Argh, Double Argh; Loading Up Pantry with Superfoods Powders; Have you tried MSM for saggy skin?

I do NOT have a handle on my eating. Just as the scale started going downwards with the combo of delivery meals and raw meals, I got sick. Allergy season is kicking my crappy respiratory and immune system to the curb. I've been congested and wheezy (I have bad asthma since childhood) for two weeks, but last week was really bad and I haven't been able to leave the house. Sitting still lets me breathe. Moving means I need more oxygen and I feel gaspy. It's like a fat person is pushing a knee against my sternum and strangling me at the same time.

Sucks.

So, hubby has been bringing in soups and meals, and I've been eating comfort foods and the scale is up to 269...again. Crap.

I visited iHerb (love this site, my newest online discovery and addiction). I have ordered a bunch of powdered raw and green supplements from Healthforce Nutritionals (just got them a couple days ago) and Madre Labs (should arrive in a week or so).

I was pretty much an invalid 20 years ago and had to quit work due to my immune and respiratory issues. I began to supplement big time back then and found it actually helped. When my blood sugar started soaring, I avoided getting on pills for it by switching the composition of meals (didn't really lose much weight, just didn't eat carbs or sweets without a full meal with protein, fat, and fiber) and adding cinnamon supplements and alpha lipoic acid and beta glucans. Worked. My labs came back great within a few months. And although I didn't lose weight until several years after (and only 30 since my high), I've pretty much kept the habit of not eating carbs by themselves and taking cinnamon when I cave to sweets.

The combo of whey protein, barley grass, acai/berry juice, and amazing grass has given me a bit of extra perk for working out, especially when I don't sleep well. So, I know that these things do work for me to some degree.

I've used Green Magma and Berry/Acai Splash for years and added Amazing Grass recently to my pre-workout regimen, but I decided to try some new "more packed" powdered nutritionals. I saw the link for the Healthforce Nutritionals raw food supplementary powders on The Skinny Online and the website for the products piqued my curiosity.  I do find the taste has that mild freshness to it, but it's not great tasting. I pretty much gulp the stuff down fast. :D

From Madre Labs products, I'm ordering a bunch of free powder and beverage samples (like an instant coffee and mushroom, cocoa and mushroom, vitamin c, etc). From the superfoods, I got the Midori Greens (redundant as, being a Japanese  manga fan, I know "midori" means "green") and the Eureka Berries. The former (Midori) has some superfoods not already in my rotation. The latter includes chokeberry, and after reading about it in a blog at Diets in Review, I decided I want to add it to my supplement line-up.

The other things I'm getting from iHerb I had never heard of until I watched a video linked from Melting Mama.  The info wasn't on THAT video about a woman who was on her own reducing plan that included multiple 100 calorie shakes per day plus two very light meals and a lot of New Agey spirituality. Her loss is impressive. But what was MORE impressive to me was her lack of loose, hanging, stretch-mark-riddled flesh. Her belly looks amazing for someone who's lost like 100 pounds. She posted another video, with some of her own humor added, where she theorizes on why her skin handled the loss well. I figured it was worth trying the MSM (sulfur supplement and moisturizer with the stuff). I ordered capsules and the cream.

You might wanna check out this article, too.  It mentions other vitamins and zinc along with MSM. After Sparking earlier this year, I learned I'm continually deficient dietarily in zinc (and zinc in those multivitamins tends to be poorly absorbed), so I purchased ionic liquid zinc. It tastes AWFUL. But now that I see it relates to skin health/elasticity, I need to be more diligent.  I already have saggy skin, and if MSM and superfoods and zinc can help in any way with skin, general immune  health, and weight loss, why not?

If you've used any of these superfoods or the MSM products with some good result (or no result or bad result), do let me know.

So, there it is and here I am, just plain NOT doing well due to an assortment of reasons mental and physiological and seasonal, but not giving up. Nope. Uh-uh. Hanging in there.

Hope this spanking fresh week we've been given to live is a fat-reducing, health-producing one for us all...

Fiber Gourmet's Got Lasagna and Spaghetti now, and I Found A Crazy Yummy Supermarket Latte without Sugar and With Whey Protein Made with Skim Milk

Okay, so I'm trying to stock my kitchen with stuff that I like but in a lighter/better versions for weight loss.

