The Next Hundred Pounds

BEAUTY FLUFF

A while back, a friend introduced me to a fun website called Influenster. Basically, you can register with them and earn badges in a variety of interest areas, if you are someone who uses social media or blogs a lot. They send boxes of free, full-sized samples based on your badges, with the hopes that you will review products and talk or write about them. So yeah, it's a form of advertising.

Well, it sounded like fun, and you get free stuff. Sign me up. I got my first VoxBox in June, and this is really the first chance I've had to write about it, though I have been using the products. I received the following goodies:

Meaningful Beauty by Cindy Crawford - Complete Skincare Kit
Garden Botanika - Anti-Aging Lip Treatment
Pure Silk - Raspberry Shaving Cream
Montagne Jeunesse - Green Tea Face Mask
Diamancel - Diamond Flexible Nail File
Softsoap - Pampered Hands Foaming Soap

This isn't a beauty blog, but I do occasionally write about fashion and I do occasionally review products, so why not a little foray into beauty? I haven't tried the nail file, but here are my thoughts on the other items.

Softsoap Pampered Hands Foaming Soap -- this is a pleasant, light, raspberry scent. It foams, it cleans your hands, it's in one of those convenient little bottles you can put right next to the sink. What else is there to say? It's a fine product. Me, I buy my cheap handsoap in bulk from Sam's Club and put it in attractive dispensers. It's all about the packaging.

Montagne Jeunesse Green Tea Face Mask --- this is a light gel mask. I prefer clay masks, and this one had an oppressively strong scent. It did peel off easily and left my skin feeling smooth.

Pure Silk Raspberry Shaving Cream --- I don't normally use shaving cream, but I have to admit --- not only does this smell nice, but it really did give me a closer shave and made my legs feel deliciously silky and smooth. Perhaps I should change my mind.

Garden Botanika Anti-Aging Lip Treatment --- At this stage in the game, I'm pretty much a sucker for anything that could slow the march of time across my face. My lips are not one of the problem areas, but I like to put a lil' somethin'-somethin' on them at bedtime. This is a thick, clear, unscented gel which comes in a little pot. It is quite greasy, not unlike Vaseline, but thicker. I think it would be great for winter, and perhaps applied over lipstick with a brush, but it's a little much for summertime. As for its anti-aging properties, honestly, I can't see any difference after using it for several weeks.

Meaningful Beauty by Cindy Crawford ---  these are nice products, all unscented.  The cleanser is mild and does a good job of removing everything except eye makeup, leaving your skin feeling soft and clean. The Antioxidant Day Creme has an SPF of 20 --- I prefer higher --- but is very light and won't leave you feeling goopy. The Anti-Aging Night Creme has almost a whipped consistency, but very creamy without feeling heavy. There's a nice decolletage creme, an eye-lifting cream (which doesn't address my main issue, dark circles, and after several weeks of use, I see no particular change to the eye area), and my favorite, the Wrinkle Smoothing Capsules. I am more of a sagger than a wrinkler, and I mainly like these because of the consistency of the product. It's a powdery gel that goes on very smoothly, similar to my favorite primers, and it just feels good. I see no change to the wrinkles I do have. The kit also includes a nice, light clay mask and a small bottle of "glowing serum" which is just moisturizer infused with light-reflecting particles --- a product of which I am a big fan, as it really does seem to give your skin a glow, but this one comes in a tiny bottle and I think I can do better, price-wise, with my usual Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer, which also has an SPF and can be used as a light base.The kit price isn't bad, either: about $40 plus S&H for all the products; but you have to order them online or through one of her infomercials, and my guess is if you use it all regularly you'd need to reorder once a month.

Conclusion: all pretty nice stuff, especially the Cindy Crawford, nothing that rocks my world. But then I'm sort of a curmudgeon.

Aside from playing with beauty products and going to a costume fitting and rehearsal this evening, I'm enjoying another much-needed very quiet day. Running on adrenaline for so long, you don't realize until you stop how exhausted you really are. So one more day off, and then I plan to start those workouts up again.

The good thing about being 20 miles from stores of any kind is that you don't make any late-night ice cream runs ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This isn't a beauty blog, but I do occasionally write about fashion, so why not a little foray into beauty products? 

 

HEAVING MYSELF BACK ONLINE

At last the scheduling gods are smiling on me, and after a very hectic weekend with my opera troupe (who did a fantastic job under some very trying circumstances!), several students canceled today, and we don't have our usual rehearsal tonight. So not only did I get to enjoy a non-rushed morning at home, but I get to go home at a reasonable hour. And this means that I can start P90X today instead of tomorrow as planned.

I have already begun the nutrition program, which is very well done. They offer you three options: a portion plan, a menu plan, and a "quick" plan for people who don't really cook and do most of their eating at fast food places or on the fly. All three are quite useful, practical, and easy. I have chosen to start with the portion plan, because of its simplicity. It doesn't require any cooking, really, and right now I don't have the time and energy to do much cooking; plus, I really feel the best thing is to eat very simple foods. I did more of this when I first started, following Dr. Walter Willett's Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy plan; and it worked very well. Also, I believe this is really the best way to eat on a daily basis. Fancy meals, dinners out, desserts --- these should be occasional treats rather than the standard.

The P90X portion plan is similar to the Weight Watchers' points system, but it's even simpler because there are relatively few food choices. You're told how many portions of each food group to eat each day, and how much of each food is a portion.

