Hey, Sisters!

Today is Monday, a new day, a new week, and I know I'm a walking cliche when I say...."It's the first day of the rest of our lives!!!"

I tried a new piece of cardio equipment at the gym today, and went longer than I had even set as a goal! So I got to thinking about goals, and one of mine has been to try and eat lunch a little later than I usually do so that the snowball effect doesn't occur. I'm usually chomping at the bit for 2:00 to come so I can tear into a snack, and that STILL doesn't usually hold me until dinner. When the kids come home from school I convince myself it's my duty as a mother to sit and have ANOTHER snack with them! So today I'm holding off lunch (still telling the funny noises coming from my stomach that they're not real), and limiting afternoon snacking to once. That's my goal. I'll let you know how I do.

Also, on Valentine's weekend my nephew in Los Angeles got engaged. This will be the first wedding for this generation of our family. AND THERE IS NO WAY IN HECK I'M GOING TO BE THE FAT ONE IN THE PICTURES!!!! So there. Two goals. I think that's about all I can handle today.

Have a great Monday, everyone!

Julie

Winter Squash and Gruyere Gratin

I spend hours and hours pouring through recipe books since my 16-year old daughter, Ali, announced she's a vegetarian. Trying to make sure she gets enough protein in her meals while not adding so much fat from cheese and nuts is a challenge. This recipe, in my opinion, makes 4 servings that are Entree size, not side dish size, so the calories and fat aren't as much as the bottom implies if you're serving a side dish size. Ali loves this so much that she eats it as an entree. To cut down the fat, I found fat free block swiss cheese at HyVee on 135th and Antioch. I'm sure that cuts the fat and calories significantly. Since I've never made it with the Gruyere cheese, I can't tell you how it changes the flavor. Also, I know that the baguette goes against what Bob Greene is telling us, so I'm sure if we found a whole grain or whole wheat substitute, that would make this even better for us.

I thought there were an aweful lot of steps, but in reality it was easy and quick to make. Enjoy!

Winter Squash and Gruyere Gratin

2 medium butternut squash (1 1/2 pounds each)
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1 medium leek (white part only), chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium canned broth
1/ can (12 ounces) evaporated skim milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 ounces of baguette (thinly cut into 8 small slices) or 2 slices of peasant bread (cut into 4 equal pieces), toasted
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese
8 basil leaves, shredded

Preheat the oven to 400. Slice the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Place the squash, cut side up, in a baking pan. Season with 1/2 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake until the squash are tender, but not mushy, about 1 hour. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine the leek, olive oil, and 2 teaspoons of water. Cover and cook over moderately low heat until the leek is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the wine. Increase the heat to high and boil until the liquid is reduced to approximately 3 tablespoons, about 3 minutes. Stir in the stock, milk, sugar and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

Using a big spooon, scoop the flesh from the squash in large pieces. Place in a medium bowl. (The recipe can be preapred to this point up to 3 hours ahead. Set aside at room temperature.)

To assembel the gratin, preheat the oven to 400. Bring the leek mixture to a boil. Spoon half of the squash into a 6- to 8-cup ovenproof casserole. Ladle half of the leek mixture over the top and cover with half of the toast and half of the Gruyere cheese. Repeat the layers with the remaining squash, leek mixture, toast, and Gruyere. Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top. Bake the gratin for 30 minutes or nutil the top is bronwed and bubbly. Garnish with the basil and serve.

Note: Evaporated skim milk is whole milk from which half the water and most of the fat have been removed. It contains twice the nutrients and protein of regular skim milk.

4 Servings, 397 Calories, 21.2 gm Protein, 12.0 gm Fat, 55.5 gm Carbohydrate per Serving

Live to fight another day…

Depressed.
Fat.
Unmotivated.

That’s how I feel;
Like I’m in a constant battle.

From the lack of blogging activity around here,
Some of you may feel the same way?

