Cabbage Noodle Salad

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients for dressing:

• 3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
  
  


• 3 tablespoons vinegar
  
  


• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
  


• 1 ramen noodle seasoning package
  
  


• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  
  


• ¼ teaspoon pepper
  
  

Ingredients for salad:

• 1 package ramen noodles, crushed
  
  


• 1 small head red or green cabbage (or ½ of each)
  
  


• 1 carrot, peeled and grated
  
  


• 2 green onions, chopped
  
  

Preparation:

• Make dressing: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until sugar dissolve.
  
  


• Combine the first three salad ingredients, toss well. Add crushed ramen noodles and dressing to salad and toss again.
  
  


• Serve right away or cover and refrigerate to allow the flavors to blend.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (170 g)): 180 Calories, 3 g Protein, 22 g carbohydrates, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 10 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 360 mg sodium

Beet Salad

(makes 8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
  
  


• 3 cups shredded/grated red cabbage
  
  


• 1½ cups peeled, shredded/grated red beets
  
  


• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
  
  


• 1 large apple, grated
  
  


• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
  
  


• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  
  


• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
  
  


• ¼ teaspoon salt, to taste
  
  


• ¼ teaspoon pepper, to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• In a medium-sized bowl, mix the apple, vinegar, brown sugar, and spices.
  
  


• Heat the vegetable oil in a large-sized skillet. Stir fry the onion and cabbage until they just start to get soft.
  
  


• Add the beets and the apple/vinegar mixture, cooking it for about 1 minute or until the beets and apple are just hot.
  
  


• Cool in refrigerator overnight and serve cold, or serve hot right away (Season with salt and pepper).
  
  

Make 8 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(⅛ of recipe (114 g)): 85 Calories, 1 g Protein, 14 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 4 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 44 mg sodium

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part IV

What is Food Reward?

After reading comments on my recent posts, I realized I need to do a better job of defining the term "food reward".  I'm going to take a moment to do that here.  Reward is a psychology term with a specific definition: "a process that reinforces behavior" (1).  Rewarding food is not the same thing as food that tastes good, although they often occur together. 

Read more »

Asparagus Salad with Lemon Soy Vinaigrette

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1-¼ lbs asparagus cut diagonally into 1-½” pieces
  
  


• 10 scallions, trimmed with some green
  
  


• 1 scallion, chopped
  
  


• 1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
  
  


• ¼ tsp fresh ginger, grated
  
  


• ½ cup non-fat, reduced sodium chicken broth
  
  


• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  
  


• 1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
  
  


• ½ tsp sugar
  
  


• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  
  


• 1 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  
  

Preparation:

• In a steam basket, steam asparagus and scallions over boiling water until asparagus is crisp-tender (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and rinse with cold water in a colander to stop the cooking. Drain and let cool.
  
  


• Make the vinaigrette: Heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a small-sized saucepan. Add ginger and cook until it begins to brown. Add the reserved chopped scallion and cook for about 15 seconds then stir in the chicken broth, vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Remove from heat and set aside.
  
  


• Toss steamed asparagus and scallions with the vinaigrette in a large-sized bowl then add ground pepper and lemon juice then serve.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (221 g)): 84 Calories, 5 g Protein, 10 g carbohydrates, 4 g Dietary Fiber, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 362 mg sodium

Protein Supplements

Not long ago a my friend must on a diet because she felt she had started to overweight. I think she's not starting, but already overweight.

We had a long conversation that afternoon, and I was drawn to tell a “little” content of our conversation. Especially regarding the use of protein supplements. People started talking about this topic lately. You also know, right?

My friend said that the protein supplements can take place of a snack or even her meal. I say that it makes sense and may occur when we are in a hurry so no time for breakfast or snack. We can treat it as a meal replacement. But I think we still need “real meal”.

Easy to prepare and extremely affordable is another thing that we can get from protein supplements. Easy to prepare must be very tempting for people who are very busy.

They still can maintain the level of the protein as sources of energy to go throughout the day, and to cover the lower amounts of protein because less food is eaten during their diet.
This is the most important reason when my friend decided to use a protein supplements.