There are also three different phases to the P90X plan; the first is called Fat Shredder (I like the sound of that!) and is a very high-protein, low-carb plan of about 1800 calories per day. Again, quite similar to what I was doing early on; but with a significant difference: extremely limited food choices. This makes the program a bit stringent for anyone who is starting out. It wouldn't have worked for me in the beginning because of the critical psychological component. I  needed to take ownership of my eating and that meant not limiting choices --- only when and how much and how often I would have any given item. Now, I am capable and even look forward to choosing foods from a very small range, because the simplicity appeals to me, and because I know it is temporary. I still do not look on it as a diet, although technically that is exactly what it is --- but that word is fraught with so much emotional subtext that I prefer to avoid it. The difference for me is that this nutritional system is an integral part of the training program I wish to undertake, and that weight loss is only part of the big picture. My goals are now focused on total fitness and health, and on making my body the very best it can be.

I have very mixed emotions about going from a nine month stretch of being on the road and making my living exclusively from singing to my former routine of teaching while pursuing my singing career. But one of the advantages of being back at school is that these surroundings are very much a part of the atmosphere that made it possible for me to hone in on losing weight. Many days I made myself get up from the piano or the keyboard and take a quick walk around campus when I had an extra five minutes; parked in the farthest parking space; took the stairs to the upstairs restroom instead of the ground floor one.  When a student canceled a lesson, I would often sit in the office and spend the time on my LiveJournal page --- where this blog was, for all intents and purposes, born --- talking to my friends about my efforts and enjoying their support and encouragement. It's good to be reminded of the determination and focus I had during that time. I need it now to help get out of this transitional funk and gear up for a very challenging workout program.

There is no time to begin change than right this second. Last night, I wrote out my food plan, and this morning as I put my lunch together, I made myself measure out exactly one cup of pasta, three ounces of protein, the right amount of sauce. It is both more and less than I thought it would be. It doesn't sound like very much, and it doesn't look like very much, but it was plenty. And already I am so much happier because I know I have not eaten more calories than I need today, and I know that I have eaten healthy food. I am looking forward to going to the park this evening and attempting the P90X fitness test, which I am almost sure I'll fail or at least have a very hard time with. It doesn't matter. Like everything else, I will go at my own pace. The important thing is just to go.

GETTIN' WIGGY WITH IT

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite films of all time --- the 1940 classic with Greer Garson and Sir Lawrence Olivier, that is --- and it is my dream to have someone write an operatic version of it so I can play Lady Catherine De Bourgh and deliver one of my favorite lines of all time:

"I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased."

The above is the promised picture of my final wig for Suor Angelica. Here's the whole effect:

I confess to having been a little upset about the change at first; I really liked the previous wig, which was quite dignified, and my initial reaction to this one was that it made me look foolish, detracting from the character's power (I never object to looking silly if that's what the character is supposed to be). The director, however, really loved the look, and everybody else seemed to think it was great, so I decided that perhaps I was being overly sensitive (which, I have come to realize, I am when it comes to image. I worked so hard to lose weight and to increase my fitness, and one of the rewards of having done so is being able to wear different clothing and hairstyles. I am much pickier now about my wardrobe and hair than I was when I heavy, although even then, I took care to dress well.)

Truth be told, the wig does not seem to have adversely affected the impact of the character, and probably even increased it. One way or another, it is impressive. At any rate, I got a nice mention in the review. 

And speaking of reviews, there were also some nice mentions in the Opera News coverage of Des Moines' summer season. 

Today is the final performance of Suor, and then it's time to head back to Austin for a few days to prep for the Big  Trip. Eric and I have really been struggling with food this trip. It's hard to resist temptations when you're eating at restaurants all the time. I think, overall, we have done pretty well; but we are both determined to have a very light week when we get home!

This morning we visited San Antonio's one and only vegetarian restaurant, Green, and we were not disappointed. We both had the green omelette, which was packed with delicious veggies, and vegan pancakes which were so huge and fluffy that neither of us could finish (but we had to force ourselves to stop eating, they were so good)! I was enchanted with the building, a former bakery built in 1896, now surrounded with gardens in which they grow some of their produce. My minor complaints are these: I believe that a restaurant dedicated to health should serve real butter (nothing wrong with Smart Balance, but I prefer a small amount of the real thing on the occasions that I eat butter) and all-natural fruit only jam without HFCS; and an establishment dedicated to green living should probably not serve its cream and jam in single-serve plastic packets. Maybe it's a health department issue, I don't know. But these are minor quibbles and I highly recommend a stop at Green if you find yourself in San Antonio.

Last but not least --- I got in a half hour on the bike on Friday, forced myself to do an hour on Saturday, and when I finish this post, I'm going to go fit in another half hour (that's all the time I have before I have to prep for today's matinee). I do not much like it, but it's got to be done. Maybe I can find the cycling equivalent of C25K!

HOW TO PIG OUT WITHOUT PORKING UP

Hermine's winds continue to blow and her rains continue to pour. Last night we had a very loud froggy symphony in our flooded back yard. I think there were only two of them, but they sang back and forth to each other all night long, so loudly you could hear it over the wind and rain and EAR PLUGS.

This cooler, rainy weather really makes me want to hunker down --- that and my foot and knee, which are still very unhappy. I had a talk with my brother, who is a pedorthist, and he referred me to a very good podiatrist who works with runners. I have an appointment for next week.

Yesterday was a soup-y sort of day.  I stopped off to buy some cioppino as an appetizer, and some fresh cod to cook simply with capers and white wine. We had it for dinner with brussels sprouts and a small piece of homemade cornbread, but the real find of the trip was dessert --- a concoction called Artic Zero.

This is an ice cream-ish dessert made from whey protein concentrate, organic cane sugar, chicory root, guar gum (a natural food thickener made from beans),  xantham gum (used by gluten -sensitive folks to add viscosity and volume to baked goods), and natural flavors. It's creamy, not overly sweet, and similar to ice cream although it definitely has a different taste and texture. I bought the chocolate peanut butter and vanilla flavors, and if it hadn't said "peanut butter " on the label, I would not have known that was supposed to be the flavor, though it did taste chocolate-y. The biggest selling points are that it's gluten-free, low-glycemic, good for lactose-intolerents, high protein, all natural, and ...

an entire pint has only 150 calories.

