Tiramisù

(makes 12 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups coffee (strength according to your desire)
  
  


• 4 tbsp coffee-flavored liqueur (i.e. Kahlúa)
  
  


• 3½ oz. mascarpone cheese
  
  


• 8 oz. fat free cream cheese
  
  


• ⅓ cup packed brown sugar
  
  


• ¼ cup white sugar
  
  


• 24 ladyfingers
  
  


• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  
  

Preparation:

• Combine 2 tbsp of the coffee-flavored liqueur and the coffee in a medium bowl.
  
  


• Combine the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, 2 tbsp liqueur, white and brown sugars in a separate medium bowl. Beat until well.
  
  


• Dip the ladyfingers in the coffee mixture, then line them in one layer of an 8” square pan. Spread half of the cheese mixture on top of the ladyfingers, repeat with the remaining ladyfingers and cheese mixture. Sprinkle with cocoa.
  
  


• Stick a few toothpicks in the dessert, then cover with plastic wrap
  
  


• Chill in refrigerator for about 3-4 hours.
  
  

Make 12 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(2 ladyfingers (63 g)): 178 Calories, 6 g Protein, 25 g carbohydrates, 0 g Dietary Fiber, 5 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 91 mg cholesterol, 163 mg sodium

Best Day Ever!! (Hank and me updates)

After four crazy, emotional roller coaster days of searching for Hank, posting signs, checking the live animal traps, I received the following email this afternoon:

BEST DAY EVER!! Hank has been caught! We can’t believe our eyes and there are plenty of tears from this exhausting long haul. The work is not done yet, as off to the vet he goes.  He is tired, dehydrated, scared and hungry.  But he is alive.

We have paid the homeowner a reward (which they made sure to ask for!) and Vashti and Jessica are ready to take him to the vet.

We will keep you posted through the day and send a picture. We are not done thanking you ALL!

A happy ending!

Me update
It turns out that setting a goal of losing ten pounds in three weeks was kind of stupid. I know when I put crazy deadlines on myself they backfire in my face, so I don't know why I do this. It never works. You know the definition of insanity, well, that's me...insane.

My food has been pretty good, but not good enough to lose weight (I'm down a couple pounds to 180, but that's not the number I wanted to see). I've been eating very healthy food, but my portions are too large. Same old story with me. I eat too much of the good stuff.

Exercise is rocking. Today was a pure cardio day. I do those about once a week, where I only do cardio and no weights.

Thirty minutes at a steady pace on the StairMaster, 121 floors, average step rate 68. Thirty minutes on the stationary bike. At lunch I went over the Sea-Tac Doubletree. Fourteen floors from the basement to the top. Each jaunt up was 225 steps. I did it four times, or 900 steps. The Big Climb is 1,311 steps.

After 14 floors I had to turn around and go back down the stairs, back to the first floor, then start over. So I get a break every 14 floors. It was still hard. The first time it wasn't bad, second time a little bit more difficult, third time, ouch, it's hurting me. Fourth time, OMG I'm going to die! No way can I climb 69 floors non-stop.

My co-worker that's done the Big Climb three times in the last three years keeps telling me it's a mind game. He said it's really 70% mental and 30% physical. If your mind believes you can do it, then you can do it. I know today my mind kept saying 'you are so screwed Diana!'. If only I'd lost that 20 pounds or even 10 pounds, this would have been so much easier.

Since I can't lose a lot of weight at this point (only 18 days left!), I'm going to focus on the exercise. I'll continue my gym workouts as usual, adding in the exercise bike more often since it's good for the quads and quads are good for the stairs, and add in a daily DoubleTree stair workout during lunch. I also need to focus more on my core, a strong core is good for climbing stairs.

Mind over matter, mind over matter. Yes, I can do this!

