Seaweed anyone?

Yesterday afternoon, I just caught the end of one of those danged infomercials and watched it just to find out what was being sold this time.

It was a mixture of seaweed and another flora and being hawked as a cure-all for chronic fatigue, unwanted pounds, cancer and God knows what else. The guy who was promoting that junk claimed that the Japanese were healthier because they ate a similar concoction on a regular basis.

What he didn't understand is that the Japanese are a different culture! So of course their customs, holidays and foods differ, often drastically, from ours. Plus, the Japanese people are used to eating such stuff and just happen to benefit from a steady diet of it. More power to them!

Another thing that guy overlooked was the fact that many health-food stores may already have a similar concoction in stock. So there's no need to believe his claims and spend hard-earned money just to find out that his claims are mostly false. The nerve of such people. Sheesh!

Trying to get an appetite for breakfast

I know, I know. It's all been said before by people such as my mom and experts. You need to eat breakfast, period.

Okay. But suppose that I don't have an appetite to eat anything early in the morning. Nothing tastes good. Nothing looks good, especially in the early morning hours. I can eat something, although I won't really enjoy it during that time, such as oatmeal, toast, coffee and a fresh orange. Oatmeal, by the way, is very filling and satisfying right through lunch time, though not much after. Appetite seems to surge around 2 or 3 pm and by then, everything looks good.

So what have I been doing about breakfast?

I've been trying to vary it. That is, I'll cook eggs or sausages or even oatmeal, rather than settle for a buttered roll and coffee, or even worse, a piece of pastry and coffee. At least, I am satisfied for a much longer time than I would be with a buttered roll or pastry.

So far, it's working. I've had sausages for breakfast yesterday and this morning and experienced no hunger pangs until 2 or 3 pm. Not bad, eh? Tomorrow morning, of course, there will be no sausages for breakfast, as I've eaten them all. I'll probably have to settle for oatmeal and black coffee and fresh grapefruit. Now if those foods motivate me to get out of bed tomorrow morning and feast on them, I will be very surprised. There are no rolls, waffles or loaves of bread, only a few rather stale packaged bagels. Ugh!

On eating while watching television

"Eating while watching television leads to more weight gain," a few experts point out, and I can't say that I totally disagree with them. After all, polishing off a large bag of potato chips or nachos while watching television and washing it down with beer or soda is practically guaranteeing that one will gain more weight.

But taking a break and having a little lunch or supper that includes soup or a sandwich or veggies and a few slices of ham or turkey while watching television is innocent. True, that's not exactly a snack, but it gets the job done by filling you up, right? After all, one has to eat, and hopefully, include foods in a balanced meal. Surely, dietitians and doctors wouldn't object to that or would they? I bet that they do the same thing, only they will never admit it.

Anyway, when it comes to snacks, I'd be the first one to opt for one or more of the foods above-mentioned. But the only problem is that I'm addicted to dessert, and while a fresh orange is an ideal dessert, it is not exactly what I have in mind. "Dessert" means cake or cookies or ice-cream or fattening candy bar. At the very least, it means some lemon candies and a nice cup of hot tea. But mind you, I'm still going to crave a piece of cake or cookies or slice of apple pie. Still another hurdle to get over, but I will.

Eventually. Maybe tomorrow.

Leave out the salt?

As much as I'd like to change my diet and lose weight, I've found that there are certain habits that are hard to break. The hardest one is not using salt. Somehow, eating mashed potatoes and french fries without salt, for example, takes away the joy of eating. Those potatoes don't taste like anything. Same goes for veggies like carrots and stringbeans, when unsalted, have no taste at all. I suppose that the best solution is to wean myself away from salt gradually. Use less salt and get used to eating veggies that way.

Doing this shouldn't be hard, as I've actually weaned myself from using milk and sugar in my morning coffee. When I have something to eat as I sip it, that coffee doesn't taste so bad. I'm used to it. But the idea of not using salt? I don't know. Well, I'll have to try using less and see what happens.

Losing pounds by walking

A good way to exercise and lose weight is by walking. Yes, you may be thinking, I've heard that before, but doubt that it's gonna work for me....