The website encapsulates the product really well: "It's basically a protein shake in ice cream form."

While I confess that it would probably taste better drenched in  a couple of tablespoons of high quality chocolate syrup, it's not at all a bad product and it's a GREAT value nutritionally. And for 150 calories a pint, you could afford to add a little chocolate syrup. Arctic Zero is not going to replace my beloved gelato or frozen yogurt, but this is one ice cream-ish dessert I can keep in the house without fear. It's carried by stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts,  Bristol Farms, and other natural foods stores. Check it out!

I can report that the quinoa-seitan dish I made the other day is quite yummy served on a bed of salad greens, and I think it would be good heated up as well. Today is another soup-y day, and I think I'll make a big pot of split pea soup for dinner, and I might just experiment with making "cream" of broccoli using almond milk and nonfat yogurt. Soups are such a healthy, delicious, cheap, and filling way to get your veggies in without loading up on calories! Stay tuned for recipes.

MIGRAINE PIZZA

Yesterday was kind of a blur. I had plans for a long-awaited phone date with a dear friend, followed by making a garlic-shrimp pasta recipe from Eating Well Magazine for lunch, some work on The Mikado, and perhaps a trip to the gym to find out whether my knee will tolerate the elliptical machine.

Instead, my mom showed up and wanted to take us shopping for an extremely early Christmas present. So, my phone date was cut short, and off we went. I was so lethargic and quiet that both my husband and mother kept asking me what was wrong, and I kept telling them I was really tired. I thought perhaps I needed to eat, since sometimes having extremely low energy is the only way I know I'm hungry. 

We had a coupon for pizza from a new place, Promise Pizza, which is supposed to be all organic.  You can get whole wheat crusts in a variety of thicknesses, several different sauces, and they have vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. Sounds great, right? We ordered a Nature's Choice veggie pizza on whole wheat thin crust, with the olive oil garlic basil sauce ("Is it pesto?" I asked. "Uhhh..." said the girl taking my order). As great as it sounds, it actually wasn't very impressive. For a pizza with both garlic and basil in it, it was remarkably lacking in flavor; in fact, if I hadn't been told those two ingredients were included I wouldn't have known. It was on the greasy side. And the veggie toppings were extremely skimpy. For a $17 pizza, I expect to see veggies piled high. I'll stick to Papa Murphy's. They have a pesto sauce now, a much better option than the creamy white garlic goop that's standard on their veggie pizza, and they really pile on the veggies. Plus, they make it while you watch so you can direct how much cheese you do (or don't) want. 

Of course, the best thing is to make your own at home. I like to make my own whole wheat pizza crust, but in a pinch, I'll buy it. I got one at Whole Foods the other day called Rustic Crust. They weren't my favorite, but they were handy. I top mine with a can of organic Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Tomatoes in lieu of sauce; or some of my light homemade pesto (basil, garlic, walnuts, and just a teensy bit of olive oil; the rest is water); and then pile on the veggies. I also love to use Upton's Naturals Italian Sausage-Style Seitan. And I can control the amount of cheese --- low-fat part-skim mozzarella, or Daiya vegan cheese (which tastes great but is much lower calorie).

After the pizza adventure, I was simply exhausted. I thought it was from all the driving I've been doing the past couple of days, so I conked out on the bed, thinking I'd have a little nap, wake up refreshed, and actually get something accomplished with my day. Alas, this was not to be, for it seems I was due a visit from the Dread Migraine.

I spent pretty much the next twelve hours lying on my bed of pain, or else calling Ralph on the big white phone (think about it). I took a five hour nap, woke up at 10 p.m. and felt well enough to eat something, which shortly thereafter necessitated another call to Ralph, and then collapsed back into bed and slept until 8 a.m., which is pretty much unheard of for me. This morning the bulk of the pain is gone, but I get some "day after" pain and am pretty sluggish. Ugh! 

So, plans for productivity dashed, and I will probably take it kind of easy today, too. I'll do some desk work. The only bonus to yesterday was that I wasn't able to keep anything down! And I'll have to make another attempt at the garlic-shrimp pasta recipe, which of course I shall report on. But for now, it's time to make some non-fat Greek yogurt.

POWER 90 DAY 2 --- FAT BURNER REVIEW

Day 2 of Power 90. I did very well with the diet yesterday, although I had to make some substitutions; thankfully, I feel confident that I know how to do this without corrupting the intent of the program. I definitely could not eat like this all the time, but for six days now and then, it's great. It's a nice way to "clean" your body without doing one of those flushes where you drink stuff that makes you spend an inordinate amount time sitting in the smallest room in your house, or else running for it.

The six-day Fat Burner diet consists mostly of breakfasts of smoothies, with the occasional egg white omelette thrown in; lunches of salads with lots of crunchy veggies to keep your mouth satisfied and your tummy full and topped with about 4 oz of lean protein; dinners are usually some kind of hot meal, with fish or chicken and some steamed veggies. There are also two snacks a day, a handful of raw nuts, some cottage cheese and fruit, a smoothie. You drink lots of water, herbal tea is okay, and you can have coffee with breakfast but ---sob --- no cream. The idea is to keep you eating small meals throughout the day. I normally do not eat between meals, except for an afternoon snack if I feel I need it before or after my workout; and I usually don't feel stomach hunger. On this diet, I was eating every couple of hours and was ready for it, but the small meals satisfied me. But more about the food later.

