Eat (at home).

My friend Bill wrote to me a few weeks back and asked how I was doing on my own quest to lose 10 pounds. Back in October, the numbers on the scale had crept up a bit too much and I began writing about my own experience to lose 10 pounds. After a month or so, my 10pound updates were consumed by other blog writing and, quite honestly, I didn't know if anyone was reading or if my observations were actually serving anyone else. I don't blog for me and in the absence of feedback or support to continue telling my story, I stopped. Thank you, Bill, for letting me know you did read and for taking the time to send me a note to check in on my progress!

Since my last update (11/15 at 127 pounds), we've had the holiday season and traveling and 2011 started off with more travel and many more meetings. Last week for example, nearly every meal was at a restaurant for lunch and dinner meetings on top of which I had a nasty cough so didn't do any cardio work for fear I'd cough up a lung. The scale on Sunday morning was 133. I grumbled about the house for a little while. It is so frustrating to make progress and then go in the opposite direction. Grrrrrr.

Since Sunday evening, I've prepared every meal for myself. The scale this morning? 130. I've lost 1 pound a day for three days in a row. I'm eating whatever I want, including having wine with dinner. Granted, when I made my Move.Eat.Be. plan for the week, the foods I chose were healthy. I concocted kale and white bean casseroles in my new little Le Creuset pots (I love them!) with a side salad and bread (yes, I'm eating bread!). Last night was poached salmon with tomato and green onion sauce (cooked in 2 TBS of butter), side salad, a left-over mini casserole and more bread. Tonight is roast chicken with root vegetables. Lunches are leftovers or salad greens with hummus, mushrooms and avocado. Breakfast is (usually always) banana, blueberries (frozen, wild, organic), other fresh fruit as available, topped with ground flaxseed and accompanied by almonds. I had a cookie last night. And, I've done a workout each morning and am following along to most of our 10-to Workday Workout program.

The moral of this story? Eat at home! It is much less expensive. It is much better for you. And, honest, it does not take that much time to cook dinner. Please don't be freaked out by the cooking shows and the celebrity chefs who use 10 pans, 20 bowls and claim you can cook like them in 30 minutes (sure you can, if there is a crew prepping for you and cleaning up after you).

Take the poached salmon. It literally took me 20 minutes from start to table like so:

1. Turn oven to 350⁰
2. Put water on to boil
3. Slice green onions and salmon filet into 1" wide serving pieces (sprinkle with salt and pepper)
4. Put mini-casseroles in oven to reheat
5. Make a salad dressing (olive oil, balsamic, dijon mustard, pepper, salt, thyme)
6. Stage sauce ingredients (grape tomatos, 2 TBS butter, sliced green onions, salt, pepper) near stovetop
7. Put salmon into boiling water (cooks in 10 minutes for 1" inch think slices)
8. Slice bread and pour some olive oil into a dish with freshly ground pepper
9. Put plates on counter. Set the table. Pour wine.
10. Heat butter in skillet
11. Poor a wee bit of salad dressing into bag of salad greens. Shake.
12. Put tomatoes in skillet with butter, cook for 2 minutes, add green onions. Cook for 2 more minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
13. Take salmon out of water
14. Plate (salmon with sauce on top next to salad). Slices of lemon. 
15. Retrieve casseroles from oven
16. Carry to table
17. Sit. Eat. Enjoy.
18. Cleanup took less than 10 minutes, including hand-washing the cookware.

Going out to eat is one of my very favorite things to do. But, until we can implement The Real Food Label in our restaurants, it is very difficult to understand what is really in the food we eat when we're out. And, I fear the additives and quality of the food when eating out (there are very few organic restaurants) has a negative impact on my ability to avoid weight gain. I'm amazed by how three days of eating at home has made such a big difference. Do yourself, and your scale, a favor.... create a Move.Eat.Be. plan each week and explore the rewards from your own cooking. 

Follow-Up on Manwich

Up early, good exercise and some time this morning reading comments on yesterday's redux blog on Manwich led me to see if there were any updates on the ConAgra website since they didn't have nutritional information when last I checked. Goodness... are we going to have fun with this for a few days!

Yes, ConAgra has updated and launched a new site for Product Nutrition information. Excellent, I thought. I will go and search for Manwich and see what I can find. Should be easy, right? ConAgra would want their consumers to quickly find the information they are seeking, right? Ha!

I would consider myself a pretty savvy web user and... this is one of the most confusing, difficult-to-use search features I've ever encountered. For the record, the idea of the web is to make it easy for people to find what they are looking for. Can I just have a search box to type in Manwich and get the nutritional information? No! 

When I tried the search box and entered Manwich, I did get a nifty news release on the Investor Relations page that talks about the release of the "full serving of vegetables" campaign and says: 

• "new television advertising campaign promoting the full serving of vegetables found in each serving of Manwich"
• "mark Manwich’s first new creative campaign in three years"
• "new strategic message requires a deeper communication with the target consumer"
• "promoting the full serving of vegetables strategic messaging and encouraging moms to feel good about serving Manwich to their families more frequently"
• "lighthearted spots feature a young girl who is dressed as a Manwich for a school play while her classmates are dressed as vegetables. She touts the wholesomeness of Manwich to her classmates and family."

Excuse me? This a strategic message to encourage Moms to feel good about serving Manwich? How about a strategic message to help Moms understand what is healthy and good for their family? How about a commercial with only the vegetables on stage? 

There are so many things wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin. Discuss and share. Until we get together and point out the absurdity of such things the people who need good and honest advice the most will continue to be subjected to "strategic messages."

Tomorrow? An experiment in actually using ConAgra's Product Nutrition Search. Stay tuned!!!

Redefining Meals

When I was little, one of the best surprises was breakfast for dinner. It always felt like a special occasion though I now suspect it was an invention of necessity... nothing else to make for dinner. Nonetheless, in a little girl's eyes, doing something as crazy as having eggs, pancakes and bacon at 6 PM was a reason to celebrate.

I am increasingly aware that many people struggle with what to make for dinner and, for that matter, breakfast and lunch. This small post, written with fond little girl memories, is here to suggest you redefine your meals. Breakfast for dinner? Sure! Dinner food for breakfast? Why not?

I think the better idea is to listen to your body, hear what nutrition it needs and give it the very best food you can find. If you find yourself eating something unconventional, congratulations!