Can't blame Thanksgiving

So, I was quite proud of myself on Thanksgiving - I limited my calorie intake to just 1600 calories for the entire day! I didn't eat until I was uncomfortable and I didn't go home feeling guilty for overindulging.

And then the weekend came ... and so did my mom.

I am proud to say that Mom has lost 25-30 pounds on WeightWatchers and we love to share recipes and weight loss tips. We are both concerned with what we eat and how much - until she comes to visit. Then we go a little hog wild - pun intended.

Kansas City is a wonderful town for those who like food. Sure we have great barbecue here, but there are many other good eateries as well. When I get visitors I tend to take them on an eating tour of KC - and it's pretty tragic for any diet, much less one recovering from Thanksgiving damage!

I honestly can't blame Thanksgiving for the weight gain I've seen each time I've stepped on the scale since Friday morning. Friday was a lovely day for me and the scale - I saw 141.8 for the first time ever! But it was fleeting - Saturday gave me 142.8, Sunday showed 143.4 and this morning was a lovely 145.4. Gulp. I can only blame a food-packed weekend. At least it was good food instead of junk food. I can use that an an explanation, at least.

Saturday started with diet-friendly A-muesling French Toast. But then the day saw the obligatory visit to Oklahoma Joe's (Mom's fave bbq in town) for a lunch of ribs - no comment regarding the calorie count there - and a visit to Julian for dinner. Julian is a restaurant owned by Mom's fave reality star, Celina Tio, who lost in the semi-finals of the Next Iron Chef a couple of weeks ago. Ms. Tio actually delivered our food, cleared our plates and stayed to chat with Mom for a few minutes! It was a great experience and just another reason I love Kansas City.

The food was good too. I had seared whole trout, brown and wild rice, and braised celery with lemon. It seemed healthy, but who knows what actually went into it. Kevin had pasta and Mom had pork tenderloin with brussel sprouts and parsnips. Oh, and we ordered a side of Boulevard Pale Ale Mac and Cheese (Boulevard is our local brewery). All I know is that it was all super tasty! Plus, we shared three desserts that were amazing and I know they weren't healthy: butternut squash cheesecake, "banana cotta" with strawberries and chocolate, and salted chocolate puddin' with ginger donut. "Good" doesn't even begin to describe it.

On Sunday, following a breakfast of cinnamon and sugar monkey bread and cream of wheat, I then arranged lunch for us Sunday at Hereford House, a KC original and famous steakhouse. The idea was to have a light lunch of steak soup. But we decided to split the 8 oz KC center cut that helped make the steakhouse famous. Kevin ate 4 ounces of the steak and Mom and I each had a couple of ounces. Plus, the soup was as thick as gravy! It was very filling and I ended up bringing half of mine home.

Overall, I think we did a good job of mitigating damages while still enjoying, tasting, and savoring, but I certainly didn't stick to 1300 calories a day this weekend. And Thanksgiving isn't to blame one bit. I shifted into some form of vacation brain and lost my mind a little. I made my dinner selections with calories in mind, but wasn't nearly as meticulous as I usually am. It didn't help that I failed to drink my usual 80 ounces of water each day and drank about 80 ounces of coffee instead.

Sunday dinner was the Thanksgiving Meatloaf recipe I posted yesterday - and it was healthy and very low in calories. At least I didn't let Thursday get out of hand!

NCKAA: 27 Days Until Christmas

Ok ex-pats ... do you have access to cranberries and ground turkey? If so, then you can totally make a quick and easy Thanksgiving dinner thanks to this recipe! I hope you're enjoying Natalie's Christmas Kitchen Advent Adventure as much as I am!

Thanksgiving Meatloaf

2 pieces low-calorie bread, toasted and cut into 1-inch squares
1/2 cup nonfat milk
1/4 c egg substitute
1 c celery, finely chopped
1 small onion, diced
1/4 cup dried cranberries* (13 calories)
3 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary, divided
1 pound lean ground turkey
1/2 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce* (~50 calories)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

In a large bowl, combine toast cubes and milk. Let stand for 10 minutes; break up bread cubes with a fork. Stir in the egg substitute, celery, onion, and cranberries. Add half the rosemary. Crumble turkey over mixture and mix well. Pat into an ungreased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan.

Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 25 minutes; drain if necessary. Combine the cranberry sauce, ketchup, pepper sauce and remaining rosemary; spread over meat loaf. Bake 20-25 minutes longer or until no pink remains and a meat thermometer reads 165°.

*My dried cranberries are homemade, using Splenda. I used them in my cranberry sauce as well. If you use store-bought craisins, this will change the nutrition information for both the dried cranberries and the cranberry sauce. I included the calories for these ingredients next to them. That way you can subtract my numbers and enter your own if you use ingredients with more calories.

This recipe is adapted from a Taste of Home recipe.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutritional Info: Amount Per Serving: Calories: 179.2; Total Fat: 5.6 g; Cholesterol: 53.8 mg; Sodium: 387.8 mg; Total Carbs: 14.5 g; Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g; Protein: 18.2 g.

I served this tonight with baked sweet potatoes and green beans. For dessert, I made a banana pumpkin custard. Since Mom was in town, it was the best Thanksgiving dinner ever!

Making this reminded me of many make-shift holidays meals from my past. My first Thanksgiving in college was spent home alone while all the roommates went to see friends and family so I made a Turkey Pot Pie and watched football. The first Thanksgiving I spent with my ex away from our families - we made turkey drumsticks and boxed stuffing. The first Christmas Kevin and I celebrated together involved him working. An hour before he got done I decided to go ahead and cook something "fancy." The only store open to buy the fixin's was 7-11. Can it be called fancy when dessert is a fried gas station pie and turkey from a Lunchable?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ok, Ladies (and Gentleman), I know a few of you are out of the country, and as such you are immune to the food struggles that come with Thanksgiving (trying to give you a positive to cling to if you're feeling homesick!).

For the rest of us, here is a scary statistic according to the editors of Men's Health: The average American consumes 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving day. The folks at the American Council on Exercise say it's 3000 calories.

Either way, that's A LOT!

So, here is to wish you smart decisions. You can still enjoy Thanksgiving without giving in to your ultimate health goals. Count your calories while counting your blessings! Using the fact that it's Thanksgiving and there is a lot of good food as an excuse to overeat is dangerous and, frankly, dumb. We are all strong and we can have a great, enjoyable Thanksgiving without hurting our overall goals.

That being said, if you fall victim to overeating, for whatever reason, here are a couple of tricks:

1. Skip the turkey skin. That's where most of the meat's fat lives.
2. Drink milk with high fat foods. It helps your body eliminate fat.
3. Go for a long walk AFTER the meal. Heavy workouts before often make people feel entitled to eat a lot, because they burned a lot of calories in the day. But, to burn 3000 calories, you need to run for 4 HOURS at a moderate pace.Of course, running 5k before and then walking a couple of miles after dinner isn't such a bad idea ... unless you use it as an excuse to engorge!
4. Pillsbury crescent rolls have 110 calories in them.
5.  Half a cup of sweet potatoes, baked, is 90 calories - that's without marshmallows, butter, or brown sugar.
6. 3 ounces of turkey breast is 89 calories; 3 ounces of dark meat is about 165 calories. That's before butter is added (often used in roasting a turkey).
7. The leftovers are just as dangerous - that means multiplying the over eating by numerous meals. Think about healthy leftover ideas. (I posted a few here as well).

Overall, don't beat your self if you do go a little crazy. But at the same time, don't find yourself saying "It's Thanksgiving. It's supposed to be about a lot of food." Because it isn't.

It's Thanksgiving. It's supposed to be about being thankful. And I am thankful for the support y'all have sent my way this past year! I hope you have a great Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup

Here are a couple of Thanksgiving Recipe links that have found their way to my inbox in the past week.

They are definitely worth the share, trust me!

Women's Health: Delicious Low-Fat Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes
(I love the idea of twice baked potatoes anytime of the year!)


Hungry Girl's Ode to Pumpkin
(HIGHLY recommend the Pumpkin Smash.)

And more Hungry Girl: Your One-Stop Guilt-Free-Thanksgiving-Recipe Spot!
(She is really good at creating healthy versions of normal food!)

And for the day after ... some great ideas for the leftovers!


Taste of Home's Just-Like-Thanksgiving Turkey Meat Loaf


Hungry Girl's "Gobble Gobble Cranberry Grilled Cheese"
(The second recipe on the page.)


