Trevor

Jennifer Wegner!

Thank you to everyone that entered my first giveaway. It was exciting to receive an enthusiastic response. I hope to have others from time to time, always of products that have helped me reach my goals.

Jennifer, please email me your address. A link to my email is in my profile. As soon as I have your address, I will send in your subscription. (I don’t know how quickly you will receive your first copy. That is out of my control.)

Again, thank you to everyone!

You’ve got PASSION, are PLANNED and PREPARED. You’ve PROCEEDED towards your goal with PERSISTENCE and you PAY ATTENTION with PATIENCE.

You have a PASSION for your goal, and have a well-defined PLAN and are PREPARED. You PROCEEDED on your path, with PERSISTENCE and are PAY ATTENTION with deep PATIENCE.

What’s left?

8.  PARDON and PERMISSION

This time of year is a challenge. Thanksgiving feasts. Neighborhood parties. Holiday parties at the office. Christmas and New Years. The food is never ending. And it is all soooo good!

And in parts of the country and world, the weather begins to turn nasty. It gets cold. Blustery. Snowy. Night comes earlier than we want, and our commitment to before- and after-work activity diminishes. We start to get more enthusiastic about sitting in our recliner than taking that extra walk.

And you know what happens then.

The scale creeps upward. And that is so frustrating. You get angry at yourself for “losing willpower.” You feel as though you “failed.”

Pardon yourself. Forgive yourself for your slips. We are all human. No one is perfect and can show daily losses on the scale. We are not machines. So go easy on yourself. Remind yourself that every day is another day and each time you eat, you have another chance to make a good decision. Eating to excess on one day should not trigger a bad choice the next day.

If you are using LoseIt, or Weight Watchers, you are given a set budget, either calories or points. Maybe during this time of year, you might be better off to temporarily stop your quest for losses and increase your budget to your maintenance level so that you don’t lose, but also don’t  gain. That may give you enough of a budget so that you can avoid the self-recriminations for overeating during the holiday season. But don’t stop logging what you eat. And don’t stop getting on the scale. Logging provides accountability and the scale gives one form of feedback.

Taking a break is not quitting. If you follow NASCAR, you know that at some point every driver pulls out of the race and goes into the pit. Sometimes it is for gas, sometimes for tires.  But whatever the reason, it is all to help the driver succeed. Even though he/she takes a brief break and falls behind some of the other drivers, he/she knows that without that pause, the risk of catastrophic failure is greater. Pulling into pit row is not quitting. It is part of the plan, and prevent future problems. What would happen to the driver of a car who decides to push it, “just one more lap” on bad tires? A blown tire would end his/her race.

If you are excessively challenged, and everyday find yourself exceeding your budget by a little, maybe you need to drive into your pit row. Give yourself permission to take a short break. Make the conscious choice to stop and recharge yourself. Losing weight is hard work, physically, mentally and emotionally. A brief respite now might give you more energy after the new year to make a hard drive to the checkered flag.

(No. I really don’t follow racing. I just know some of the terms.)

Now, for the GIVEAWAY!

One of my favorite periodicals is Eating Well. It has great recipes that are healthy and delicious, as well as easy to make. My subscription is up for renewal and I have the opportunity to give a free one year subscription. I will give it to one of my readers.

To enter:
1.  Respond to this blog post, and tell me which of my recipes that you have made at home is your favorite. (If you haven’t made one yet, which will be the first you want to try.)
2.  If you are on Twitter, make a Tweet about this contest, such as: “Eating Well has great recipes, and you can win a subscription here http://bit.ly/YybWKd” and then tell me here that you tweeted the link.
3.  If you have your own blog, mention the contest on a post with this address http://bit.ly/YybWKd and add your blog address here for everyone else to see.

Each of those actions will be another entry.

I will announce the winner on Monday, December 3, 2012

You can start the New Year (or whenever they start the subscription) with a great magazine, full of new ideas for healthy and delicious food.

Just a quick post right now. I want to welcome my new followers and thank all the others who have been following me for months. I hope that you find this blog has useful information for you. I try to right the same way I think: slightly humorous (in my mind), honest and to the point, and hopefully with interesting subject matter.

My recipes tend toward the relatively simple variety, that are also delicious and generally healthy. Not all my recipes will be strictly “diet” recipes, but my belief is that anything can be eaten, in the correct portion size (food allergies excepted, of course.)

I have used that approach to bring me to my goal weight, and stay there for more than 11 months now. It works.

Come back soon and often. Check out all the recipes (there are 100+ as of now, and I try to add 2 or 3 a week.) Also, on Friday I will announce my first ever giveaway! (It will cost nothing to enter!) Check back tomorrow for details!

Have you tried the soups yet? If you don’t have any leftover turkey, go to your local grocery store or deli and get a rotisserie chicken. That will work just as well. With the dumpling soup, don’t be stingy with the seasonings. The broth and dumplings seem to absorb the flavors of the soup. Add them during the cooking and taste often, adding more as needed.

Talk to you all tomorrow!

Ugh.

I ate well yesterday, and currently I am still in a borderline post-feast coma. When I fully recover, I will post the pictures of the feast and will post the LAST “P” of long term success!

And this “P” is probably going to be needed by some (most?) of the readers.

Turkey Gravy
Serves:12 (1/4 cup portions)

2 cup pan drippings, with as much floating grease removed as possible
1 cup hot water
Roux
Salt and pepper as needed to taste

1. Combine equal parts flour and melted butter together (roux). Start with 1/4 cup butter and flour. It’s easy to make more if needed.
2. Bring the pan drippings and water to a boil.
3. When boiling whisk in small amounts of roux until you get the consistency that you desire. The gravy will continue to thicken as it cools on the table.
4. Using a roux and whisking while adding the roux to the boiling liquids will reduce or eliminate lumps.
5. You can add finely minced cooked turkey liver for more flavor. Alternatively, you can also replace some water with beer or wine.

Nutritional data (approximate, will vary with the consistency of the pan drippings):
Calories:      82
Fat:            8.2g
Sat fat:       4.1g
Chol:       14.2mg
Sodium:    5.6mg
Carbs:      1.9g
Fiber:       0.3g
Protein:     0.5g