First off, while I need to really cut back on my sugars (I have been way too indulgent in Godiva chocolates due to hubby's romantic and generous impulses, and well, my dark chocolate obsession), I really love pasta and have been having nearly daily desires for it (though I haven't had any since, er, Monday, when I had half of a take-out serving I shared with hubby of fettucine marinara).

I had used Fiber Gourmet back when I first started this blog and found it okay if you had a really tasty sauce. Claims that it's just like regular pasta is horsepucky. It's not. It's got a different texture and a blander taste. However, it does have INSANE amounts of fiber and so it did actually fill me up for an extended time. With a good marinara and some parmesan, or a light Alfredo with chicken, or some broccoli and garlic and EVOO, it was okay and filling and gave me that pasta fix. So, I'm gonna try the lasagna. (If you want to try it, too, and are ordering either lasagna or spaghetti, the two new items, then just use code FREE SHIP to ditch the shipping costs.)

I need to start cooking again (been eating out, take-out, and delivery diet meals), and I need to make stuff hubby can eat and take for lunch. Lasagna is a winner there, since it freezes great, reheats great, and can be modified in so many ways (lean ham and light swiss or ricotta, veggie and low fat cheese, lean ground beef and marinara, mexican style, etc). 

Since they have a free shipping special now, I decided to give it a shot. Got the lasagna and got some rotini pasta (that I can use when I get a mac-n-cheese jones). Due to the high fiber, these don't affect blood sugar like regular pasta (and affects it less, I hear, than the Dreamfields pasta I use now that is higher-fiber, lower digestible carb than regular pasta).

We'll see how that goes.

I'm also a latte junkie. I normally go twice a week minimum to Starbucks for a sugarfree vanilla latte fix. However, I don't like the Starbucks latte with skim milk. I get it with 2%. I find the skim milk one just too watery. However, this week, I discovered Emmi's Caffee Latte Light over at Fresh Market and I am in love. It comes in a small serving (a bit under a cup) in a nicely shaped container reminiscent of coffehouse take-out cups.  One serving of 7.7 ounces has 80 calories, no fat, 440 grams of potassium (great for those of us with HBP), 12 grams of carbs, 1 gram  of fiber, and 8 grams of protein. The first three ingredients are: fat free milk, espresso coffee, whey protein concentrate. It's sweetened with Sucralose, not sugar.

This stuff tastes so good, I like it better than the skim milk latte at Starbucks, and I like that the ingredients are pretty simple and calorie-counting friendly. For me, as I'm lazy about making lattes at home (having to clean the espresso thingie makes me just opt for tea most of the time), I want to stock up on these for when I get that "gotta have a latte" moment. It offers 25% of daily calcium needs, so that's a happy thing.  (And for WLS peops, it seems to be suitable from what I see in the stats and can, doubtless, be supplemented with extra whey and still taste good.)

I can't remember how much it cost, but I'm assuming less than a tall Starbucks latte.

Any great happy calorie food finds out there this week?

A Round-Up of Deals and Tools: Pilates, Pizza Fit'n Free, Holey Donuts, CurlMart, Hungry Girl's List

Well, I think the cloud is finally easing and I'm feeling as if light is coming through the grey. I had still felt blue last week, so much so that I cancelled all my Pilates sessions. But this week, I went Monday and today, and she worked me hard (I think to make up for lost sessions.) It's fine. It's tough, and sometimes midway I think I'm gonna collapse, but we make it through the hour in the end. :) I'm still amazed I've stuck with this for 1 year and 7 months. Me, the exercise hater. But when I have someone telling me, guiding me, encouraging me, pushing me, I like it. Alone, on my own, I end up stuck in inertia. Hate that about me. If you're a big gal in South Florida and you've wanted to try Pilates, but have been afraid cause of size or embarrassment, try one of the gals at The Pilates Room in North Miami Beach. Look for a welcome 3-session special and class pricing here.

