HELLO AGAIN

I throw a "before" picture up here now and again to help new readers visualize me in my former life!

SKINNY SONGS

Just got this album and I love it. Some great songs to listen to in the car, put on your iPod for working out or play around the house.

I got mine from the good folks at www.amazon.com and if you buy two, you avoid paying shipping while having a spare one to give to a friend.

HAPPIER DAY

This morning I managed to run 7 miles without significant pain and then do 2 miles on the elyptical - O the joy!!! I guess that means the medication is working, the issue was no more than inflammation of the sciatic nerve and above all, I can get back to regular exercise.

It's like I got my life back.

Sick, I know, but that's the way I'm wired nowadays!

HAPPY DAY

Man, am I relieved. I just got home from the gym and while I'm not back to my normal routine, I did a reasonable workout and my leg isn't bothering me at all.

I was crippled just walking three miles last Monday and have done nothing since except go see the doctor, take strong anti-inflammatories - and shovel a fair bit of snow on Friday of course. So today I was nervous about how things would go and took it steady.

I walked 2.5 miles, did 1.25 miles on the elyptical, lifted some weights and then ran 1.25 miles. It's not as much as I usually do, but it's a heck of a lot more than I've been able to accomplish for weeks now.

I guess the pills are working!

1 POINT BROWNIES

Here's a great recipe I got this morning, together with a sample of the end product. In the interest of my members I decided to do what any good leader would do and try the brownie before I posted the recipe.

Oustanding!

Note for Weight Watchers members:

Although the ingredients are totally from the Core Plan, when core ingredients are combined to make something that is not core (like cakes, bread, cookies, etc) the end product is not core. But these are the best 1 Point you'll eat this week!

CORE INGREDIENTS BROWNIES

Preheat oven to 350

1 Cup (or more) rolled oats ground to provide 3/4 cup ground oatmeal "flour"

1/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 cup Splenda

1 Pkt sugar free/fat free instant chocolate jello pudding (small)

1/2 cup fat free milk or water

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, pudding mix, cocoa, Splenda, baking soda and salt, mix well.

Stir in applesauce, eggs milk/water, and vanilla. Mix well.

Spray 8"x 8" square pan with cooking spray, spread batter evenly into pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

IT'S THAT CHILI

I promised several members this morning that I'd post this here today - so here goes.

BEST EVER CHILI
1lb 93% lean ground beef
1 large onion
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can fat free refried beans
1 can corn
1 16oz can chopped tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 4oz can green chilies
1 package taco seasoning
1 packet Hidden Valley dressing (not buttermilk) dry mix - totally optional

Chop onion and brown ground beef. Add the rest of the ingredients – do not drain anything. Bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

CORE or 1 Point per cup

ICE CREAM BLOG

I just discovered that my comments some months ago about Turkey Hill's fat free, no sugar added icea cream were discovered by someone from the company and were quoted on the Turkey Hill blog -

http://icecreamjournal.turkeyhill.com/index.php/2007/10/19/the-best-two-points-youll-have-all-day/

Whodda thunk it???

AND THE ANSWER IS ...

Okay, so I know you've been checking here all day to see how I got on at the gym this morning and while I appreciate your concern, the sad answer is that I didn't go!

I was awake so much during the night because of the pain in my leg that I didn't get up early enough for my new look workout.

Started taking the medication today so hopefully tomorrow will be different!

CHALLENGES

Just got back last night from a trip to Georgia for a two day pastor's conference. I felt really good sitting in the session entitled The Healthy Leader, because I clearly had a jump on a lot of the delegates in that area.

Being away from home generally presents its own challenges and this was no exception, but with a little extra effort, I was able to stay on program well throughout the whole trip. One lifesaver was the box of WW Lemon Dream bars I took with me for low point snacks and the other was simply making careful choices when eating out.

I didn't fare as well with exercise as my leg was causing me severe pain all weekend. I walked through it on Monday morning, but paid the price the rest of the day, calling home to my doctor's office to make an appointment to see him as soon as I got back to New York.

He reckons it's sciatica, so I've got anti-inflammatories and orders to rest the leg whenever I can. So working out will be interesting.

I'll let you know what happens at the gym in the morning with no running or walking on the agenda.

PUSHING THROUGH

Since getting a weights routine from a trainer on Tuesday I have not been back to the gym. My calf muscle has been playing up again and my right leg has been throbbing with the pain sometimes.

It's frustrating as I want to get stuck into the program I was given, so I'm heading out tomorrow morning to give it my best shot.

My right knee is too painful to run and the calf muscle is giving me grief too - not sure what this is all about, but I do know I need to burn off calories I take in!

OATMEAL BAR CAKE

Here's another recipe someone shared with me at WW a couple of weeks ago. I haven't tried it as cakes and cookies are my second biggest weakness (after ice cream of course!) -

OATMEAL BAR CAKE
2 Eggs
1 Cup smimmed milk
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Cup Splenda

Mix all these ingredients together.

