Brown Rice Vs. White Rice

Q. Why is brown rice healthier than white rice? Is there that much difference?

A. Yes! There is a big difference:

White rice has the outer husk (covering) removed; brown rice doesn't, which is why it is brown. Almost all the vitamins, minerals and fiber in rice is in this outer covering - white rice is just the starch part of the rice. That's why brown is healthier.

Liked puffed rice cereal or cakes? They make brown rice varieties!!

Pizza Nuts...and being healthy!

My wife abnd I have been eating Papa John's Whole
Wheat pizza crust pizza now for about the last year.

We L-O-V-E the pizza, but unfortunately, the pie
is only available in the large size. It's 100%
whole grain, but one pie is nearly 2400 calories
with just cheese and a veggie topping. That's
a lot!! That's my entire day's allotment of calories.

We get the pizza delivered maybe once or twice a month.
It is convenient and fast and I have to admit
very, very tasty. And other than the
calories..as long as you stick to veggies
toppings..its very healthy and YOAD friendly.

Now comes along Pizza Hut.

Their "Natural" pizza is not 100% whole wheat.
It's about 1/3 whole grain. BUT, it IS available
in a medium size. A medium Natural pizza
with one veggie topping is about 1600 calories.

It's not as healthy as the Papa John's is..
but as in often as we get pizza...its not a huge
deal. 4 slices have about 2 servings of whole grains
which is nothing to sneeze at when we need to
get 5-6 servings of whole grains daily as recommended
by the YOU Docs.

Of course..4 slices of the Papa John's pizza has nearly
the YOU Doc's entire day's recommendation of whole grains,
which is good, too!

We like the flavor of both and we still get one
or the other from time to time.

It's nice we have that option!

There's another place not far from us called
"Mellow Mushroom" that also has some great, healthy
pizza. Their pizza, too, is about 1/3 whole grain
and has no HFCS or other bad stuff. But, we
get to sit down and have a nice, hot, pizza
delivered to our table. And it's oh so good!

Before we went on the diet, my wife and I would
get pizza at least once per week if not 2 or 3 times
per week. LOL. We were...and still are I guess..
pizza nuts! Now, we get it about once or twice per
month and we have choices to do it healthier than
we had before the diet.

Not to mention buying the 100% whole wheat Boboli
pizza crust and making pizza at home with some
organic pizza sauce, lowfat cheese and veggies.
That's yummy...too!!

All about Potatoes

For those familair with my posts
on the YOAD message boards, I am
am advocate of including potatoes
in your diet, even following YOAD.

Now, I am not talking about
sitting down in front of the TV with
a big family size bag of Lay's and
eating the entire bag while
watching CSI. I'm talking about
1-3 servings (2 on average)
per day which is pretty typical
for me.

One of the reasons I include
potatoes is because I still
struggle with high blood pressure.
Granted, I am much, much better
than I used to be and my blood
pressure is normal now thanks
to one low dose blood pressure
med that I take everyday AND a
potassium rich diet.

Many people don't realize this
but potatoes are actually rich
in potassium. One medium potato
has about twice as much
potassium as a one
large size banana!

Baked potato, with skin, medium (844mg potassium)
Large banana (487mg potassium)

I pulled this off of a
high blood pressure web site -

High Blood Pressure - treatment

Potatoes, specially in boiled form, are a
valuable food for lowering blood pressure.
When boiled with their skin, they absorb
very little salt. Thus they can form a
useful addition to a salt-free diet
recommended for patients with high blood
pressure. Potatoes are rich in potassium
but not in sodium salts. The magnesium
present in the vegetable exercises beneficial
effects in lowering blood pressure

I do, quite often, have my potatoes boiled
but their is also benefit from having
them baked and, less often, fried
in a healthy, non-hydrogenated oil
like pure peanut oil.

I also include other foods in my
diet known to help lower blood pressure
such as dark chocolate, garlic, broccoli
and tomato products.

Here is a link you can read if you want
more information.

National Academy of Sciences Recommends More Potassium, Potato #1 Source

Awesome 100% Whole Grain Waffles

I recently posted a recipe for some great
100% whole grain spelt pancakes.

