Close. So Very Close.

Not everyone here is from LoseIt, so if you are, please bear with me as a repeat a few things. Since May 25, 2011, I have been working on a weight loss goal. Today’s weigh-in leaves me just a mere 0.1 pounds away from that feat.

I have to admit, it seems simultaneously overwhelming … and just another weigh-in. Sure, hitting the weight goal is awesome. When I weigh in next on Thursday, barring a disastrous week between now and then, I will have lost over 76 pounds since last May. And my original start to the loss actually began on July 28, 2008 and on the next weigh-in, I will have lost over 100 pounds since that date. That will also be over 125 pounds down from my highest weight in the summer of 2006.

But the reason this is both awesome and “meh, whatever” is that I have already begun altering my mindset to new goals. I want to run the Bellin Run on June 2012, and increase my running endurance. I want to get stronger and be able to lift more weight. I want to reduce my body fat percentage.

Most importantly, I want to MAINTAIN my weight!

I guess that last factor is why I am approaching this milestone with mixed feelings. In the grand scheme of things, losing weight is simple. (Not easy, but simple.) Eat fewer calories than you burn, and get more active, and almost everyone will lose weight. I’ve lost weight before. Many times.

That’s the problem. Getting to the endpoint is one thing, but staying there is a whole different game, with different rules. I have NEVER achieved a weight loss goal. I don’t know how to maintain. That will be the next major challenge. I know that increasing my running and lifting will help, because it is a new set of goals. It is a new game.

I know that with the help of my family and friends around me, and especially my friends on LoseIt, I will continue to achieve my goals, and in doing so, will find new goals to keep me moving forward.

I WILL WIN!

Mushroom-Herb Chicken and Potatoes Alfredo w/ Gruyere

Mushroom-Herb Chicken
4 boneless-skinless chicken breasts, 5 ounce each (approx.)
8 ounces brown (crimini) mushrooms, sliced
½ cup onion, sliced
¼ cup white wine
Pepper
Herb blend (your preference)
Cooking spray
Place chicken breasts in a heavy duty ziplock storage bag, and pound flat (to ½ inch). Season with pepper and herb blend (both sides.)
In a large non-stick sauté pan, spray with cooking spray, heat over medium-high heat and place chicken in pan.  Cook for 5-6 minutes per side.  They should be nicely brown. Remove from pan, set aside.  Spray with cooking spray again, add onions. Saute for 1 minute, add mushrooms.  Saute another 2 minutes, add wine and return the chicken to the pan. Cover, and cook over medium for another 3 minutes.  Remove, serve topped with mushrooms.
Serves 4
Nutritional data:
Calories:          187
Fat:                  0.1g
Sat fat:                0g
Cholesterol:     80mg
Sodium:           94mg
Carbs:              4.6g
Fiber:               0.6g
Protein:          31.4g
Potatoes Alfredo with Gruyere
4 potatoes (1 pound) I like using Yukon Gold potatoes
½ cup prepared alfredo sauce
¼ cup milk (I used 2%)
¾ ounce gruyere cheese, shredded
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350F
Wash potatoes.  Slice thinly (with skins is my preference.) Place in bowl. Top with alfredo sauce and milk.  Stir together.
Spray small baking dish (1.5 quart round worked for me, as would an 8×8 baking pan) with non-stick spray. Layer potatoes.  Top with shredded gruyere.
Serves 4
Nutritional data:
Calories:          205
Fat:                  5.6g
Sat fat:             3.3g
Cholesterol:      26mg
Sodium:          233mg
Carbs:            33.5g
Fiber:               2.2g
Protein:            6.8g

Grilled Hamburgers

Grilled Hamburgers

16 ounces lean ground beef (I use 93% lean beef)
1 slice white bread, crusts removed
2 T milk
1 T onion, minced
Fresh cracked black pepper

Tear the bread into small pieces and place in a bowl. Add milk and mash. Stir in onion.  Add this to the meat, working the burger only enough to mix the bread into it.

Form the meat into 4 patties.  Flatten them into 3 inch circles.  Try to make the centers depressed a little on both side, to allow for the meat to expand as it cooks.

While you are preparing the burgers, preheat your grill on high for 10 minutes.  Get it HOT. Immediately prior to placing the burgers on the grill, carefully rub cooking oil on the grates. Place the burgers on the grill, season if needed and close the lid.  Turn after 4 minutes.  The burgers will be done in another 4 minutes (burgers will be cooked medium.)