My own Turkey and "Dumplings"
(I made this one up last year.)

Thanksgiving Calorie Count

So, I've been calculating things for Thanksgiving ....

This is what I can expect (gulp):

Turkey: 212 calories
Dressing (aka stuffing): 114 calories
Macaroni and Cheese: 340 calories
Sweet Potatoes: 124 calories
Steamed Corn: 50 calories
Green Bean Casserole: 65 calories

Baked Apples: 70 calories
Pumpkin Mash: 65 calories

Total: 1040

And that doesn't even include the appetizers, rolls, gravy or cranberry sauce!!!

BUMMER. I was hoping to keep it around 700 calories. Well, these calculations are for full servings. With this much food, I definitely don't need full servings!

Just imagine how bad it would be if I wasn't cutting down on the fattening ingredients?!? YIKES.

Good to know the calorie counts when I eat the leftovers too ... after all, Thanksgiving cheating should only be allowed for one day!

Thanksgiving Diet Style

Ok, I'm ready to take on Thanksgiving.

Earlier this week I ironed out the menu and tonight dragged Kevin to the grocery store to get everything we need. It only cost $85 thanks to a great deal on the turkey.

My menu includes:

Appetizers:
- Fat-free cream cheese, Pickapeppa sauce and reduced-fat Wheat Thins (not cheap, but EASY!)
- Veggie platter (courtesy of Kevin's mom)

Main Meal:
- Turkey (when I saw one for $5 I lost all of my arguments against making an entire bird rather than just turkey breast)
- Corn Bread Dressing
- Lean Green Bean Casserole (Hungry Girl recipe that I changed up a bit)
- Bunna's Macaroni and Cheese
- Steamed Corn
- Cranberry Relish
- Watergate Salad (also provided by Kevin's mom)
- Crescent Rolls: 100 calories each

Dessert:
Crustless Pumpkin Pie
Soda-licious Baked Apples: 80 calories each

Basically, I am substituting sugar with Splenda and eggs with egg substitute. I also ought bars of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, but they only save on cholesterol and saturated fat (and that's ok!).

I am trying to stick to my family's traditions without changing their flavors too much. Tomorrow I hope to sit down and calculate the nutritional information for each dish I'm making in order to know what I'll be eating Thursday.

Project: Good Gobble

I just had a thought. Since I'm all about small goals, I thought it might be interesting to focus our collective weight loss sights to the immediate future and concentrate on getting through the holidays.

We are all about to face the usual food challenges stuffed in the Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas cookies. However, this year is different for all us - we now have each other!

How about we each set a a goal to get us through the holidays? If we start now, we have 8 weeks of holiday wonders to endure. So, for Nov. 4-Jan. 6 I think we should each set up a plan to help us stick with our goals.


MY PLAN:
I don't want to miss out on the pleasures of pumpkin pie and egg nog, but I also don't want to negate the hard work I've put into the past 6 weeks. Since my overall goal is to lose one pound a week (duh), I think I can easily stick to it. That means I need to focus on losing only 8 pounds between now and New years - totally doable!

I will weigh 181 pounds on Jan. 6.

I'm going to continue with the calorie counting, but add in (some) more exercise to balance with the extra eating. I will also have to balance out my calories. Currently, I allow about 1300 calories Sunday-Thursday and 1500 on Friday and Saturday. However, for the holiday weeks, I am going to focus on the entire week, rather than each day. That gives me 9500 calories for the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years (how many calories are in champagne???). Again, totally doable!

So, what's your plan???

Interesting NYTimes blog from a couple of years ago that is somewhat encouraging ... sort of.


Totals: 1,390 calories 163.5 carbs 37 fat 109 protein

Hostess without the Mostest (calories, that is!)

At the risk of sounding like my mother, I can't believe it's already November!

With that comes the start of holiday dining. Yikes. Do you have a plan?

Luckily, I am hosting Thanksgiving for my boyfriend's parents this year (doesn't really feel like luck, but I'm trying not to freak out) and this gives me quite a bit of control over the menu. I'm not changing the name of any of the basics, but I will be cutting every calorie I can!

I am looking for recipes, so please, send 'em my way!!!