Gobble, Gobble! Dot’s Healthy Turkey Day Menu

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low carb thanksgiving, weight loss,

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? To have the smarts to plan my menu before Turkey Day arrives. A food strategy is the best way to make sure you don’t pig out! (Image via marthastewart.com)

Well Turkey Day is upon us and that means its time for another low-carb holiday menu. We’re staying put for Thanksgiving so that makes it easier for me to control the points and carb count. My goal for my weigh in after Thanksgiving is to maintain my weight. That means I need a menu that is both filling and delicious.

You can take a look at a snapshot of my menu with the carb and Weight Watcher point count. Below you’ll find either the recipes or links to the recipes for my Turkey Day menu.

Building My Menu
I’m allowing myself to eat up to 25g of net carbs. I have 29 daily Weight Watcher points. Because I plan to have wine and dessert, I’m going to tap into a handful of my weekly allowance points. But that doesn’t mean I go crazy. I’m allowing myself between 4-7 extra points. No more. I need to keep control. Just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean food is the most important thing. Being with family is what it’s about…oh god, maybe I need to budget more points for wine! Read More

Making Healthy Smoothies With Nutri Ninja

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A few weeks ago I received my very first product in the mail to review on my blog -- The Nutri Ninja. Time to put it to the test.

A few weeks ago I received my very first product in the mail to review on my blog — The Nutri Ninja. Time to put it to the test.

While at FitBloggin 14 this summer, I chatted with some folks at the Ninja Kitchen booth. They were there to showcase the smoothie prows of their Nutri Ninja. After sampling their smoothie recipes and watching the product in action, the Ninja folks asked if I’d be interested in testing one at home and reviewing it.

Cool!

Well the Nutri Ninja arrived a few weeks ago. However I wasn’t able to give it a test drive until this weekend. I was so focused on getting below 200 lbs. that creating low carb smoothies was not on my radar.

Now that I’ve reached Onederland, I have time to play with the Ninja. I still need to create low carb smoothie recipes, but that’s my science experiment for December. This weekend, I picked some of Ninja Kitchen’s own healthy smoothie recipes to put the Nutri Ninja through its paces. Read More

Playing With New Menu To Get To Onderland

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I posted my new weekly menu. I'm banking on this one helping me finally get below 200 lbs.

I posted my new weekly menu. I’m banking on this one helping me finally get below 200 lbs.

Plowing through some low carb cookbooks,  I just finished a new menu for next week. As you know, I’m focused on finally dropping below 200 lbs. by Thanksgiving. It was time for a new menu to give me the extra push that I needed.

Last week I got a new cookbook in the mail — The Complete Low Carb Cookbook by chef George Stella. Perfect timing! I’ve tried a few of the recipes this weekend and mixed them into my new menu. Read More

Cool Low Carb Cheat Sheet

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Looking to replace your high-carb, heavily processed morning cereal with something more natural and healthy? How about healthier ideas to replace pizza dough? Here’s a nifty little cheat sheet from ruled.me.  It’s an easy on the eyes infographic that offers great ideas on substituting processed or high-carb foods with healthy, low-carb alternatives.

If you visit their site, you’ll also find links to recipes. Yum!

low carb cheat sheet

Healthy Foods I’d Love To Eat, But Can’t (Yet)

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While I do miss fruit, I'll have the occasional berries after a particularly tough muscle workout.

While I do miss fruit, I’ll have the occasional berries after a particularly tough muscle workout.

I discovered an interesting list of the 20 Most Weight Loss Friendly Foods you can eat. The good news is that of the 20, you can find 14 of them in my kitchen now. The others are just too high in carbs for me at the moment. But once I’m within 20 pounds of my goal weight, they are going back on the menu.

I try to limit myself to 20g of carbs a day to maximize weight loss. So certain healthy foods I have to avoid at the moment. I plan to slowly reintroduce them back into my diet when I’m close to goal. The plan: slow my rate of weight loss by gradually increasing my carb count. By doing this, I’ll discover how many carbs I can eat to maintain my goal weight.

Simple, right? Ha! Anyway, I can’t wait to add these foods back into my diet. Read More

How Much Water Is Enough For Weight Loss

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Are you getting enough water? The old rule of 8 8-ounce glasses of water a day is all wrong. Photo courtesy of zirconicusso and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Are you getting enough water? The old rule of 8 8-ounce glasses of water a day is all wrong. Photo courtesy of zirconicusso and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

We’ve all heard the 8 x 8 rule – drink 8 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Easy to remember, but it doesn’t really work. Why? It’s a one size fits all mindset that doesn’t take into account your size, weight, activity level or environment (altitude, heat, humidity).