Black Bean and Cabbage Stew

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
  
  


• 1 white part of leek, chopped
  
  


• 1 large chopped onion
  
  


• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  
  


• 1 tbsp paprika
  
  


• 2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
  
  


• 1 ¼ lbs. chopped potatoes
  
  


• 14 oz. can black beans
  
  


• 3½ cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  
  


• 6 oz. shredded cabbage
  
  


• Salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• Heat olive oil in a large-size saucepan. Add leek and onion and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add garlic and paprika and continue to sauté for about 2 minutes.
  
  


• Add thyme, potatoes, black beans and vegetable broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are cooked through (about 10 minutes).
  
  


• Add cabbage and season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (570 g)): 425 Calories, 16 g Protein, 72 g carbohydrates, 14 g Dietary Fiber, 9 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 2 mg cholesterol, 983 mg sodium

Sweet Potato Custard

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked sweet potatoes, mashed
  
  


• 1 cup evaporated skim milk
  
  


• 2 egg, slightly beaten
  
  


• 2 tbsp packed brown sugar
  
  


• ½ cup mashed banana
  
  


• 1 tbsp sugar
  
  


• ¼ cup raisins
  
  


• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  
  


• ½ tsp salt
  
  

Preparation:

• Stir together sweet potato and banana in a medium bowl. Add milk, blending well. Add brown sugar, eggs, and salt, mixing thoroughly.
  
  


• Transfer mixture to a non-stick one quart casserole pan.
  
  


• Combine cinnamon, sugar and raisins; sprinkle over top of sweet potato mixture.
  
  


• Bake at 300 degree F oven about 45 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (114 g)): 149 Calories, 5 g Protein, 29 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 2 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 72 mg cholesterol, 252 mg sodium

Oltipraz

Oltipraz is a drug that was originally used to treat intestinal worms. It was later found to prevent a broad variety of cancers (1). This was attributed to its ability to upregulate cellular detoxification and repair mechanisms.

Researchers eventually discovered that oltipraz acts by activating Nrf2, the same transcription factor activated by ionizing radiation and polyphenols (2, 3, 4). Nrf2 activation mounts a broad cellular protective response that appears to reduce the risk of multiple health problems.

A recent paper in Diabetologia illustrates this (5). Investigators put mice on a long-term refined high-fat diet, with or without oltipraz. These carefully crafted diets are very unhealthy indeed, and when fed to rodents they rapidly induce fat gain and something that looks similar to human metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance, abdominal adiposity, blood lipid disturbances). Adding oltipraz to the diet prevented the fat gain, insulin resistance and inflammatory changes that occurred in the refined high-fat diet group.

The difference in fasting insulin was remarkable. The mice taking oltipraz had 1/7 the fasting insulin of the refined high-fat diet comparison group, and 1/3 the fasting insulin of the low-fat comparison group! Yet their glucose tolerance was normal, indicating that they were not low on insulin due to pancreatic damage. The low-fat diet they used in this study was also refined, which is why the two control groups (high-fat and low-fat) didn't diverge more in body fatness and other parameters. If they had used a group fed unrefined rodent chow as the comparator, the differences between groups would have been larger.

This shows that in addition to preventing cancer, Nrf2 activation can attenuate the metabolic damage caused by an unhealthy diet in rodents. Oltipraz illustrates the power of the cellular hormesis response. We can exploit this pathway naturally using polyphenols and other chemicals found in whole plant foods.

March Coupon Code: LivingAfterWLS General Store

Coupon Code: SPRING2011
LivingAfterWLS and Kaye Bailey are pleased you have chosen to make us part of your long-term success with weight loss surgery. We are committed to supporting you with quality products to enhance your life and empower your success.


Shop Now and Save!
Coupon Code: SPRING2011
SAVE $2 On All Orders!
No Minimum Purchase

Shop Now!

Click to go to Store

Obesity be Damned!

LivingAfterWLS 5 Day Pouch Test Bulletin - March 2010
Below is the opening article from today's 5 Day Pouch Test Bulletin. Click the link above to read the Bulletin in its entirety.


Greetings Neighbors!
Can you feel it? I'm on the edge of my seat just knowing and believing that Spring must be right around the corner. Winter for most of the Northern Hemisphere has been long, dark and cold.