The Fat Burner workout is well-structured and not very difficult. I happen to like Tony Horton's persona; some people might find it annoying, especially after multiple repetitions, but he seems genuine and likable to me. I'd enjoy doing a live workout with him. Clearly a key to success in doing a home workout DVD is whether you like the style of the trainer. I like that he's using real people who have completed the program, rather than professionals. These are normal people who are in good to excellent shape (and not a 20-year-old  in the lot, either), and you can see that some of them don't do the entire workout full intensity; others try for the max at all times. Speaking of which, you can easily modify most of the moves by simply reducing your range of motion; and you can add intensity by using a medicine ball or dumbells for some of the exercises.

Another thing I like is that the workout is quite fast-paced. You don't have time to get tired or bored. There are five rounds consisting of four different moves each, and you do each set twice. There's also warm-up, stretching, and cool down. The whole thing takes about 40 minutes, and if you're doing it at home, that's pretty great. The company motto is "From power to shower in less than an hour", and it's true. Works great for me. There's a monitor on one side of the screen that shows what you've done and what you have yet to do, plus a clock running down the time. There's also a screen underneath with text "chatter" about alternative moves, and other helpful notes.

In terms of space and equipment, you don't need much --- my husband and I both worked out simutaneously in our bedroom, with the dogs perched on the bed wondering what the heck their humans were up to now. If you're going to be on carpet I think you'll want a yoga mat for the yoga stretches and possibly some workout pads for the plyometrics. It'll save the carpet and help you move more efficiently. I admit, I am fantasizing about turning one of our guest bedrooms into a workout space. I wish we had one more room!

What I don't like: the cheesy music which has no relation to the workout. It's just superfluous background noise; happily, you can choose to turn it off. The fact that the moves are not introduced, nor is much advice given on how to do them safely. For that reason, if you are not experienced with workouts, you'll need to watch the DVD at least once or twice to catch on, and you might need to rewind a few times to catch on to some of the more complex moves. I've done enough dance, kickbox workouts, boot camps, and so on that I was able to pick up on the moves fairly quickly, but my husband complained that there was no demonstration and you just had to dive in and figure it out. Some people might find that extremely frustrating. There was a time when I would have.

I like having a routine that I do not have to think about too much. (This is why I also like the Podrunner Intervals --- I plug in my IPod and run to the beat, and can let my mind drift to other things, like fantasizing about how great I'm going to look on my next birthday). Power 90 probably is not going to bore me, at least for the three months I'll be doing it. When I need to be challenged more, I can increase my range of motion, turn some of the moves into plyo (jumping) exercises, and add some weights to the workout. I'm also keeping up my Pilates class and running, which will mix it up for me a little.

All this being said, I do not think Power 90 is a program for beginners. Or at least, I should say, Fat Burner isn't. It's too extreme. For someone who is used to eating processed foods, fast food, drinking a lot of soda and coffee, and generally not paying much attention to nutrition or how much they eat, the diet would feel like you were in prison. The workout would be tough for someone just emerging from Couch Potato-hood. This is not a recipe for long-term success, not for most people who might be coming from where I was a few years ago.

I wanted to write today about setting goals, and if I have any energy left after rehearsal tonight, that's what I'll do. It's all burning through my brain and wants to get out! So stay tuned ...

GOOD BLOGS, BAD FOOD

Here's a nifty list of the 50 Best Health Blogs, listed by former UPI journalist Jim Purdy. 100 Pounds made (at least the initial) cut, and I am flattered and grateful. This list is really worth a look. There are some old favorites like Tara Parker Pope's Well Blog at the New York Times, Cranky Fitness, and Happy Healthy Long Life; but also some I hadn't heard of that are of great interest. At first glance, I'll be going back for more from The Checkup (the Washington Post's health blog), The Nourishing Gourmet, and Julie's Health Club (Chicago Tribune). 

A few gems I've gleaned from perusing some of these featured blogs:

Check out Julie's current article explaining what exactly a calorie is and how understanding this can help you lose weight. I don't believe in calorie counting for myself, and in fact a nutritionist quoted in the article says she often discourages it; but if you're not going to count calories you have to have a very good grasp on portion control and know at a glance about how many calories are in your foodstuffs. Serving sizes are very easy to overestimate and I am sure that one reason for my snug jeans is lack of attention to this area. So Julie's article is a good reminder of how and why to get my dinners back on the (food) scale.

Kimi Harris tells us why we shouldn't eat farmed tilapia. I think you shouldn't eat tilapia because it tastes like wet paper towels, but if you're fond of this cheapest of fish, this might be a more compelling reason.

And last but not least, I heart Cranky Fitness so much for this sentence:

And the Number One Thing You Should Never (evereverever) Eat:

Dishonest food.

Jo goes on to define dishonest food as anything that has more than ten unpronounceable ingredients in it. I so agree, and I am so stealing this. Really, you should head over and read the whole post.

Jo challenged her readers to make their own list of things you should never eat,  and since I've blogged on that before and agree with most of her list, I'll skip for now. But it did remind me of a rant I've been storing up, so here goes.

If you've been reading me for any length of time, you probably know that I do not believe in completely cutting out any food that appeals to you. There are certainly things that I do not eat, and that I think no one should eat, but hey --- we all have our guilty pleasures. If you've got to have your occasional bag of Doritos or deep-fried chimichanga, I'm not going to get in your way, as long as you don't block my path to the gelato counter.

But I can't stop myself from fussing about commercial food, the big food industry, and the lies they tell consumers to make them think the crap they are selling is healthy and nutritious. If I could only put one item on my own list of foods you should never, ever eat, it would be FAST AND CHAIN RESTAURANT FOOD. But I'm not going to do that, because I don't believe in telling you that you should never eat certain kinds of food.

