Odyssey to wellness : a good software resource

Good morning everyone 🙂

Just a quickie post this morning about Benutriwise software. Priya Jaipal, the developer of this excellent resource, has just published her latest Health-e-news newsletter.

While the newsletter does happen to contain a rather disjointed review of the product written by yours truly, that is not the reason for this post.

Priya is offering a “ World Cup Special” of a huge discount on the price of this excellent tool. The price is only R200,00 and I do urge those of you that may have been hesitating about buying this software to download and buy it on-line.

Marketed as a calorie counting instrument, I do not only use the calorie count function. I am working on ways to track GI (Glycemic Index), GL (Glycemic Load)  as well as Weigh-Less portions on the system.

Have a great day.

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Laziest cook on earth. 4

In our days of being Rotarians, W & I enjoyed an active social life with much interaction with  fellow Rotarians and we did a lot of community service work which is what Rotary International is all about.

At the time, it was a males only organisation and one became a member by invitation only. The wives were called Rotary Anns and we dutifully played our part in the organisation which I see is still very active in community work today.

During our year as Rotary President and Rotary Ann President, we entertained a lot. We had a large double storey home, a full time domestic worker, my folks lived with us in the ‘granny flat’ and they were a wonderful support system with our teenage boys. W & I forged ahead with our respective banking careers and did our share of community work while having fun with good friends. It was a good life and we had marvellous support systems in place.

Things are somewhat different today.  We still live the good life, though in a very different way. We chose to re-locate to Cape Town and we chose to take our ‘retirement jobs’ (a bookkeeping practice) along with us.

There is little time left for entertaining and it is not easy to cater for numbers in our flat, spacious as these old apartments are. Later this year, we are re-locating (again!) to a spacious home in a leafy suburb which belongs to our middle son M. But I am getting horribly sidetracked here – that is a story for a later time.

This is the meal I threw together last night for 6 members of the family:

BUTTER CHICKEN : served with brown basmati rice, cauliflower with cheese sauce and a good tossed salad.

MIXED BERRIES DESSERT : Dessert was slightly defrosted mixed berries with a choice of diet ice cream and/or lite custard. Of course, we all chose ‘and’ and not ‘or’! Mix it all up in a purple mess in your pudding dish – divine, almost fat free and low GI.

Pretty good I would say and the scale showed no overnight weight gain at my ‘Sunday Morning Showdown’ this morning. I should have had broccoli with the cauliflower as lettuce does not count as a dark green veg. (Tabitha Hume!) Red, yellow as well as green pepper strips and home grown mung bean sprouts in the salad made up for it in a small way.

Butter Chicken!!! I hear you say. Yes, so simple really. Browned chicken thighs (bone in, skin off) in a little extra virgin olive oil, dumped them in a large casserole dish with lid and poured Denny Butter Chicken Curry Sauce over them. 20 mins with casserole lid on, 20mins with casserole lid off and left them to sit there until the Sharks had won their game against I don’t know who!

The latest Weigh Less magazine is out and included is a Coat and Cook in Sauces Guide. Get it and check it out!. It will inspire you to serve something new for your family while keeping those kilos in check! You can have a quarter of the packet of wet sauce – only 424kJ and 5.0g fat.

I was given a rice cooker recently (my slow cooker/Crockpot actually does the job just as well) and the berries I had bought in bulk out at Hillcrest Berry Orchards at the height of the berry season. I use them as a treat and am only sorry I did not buy many more kilograms of these wonderful fruits at that time. I will really stock up next year.

www.hillcrestberries.co.za

High Tea at the Nelly (Mount Nelson Hotel) is on my Bucket List but the High Tea served at Hillcrest Berry Orchards is really good. Situated in the magnificent Banhoek Valley outside Stellenbosch, this working farm is well worth the trip. Check it out. They also do B & B.

Hopefully, you are starting to see from my scribblings on this blog that we CAN eat delicious food while keeping to a healthy eating plan. With careful portion control we can still ‘have our cake and eat it’!

So, how did it go?

