Cooking Techniques

Cooking is not my speciality but I know when the cooking book or recipes says that you need oil in the pan, you don't have to. You can use cooking spray to just coat the pan to prevent sticking. You can choose recipes, and modify recipes to make them lower in fat and calories.

Roast: To cook uncovered in the oven.

Pan-broil: To cook in a heavy skillet without adding fat and draining off fat as it accumulates.

Parchment paper: Heavy, heat-resistant paper used in cooking. Fish or chicken breast cooked with spices and fruit comes out deliciously tender and healthy -- a great cooking technique that requires little or no fat.

Poach: Fish or chicken, simmered in liquid, could be seasoned broth or water.

Pressure cooking: A pressure cooker is essentially a saucepan with a locking lip. It uses steam heat to produce high temperatures that quickly cooks food, which leaves food tender and retains nutrients. Soups, stews and vegetables, especially dried beans and lentils are a snap with a pressure cooker.

Sauté: To cook quickly over direct heat, with just a little added fat or broth.

Steam: To cook over boiling water in a covered pan: Better than boiling, steaming retains the food's nutrition and texture. Steam vegetables, fish, shellfish or chicken: use a small metal insert in a large pasta pot with lid, or bamboo steamer.

Stir-fry: Involves no "frying," you cook foods quickly in a wok (a high-sided pan), stirring often, in small amounts of liquid, so it's both nutritious and tasty. Ingredients are all cut into bite-sized pieces for rapid cooking. Minimal or no fat is necessary; you can modify any recipe and use wine or broth. Shellfish, chicken, tofu and vegetables are very well suited to this healthful way of cooking.

Wednesday Weigh-In

I lost 2 lbs. these 2 weeks. Not a lot but it is a loss. It can be disappointing. You work hard towards a goal giving it all I have and still end up not great results. You ask yourself, "Where did I go wrong, what's the use of being dedicated and hard working?"

But on the other hand, by looking at my situation with a calm, detached attitude, I can locate the faults or leakages. Like, I should have walk more instead of sitting on the couch watching TV. Stop snacking crackers out of the box instead I should have put two servings in a bowl.

I have to be positive and put in a good prospective that I did lose 2 lbs. Even if I lost zero. I can't let it get me down. I need to loose weight, that is my answer to a good healthy future, life with my family and friends. Like the saying goes, "The glass is half full, not half empty."

Starting Over

There are days, you just don't care and you want to do what you want. No Dieting, no worrys, no responsibility and no exercising. We all get in those moods because we all are tried and want to do nothing and need a vacation from reality, but we can't do that. Your world is not going anywhere and need to face those problems. You need to coming back to realism and make a change in yourselves.

Being POSITIVE. Anne Frank quoted on Being Happy: Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. When I read this poem, I think about "what I like about myself." I like to help people when they lease expect it. Like when I go shopping and you see a senior citizen trying to reach a box of cereal on top of shelves and she/he can't reach it. I run over and help, then I ask if they need anything else. It a great feeling, even though something small like that. I feel that I'm wanted, I'm appreciated that I can still do good in the world.

Think very hard about what you like about yourself. Is it your sense of humor (making people laugh), your giving (giving your time to someone at need) or your smile? What makes you happy that you like doing? Do it.

Dieting on Weekends

On weekends, it is very hard to stay on top of your diet. During the weekdays, most of us out there, are routine robots. We get up at an early, unfashionable time, 5:30 am, eat breakfast, brush our teeth, comb our hair, put on clothes and put a mask on our face, all in 1 hour to face our daily car rage of traffic. Working all day at work, keeps you busy to forget about dieting. It's a daily routine.

When Friday is here, we start to think about what are we going to do of our time to relax. And we start to think, on how it would be great, to eat out and enjoy those precious moments that we earned that working week. We start to forget about our diet and we want something to be rewarded because you did good all week and you deserve that cheesecake or chocolate brownie. It is hard to turn something down, though we earned something that we liked to be rewarded.

I didn't do so good this weekend. I ordered myself Chinese Beef Egg Fu Young and 2 Chicken Egg Rolls with all the fatty sauce that comes with it. I knew ahead of time that ordering these foods were bad, but I wanted it. I deserved it. I wanted to be rewarded. I didn't think of responsible on having these foods would do to me afterwards like gaining 4 lbs. on what I lost.

It is called WILL POWER, which is hard to control. Everyone has it in yourself, you just need to find it. STOP and ask yourself, why you want to lose weight. You need to have a good reason deep down within you of why you need to lose weight. As soon as you figure that out, write on a piece of paper and stick it on your fridge, your car, your desk at work and in your wallet or purse. Sounds silly, but it will remind you at all time that this reason will make a huge difference in your life. This desire will kick in the will power you need to make the lifestyle change. From there you can depend on plain routine to reinforce your dietary and lifestyle habits for a permanent weight loss.

