Another quiz thingie

Dawn Summers 81% amorality, 63% passion, 90% spirituality, 63% selflessness

Dawn is a person driven by her love for her friends and her desire to make a difference. Perhaps you are, too. You're willing to do whatever is necessary to do what is right for those you care about, and sometimes this can get you in a little bit of trouble. Most of all, however, you have a heart of gold. Congratulations! THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 87% on morality You scored higher than 37% on repose You scored higher than 87% on spirituality You scored higher than 75% on selflessness

Link: The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test written by donathos on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad... Happy Solstice!

Eight weeks and counting...!

First: Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad :-D 38 years & still going strong!

Second: Merry Christmas everyone! ;-))

Third: Weigh-In today .. down to -30 lbs.!

And now a visual aid to show what 30 lbs. looks like :-D

Tasty recipe for WW Core folks & others !

Here it is friends, the moment you've been waiting for... An original recipe by me, inspired by my pal Myra W. who suggested that flattening out polenta, cutting it up and frying it makes it taste *less* like goo! Thanks buddy :-)

Polenta Parmesan Pizza

Preparation time: 30 + min
Cooking time: 15 min
Serves: 4 (if they are tiny.)

1 Cup fine cornmeal
3 Cups water (or fat-free broth)

Make polenta (Boil 3 cups water or fat-free broth, add cornmeal in a steady stream, whisking briskly. Let cook covered 5 min., stirring occasionally to get out the lumps. Depending on the cornmeal, it may cook very quickly.)

Spread polenta on a large cookie sheet, (using wax paper to keep it from sticking to your hands) completely smoothing it out, pushing it to the edges. You may have to use 2 sheets of wax paper, as this can get kind’ve sticky! Throw it into the fridge to gel.

1/3 Cup salsa, mixed with 3 Tbsp. ketchup (or ½ Cup pizza sauce) to taste.
1 tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. oregano, ½ tsp. basil, ½ tsp. anis seed, 1/8 tsp. pepper, mixed (or more, to taste)

Pizza toppings (use your own favourites, or the following:)
½ green pepper, sliced thinly
¼ sweet onion (Vidalia, red) sliced thinly
½ pear, sliced thinly
4-6 mushrooms, sliced thinly

Meat topping (use your own, or try the following)
16 Yves Pepperoni tofu slices cut in half,
(or 1 poached chicken breast/ pork tenderloin, sliced thinly, or ½ cup chunk TVP rehydrated & marinated in Tbsp. soy sauce, tsp. garlic powder, ½ Tbsp. oyster sauce.)

4 slices fat-free cheese
(Optional: 3 Tbsp. grated Reggiano parmesan cheese)

Extra virgin olive oil or Canola

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Cook the polenta, then spread on the cookie sheet & put into the fridge to gel.

Meanwhile, slice green pepper, onion, pear & mushrooms. Mix the spice & herbs together in a small bowl. Mix the salsa and ketchup in another small bowl.

Cut the gelled polenta into 4 equal pieces. Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray, or a bit of olive oil. Fry the polenta until it is crispy on both sides (4 min. or so (or longer!!)) (If you have two skillets, you can fry the polenta in double batches.)

Put the fried polenta pieces on two cookie sheets. Spread each piece with ¼ of the salsa/ketchup mixture (or pizza sauce.) Then, sprinkle each piece with a ¼ of the spice mixture. Divide the “meat” topping among the four pizzas. Next, put on the onions, peppers, pears and mushrooms.

Tear 4 fat-free cheese slices into pieces and arrange over each of the pizzas. Finally, sprinkle each one with optional grated parmesan cheese.

Cook for 15 minutes until cheese has melted and veggies are cooked.

Enjoy!

Chewy Dingo

Nothing to do with chewy dingos.



Just realized it's been a MONTHOLA since my last post. Sorry. Where did that month go? Beats me! Mostly cooking I think. I spend a lot more time cooking now than I have in my life. It's good though; I'm experimenting, making new recipes, adapting ones. The diet (Weight Watchers Core Plan) has taken over my life & brain... and seems to be working. This is cool. Inordinant amount of time in front of the stove is a bit aggravating, but I feel that eventually I will get it all sorted out (like cooking crap ahead & freezing it.)

Recipe books that have helped me since I signed up at WW Nov 4th include: Harrowsmith Cookbooks 1 & 2, The Green Door Restaurant Cookbook, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home, Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favourites & Looney Spoons. The vegetarian books offer great ideas for what to do with kasha, millet, couscous, bulghur, cornmeal and the like. This is great if you're trying to incorporate more whole grains into your life (like I am!)



Saturday's weigh in was 26.5 lbs. I got my 25 lbs. fridge magnet, with applause, and supportive cheers from the group. Yay Sue! I'm barely 12 lbs. away from my 10% goal, which'll probably happen in the new year sometime. The program is going well. It puts me in mind of two credos: "You can't possibly fail if you don't quit." (Of course, in some cases it means just ramming your head against a wall multiple times.) But in my case, I hope that it means perseverance will eventually win out. The second line was from wayy back at an OA meeting: "Keep coming back, it works if you work it."

Working it means drinking LOTS of water. Lots. Like... eventually you will find a little well-worn path leading from your office to the bathroom & back. Wheee! I drink an average of 2 L of H20 a day (that's about 64 oz.!)

Working it means.. hitting the Gym! Sue has been hitting it.. thanks to support from friends who've been coming with & encouraging me. The buddy system works! What else? Really *thinking* about food when you prepare, sit down and eat & finish. Consider the meal, be mindful while you eat. It's important to enjoy the textures & flavours and to take the time to just be there for it. It's the opposite mindset of a bingeing compulsive over-eater & it's taking a lot of time to relearn the whole thing.

Working it on Core means stopping when you've had enough. This is novel. Up until recently, I had no clue when I'd "had enough." I didn't have any signals telling me anything until I just plumb couldn't eat anymore. So.. slowly we learn to listen to the body and go; hey.. maybe I could stop now and that would be ok..!

What else? Making healthy choices MOST of the time. I don't say "all of the time" cause you'd have to be gunning for Saint-hood to pull it off. Most of time is, well, every day at work someone offers me cookies, or candy, or chocolate. Saying "no" 90% of the time means you aren't getting 90% of those empty calories. Yes, I would love a shortbread made of pure butter. But it's not worth it to me. The 10% I say "yes" to is when it *is* worth it; it is something I really want, and will truly enjoy.

Working it means kicking the sh*t out of Guilt. I don't feel guilty if I've had a bad day. I don't feel guilty if I miss the gym. I feel proud that I'm doing this, and I'm committed to being in it for a damned long run. If the wheels occasionally fall off, it isn't the end of the world.. it's just the end of that day. And, as we all know.. tomorrow is another day.



That being said, getting a 2nd-hand weight set was a good idea, so I could work out at home if I missed getting to the gym at work!

Doing this thang has required strength and will-power that I didn't know I had; didn't realize existed in me. I keep wondering when it's going to fail me, when I'm going to throw the hands in the air and say "I give up". But I'm still here. Still trying and haven't stopped... 7 weeks later.

YAY! Thanks to everyone who is helping me: Family, Friends, & my Gym & WW Buddies. You gals (& guys) are the ones who make it keep on keeping on. Without you I would be back to my old crappy habits, and I would be enjoying a one-way ticket to gallbladder failure, probably heart-failure and diabetes. So THANK YOU.

For fun, I have some images to show my progress....!
A few weeks ago, when I'd lost 14 lbs., I put this collage together:



For a comparison, the folowing items weigh approximately 25 lbs!



Stay tooned for more!
Cheers
Suzanne.