A RECIPE TO SHARE

I have been stumbling along - some days on plan some days not so much.  I am in maintenance mode in that I am not gaining or losing weight - except that I need to lose about 75 pounds or so before I am actually, happily, in the position for maintenance!!

Anyway - with my schedule it has been important to have things I can make in advance to tuck into my bag for dinner at work.  I ran across a recipe for baked egg rolls and I thought it was a great way to get more veggies in and an easy, portable food for work.

I was showing my sister the recipe and then telling her all the changes I made to it.  She pointed out that I had changed the recipe completely - so I wrote down my version.

2 packs egg roll wrappers

1 package bagged coleslaw (the mix with carrots and red cabbage)

2 chicken breasts or other meat of your choice, minced small

1 bag or bunch fresh spinach

1 can water chestnuts, chopped

1 bunch green onions, sliced

2 or more cloves garlic

minced ginger

chopped cilantro, to taste

Sesame oil

Soy sauce

Heat a large, deep skillet or wok with a little bit of oil until hot.  Add the minced chicken and stir fry until no longer pink.  Add the minced garlic and ginger and about 3 T of soy sauce to chicken.  Then add chopped onions, water chestnuts, coleslaw and spinach.  Take off heat and mix together all the ingredients.  Add about 1 T sesame oil and cilantro if you like.

Let this mixture cool, stir it around to keep it from wilting too much.  Get a little bowl of water ready and take the wrappers out of the package.  The package has directions on how to fold and roll the egg rolls using a bit of water on the edge to help seal the little packet.  I use a serving spoon to scoop up about 1/4 cup of the mixture for each egg roll.

Roll up according to the directions and [place on a baking sheet which has been sprayed with vegetable or olive oil.  Roll them around so they are coated with he oil, or spray the tops before baking.  Leave room between each roll for the air to circulate while baking.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, turn each roll over and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the rolls are turning a bit brown and crispy.  Cool on wire racks and then put in airtight containers in the frig.  They can also be frozen.  I like them cold from the frig, but they are also very good when crisped up in a toaster oven.  They can get a bit dry after a few days - so you may want to try them with the dipping sauce of your choice.

The way I make them I calculated the calorie count at about 93 calories each.

Of course this is the perfect kind of recipe to tweak and make your own with your favorite ingredients.  The original recipe called for shrimp and Oyster Sauce  - it was too fishy for me so I started experimenting. 

Let me know if you come up with an interesting version!

SPECIAL EVENTS

I read a quote by someone about the fact that we worry about what we are going to eat during the holidays when what we should really worry about is what we are eating the other 50 weeks of the year.  So true.  We do get very concerned about the opportunities to overindulge during special occasions.  Many people speak about being unwilling to give up the pleasures of rich restaurant meals, family favorites, desserts and cocktails - while  being bombarded by advice on the many ways we can avoid adding calories and pounds and still enjoy ourselves.  Yeah, right.
In truth, if we have been paying attention the rest of the year - is it really such a big deal to indulge during these special occasions?  Beyond the question of forbidden foods and falling off the wagon and all the other ways we label our behavior around food, I think the fear is that we just plain will not stop eating once we start!

In a way this is true of me.  There are so many foods I can ignore all around me much of the time.  I can eat out in a restaurant and not reach for the bread basket or the chips and salsa.  I can say no to dessert without a qualm, I can cheerfully choose the scrambled eggs over the french toast and navigate a buffet spread selecting the healthy items.  However...if I have made monkey bread for my family by request, I will pick at it all day until the tiny portion I served myself at breakfast has ballooned into hundreds of calories. 

While I don't have an "I blew it so I might as well eat (enter ridiculously high calorie food here)" attitude, I do notice that when I have allowed myself to take a vacation from calorie counting for a special occasion - it may take me days or even  weeks to get completely back on track.   

I think this will continue to happen unless I manage to get over my attachment to certain foods.  When I can pass on the foods which currently hold me in their thrall (like good bread) then I will be able to enjoy special events without them turning into breaks from my normal, more healthy, and yes, more restricted eating. 

But I've got to tell you - the Lemon Drop Martinis I had were so worth it, not to mention the tempura fried asparagus appetizer and the pear, caramelized onion and bleu cheese pizza and the bite of sticky toffee pudding and...well, you get the picture!