Then add -

1/2 Cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 Ripe bananas mashed
1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
Cinnamon to taste
2 Cups 1 minute oatmeal folded into mixture

Spray a 9x9 pan and pour batter into pan.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, Check for doneness.
Cool and cut into six pieces.

One Point

STEPPING IT UP

Having kept to a totally cardio workout program for almost three years, today I kicked things up a notch by having a session with a personal trainer and having him design a weight training program for me.

When I first got on a treadmill at Fitness Plus in Port Jeff Station, it was all I could do to walk for twenty minutes at 3 mph. I've gradually increased things from there until I've been running an average of five days a week, covering a total of around 40 miles.

Now, I don't have any aspirations to looking like Rambo, but if I could firm things up a bit and strengthen my legs for this summer's races, I'd be very happy.

So now I'll do cardio three days a week and weights three days a week, with Saturdays off because of the early start at WW!

ICE CREAM HEAVEN

I've got a thing about ice cream, as regular readers already know.

I blame it on the fact that I spent most of my life in the deprivation imposed by a country where there were only three flavors available - vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. If you wanted to go really crazy, you bought Neopolitan which was one third of each.

So when I hit the USA and its three million and ninety seven flavors, I fell in love with ice cream in a whole new way. On visits to the country, I soon discovered that whenever I had a lay over in JFK there was a Baskin Robbins in TWA's domestic terminal. Sadly Baskin Robbins is no longer there and TWA domestic is now Jetblue, but in all honesty it's the loss of the former that really upsets me.

Anyway, one of the finds of this past few months has been Turkey Hill's fat free and sugar free ice cream that is only 2 Points per cup. Up until now I have only seen it in Vanilla Bean, but tonight I had a life-changing experience while walking along the row of freezers in King Kullen, Ridge.

Not only was the beloved dessert on special, but they had it in other flavors - Dutch Chocolate and Cherry Fudge Swirl. Oh the joy!

The Cherry Fudge Swirl is quite incredible - I love this country!

WOW

I'm amazed at the number of people who have told me within the past twenty four hours that they read this blog. Some seemed very unlikely - even people from other countries! I guess you never know where words will land once you throw them into cyberspace!

We had some good friends with us today that we hadn't seen in a long while, so following an afternoon of reminiscing and catching up, we headed down the road to the Coram Diner to get a bite to eat (two poached eggs on a dry toasted English muffin, by the way). They looked at the dinner specials and two of them chose to split one. Here's what was included -

Spinach Pie
Soup
Salad
Roast chicken, Baked potato, red cabbage
Carrot cake
Glass of wine

Having shared this ton of food, they were still unable to finish it, but here comes the scarey bit ... I realized that a few years ago I would have eaten every part of a meal like that myself and dipped heavily into the bread basket too.

That folks, is too much food. It may be value for money, but there's some point at which we need to realize that enough is enough and a heart attack is simply not worth it.

It was insane!

BEST EVER CHILI

We've gone through hundreds of copies of this recipe at WW in recent weeks and I intended printing up some more for tomorrow, but ... we have had some major printer issues today and I can't run them off.

So here it is -

1lb 93% lean ground beef
1 large onion
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can fat free refried beans
1 can corn
1 16oz can chopped tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 4oz can green chilies
1 package taco seasoning
1 packet Hidden Valley dressing (not buttermilk) dry mix

Chop onion and brown with ground beef. Add the rest of the ingredients - do not drain anything. Bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

CORE
FLEX - 1 Point per cup

PLANNING

Had a full day yesterday on whirlwind trip to the Florida Keys, which proved to be a classic example of how to handle things when your routine is totally interrupted.

So for what it's worth, here's my survival routine.

+ I packed three snacks in my bag - two 2 Points and one 1 Point
+ Since I left home at 4.40am, I didn't eat breakfast, but I did grab a 7-11 coffee, and then ate a 2 Pointer on the plane rather than take their chips.
+ I ate another snack on the drive from Fort Lauderdale down to the Keys.
+ Needing to grab lunch on the road, I looked for and found a Subway where I had a 7 Points sandwich
+ The final snack - I Point - went on the drive back to the airport.
+ At the airport I ate a personal pizza (13 Points) and a banana (2 Points)
+ A cup of 7-11 coffee on the ride home from JFK very late at night.

27 Points for the day - one over my allowance, which isn't bad for a day that could have been totally out of my control. It can be done!

And the extra one came from my 35 of course!

SUPERBOWL SURVIVAL TIPS

Here we go for the second biggest eating event on the American calendar after Thanksgiving - Superbowl Sunday. And here are a few ideas of how to safely navigate its hazards.

1. Stock up on zero calorie drinks and remember even light beer is 2.5 points.

2. Low fat pretzels give you far more bulk than chips and mustard makes a good zero points dip.

3. Go for a fresh fruit or vegetable tray rather than a cheese tray.

4. Plain yogurt makes a good dip instead of sour cream and vegetable salsa is healthy too of course.

5. Chili can be filling and tasty too - just use a low points recipe.

6. Make your own chicken fingers from skinless chicken breasts and season with buffalo sauce - much better than wings!

GO GIANTS!