me that I am, indeed, making progress. Even if it is only measureable in ounces or tenths of pounds. They add up. Knowing that those tenths of pounds add up makes it worth while to skip the tempting refreshments offered at social gatherings, or to stay within my recommended points each day.

On Monday, my WW weigh in showed that I had lost 4.6 pounds during my first week. I'm grateful for the progress, but impatient also. Fortunately, and very gratefully, I realize that it will not take me as long to lose all this extra weight as it took me to gain it. I have to make this effort one baby step at a time, and will learn patience along the way.

I'M PANICKY--posted by Lynne

First of all, WELCOME to JoAnne, who is our new blog partner! I'm hoping both Pam and JoAnne will be able to help me with the reason for this post.

I don't dare eat because I'm afraid I'll eat the wrong stuff. And I have, too.

I can't think of anything to eat.

I'm afraid I'll go over my points.

I can't think of anything to cook.

I'm paralyzed about this business.

I'd go eat worms but I don't know how many points they are. And they'd be frozen, anyway. Help!

I'm so panicky I'm messing around with the blog colors. And now I can't remember what it used to be, which I think was better. Maybe Pam and JoAnne should take over. They can find one of those nifty wallpapers instead.

I'M IN--by Jo

Hi Lynne and Pam,

I'm in.

Love, Jo

LYNNE'S WEEK TWO--CARRYING ON, HOPEFULLY I'LL HAVE LESS TO CARRY AT THE END OF THIS WEEK

Weight lost last week: 8.6
Weight lost this week--.8, that's right, less than a pound

Monday
Exercise: Walked to and from Activity Days...let's see, that's three houses away. I don't think that counts.
Points: I'm too tired to figure this out.
Food Eaten:

1 cup frozen blueberries--my fingers are blue--I should have used a spoon

1 toad in the hole--1 slice bread, one egg, cooking spray--so satisfying

2 slices bread, 1 Tbs. peanut butter, 2 tsp. butter, 2 Tbs. honey

1/2 cup carrots

lasagna

salad

ranch dressing

French bread

Tuesday
Exercise: Not yet
Food Eaten:
1 cup blueberries

toad in the hole

10 salted nuts

1/2 piece pumpkin bread

1 "veggies added" turkey burger

3/4 cup mashed potatoes

1/2 cup brown gravy

broiled zucchini

biscotti

1 slice salami--so bad and so darn good and one bite cheese--I was making a sandwich for Elizabeth and just couldn't help myself.

1/2 of a caramel that had been sitting on the counter for weeks. It was all sugary and incredibly delicious. Probably worth a point of two. I didn't even look it up. And it was late, too, probably about 10:00 o'clock.

I drank probably at least 4 ounces of dill pickle juice throughout the day. Weird, I know but it's really good. And really full of salt so it's really bad.

Wednesday
Exercise: walked one block
Points:
Food Eaten:

1/2 cup blueberries

2 turkey burgers on two pieces bread with ketchup and mustard

pickle

2 nuts

1 1/2 pieces sweet bread

1 manicotti

raw broccoli

ranch dressing, I Tbs

Italian dressing, 1 Tbs.

coleslaw

3 Jr Mints

didn't keep track of what I ate the rest of the week. That is probably why I had such a non-losing week.

Thursday
Exercise:
Points:
Food Eaten:

Friday
Exercise:
Points:
Food Eaten:

Saturday
Exercise:
Points:
Food Eaten:

Sunday
Exercise:
Points:
Food Eaten:

Weight Watchers' "Points"

As I mentioned, this is not the first time I've joined Weight Watchers. Over a number of years. And different programs. When I was first introduced to the "points" system, I thought it was a pretty clever way to track what I eat. Much easier than counting calories and paying attention to food groups, etc. Evidently other people weren't that crazy about counting calories, either, and WW came up with the idea of assigning point values to specific portions of each food, based of course on their content of calories, fiber and fat.

One of the really nice things about this now-not-so-new plan is that there are no forbidden foods. You can eat anything you want. You just have to count its points and stay within your points limit for the day. Your personal points limit is determined by using an easy formula based on current weight, age, activity level. Your allowed number of points per day slowly drops as your body shrinks. Seems fair.

I remember my first encounter with Weight Watchers as a participant. The weigh in was no problem. It's private and no one yells out, "Wow!" when they see the number on the scale. They just quietly write down the secret number in your own private record that you take with you. The weigh-in girl always has kind and encouraging words whether you've been "good" or "bad" or lost or gained. Easy for the weigh-ee think of those revealing moments as a judgment of "good or "bad", but that dear weigh-or is totally non-judgmental. After all, she was once in my position, too. I could be wrong but I think all Weight Watcher employees are Life Members, having had their own weight-loss struggles, failures, and ultimate success. So the weigh in is as painless as possible.

