<p>i love that you posted this thread. i want to look great when my daughter graduates next spring and i am so far from that at present. started 6 week body makeover this week and lost two pounds. only 53 pounds left</p>
<p>Two lbs is a great start! Awesome!</p>
<p>I cannot imagine that some grilled tofu every couple of weeks is going to disrupt hormones. Too many cultures have been eating it AT REASONABLE LEVELS without issue, for too long.</p>
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<p>Only by those who subscribe to the idea of “anything is good, as long as it does not have carbs” (the opposite of “anything is good, as long as it does not have fat” leading to the fat-free cookie eating phenomenon).</p>
<p>On the other hand, people like Walter Willett suggest being selective with both fats and carbs.</p>
<p>[Healthy</a> Eating Pyramid - What Should You Eat? - The Nutrition Source - Harvard School of Public Health](<a href=“http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/]Healthy”>Pyramid versus Plate: What Should the USDA’s Food Chart Look Like? | The Nutrition Source | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)</p>
<p>Note that in the Willett pyramid, a typical fast food meal of burger (fatty red meat on white bread bun), fries (fried potatoes), and soda (sugary drink) meal is all in the tip of the pyramid (use sparingly).</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this thread, EPTR. It helps keep me on track. And thanks to everyone who talked about MyPlate. What a great resource.</p>
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<p>MomLive, how about a doggie backpack. Let him do all the work! Next time I’m in the U.S., I’ll be buying one. My primary purpose is to get my guy tuckered out - to optimize his walks. I’m planning to put bags of rice in there - in the U.S., it would be bags of beans! A tired dog is a good dog.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Kurgo-00028-Wander-Pack-Backpack/dp/B002FYZ0UY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309216336&sr=8-1[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Kurgo-00028-Wander-Pack-Backpack/dp/B002FYZ0UY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309216336&sr=8-1</a></p>
<p>As for hyperlipidemia, I’ve found that lots of soluble fiber worked for me.</p>
<p>[Cholesterol:</a> Top five foods to lower your numbers - MayoClinic.com](<a href=“http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol/CL00002]Cholesterol:”>Cholesterol: Top foods to improve your numbers - Mayo Clinic)</p>
<p>For anyone on the fence about tofu, if you can find atsu-age, grab it. </p>
<p>[Cook’s</a> Thesaurus: Soy Products](<a href=“http://www.foodsubs.com/Soyprod.html]Cook’s”>FoodSubs: Soy Products: Ingredient Substitutions and Ingredient Synonyms)</p>
<p>A favorite Chinese dish that is wildly popular here in Japan is mabo-dofu. I use the ready-made sauce for a really fast (if you use a rice cooker or frozen rice) but nutritious <em>and</em> inexpensive meal. It’s garlicky and spicy. Most people use the silken tofu for this. Eaten with a big soup spoon, it’s my favorite comfort food.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_seeall_1?rh=k%3Amabo+tofu%2Ci%3Agrocery&keywords=mabo+tofu&ie=UTF8&qid=1309217167[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_seeall_1?rh=k%3Amabo+tofu%2Ci%3Agrocery&keywords=mabo+tofu&ie=UTF8&qid=1309217167</a></p>
<p>I can’t vouch for any of these brands, but I bet they’re all pretty similar. You can add extra ground beef to make a more substantial meal.</p>
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<p>Izzie, I’m thinking of adding some canned tuna to our lab’s diet. Overweight labs are prone to arthritis, and I don’t want that for him. Now that Costco has come to Japan, I can finally get some foods that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. They carry those giant cans of tuna, which I open and then freeze in little bags. And our dog loves tuna!</p>
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<p>Pretty interesting pyramid. I would move things around a bit and get rid of processed meats, white flour, sugary drinks and several other things. One thing about eating in a healthy pyramid which isn’t mentioned: you need to be able to control what you eat and fast food or even a lot of casual dining usually takes that control away from you. The implication is that you need to prepare your own meals or be very selective where you dine.</p>
<p>More support for HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). [To</a> Heal a Heart, Train Harder - WSJ.com](<a href=“To Heal a Heart, Train Harder - WSJ”>To Heal a Heart, Train Harder - WSJ)</p>
<p>BCEagle,</p>
<p>I struggle with that a lot! I eat out too much and even when i think I am ordering something healthy, I know deep down that there are bad things in that make it taste so good! Hopefully, now that the warm weather is here, I will enjoy cooking more.</p>
<p>93 more posts and this thread will have 1000! And we’ve been doing this for only 3 weeks! I think everyone is doing great. Everyday i look forward to checking in and getting support and encouragement.</p>
<p>I avoid processed soy products like fake meats, etc. I drink a soy smoothie every morning and use tofu or tempeh maybe twice a week. If I had a diagnosis of estrogen sensitive breast cancer or other medical condition, I would be concerned, but I am not worried about using it in moderation. </p>
