Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Laughing Cow Cheese - By Javier



This amazing product has to be the greatest invention since sliced bread!

The link for this delicious product is: http://www.thelaughingcow.com/

This comes to us today from Javier, one of our Jenny Craig weight loss friends. Be sure to checkout his blog which is linked to the right. You are sure to be inspired!

cant beat this 35 cal a wedge of cheese
u ever tried it? put it on your info blog
i saw it last night in a commercial
-Javier

Food Tips

Share your latest food revelations and tips! Anything goes!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Post Your Weekly Activity Here!

Sometimes it helps to be held accountable for things. If you feel this would help you, post exactly what and how much physical activity you accomplished this week. Who knows, you may inspire someone else!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Contribute Towards the Content of This Site



I NEED you! This is YOUR site too! If you have anything to share, such as inspirational links, success stories and photos, helpful tips, ideas, weight loss cartoons, or anything else, please email Traci at tjscheible@earthlink.net.

Do you want to add your link?

Paste your link into the comments to this post and I'll add it! Include your first name and the link.

(If you would like your link removed, please include that in a comment as well.)

Share Your Favorite Weight Loss Recipes

If you would like to share your own favorite recipes here, please email them to Traci at tjscheible@earthlink.net. If you have a photo to go with it be sure to include that as well. Thanks!

Exercise Tips


       c o m i n g   s o o n. . .

Why the Scale Lies


I ran across this article a while back and I thought it might help those who think they need to weigh on a daily basis.

"Why The Scale Lies"

By Renee Cloe
ACE Certified Personal Trainer


We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.

Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.

Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.

Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.

Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.

Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.

Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.

This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.

Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.

If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.

Before & After Photos

       
      c o m i n g   s o o n. . .


Jodie Pringer



Meet United Kingdom's Jodie Prenger, first female to win The Biggest Loser series in over 30 countries!  She worked ever so hard to lose a whopping 122 pounds in just 6 months!  We all know what this means.  Eating healthy and a whole lot of exercise and activity! 

Jodie says, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."  Are you ready to take yours?

Jodie would love to hear from you at info@jodieprenter.tv if you have any questions or comments.  For some HOT DIET TIPS visit Jodie's website at http://www.jodieprenger.tv.  





Easy Homestyle Chicken Salad

1 can Swanson's white chicken
Pam spray
poultry seasoning
salt
pepper

Drain chicken and spread on foil sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper and stir together.
Bake or broil until lightly browned and still moist, NOT crunchy.

celery
sweet yellow onions
light mayo
light sour cream

While chicken is cooking, dice up some celery and sweet yellow onions (as much as you like). I usually use about 1/2 cup of each, give or take. It is whatever you like.
To this I add 1 tablespoon light mayo and 1 teaspoon light sour cream. Sometimes I add more of these but I always use more light mayo than sour cream.

Stir everything together when the chicken is done (even if it is still hot) and enjoy! If you need to add a little more salt and pepper you can but it probably doesn't need it. It is such a simple recipe but is really good. By re-cooking the chicken with seasonings it gives it a truly homemade flavor. I can eat this with just sweet grape tomatoes and be satisfied but sometimes I have a have a few snack crackers with it.

Proclaim Your Goal(s)!

You might more easily achieve your goal(s) after you have shouted it from the roof tops!

Go ahead, don't be afraid!

Zesty Grilled Chicken Salad





This is a clever way to use the Jenny Craig Chicken Sandwich!

(This is to die for!)

1. Place chicken in Ziploc bag. (Save sauce for something else and save bun for this meal.)

2. To chicken, add 4 T lemon juice, 2 T light soy sauce and 1 t chopped garlic.

3. Allow chicken to marinate in the refrigerator as little or as long as a day. (If you are immediately cooking it, just leave it out to thaw.)