On the other hand, the photos of the last week do not show me looking the way I would like to look and my knees are giving me trouble.  I do understand that I need to be on the healthy eating and gym attendance routine in order to look and feel better when the next special occasion comes up.

WANDERING THE VALLEY

Well, I have not fallen off the face of the earth as my lack of posting would suggest - just fallen off the "good" path.  I suspect it can be tedious to read about all the reason we yo-yo types have for these periods of wandering in the valley of overindulgence. 

And overindulgence it is as I am so aware not only of the destruction of the hard work I have put in by gaining back what I have lost but worse yet is that I don't even feel good.  After just a few days of not eating sugar I can feel the inflammation in my knees and feet subsiding.  So why do I think eating chocolate or whatever the indulgence of the moment is makes me feel better?

I need to take to heart the quote on my header - If hunger is not the problem, food is not the answer.  And one step further, food is not only the answer - eating what is wrong for me is causing a problem.

ANOTHER GOOD WEEK

Week 2 has continued well,  only 3 trips to the gym but the weather was so nice I was happily working at getting my outdoor mosaic area cleaned up and started a new project.  I have planned out some garden projects which I am buying plantings for today, my day off, and I will manage 5 trips to the gym this week now that things are in order.

I lost 3 pounds this week and can feel it in my work clothes.  No big revelations to discuss - just that I made Broccoli Salad which sustained me most of the week!

I am off to the garden center now...

CHECKING IN

Just a quick post to check in.

I am very proud of myself!  I have been completely ON.  I have tracked my foods everyday and kept my calories under 1500.  Been to the gym 4 times and have lost 3 pounds this week.

I treated myself to a mani-pedi and 1 cocktail when out to dinner.

More postings to come...but now I am preparing a nice dinner for my night off - salmon for the grill, broccoli salad and brown rice.

It finally stopped raining and I am going to take the dog for a long walk.

WILL POWER IN A MINE FIELD

What is there to say?  Yo Yo Me here.  Although when I got on the scale at the gym on Sunday and saw the upwards creep I was shocked and have been on track since.  I also had occasion to put on the old vest they gave me when I started my job in November and I can't button it.  Yikes.  So then I measured myself and I am many inches larger than I was in early November. 

Not good.  Not the direction I want to be going.  No, no, no.

I could do a show and tell ( but I won't because running around the lobby and office with a camera would be frowned upon) of all the temptations I am surrounded by every night I work and you would understand.  Bowls of candy, trays of pastries and cookie jars which I must keep stocked also popcorn and these amazing flavored peanuts in the bar.  And yes, there are bowls of fruit, too. 

I bring my nice healthy dinner each night and drink lots of water and green tea.  The majority of the time I am not tempted.  I am busy or  good at distracting myself.  It is just those nights that I slip, I can't even say what it is that happens or why some times I am just so hungry and nothing fills me up.

I have always had extraordinary "will power."  I realize at some point after the summer I just stopped having the will.  Now I need to summon it up again.  Times are tough but I need to get tougher!

I AM A YO-YO

I never thought of myself as a yo-yo dieter because I would stick with a diet and lose weight,  then over a period of years gain it back and start again.  That would make me a very slow motion yo-yo, at best!  So although I have gained and lost over and over the past 20 some odd years, I didn't label myself that way.

Now it is different.  I have been going up and down over and over in the past 7 months or so.  Repeatedly and quickly in true yo-yo style.  I know that there is this trend to say that dieting somehow causes this.  I don't use diet in that way - I just think it is a bit phony and forced to use other terms.  Dieting means staying on a healthy plan.  No dieting, for me, means overeating and eating the wrong foods.  I have no problem with being "on a diet" for life because it is the best way for me to eat mindfully.

What I want is to deal with those things which compel me to eat poorly. Especially stress and to some degree depression.  Stress makes me anxious, eating sooths me.  Depression is the loss of  a sense of worth which I also sooth with "treats."  If the general overeating and eating of sweets and breads, etc. didn't work so well, I may have turned to drugs or alcohol for my solace. What this tells me is that it is time to make a greater effort to deal with the issues which bring on this behaviour so I can stop being such a yo-yo.