Sweet Potato Cookies

(makes 24 cookies)

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups flour
  
  


• ¼ tsp salt
  
  


• ½ cup unsalted butter or margarine
  
  


• 1½ tsp baking powder
  
  


• ½ tsp baking soda
  
  


• ¼ cup sugar
  
  


• 1 tsp nutmeg
  
  


• ¼ cup honey
  
  


• 1 tbsp grated lemon peel
  
  


• 1 medium egg, room temperature, slightly beaten
  
  


• 1 cup grated, raw sweet potatoes
  
  

Preparation:

• In the medium-sized bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  
  


• In a large-sized mixing bowl, cream butter the sugar
  
  


• Mix in lemon peel, nutmeg, honey, and egg. Then stir in the grated sweet potatoes.
  
  


• Blend the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture.
  
  


• Place rounded teaspoonfuls of the cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving about 1½ inches between them
  
  


• Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for about minutes or until lightly browned.. Remove cookies from sheet and put on a cooling rack.
  
  

Make 24 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1 cookie (32 g)): 110 Calories, 2 g Protein, 16 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 4 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 19 mg cholesterol, 95 mg sodium

Free App for LivingAfterWLS Neighborhood

(by Scoop - LivingAfterWLS Technical Administrator)

If you have an Apple device then we have the app for you.
You can download the app to run any Invision message board, including this Neighborhood. Here is what you do.

Login to your Apple iTunes account and go to this link: IP Board Communities

Download the app. Then select the Neighborhood from the directory and take it from there.
 

Blue Monday

I'm not in a happy place this morning. There are many reasons:

1. Still no sign of Hank (see yesterday's post below). Each time I check the live animal traps for him (three times in the last 12 hours, I feel my heart sink. I just can't believe this dog has gone through so much, was lucky enough to get adopted by a loving family in Taiwan, then loses everyone in a house fire. Then lucky enough to get shipped to the United States so he doesn't wind up on someones dinner table in Taiwan, and gets adopted immediately here in the States. Then this happens. He's lost ten minutes after being in his new home. It just breaks my heart.

2. I had an emergency call at midnight for a work problem. After fixing it I tossed and turned for what seem like forever. I was hungry (of course). I finally got up and ate strawberries with real whip cream (in a can but it's the real stuff, not light, and I ate a lot of it). I think I finally fell asleep around 2am with the alarm going off at 4:30am. I had to check Hank's traps at 5am then go to the gym. Of course the traps were empty.

3. My gym workout was lackluster to say the least. Probably because I'm so tired. I used the five-minute rule six times while I was on the Crossramp. Seriously, every five minutes I'd tell myself just five more minutes then I can leave. It was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Afterwards I did upper body weights which normally I love. I didn't seem to have any strength. It's like someone pulled the plug on my energy. After only four exercises (3 sets each), I gave up. Normally I do a minimum of six different exercises, three sets each. I just didn't have it in me this morning.

4. I have my performance review today at work It's not something I'm looking forward to. Especially because I'm so tired, and I never take constructive criticism well even under the best of circumstances. Given how I feel right now I'll probably wind up in tears.

5. It's snowing giant snowflakes right now. Thirty-five degrees with gray skies. Normally I love snow, but it makes me sad to think of poor Hank out there, alone, cold, hungry and scared.

I know all this will pass and everything will be okay. No one is going to give up on Hank. I probably won't get fired from my job. So I had a bad workout this morning, it happens.

I'm sure tomorrow will be a better day (heck, can't get much worse than how I feel right now).

Mediterranean Fruit Parfait

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup 1% milk
  
  


• ½ cup non-fat sour cream
  
  


• ½ cup plain or lemon low-fat yogurt
  
  


• ⅓ cup couscous (preferably whole wheat)
  
  


• 1 tbsp honey
  
  


• 1 tsp lemon zest
  
  


• ½ cup strawberries, hulled and sliced
  
  


• ½ cup fresh raspberries
  
  


• ¼ cup dates, chopped
  
  


• ½ cup fresh blueberries
  
  


• ½ cup sliced nectarines
  
  

Preparation:

• Bring milk to a boiling then stir in couscous in a medium-sized saucepan. Simmer, covered for 1 minute then remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let stand 1 minute.
  
  


• Combine sour cream, yogurt, lemon zest and honey in a small-sized bowl. Add couscous and mix well.
  
  


• Combine fruit in a separate bowl.
  
  


• Using 6 clear glasses, layer the bottom of each with fruit followed by a layer of the couscous mixture, then another layer of fruit.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (139 g)): 133 Calories, 5 g Protein, 27 g carbohydrates, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 1 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 4 mg cholesterol, 47 mg sodium

Chasing Hank

Meet Hank, a two-year old, 35-pound Formosan Mountain Dog:

I spent most of my weekend volunteering with a dog rescue group, Saving Great Animals, trying to track down Hank in my neighborhood.