So yeah, I’ve been down this week.
But I just now realized…
I’m not out.

We live to fight another day.

When you stop and think about it,
What I am going through right now,
And maybe you are too…
Is the exact reason we started the Sisterhood.

To help us through these times.
To help us remember, it’s a process…
Not a race.

Tomorrow is a new day.
A new opportunity to do better.
A new battle to be won.

I love Google

As promised, we now have an interactive calendar for the group.
It’s available to us through Google.
All this time, I really never thought of Google as anything other than a search engine.
But Au’ Contraire… it is so much more!

Before I get into the "hows" of the interactive calendar, let me point out that I did add a link to the right sidebar called "STF Calendar". You can view the calendar at this site, but you cannot interact with it. Click on the event itself for the details. To interact with the calendar, follow the instructions below.

If you are a member of this blog, you should have received an invitation to register for a Google Calendar if you do not already have one. This entails nothing more than a few quick steps; you will need your Google user I.D. and password to register. If I missed you somehow, shoot me a quick email and I’ll add you to the list.

Once you have completed that initial step, you will have access to your own Google Calendar which I believe will be named whatever your email account address is you used when you first registered.

You will also have access to our group calendar named “Sisterhood of the Travelling Fatties”. It is highlighted in pink and you can highlight your own calendar simply by clicking on the down arrow to the left of your calendar’s name. (Choose any color than pink!)

Tip: At the top of the calendar on the right side are viewing options; Day, Week, Month, 4 Day & Agenda. Choose “Month” for the best overall snapshot of what’s coming up soon. Choose "Agenda" and it will list everything we have scheduled on the calendar to date.

The two calendars will look to be combined as one, but only you will see your own personal data which also shows up on the STF calendar, not anyone else. For instance, my personal calendar is highlighted in purple. Anything I put on it will show in purple font. When I click on the STF calendar, I will see “STF Meeting on 2/12” in pink font. But if I added a Doctor’s Appt. on my calendar it would appear for me in purple font on the STF calendar as well, but none of you will see. It sounds a bit confusing I know, but it’s actually pretty groovy. (It would help tremendously if I was a better “technical writer”… but I ain’t!) Bottom line, only data in “pink” is what everyone is seeing. So choose any other color for your personal calendar please.

Once you’ve got all that figured out, let’s go one step further.
On the same page as your Google calendar, over on the left sidebar it says “My Calendars”. Be sure you are on the STF calendar, and then click on “Settings” which is right below it. Again on this page, choose the STF calendar and click on “Notifications”. This is where you can personalize your notification settings. It’s pretty self-explanatory; I clicked all 5 choices to have emailed to me. If it gets to be obnoxious I can always go back and change it.

So that’s our “Calendar Tutorial”… again I apologize for not being more literate in this area… but as Popeye says, “I am what I am!”

Summary of our 2nd STF Meeting

We had a fantastic second STF meeting last night; there were 7 of us in attendance and all contributed greatly to its success. I had planned somewhat of a meeting agenda which we followed quite nicely with some twists and turns along the way. In the end, we covered everything we intended to plus a whole lot more.

Julie for instance shared with us her incredible experience of attending the Presidential inauguration last week with her girls. We were riveted by her stories… which included staying on the same floor of the hotel as the entire ABC news crew. (I love me some George Stephanopoulos, did you know he’s married to a comedienne?) She did meet Robin Roberts face to face and says she is as lovely and beautiful in person as she is on our family room TV’s each weekday morning! Of course the best stories were about the people, the inclusiveness, the balls, the Obama’s and the hope! Thanks Julie, that was a real treat.

We discussed the meeting schedule and decided for now to stay the course and meet every other week. Our next meeting will be on Thursday 2/12 at my house again.