2007 Top 10 Workouts DVDs

From Fitness Magazines, they did a screening process over 200 ladies, who tried more over 3 dozens of (2007) workouts dvds and picked best 10 to see which ones were fun and effected.

• Teri Jory: Poise Fitness - Core Training: Everything Core Center of your body and very simple and easy to follow. User friendly.
• Jeanette Jenkins - Hollywood Trainer 21 Day Total Body Circuit: It is a stregnth at different levels. Old school moves like crunches, squats and etc... Refreshing and fun.
• Bell Express - 15 Cardio Fitness Kit: You must of weights, jump rope and the ball to workout with the it. Excellent moves.
• Tracie Long Training Better Burn Better Buns: Lower body tone up. Need small medicine ball or not.
• Stott Pilates: Intense Sculpting Challenge: Advance with pilates. Need the resistance band to work out with.
• Dance off the Inches: Hip Hop Party: Hip hop dance fun workout. Great for young crowd. Easy moves - the trainer shows you in baby step in the 10 moves. Very different in sculpting.
• Billy Banks Tae Bo Amped: Comes with the weighted bar. Refresh, intense and a calorie burner. 500 calories.
• Jari Love's Get Ripped & Chiseled DVD: Advanced Training. Sculpture
• Yoga Fit Ultra: Calm and Relax workout. More slow breathing workout.
• 10 Minute Solution: Tone Trouble Zones: Comes with a resistance band. This dvd is broken down to target your abs, buns, thighs and etc.. in different 10 minutes segments.

It is great about buying dvds workouts. You don't have to worry about the weather, closing time at the gym. Also, you can use at home meaning you don't have to worry about what you wear or you can be silly if you mess up rather at a class workout.

Zucchini w/Pasta

Zucchini w/Pasta

1 lb of pasta (any kind)
1 jar of tomato sauce
1 large of Zucchini squash
5 Slices Mozzarella
Grated Cheese

Preheat oven at 375 degree.

Boil water for the pasta. When pasta is 1/2 or 3/4 of the way done, drain the noodles and put into casserole dish. Put the jar of tomato sauce into a bowl. Shred your Zucchini into little thin shred pieces and drain the zucchini to get the extra water and juices out. Put the zucchini in the bowl of tomato sauce. Mix. Then pour the sauce and zucchini onto the noodles. Put the mozzarella cheese on top. Put in to the oven for 20 minutes at 375 degrees, cover with foil, until it is hot and the cheese is melted. You could take off the foil when 5 minutes is at the end of time or an extra 5 minutes, if your oven is not hot at the time you put into the oven. This is a prefect meal to hide the squash but still get your vitamins.

1600 Calorie - Day Five

250 Breakfast : Cheerios w/slim milk 140, banana 110
580 Lunch : 6" Subway Turkey and Ham 290, w/ lite mayo 50, lettuce 0, American cheese 40, Italian White bread 200
405 Snack : pb crackers 180, half of Kellogg Raspberry bar 45, cornbread 180
620 Dinner : fish 300, shrimp 30, pasta 200, coconut oil 60, butter 30

Total : 1,855 calories, my bad. Fridays are very hard to control my will power but at least I'm in under 2,000. Well, starting now, no food, just water or 0 calorie tea.

( I always try to go below 1,600 calories because you never know you might get hungry at night and with cooking food in a frying pan, fat from foods are differ of what it actual is in the calorie book)

eDiets.com

I have tried this eDiets program online and it teaches you a lot, especially will-power. They have a lot of different plans that you can join like meals, healthy living, fitness, meal delivery and more. If you don't know what plan that you belong with, they do have a profile to fill out. They do ask you a few questions on what you like in foods and how active you are.

I highly recommend this program, if you can afford to stay with the meal plans. eDiets have great delicious recipes to make and the fitness are animation clips to watch. Join the FREE Newsletter, they have wonder and interesting articles on being healthy. Check out, also, their success stories. I know when I read and see the results of someone who lost weight, it encourages me to stay on a diet.

1600 Calories - Day Four

300 Breakfast : Cream of Wheat made with skim milk 220, butter 80
690 Lunch : Chef Salad (1 boil egg 80, carrots 10, lite ranch dressing 200, chicken grilled 200, bacon 90, cheese, 100)
390 Dinner : last of the Homemade broccoli soup 300, crackers 90
100 Dessert : lite ice cream sandwich 100

Total : 1,480 calories ( I always try to go below 1,600 calories because you never know you might get hungry at night and with cooking food in a frying pan, fat from foods are differ of what it actual is in the calorie book)

Splenda No Calories Sweetner

Most sugars have calories of 15 to 25. But SPLENDA has ZERO calorie and it can be used virtually anywhere sugar is used. In cooking and baking, It can replace sugar in a variety of recipes.

It is made from a process that begins with sugar through a patented, multi-step process that selectively replaces three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule with three chlorine atoms. The result is an exceptionally stable sweetener without the calories found in sugar. After consumption, sucralose passes through the body without being broken down for energy.