This poor dog has the saddest story, but I'm praying for a happy ending. He's from Taiwan and has only been in the United States for five days. He is one of forty dogs rescued from Taiwan. Hank's breed, the Formosan Mountain dog, and the fact that he's solid black, put him at high risk to become dog meat in Taiwan. In 2004 the Taiwanese government made selling dog meat illegal, but of course, people still do it. The Formosan is a favorite, and an all black dog is considered a delicacy.

Hank was a beloved family pet in Taiwan until a recent tragedy. His family's house burned down, and all of his family died in the fire. Somehow Hank got out of the house, and was sent to the Saving Great Animals sister shelter in Taipei. They wanted to get him out of Taiwan since he's solid black. The risk of someone eating him was too high. I don't know about you, but this just horrifies me.

Hank was picked up at the airport five days ago by his new foster mom. He'd just flown in on a flight from Taiwan. She said he has the sweetest personality and played with her dog (a rescue from Mexico that I fell in love with). Hank even let her two-year old pet him.

Two days after Hank's arrival, he was adopted by friends of his foster mom. This is where we should have a happy ending. Unfortunately, more tragedy struck. Within ten minutes of having Hank in their house, the new owners accidentally let him in the garage with the garage door open. Hank has been on the run for three days, in the coldest weather on record in Seattle (in the teens at night).

Last night there was a sighting about a mile from my house, so we searched from 9pm until 2:30am. We finally gave up and went home. This morning there was another sighting a half block from my house. I ran over to where Hank was spotted, and met the guy that had seen him. There's a huge reward for this dog so the guy was really trying to help us find him. No luck.

About two hours later a lady called and said he was in her yard. It was a fenced yard about a half mile from my house. There were eight of us, including a woman from Pet Partnerhip, a searh and rescue for lost pets group. She had a snare pole and was using her own dog as a "magnet" dog, to be used to lure Hank over to her so she can collar him. Unfortunately Hank freaked out. We ran after him, but we couldn't catch him. I was in tears. I couldn't believe we were so close to catching him, and he got away from us.

The rescue folks finally decided to set live animal traps for him, with food inside. One is a block from my house and the other one about 1/2 mile. They have to be checked every two to five hours. I hope we catch him.

The new owners that let Hank escape aren't going to be able to adopt him. They're not fit to be dog parents. I know they must feel awful, but they haven't helped us at all to try and find Hank, and their mistake was pretty big.

Send a little prayer out for Hank. :)

Back to my regularly scheduled program, weight loss
I attended my Weight Watchers meeting Saturday, and I weighed in at 182.6. Not fantastic. Heck, not good at all, but what I failed to mention is about ten days ago I saw 187.0 on my home scales. That was the first thing in the morning, naked. At Weight Watchers I had clothes on (I'm pretty sure you already knew that). I'm going in the right direction, but I still have a really long way to go.

Saturday night after walking around in the freezing cold until the wee hours of the morning, I came home starving to death. I had purchased a box of two-Point Lemon Mousse Pie bars at my meeting (never again). I ate the entire box when I got home. I think there were ten, at 70 calories each.

I was furious with myself afterwards. I'd spent an hour at the gym earlier in the day, 30 minutes StairMaster and 30 minutes crossramp. One hour of high intensity cardio. Then I'd traipsed through the woods for five hours looking for Hank. I burned a lot of calories but not enough to compensate for a 700- calorie binge.

What can I say? Not much. I started over today, again. So far, so good but it's only 9pm. I have to go check Hank's traps before I can go to bed. I'm totally exhausted from this weekend. It ws physically and emotionally challenging.

Lime and Watermelon Granita

(makes 6-8 servings)

Ingredients:

• ½ cup fresh limes juiced
  
  


• ½ cup water
  
  


• ¼ cup sugar
  
  


• 4 cups cubed seedless watermelon
  
  

Preparation:

• Bring water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.
  
  


• Using a blender, purée the watermelon.
  
  


• Stir in the watermelon, sugar-water and lime juice in a medium bowl.
  
  


• Pour watermelon mixture into a 11 x 7-inch baking dish, cover and freeze at least 3 hours.
  
  


• Remove from freezer, let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
  
  


• Scrape the entire mixture with a fork until crystals are fluffy. Serve in chilled glasses or bowls.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (147 g)): 73 Calories, 1 g Protein, 19 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 6 mg sodium

How to Lose 20 Pounds in 29 Days Without Fad Diets, Pills and the Gym

It is well documented that the incidence of human obesity has been increasing steadily with each generation since about the time of the industrial revolution. As societies became more specialized, with constant advances in the fields of science, technology and agriculture, we became increasingly fatter. In addition, we now have alarming rates of child obesity essentially in all Western cultures