I got caught up on my backlog of new recipes … finally! They always take longer to type up than I expect but now they’re done and posted in the “Recipes” tab up top.
I know you’re lazy, too, but you actually have to hover over the Recipes tab and then click on the recipes. Sorry for making you work so hard!
But then you’ll see Smoked Salmon Reubens … Cheezy Broccoli Soup … Grandma’s Vinegar Cake …. and more!
Enjoy!
Yay! It took much longer than I expected but it’s finally finished and already selling like hotcakes. Low calorie hotcakes, of course!
It was frustrating that the process seemed to be so drawn out, but I only have myself to blame. Because I was combining all the previously published recipes plus about 60 new ones, I kept finding things that were formatted differently.
I wrote each cookbook at different times, so in one book, for example, I’d capitalize the first word in the ingredient list and in another I wouldn’t. The reader wouldn’t notice because the continuity was there within a cookbook, just not between cookbooks. So when they were all compiled together, it became obvious.
But not so obvious I’d catch everything at once!
However, it’s done now and I want to thank everyone for their patience. I know you’ve been on me for a print book rather than digital, and I hope you think it was worth the wait.
Here’s the link to buy … (THANK YOU!)
And here’s the cover, front and back …
Title: The Skinny Rules: The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles for Getting to Thin
Author: Bob Harper with Greg Critser
Devour it
→ Nibble till it’s gone
Spit it out
Bob Harper has a new book out. After seeing some of the reviews, I wanted to take a look for myself. I’m a sucker for simple rules, after all. Just tell me what to do to keep the weight off and I’ll do it. Maybe.
“Today, like never before, we are bombarded from every direction with health advice — about diet, nutrition, weight loss, exercise, organic or nonorganic, free-range or corn-fed. Now add in the daily science and medical news, a lot of which sounds either stunningly obvious (not being obese = good) or ridiculously counter to what we thought was correct (fruit juice = not so good), and you’ve got a jumbo case of Clutter Brain.”
Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so.
So Bob, like many of us, tried to distill it down to some simple rules, in his case 20 of them. Most are obvious and you probably already do them … don’t drink your calories, read food lables, don’t eat so many refined flours and grains, eat more fiber, blah, blah, blah.
But two of them piqued my interest a bit more. The first was “eat apples and berries every day.” Wow. So simple! So doable! So cheap! They’re rich in phytochemicals and fiber, and low in calories. They also help keep the balance of friendly bacteria in our gut and stabilize energy storage vs energy expenditure, which is how you prevent packing on the pounds. I can definitely eat apples and berries every day. I already eat berries every morning. To make sure I remember to eat an apple too, I set my alarm to take a break mid-afternoon. I watch Ellen’s monologue and eat my apple. It gives me a laugh, forces me away from my desk for 15 minutes, and now, Ellen Degeneres is that friendly face that reminds me to eat my apple.
Rule #7, however, has proven to be a bit more difficult for me. “No carbs after lunch.”
“Carbs are forms of sugar, and sugar cues the pancreas to make more insulin, which in turn triggers appetite …. the number of times during the day that you signal your pancreas to make insulin is just as important as how much sugar you eat. Each ‘excursion’ is like a hammer delivering blow after blow to your cells.”
I’m not a carb addict by any means, but I’m finding this rule quite challenging. Bob tells me to “eat lean and green at night.” Until I started thinking about this rule, I didn’t realize how often I ate lasagne for dinner, or a sandwich, or crackers with my soup. Plus, I’m completely unclear as to whether my afternoon apple counts as a carb. (I’m going to say it doesn’t. If Bob didn’t want me to eat my apple with Ellen he would have said “eat berries and apples every morning,” right? Right?!)
I’m going to keep trying the no-carbs-after-lunch thing partly because it is so difficult for me, but also because I want to believe Bob. He’s so adorable … he wouldn’t mislead me, right? Take a look at Bob’s rules and see if there’s some tweak(s) you can make to your lifestyle.
Maybe it’ll be the very one you’re missing.
What do you think … does Bob want me to eat my apple every day regardless of the time?
I read an article about J. Graham Thomas’ study of over 6,000 people who have maintained a weight loss of one year or more. Ninety percent of them had lost weight in the past but put it all back on.
So how did they keep the weight off this time?
