therese
-
Posts
2,780 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by therese
-
-
If that article says that fruit is not core, it's wrong. All fruit is core, including bananas. Plain nonfat yogurt is also core, so yogurt with fruit is a core food, just not sweetened. I think that all whole grain hot cereals are also core, but I'll check. There's an amazing amount of misinformation out there - I think WW did a crappy job of explaining the new program from the outset. However, I like the program itself a lot, so far. This is my third day.
That fruit + yogurt is okay but commercially-prepared fruit-flavored yogurt isn't is not so much a question of nutritional differences, but just how accessible the item is. There's a difference between preparing your own dish of yogurt with fruit (get out both items, get a bowl, wash the fruit, peel the fruit if necessary, etc.) and just popping open a container is fairly significant in terms of effort and prep time, and will slow down all but the most determined of overeaters.
Hot cereals are available in unlimited quantities, whereas commercially-prepared breakfast cereals are limited, again because making hot cereal is a bit of a thrash.
Basically, you can pretty much assume that the less "convenient" a food is, the more likely it will be a core food. I think this is a great approach, and I think it accounts in large part for increased frequency of obesity in this country: food is simply too cheap and too easy to prepare.
So it's a great diet. But would I lose weight on it? Unlike most people (though very much like many at eGullet) I was already eating a mostly core diet, and I was actually gaining weight doing so. I suppose that limiting my non-core items like alcohol and sweets to 35 points a week might produce very gradual weight loss, but I'm sort of hoping to reach goal before I'm dead, frankly.
I'm looking forward to hearing how core is working for others here---not just whether they find they eat less or more, but whether they see weight loss.
-
If, for example, you went nuts and added a little butter and wine to your congee, would you need to count the whole dish out of your 35 weekly points or just the points for the butter and wine? Where do you draw the line and start counting a whole dish as not being core?
I'd say never, that you'd just count the points for the butter and wine. And if they wine had cooked down such that the alcohol had essentially all boiled off then you wouldn't even count the wine (assuming that it was dry red wine to begin with, and maybe we should be using something other than congee as the base for this dish, because it's sort of giving me the willies to think about it).
-
I've been to Montpellier three times in the last five years, most recently May 2004. Not particularly inspired as food and/or restaurants go, but a very pleasant town to visit.
I've posted previously on my experiences there, with Maison de la Lozere being by far the best of a generally lackluster dining scene. Le Jardin des Sens has been blessed by Michelin, and has the prices to match.
-
Natto with yamakake.
And I don't have to go to Japan to get it!
-
I have known some folks to add flour to their red-eye gravy but they are known communists who say bad things about their own mothers and kick small furry animals at every given opportunity.
Flour? Flour in red eye gravy? I think I hear my grandma rolling over in her grave. I've never heard of such practice personally, but then they did make an effort to protect me from that sort of outlandish fringe activity.
[edited to correct typos---I was clearly so flummoxed that my usually decent typing went all to hell]
-
I grew up with red eye gravy, made with drippings from country ham steaks that had been sauteed, and then the pan deglazed with coffee. The coffee was instant, weirdly enough, as the only person in the household who drank coffee was my grandfather, and my grandmother didn't see the point of making a big fuss over him (she was the harder worker of the two, by far). JFG brand coffee, if I recall correctly.
The ham, on the other hand, was the farthest thing possible from "instant": pigs raised on the farm, fed household leftovers and corn meal mush, slaughtered and butchered each fall, hams cured in the "smokehouse" (not really much smoking occurred in there, but that's what we called it).
I was also taught that the name came from the central "red eye" of ham steak. But then again members of a strongly Southern Baptist household could hardly have promoted the idea that it had been named for a hungover cook or guest, now could they?
-
I don't tend to use many points for carbs (other than fruit), and I don't find myself getting hungry very often. I do find it difficult to get sufficient dairy in my diet, as I don't drink milk. I often use sweetened ricotta cheese as a means of getting dairy into the day.
-
I agree, munchymom, the veg versions of "meat" do save some points. Depends on what it is, of course: I'd gotten something called "Smart Brats" (for my daughter, who is not vegetarian, but sometimes finds meat off-putting) and managed to eat half of one, largely because I'd brought it for my lunch and otherwise wouldn't have had enough protein in the meal. But the rest will likely be going in the trash unless I can convince an animal to eat them.
Everybody in the household (including both kids) likes tofu, so that's an easy one.
I've not yet spent any time on the vegetarian thread, but now that you mention it that's probably got better quality information given how nutrition savvy you need to be to make veg work full-time. But for some real fun check out the dining out thread (where I am Yamakake, and occasionally make a suggestion).
-
I just throw them on the grill, no prior de-silking or soaking or anything. When the outside's blackened the inside's ready.
My guests do the work of peeling back the husk and removing the silk (easier to do at this point anyway), and the everted husk makes a nice "handle" for eating them.
-
One radical change I've made is that I no longer drink my points.
When I first read this, Abra, I thought that you meant that you don't fritter away your points with useless stuff like wine. I was extremely disappointed.
If I'm going to drink anything that has points, it's going to be alcohol!But then I read the next sentence and realized that we're on the same page. I hadn't actually gotten to the point that I'd bothered to calculate that an entire bottle is only 10 points, but probably would have some relaxing weekend sometime soon.
Like chardgirl I make no-sugar versions of things, my current fave being basil seed drink.
Favorite low point meals include thing made with eggplant (broiled Japanese eggplant for lunch today, in fact). Various textures and nice flavors for no points.
