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CAROLEE1945's Recent Blog Entries
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
1/2 cup of dry oatmeal is 150 calories. I love muesli, and turning the 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal into 1/2 cup of muesli, can make it anywhere from 200 to 300 or even more calories. I have computed various combinations using the spark recipe maker doo-dad. Actually, a fun thing to do!!!
Well, I do think the muesli sticks with a person, preventing the 11 am starvation routine. Amazing how those nuts and seeds, and raisins up the ante, both caloric wise, but also filling wise.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Yesterday I found milk to be very interesting, today it is popcorn.
I had a yen for popcorn around 4pm, my "bad" time of day. I do not like air popped or microwave, but like the old fashioned popped in oil stuff.
On my shelf I found two types of popcorn in identical looking containers, one is Safeway, called "Corn to be Wild", the other is Orville Redenbacher's original, costing twice as much.
For fun, I decided to pop both of them for comparison, experimental purposes only!!!
I used a wide frying pan for one, and a 3 quart saucepan for the other. It was amazing to me how different the directions were.
Orville said 1/2 cup corn and 3 T oil, and put it in all together with heat on medium. No pre-heating.
Safeway said 1/3 cup corn and 2-3 T oil, but heat oil first until one kernel pops and then put the rest in.
In this case, Safeway won out, Redenbacher had quite a few unpopped kernels. Possibly it was the use of the frying pan. To be exact, I should have used the same type of pan.
The calories are about 140. Not bad, but then there is the butter. Did you know one Tablespoon of butter on 6 cups of popped popcorn really does not go very far???
Saturday, November 17, 2012
I love milk.
When I enter it on my tracker, I dutifully record one cup of 3.25% milk. But I did not get the .25%!!!
So, I decided to research this 3.25% milk business. It turned out this milk was only 140 calories. I went to the items added by spark people, and almost all of them had a cup of whole milk at 150 calories. I looked on my milk carton and it said 160!!! So, I had to scroll and scroll and finally found Lucerne whole milk at 160 calories and added it to my favorites. I never heard of 3.25% milk and it must be a marketing gimmick in some other state. Spark has nonfat, lowfat, and this 3.25% fat milk but not the full whole milk!!!
Now, I ask you, was this a waste of time? No, it was better to do this than my other spark activities, because all along I have been lying to myself about the milk calories. I had a suspicion, because I knew basic milk used to be 4%, and first they came out with 2% to be half. I remember that. Was it 20 or 30 years ago? First, they only had nonfat or whole. I remember that from college days.
Do these calories make a difference? Yes, they do. It means I needed to eat one less cookie or one less cashew. (my favorite, high fat snack)
I wonder if I should post this musing on my spark blog? I have not done the blog for awhile.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
I find it fun to measure everything to 100 grams, even milk. Some items have to be 50 grams, and some 200. If they are 200, I will enter it twice.
What this 100 gram plan does is force me to be conscious of how much I am putting on my plate or bowl. Also, I am teaching myself grams and ounces. I toggle between the two on my scale, trying to guess. I am still not sure how many ounces 100 grams is.
This is good for my aging brain. Do not need to get one of those brain games!!!
Oh, another benefit: it sets up a structure.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
It is very important to keep changing how we use Spark, to keep it fresh and alive. My new plan is to list everything in 100 gram increments, since most of the foods on Spark are listed that way. Also, it will force me to weigh things.
I think sharing a food tracker with another Spark member is the absolute best thing a person can do to lose weight.
But I admit, for my personality and background, tracking is easy. I was a teacher, so I was always tracking the kids progress. When I was pregnant, I tracked the nutrients I had to make sure the fetus was getting the right amount of protein. So, it is second nature for me to track, although at times I feel like giving it up.
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