Hey, it just might! But you have got to try it for two or three weeks and see for yourself. It does work. An extreme example is this 39-year-old guy who's walking from California to New York. This guy admitted that he has dropped quite a few pounds since he started and is determined to see his project through and finish the remaining 600-mile lap to New York. But he's living proof that walking is a great way to lose pounds.

I've lost pounds by walking a lot, even though I didn't consider it as an exercise regimen during a European vacation, where I visited England, France, Italy, Germany, and Holland. There was so much to see and do, and often, the best way to get around was walking. To that end, I've logged miles touring museums, monuments, churches, historic homes and gardens, and stores. By the time I returned home, I had lost over 20 pounds, although I ate a lot of different foods and sampled dozens of desserts.

Best of all, walking doesn't require special equipment, such as bikes or skis. All you need is a good, comfortable pair of walking shoes and the motivation to go out there and just do it. You'll eat and sleep better and lose weight.

buying and denying at the supermarket

So this morning, I had to drag myself to the supermarket to get cat food, bread, toilet paper and a few other basic items, although I could have easily bought a few more, such as the "Dummies" book on winning at online poker. Always did want to learn how to play poker and win big playing it online. But I digress.

Anyway, in today's trip to the supermarket, I tried to notice things that Susan Powter pointed out in her remarks about supermarkets and their attempts to tempt us to buy stuff that isn't good for us or our kids in the first place. In her "Shopping" chapter, she breaks down the number of calories, fat grams, and fat% in foods such as frozen snacks. For example, Diet Chocolate has 100 calories, no fat and no fat%. Whereas a snack such as Nacho Chips have 110 calories, 1 fat gram and 8 fat%, whatever that means.

Luckily, I didn't have to worry any of that or having some child beg for treats. This meant that I could cruise slowly in the cookie aisle, noting the brightly-colored packages of expensive cookies. Yum! But I have a diet and a budget to worry about, and wound up buying the supermarket cookies that were on sale --- just a buck forty-nine for a one-p0und package. So much for satisfying cravings for them or the overpriced Entenmann donuts, cakes and buns stacked in their own corner. I passed those as well, thinking that paying nearly four dollars for a few cinnamon buns was a little too rich for my blood.

But I'll tell you one thing. Powter is right on the money when she observes that in a supermarket, "you have to wheel through the maze of goodies aisles before you get to the bread and basics aisle: Designed that way.
Planned.
Well thought out.

Well duh! The way MY supermarket is planned would blow her right out of the water, as the Entenmann cakes are right across from baked breads and rolls and other goodies. So there's very little that a customer can do, except know what she originally came to the store for and limit her purchases to those items. For me, carrying only 15-20 dollars in cash means I can get so much, then stop, or run the risk of being embarassed at the checkout.

Clerk: That will be twenty-two forty, please.

Me: Oops! Afraid I only have twenty dollars. Er, I'll have to let this, this and that go. So sorry, but you know how it is.

Occasionally, I'll watch shows such as "Tyra" on television and am always amazed at how slim the featured models, including Tyra herself, are and continue to be. First question on my mind is what kind of regimen did they have to follow regarding diet and exercise. For example, were they limited to foods such as soup, salad, cottage cheese, no-fat yogurt and the like? And were they expected to log in at least a half day every day at some gym or health spa? What did those exercises consist of, jumping rope, pushups, jumping-jacks....what?

But I suppose that my biggest question is how those models manage to stay that way? It can't be very easy, as I should know. A few years back, I actually got myself down to a size ten, just from riding my bike long distances in the hot weather. Of course, I ate, although I have to admit that my diet pretty much remained the same. If I craved a cold soda, I got it and drank it. If I wanted to eat a hamburger, cheeseburger or hot dog, I did. And the best part about all of that is that I didn't gain weight! My skirts and tops fit beautifully. I felt like a model and almost looked like one.

Unfortunately, that wondrous period did not last. As I gradually rode less, I began to gain more weight. Not a good sign! Now, had I been able to implement some of the strategies that top models use in maintaining their weights and good looks, there's no telling what I would have been motivated to do next --- enter and win a bike race, for example, or become some newbie's personal trainer.