My wife and I believe they
are the BEST pancakes we have ever
had....anywhere.

We bought a waffle maker last
year and played around with some
whole grain waffle mixes and
came up with some good tasting
waffles. But, they weren't
"awesome".

Well, I went online and read up
on several homemade waffle recipes
and figured out the best way
to modify our pancake recipe
to make waffles with it.

Sucess! And OMG were they GREAT
waffles..the best we have had
anywhere.

We believe that the spelt in the
recipes is one of the main reasons
for the great taste. The spelt
makes the pancakes and waffles lighter
and fluffier..and it has a naturally
sweeter flavor.

So..without further muss or fuss..here
is the recipe.

I hope everyone gets to enjoy them
as we have!

--------------------------------------------------
100% Whole Grain Waffles!

(Totally YOAD approved!)


7 oz whole grain spelt flour
(we use Arrow Head Organic Spelt Flour)
1 gram ground cinnamon (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
20 grams baking powder
6 packets Sweet 'n Low (or Splenda)
1 & 1/2 cups lowfat milk or soymilk
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 oz pure peanut oil (canola works)

Mix ingredients VERY well and then
let sit 10-15 minutes.

Makes very light, crispy, tasty waffles!!

Enjoy!

Happy 2009 Everyone!

Well, its been a good year. I reached my goal weight
Christmas day 2007 and I have managed to maintain my
stats throughout the year of 2008!

And it has been a wild year. I saw my oldest daughter again
that I had not seen in nearly 20 years. My wife and I bought our
first home. I got a new, awesome job. Went on vacation
to our favorite place in the Florida Keys. So as you can
see, it has been very busy for us!

Not to mention learning to maintain a health diet and a healthy
weight! Losing the weight was actually easier. Maintaining
it has been a bit more of a challenge. Sometimes you get
those thoughts "Okay, I am at the weight I want so now I can
have that slice of cheesecake". LOL. Well, I haven't
done cheesecake but last night I had the first slice of apple
pie I had had in over 2 years! :) It was Christmas dinner.
But, I have to make sure I don't let the thoughts that
everything is okay now and I can go back to eating all the
unhealthy foods that made me overweight in the first place.

I make a conscious effort everyday to exercise, eat the right
amount of fruits, veggies, whole grains and fiber. I try
to balance everything out. I keep a daily food journal to help
me keep track of what I am eating, and I weigh myself every
morning to catch any small changes. And then I can make
whatever small corrections I find I need to make. Its a lot of
work! But worth it!

My health is still good. My blood pressure has gone up
just a little. When I was losing the weight, I stayed on
my medications even though my numbers were getting lower and
lower. My primary care said that I can't have too low of
a blood pressure. Well, it got so low that I was getting
dizzy and light headed quite often so I went off the meds
totally. That was about a year ago. It took about 4 months
but my pressure slowly got higher to about on average...maybe
130 over 95. The funny thing is that before I went on
the diet, ON the meds, that was about as good the doctor
could get my blood pressure. Now, without the meds I was
looking at the same numbers. Hypertension runs on my
moms side of the family. The doctor now has me on one low dose
med and my pressure now runs about 120/83 most of the time.
I am very happy with that! :) Before, I was on 4 different
meds to get me to the 130/95 mark. Big difference!

My wife and I are still learning new meals to make all the
time that meet YOAD and we stay on the straight and narrow
most of the time. Lately we have been making these awesome
100% whole grain spelt pancakes every Sunday morning
along with some turkey sausage. Mmmmmm!

I hope everyone else has a had a great year, too!

On the left side of the blog I posted my stats for this
Christmas.

Happy New Year everyone!

The Good and the Evil...

And God populated the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

And Satan created McDonald's. And McDonald's brought forth the 99-cent double-cheeseburger. And Satan said to Man, "You want fries with that?"

And Man said, "Super size them." And Man gained pounds.

And God created the healthful fruits of the tree, that woman might keep her figure that man found so fair.