I'm only going to tell you why it's such a bad idea. :)

Ever since Jared lost weight eating his Subway sandwiches, the fast food/chain food joints are jumping on the weight loss bandwagon. Taco Bell now has a commercial  in which a woman claims to have lost a lot of weight eating their "drive-through diet". She says quite clearly that her results aren't typical, but there are before and after photos of her surrounded by goodies flashing on the screen at the same time. What do you think people are going to pay attention to?

Let's just take a look at the nutritional information on some of these items, and the language with which they are promoted.

The menu is called the Fresco Drive-Through Diet.  "Fresco" means (and sounds) "fresh", an inviting word which is associated with health and wholesomeness. It's a carefully selected word meant to make you think you are getting fresh, flavorful, wholesome, food. And it might indeed be fresh and flavorful, but as you might guess, I'm going to take issue with the wholesomeness. Hang with me here.

Taco Bell touts this menu as having less than 9 grams of fat per serving, which to the uneducated consumer may sound good. After all, fat is bad, right? And they're controlling the amount that's in each serving. It's LESS THAN NINE GRAMS! That's good, right?

BZZZZZZZZZZZZ! I'm sorry, you lose. These are not low-fat items and we don't know what specific kinds of fat they contain --- certainly some of that fat is coming from the cheese and the meat, and also whatever they use in the tortillas and for frying the taco shells. To be low-fat, a serving must contain no more than 5g of fat. And not all fats are created equal. Unsaturated fats from natural sources like olives, canola, nuts, and avocado are best. So "less than 9 grams of fat" is not particularly impressive.

In listing the nutritional information, Taco Bell does something a little bit sneaky. Most of the time, on food labels, calories are listed first. On their website, Taco Bell lists the serving size in grams first, right before the calories. (Do you even know how much a gram is? I mean in any sort of meaningful, relevant-to-real-life way? I had to look it up to be sure. A nickel weighs 5 grams. A teaspoon of sugar is a gram. Now back to your regularly scheduled rant).

Who does that? Food labels usually say something like: "Serving Size One Taco (20g). In this case, they list only the number of grams, which doesn't mean that much to the average consumer. This usually a smaller number than the number of calories which is listed right next to it, and unless you read carefully, it's easy to read that number as the calorie count. I have no proof but this smacks of a deliberate marketing scheme to me. They are not lying, but they are using a little trick to obsfucate the truth.

The Fresco Chicken Burrito Supreme has 340 calories. If that is all you plan on eating for lunch, that's okay. But it has 8 grams of fat, 3 of which are saturated fat. It has a whopping 1410 mg of sodium, 25 of cholesterol, and 50g carbs. This is not health food, folks. The lightest thing on the menu is their Fresco Crunchy Taco at 150 calories, 70 of which are fat; 20 g cholesterol, 350 mg of sodium, and 13 carbs. My guess is you're going to need at least two of these to make a meal, so just go ahead and double everything. It may not give you a heart attack tomorrow, and it certainly beats an order of Volcano Nachos at 1000 calories (62g of fat!),  but quality health food it ain't. And we haven't even gotten into food sources, but you can check out the ingredient lists online and see that their seasoned beef contains 25 ingredients. Thank you, but any beef I put in my mouth is going to contain ONE ingredient, and that is BEEF. BTW, if you're wondering why there are no links to this information, it's because I refuse to give corporate fast food any link love. It's easy enough to find on their website, and I do applaud Taco Bell for that.

Now, let's move on to Applebee's. This one has really been sticking in my craw. Never mind that Applebee's is traditionally the home of extremely mediocre food, which is always an offense unto mine eyes (and tastebuds, and stomach). For a while they've had an affiliation with Weight Watchers, and list points for certain items on their menu --- a good crossover marketing ploy, since Weight Watchers members could feel "safe" with choices at Applebee's. Now they have launched a campaign designed to make people think they have healthy menu choices, with their Under 550 Calorie menu. "All of the taste, none of the trade-offs" is their motto. They are telling you that you can still eat out and make better choices. Whenever a commercial entity tells you that about food, what they mean is "not the very worst choice you could make";  but the use of that word is designed to make you feel like you are indeed eating healthy when you eat their food.

If you visit the website and check out the photos, you will see five extremely pedestrian and unimaginative menu items which could easily be prepared at home and in fact look not unlike something you could buy in cardboard at the freezer section of your grocery store and heat up in a microwave.

But that's just me being a food snob. Let's check out the Applebee's Under 550 calorie menu nutrition! Oh, wait, we can't. There is no nutritional information listed on their website. We'll just have to use common sense. 

First of all, 550 calories is almost twice as much as you need for a normal meal. For an indulgence meal, once in a while, it's okay. And granted, not all of the items are 550 calories --- but the calorie count is an approximation at best, as it will vary depending on who's doing the cooking.

What's really disturbing is that Applebee's has made a corporate decision to keep mum on he nutritional content of this food. There can be only one reason for that: they know that if they share that information, it will damage sales. We don't need a lab analysis to guess that something like the 7 oz asiago peppercorn steak, served with steamed new potatoes and veggies and topped with melted cheese, is going to have a lot of sodium and fat. And potatoes, delicious as they are, are not an optimal source of carbs. You have only to look at the grilled shrimp to feel the salt overwhelm your tastebuds. And all the food in the photos on their site is suspiciously shiny. That shine comes from added fat.

And although I'm sure Applebee's executives would puff up like angry roosters at the suggestion, this is hardly high-quality sourced food. It is not dangerous, and it is not exactly coming from a dumpster, but I'd be very surprised it if came from anywhere other than giant corporate farms. 

Are these items, and others like them, "better" choices? They might very well be, but in my book, that's not really saying much. The moral of this rant is: eat what you want, but choose wisely, and don't take at face value any healthy claims made by people whose primary interest is selling you stuff. Take ownership of your own health and get your health education from independent sources.

