Jillian Michaels book

I was flipping through Jillian Michaels book "Master your Metabolism" and read part of a chapter on High Fructose Corn Syrup.  She said that every time you see HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) listed on the ingredients you should think "POISON" because it is so bad for you.

I was talking to my brother about this and he said he googled "Why are american's so fat".  Of course there are a lot of websites listing lots of reasons...Portion sizes, fast food, inactivity, etc...but one of the reasons listed on almost every single website was High Fructose Corn Syrup.

So then my brother googled  "Why is high fructose corn syrup in everything?"  He discovered that the American Government subsidises corn farmers...this make the price of corn artificially low...which means that food manufacturers can purchase high fructose corn syrup for cheap.  It is a sweetener and preservative.

So for the last 2 weeks (2 shopping trips) I have been looking at labels and trying really hard not to buy anything with high fructose corn syrup in it.  IT IS HARD!  IT IS IN EVERYTHING!  It is in surprising things.  Ketchup, spaghetti sauce, lunchmeat, stuffing, jam, etc...

I am reading Dr. Phil's ultimate weight solution book.  In there he calls "good" foods HIGH RESPONSE COST, HIGH YIELD foods.  This means that your body has to work harder to break them down and they are a lower caloric intake.  Basically the way he summarizes is that these food take work to prepare and work to break down in your body.  This has impacted me and realize...yes, he's right.  It takes more time to wash and cut up broccoli than it does to open a bag of chips.  It takes more work to prepare a homemade dinner than to stop and get a pizza.  AM I WILLING TO DO THE WORK?  Yes.

I have also decided to cut back majorly on artificial sweeteners.  It actually hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be...mostly because I am doing the timers like I mentioned in a previous post.  When I am satisfied all of the time I can think clearly to not reach for sweets (as much).

Easy 0 point soup

I had left-over boiled cauliflower from last nights dinner.  I wanted to try making mashed "potatoes" from it like I had heard in my WW meetings.  It did not turn out as anticipated.  So I used it as a soup thickener as I had also heard about in my WW meetings.

I made a beef broth, added some veggies and some creamed cauliflower all for 0 points.

Blend cauliflower with some water and salt and pepper in your blender.

In a saucepan:

I used 1 C. water

1 beef boillion cube

peas (left over from last night---but you could just throw in some frozen ones)

chopped mushrooms

add in creamed cauliflower from above to make the soup more creamy.

Because the cauliflower was already cooked it took less than 5 minutes from start to finish.  It was quite good and you could use whatever veggies you had on hand.

Most delicious scramble ever

This was the most delicious scramble ever.

2 tsp EVOO (yea!  Oil done for the day)
a small handful chopped green peppers
a small handful chopped mushrooms
1 small handful chopped ham  (I'm not sure if you have to count points for this or not???  I need to look it up)

Saute until green peppers are soft.

Scramble 3 eggs in a separate bowl (I did 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites, but you could do whole eggs for simply filling also)

Add eggs to other ingredients.

Add 1 T. feta cheese (count points for this)
1 handful fresh spinach.
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook until eggs are cooked and spinach is wilted.

This was AMAZING!

Timers

So I got this idea from my Dad...set timers on your phone to remind you to eat your meals and your snacks, that way you can stay satisfied and never get to that really hungry irrational eating period.

So for example...I have timers set at
7:30 Breakfast
10:00 Snack
12:30 Lunch
3:00 Snack
5:30 Dinner

So mine are 2.5 hours apart.  But if there is a time of day that you are more hungry than others...you probably need a snack before you get to that point.

Mikael