The burger above is topped with 1 ounce Colby-Jack cheese, 1/4 mashed avocado, an tomato slice, sauteed jalapenos, and onions.

Your numbers will be different, based on the bun you use, the cheese (if any) or any other toppings that you wish to use.  The burger as pictured has 327 calories.

I Love My Grill!

Winter grilling is a blast!

I have a nice LP grill that I modified so that is connects to the natural gas line installed on our patio. That means that even in the coldest weather, when LP doesn’t burn as hot, I can walk out my patio door and have a hot grill. 

I have owned LP grills and charcoal grills. I prefer both, depending on what I am making. Right now, I have my NG grill (above) and a charcoal grill/smoker.  If I am making burgers, steaks or salmon, I use the NG grill. If I am making my pulled pork, beer can chickens, or a whole turkey, then I use the charcoal grill (and usually add apple wood chips for smoke and flavor.) My grills are my tools for the creation of delicious foods.

You need the right tools for success. The tools for weight management are more than scales and measuring cups (which are critically important) but you can consider your plan to be a tool. Maybe you are eating paleo or primal. Maybe you are vegetarian. Those are the tools you have chosen to use to reach your goal. Exercise is another tool that should be in your plan.

But don’t be welded to a single tool. Just as I have two different grills, used for different foods, you might need different tools as you make progress on your weight management path.  Add or remove food groups as you work toward your goal. Try different exercise forms. Take up swimming. Register for a race (like I did.) Buy a bike or roller blades. (I won’t buy roller blades. I tried my son’s one afternoon. I have never experienced that level of fear and loss of control. And the neighbors have never laughed so hard!)

A remember, weight management is a lifelong activity. You will not be able to reach a weight goal and then simply quit. You will need to find new foods and new activities continually for the rest of your life. (And that’s a good thing!)

Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

1 prepared pie crust (or your preferred pie crust recipe)

1/2 cup onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp olive oil

1 cup cottage cheese
1 whole egg
2 egg whites
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
12 ounce bag of frozen, chopped broccoli, thawed and drained.

Preheat oven to 350F

1.  Grease 9 inch pie tin, place pie crust in tin
2.  Sautee onions, mushrooms and garlic over medium heat in olive oil until soft (5-6 minutes)
3.  While onions and mushrooms cook, separate eggs.  Add egg whites and the whole egg to the cottage cheese.  Add mustard.  Mix until smooth. 
4.  Stir in cheddar cheese and broccoli.
5.  Stir in onions and mushrooms.
6.  Pour mixture into pie crust.
7.  Cook 35-40 minutes, or until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
8.  Let rest 5 minutes.  Serves 4

Nutrition:  
Calories:     382
Fat:              21.8g
Sat Fat:          6.4g
Chol:              66mg
Sodium:       534mg
Carb:           29.2g
Fiber:            2.6g
Protein:         16.2g

Grilled Salmon with Roasted Vegetables

Grilled Salmon with Roasted Vegetables

Salmon
 1.5 pound boneless, skin-on salmon fillet

Heat your grill on high for 10 minutes.  Clean grate and rub with oil.  Lay salmon, skin side down on grill.  Season with your preferred seasonings.  Turn heat to medium.

Fish is done when it begins to flake as you lift it in the middle (10-12 minutes.)

If serving 4 ounce portions, this will feed six.

Calories:  190
Fat:         9.0g
Sat Fat:   1.5g
Chol:       70mg
Sodium:   50mg
Carbs:        0g
Fiber:         0g
Protein:    24g

Roasted Vegetables
6-8 cups of any vegetables (This time I used mushrooms, onions, leek, bell peppers and Brussels sprouts.)  Clean the vegetables as needed. (Leeks can hold a lot of mud.  Cut them in half lengthwise, and rinse completely under running water.) Place in large ziplock bag, add 3 Tablespoons olive oil and your preferred seasoning, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 450F.  Put vegetable in a 9×13 pan, and place in the oven.  Toss veggies every 10 minutes.  Veggies will be done in 30 minutes. You are looking for some vegetables to begin browning.

Serves 6-8 in one cup portions

Calories:   85
Fat:         5.5g
Sat Fat:   0.8g
Chol:        0mg
Sodium:   9.5mg
Carbs:      8.2g
Fiber:       2.1g
Protein:       2g

What’s For Dinner?

According to a ad campaign from a few years ago, the answer to that question is “Beef.  It’s what’s for dinner.” 

