12/5/18

Weight Loss is HARD

Losing weight is hard.

I won't lie.

And as we age it is harder to get the weight off due to a more sedentary lifestyle, menopause (men and women) and loss of calorie-burning muscle mass.

Add to the fact that humans ache for instant gratification of instant weight loss.

It's so easy to put it on, why shouldn't it come off as quickly?

This has always been the case, and as much as we want to blame it on the Internet we really can't. You can go back in time to the bizarre exercise equipment of the past, or the amphetamine craze of the 70's, or even the Romans with their vomitoriums.

Why do you think women wore corsets?

To enhance their attributes (tiny waist, pushing boobs up and out, and enhancing hips for child-bearing), along with the side effect of improved posture (I dare you to try to slouch while wearing a corset!) and a teeny-tiny appetite, "She eats like a bird, barely taking a bite."

No wonder women fainted so much. It wasn't due to their 'delicate' constitutions, but a too tight corset!

Back on topic.

Weight loss is hard.

Weight loss as an older (read: middle aged) is harder.

But I know I'll feel better when I lose the weight. I know I'll be more active. I'll be more flexible. And I'll have more energy over all.

While I will have some not so good eating days, my goal is to have more good eating days in the long run.

Until later. Have a great Weighty Wednesday!

MAG's

11/28/18

Losing Weight . . . again

How many of us manage to lose a huge amount of weight, but then end up regaining the aforementioned weight?

*raises hand*

I have to admit that I'm really good at losing weight. Heck, I've managed to lose a lot of weight over my 50+ years.

First it was that pesky ten pounds, which, in turn, morphed into a twenty pound gain and loss, that has now become an off-and-on thirty pound issue.

In the past, I've done well on Weight Watchers. I'm a fan of their weight-loss program. I can lose the weight, but one problem that seems to rear it's ugly head is the fact that I can't seem to MAINTAIN my weight loss.

Weight maintenance is a different mindset than weight loss and I can't seem to wrap my head around the difference. I add back the calories to maintain, but over time I become lazy with my tracking, sloppy with my quantities, and lackadaisical with my weight-ins.

Enter Real Appeal.

There are a few perks to this particular program.

  • It's paid for by my insurance--BONUS #1
  • Meetings are online/phone--BONUS #2
  • It is a comprehensive program that includes nutrition, exercise and motivational encouragement
  • Plus the huge package of goodies is a bonus: exercise DVD's, food scale, weighing scale, and assorted booklets
  • The program is calorie oriented, but it breaks it down into usable information, such as fiber, protein, sugars, carbohydrates, etc.
  • Oh, and did I mention, IT'S FREE?!
Before I attended my first session, I downloaded the app to my phone.

Personally, I do much better with my weight loss when I'm accountable for everything that goes into my mouth by TRACKING everything I eat. I just feel stupid documenting "large spoonful of peanut butter", so I don't eat it.

Like most tracking apps they tend to be cluttered with other people's info, but the more you use certain products, the sooner the app learns to put your foods at the top of the list.

There are a few things I need to remember when I track:

  • Be honest with yourself--yes, you shoved that cookie in your mouth, it counts.
  • Be truthful with your quantities. Count, weigh and measure everything. Over time, we lose the ability to "eyeball" the correct amounts.
  • Be forgiving. We all have bad days. Just don't let the bad day turn into a bad week.
  • Be realistic. As an older, post-menopausal woman, it is harder to lose weight than it was when I was in my twenties.
That's a start for now!

MAGs

11/16/18

Foodie Friday--Magic Christmas Cookies

Sometimes the best surprises happen when one is forced to substitute.
Enjoy!

Magic Christmas Cookies


Soft and sandy texture

Different combinations added to the base cookie makes it magic.

 

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 cup salad oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups quick oats
3 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg, mix well, then add salad oil and vanilla, mixing well. Add oats, flour, soda, and salt.  Stir to combine. Cut dough in half.

Mix into ½ batch of dough, either:

Zest from one orange
½ cup craisins
½ cup white chocolate chips
½ cup chopped walnuts 

OR:

1 tsp. ground chipotle pepper
1/2 cup bacon crumbles, (Kirkland bacon crumbles-1 cup fried until toasty) drain on paper towels.
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted 

OR: 

¾ cup toasted coconut, (1 cup unsweetened coconut, toasted in pan)
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup toasted almond slices 

OR:

Zest from one orange
½ cup white chocolate chips
½ cup craisins
½ cup NaturSource salad topper mix (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, craisins)

OR: 

¾ cup Heath toffee bits with milk chocolate
½ cup chopped pecans
1 Tbls. ground cinnamon 

OR: 

½ cup fried bacon crumbles
Large pinch Hickory finishing salt
2/3 cup of mixed chocolate chips (Milk, mini, semi-sweet, butterscotch, white, sea salt caramel, etc) 

Using a cookie scoop (@ 2 Tbls), place balls on parchment lined cookie sheet, lightly flatten. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 2-4 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. 