1. Committed to at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise/day
2. Limited TV time to less than 10 hours/week
3. Ate a low-calorie diet with less than 30% calories from fat
4. They stuck to regular eating patterns; not much food variety
5. Ate breakfast every day
6. Avoided emotional eating and fast food
7. Had weekly weigh-ins and tracked calories
No magic bullets and, I’m happy to say, everything I preach here in LazyLand. Except that TV thing … how’s a girl supposed to forget she’s on an elliptical, if she’s not immersed in Liz Lemon’s problems??
Don’t you just love Liz Lemon?
Here are the first 10 ways, in case you missed them!
1. If you’re not really keen on working out, ahem, ‘movement,’ then find an athletic goal. Training for a half-marathon might motivate you more than trying to fit into your skinny jeans.
2. Or at least ditch your car whenever possible. Walk or bike to work. If that’s not possible, at least park a few blocks away as often as possible. After work, take the long way around to get back to it. Drive to a beautiful park on your way home and take a few laps. Park in the far reaches of the mall parking lot and before you hit the sales, take a few fast laps. There are a million ways you can increase the amount of movement in your life. Get a pedometer and measure — 10,000 steps per day is to maintain your weight. More than that if you’re trying to lose.
3.Eat soup for dinner two nights a week. But not the cream-based ones. Load it up with veggies and eat as much as you want!
4. And speaking of veggies, eat more of them. They’re nutritionally dense, but calorie light. Aim for two-thirds of your plate at every meal.
5. Quit dieting. Instead, make a lifestyle change. Use these tips. Become a more mindful eater. Educate yourself about nutrition. Try a new vegetable. Eating shouldn’t be a burden or something to fear. Nor should it make you feel bad about yourself. That’s what you have teenagers and Martha Stewart for.
6. Snack on a handful of nuts. Studies have shown that even though nuts are high in calories, people still lost weight if they ate them over other snacks.
7. Work standing up. You’ll burn more calories than sitting and your posture will probably improve too. Either find a sturdy box to set your computer on or buy a treadmill desk. I have one which I’ll talk about soon. I won’t keep you in suspense … I love it!
8. If you delete one snack vice, delete potato chips. They’re Bad Snack Number One on the list of stuff that packs on the pounds. They are my number one nemesis.
9. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Eat breakfast.” Breakfast eaters are slimmer. Veggie omelettes, yogurt (watch the sugar!), oatmeal, whole grain toast, hard-boiled egg, smoothies … there are a million quick and easy choices. (If you haven’t yet downloaded my free 400-calorie menus, do it now!)
10. If mindless snacking is your bug-a-boo, then decide ahead of time what and when you’ll eat for the day. After you eat, be sure to brush and floss. Stay minty fresh and snack-free!
And a bonus … Get your mind off food. Do something creative. You can’t eat and knit at the same time. But if you can, I want to see video.
Which of these will you try? Which wouldn’t work for you in a gazillion years?
To say THANK YOU for a great year — and to have some fun — I’m having a contest.
Just leave a comment on this blog — the one entitled, “What’s your funniest kitchen story or food tradition?”
The winner gets a digital copy of your choice of one of my books. Deadline is January 13, 2012. I might award prizes in other categories too, depending on the quality and quantity of the entries.
I’ll whittle the entries down to the three funniest and set up a poll which you can share with your friends and shamelessly beg for their votes, because honestly – despite what the hokey pokey says – WINNING FREE STUFF is what it’s all about. Of course your friends can also play, and they should because no prizes will be awarded unless there are at least 20 entries before the deadline.
Have fun with it and accept my heartfelt thanks for a fabulously entertaining and lazy year … let’s have another one, okay?
Cheers and Happy Eating!
PS — don’t forget to join my mailing list or check back here to see if your entry made the cut and to get your friends to vote!
A friend was whining the other day that calorie counting was too hard. (And, yes, she’ll see that I called her a whiner. But it’s okay. I whine to her that Glee conflicts with The Biggest Loser on TV every week. It’s clear we both have really difficult lives.)
Calorie counting isn’t that hard … especially if you have cookbooks and menu plans lovingly prepared for you. Calorie counting simply means eating the right amount of food to maintain your healthy body weight.
You just need to think about it like money.
If you have $20 to spend on food for the day, would you spend it all at Starbucks on your way to work? Or would you want to save some for lunch, dinner, and a couple of snacks?
Would you budget for occasional delicious treats or spend it only on “diet food” that doesn’t make you happy? Or worse, would you bank most of it and not spend it at all?
