Battling the Bulge Part 2 - #Freestyling Food by Leah St. James

In my earlier post this month, I shared my favorite fitness routines for those who might be looking for some ideas on adding activity to their days. (Getting in shape is the No. 1 New Year’s resolution this year after all!) Now it’s time to talk about one of my favorite things: food.

I love to eat. I always have. I’m one of those people who thinks about what I’ll have for dinner while I’m eating lunch. Over the course of my life, much of which was spent overweight, I’ve come to realize that food is my drug of choice. I eat when I’m happy, when I’m bored, but most of all, when I’m stressed. (I keep a bag of raw veggies at my desk for obvious reasons.) 

When I finally lost weight back in 2008, it wasn’t so much beating that addiction, but learning to live with it to maintain a healthier weight. Then I got lazy and over time gained back about 15 pounds. So back on Weight Watchers I went in November, and I’d like to share my experiences with the program and its new “Freestyle” plan.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or in any way trained or expert in nutrition. These opinions and observations are mine alone, based only on my personal experiences.

Basics: Weight Watchers uses a system of points for accounting for the food you eat. Food points are a combination of calories, fat, proteins, carbohydrates and who knows what else. Certain foods (most fruits and vegetables, certain lean meats) are zero points, which encourage users to make those healthier food choices.

The program also counts activity points which, from what I can tell, are loosely based on the length of the activity and the intensity of the workout.

Each day you get x-number of points to spend/eat. You also get 35 extra points for the week which you can spend over the course of the week, or all in one day if you’d like. (Although I have to say, that would be one whopping day of eating.) Your activity points are factored in as well, so the more you work out, the more you can eat. (I like that part of it!) Also, Weight Watchers lets you count things like vacuuming and mopping floors as activity. (Not that I enjoy housework, but at least you get credit for it!)

Recently, Weight Watchers introduced its Freestyle plan, which increased the number of zero-point foods, including almost all fruits and vegetables (although alas no potatoes or sweet potatoes), chicken breast, turkey breast, eggs (yes, whole eggs), beans and more. At the same time, daily points limits were reduced to balance out the change.

I’ve been on the plan (pre-Freestyle and Freestyle) for about three months and have had some success. Here are my observations:

What I like:
I love the zero points on vegetables and chicken/turkey breast. That means if I eat a grilled chicken breast and some steamed veggies for dinner (no bread or potatoes), that’s ZERO POINTS. That means I can have a small dish of frozen yogurt for dessert and maybe a snack a bit later in the evening! And that makes me happy. 

I love the Weight Watchers website. I can create my own recipes and play around with the ingredients to make the per-serving points workable for me. The mobile app has a scanner that allows you to simply scan a bar code while you’re shopping to find out the points values of that food! Very cool. So if I’m looking at two brands of bread and want to buy the one that’s lower points, it’s quick and easy.

This was my dinner a few days ago -- homemade turkey meatballs (made with 98% lean ground turkey breast), a small scoop of spaghetti with sauce and steamed broccoli. It was pretty yummy, if I do say so! (Eating "healthy" can be a challenge when you're married to a meat-and-potatoes guy like I am. I just have to make it work for me.)

I like that I can track my food in advance to get the day’s total and figure out what changes I might want to make before I actually eat the food. It’s a huge help with social events or dinners out. And you don’t have to count zero-point foods, so the new Freestyle plan means spending less time tracking food.

I like the points system. I have tried My Fitness Pal in the past, which is a really good option if you prefer a free site, but you have to watch calories, carbs, fats, etc., for each food. It’s too much for me. Weight Watchers does the calculations for me. (I don’t need added stress while I’m trying to lose weight!)             

What I’m cautionary about:
"Free" fruits. As much as I love that I can eat fruit all day “for free,” I have a son who’s diabetic, and I know how much sugars are in fruits. I also so know that sugars are not great for us. They serve a purpose in overall nutrition, but too much is...too much. I love fruit, but I limit myself to one or two pieces of fruit a day. (When I first went on Weight Watchers back in 2008, fruits were not free.)

Tips to make it work for you:
One word: Planning.
Seriously, you can eat anything you want on Weight Watchers, but you have to plan for it and account for it. It does take effort, but for me that’s a good thing. Mindless eating is a perfect path to weight gain for me, especially because I use food as an emotional crutch. Weight Watchers forces me to pay attention to what I’m eating and to be purposeful about my choices. I won’t stay on the program forever – mostly because I’m cheap and don’t want to pay forever – but I hope by then I’ll have retrained myself to make better choices.

If you’re battling your bulges and are considering Weight Watchers, I hope this helps give you an idea about the program and whether it might work for you. 

If you have a favorite program or system to track what you eat, we'd love to hear about it! I'm always looking for new ideas.


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Leah writes stories of mystery and romance, good and evil and the power of love. As you might guess, her food addiction finds its way into much of her writing, and she often eats vicariously through her characters, many of whom don’t have to Battle the Bulge. Lucky stiffs. 

Learn more at leahstjames.com. Her days to blog here are the 6th and 22nd each month.

Scents of Fall

By Betsy Ashton

One of my favorite fall memories is of scents. Smells. Burning leaves. Burning hillsides. Hot soups and stews. Roasts and turkeys and hams and chickens.

Wait a minute. Did she say "burning hillsides." Yes. I grew up in Southern California where the hills are designed by nature to burn. No one should be surprised with the grease-brush covered desert hills burst into flames somewhere every year. Happens. Can't stop it by building in those same hills.