And Satan brought forth ice cream and candy. And woman gained pounds.

And God said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil with which to cook them."

And Satan brought forth chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter.

And Man gained pounds and his bad cholesterol went through the roof.

And God said, "Behold, I have given you legs that can walk," And Man resolved to lose those extra pounds.

And Satan brought forth cable TV with remote control so Man would not have to toil to change channels between ESPN and ESPN2. And Man gained pounds.

And God said, "You're running up the score, Devil."

And God brought forth the potato, a vegetable naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition.

And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fat fried them. And he created sour cream dip also.

And Man clutched his remote control and ate the potato chips swaddled in cholesterol.

And Satan saw and said, "It is good."

And Man went into cardiac arrest.

And God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

And Satan created HMO's.....

Simple Spelt Pancakes

My wife and I just enjoyed an awesome breakfast
of 100% whole grain spelt pancakes, uncured
turkey bacon and fresh Jamaican blue mountain/
Hawaiian blend percolated coffee!

My wife was resistant at first for me to make
the pancakes. It is true, back before the diet
we rarely liked any pancakes we would attempt to
make at home.

But, I found this great spelt recipe and I had
high hopes for success so onward I marched. And
my stubbornness paid off.

Spelt has such a wonderful flavor and the grain
hasn't been modified a zillion times over the
last decade like wheat has, so it retains
so much more nutrition!

I am posting the spelt recipe I went by, and then
beneath I will post some changes I made to make it
a bit more YOAD friendly.

If anyone likes the recipe, give me a holler! :)

-----------------------------------------
Simple Spelt Pancakes

2 cups (7 ounces) whole spelt flour
(We used Arrowhead brand organic spelt flour)
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder (20 grams)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) milk
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)
Instructions

To make the pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the spelt flour,
sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the milk and melted butter, and the
vanilla if you’re using it. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients,
and pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir the batter just until the dry
ingredients are thoroughly moistened: it will seem very wet, but will thicken as
it sits. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes before you use it.

To make the pancakes: Heat a non-stick griddle if you have one, or a heavy skillet,
preferably cast iron. If your surface is not non-stick, brush it lightly with vegetable oil.

When the surface of your pan is hot enough that a drop of water sputters across the
surface, give the pan a quick swipe with a paper towel to eliminate excess oil,
and spoon the batter onto the hot surface, 1/4-cupful at a time.

Let the pancakes cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form around the
edges of the cakes, about 2 to 3 minutes. You may need to adjust your heat up or
down to get the pancakes to cook through without scorching the surface, or being
too pale. When the cakes are just beginning to set, flip them and let them
finish cooking on the second side, about 1 minute more, until they’re golden
brown on both sides.

To make them a little more YOAD friendly, we substituted 1 ounce of
pure peanut oil for the butter, 6 packs of Sweet N Low for the sugar and 1 3/4
cup of lite soy milk for the milk. You could use low fat milk if you like.
We also added a cap full of almond extract along with the vanilla.

2 years on YOAD - results :)

I have great news to share with everyone here.

For those that know me, I have been on YOAD for
nearly 2 years and have lost almost 140lbs
since starting the diet.

I had blood work done about 2 months before starting the
diet and I had some blood work done last week.

The change is very remarkable.

Before the diet (September 2006)
Triglycerides - 73
HDL - 43
LDL - 117
Total Cholesterol - 175
ldl/hdl ratio - 4.1
Fasting Glucose 100


And last week (August 2008)
Triglycerides - 47
HDL - 66
LDL - 70
ldl/hdl ratio - 2.2
Total Cholesterol - 145
Fasting Glucose 58

Wow! Its nice to know that not only can I see a huge
change on the outside, that there are excellent
changes on the inside, as well! :)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Keeping the weight off

I have been maintaining my weight for thr last 7 months
and from what I have been reading it can be difficult for
many people to maintain their weight for a prolonged amount of time.

I thought I would share some of the steps I take to
keep my weight where I want it.

I would like my weight to stay between 155lbs to 160lbs.
Actually, for the last 6 days I have been 156lbs which
is kinda weird because most weeks I fluctuate 2lbs or
so which is actually quite normal.

