Category: Monday Blogs

Lisa’s plan calls for four mini-meals of 150 calories plus a normal dinner. People hate counting calories. I know I do. I wrote down everything I ate and what it cost in calories for years. I made recipes where I calculated out to the calorie how much a serving would “cost” me. That’s a lot of work!

But there is an easier way. First, you eventually learn that a banana is 100 calories and so is an egg. An apple is 50 calories and an almond milk latte is 50. But what if you’ve never counted calories and are finding it difficult to start now? Writing down every bite of food I eat? That was the most difficult step of WW for me.

As usual I whined about this to Lisa and she sent me a little list. 15 mini-meals for 150 calories. No counting. No writing. Just whip together and go. Here they are:

1. Light English Muffin with turkey slice
2. Light bagel with cream cheese
3. Turkey sausage on toast
4. Stir half cup ricotta with a few mini chocolate chips plus sugar free dulce deleche.
5. Low cal whole wheat tortilla spread with one TBS of nutella, brown slightly on both sides of pan til gooey.
6. Hot chocolate made with almond milk plus a calcium chew
7. Two slices 35 cal bread (Aunt Millie!) plus two fat free cheese slices, grilled
8. Chobani yogurt with fruit
9. Chobani as an onion dip. Half cup with 6 Pretzel Thins
10. Hungry Girl “Pie One On”
11. Grits, half cup almond milk, and a herb/garlic laughing cow wedge
12. Oatmeal, truvia, sugar free maple syrup
13. Waffle with blueberries (microwave blueberries in some sugar free maple syrup)
14. Half a fiber bar
15. Apple with a TBS cashew butter

Those are all Lisa’s, but I don’t eat sugar, sugar free, or fat free products. Nor do I eat meat. But I love soy sausage! Less calories, too:) I do also love the low cal Laughing Cow cheeses, Chobani yogurt, and grits. Almond milk is my go-to treat. So if like me you want no sugar or meat, but prefer real butter on your toast, or the whole egg, not an egg beater, or a whole grain slice of bread, be like me. I eat 3 minis at about 200 calories each. You just have to watch how much cashew butter goes on the toast or how many nuts you chop into the oatmeal.

I stopped writing down my calories after awhile, if you stick to basics, and this was Lisa’s pep talk to me, just mentally adjust to eating those 15 or 20 auto-foods you love, and you will lose weight. Even if you like full or low fat versions, you’ll still lose, just slower. I lost 25 pounds in a year, so half a pound a week, but feeling fully satisfied and never hungry. I am not sure how many calories I eat these days. I just try to be mindful of portion size and hop on the scale once in a while. It always points down a pound or so. Because I still have a ways to go.

Of course I’m doing yoga. Been walking since I got those great gel shoes, too. See you at the finish line, or next week when the topic is one of my biggest obstacles: emotional eating.

Key parts to Lisa’s food plan (not a “diet” but a way of eating for life.) are mini-meals and exercise. Just trying to stay even is a struggle as we age. I had an early, surgical menopause, and then weight loss got really challenging. About the same time, I transitioned into many more writing hours after an super-active life. These events did not do my body any favors. Hence, the plea to Lisa for help.

Mini-meal Basics
Lisa’s mini-meals are 150 calories (600 calories for four) then a normal dinner (depending on how many calories your body needs to consume to lose weight). I tried eating just 150 calories and was hungry after an hour. Always. Lisa said if you play with your plan, you won’t be hungry, but you have to find what works for you. She eats at 8, 10:30, 12:30, then 2:30 or 3. If dinner is after 5, she’ll have another mini and take it off her dinner calorie count.

When I told her I was hungry after an hour her advice was to not just have a small yogurt or piece of fruit but combine protein and carb. Her suggested menu for me was a whole cup of cooked oatmeal at 8 am, cup of yogurt mid-morning, a sandwich using those great wheat rounds (tuna salad made w/yogurt, egg salad, peanut butter w/sliced banana) at noon, and another snack at 3 with a regular dinner. And you know, that works for me. I swap out the first meal, and just have yogurt and fruit, then later, when hunger kicks in, I’ll have oatmeal or a sandwich, depending on what time it is. I eat more than 150 for my mini-meals, maybe 200, so I have three instead of 4. It’s important to listen to your body and what IT needs when. Everybody’s different. Find your own mini-meal path.

Exercise
It’s no secret yoga is my exercise of choice and as my teacher said last weekend “you’re as young as your spine is flexible” so, you know, yoga is good. It’s good for mind and body and I love feeling open, balanced and at peace, all of which yoga gives me. But I do want to add in some cardio, because one of the things I want to do more of is get out into the world. Lisa loves dance, she went of U of M for dance back in the day and has always been a dancer. I like to dance at parties to music, not in classes where everyone has to follow a pattern. Patterns confuse me. Lisa swears by Zumba. Maybe some day I’ll try it but for now I’m going to walk.

One of the things that inspires me is to have the right equipment for the job at hand, be it a good kitchen knife and cutting board (for all those veggies I chop) or a pair of sneakers that really do the job. You know walking shoes are ugly, right? Well, my last pair were. So I was thinking, hmmm, maybe hiking boots. But really, me, hike? I want to, I really do, but I don’t think it’s going to be happening before our Seattle trip, where we will be walking a lot, so I took myself to Kohl’s and got these babies pictured above. They’re stronger than they look, not canvas but a thick soft material and all gel inside. Toe heaven:) I’m so excited about these shoes I’ll probably go for a walk later today.

Speaking of excited, exercise is also a great mood lift. So if you are down about your inability to lose weight, get moving and accomplish two goals at once.

Real Dinners
Lisa is a great cook and I’ve been her dinner guest a number of times. She knows I’m a vegetarian, so she caters to me (I know, lucky me!) and will cook fish with yummy sides.

Dinner Menu

Tomato Bisque Soup: to 1/2 cup add cup of veggie crumbles, 1/4 C water, 1/4 C chick peas, sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Shrimp Scampi (4 large shrimp = 35 calories each!)

Hungry Girl’s Spinach Cheese Pie

Roasted Veggies: 375 oven, lay veggies of your choice on foil, drizzle with olive oil, wrap tight in two pieces of foil for an hour, take top foil off bake 25 minutes more.

Apple Cup: cut up apples, microwave with a few cinnamon red hot candies, stir. Crumble half a graham cracker, stir, and top with whipped cream.