<p>An easy recipe (might have posted somewhere else) is black bean quinoa salad. I buy fresh salsa, looking for one that is fairly low sodium, chop up some red onion, celery, red pepper, a bunch of cilantro (chop it up, leaves only), drain a can of black and mix it all together. I use cumin, coriander, dill, the juice of a lemon, pepper. In the meantime, I cook a cup of quinoa and set it aside and let it cool a bit. When the quinoa is cool, I toss in the beans and salsa mix. </p>
<p>If friends are coming and I want it to taste more normal. I mix some champagne vinegar and safflower oil as a dressing and add.</p>
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<p>I think the jury can come back in. The Japanese have been eating tons of soy for so long that any harmful associations would have surely been noticed by now. Maybe if you were eating pounds of edemame, large slabs of tofu, and drinking soy milk EVERY DAY, you might be able to pick up some weak hormonal effect. But below that level of consumption I doubt you have much to worry about.</p>
<p>hi Slindner–I also wanted to be at goal, fit and strong, at my s’s graduation next spring. like many of us, I have typically lost and looked good for those milestones, so I feel pretty confident I can do that. but I also have often set a goal just a couple months ahead. this time, I am being more realistic and I also have had more to lose.</p>
<p>I weighed myself this morning. I was wondering whether I would continue to lose on the MyPlate calorie allowance that was set based on my original weight. For some reason, it is not changing as I lose. If I go in to the calorie goal section and put in my current weight, it lowers the calories, but retroactively as well, so that it looks like I’ve been overeating all along! </p>
<p>I am down 3 lbs since Friday - 5 lbs total! It’s probably water weight, normal variation, and maybe I’ll be up again this Friday. I’m going for 1 lb/week. But I’ll be happy for now!</p>
<p>If you click on weight on your livestrong, and track it everytime you weigh yourself, then the calorie goal will adjust for each day. I just looked back at my February and March dates and the calorie goal has been changing as I have been losing. I track it every day just because it’s interesting. On mine, you can see fluctuations where I have been to parties on the weekend and also hormonal changes as my cycle progresses. Mine’s up about a pound today from too much weekend.</p>
<p>The problem is when you look at your chart - the calorie goal is a horizontal line so you can’t tell if you were above or below at earlier weight points. It would be nice if it tracked via weight goal at the previous points but it doesn’t. For me, the weight direction is good so I don’t worry too much about the past. It would probably be possible to import all of the data to a spreadsheet and then do custom charting but I don’t need the information badly enough.</p>
<p>Trying to really focus on getting the white flour, sweets out of my system for a couple of days. </p>
<p>So far today:
Breakfast : Grape Nuts w/blueberries and skim milk, 1/2 skinny chai latte
Lunch: Seafood salad, raw veggies and some very sharp cheddar.</p>
<p>Maybe the pay version of Livestrong would have what you need. I used it in 2008 when I lost some weight and it was just called MyDailyPlate.com and it did more stuff then. When the Livestrong Foundation took it over, they made some of the functions for paying customers only although I’m sure there are plenty of extra features for $45 a year. I don’t pay attention to calories, just carbs and weight.</p>
<p>I made the chicken with thyme and bacon gravy from Jane’s Suchi last night. It was a hit with H and S. D did not care for it. I thought it was pretty good but a bit of work. For those looking at the recipe I did not have to add any additional fat to cook the chicken. It does call for arrowroot as a thickener. I don’t know much about arrowroot. H and S had mashed potatoes with their chicken. I didn’t miss them.
Plain oatmeal for breakfast. I find plain oatmeal fills my carb craving. Not sure what I will have for lunch. A big downfall for me is eating out. I have a hard time making healthy decisions. I find it works best for me to eat at home. I have a birthday party tonight. It is just women so hoping the choices are healthy.</p>
<p>mom60, I think that arrowroot is a healthy thickener. My European MIL used to use it. I like plan oatmeal, too. </p>
<p>I am avoiding eating out, too, whenever possible, these days. The calorie and fat counts are off the charts, even for foods that seem like good choices. I’m glad they are now displayed on menus. For example, my standard dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (home of the obscene portions) used to be their Thai lettuce rolls appetizer. When they started publishing the calories, I was shocked at how high the count was. I know that I left a lot of calories on the plate. This is served with 3 small bowls of sauces, and I never used more than a couple of tsps. I also never touched the coconut noodles. But still, way too many calories for grilled chicken and vegetables wrapped in plain lettuce leaves.</p>
<p>^^ That was my “go to” meal at Cheescake Factory, too. It left room for the big slab of cheesecake I would have for dessert, which was the main reason to go there in the first place! I won’t go near the place now. It is, literally, probably more than a day’s worth of calories- especially with a glass of wine or a beer. Are they still doing well? When the one near me first opened, the wait was absurd. Most people I know seriously burned out on it because of the portion sizes (and cost). It was just too over the top.</p>
<p>MTA- Over 1500 calories for the lettuce wraps!</p>