So, here are some tips for those looking to keeping
their weight where it is.

I keep a food journal everyday. I write down each
meal and all my snacks and keep my calories at about
2300 each day. If I exercise (usually walking) I
add the calories burned to the total and that's how
much I can eat that day. Like this morning I walked on
the treadmill for 25 minutes at 4.5mph. I burned about
170 calories. So for today I can have 2470 calories.

I also work a job where I have a desk although I don't
sit there too often as my job involves me walking around
a large building fixing computer issues. But, I
keep a bag of snacks at my desk and have something
small to eat once every hour. Usually about 100
calories but I have some that are 50 and some that
are 200. This keeps me from being hungry throughout the
work day. I have a small lunch which is normally
around 300 calories and I also have around 300 calories
for breakfast and I allot 800 calories for my dinners
and other snacks after work. This formula works
great for me and keeps me on the straight and narrow.

On the weekends I am not as strict and although I
don't write in the journal, I do keep a running
tab in my head at approx how many calories I have
consumed.

And of course, I already mentioned the exercise.
Don't forget, exercise not only gives you the ability
to eat more during the day, but also increases your
metabolism to help burn more calories at rest, and
helps build muscle that burn more calories overall
compared to fat.

And finally, I try to stay within what YOAD recommends
as far as what to eat. I have my 4 to 5 servings
of fruits and veggies, keep my healthy fat intake to
about 30% of my daily calories, 90% or more of the grains
I eat are 100% whole, avoid the partially hydrogenated oils,
keep the sugars low, keep the saturated fat low, stick
to turkey, chicken and sometimes bison, have fish as
often as I can and get some dark chocolate and
nuts or seeds in nearly everyday.

Good stuff!

YOAD and ethnic food.

For those familiar with my posts, I love telling
people how they can eat "normal" while staying on
the diet. After all, this is no longer a diet
to me. It's an ongoing lifestyle that I
follow everyday.

My wife and I used to eat out 60% or more
our meal each week. In this new lifestyle,
that number has been reduced to about 30%.
That still leaves a lot of meals to eat on
the run.

Some of the hardest places to find food
that fits YOAD are ethnic restaurants. Two
of our favorites used to be Tex-Mex and
Chinese. Until a week ago, we hadn't been
into a chinese place since first starting the
diet back in November '06.

Last week we went into a place recommended by
a friend because he had heard they had
a "diet friendly" menu. Just which diet
and how friendly we weren't sure. The place
is called "China in College Park" and is located
near downtown Orlando. I have to admit, the
food was awesome and VERY YOAD friendly.
The "diet menu" featured steamed chicken or
pork, steamed veggies, brown rice and sauces
on the side. WoW! So, I had some steamed
chicken with steamed broccoli and had the
garlic brown sauce on the side with a scoop
of brown rice. My wife had the same. we
also indulged in a cup of hot and sour soup
which is not all that bad as far as soups go.
We loved being able to control just how much
of the garlic sauce we added to our steamed
dishes. We added just enough to add flavor
without going overboard, oh maybe 3 tablespoons
fulls.

So now we have a Chinese place we can eat
and not feel like we are cheating. Kewl!

Tex-Mex, or Mexican, was also a place
we hadn't been to in a very long time.
In town there is a place called Tijuana Flats.
They brag that no transfats are ever used
to prepare any of their food, and they offer
whole wheat tortilla's in place of any taco
shell or white flour tortilla. We went
there tonight. We had three whole wheat
tortilla tacos each with grilled blackened chicken
topped with a little shredded cheddar
cheese, onions, jalapenos, lettuce
and tomatoes. They also have all these
different types of hot sauces that
we enjoy experimenting with and trying
on each visit. And, or course, you
have to add a serving a refried beans! :)
I've researched the whole refined bean
thing and most nutrtional websites
say they are healthy for the most part
in moderation. Since we visit them
once or maybe twice a month, that sounds
moderate to me :)

So, we now have our ethnic places
back in our lives, which is a good
thing! I know the YOU Docs stress
how important it is not to feel
deprived. And, after all this
time following YOAD, I hardly
ever feel deprived!