It’s the same way we budget to buy clothes. We need everyday undies, but we also save for something fun and indulgent from Victoria’s Secret every once in awhile, right? Jeans mostly and sparkly cocktail dresses sometimes. Sturdy walking shoes mostly and stilettos sometimes. Driving a minivan mostly and a jetski sometimes. Chicken breast mostly and cheeseburgers sometimes. Oatmeal mostly and doughnuts sometimes.
But bacon, booze and chocolate? I can always stretch my budget just a liiiiiiittttle more.
What do you save on now so you can splurge later?
People are constantly asking me questions. Some are basic (“How do I separate eggs?”). Some are technical (“If I ride my bike west from Chicago and my friend rides their bike east from Boise” — I’m sure there was more to this one, but I nodded off. Too mathy.) And some are just plain hurtful (“Seriously? You want me to read your blog EVERY time?! Are you going to pay me?”).
But some are all about me. Those are the ones I love.
So when I was asked about my exercise regimen — which I’ve talked about here (and how poodles and Lionel Ritchie exercise here) and whined about here … well you get the idea.
The point is, I like talking about exercise. So I’m happy to talk about what I’m doing now for exercise.
First, I always take Wednesdays off. I sometimes take one weekend day off, depending on what I’ve got going on. But the rest of the week is spent alternating between cardio and strength workouts.
I warm-up before my workout, but I don’t stretch, per se. Instead, I increase my heart rate and warm up my muscles. I hula hoop, jump on the mini trampoline, do some jumping jacks, swing my arms around, dance — just easy, dynamic movement to get going.
On long cardio days, I hop on the treadmill or the elliptical (both of which are parked in front of TVs) and go about 5 miles. I go at a steady clip without inclines. I watch a movie, or The Daily Show, or mindless sitcoms guilt-free. Sometimes I have to split these into two sessions to get the mileage in.
On strength days, I also do cardio, but I do hill or speed intervals on the treadmill. (I go 30 seconds at 10 mph or the highest incline, then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 10 times or until I croak.) Usually I do the cardio at the end of the workout.
On these days, I have a strength training workout I do too. Previously, I found myself cheating, only doing the exercises I liked so I switched it up.
I made a list of all the exercises I know how to do then separated them into three groups — arms, legs, core/abs. There is overlap, of course, dumbbell swings help your butt … handwalking on the treadmill helps your core, and so on. But three categories seemed reasonable and didn’t overwhelm me with options. My notes might not make too much sense to you, but feel free to ask about any of the exercises I do.
To thwart my cheating ways, I set the timer for 45 minutes and, never skipping an exercise, rotate through the pages — arms, legs, core, arms, legs, core, — until the dinger dings. I always try to increase everything, but if I stop to rest — even if I end up doing more reps — I don’t write down the higher number.
I still cheat, of course. When I see the timer ticking down, I’ll go reaaallllllyyyyy slow so I don’t have to do another exercise.
I never write down a lower number of reps, unless I increase the amount of weight. Sometimes, for reasons I try not to think about, I simply cannot do what I had done last time. In fact, just the other day I could only do 8 bicep curls even though I had been doing 19 and had been increasing each time. Usually this happens toward the end of the workout so I don’t beat myself up about it. I just acknowledge that I’m pooped and pat myself on the head for completely fatiguing my muscles, which is the whole point, after all. If it happens on my very last exercise, then I’ll mark it to begin my next workout.
I’m very conscious of using the heaviest weights I can manage, while maintaining good form. Once I hit 20 reps I try to increase the weight. I read constantly that women don’t push themselves hard enough. As much as I like Marlo Thomas, I don’t want to be That (Weak) Girl.
If you’re having trouble losing those last five pounds, or you’ve hit a plateau, you might consider kicking up your cardio and lifting heavier weights. You may have gotten into a bit of a rut and you need to shake up your body every few weeks. That’s why I like this rotation — it’s never the same from workout to workout.
You’ll see that many of these exercises don’t require free weights — most of them work with your own body weight instead which I like.
When I’m done, I do my cardio intervals and stretch and then I collapse, weeping, rolled into a fetal position. Sometimes I reward myself with an episode of The Daily Show. Sometimes with bacon. It’s all good.
Now go make your own lists!
What do you do for strength training? What have you learned along the way? What’s your favorite exercise? What’s your least favorite? (You probably won’t be surprised to know mine are burpees!)