-
The name and the description are both vaguely reminiscent of dobosch or dobosh torte. Some sort of local "creole-ization" of that name?
-
Well, this isn't a points friendly meal, but it is a points friendly side dish that goes nicely with other things.
I'd heard of it before, particularly in the context of low carb diets like Atkins, but I figured I could adapt to WW. The real trick was whether I could get my husband and kids to eat it.
"It" is cauliflower, and pureed it stands in nicely for pureed potatoes. I steamed it until soft and then pureed it in the blender, adding skim milk, butter (not too much, and next time I'll probably let the others just add their own at the table), and parmigiano to taste. I presented it to the family as a surprise, telling that it wasn't potatoes, and asking them to guess what it was. Everybody liked it a lot (which surprised me), nobody could identify it, and they all want it again sometime soon.
I'm thinking of using it to top shepherd's pie next time.
-
Tunafish salad is particularly great on toast, helen. I don't know if Japanese kitchens include toasters, or what sort of oven set up you've got, but you can also toast bread over a flame or under the broiler.
-
I'm hoping you all don't think I'm setting a terrible example with my blog, since it's so un-strictly following WW right now.
Yeah, right.
This thread's on eGullet, remember? Where we talk about Krispy Kreme doughnuts and foie gras in the same post. Though admittedly the part about rendering lard was pretty far along on the not-very-WW scale.
I'm with bilrus here---I can decide when and where I go over my points, and some situations do call for it. I think WW does help us understand the impact of doing it in a very concrete and quantifiable way, and also gives us the tools to dig ourselves out if we've gotten really buried.
-
Boiled peanuts make a nice snack before low country boil. You don't have to serve them warm, just room temp (which is pretty warm if you're eating outside in the summer in these parts).
-
Weirdly enough, The Willcox may feature a restaurant run by Seeger, or it may not, because at the moment at least, the actuall Willcox web site makes no mention of a restaurant of any sort, much less one run by Seeger (and this site did feature lots of info re the restaurant and Seeger a few months ago).
I'd also not heard about Seeger having restaurant in Sandestin. I've been to his restaurant here in Atlanta several times, and always find it a mixed experience. Fortunately I'm rarely spending my own money.
-
As I've only been on WW for three weeks, and one of those weeks involved a visit from my non-adventurous (food-wise, at least) sister-in-law, I hadn't had a chance to put the WW food database through it's paces.
Sure, they had info on bear meat (polar vs. black bear), but would they have info for Indian beyond some vague thing called "curry"? Well, yes. Sambar, paratha, dosa, raita, dal, biryani (different points for lamb and chicken)---all kinds of things that most people never ever eat, and have never heard of.
So, strong marks for WW.
-
Stunned, absolutely stunned to find that I am the first to post this option:
White sandwich bread (but sturdy)
Peanut butter
Banana (ripe but not mushy)
Acceptable additions:
Honey
Mayonnaise (a small amount, provides a slightly sour counterpoint)
-
Okay, so The Willcox in Aiken is the place where Seeger's running the restaurant. It's in Aiken, SC, pretty much the back of beyond.
Both Woodlands and The Willcox are members (or whatever they call them) of Relais et Chateaux.
-
Another possibility is the Woodlands Resort and Inn in Summerville. Not too far from Charleston.
-
Is it the place that Guenther Seeger's recently started? Seems like it's in SC, in what is basically a very very very upmarket B & B. Saw a piece on it recently (within the last few months) in the AJC. It's not open in the summer, as I recall.
I'll look around and see if I can come up with the name, or maybe somebody will beat be to it.
-
You're allotted a certain number of points per day as your baseline. The number is determined by your weight, so as you lose weight you also have to go down on points. I'm down to 20, a level at which getting adequate nutrition requires some thought---not much room left for junk.
The present plan also includes two other sorts of points. The first is activity points (AP), which you earn for physical activity that ranges from chopping wood to ironing to jogging to whatever. As an example, 40 minutes on an elliptical machine is worth 4 points (or at least I think that's what it was, I'll have to check). So if you'd like you can "eat" your AP on the day you earned them.
The other sort of points are flex points (FP). You get 35 for the week to use as you see fit----very handy for the evening you go out for Thai or a sudden surprise visit to French Laundry.
Lots of foods are actually zero points: most vegetables (particularly if you eat a cup or less of them), seasonings, small amounts of dairy, etc. A 1 cup (yes, really 1 cup, not a big bowl) serving of cold non-trash cereal is generally 2 points, 1/2 cup skim milk is 1 point, etc. The points are assigned by WW, and are based on calories, fat, and fiber. It helps to play around and figure out whether choosing a non-fat or sugar-free option of an item actually changes its point value, because it doesn't always.
The online version has little windows that you use to entire your various foods and activities, and keeps track of your points earned and used. You also weigh yourself once a week, and enter that info (at which point you get a new allotment of FPs), and that's charted for you on a graph.
-
Happy Birthday. Really looking forward to your week. Also doing WW, so that'll be especially cool.
-
LEdlund and Tess---great blog links. Except that I should have peed before reading LEdlund's, as I think I may have wet myself laughing.
Weight Watchers (Part 1)
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
If you add up 2 points per serving, yes, you'll end up with 12 points. But whereas 1 serving of wine is 2 points, 2 servings of wine are only 3.5 points, and 3 servings are only 5 points. The difference has to do with rounding in the calorie to number conversion.
So just make sure you drink the entire bottle at once and you're okay.