I blogged recently about the new ABC show, My Diet is Better than Yours. I’m not sure I’ll write about it every week, but thought enough happened last week to write about it again here.
A second so-called fitness/diet expert got booted by the person she was trying to train. The cLean Momma Diet is history for this season, it seems, and the advocate of it got a bit testy when she got the boot, blaming her contestant for not following the plan. Really, sour grapes? Bad form, I’d say.
The No diet Plan is , so far, my favorite, but it does have a diet component, drop the processed foods and eat more fruits and veggies — not exactly rocket science but something most people have trouble doing.
My 2012 angioplasty set me on a path to change my eating habits to lessen the chance of future heart problems. I went on to drop nearly 30 pounds over the first two years after the surgery.
But 2015 proved a setback year for me, so much so that last week I went out to buy some 40-inch-waist pants again, after having thrown out the ones I had back in 2012.
Nathan’s hot dogs and waffle fries, wondrous stuff that led to my gaining six pounds in four days of New York City eating
Studies have pointed to increased risk fo heart problems for men with waists larger than 38 or 39 inches.
I’ve hovered between 38 and 40 most of my adult life, getting as high as a 44 at one point. I find my equilibrium waist, the size I feel most comfortable with, is normally around 39, which puts me in dubious territory heart-wise.
So what happened last year? I got tired of always being hungry, for one thing. Also, a variety of external stress factors as the year wore on simply wore down my resolve to eat well.
I gained 14 pounds over the course of the year, but six pounds of that came in December thanks to a trip to the place of my birth, New York City, where I ate all the foods I grew up loving — all high in fat, sugar, salt and calories.
My eating binge continued into the Christmas-New Year’s holidays as I once again ate chocolate and candies I have largely given up.
With a new year here now, it’s time for me to jump back on the low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar bandwagon, which will mean a return to hunger pangs but, also hopefully, a return to a smaller waist size as I drop enough pounds to go back to my 38-inch-waist pants.
Processed meats, such as hot dogs and cold cuts, are full of sodium and other things that have led me and many others to avoid them in recent years. I’m always amused by Subway calling its sandwiches healthy when they’re filled with high-sodium processed meats, for example.
Nathan’s hot dogs and waffle fries, wondrous stuff.
I posted recently about trying rice toast on a recent visit with my son and daughter-in-law in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. I had the toast at a farm-to-table place called the Co-Op Creamery.
My rice bread find from Minneapolis. A nice low-salt alternative to high-sodium white breads.
Not sure what the nutritional profile was for rice bread, I sought it out later in my visit while we were shopping at the Seward Co-op my son belongs to and shops at.
Fennel at Trader Joe’s is a convenient package. Fennel is normlaly a fall product but many stores now stock it year-round.
Some of the recipes sound great but wouldn’t fit with my post-angioplasty diet, like the luscious-looking leg of lamb. I miss fatty, juicy lamb.
Leg of lamb was the Easter Sunday dinner I was cooking back in 1986 when my father died of a heart attack at my home. I’ve seldom cooked it since, and not at all in the past three years since my surgery.
Lamb aside, hats off to Bon Appetit for this roundup.
My recent American Heart Association 5k gave me a chance to speak with some representatives of the Meijer chain when I was done. They were handing out healthy eating tips at the end of the event. I picked up a sheet titled Easy Healthy Snacks and a second called More for a Healthier You.
Me with the heart mascot, sporting my survivor’s cap and beads for each year since my 2012 surgery.
I found the healthier snacks online in the form of a video too:
Many of the 15 snacks on the list appeal to me, surprising given what a picky eater I tend to be when it comes to anything called healthy. Apple slices, baby carrots, peach slices and whole grain English muffins all are snacks I have these days on my low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar diet. Continue reading “Healthy snack ideas from Meijer’s”→
Me with the heart mascot, sporting my survivor’s cap and beads for each year since my 2012 surgery.
Survivors of heart attacks and strokes receive special heart association baseball caps for the event, red for heart attack survivors, white for stroke survivors. They, I, also get strings of mardi gras-like beads, one for each year they have survived. I received three strands of beads this year, the third since my 2012 angioplasty.
Putting that hat on brought me to tears in 2014, the first year I participated, and it did so again this year. It is the only affirmation I get, really, that I have survived a massively traumatic event and am still alive. Continue reading “My second heart walk – a very moving experience”→
Mondelez International, maker of Oreos, caught my attention last week when it said it wanted to make more healthy snacks.
“Management stated that it plans to offer more good-for-you snacks and expects 50% of its product portfolio to comprise “well-being” items by 2020 instead of one-third at present.
Mondelez has to compete with fruit for the healthy snack trade, can it?
“Apart from simplifying the ingredients and improving nutritional benefits of the existing products, the snacking giant will also develop products to cater to the growing consumer demand for healthier and natural items,” reported investment site Zacks.
Welcome to the dilemma facing major food processors today. I love Oreos, absolutely love them so know that I am not a Oreo basher by any means.
Three years ago today, I was having heart surgery and didn’t know if I’d survive the day.
And now, as I write this, I’m on a plane flying away for a long weekend get-away with my wife. The juxtaposition of those events is difficult for me to fathom many days.
Trans fats, which unfortunately Americans have been eating for the past half century or so, are finally being banned from U.S. foods. The Food and Drug Administration finally has set a deadline for the complete elimination of partially hydrogenated oils, the main source of trans fats in our diets, from things like cake frosting, microwave popcorn, cakes, cookies and other things we used to think tasted good.Bye bye trans fafts. Maybe now movie popcorn will get healthier.
The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal 