quiet diet riot

Let's be honest, dieting is crap. You're supposed to "avoid" things like chocolate icing and caramel fudge and all those incidental little yummies that your mouth really wants, like bagels. And so you have to bite the bullet and endure some supreme insults, like asking for your fat-free 'lite' dressing on the side and quizzing everyone around you about how many Weight Watchers points are in everything. But you're tough (notice, I didn't say that I am tough) and you rough it out and a few weeks later you're all "oh, hey, look at that. These pants don't fit anymore, I have to get a size smaller." Good for you!

So I have been doing my part. I've been sticking to the 2009 goals of cooking at home (9 days in and I'm still on track!) and eating better. Well, if not "better" per se, then less calories for sure. I've already made a few cool discoveries and also some lame ones.

Lame: why does everything labeled "light" or "lean" have to be chock full of red peppers? Blech. I have to pick them out of everything. Also, see Kate's post about how "fat free" and "low fat" products sometimes taste gross and can wreck your whole meal, if not your day.

Cool:

• Lean Cuisine ginger garlic stir fry is actually really good (once the peppers have been removed). It's more than enough lunch for me and has lots of sauce, so it kind of sticks to your ribs and lingers in your teeth (which makes you feel more full, BTW). It's also 5 WW points, so it's a pretty sensible meal.
• I have been skeptical of all the "100 calorie packs" because most have been cookies or crackers (which I don't eat much of) and in essence, you're paying extra for someone else to count them out for you (ex: Goldfish crackers: 50 crackers = 100 calories). But the Hostess ones caught my eye because they're cakes and muffins and TWINKIES and also they were on sale (love Target!). So I picked up a box of chocolate cupcakes and cinnamon coffee cakes. As expected, the cakes are tiny (think a stack of 5 silver dollars), but you do get 3 in each pack. And the original recipe hasn't really been altered, no Splenda or saccharine here. Instead, they're scaled down. The cupcakes don't have the same dense frosting as on the originals, but it's actually better because it's softer and sticks in your teeth more (long-lasting flavor) and they DO have the little white cream injection! The crumb cakes taste just like the originals, I can't detect any difference except size. Each packet is 1 WW point. For me, a pack makes a great snack and a better incentive to snack (my problem is that I don't eat regularly enough). These have also been Ryan-approved.
• Chicken Noodle Casserole - It's been cold and I'm craving comfort food, and even though I've never made a casserole before (and technically still haven't - read on), I thought I'd give this recipe a try. It turned out really good and satisfying and is definitely something I will continue to make this winter. 1 can Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Chicken soup, 1 can Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom soup, a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, chicken, and egg noodles. I threw some chicken tenders on the Foreman Grill while the egg noodles boiled. I used 1/2 the bag, which was a lot - maybe 5 cups of noodles. When the noodles were halfway done (about 4 mins into cooking), I threw the frozen veggies in with them straight from the freezer. When noodles are done, drain the cooking water and add cream of chicken and mushroom soups. I only used about 1/2 the mushroom soup can because it was getting too creamy. Then I diced up all the chicken and tossed it in too. For the next part, you're supposed to transfer the concoction to a baking dish and put a light sprinkle of cheese and cracker crumbs on top and bake for 30 mins or until heated through. But we were hungry and I didn't have any cheese and don't care about cracker crust, so we ate it straight from the pan. Less of a casserole than a straight-up noodle dish, but it was DELISH. The entire meal is approx. 21 WW points and makes about 6 servings. I think we used too many vegetables, so our bowls were REALLY full of veggies. Which is good. They're 0 points and good volumetric eating. We each had a hearty bowl right off the stove and 2 lunches and we still have leftovers. Plus, the total cost was something like $1 per can of soup, $2 for noodles, $3 for veggies, and we already had the chicken, but the whole package of chicken tenders was only $6. So the estimate cost for this is about $9 and it'll make you several meals -- especially if you have side dishes like salad or bread.

what works

People (supportive, loving people, mind you) keep asking me how Weight Watchers is going. And it's going okay. I'm still struggling with eating enough, as counterintuitive as it sounds. Last week I noticed part of what is 'working' is that I am actually feeling hungry more often, rather than eating a light breakfast and feeling fine for 12 hours. So my challenge now is to keep lots of snackable items at hand, so that I can hear the rumbly in my tumbly and grab a fistful of popcorn or crackers or grapes or whatever, so that my metabolism keeps going.

The funniest thing/hardest thing is that even though I splurged all weekend (it's my birthday week, so I get some grace), and I STILL didn't get to my 'reserve' points. I went to Disneyland twice and had crack pasta, a meatball sandwich, ice cream, and soda [not all at once] and only came in at 2 points over my daily allotment. On Saturday night, we took some friends to see R.R.R.E.D. and went out to Lala's for dinner and gorged ourselves silly and I had extra bread, cheese, chimmichurri up the wazoo, and candy at the show and came in 9 points over my daily limit. WHAT?! And because I 'under-ate' on days before, I never even got close to my 35 reserve points. Ridiculous!

