What Is Your Trigger Point?

Why can't you get started?

How many nights do you get ready for bed and say to yourself: "Wow, I really ate too much today. Tomorrow I need to start losing weight"?

How many mornings do you weigh yourself and say: "This is it. Today I get control of my eating"?

Then you have a big breakfast (after all, you've heard that is good for you) and maybe a pastry or other mid-morning snack. Next there's lunch with a friend (where you eat more than you should, but stop paying attention half-way through the meal).

Maybe some chips, nuts or cookies in the afternoon (a bag could have 600 or more calories and lots of fat). If you don't also go out for dinner, you may "just grab something" (that happens to be calorie-laden). Or you cook something delicious (maybe something also loaded with calories) -- and over-eat that.

Lastly, there's the popcorn in the evening (not the buttered kind, so it can't have many calories, can it?). And maybe some wine or other beverage to go with it.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

What is the trigger point? The thing that makes it happen?

Confetti Chili

This may not be your idea of a chili. Maybe because it has no meat? Maybe because it's not brown and all a mishmash?

It's really a colorful confetti-like one-bowl dish that has beans, tofu and many of the ingredients you might find in a conventional chili. Much more delicate, though, with a hint of north Africa. It's super quick, too.

I hope you like it.

Let's Have a Pizza

What's the harm?

The other night I decided to make a small pizza for myself. I had some left-over tomato sauce and some kalamata olives and just needed the mozzarella cheese to go with a crust I would make myself.

So, I got some part-skim mozzarella cheese and was ready to go, when I saw this Boboli "thin pizza crust." 

Only 170 calories, it screamed out on the wrapper. Thin, it said, so it can't be all bad. I decide to try it out and went home to make the pizza, which I intended to eat without paying attention to the calories, fat, etc. Just because.

Keeping a Healthy Weight on Vacation

Does a vacation spell DOOM for a healthy weight?

My family (7 of us) just wrapped up a two-week lakeside vacation. I had many challenges to sticking with a healthy weight plan, some met better than others.

Here are some of the challenges I faced, and my strategies for dealing with them.

Thai Curry Chicken with Zoodles

This is not the Indian curry you might be expecting, but a delicate Thai concoction that is more red than yellow. It is only mildly hot. If you like it hotter, add pepper flakes or a hot sauce. The addition of kale rounds out and brightens the chicken, plus it adds fiber. Use fresh basil, if possible.