It seems I always end up on the most difficult path in any endeavor except, ironically, when I’m literally on a path. But even I was surprised when I accomplished all this stuff over the course of five days …
• videotaped and edited six videos (including wardrobe and jewelry changes!)
• posted them to the Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle YouTube channel
• tested and finalized a dozen or so recipes (finally perfecting the Guinness Ice Cream!)
• revamped and reformatted Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle Cookbook #1
• compiled all the recipes in Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle Cookbook #2
• created a Just Desserts compilation cookbook
• created a compilation cookbook from Cookbooks #1 and #2
• made internal hyperlinks in the appropriate places in all 4 cookbooks (so when people are reading them and I refer to a related blog post or video or website, they can click the live link and be taken there … right on their Kindle!)
• bookmarked and hyperlinked each recipe to the Table of Contents in all 4 cookbooks (so when people want to go from the Table of Contents directly to a specific recipe, they just need to click on the name of the recipe in the TOC)
• searched line by line for extra spaces, tabs and hard returns in all 4 cookbooks
• wrote marketing copy for all 4 cookbooks
• agonized over where to set the prices
• created covers for all 4 cookbooks (luckily I have a theme going, so all the covers are similar)
• uploaded all 4 titles to Kindle
• added all the new covers to the Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle Facebook page
The truly remarkable thing about all that? I didn’t know how to do 95% of it nine months ago.
I received this email (from a complete stranger, I must point out) and wanted to brag, er, share. As a writer, it’s always gratifying to hear from happy readers. I still remember the boy who read my historical novel An UnCivil War – The Boys Who Were Left Behind and told me, “I never liked to read until I read your book.”
You never forget those surprise sparkles tossed like so much fairy dust in your direction.
But this one is even sweeter because not only is it complimentary of my writing in general (and I’m needy that way), but she tells me I’ve actually helped her and her hubbie figure out how to lose weight.
You know, that’s such an awesome coincidence because it’s exactly what I’m trying to do!
So, Holly, thank you so much for taking the time to let me know how the Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle is working for you. You weren’t required to mention it, but you did and you’ll probably never realize how much I appreciate it. You’ve also given me a new mission — tracking down some Bundaberg Gingerbeer. It sounds delightfully Harry Potterish.
Becky you are an inspiration. Even to us here in Australia.
I had never had a problem with my weight when I was younger and thought myself very fortunate and took it for granted, however over the past ten years between the ages of 35 & 45 (this year) it had suddenly snuck up on me without me really knowing. I found your website the first week of December 2010 and so far I have lost 4kg [Becky's note: almost 9 lbs!] on your Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle in approximately 9 weeks and my husband has lost 3.5kg.
It only took a small amount of modification on our part – we were actually eating healthy – just too much of a good thing. I found portion size is one of the keys and the difference has been amazing. Yes, we still have our seafood which we love and drink our wine – now in moderation. We also swapped over to low alcohol volume wines. Instead of buying the standard 13-17% alcohol volume bottles of wine available here in Australia, we now look for 10% or less alcohol volume wines. And limit ourselves to only drinking on weekends. So much better for our weight, liver, head and general health all round.
We are now very conscious of reading labels and the Energy Cal/Kilojoules in a product. For example: Instead of buying Bundaberg Gingerbeer I now buy Diet Bundaberg Gingerbeer. The difference in calories is amazing. Some labels I read nearly floored me as they have a full days calories in one serving. The same goes for many other products. It’s all about awareness. Thank you for helping me to become more “aware” of what my family and I are consuming.
I also think your tip on 1200 calories on a “non-exercise days” and 1600 calories on “exercise days” is great.
I love your Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle website and I also joined your Facebook page too.
Another 4-6kg and I will have the biggest grin from ear to ear.
I think the word diet is a dirty word (lol). If anyone asks us if we are on a diet because we say no to something high in calories, I tell them no, it’s a “lifestyle” change and a fantastic one!
Here’s to the Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle and here’s to you too Becky. I’ll drink to that! (lol!)
I suppose all I really want to say is “Thanks Becky!”
Kindest regards
Holly
How ’bout you … have you ever been the victim of some drive-by kindness? Made happy by the compliment of a complete stranger? A friend of mine used to pay the highway toll for two or three people behind her, back in the days when you had to stop at the toll booth. Have you ever done anything like that?