As we reluctantly ease back into work mode after a lazy Easter weekend, W & I are pleased to note that we both lost a little weight over the weekend. We did indulge in a few, small easter eggs and sundry other foods such as a lovely bacon/egg breakfast and a couple of takeaways and visits to food outlets in CW (Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Century City)

We realise that it’s not about ‘dieting’. It’s about consciously making choices (indulging our love of chocolate which we seldom do) and then simply re-focussing on what we know is the right eating regime for us.

In past years, I – for one – would have polished off lots  of marshmallow eggs and any/all hollow eggs that came my way! The huge Easter egg market set up in CW was a sight to behold and I did buy a box of Lindor 60% balls. I dished them out very quickly! I could have polished off the lot by myself without much trouble but in truth I had no real desire to do that.

My glucose levels did not go haywire and we will soon see if there were any real spikes this week. I was due to go for my bi-annual fasting HbA1c test this morning but am fighting a cold that I picked up yesterday. Got up at 2am and swallowed a mega dose of Vit C so have had to postpone the test until tomorrow morning.

I will also make sure we both have our bottles of ice water on our desks – something that we tend to forget. So vitally important!

I have not posted about what I drink – I will try to do that this evening. At boarding school in the village made world famous by Alan Paton, Ixopo, a huge treat was to be ‘let out of’ hostel on a Saturday morning. We girls would all troop down to the village and settle in the ‘tea room’ and check out the boys while consuming large helpings of slap chips, hamburgers and Coca Cola!

Old habits die hard and if I was unwise I would still happily consume greasy burgers, fries and coke all these years later. Such is the influence of childhood habits!

Would love to hear how your Easter weekend went?

The Weigh-Less Option……. 1

Good morning all

Hopefully this quick post finds you all well and chirpy this morning? 🙂
Here in Cape Town the days are slowly but surely closing in and winter is on the way.

One of my biggest resources and something I have not really mentioned much so far on this blog is the “The Weigh-Less Option”. By that I mean that I opted to ‘go back to Weigh-Less’ – as many people do – when I decided to take charge of my health and wellness.

Note please that I said ‘take charge of my health and wellness’. I did not say (or even think) that I decided to go on a diet again! I dislike the word ‘diet’ immensely and the word has not featured in my vocabulary for a very long time.

I returned to the Weigh-Less programme for one reason only – no! – make that two reasons.
Reason 1: The programme works!
Reason 2: Mary opted for GI/GL
Let me explain.

Mary Holroyd is the pint sized dynamo who founded the organisation on 25th February 1975. Today, 35 years down the line and in her early sixties, she shows no signs of slowing down and I am very much looking forward to attending a ‘Mary Event’ in Bellville next week. I last saw her ‘in the flesh’ in the late 1970’s when she addressed an open meeting in a church hall in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg.

The programme as presented by Weigh-Less has changed and adapted to new nutrition guidelines over the years and the cherry on the top for me was when I noted last year that the eating plan was based on Good, Better, Best options with Best being low GI foods.

Perfect for me with all my lifestyle induced health issues and I hasten to add pretty darn perfect for anyone wanting to reach optimum weight and wellness. The formula allocated to me has been vetted by two dieticians as well as my doctor and very little if any tweaking of the plan was required.

My husband has joined me on my odyssey and is also achieving good results. I have put him on the same eating regime with slightly increased quantities of starchy carbs, fat and protein.

Am I being paid by Weigh-Less to write this piece? 🙂 Hell no! As you may realise by now, I write about what works for me. I get a discounted rate as a member of Discovery Vitality and I pay by monthly debit order so I do not feel the cost at all. The cost is simply factored into my monthly budget and that’s that!

I think they also have a contract type scheme on offer at this time. I will check it out and report back here at the weekend.

Do yourselves a favour, go out and get hold of the latest Weigh Less magazine at your nearest supermarket or bookseller. The 35th anniversary issue is really special and has all the lowdown on the Woman and Man of the Year winners and finalists. Something there too for the men in our lives!