But it's not some magical pill that will cause fat loss itself (NO such thing), it only help our body get everything required of it. Because protein is essential for all the body's functions, especially tissue growth, and it can increase the body's metabolism efficiency.

And finally we need to think about is a close relationship between protein and weight loss

The more active we are, the more protein we need.
If you consume more protein than your body really need, you risk several negative consequences (gain mass, etc).

Everyone knows about this theory. Stay put it in your mind.

Just a little advice
Use your common sense and consult your doctor if you have any doubts about a particular supplement.

Happy in Seattle...sort of

Maybe "happy" is an exaggeration, but at least I'm not heartsick. Well, not totally anyway.

My heartsick post stemmed from me losing my two best buddies at work, both in the same week. Next week they're both moving to different teams. They'll still be on the same floor, and they'll still be my friends, but it will be different. Right now I know these two guys always have my back. I won't have that anymore.

Life goes on and since there's really nothing I can do about this situation, I have to get over it. I'm trying my best to stay positive, but it hasn't been easy. In my almost 28 years with my company, I've worked in several different areas and different cities. I've always had at least one and often two or three "best" friends at work. You know the kind of people I'm talking about. The kind where you can vent, and that you can trust 100%. The people that make you laugh when you feel like crying because you're so stressed out on your job. The people that are always there for you. Well, that's gone now. Even as I type this I feel the tears starting again (dammit anyway!).

Of course there will be new people, but I have this really strange feeling that it won't be the same. In fact, I'm positive it won't be the same. There are reasons I can't discuss here, but I know the new folks won't be my best friends, and they won't have my back. Oh well, that's life, right? It's painful to accept, but like I said, it's just the way things roll. It can't be "fixed".

Moving on to the issue at hand
My biggest problem right now (outside of me boohooing about my work situation), is my weight. Another dammit anyway topic. I didn't weigh this morning, but yesterday I was 187.8. Ouch! This is totally not where I want to be, and I don't know how to stop this roller coaster I'm on.

I'm not eating junk, I'm just continuing with eating too much of the healthy foods. It's all healthy. Fresh fruits and vegetables, baked or broiled chicken breasts and fish or shrimp, whole grain bread, Fage 0% yogurt, 2% cheese in very limited quantities (28 grams a day). That's pretty much all I eat, but I EAT TOO MUCH.

Every day starts out great. A great workout at the gym (almost every day, at least I'm still doing this right). A great breakfast, a great lunch, an afternoon snack, usually yogurt and fruit. Even dinner is usually healthy and a small portion. But I'm back to eating at night, late night.

I'm pretty sure this recent stint of night eating is because when I try to sleep I think about work. I can feel myself start to get upset and not wanting to think about it, but I can't shut my brain off. I wind up getting out of bed and grazing, and my grazing usually racks up about 500 calories or more. Last night it was three slices of Dave's Killer bread at 110 calories each (I need to stop buying this stuff because it too good), two bananas  and a cup of 1% milk, then later a giant bowl of fresh strawberries (the best strawberries ever). That's probably about 700 calories that was over my normal approximately 1500 calories. And I had the wise idea to skip the gym yesterday morning.

I really don't know how to get a grip on this out of control eating. I'm not eating junk, but I am eating way too much food. It's making me crazy that I feel so lost and out of control.

I guess "happy in Seattle" should probably have been titled "hopeless in Seattle".

Asian Chicken Salad

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked chicken, skin removed, thinly sliced
  
  


• 4 cups cabbage, shredded
  
  


• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
  
  


• 1 cup carrots, grated
  
  


• 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
  
  


• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
  
  


• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
  
  


• 1 mandarin orange or tangerine, divided into sections
  
  


• ½ cup no-fat Asian or Oriental-style salad dressing
  
  


• Black pepper
  
  

Preparation:

• Combine chicken, cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, cilantro, cucumber, and dressing. Toss well in a large-sized bowl.
  
  


• Top with green onions and tangerine sections. Pepper to taste.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (301 g)): 218 Calories, 25 g Protein, 14 g carbohydrates, 4 g Dietary Fiber, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 60 mg cholesterol, 392 mg sodium