But that answer doesn’t really help. I can’t find a recipe for “Beef”. And deciding what to make for dinner after a long day at work frequently resulted in a decision between take-out Chinese, delivered pizza, or a fast food run. Fast. Easy. Not cheap. And resulted in my formerly broad gut.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Plan ahead. Take some time on the weekend and chart the course of your week’s meals. It saves time and effort if you know what you will make during the week. It saves money at the grocery store, too.

Simple. Easy. But what if you don’t know what to make? Where do I get my ideas for meals? I buy a lot of cookbooks and cooking magazines. And I use many of them. (If I buy one and it sit on the shelf, untouched for 6 months, I donate it to Goodwill.) Here is a selection of what is in current use. I didn’t show all the editions of each magazine, just enough to give you an idea.

I don’t use every recipe in every book, and I don’t follow the recipes precisely. I add or remove ingredients to make the recipe more to my preferences. But each of the books and magazines shown has important recipes.  One of my favorite periodical is Eating Well. Great magazine, good stories about food, and the regions of the world that produce great foods, and healthy recipes. In a previous blog post, I already talked about the Eating Well cookbooks. In the back left are cookbooks by Rocco DiSpirito. Nice books, easy to make foods. The Weight Watcher 10-minute and 15-minute meals I pick at my local Fleet-Farm (I can’t find it anywhere else), and while I don’t make the recipes for the points, my wife does. It gives all the nutritional data that I need, and the recipes are good. At the right front is Taste of Home’s Healthy Cooking. I don’t use this as much as the others, but it is a nice filler. Better Homes and Gardens produced Eat Well, Lose Weight.  And another magazine published the three Cooking Light books. I don’t subscribe to the magazine, but I like their Fresh Food Fast books. Finally, the Kraft Food and Family magazine sometimes also has recipes that are useful.

These resources have great recipes, and most recipes are accompanied by a beautiful picture. Don’t freak out when your recipe does not look at perfect as the serving on the page. It will still taste great!

And I am a fan of making food taste good, in a healthy fashion, quickly and easily. That means I will make soup “from scratch” but I don’t make my own stock. I buy canned, reduced sodium stock. I buy my pasta instead of making it. I use frozen fruit and vegetables (especially when not in season.) I will sometimes (as evidenced by my beef stroganoff recipe) use prepared ingredients.

That is how I cook and still make healthy meals. Because I believe that almost any meal made at home will be better for you (general health and financially) than eating out.

Oh, and the real answer to the question in the blog post title?  Tonight’s meal will feature salmon, probably grilled. Pictures to follow later.

Winter in Wisconsin

It’s finally winter in Wisconsin. Oh, sure, it has been winter on the calendar since December 21, but last night we got our first real snowfall. Green Bay had 3-4 inches, but my driveway had drifts to 18 inches. (I live on a very windy street.) So I got up early this morning and fired up my trusty snow blower. It’s old, but it starts every time and does a fine job of clearing the driveway.

I was a little over half done before the problem became evident.

The orange chute that is sitting on the floor is supposed to be attached to the top of the snow blower. When that fell off in the middle of the driveway, my snow blower became a snow geyser. Interesting to watch. Not to fun to own. Or to stand under.
I finished the driveway using a shovel. That was a lot more work, but at least the handle didn’t break (and if it had broken, I have second shovel.)
Success in any project requires planning. Good planning always allows for contingencies and emergencies. When a person tries to lose weight, they might carefully budget their calories. In doing so, at the end of the day they may have enough of a budget leftover to go out for a drink with the crew from the office. If they weren’t careful with their budget, that option might not be possible or advisable. You plan for what you can expect and prepare for possibilities that you cannot predict.
Some people experience weight loss plateaus (for this sake of this discussion, I define a plateau where a person doesn’t lose weight, or loses/gains the same pound, for more than 6 consecutive weeks.) If you reach a plateau, now you need to go back to your toolbox, and find a figurative shovel. Increase (NOT decrease) your daily budget by a 10% AND change your workout routine. Try eliminating one class of foods from your diet (dairy, or carbs, or meat … anything that is different). Join a gym.  Form a weight loss support group. Start a blog. Do something different.
Einstein is quoted as saying: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” If want you are doing is giving you what you want, keep on doing it. You have found YOUR secret to success. But if what you are trying is just causing frustration, you need to try something new. And when you try something new, give it 4 weeks before you decide that it is not working.
Now I need to try to fix that snow chute before the village snow plow comes through and closes off the end of the driveway. I think they get a bonus on their check for every driveway that they clog with the plow.