Papa John's Pizza Rules!

Last nite my wife and I were watching some TV
(after our workout {grin}) and we saw
a commercial for Papa John's Pizza
made with a 100% whole wheat crust!

Stop the presses! That is AWESOME!!

One of the hardest parts of adapting to
YOAD was giving up pizza from restaurants.

We have been making pizza at home using
100% whole wheat Boboli crust...and I have
to admit it's very tasty! But, its still
wasn't as good as the pizza from places
like Papa John's.

So, it just happened to be dinner time
when we saw the commercial so we hopped on
the phone and ordered a large cheese pizza
with onions, mushrooms and tomatoes with
the 100% whole wheat crust!

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm.
It was good! But, it was about 1100 calories
for 1/2 of the pizza. So next time we
will get a medium instead of a large which
will be about 800 calories for each half.

Up to now, the closest we could come to
having pizza out was from The California
Pizza Kitchen with their honey-wheat
crust. We found the ingredients listed
on the web and it looked about 50% whole
grain. We have had their pizza about 3 times
since starting the diet back in November, 2006.
And it is good. Just not 100% whole grain.

The funniest thing is that before the diet,
we rarely ordered Papa Johns. Our favorite
was either Hungry Howies or local New York
style pizza places. My wife also liked
Pizza Hut but not so much for me.

Speaking of Pizza Hut, if you have
looked up calories online, Pizza Hut
has the most calories for their
pizza than any other vendor. By a wide
margin! Dominoes has the least
(with their thin crust).

But, now Papa John has moved to the head
of the pack with their 100% whole wheat
crust!

And, it is VERY good for those of you
that are curious. We ordered ours
well done and it was perfect!

Pizza rules!

About HFCS

The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Just some FYI stuff :)

My Typical Day

5:15 - wake up
5:30 - treadmill 30 min medium incline average speed 3.7mph 200 calories burned
6:15 - breakfast -
2 egg beaters scrambled with olive oil Pam and two whole grain
waffles with sugar free syrup & sprinkled with ground chinese cinnamon.
eggs - 80 calories
Pam - 10 calories
waffles - 140 calories
syrup - 25 calories

Off to work

It was bring your chld to work day so we had rug rats running
around all day.

7:00 arrive at work - cup of joe
(I don't count calories for my coffee anymore. At work
I use sweet n low and no cream)
8:00 apple sauce snack cup unsweetened - 60 calories
9:00 "Special K" 90 calories peaches and cream bar - 90 calories

Not totally approved for the diet but it is one of the
things I have "allowed" all through the diet, It has
mostly whole grains, zero grams trans fat, and relatively
low in sugar considering they add real fruit.

10:00 medium banana - 125 calories
10:30 - One of the kids handed me a small bag of Peanut M&M's. I opened
the bag and ate half and gave half to a co-worker. It it wasn't for a kid
handing it to me and tryging to be friendly...... 30 calories
11:30 South Beach Diet brand Cranberry and Almond flavored
Granola Clusters. 130 calories.

I love South Beach diet stuff because it has NO transfat,
ONLY whole grains, and again relatively low
in sugar when consdering they add real fruit.

12:30 Lunch -
Sliced turkey sandwhich on 100% whole wheat bread
(no HFCS) with spicy brown mustard. - 200 calories
1 medium apple - 90 calories
1 Kozy Shack sugar-free (sweetened with Splenda) Apple Pie ala mode
flavored pudding cup - 70 calories
2:00 1.3 oz Dove dark chocolate candy bar - 190 calories
3:00 1 oz Lay's Lite potato chips (made with olestra) - 70 calories
4:00 1 oz Triscuit 100% whole wheat crackers - 140 calories
5:00 100 calorie snack pack Sun Chips (cheddar flavored) - 100 calories


No more snacks till I get home.