Rant over. It's time to go run in the sunshine.

FOOD RANT: WHAT'S ON MY SHELVES

After doing so much ranting against processed food, I suppose I should come clean about what can generally be found in my own pantry, and perhaps provide a definition of "processed food". 

To me, processed food encompasses the bulk of what you find on the shelves of your average American grocery store.  Meal "helpers" laden with sodium and chemicals, frozen dinners, cereals packed with extra sugar, canned soups and gray,mushy veggies, dessert mixes, lunch meat stuffed with fillers and salt ... it's disgusting, really. And no matter how convenient it is to buy and prepare, no matter how attractively it's packaged, no matter how many enticing words the marketing department and ad agencies come up with to make you think it's "wholesome" and "healthy" and "light" ... it really, really isn't. Not only is this stuff not particularly good for you, but many of the production methods associated with it are harmful to the environment, party to atrocious treatment of animals, and ultimately not great for the economy, either. I firmly believe that this stuff is a big part of what's making Americans --- and now, as our coveted "lifestyle" spreads globally --- so many other nationalities fat.

I have nothing against lightly processed foods --- canned veggies or fruits that have nothing, or the minimum, added; prepared broths that have only natural ingredients, fresh frozen fruits and veggies. That's one reason we shop at Whole Foods, expensive as it is --- nothing we buy there is going to contain artificial anything. And yet, we still do most of our shopping on the "outside aisles" where the fresh stuff is to be found.

A few items I do regularly stock are pictured above. I love the Imagine No-Chicken Chicken Broth and the Pacific Mushroom Broth. They aren't cheap, but they add SO much flavor to soups and dried beans or lentils; I prefer them to veggie broth, which I find pretty bland. I also love the Muir Glen Organic Fire-Roasted Tomatoes. I use these in lieu of tomato sauce on pasta and pizza - a leftover from my time as a diabetic. Tomato sauce is chock full of sugar, so if I was craving the flavor, I'd put a few chunks of diced fire-roasted tomatoes on my whole wheat pasta or pizza and get the taste without the blood sugar spike. (Incidentally, Cook's Country agrees with me about the taste --- see here ). I like to keep a few cans of pumpkin puree on hand (although homemade is easy to do) for pancakes and pumpkin bread, and artichoke hearts for topping homemade pizza. And of course, with a vegetarian in the house, canned beans are a great quick meal, especially if you toss them in a pot of veggie soup, top them with fresh lettuce, onions, avocado and salsa for a TexMex dinner, or add them to whole wheat pasta and cooked greens. 

I was raised on iceberg lettuce, cheap hamburger often paired with taco mix, Velveeta or "American" cheese, canned veggies, lunchmeat, frozen breaded fish sticks, cake mixes, Twinkies, Koolaid, and white bread. We also kept a big Maryland Club coffee can of bacon grease on the stove, and when that didn't suffice, we had a big can of Crisco in the pantry and margarine in the fridge. My parents didn't have a lot of money. They did the very best they could for us, and I do not blame them for feeding us that way. As soon as I was old enough to cook, though, I started experimenting with different kinds of food. When I was on my own shopping for myself, I still bought some of that stuff, but pretty soon I was buying more fresh things. I cooked more for myself and bought fewer processed things. My own cooking just tasted better.

It was a long evolution in taste to my current preferences, and most of it has taken place over the last several years. I say this because I am talking to the person I was five years ago --- the person who is unhappy with her weight, with her health, with the way she looks and feels --- and yet feels trapped or overwhelmed by the immensity of the necessary changes. What no one tells you when you start to change your life, what is so hard to grasp and to believe, is that changes MUST MUST MUST be incremental. If you have a four-times-a-week McDonald's habit and you try to go cold turkey on that, you are only going to make yourself miserable, frustrated, and ultimately guilty and upset when you go back to eating the food you really, really like. You must take teensy, tiny, baby steps. Maybe you start by just getting the Big Mac and Coke, no fries. Or you get a small order of fries and switch to a diet drink or a small Coke. After a while, when you see that that's ok, maybe you try to cut it down to three times a week, two, one, and then once a month. There isn't a right or wrong here, my dears, there is only what works for you.

And as you slowly learn to make healthier choices and enjoy healthier, more basic foods, you may very well find that those Big Macs really don't taste very good any more. You may find that one day, a commercial comes on for the latest, greatest 3,000 calorie "happy meal" and your first reaction is "Good grief, that looks nasty." Or you may spend the rest of your life happily savoring your cheeseburger, fries, and gimongous Coke as a special once-in-a-while treat. It's all good. But do yourself a favor, and at least give real, non-processed food a try. 

ORGANIZING MY FITNESS HABIT

Habit Changer is annoying me this week.

I wrote a few days ago about this 42 day program I've been doing to aid in maintaining my weight loss. There's a lot that's good about it, but I'm starting to feel that it doesn't go far enough. I'm doing the weight maintenance module. It's really irritating that this module operates from the assumption that, even though you've lost weight, you're still eating a lot of processed food and junk food. In other words, you may have lost weight but they assume you still haven't learned how to eat, so too many of the daily tasks or concepts are centered on teaching you about basic nutrition. IMHO this is information that belongs in the weight loss module --- it's old hat to me and I don't need to be told that junk food is bad for you or that I should eat whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. I haven't done the weight loss module, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of these ideas are recycled from that. It'd be great to have a Habit Changer module on nutrition, but it should be separate from weight loss maintenance.