Let’s face it, The water needs of a 250-pound man vs. a 165-pound woman are very different. In fact, for those of us who are viewed as obese, 8 x 8 doesn’t even come close to what we need daily.

5 Reasons Water Is Important To Weight Loss
Up to 60% of the human body is water. Water is a big key to successful weight loss and staying healthy. Read More

Battling The Witching Hour Cravings

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Thankfully I chose walnuts as my late night snack. But if I don't get a handle on evening snacking it could be worse. Image courtesy of franky242 and FreeDigitalPhoto.net.

Thankfully I chose walnuts as my late night snack. But if I don’t get a handle on evening snacking it could be worse. Image courtesy of franky242 and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Did you know that most evening eaters eat  50% of their calories at night. Yikes! At least I know I’m not alone. Thankfully I don’t do that anymore. I spread my calories out during the day. But I’m not immune from snacking in the evening. Breaking this bad habit is a challenge.

Saturday Night Boredom Fest
I spent a quiet, relaxing evening at home on Saturday. Tired, I planned to go to bed at 11:00 pm. By 9:30 I was starting to fall asleep on the couch. Not ready to go to bed, I wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a handful of walnuts.

What was I thinking? Read More

The Skinny On Loose Skin

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Loose skin is a consequence of weight loss. But there are a few things I'm doing to minimize excess skin while I'm losing weight.

Yep, I’ve got loose skin. There are a few things I’m doing to decrease excess skin while I’m losing weight.

While striking the downward dog pose in yoga class, I couldn’t help but notice the loose skin around my knees. Grrreat. When I started my weight loss journey in 2012, I knew that loose skin was going to happen.

I’m in my mid 40s so it’s not like my skin will spring back completely once I’m thin.

Still, seeing it is annoying.

I’m not opposed to plastic surgery to get rid of excess skin. After all, having a lot of loose skin can cause lots of medial problems like intertrigo – a bacterial, fungal or viral infection – because you can’t keep the folds of skin clean and dry. Yikes! Read More

Great Recipe Blogs For Low-Carb Foodies

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In a low carb cooking rut? Check out some of my favorite go to low carb/paleo recipe blogs. You'll find great, healthy culinary delights to try in your kitchen. Image courtesy of phasinphoto and FreeDigitalPhoto.net.

In a low-carb cooking rut? Check out some of my favorite go to low-carb/paleo recipe blogs. You’ll find great, healthy culinary delights to try in your kitchen. Image courtesy of phasinphoto and FreeDigitalPhoto.net.

Looking to shake up my weekly menu, I’m visiting some of my favorite low-carb recipe blogs. When I feel like I’m in a cooking rut, I always find great, easy to make, low-carb meals on these sites. The recipes are amazing and will help you lose weight. Plus you’ll find smart cooking tips that save you time and headaches.

Dot’s Go 2 Food Blogs

All Day I Dream About Food – Worth a visit for the low carb ice cream recipes alone! If you’re like me and love to bake but gave it up for the low-carb life, this blog is for you. You’ll find great low-carb, gluten-free ideas for brownies, cookies, cakes and breads. But it’s not all baking. I’m making the tandoori lamb meatballs, cilantro lime cauliflower rice and grilled zucchini lasagna this week. Read More

How Many Calories Should You Eat To Lose Weight?

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A nifty little calculator can help you calculate how many calories you need every day to maintain or lose weight. Turns out my eating is spot on for fast weight loss.

A nifty little calculator can help you calculate how many calories you need every day to maintain or lose weight. Turns out my eating is spot on for fast weight loss.

Do you count how may calories you eat every day? If so, how do you know how many calories you need to eat to lose or maintain weight? Well, Authority Nutrition now has a calorie calculator that tells you just how much you should eat.

Based on the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, just plug-in your sex, age, weight, height and activity level into the calculator.  Plus you’ll find some tips to cut your calorie intake without starving.

Since my diet is low-carb, I’m not a calorie counter. Using My Fitness Pal to track my carbs, I do get to see my daily caloric consumption. On average I eat about 1550-1700 calories a day.  According to the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation, I’m spot on with fast weight loss. Sweet!