7:30 arrive home.
8:00 Dinner -
Baked chicken quarter white meat - 250 calories
Salad with Kraft Lite italian house dressing, sliced onions and
whole wheat crutons (Preperage Farms brand) - 125 calories
Birds Eye frozen Green Beans & Lightly Toasted Almonds (8 oz) - 160 calories
1 cup of Success brand pre-cooked brown rice (microwaved) - 180 calories

9:00 1 Ghirardelli dark chocolate square - 50 calories

Total net calories (subtracting 200 for my morning exercise) 2115 calories.

Coffee! :)

I drink, on average, probably about 2 cups of coffee per day.
Did you know that worldwide, coffee is the #2 most drank
beverage only behind water?

And coffee is loaded with antioxidents. And although coffee
isn't the absolute highest in antioxident levels, most Americans,
who consume on average of a little over 1.5 cups per day,
get most of their daily intake of antioxidents from coffee.

Here is a great article which gives more information.

Don't forget, the YOU Docs recommend coffee as part of
a healthy regiment for the YOU diet!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9105892/

Living YOAD

Maintaining my weight on YOAD is a different beast than losing weight on YOAD. I have been in maintenance mode now following YOAD since December, 2007. I started YOAD in November 2006 and I weighed about 290lbs. This past Christmas day I reached my target weight of 166lbs.

Losing weight is MUCH easier than maintaining. You reduce your calories, eat the right foods, do the exercise, or, just like on “The Biggest Loser” at the end of the week you won’t see the results you want on the scale or the measuring tape. Maintaining the weight means finding a balance of all the aforementioned things while not continuing to lose weight and not to start gaining the weight back.

Well, overall I give myself a B+ for trying to find the balance. I am now 159lbs so over the last 4 months I have still lost another 7lbs. I have slowly increased my calories and even have had a few more “cheat” days here and there (once a month instead of once every three months). But, I am no where near the “underweight” mark and I am still healthy and happy.

To be honest, I have been deathly afraid to increase my calories too much too fast. I can see myself so easily begin to overeat and put all that weight back on again. And, I don’t want to go back to being full after a meal. Sometimes I come home in the evenings and have a great, filling dinner and be totally satisfied and I realize I am 300 calories shy for the day. But, I do keep deserts in the house that are not YOAD but not crazy unhealthy, either. Like soy milk ice cream bars that are 100 calories and have 9 sugars. But still no hydrogenated oils or HFCS. I might grab one of those along with an apple for desert and enjoy the rest of my evening.

So, as I have already said, I don’t have that pressure on my anymore to lose weight and that has opened up a few doors for me that were closed during the weight loss phase. I find myself not as over worried about having something small off the diet. Where I work EVERYONE has some kind of candy at their desks. Mini Snickers bars, M&M’s, mini Reese’s cups, Life Savers, Laffy Taffy….the list goes on. On overage, I may take 2 or 3 pieces of candy per week. Last week I was really good and took none. It varies. But I don’t sweat over it. This past week was really bad because they had a BIG company luncheon last Friday and they brought in these HUGE cupcakes from Sam’s club…about 500 calories per cupcake at least, and they bought too much. They kept some in the fridge and broke out one new box each day this week and had them in the break rooms and on a couple of desks throughout the building. Yesterday I was sooooo tempted to have one. But, I didn’t and I was a good boy. I opted for a banana instead and that satisfied the sweet tooth.

I have also found other ways to be smart on the diet without going overboard. My wife is also on YOAD but she is still losing weight. She has lost about 70lbs so far but wants to lose about 40lbs more. One of the things we have continued to enjoy on the diet has been fried foods. Cooking at home we use 100% pure peanut oil and we take into account the extra calories the oil provides. Typically, you can add 50 calories per serving of whatever you are cooking and that is the true calories taking in any oil absorbed by the food. Of course, it can vary with how long its cooked and what you are cooking, but 50 calories is very close to what it’s going to be and that is what my wife and I always use. And we still don’t fry all that often. We do, however, LOVE fried fish. Recently, we found a great English restaurant near our house that makes the best fish and chips. They use haddock which is my #1 favorite fish! But, the serving sizes are outrages. So, about once a month we allow ourselves the little treat and go there and we split a dinner and get an extra plate. Doing that we have a nice meal, about 900 calories each including the dinner salad we order, and we get to enjoy some good food.