The other thing that's annoying is that the text messages and reminder e-mails, one a day of each, are nothing more than repeats of bits of the main message of the day. They aren't anything new or particularly inspiring. The wording isn't even significantly different. Thankfully, you can turn them off. The reminders are a great idea, but it feels like a lack of effort --- more recycling. This program probably requires very little overhead, once it's been set up, so there's no reason not to put a little more effort into development. Speaking of which, they really discourage feedback and contact for customer service --- after scouring the site, I finally discovered a "Contact Us" link in teensy tiny print at the very bottom of the page, hidden next to other text.

As the calendar gains more big red X's, I'm inching out of the holidays and back to the grind. Most people have probably been back at work for some time, but my day job is teaching at a university and my private voice studio, so I get a little more time off. However, once it starts back up, between teaching, running my opera program, and preparing for my upcoming nonstop May-to-January 2011 singing blast and any stray auditions that come my way, it will be back to Crazyville.

I've spent the last two weeks really dedicating myself to a return to everyday sensible eating (as opposed to holiday sensible eating) and re-establishing a daily fitness habit. Throughout the 130 pound weight loss, I did cardio almost every day. Over the past year, during which I've been moaning a lot about losing that last pesky thirty pounds but managing to maintain instead --- not complaining per se, but I'd rather be losing --- I have exercised less. And that's one reason I've been maintaining rather than losing. Now I feel the urge to kick it up again, and I hope I can keep it up with the busier schedule. What it takes, quite plainly, is planning and determination.

Strangely enough, the thing that is hardest to schedule is around my husband's routine. You wouldn't think this would be the case. We both work at home, and we don't have kids. I have more outside appointments than he does. But we have certain times we grocery shop, we have certain times we eat, we try to walk together, and he likes to have a sort of regular schedule, while I am fine with last minute changes. I don't like to disappoint him.  I'm also doing some classes, which don't meet at very convenient times for me but are free with my gym membership, very convenient to my home, and therefore highly desirable. All this translates to: quitcherwhining and organize your time better.

I have one of those big desk calendars hanging on the wall in my office, where I can glance up from my laptop and see what's on for the whole month. Nerd that I am, it's color-coded and everything. I've taken to writing my daily workouts on this calendar, which serves both as a reward (gold stars --- don't underestimate their power!) and a nice little record of what I've done. I also jot down my daily exercise in my food plan. If you don't keep track of your exercise, I strongly recommend that you start, and tracking it where you track your food is both convenient and motivational. If you see that you've eaten too much or too much of the wrong thing, you might find yourself more motivated to do a little extra exercise to counterbalance that; or if you start to beat yourself up for a slipup, you can see that hey, you did a hard workout every day this week, so an extra mouthful of cake is not exactly going to kill you. It's extremely important to give yourself credit for EVERY good skill and habit that you practice, and it's something we frequently fail to do. So make it easy on yourself!

And now, I am going to sit down with my PDA and work out a workout schedule for next week. It's much easier to stick to a written plan, whether it's exercise or food, than to play as you go. And for that matter, it's good to have a backup plan in place, since we all have last-minute emergencies! We all need our sacred time, but even sacred time gets encroached upon now and then. Stay with me, I'm "thinking out loud" here. First, I am going to look at my semester and work out my sacred workout time --- the time that is unlikely to be encroached on, and which I can easily defend. Then, I will identify other times that might be more flexible --- times I'll commit to, knowing that sometimes I'll have to go to Plan B. Finally, for every workout session, I'll identify a backup. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's the kind you only have to do once, and then it makes everything else so much easier. I'm all in favor of that!

HOW TO BE A GOOD CONSUMER (LITERALLY)

After all my blathering yesterday about not eating at fast food and chain restaurants, guess where we went to dinner last night? No, not a fast food place. Fast food is evil. I thought we established that, but in case we didn't, let me be clear: fast food is deep-fried Satan.

No, we ate at a chain, and not only did we eat at a chain, we ate at a dangerous chain: a buffet.

Buffets are minefields for anyone who is trying to eat nutritious, healthy foods and appropriate quantities. By nature, they are the worst possible environment. You pay one price --- usually fairly cheap --- and have unlimited access to a vast array of tempting foods, much of which is of extremely questionable nutritional content. It's so easy to eat too much, and too much of exactly the wrong thing. You can even be fooled by salad bars, where the add-ons add so many calories, fat, and carbs that your so-called healthy salad becomes a diet disaster.

It takes a lot of self-control to eat well at a buffet. And yet, it is possible.

We went to Fresh Choice, which is probably the only chain buffet I would ever actually recommend. And I do recommend it, with the caveat that if impulse and portion control are big issues for you, you're better off waiting until you've had a chance to do some work on those areas. Here's what I like about Fresh Choice: first of all, the name is accurate. The produce is extremely fresh,  beautifully presented, and there are many healthy choices (alongside some not-so-healthy ones). When you enter, you are greeted by the giant salad bar, which unlike many is chock-full of excellent fresh veggies and plenty of non-meat protein choices, including tofu and several kinds of beans. A vegan would do well here. Sure, there are the usual pasta, potato, and chicken salads, and nutritionally "expensive" add-ons like croutons and fatty dressings, but remember what I said about impulse control?

Further down the line, there are several soup choices, usually a couple of which are healthy, vegetarian, and broth-based rather than cream-based. Last night's visit featured a lentil soup and a tomato-black eyed pea, both under 200 calories per serving. Then there are the pasta, pizza, potato, and bread bars, which you may visit at your own risk.

Here's the other thing I really like about Fresh Choice: they put the calorie per serving count on EVERYTHING. Right there on the label, so you cannot fool yourself about what you're eating. Frankly, as I have discovered on my Starbuck's runs in New York City (where by law chains have to display calorie content on the menu), having the calories stare you in the face is a great deterrent. Do I really want 400 calories in a scone for a midday snack? No, I do not.