What surprised me was the meeting, the little pep rally I attended each week. All they talked about was FOOD. Gad-zooks! I'm trying not to think about food, and all they could do was talk about it -- what to eat, tricks to not eat. How to survive Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and all the best foods to eat at those occasions. "Great" recipes. This was not my idea of how to lose weight. I don't know what I expected, but all this talk about food was making me hungry.

Enter the points plan. Several years later, at a different place, I again found myself at Weight Watchers. Much had changed. Most noticeably, they had a new formula for weight loss. It was the Points plan I described above. Yes, we still talked about food in the meetings, but this time around the discussions seemed more helpful. After a few weeks of counting points, an amazing thing happened to me. I quit thinking about food. I was thinking about points. Food lost the increased importance it seemed in the past to take on when I was trying to lose weight. Nothing was forbidden, so nothing was craved. If I wanted it, I ate it. But counted the points and did without something else. I no longer thought of food with its intrinsic taste and hunger satisfying qualities, I thought of it as a number of points. And it worked. That go-around, I lost 30 pounds. That was my success. My failure was not staying with it until I reached my goal weight.

This time I will. Thank goodness for points. I had 5 for breakfast and savored every one.

PAM'S WEEK ONE - She's Making Me Do It

I thought the blog was a great idea ---- for HER. But we got into this together, so here I am.

Today is Friday morning, the beginning of Day 5 of Week 1 of Weight Watchers. Well, Week 1 of several different stints with Weight Watchers over a greater number of years. How did I get here?! I was a skinny kid whose parents took her to the doctor because she appeared malnourished. Ok, underweight, "malnourished" is an exaggeration. I remember once as a young mom I was again underweight and had trouble gaining. Wellllll, whatever I did then seems to have paid off big time, pardon the pun. If this were AA, I would start by saying "My name is Pam, and I'm an overeater." I could say, "My name is Pam, and my thryoid is dead," but that would be a lie. My throid is alive and well, and way overworked.

Many years ago -- when I was thin, which is irrelevant, but I like saying it -- we had a neighbor whose name was Candy (yes it was), and she had been overweight all of her life. She finally found the determination to "diet" and lost so many pounds that she was a ghost of herself and I didn't recognize her. We weren't close friends, but one day she told me that she was having trouble stopping her diet at her "recommended" weight because she still saw herself as "fat" when she looked in the mirror. I bring this up because, despite what I see in the mirror, I still think of myself as the skinny kid who always had to eat, eat, eat to keep from blowing away. Those days are lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnng gone, but the mind is a powerful thing.

Like Lynne, I anxiously await Monday's weigh in. I know I'm making progress because I find tying my shoes just a little less painful -- the bending over part, not the tying part. I've been "good" with my food choices, stayed within my points with the help of the weekly points allowance, and am getting better about drinking water. Doing this with a friend will make it more palatable (food reference here?) and not so much a punishment for being "bad" for so long. Weight Watchers emphasizes the need for support, in their meetings of course, and hopefully with those around us. Lynne and I will encourage and support each other. I know we can do this.

LYNNE'S WEEK ONE--so she will keep herself accountable.

Weight lost--8.6--posted Monday, January 11th after my first full week. I know that will not happen again but I'm thrilled today. I am almost at the wieght I was when LA Weightloss quit business over a year ago, so I am happy about that.
Tuesday

Exercise: Zilch
Points: 30--over my target points. Hey, it's my first day!
Food Eaten:

2 carrots

grapefruit juice, fresh squeezed, yum

sandwich made with 2 slices whole wheat bread, 1 Tbs peanut butter, 1 Tbs. peach freezer jam from my neighbor Cindy--I had dashed home, with only ten minutes before I had to be at my Personal History mini class and the bread was frozen so I toasted it, threw it together and took it in a paper towel to class

spaghetti noodles

spaghetti sauce

salad

ranch dressing

one small slice french bread

2 Triscuit crackers with clam dip. The devil made me do it.

biscotti


Wednesday

Exercise: Same as Monday
Points: 17 1/2
Food Eaten:

1 egg

1 toast

2 Tbs. Ketchup--yes, Mother dear, it was Hienz

1 bite pumpkin bread

Vegetarian chili--Nalley's

1/2 cup acorn squash

1/2 cup yams w/brown sugar--so bad and so good

salad

2 Tbs. ranch dressing w/2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar--so puckery

12 grape tomatoes


Thursday

Exercise: Same as Tuesday and Wednesday--there seems to be a pattern developing
Points: 22 1/2 except for the chocolate orange, so maybe it's 24 points, who knows?
Food Eaten:

Toad in a hole--I won't let my kids call "Acini de Pepe salad" "Frog eye salad" but I'll eat a toad in a hole--1 egg, 1 piece toast, vegetable spray. This was so delicious. I wanted two but ate blueberries instead.

