Friday Foodie: June 29, 2012: Ice Cream Treats

If you have been reading my more recent entries you know that at night I have been eating ice cream or frozen yogurt.  All day long my eating will be super clean, healthy and reasonably portioned.  Then, at night, I feel stressed or sad or something else and I eat ice cream.  Tonight I ate a very reasonable amount… because my hubby had only left a little bit left in the carton. 🙂

So, what to do about my lack of will power over the evening treat?

Having a five month old has tested me to my limits (in an amazing way) and frankly, I am just not prepared to let go of that evening sweet indulgence after she goes to bed.  Since I know this about myself, I came up with a great solution: instead of going through the internal battle every night over the freaking ice cream and then feeling bad about myself for having it and then eating too much of it because I feel bad and I’ve already broken my food plan for the day… INSTEAD of all that fun… I am now going to have a measured amount every night and it will be part of my menu.

Tonight at the grocery store I bought these 150 calorie ice cream sandwiches and ice cream cones.  Since I don’t have to scoop out the ice cream I think this may just be the trick to keeping my portion sizes small and reasonable.  They are a bit on the pricey side but the peace of mind of not having to go onto the ice cream mental debate hamster wheel every night (will I or won’t I eat the ice cream, I can’t stop thinking about the ice cream, etc) will seriously give me a lot of mental relief!

Friday Foodie: April 27, 2012: Baked Tofu

I am a great lover of food.  But I am not a “foodie.”  Foodies are those who love talking and thinking about intricate ingredients, who savor nights at celebrated restaurants serving haute cuisine, who love gourmet cooking shows.

I just love to eat.  And, I hate to cook.  There is so much healthy-living wisdom out there about the importance of cooking your own food to accelerate weight-loss.  If you aren’t controlling the ingredients and portion sizes, who will?  Each Friday I will search out a new SIMPLE recipe or offer a food tip that is also easy on the wallet (I hate it when a new recipe has so many ingredients that you spend a fortune just trying it out.)  Feel free to post your favorite quick, simple and healthy recipe and/or cooking tips!

Here’s to a new kind of foodie – one who appreciates homemade, healthy, tasty, fresh food.

This week’s tip is how to make baked tofu.  I have played around (unusual for me since I really don’t normally enjoy playing around with a food, I’ll just give it up) on how to make tofu.  I love it when you get tofu that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside from Chinese restaurants.  I’ve tried different frying methods and baking methods and haven’t gotten good results until tonight’s discovery: use the broiler!

I sprayed non-stick olive oil spray on the baking sheet and laid out my chopped up squares of organic extra firm tofu.  With the broiler on high I browned each side for about ten minutes.  It worked!  I got the consistency I was looking for.

I then stirred the finished tofu product into the veggies which I had already marinated with some bottled curry sauce.  A very yummy dinner!  I am glad I stuck with trying to figure out how to make an acceptable baked tofu because I am keenly aware of the fact that I eat a lot of meat (maybe too much).   Do you have any tofu tips?  I’d love to hear them!

Friday Foodie: March 30, 2012: Laughing Cow Cheese

I am a great lover of food.  But I am not a “foodie.”  Foodies are those who love talking and thinking about intricate ingredients, who savor nights at celebrated restaurants serving haute cuisine, who love gourmet cooking shows.

I just love to eat.  And, I hate to cook.  There is so much healthy-living wisdom out there about the importance of cooking your own food to accelerate weight-loss.  If you aren’t controlling the ingredients and portion sizes, who will?  Each Friday I will search out a new SIMPLE recipe or offer a food tip that is also easy on the wallet (I hate it when a new recipe has so many ingredients that you spend a fortune just trying it out.)  Feel free to post your favorite quick, simple and healthy recipe and/or cooking tips!

Here’s to a new kind of foodie – one who appreciates homemade, healthy, tasty, fresh food.

This week’s tip is Laughing Cow cheese.  http://www.thelaughingcow.com/products/light-swiss-original/

These wedges have only 35 calories and are perfect for a lower calorie sandwich or burger.  For me they take away the (strong) desire to put mayo on everything. 🙂  These are reasonably priced and in your local grocery store (in the US).  One wedge goes a long way.

Thursday Thoughts: March 29, 2012: How Many Calories When Nursing?

I really have no idea if I am eating too much or too little.  I want to make sure I lose weight but I also want to make sure I consume enough calories so my body feels like it isn’t in starvation mode and can produce enough milk for my sweet baby girl.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics a nursing Mom should consume 300-500 calories more a day.

HealthyChildren.org – Eating for Two: Your Diet And Breastfeeding.

I found this great tool online to find out how many calories I should be consuming per day (if I weren’t breast-feeding).

http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/calguide.htm

It has a calculator on there that asks you for your gender, your height, your current weight, and your desired weight.  It then gives you results detailing how many calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight, to lose a pound a week with exercise, to lose a pound a week without exercise, to gain a pound a week, etc, etc.  What a great tool!

I am focusing on this result: “If you reduce your current caloric intake to 1668.6 calories per day you will lose one pound per week without exercise.”

So, if I add the calories I should be eating to lose one pound a week to the additional calories I should be eating for breasting (I’ll use an average of 400 additional calories) then ballpark, I should be consuming approximately 2000 calories per day.

Am I?  I really have no idea.  So I decided to find out how much today’s menu’s caloric intake is:

Breakfast:

Yogurt 130 with blueberries 84; oatmeal 102 with cinnamon

Lunch:

Sausage 240, bun 190, spinach 77, apple 95

Teatime (optional):

Oatmeal  300 with raisins 100 and milk 43

Dinner:

Meatballs 200, broccoli 60, rice 216, salad 34

Total for today: 1871

So, my menu is definitely within the weight loss range but also I am getting enough caloric intake for breast-feeding! Yay!

I also checked out a few other articles for safety on weight loss after pregnancy.  They are written by lactation consultants but it is hard to tell if they are based on science or are mostly anecdotal:

http://kellymom.com/nutrition/mothers-diet/mom-weightloss/

http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-safe-to-try-to-lose-weight-while-breastfeeding_2602.bc

http://www.llli.org/faq/diet.html

After reading these articles, it is super helpful to know that my current caloric intake is enough for my milk supply and that women in famine conditions can produce perfectly nutritious milk so I have not jeopardized my sweet baby.  BUT, I sure wish I had read these articles before.  It would have saved me a whole lot of fretting, especially since they say to wait until after the second month to diet in order to establish good milk supply… I had a lot of weird body issues and shame over how much weight I had gained.  I was really caught up in what people would think of me, especially at work!  What a waste of time and mental energy (not to mention negative energy) when I have a new babe at home.  I hope some other woman will read this one day and it will save her some of the agony I put myself through!!

Thanks for reading this and I wish you much luck on your own healthy journey!