Armed with this knowledge and a firm limit in my mind about how much from the bread and dessert bars might make it onto my plate, I can navigate Fresh Choice fairly successfully. The trick is to pile your salad plate high with the "free" veggies --- all those great low-cal, high-nutrient items --- and just have a tiny taste, if you must, of the prepared salads. Stick to one of the lower-cal soups, or take half a serving. If you fill up on these healthy items first, you can then go back and sample --- sample, mind you --- the other goodies with a clear conscience and no fear of the next weigh-in.

Incidentally, the trick of filling up on lower-calorie items works at home, too. Always start with the veggies. Once you're not very hungry any more, a small amount of the other temptations will taste just as good as a large plateful. It'll taste even better the next day when you get on the scale.

It's all about being a good consumer --- pun intended. And speaking of which, over on Tara Parker Pope's Well Blog at the New York Times, there is a very interesting article about suggested makeovers for food labels. Those labels can be very confusing, and the Center for Science and Public Interest

(never heard of 'em, but I sure like this idea!) would like to make them less so. In the comments, one reader suggested the addition of a pie chart to show nutritional content at a glance. I think these are great ideas, but I bet the USDA* won't employ them any time soon. The food lobbyists would go nuts.

*Edited to add: orginally I mistakenly typed "FDA", but it's the USDA that governs the nutritional labels and offers that iffy pyramid. I prefer Dr. Walter Willet's model.

It's quite a maze out there, figuring out what is and isn't really healthy. I promised to write about my personal guidelines for choosing food, and as I've been thinking about it, I realize it's not very cut-and-dried. It's hard to quantify. But I'll give it a shot.

First of all, my basic criteria: it has to taste good. There is absolutely no point in eating food that isn't delicious. One of the things I have learned over the past few years is that I am ABLE and ALLOWED to remove food from my plate, or not eat it, if it's not good. I did this last night at Fresh Choice. I had taken a small taste of some creamy pasta salad and when it wasn't as good as it looked, I took it off my plate. It may have only been 25 calories worth of food, but that's 25 calories I could save, or spend on something that tasted amazing. And like pennies, those calories do add up.

Whenever possible, I want it to be organic, fresh, and locally produced. Now, organic can be tricky. Just because something says it's organic doesn't mean it's healthy. You have to know the nutritional content and you have to have some idea about the source. Also, there are certain types of produce that should always be purchased organic, because of the amount and types of poisons used to farm them, and others that are fine to eat conventional.

I think that food is healthiest when it is pretty close to its natural form. I'm not willing to go as far as the raw foodists, though I enjoy many raw foods; but I believe in avoiding most processed foods, especially anything with artificial stuff added, or lots of high fructose corn syrup. Now, the big industrial food producers would like you to believe that these things are just fine enjoyed "in moderation", and they probably are, but one of the problems with processed food is that it is designed to make it very difficult for you to enjoy in moderation! Do a little reading about the addictive combination of fat, salt, and sugar, and how it encourages you to eat more. Then check out the label on your favorite bag of chips, candy bar, or can of soup.It's no coincidence.

I also prefer to eat food fresh as opposed to canned or frozen, although I do use both. Canned and frozen food from good sources are lightly processed and thanks to improved processing, these days retain a lot of their nutritional value. They can also be more convenient than fresh; but fresh will always be optimal. I also like locally produced stuff because, let's face it, I'm kind of a neo-hippie and I believe all that stuff about being good to the earth and supporting local farmers and not using more fossil fuel or polluting more than necessary by importing food from far away. Also, most of it time, food that is fresh, local, and in season just tastes better.

Finally, when I'm planning meals, I make it a point to try to eat as low fat, low sugar, and low carb as I can get away with and still enjoy my food. Here's where it gets little complicated to quantify. There aren't any official definitions of "low sugar" or "low carb". Low fat is defined as less than 3g of fat per serving.

Here's what I do: I don't buy butter or margarine, unless I am making a specific (and usually special event) recipe that calls for it. I use a canola or olive spray, or a small amount of one of these oils, to grease pans or for recipes that simply must have oil. I often skip salad dressing --- I find that if I am putting nuts, avocado, olives, or a little bleu cheese, along with some juicy fruit like pears or clementines on a salad, that's enough fat and flavor that dressing isn't needed. Or I make a fat-free dressing. I substitute pureed banana or apple in baking instead of using fat. I use fats like cheese primarily as a condiment --- a little sprinkle to give some flavor. I buy fat-free or low-fat versions of any dairy products, which I use sparingly at any rate.

I don't drink much fruit juice or eat anything that contains sugar, except as a special treat. I bake with agave syrup, which is lower on the glycemic index and also sweeter, so less is required. I do use honey and maple syrup in small amounts.

Carbs are a little tougher to handle; but generally speaking, I try to get most of my carbs from fruit and other unprocessed sources. I don't eat a lot of rice, pasta, bread, or potatoes. This is a holdover from when I was diabetic; they just spiked my blood sugar too much and it wasn't worth it for the tiny amount I could have. I save my carbs for dessert! Or a nice glass of wine!

You may find the idea of doing all this overwhelming, but remember that this is an evolution that took place over a long period of time, and also that I do not deprive myself of anything I want to eat. I simply choose when and how much I'll have, and make sure that if I'm eating one thing that is calorie, fat, sugar, or carb-dense, that the rest of my food that day is on the lighter side. I eat what I eat now because I like it and it tastes good to me, as well as being healthy.

Long story short: if you want to be healthy, you and no other must take ownership. You have to educate yourself about nutrition and fitness and figure out what works for you, and that means delving deeper than what commercial sources (by definition untrustyworthy insofar as they have their own best interests at heart rather than yours) tell you. Health and fitness are anything but one size fits all.