Laziest cook on earth. 2

Keeping up with my laziest cook on earth appellation, I offer the quickest pud on the planet:

APPLE DESSERT (per person)

100g Unsweetened tinned pie apples
100g Nestle Dialite Vanilla Frozen Dessert
Powdered sweetener to taste
Ground cinnamon to taste

Prepare in individual bowls.
Sprinkle pie apples with sweetener and cinnamon, stir lightly.
Top with the diet ice cream

Nutritional Information: (apples)
GI: Low
GL: +- 11
Weigh-Less: 1 x Best fruit + 1 x Good milk
Energy kJ: 602
Energy calories: 144
Protein: 4g
Carbs: 32g
Fat: 0.1g
Fibre: 8.2g

Variations:
Use fresh or slightly defrosted berries – sans the cinnamon – divine!
All the berries are wonderfully low GI; with gooseberries & strawberries carrying a particularly low glycemic load.

Weigh-Less fruit portions per serving would be:
Strawberries: 150g (yeah! not for nothing do we always see Patrick Holford holding a strawberry aloft!)
Blueberries, blackberries, mulberries: 120g
Gooseberries, raspberries: 100g

If you feel so inclined, this dessert can be dressed up with some (Low GI) muesli sprinkled on the apples.
Instead of the diet ice cream, you could use Lite Long Life Custard – lovely!
NB to count the added kJ etc!

Laziest cook on earth. 1

One of the comments I often hear is that ‘dieting is expensive’.
‘The foods you have to eat cost a lot more’, they say.

Well people in all honesty that can be true (frozen ready cooked slimmers meals), but also NOT TRUE at all.

One of the foods that we should all eat a lot more of is beans; in fact all of the dried pulses, legumes and grains. Plant protein and in the main dirt cheap. As dirt cheap as food can get these days that is.

To that end, I would direct your attention to beans.

Contrary to what some people may think, baked beans on toast is a good healthy fat free/low GI/lower GL meal. Just make sure that the bread is low GI (if it does not specifically state ‘Low GI’ on the bread bag, I will not buy it) and that you do not slather the bread with butter or margerine. The tomato sauce is more than enough liquid to ensure you are not eating dry toast.

My Benutriwise calculates the nutritional information for this meal as follows:

BAKED BEANS ON TOAST – Serves 1
1 slice toast (Albany Superior Brown Seed Low GI bread -yellow label)
130g baked beans in tomato sauce (Checkers house brand Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce)

GI: Low
GL: +- 20
Weigh-Less: 1 x Complex Carb + 1 x Protein
Energy kJ 844
Energy calories 202
Protein 8g
Carbs 38g
Fat 0.76g
Fibre 2.77g
Sodium 464.2mg
Other nutrients featuring in this meal include Vitamins A and some of the B’s, calcium, iron and zinc.
Depending on the time of day, add a good green salad and you’re good to go!

The cheapest of all beans are the dried variety and in my next post I will tell you how to cook and freeze quantities of these plant protein powerhouses.

I will also publish my favourite recipe for “Old Fashioned Bean Soup”. Lekker – not many of my crowd dislike the lovely beans, bacon and potatoes in this thick, chunky winter meal in a bowl.

Goodness sake … I didn’t mention it……

In yesterday’s post, I did say that I was a mere 200g above the target weight for the Sunday BUT did not state my weight loss to date.

It may sound like bragging…. oh alright it is bragging… but I am sure you will forgive my exuberance in the light of the multiple challenges I face.

Drum roll……. 21.1kg …… so I have broken the 20kg barrier …. not bad for an old chick hey?!

Has it been easy? NO!
Is it easy? HELL, NO!

My Odyssey demands my ALL and the making of ‘Continual Course Corrections’ as propounded by Brian Tracy. http://www.BrianTracy.com

Keep strong everyone; have a great Monday. Hope yours is not too dark a shade of blue. EJ

Sunday showdown

Well, it’s not really a showdown at all. It’s a weekly record of our weight which is recorded on a graph every Sunday morning. Our weight being that of my spouse W and myself.

It all started in September 2007 when the CT branch of our family started a weight loss competition to see who could lose the most weight before 1st December. The competition was fair in that total loss was measured as a % of starting weight!

What was so special about 1st December? Well, that was the day the CT family met the JBH branch at JHB International and all 10 of us flew off to Ile Maurice! Headed for 8 days at Le Meridien Ile Maurice resort to be exact. (If anyone is considering Mauritius for a holiday, we can certainly recommend Le Meridien.) What a magic holiday we all had and it is fitting that the sponsor of the costly junket was also the winner of the weight loss competition! We each contributed R100 to the game and the winner took all – pity the R500 did not go anywhere at all to off-set the cost of the joll!