If you're a pizza-lover, and want to try a no-fat, no-sugar, low-cal frozen pizza that gets shipped to your house, well, Pizza Fit'n Free has a special promo going on now (for new orders only). Use coupon code "superbowl" and you'll get 10% off yoru order. See their pizzas here. I'll be totally honest and say that I tried these a couple years ago and though they were...dreadful. Very dry, cardboardy, hard crust and skimpy toppings. But I understand that this is catering to an segment of dieters that really want to keep calories low and have to have a pizza fix. Me, I'd rather make a pita pizza with veggies and part-skim mozza and low-cal pizza sauce at home. Tastes better, imo. BUT...lots of points-watchers use these as a craving-killer that doesn't blast the diet like supermarket or delivery pizzas can. One of these pizzas is only 250 calories and you can top it the way you'd like.

Holey Donuts has added Weight Watchers points to their shopping pages (not all donuts I saw had them listed, but most).  For example, the mini cinnamon buns are 2 points each, four donuts holes  are 3 points, one Oreo Boston creme-filled is 4 points, and one strawberry shortcake is 5 points.

I've tried Crum Creek's soy snacks, and they tasted good, though I stopped ordering due to issues with soy. However, if you like a lower-carb pasta and aren't sensitive to soy, you might want to take advantage of Crum Creek's pasta sale. Get 30% off your order of pasta with the promo code "comfort."

 While hair care is not diet-related, it is mood-related to me. A good hair day makes me happier and a bad hair day lowers my joy level, I can tell you. In an effort to go more natural (not just in foods, but in other products), I've turned off the flat iron and blow-dryer (mostly) in favor of air-drying. (See mini-pics of my hair as it is au naturel, air-dried, at left. I'm still recovering from decades of straightening, but my curls will heal.) I've also switched to products that use either all or mostly natural products--oils, emollients, moisturizers, surfactants, etc. I'm a curly haired gal--quite curly. My hair naturally spirals and coils. Since late November, I haven't straightened it. And I've been using some interesting stuff I've sampled from Whole Foods and from Curlmart.  Shop now through February 1 at Curlmart and SAVE 15%. Use coupon code 5DAY15*. They carry lots of curl-friendly hair lines such as the Deva, Curl Junkie, MyHoneyChild, Mop Top, Kinky Curly, Jessicurl, Curly Hair Solutions, etc. If you have been straightening/blowing/flat-ironing and want to go natural with your waves or curls, I highly recommend the NaturallyCurly.com site, forum (CurlTalk), articles, and CurlMart reviews and products.

Hungry Girl has sent out her handy-dandy shopping list. If you want to take a look to see if you can get hints for your own fatfighting list, check out her pdf format list.


I hope there's lot of joy in your life today, and a little less fat. :) Happy Thursday!

Dr. McDougall Right Foods--Are they Right For Your Diet?

Because I'm restarting my eating plan, I've spent a mini-fortune in food--both at the supermarket and ordering stuff online for the cupboard/pantry. I tend to shop from Amazon and Netrition.

This past week, I've ordered lower sodium Amy's soups, Just Tomatoes brand dried items (cherries, strawberries, mixed veggies, apples) that I add to oatmeal and soups and just snack on, and pecans from amazon.com. From Netrition, I ordered my fave higher fiber/lower carb pasta--DREAMFIELDS linguine, lasagna noodles, penne, and elbow-- as well as lower carb/higher fiber tortillas and pita breads, GG crispbread, and unsweetened Almond Breeze in vanilla and chocolate.

Today, I placed an order with Glaser Organic Farms (a local operation, way south of me in Miami-Dade country). This is organic stuff, lots of raw stuff, too, including raw hummus, their own extra virgin olive oil, peanut and almond butters, lima beans/split peas/lima beans for soups, fresh coconut water, light agave nectar, and spinach-basil pesto.

One of the lines of foods that I try to keep in my "dieter's pantry" is Dr. McDougall's Right Foods. I order them from Amazon.com in bulk. I'm gonna post some about it after seeing this blog entry today over at Slim Shopping. Jennifer got a nice batch of soups from Dr. McD.

Man, wish they'd send me free food. :) Especially the maple oatmeal (which I haven't tried) and some of the other soups.

Anyway....These are vegan foods, mostly soups and cereal items. I've tried the following:

Peach Raspberry Oatmeal with Barley
Instant Apple Cinnamon oatmeal
Spring Onion soup
Miso Ramen soup
Split Pea soup (both the regular and lower sodium)
Tomato Basil with Pasta soup.
Pad Thai Noodle

(I have some Chicken Pilaf in the pantry, but haven't tried that one yet.)