I have also been pretty surprised at the points on fast food items, especially in comparison to restaurant prepared foods. Like last week, Ryan and I went to lunch at Mimi's Café and I was considering a Turkey Ciabatta sandwich. I figured turkey is healthy, right? But somehow the sandwich is 32 points, which made me laugh so hard I cried (which, I think burns calories... hmmm....). On the other hand, a taco from Taco Bell (standard, crispy shell taco) is 3 points. So, um, I can eat 10 tacos or a turkey sandwich? Wuh? And because 2 tacos are all I need, I can have a 6 point lunch that is way tastier (to me) than a frozen Weight Watchers entrée.

So I'm still working on it. Or, it's working on me, I guess. I keep looking at those Laptop Lunches/Bento Box photo pools on Flickr and it's making me want to join in. Maybe that's the shove that I need to finally start making my own lunches (gasp!) and putting some thought into what goes into my belly. So if anyone wants to sell me a $75 plastic lunch system box, now is the time!!

Also this weekend, we managed to squeeze in 3 movies:

1. Super High Me - entertaining, not great
2. Sky High - not a stoner movie, like it sounds, and actually very funny and cute
3. Interview With The Vampire - total disappointment. Great subject matter, but completely cheesy. Tom Cruise doing the vampire bite? OMG, it looks like a characture.

never say DIEt

Yesterday, I went to my first (ever) Weight Watchers meeting. It was kind of what I expected... vaguely reminiscent of Alcoholics Anonymous but with more people peddling "what works for me." And, possibly, more charts and graphs. I don't know that AA makes you stare at candy colored charts and "nutrition wheels" and crap like that. But maybe they do. But if they do nobody is allowed to tell you. Them's the rules of Fight Club.

Anyway, the meeting was weird. Chock full of "no shit, Sherlock" moments. Like this gem "watch your portions" - no kidding?! The meeting leader was overly enthusiastic, as expected, but she was ok. The other people in the meeting were what was kind of strange. One lady swearing that just cutting out the wine was all you had to do and the pounds would melt off! Another was extolling the benefits of eating an apple before dinner to curb your appetite! All fine suggestions, but that isn't my problem. In fact, there was one other newcomer and we had to stay after the regular meeting to be given the spiel and we were asked which of the 2 WW programs we'd be using: the points system or the "core program." The lady beside me was enthusiastic about the core plan, because you can eat as much as you want! Whenever you want!! I myself selected points. For me, my problem isn't eating too much, but eating too little. She and the teacher both looked at me, slightly shell-shocked.

"But Mia!" you ask, "how do you keep your fat ass so jiggly and plump without eating?!" Well, friends, this is how it works. If you don't eat, your metabolism goes to sleep. And then you're tired after, say working all day, and at night you come home and maybe computron a bit, chase the kittens around the house, and then go to bed. So while your metabolism is resting comfortably, the rest of your body panics that maybe it will never eat again! Oh no! And so it stores up every morsel of everything you ate as fat, in case you need it later. And seeing as how I am a fairly upwardly mobile American, I don't have times of drought and starvation in my village, so the stores of fat never get called upon and instead just stay put. Forever. And yet my body never catches on that "hey, we've got a 17 day supply just right here in the wrist" and so it keeps stocking up, like a squirrel on crack.

SO. I need Weight Watchers and their stupid point system to remind me to eat. You should eat ALL of your points, every day. In fact, they even give you a slush fund of points, so you can go nuts one night and order the cheesecake. Which is very thoughtful of them. Based on my girth, I am allowed 23 points per day, plus a weekly slush fund of 35. It doesn't sound like much, but yesterday I had a chicken sandwich for lunch and a bean burrito for dinner and barely closed in on 10 points for the day. That's bad, you see.

To help me along, I invited my new friend Technology. There are a zillion websites that will give you recipes and point conversions for your favorite restaurants. But the best thing I have found so far is this Point Calculator that is free to use online and now comes in a convenient iPhone application. So now, I can track what I eat right then and there on my handy-dandy hitchhiker's guide and see how many points I have left, how much more water I should drink, etc. Super nice! The current version (1.5) is a daily tracker, but the next upgrade will include weekly tracking, so you can easily account for your roll-over points and chart your weekly progress. Sweet!

Today, I fared slightly better. It's 6pm and I am at 17 points. Of course, I am stuffed to the gills and don't want to eat a single thing more, but I am going to force myself to do it. I can make it to 23 by midnight! I can! I can! I can!