4. There are 3 cooking options for the chicken---all are fantastic! Pick one! a) Brown in skillet sprayed with Pam type spray b) Cook on BBQ grill c) Spray cooking sheet with Pam type spray and brown in 350 degree oven. If I am cooking in a pan or in the oven, I like to drizzle the chicken with the marinade and let it cook down. It doesn't take long to cook since it is pre-cooked chicken.

5. Slice cooked chicken pretty thin to make it go far. Top your favorite salad ingredients with it. I prefer a ranch type dressing with this.

6. For the garlic toast, you can lightly coat the bun with some olive oil Pam type spray and sprinkle with chopped garlic before you broil it.

Jenny Craig Food Price List

This list does not reflect new items, and
remember, this varies by region...

Food Meal Calories Cost Storage Code Temp Subtotal
Banana Nut Cereal Breakfast 170 2.09 Dry 126 0
Banana Nut Muffin Breakfast 220 1.99 Frozen 305 0
Blueberry Muffin Breakfast 200 1.99 Frozen 253 0
Breakfast Scramble Breakfast 200 4.99 Frozen 294 0
Breakfast Stuffed Sandwich Breakfast 200 3.89 Frozen 317 0
Complete Start Cereal Breakfast 190 1.99 Dry 121 0
Cranberry Almond Cereal Breakfast 170 2.09 Dry 127 0
French Toast Breakfast 220 4.99 Frozen 383 0
Frosted Oats Cereal Breakfast 170 2.09 Dry 125 0
Fruit & Granola Breakfast 200 1.99 Dry 122 0
Honey Oat Bar Breakfast 170 1.79 Dry 211 0
Multi-Grain Cereal Breakfast 130 1.89 Dry 111 0
Multi-Grain Hoops Cereal Breakfast 170 2.09 Dry 131 0
Oatmeal Breakfast Square Breakfast 190 1.89 Dry 128 April 0
Seven Grain Hot Cereal Breakfast 180 1.99 Dry 120 0
Silver Dollar Pancakes Breakfast 190 3.99 Frozen 308 0
Strawberry Bar Breakfast 150 1.79 Dry 225 0
Sunshine Sandwich Breakfast 190 4.19 Frozen 396 0
Triple Grain Crisps Breakfast 150 1.99 Dry 119 0
Lite Table Syrup Breakfast 35 0.55 Dry 210 0
Anytime Peanut Butter Bar Snack 120 8.99 Dry 832 0
Anytime Praline Bar Snack 120 8.99 Dry 832 0
BBQ Pita Puffs Snack 120 1.69 Dry 832 0
Bruschetta Veggie Chips Snack 130 1.89 Dry 847 0
Chocolate Caramel Peanut Bar Snack 150 1.89 Dry 836 0
Chocolate Graham Cracker Twists Snack 120 1.89 Dry 845 0
Chocolate Chip Bites Snack 120 1.89 Dry 839 0
Chocolate Chip Snack Bar Snack 140 1.69 Dry 835 0
Chocolate Walnut Brownie Snack 160 2.19 Frozen 274 0
Cookies & Cream Cheescake Snack 150 2.09 Frozen 292 0
Double Chocolate Cake Snack 170 2.29 Frozen 371 0
Jennie's Cheese Curls Snack 130 1.89 Dry 829 0
Lemon Cake Snack 170 2.29 Dry 372 0
Peaches & Cream Cheesecake Snack 210 1.99 Frozen 234 June 0
Peanut Butter Bar Snack(US) 1.69 Dry 811 0
Popcorn Snack 140 1.69 Dry 806 0
Sourdough Bites Snack 110 1.19 Dry 825 0
Toffee Bites Snack 130 1.89 Dry 830 0
Trail Mix Snack 120 1.59 Dry 827 0