Activity… yes, we discussed that nasty little word again! Our thought was to choose a class at either Matt Ross or Tomahawk CC the morning of Super bowl Sunday. That way we can pig out later with a little less guilt! But I just got off the site(s) and personally none of the morning classes appeal to me, (Bootcamp, Cycling). There is a Pilate’s class this evening, short notice I know, at 5:30 (MRCC), I’d be willing to start my weekend off right by going to it. Call or email me ASAP if you want to come.

A quick blogging lesson was included last night as well. Everyone was shown how easy it is to post and I also tried to really encourage all of you to use the “comments” section beneath each post. Participation is essential for this group to have long-term success. You’ve all got to be tired of just seeing my ramblings on here… this is “our” blog… so blog already! Or at least comment on those who do.

Something else we incorporated into our meeting was a “Show and Tell”. This proved to be a great way to share with each other products that work for us. We had Steel Cut Oats, 3 different kinds of protein/fiber bars; Robin shared a product by Kellogg’s called “Special K20 Protein Water Mix” which she adds to her water bottle. It helps to get her water in for the day and has 5 grams of protein too. And of course I shared the infamous “Milled Flax Seed” with everyone! If you have something you’re using that helps you get through the day, bring it along to the next meeting to share.

Another idea we came up with was to each set one goal to work on until we meet again. They ran the gamut; mine in retrospect was pretty lame… read more of Bob Green’s book. Beth’s was very aggressive; she plans to work out 5 times a week. Go Beth, go! These set goals fit nicely with our attitude that incorporating change into our daily lives will not overwhelm us, but in fact be the catalysts of a healthier and therefore thinner version of ourselves.

Judy shared a real eye opener with us last night as well. She’s the one you might recall who first told us about Fitday.com I added it to the sidebar under “Links we Love” after the first meeting but quite frankly never really checked it out too thoroughly. Judy says that she never really considered herself an over-eater. But when she took the time to utilize the Fitday.com tools, she quickly realized it wasn’t how much she ate but what she ate. Fitday.com is big on Pie Charts… when you plug in what you ate all day and hit the enter button, there is no denying the pie chart. It clearly shows that out of the total calories you consumed that day, where it is they came from. In Judy’s case it was heavily weighted in carbs. Her fruits and veggies were nominal at best. She has since made a conscious effort to eat less carbs, more fibrous fruits and veggies, and the good news is she’s not depriving herself of food, just making smarter choices. Check out the site, you have to join (it’s free), so you have yet another user I.D. and password to remember. But like most things worth doing, it’s going to take a little initial work to get started. Judy says push through it and give it a shot… it’s a great tool.

One of the more animated discussions we had last night was to add a “Social Calendar” to our group. Get your calendars out girls because we are going to Fleetwood Mac at the Sprint Center on Friday, May 8th! This will be a little tricky getting organized, it sounds like it will be a big group… feel free to include some friends, even your skinny ones!

Another night out we are considering is a “Martini-Madness” at the Culinary Center of Kansas City in March. You know what they say… “One martini is all right. Two are too many and three are not enough!” I will be challenging myself to figure out how to create an interactive calendar to put on this site so we can plan these social outings.

And the last order of business last night was our surprise Guest Speaker, drum roll please…. My main man Mikey! Mike being an engineer, understands the fine workings of “things”, be it a power plant or the complex human body. He has read the Dr. Oz book “You on a Diet” and although most of that stuff goes right over my head, it doesn’t Mike’s. We learned about the Hypothalamus which is a tiny portion of the brain which controls among other things, hunger and thirst. (Ok… sex drive too!) This is where I will now stubbornly explain to you the benefits of coming to the meetings; I am not going to even begin to explain here what we learned last night from Mikey, but suffice it to say you should stock up on almonds!

That’s it… you still with me? That was a lot to cover, I’m mentally exhausted now! Let me know if anyone is game for Pilate’s tonight, I’m sure it will take someone stepping up to the plate for me to actually commit to it myself on a Friday evening. Tomorrow is out for me, Sunday we already discussed; this is probably my only option for a “group” activity.