But, this post isn't about burning hillsides. It's about the homey smells that came from my grandmother's and mother's kitchens. As soon as the fall vegetables hit the farm stores and grocery shelves, my grandmother was there, buying every root vegetable in sight. Our counter tops would be laden with potatoes and onions and yams, carrots and celery (alright, celery technically isn't a root vegetable, but it's a soup vegetable), turnips and parsnips and rutabagas. Yellow and green and patty pan squash. Fresh tomatoes for color. Chicken or turkey stock when we had it. Otherwise, just the vegetable stock that came from cooking.

My mother and I peeled and chopped. My grandmother stirred the huge soup pot. Late in the process my grandmother would throw in a handful of barley and rice. No measurements. Just a pinch of this, a dash of that. She didn't know much about seasonings other than salt and pepper, so the flavors of the veggies were the stars of the soup.

When my grandmother passed, my mother took up the knife. And when my mother passed, it was my turn. I start with the same basic vegetables, but I differ in the seasonings. I know from garlic. I know from fresh herbs. Sage. Oregano. Dill. Rosemary. Thyme. No salt. Plenty of fresh pepper. Like a two-finger wide swath that goes from pot edge to pot edge to add a smoky flavor. Chicken stock from an early dinner that's been in the freezer for a few months. Shredded chicken to add substance, fresh cooked. Maybe some kidney beans. Definitely tomato paste and sauce. Maybe some spinach or kale or shredded cabbage. Maybe a handful of pasta.

This weekend is veggie soup weekend. I'll make several gallons, both to eat and to freeze. We'll eat it with crusty bread dipped in the broth. And we'll remember my mother and grandmother with every bite.

Visit Betsy's website at www.betsy-ashton.com 

A Frightening Glimpse of Weird Weather to Come…

By Glenys O'Connell @GlenysOConnell

A report just out says that global warming is going to cost 60 trillion dollars over ten years - an amount equal to the (annual)global economy.

So often, we think these issues don't really affect us. Here in Ontario, we don’t usually get massive tornadoes or hurricanes like they do in some parts of the world, but it seems the weather is definitely changing. This summer came late and hot,  following on the heels of heavy rains that delayed some garden activities and farm crops.

We’ve had huge rain storms with record breaking rainfall; 98 degree humidity, and breathtaking wind storms and thunderous light shows. We have spent days under tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, and humidex warnings. Humidex scores boosted 34 degree weather into the stratosphere.

Power usage skyrocketed as we tried to keep cool. We were lucky - the infrastructure is sound and we experienced only brief power outages. But we see reflected in television news the affects on other places. Systems failed. Floods. Drought. Crop damage.

In the last storm, strong winds brought down two trees on our small property and seriously damaged several others. But the storm damage was amazingly random. My favourite birch tree was split in two, while the delicate grape arbour next to it was unscathed, leaving the tenderly cared for two year old grapevine to nurture its precious cargo of fruit. Century old cedar trees stood firm by the house, yet a strong young cedar in their shelter on the boundary line was uprooted and crashed onto the lawn.

Tall spears of Yucca were battered, their blossoms mutilated, while fragile calliopsis, though beaten down, rose up to again greet the warming sun with little damage. The seven feet tall Golden Glow,

just coming into flower, were smashed to the ground while the exotic clematis next to them managed to cling to the upright trellis and come through without a scratch.

Many flowering plants have put out mostly foliage – the heavy rains mashed my beautiful peonies into mush and other plants like lilacs and hydrangeas have had spectacular but short lived blooms.

It seems that even in this remote and pristine spot, surrounded by forests, rocks and freshwater lakes, we’re not immune to climate change. Anyone who grows their own vegetables can see firsthand the impact the weather can have on our food supplies.

Climate change is a creeping – and sometimes galloping – reality. For a writer, the dramatic effects can offer some great plot ideas and exciting visions.

But for the earth, well, not so much.

We waste too much. Use too much. Destroy too much. We take too much from the earth and give too little back. Animals and plants, a vital but often unrecognised part of out interdependency on this planet, are going extinct at alarming rates.

It's time, way past time, for all of us to think what we can do, and to press our governments to change direction before - well, before we go the way of the dinosaurs.

Meanwhile, back in the veggie garden the broccoli, lettuce and Chinese cabbage (bok choi) all bolted with the heat. In the sudden cool spell, the peas and beans are flourishing, but the zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers all look like they can’t make their minds up whether to produce or not. The cherry trees blossomed in heavy rain and pollination was, to use a cliché, a washout. The apple trees are bravely hanging onto their fruit but too many sharp temperature changes – it went from 29C yesterday to  5C here last night – could cause them to drop.

Still, we’re out there planting and replanting, cleaning up the damage, chopping wood and staking the plants that need it, deadheading and pruning. I’m expecting a sudden growth and high speed production towards the end of August and early September among the surviving veggies, although that means we’ll probably have a lot of green tomato chutney this winter!

 

 

Glenys O'Connell has retreated to the Middle of Nowhere, where she tries to keep her From her footprint on the earth small. On her back patio, where she does much of her writing in the summer, she can watch deer, raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels and the occasional bear passing by. She loves to hear from readers and can be contacted through her web site at www.glenysoconnell.com or by email at RomanceCanBeMurder@hotmail.ca

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