Makes about 60 2-inch cookies.

 
Tips and Tricks:

·         Parchment paper is God’s gift to baking—no muss, no fuss, just toss it in the trash.

·         Some of the combinations were invented simply because I happened to have the ingredients on hand (bacon crumbles, salad topper seeds/craisin combination, oranges to zest).

·         To toast the bacon, coconut, almond slices, or pine nuts, just heat in skillet on the stovetop, tossing until they are as toasted as you want. Do not leave the room. It will seem like the ingredients are taking forever to toast, but as soon as you walk away they will burn. Don’t ask me how I know this…

·         When mixing in strong spice flavors (chipotle, hickory salt, and cinnamon) start with the amount suggested. Bake and taste a small sample cookie. The chipotle has a late burn, but it shouldn’t be an overpowering flavor, just unexpected. Same with the hickory salt. Don’t over do it.

·         I baked all the cookie combinations and took them to work. ALL cookies were demolished within 4 hours. Not a true taste testing, but many people liked the chipotle-bacon, hickory salt bacon and the coconut macaroon combinations the best. I’m a fan of the orange zest with seeds.

·         If you want to make smaller cookies, then go for it, but bake a few practice ones first to adjust your timing.

 

Enjoy!

11/3/18

Foodie Friday--Savory Meatloaf

I meant to publish this recipe a few weeks ago, but never sat down at the computer to get it accomplished. Oops...

Savory Meatloaf


 

2 lbs. ground beef
1 c. Kirkland bacon crumbles
1 onion, diced
1 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp. savory
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground mustard
½ tsp. pepper
1 clove garlic, minced, or ¼ tsp. garlic powder
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup Ciabatta bread, crumbed in Cuisinart


Preheat oven to 350◦F.

Prepare pan with parchment fitted to 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Fry bacon crumbles to render grease. Add onion, and sauté until onions are translucent and lightly browned. Mix spices into onion mixture, and then add milk. Stir to combine.

In large bowl, mix ground beef with egg and onion mixture. Add breadcrumbs to combine. Spread meat mixture in loaf pan.

Bake uncovered for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until meat thermometer reaches 160F.

 

Tips & Tricks:

·         My family hates raw onions, which is the reason I sautéed them.

·         Kirkland bacon crumbles were put into the recipe because I needed to use them up. BTW: they are found in the salad topper/condiment aisle.

·         Ciabatta bread because we had some mini ciabatta sandwich rolls that were getting old. Bread crumbs of any type work. If I didn’t have enough ciabatta, I had Panko bread crumbs on standby.

·         Parchment paper is AWESOME! I use it all the time for baking cookies to making fudge to reheating pizza. Just throw it away when you’re finished!

·         Fold a piece of parchment paper to fit into pan, then make a nice sharp edges and corners and staple them to keep the correct form. Keep paper long to use as “handles” when you take the meatloaf out of the pan to cut. This makes cleanup short and sweet. Take care. There is a lot of fat in this meatloaf so remove from pan near the sink in case of spillage.

10/8/18

Rite of Passage

There are so many rites of passage hurdles that must be crossed before we reach adulthood. Since I'm not a male, nor do I have a male child, I'll focus on female-types of rites of passage. It's what I'm familiar with.

From graduating kindergarten, to screaming girls at sleepovers, to the horrors of puberty, to entering high school, to celebrating a quinceañera or a sweet sixteen party, or even graduating high school to enter the next phase of life known as college, or pre-adulthood, as it is known to parents, for the simple reason parents usually foot the financial bill while the kiddos pretend to make grown-up decisions and push the boundaries without parental supervision. *PARTY!*

While all these occasions contain some form of emotional excitement there is one rite of passage that is traumatic for young women. It is never spoken about, but dread is the primary emotion.

I'm talking about graduating from the JUNIOR clothing department to WOMEN's clothing.

OMG!

Graduating from cute, skinny clothes to MOM clothes! The HORROR!

Young women reach this rite at varying times in their lives. Many adult women can still shop in the junior department especially if they are slender and are less endowed than other women.

And yes, I know of a few of these ladies (Hate them!), but alas, I'm not one of them.

My kidlet has been struggling with her new reality for a few years now. I can't force her to realize that having boobs puts a young lady firmly in the women's department and the realm of Mom clothes.
*sigh* I just wished the buyers for those departments would realize that no one wants to wear boxy, oversized, unattractive clothes, not this 57-year-old nor the 17-year old high school senior.

To all the moms out there who have faced, or will face, this rite of passage:

Hang in there! College is around the corner!
 
Thank you.

That is all.

MAG's

10/5/18

Foodie Friday -- Beef Stroganoff

I had every intention of trying a Martha Stewart beef stroganoff recipe, but a few things stood in my way. One it was a crockpot meal, which would have forced me to chop onions, mushrooms and meat at 5:30 in the morning prior to work.