1/2 cup blueberries

1 cup veggie chili--I seem to be in a rut

12 grape tomatoes

2 Tbs. ketchup

1 "hamburger" patty--a friend had asked another friend and me to dinner because we are members of the Healthy Living mini class. She got the cookbook Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food by Jessica Seinfeld and her meal was from the cookbook. Her "hamburger patty was ground turkey, mushrooms, zucchini--I think--, whole wheat bread crumbs, Worchestersauce and salt and pepper. It was one of the most delicious burgers I've ever eaten. She got 13 patties from one pound of turkey so you can see the calories were way diminished.

1 whole wheat hamburger bun, which she had made from two slices of whole wheat bread! Clever. That tip was from the cookbook.

2 Tbs. ketchup

1 Tbs. mustard

lettuce

tomato

1 1/2 cup French style green beans. Yes, I ate that much.

1 1/2 banana-zucchini-oatmeal cookie--very delicious.

Skinny Cow frozen dessert that my friend--the other poster on this blog--Pam gave me when I stopped by to chat after dinner. Pam is always willing to let me crash at her house.

2 slices chocolate orange leftover from Christmas--it was in the drawer, calling my name. I answered.


FRIDAY

Exercise: HeLLo (knocking on my wooden head). None. Although I did move my feet up and down the entire time I read my scriptures this morning--one half hour. I don't think it counts.
Points: 27 1/2 maybe--this is an estimate
Food Eaten:

1 orange, juiced

1 grapefruit, juiced, both juices mixed together, which was nasty.

2 homemade taco's with salsa, no cheese

8 baby carrots

1 Tbs. ranch dressing

4 Funyums. I asked Hillary what they were and she said, "Don't try them, they are the best junk food ever." Of course I tried them and they are crunchy and oniony and delicious. I should have known. The more processed a food is the better I like it. Bad Funyums. DO NOT TRY THEM. I'm warning you, which really means I'm warning myself ,since I'm the only one who will read this.

ALL of Hillary's leftover KFC coleslaw. Bad, bad and good, good. I squeezed the dressing out with my spoon but you know lots made it into my mouth.

1 bite berry sherbet

salad

The rest of the can of chili, one cup

biscotti


SATURDAY

Exercise: 20 minutes, walking--not that I wanted to but I needed to get out of the house and so it was forced exercise. I came home after only 20 minutes because I was in danger of freezing to death. So much for forced exercise.
Points: 19
Food Eaten:

1 1/2 grapefruit, juiced

almost a full 12 ounce bag of baby carrots

1 Tbs. peanut butter eaten right out of the jar

1 cup spaghetti noodles--I really dumped half of it in the garbage

1 cup spaghetti sauce--half of it got dumped with the spaghetti

1 small dried up piece of French bread--yes, I was desperate

1 cup cooked broccoli--there was more, I couldn't force it down

2 Tbs. ranch dressing, full of fat, full of flavor--it's worth the 4 or 5 points--at least today it's worth it, maybe not as my "points available" goes down. And I have a half quart of dressing to eat. There's probably 10,000 points in the container.

I'm going to have a "Skinny Cow" frozen dessert in a few minutes. Pam gave them to me, bless her little heart!

Later...Nope, didn't eat the Skinny Cow. I will for sure tomorrow. Ate two bites of pumpkin bread and a Tbs. of mashed potatoes w/butter when I warmed up some food for my daughter. But...I didn't eat a bite of lasagna, and I really wanted to.

2 small slices apple


SUNDAY
Exercise: I'm not saying.
Points: as close as I can estimate 35!
Food Eaten:

Nuts--a mistake. I came home from church hungry and I didn't have time to eat any breakfast. I was going to go to bed and sleep because I only had about 5 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I figure I ate ten points of nuts! And it wasn't very many, either. Oh well.

Pumpkin bread, another desperate act. I'm talking to Pam as I type this and she's saying she had blueberries this afternoon. I wanted to slap my my forehead. Why didn't I do that? (Then I went to bed and when I got up Phil had put the casserole in the oven and it was hot and tasty. Way too tasty.)

Stove Top Stuffing casserole. I had to take a casserole to the food coalition on Friday so I made a smaller version for us. I knew it would be loaded with points but figured it'd be okay because I'd have made good choices all day. Rats. I ate nuts and pumpkin bread. Oh well.

Coleslaw, leftover from BEFORE Christmas, I think. It's been in our Redneck fridge--the garage. I should have had just carrots but.... Old as it was, it was still tasty.

Skinny Cow frozen dessert--only two points and delicious

But, then, I ate the last of the chocolate orange!

I'm now eating carrots and giving some to Kramer.

I also swallowed about ten fiber pills and have had three glasses of water--16 oz. glasses. So far the water is plumping the fiber and staying put so I may not have lost much tomorrow. Oh well. I seem to say "Oh well" a lot.

So that's my week's confession. No exercise. Either not enough food or too much. We'll see what Marion--our Weight Watcher leader--has to say tomorrow.