Protein Pancakes

Protein Pancakes


My Protein Pancakes
Makes 2 servings of 4 pancakes. 
Mix together:
4 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 unsweetened applesauce (or ½ cup canned pumpkin)
¼ c water
Add:
½ cup dry oatmeal (or ½ c Kellog’s All Bran)
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 T milled flaxseed
1 scoop (4T) whey powder
Pour scant ¼ c onto non-stick skillet lightly oiled.  Turn when the batter starts to set (1-2 minutes over medium heat.)  This is thick batter, and bubbles will usually not form on the surface.
Serve with whipped cream, sautéed bananas, warm apple compote, peanut butter or Greek Yogurt.
Cal:  221 Fat:  5.1g  Sat Fat: 1g  Chol:  27  Sodium:  293.8mg  Carb:  23.8g  Fiber 5.1g  Protein:  21.3  (The nutritional data is using the applesauce and oatmeal version, and without any toppings.)
Note: in the first picture, the bananas are sauteed.  I put them in a non-stick skillet, without any oil or spray, over medium-high heat, and turned them while the pancakes were cooking.  That brings out the sugars and caramelizes them, and really makes the banana flavor pop.  The bananas were topped with whipped topping and cinnamon.  The second picture uses non-fat blueberry Greek yogurt and fresh blueberries to dress the pancakes.  The options are almost endless.

Lasagna Two Ways

I give you two variations of the same recipe. Life is all about choices. Having a couple options give you more control over your life. Make choices, prioritizing needs, and taking responsibility are frequent topics on my twice-weekly MakeYourSomedayToday podcast, where we talk to successful people in many professions and arround the world, learning their “secrets” of success. 

Spinach Lasagna (in the foreground, served with a green salad and a glass of Cabernet/Syrah blend)
Serves 6
6 Pieces uncooked whole wheat lasagna noodles

2 cups, your preferred marinara sauce
10 ounce box of frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 egg
1 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
8 slices mozzarella cheese

1.       Preheat oven to 350F.
2.       Mix cottage cheese, egg, spinach and onion.
3.       In an 8×8 baking pan, spread 2 tablespoons marinara sauce.
4.       Break 4 uncooked lasagna noodles to fit the pan.  Reserve pieces.
5.       Spread half the cottage cheese mixture over the pasta.
6.       Lay 4 pieces of mozzarella on the cottage cheese mixture, press down gently.
7.       Spread half the remaining marinara sauce over the mozzarella.
8.       Repeat, using the broken pieces as needed.
9.       Bake for 50 minutes.  Remove from oven, let cool minutes.

This recipe can be in the oven with about 10-15 minutes prep time.
Nutritional content:
Calories:                 270
Fat:                       11.4g
Sat fat:                    4.3g
Chol:                     60mg
Sodium:               798mg
Carbs:                   25.3g
Fiber:                      4.2g
Protein:                 17.7g

Meat Lasagna (in the background)
Serves 6
6 pieces of uncooked lasagna noodles
2 cups your preferred marinara sauce
1 pound ground beef, browned
½ cup diced onion
1-2 garlic cloves
1 egg
1.5 cups cottage cheese
8 slices mozzarella cheese
1.            Preheat oven to 350F.
2.            Spread 2 tablespoons of marinara sauce in a 8×8 baking pan.
3.            Brown meat with onion and garlic.  Drain, mix with remaining marinara sauce.
4.            Mix cottage cheese and egg.
5.            In an 8×8 baking pan, spread 2 tablespoons marinara sauce.
6.            Break 4 uncooked lasagna noodles to fit the pan.  Reserve pieces.
7.            Spread half the cottage cheese mixture over the pasta.
8.            Lay 4 pieces of mozzarella on the cottage cheese mixture, press down gently.
7.            Spread half the remaining marinara meat sauce over the mozzarella.
8.            Repeat, using the broken pieces as needed.
9.            Bake for 50 minutes.  Remove from oven, let cool minutes.
Nutritional content:
Calories:                 362
Fat:                      12.9g
Sat fat:                   6.2g
Chol:                    66mg
Sodium:              907mg
Carbs:                  25.3g
Fiber:                     2.8g
Protein:                36.1g
This recipe can be in the oven with about 10-30 minutes prep time.
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Make Your Someday Today is a twice-weekly podcast, where we talk to successful people in all walks of life and around the world on Monday, and then on Thursday, I take a specific message from the previous guest and give my “Trevitorial”, where I help you apply that message to your life. The entire purpose of the show is to help all of us overcome our challenges and fears and become the person we want to be, the person we deserve to be.