The lowdown: These tend to be nicely conservative in calories and have a healthful array of ingredients. You usually just add water and steep. Convenient, low-cal, healthful. Yep, that's why it's in my pantry for when I'm on plan.

Tastewise: The split pea in a cup is the best instant of this type of soup that I've had. I've ordered the case twice. The Apple Cinnamon instant oatmeal is better than the Quaker and McCann's versions of the same flavor. Way, waaaay better. Tastes fresh and apple-y. The Spring Onion soup is quite pleasant, with Thai-rice style noodles that are fun to slurp. The Miso Ramen has a nice miso broth but the noodles suck. I guess ramen does better when it's got fat. I ignore the noddles, use the packet for broth, and add tofu and scallions and mushrooms. (And yes, there are instant miso soups out there, but I have a severe seafood allergy and can't risk the bonito flakes, etc. So this vegan miso is safe for me to consume, even if I ditch the noodles.) The Tomato BAsil with pasta is fine, but it needs a lot of steeping/cooking and maybe additional microwaving. If you follow the instructions, it has a really hard/crunchy texture. Gotta cook it way longer, unlike the other soups.

The one big, huge fail (other than the ramen noodles in the Miso Ramen) was the Pad Thai Noodle soup. Didn't taste one darn thing like Pad Thai (one of my favest of foods). Bland. Lots of rice noodles, though, so for some, it's probably okay.

All in all, I've been pleased with the ones I've tried from Dr. McD. If you want to see more reviews or nutritional info, visit their site or amazon. They make way more products than I've listed/tried.

The Princess Tries Holey Donuts, and if you want to, limited time $4.99 shipping eases the pain

You may remember that I didn't order the widely-praised HOLEY DONUTS because there was a nearly 20 buck shipping cost. Well, I did finally order them when they had their "donuts for five bucks per box" promotion, cause the discount actually turned out to pay for the whole of the shipping cost. :) The images in this post depict the particular items I ordered: the donut hole assortment, a sampler of full size donuts, and the cinnamon buns.

My take: Very nice. For donut lovers, those who simply cannot live without their pillowy frosted or cream-filled or cinnamony treats, this is a lower-calorie, lower-fat, better option. (Though I will not go the hyperbolic route and call these healthy. It's still refined flour and sugar and what-not. This is not health-food, it's simply LESS BAD VERSIONS of junk food that taste nearly as good as the best donuts out there.

One high recommendation for the cinnamon buns created by Holey Donuts came from my hubby. Confession: I only had one bite and thought it was just fine, but haven't had anymore in the last couple weeks since I got my order, since I simply don't crave cinnamon buns/rolls that often. I'm a custard filling lover, myself. Anyway, back to hubby: I served him half of a cinnamon bun for dessert shortly after getting our order. He munched on it and declared, "Hmmm. Nice." I said, "Those are lowfat, ya know?" He said, "You didn't even need to say it. I wouldn't have known." My hubby is a super picky eater. So, a "nice" from him is high praise.

My preferred one has been the Oreo Boston Creme, the rasberry filled with fudge crumb topping, and the raspberry filled donut holes. I did not like the lemon filled donut holes, but then, I've never much cared for lemon fillings in donuts in general. The coconut creme was quite pleasant, with plenty of shredded coconut on top that actually FEELS and TASTES fresh. I hear it's one of their top sellers, and I can see why. I gotta give HOLEY DONUTS their props for making a creme filling that tastes as decadent as any Dunkin Donuts offers. The raspberry filling is very "donut legit." :)

The main drawbacks I find are that 1. barring special offers, it's a high price to pay for low-fat desserts. I think this will be solved as they can distribute them to supermarkets in the future. 2. you gotta nuke these babies, and it's tricky to figure out how to do it best for the varieties of items they offer (ie, times for the donut holes versus full-size donuts, versus half or a whole cinnamon bun, depending on the size and power of the nuker used), 3. they need to solve their delivery issues. It took a while to get my donuts, and I ordered a second one during their last promotion, and I still haven't received a notification of delivery/tracking more than a week later.

But in terms of quality and taste for a modified product (ie, lower-fat, lower-caloric version of a standard donut, bun, etc), these really are tasty and deserve the praise they've been getting.