We have to live. We don’t want to be in a bubble and be so rigid that we can’t enjoy small pleasures like that. But, we are smart about going about it and not going crazy. YOAD allows us to live longer but we want to live while living.

Okay, I have ranted enough. I just wanted to share this and get this down on paper while it was in my head.

Hey Chris!

Thanx for your message! :)

I am still here and kicking. Just working a lot which makes
it hard to find time to post here.

Yeah, I think I have found a good balance of exercise, food
and maintaining my weight.

Right now I am hovering between 160lbs and 165lbs and I am
happy there.

I'm more relaxed with the diet but I still follow it
about 90% of the time or more. I am less worried if I
have a small bite-sized piece of candy at work or
a small slice of regular pizza. But, its still not
often...just enough to enjoy my new lifestyle without
undoing what I spent all those months working towards.

It's a balance like anything else.

We still find new things to make on the diet. I recently
discovered lettuce wraps. I take a nice lettuce leaf
and plop some tuna salad or turkey and mustard into it
and fold/wrap it up and pop it in my mouth. Mmmmmm Good! :)

I am doing the treadmill for 30 minutes in the morning
at least 5 days a week, and I do a lot of walking at my
job so I am still getting in my exercise.

This morning I was 162lbs :)

I also started keeping a food journal which helps me make
sure I am getting my 3 servings of fruit, my whole grains
and other good stuff I should be getting each day. My calorie
intake is about 2100 (net) per day.

I'll try to keep the blog updated more often.

Thanx for checking in and you take care!! Respond
back and let me know how things are going with you :)

-- Marshall

Lettuce Wraps!

Right down the street from where
I work, a new pita and salad
place went in. It's called "Mr Pita".

Unfortunately, they have no
whole wheat pitas on the menu
which was a downer for me at first.
Then, I saw on their menu "low carb
lettuce wraps".

I had one last night and it was
spectacular!! Mmmmmmm!

They take 2 good size leaves of
romaine, wrap your fixins
(I had smoked turkey, swiss cheese,
yellow mustard, onions and tomatoes)
in one of the leaves like a taco,
then roll that leaf upside down
into the next leaf and make another
taco.

It was so good, last night I got
my own head of romaine and made
myself a tuna salad lettuce
wrap for lunch today using the same
tecnique. It's gonna be yummy :)

Good health to everyone :)

Featured on "TheWeighWeWere.com"

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a week.

Here is a link to my story on their site!

Check it out!


My Featured Story

Great YOAD breakfast!

My wife and I had a wonderful YOAD approved
breakfast this morning I wanted to share!

For Christmas I bought my wife and I a waffle maker.
It makes waffles shaped in oblong boat type looking
things :)

What's great is that we can put sliced fruit in the boat
and have that as a topping for the waffle.

The waffles were made with a whole grain waffle mix that
has just whole wheat flour and buckwheat flour. To that
we add one beat up egg (we're mean - LOL), one tablespoon
real maple syrup, 2 tablespoons pure peanut oil, 1 cup
lite soy milk, some ground cinnamon and one teaspoon of
vanilla extract.

The waffle maker is great at making the waffles crispy and
delicious! We then added some fresh sliced strawberries and
sliced bananas into the boat and then topped it off with
some whipped cream and some additional ground cinnamon!
The whipped topping is fat free with no HFCS and has just
1 gram of sugar per serving! Very YOAD friendly.

We also made some orgnic turkey bacon and some hot, fresh
coffee! MMMmmmmm!

Daily Report (12-26-07)

Piece of dark chocolate, mini whole wheat bagel,
smart balance cream cheese, banana, coffee,
cashews & almonds, whole wheat pretzel,
whole wheat chicken veggie wrap, apple sauce,
lowfat cheese bar, piece of dark chocolate,
sugar free lemon italian ice cup, pringles
potato chips, dinner salad, whole wheat pizza,
pineapple