The point of this rather rambling post is to remind us that keeping a record of our progress is key to success. I am one of those obsessive types who weighs in every morning of my life; the result is then recorded in my Benutriwise profile. I also have a weekly Thursday morning date at Weigh-Less as well so talk about overkill!!!! I hasten to add (and my spouse will bear this out) that I have learnt over the years not to stress over the scale results. The results are simply recorded without any dramatics on my part and I sit down every Sunday morning and quietly look at the week’s results. The process serves to keep me focussed and to make continual corrections on the great odyssey!

To graphically illustrate my progress against a weekly weight loss target of .5kg, I use an Excel graph. I print it in colour on Sundays and keep it in a file until the following week. A bold red target weight line descends from left to right and it is intersected with a bold green actual weight line which is my Sunday morning weight. Vertical axis shows target weight descending .5kg weekly from my starting weight down to goal weight at the bottom. Horizontal axis shows Sunday dates for 1 year! 9th August 2009 to 8th August 2010.

Wow! those dates really show what a commitment I have made don’t they? As of this morning, I am .2kg (200 grams sounds better) above target for today’s date. The green graph line fascinates me in that it meanders all over the place but always reflects an overall downward drift.

If you would like a copy of my Excel chart to adapt for your own use, let me know and I will send it to you. I believe it could really help to keep you on track to your own unique destination.

A great resource…….

One of the most powerful resources I have found to help me with weight reduction is the keeping of a food diary or a food log. It really is not a big deal to record your intake and the daily habit very soon becomes routine.

A few years ago, I created an Excel workbook which I called Eileen’s food planner. At the time, I was also active on the Weigh-Less forums and when other members read about my planner they started requesting copies. At one point, I had e-mailed my planner to more than 100 other members! We were able to record our food intake daily and the planner would keep track of each formula automatically. Eat too much and the relevant total/s would reflect in bold red!

Eileen’s food planner still exists on my computer but has been superceded by a far superior tool – Benutriwise Calorie Counter, Nutrition, Exercise and Health Tracker. Developed here for South Africans, the inexpensive Benutriwise software application is really well worth checking out. http://www.benutriwise.co.za

I introduced the software to my doctor and she is as enthusiastic about the program as I am. Pre-loaded with the nutritional values of almost 2 000 food items, the software automatically calculates BMI, suggested weight loss targets and default calorie/kilojoule totals. Carbs, protein and fats as well as vitamins and minerals are tracked automatically. A new feature is the exercise tracker which I have yet to use!

This evening I had to send my doctor information about blood glucose and blood pressure readings and I simply printed BG & BP reports out of Benutriwise and e-mailed them to her. Magic.

If you would like to know more about how I use this resource, let me know!

That’s cool man! – as we say this side of the mountain..

What’s cool?

My weight loss of 1.1kg this week! BMI now 32.7.
I should explain that I have 2 ‘weigh-in’ days a week – Thursdays at my Weigh-Less class and on Sundays when my husband & I weigh-in on our good electronic scale.
The experts agree that a target of .5 to 1kg per week is achievable and safe healthwise. My own weekly goal is .5kg and this I can achieve quite easily.

The comment I hear all the time is, ‘Great stuff Eileen – but how are you doing it EXACTLY?’ I will try to be more specific about this in my posts but it MUST be borne in mind that there is no ‘one size fits all’ remedy when it comes to our own unique health issues. Your health professional will help you to determine – WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF YOUR OVERALL HEALTH STATUS – the balance of protein, carbs and fat you should be consuming.

What could you do RIGHT NOW to kick start your own journey to better health and vitality?
For me, the short answer was to ‘UP’ water, fruit, veg and wholegrains and ‘DOWN’ unhealthy trans and saturated fats. That’s it.

I will be writing later today about how I record my progress. The experts all agree that keeping a food diary is KEY and I will be telling you about an amazing little software application I have discovered. Inexpensive, simple to use and developed right here in South Africa.

‘See’ you later – I am off to find my favourite brand of lite ice tea before my son IT buys up all the stock!