Oh… dang. You know I never end it when I say I’m going to end it. One more tidbit of info; I am going to create another (interactive) spreadsheet for us to track our weight loss on. It’s clear from the meeting that everyone wants us to have a way to track our success, pitfalls, and accountability. It will be very simple, once a week you weigh and report the results. We don’t need your actual weight, just the results. So watch for that, it will be on the sidebar as well.

Ok, I’m really done now!

Except for this footnote: Kathy and I will definitely be at Pilate's tonight; 5:30 at the MRCC. The cost is 5 buckaroos and the laughs are priceless. Please join us if you can!

Credit where credit is due…

The sculpture we are “borrowing” for the front page of our blog is the work of Joanna Mallin-Davies. It is called “Fat Ladies” and this is what she says about it:

“Whether in a state of rapture or serenity, the women I create have an innate self-possession, an inner smile, as if finding a beautiful, abundant garden. They share the same inner contentment, living in pleasure with themselves and their surroundings, for their own sake. It is their pleasure.
I carry this feeling of simplicity and strength in the form of the piece. Smooth simple lines and curves accentuated by only slight details of expression in faces and hands, the feeling of peace and balance resonates through the form, even if the tableau itself is not immediately understood.”

My hope is that Ms. Mallin-Davies would approve of our “Sisterhood”.

Just the Flax Ma’am

This journey we are on is as much about better health as it is smaller pants.
So far, our posts have mostly been about weight reduction and increased exercise; both great goals which common sense would suggest will affect our health in a positive way.
But we can do better than that ladies, by being more pro-active in our daily nutritional choices.

This post will be the first in a new category named “Did you know?”
Included here will be little nuggets of healthful information we can share with each other. By incorporating simple changes into our daily living we will surely reap huge rewards. We are all very knowledgeable about healthy living and how to achieve it; the challenge is actually doing it. My thought is if we have a place to organize and share this knowledge, our new awareness will transfer into action.

I’ll go first; the topic is “Flax Seed”. (Riveting, I know!)

First off, when buying/using flax seed, be sure to get “Milled” Flax Seed. Whole flax seed cannot be digested which in turn does not allow the body to absorb the benefits of the heart-healthy Omega-3 oils which flax is a rich source of.

Doctor’s minimal daily recommendation for Omega-3 is 1000 mg per day. 2 Tbsp. of Milled Flax Seed has 2600 mg of Omega -3. Omega -3 cannot be manufactured by the body and must be supplied daily in the diet.

We have all heard the countless benefits of Omega-3”s. Among those are:

* Better brain function and higher intelligence
* Feeling better with much less depression.
* Superior cardiovascular health.
* Freedom from pain and inflammation.
* Protection from heart attack and stroke.
* Reduction of breast, colon and prostate cancer.

Fiber is very imperative to our diets. The average American only gets 8.75 grams of fiber intake a day. To prevent colon cancer, breast cancer, and heart disease you need between 25-30 grams a day. Flax has the highest content of fiber than any other food. Again, by consuming just 2 Tbsp. a day, you will increase your fiber intake by another 15% (4g) with zero calories or Trans fat. And remember… fiber is also helpful in keeping our tummy’s satisfied longer.

Nasty stuff you say? I thought so too at first; you just have to figure out where you can use it that is the least invasive regarding taste (which is sort of earthy) and texture (which is more like flour than grains since it’s milled). I added an entire Tbsp. to my light ranch dressing that I use to dip my veggies in for snacks. That’s probably a 1-2 ratio (1 pt. flax, 2 pts ranch) and I had no issue with it at all.

I will continue to experiment with the when’s and where’s of it’s use; the key for me is that I measure it out in the morning and know I have a whole day to get it in me.

Fish oil pills are another great source of Omega-3’s, I have trouble popping pills so this is the way I’m going to try to go for now. Plus the fiber is beneficial as well. It doesn’t matter how you choose to take these supplements, the goal should be to take them!