Still, for those on lower-carb, insulin-resistance, or glycemic index type diets, these are NOT for you. If you're diabetic, these are not for you. If you have had gastric bypass and sugar dump, you know these are not for you. And if you are on a clean diet, these are not for you. These are a sweet treat for those who can afford about 200 or so calories (and only eat half a cinnamon bun at a time) for dessert.

If you have portion control issues, be careful, cause you have to order a minimum of 3 boxes at a time. I will say that the donut holes do offer a smaller diet impact for those who can stick to one or two at a time.

I suspect that once Holey Donuts can get in stores, they're gonna sell a gazillion of these babies. Maybe one day you'll see HD franchises waging war with DD. Who knows?

But with these donuts, you won't miss the extra fat or calories, for sure. Very, very nice. I will only order them when they have specials that counteract the shipping costs, but I definitely would order these for myself and for family events, even at roughly $2 a donut.

If you want to try them, get delivery for $4.99 right now. This special offer expires at midnight EST tuesday,8/25/09.

And an abruptly terminated checkout at Holey Donuts

There's been so much buzz lately in the few "diet" sites I've visited about Holey Donuts, that I went to their site and signed up for emails on specials and such (as part of entering the giveaway that Hungry Girl promoted).

So, in my inbox today, I get a special--get free donut holes and credit of $5 on next order with a minimum 3 assortment order. Huh, sounds nice, I think.

Granted, these are not cheap to start with at a couple bucks per donut, and three bucks plus per cinnamon bun. But the cinnamon buns and the donut holes sounded like good options for the freezer for occasional treats. (I have a freezer UPSTAIRS, and I go up there so rarely, sometimes the treats I have get too old, like some VitaTop muffins. It's a good place to put the tempting stuff, as I have to get dressed, go outside with keys, go up a flight of stairs, go into a different apartment's kitchen if I want the treat. Hubby keeps some snack stuff up there, out of my way.)

I decide that the offer for free donut holes with purchase tempts me to get those buns. I go through part of the checkout process, then see that the delivery fee is over 18 bucks.

Ya know, that just up and killed that transaction.

I understand they need to deliver these by a certain window due to the nature of the product. Totally get it. But, these are pricey donut treats, and when you add price and delivery for the minimum of 3 assortments, well... I can't see paying about SIXTY BUCKS for 8 cinnamon buns and 6 flavored donuts just to get bonus donut holes for free.

If they'd given a credit on shipping, instead of free donuts or a future discount, I'd have ordered the obligatory 3 assortments. Yes, I really like the idea of a cinnamon bun right now. Or a boston creme donut hole. Too bad the speical offer wasn't free shipping or five buck shipping. That would make sampling the stuff less painful, more of a done deal by now.

Ah, well. Maybe down the road they'll be stocked in local specialty groceries or something, the way VitaTops made it to regular supermarkets and Whole Foods. Or maybe I'll get lucky and I'll win an assortment.

I'm curious. Answer me this: Would you pay 60 bucks roughly for 14 reduced fat dessert treats (not counting the special bonus offer now for the holes, which I assume is limited and not usual) without having a chance to sample them first, not knowing if you'll love them, just going on testimonials? Would you?

I think I'm afraid I'll not like them THAT much, the way I hated most of my first order of VitaTops (I only ended up being able to eat the chocolate ones, so ended up tossing a lot of muffins.)

So, have you tried these? Did you think they were okay or great or not-so-great? Did you think the price was commensurate with the quality? And did anyone else do what I did....get through most of the checkout and go, "Oh, no, I ain't paying THAT much in shipping!"?

Well, if you're braver or richer or more donut-obsessed than I am, here's the link to order. And if you want the free donut hole sample and five bucks credit on your second order, then you have to use the code Ldth . (Guessing it's for Lowfat DonuT Holes.) This code is only good for TODAY, the seventeeth.

On the plus side of treats, I ordered organic chocolate frozen bananas made from organic and raw ingredients for my next week's desserts. Hey, fruit and potassium and real cocoa and sweetened with agave nectar. More "whole" and healthful than donuts, lowfat or otherwise, right?

Still, those cinnamon buns looked crazy yummy...sigh. ; )