Yuck. No thank you. Coffee and I have a special bonding moment at 5:30 in the morning. I'd hate to disrupt that particular ritual.

And two, it had Dijon mustard in it, which my family dislikes. I did think of sneaking it in this recipe, but forgot. Oops.

A few days earlier, I had purchased a 5-lb chuck roast from Costco, which I cut up into both cubes and strips while defatting it. I ended up with about 2-lbs of strips and 2-lbs of 3-inch strips (about 1/4-inch thick and 3/4-inch wide), which I tossed in the freezer. I'll use the cubed meat for chili or some sort of stew next week.

It's 4 PM and time to start cooking dinner...Improvise time!

Beef Stroganoff
 
2 lbs beef, sliced into strips (roughly 3-in long x 1/2-in wide x 1/4-in deep)
2 small onions, or one large onion, diced (or sliced, if you prefer. I think I will slice it next time)
1-lb mushrooms, cubed (sliced, if you prefer)
2 cups beef broth*
oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder
flour
8 oz. lite sour cream
 
1-lb egg noodles
 
1) Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in large Dutch oven pan on medium-high. Add onion and mushrooms, cook until tender about 6-8 minutes. Season lightly with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Remove from pan, leaving juices, and add meat. Brown meat, about 4-5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a couple Tablespoons of flour. Stir until flour is cooked, about 1 minute.
 
2) Return onions and mushrooms to pan. Add beef broth. Stir.
 
3) Lightly cover (angle lid instead of placing it tightly on), and turn heat down to keep beef at a strong simmer. Cook for 1-2 hours or until broth thickens to a gravy. ** Adjust seasoning at this time, but you probably won't need to add anything. Just saying.
 
4) Cook pasta according to directions. Drain.
 
5) Stir sour cream into beef mixture.
 
6) Place noodles on plate and spoon beef stroganoff over noodles.
 
Enjoy!
 
Tips and Tricks
  • * I never have beef broth, or chicken broth for that matter, in the house . . . ever. But what I always have is Better Than Bouillon, chicken and beef. For this recipe, I used about 1 Tablespoon of beef Better than Bouillon, along with 2 cups of water.  
  • ** I cooked my stroganoff about 1 1/2 hours. It just worked out that way. If you use a more marbled cut of beef, it will become less tough the longer it is braised as the fat will break down. My inspiration for this recipe was guided by Paula Deen who cooks her meal for only 45 minutes. Slower = more tender.  
  • If you want to cook the beef first, then the onions and mushrooms. Go for it! It doesn't really matter. 


10/3/18

Life is full of Rejection


Life is full of Rejection


 

Get used to it.

Sorry to burst your happy bubble, but I’m a realist.

Life is rejection.

It starts at an early age when a parent must deny a child, whether it is during the weaning process, or the extra dessert, or the potentially dangerous things kids can get into as they grow up. The older we become the rejections segue into the romantic arena (who hasn’t been crushed by their crush?), school (last pick in gym class, raise your hand *raises hand*), and other extracurricular activities such as dance (sorry, not flexible enough), sports (sorry, not fast or skilled or up to the same level enough), or the arts (Meh, it’s a picture, albeit a nice picture).

Until finally, when true adulthood arrives, you are writing your resume for your dream job. You’re happy in the knowledge that they have to pick you out of the 100 of your fellow job seekers.

But they don’t pick you. Not even an interview, much less a thanks-but-not-for-us letter.

And without feedback as to how to ‘boost’ your resume to the top of the stack, what do you do? How can you tailor your resume to fit their needs? How do you find out what exactly they are looking for?

You don’t. Rejection sucks, doesn’t it?

As a writer I’ve been rejected A LOT, from contest entries to agents to editors at publishing houses. We’re talking rejections in the THOUSANDS. The responses have been no response (no response = no, right?) to generic “not for me” rejections to negative comments, namely “not good enough”.

The hardest part of rejection is to figure out what to do after having your soul crushed. Do you keep trying? Do you switch gears? Do you give up? Or do you dig deeper?

I’ve done all of the above. I think writing historical romance to fantasy to middle grade to picture/chapter books and, finally, back to fantasy could be considered ‘switching’ gears.

And no, I haven’t found that elusive magic elixir. . . yet.

After a long writing break that segued into rejoining the working force, I think I’m ready to take baby steps into the writing arena again. Rejuvenating my blog is a start. Maybe I’ll be able to dig deeper into my soul to pull the rawness out of my hidden psyche to craft a story.

To paraphrase (actually, I’m brutally ripping off the concept, not paraphrasing) one of my favorite shows, FORGED IN FIRE, “It’s not what the rejection does to you, but what you do when you receive the rejection.

I don’t care who you are, rejection hurts.

But when rejection happens…it’s how you deal with it that molds you into the person you can become.  

Peace,

MAGolla