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Snack 150 1.99 Frozen 232 April 0
Turkey Jerky Snack(US) 2.49 Dry 842 0
Fruit and Nut Bars Bar/Drink 243 Dry 851 0
Honey Peanut Bars Bar/Drink 234 Dry 852 0
Mocha Drink Bar/Drink 251 Dry 854 0
Vanilla Drink Bar/Drink 249 Dry 853 0
Bean with Ham and Bacon Soup Lunch 160 3.99 Dry 584 0
Beef Chow Mein Lunch 310 5.29 Frozen 346 0
Broccoli & Cheese Stuffed Potato Lunch 210 4.09 Frozen 354 0
Cheesy Enchilada Lunch 260 5.29 Frozen 314 0
Chicken Salad Lunch Kit Lunch 260 4.99 Dry 451 0
Chicken Sandwich Lunch 250 4.99 Frozen 323 0
Chicken Breast Strips with Rice Medley Lunch 250 6.29 Frozen 286 0
Chicken Stuffed Sandwich Lunch 270 4.99 Frozen 326 0
Chili Con Carne Lunch 240 3.99 Dry 560 0
Creamy Potato Soup Lunch 150 3.99 Dry 585 0
Garden Vegetable Soup Lunch 230 3.99 Dry 567 0
Hawaiian Style Chicken Salad Kit Lunch 0 4.89 Dry 452 June 0
Homestyle Chicken with Noodles Lunch 190 4.79 Dry 431 0
Italian Wedding Soup Lunch 220 5.24 Dry 587 Temp 0
Jenny's Personal Pizza Lunch 260 4.99 Frozen 378 0
Meatball Stuffed Sandwich Lunch 260 4.99 Frozen 300 0
Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup Lunch 230 5.24 Dry 588 Temp 0
Pesto Pizza Lunch 270 4.99 Frozen 281 0
Rotini with Meatballs Lunch 250 5.19 Dry 442 0
Southwestern Chicken w/Rice & Beans Lunch 250 5.39 Dry 443 0
Southwest Style Chicken Burrito Lunch 260 4.99 Frozen 297 0
Spinach & Cheese Torellini Lunch 150 3.99 Dry 561 0
Swedish Meatballs Lunch 250 5.19 Dry 440 0
Thai Lemongrass Chicken w/ Noodles Lunch 240 6.29 Frozen 287 0
Tuna Salad Kit Lunch 240 4.99 Dry 450 0
Turkey Burger Sandwich Lunch 280 4.99 Frozen 260 0
Vegetable Beef Soup Lunch 100 3.99 Dry 583 0
BBQ Chicken Pizza Dinner 0 5.69 Frozen 233 May 0
Beef w/ Mashed Potatoes & Gravy Dinner 200 5.29 Dry 439 0
Beef Sirloin with Rice Dinner 230 6.29 Frozen 284 0
Beef Steak Portobello Dinner 270 6.29 Frozen 288 0
Cashew Chicken Dinner 290 6.29 Frozen 291 0
Cheese Ravioli Dinner 280 5.29 Dry 444 0
Chicken Fajitas Dinner 290 6.29 Frozen 361 0
Chicken Fettuccine Dinner 260 6.29 Frozen 324 0
Chicken Pasta Parmesan Dinner 200 5.29 Dry 437 0
Fish and Chips Dinner 250 6.29 Frozen 307 0
Florentine Ravioli Dinner 290 6.29 Frozen 283 0
Island Style Chicken Dinner 290 5.29 Dry 436 0
Jenny's Rising Crust Pizza Dinner 280 5.39 Frozen 348 0
Lentils with Beef Dinner 240 5.29 Dry 438 0
Macaroni & Cheese Dinner 250 5.29 Frozen 385 0
Meat Loaf with BBQ Sauce Dinner 280 6.29 Frozen 290 0
Pasta Fagioli Dinner 210 5.29 Dry 433 0
Penne Pasta Dinner 280 5.29 Frozen 316 0
Salisbury Steak Dinner 280 6.29 Frozen 289 0
Sweet & Sour Chicken Dinner 200 5.29 Dry 434 0
Teriyaki Glazed Salmon Dinner(US) 6.99 Frozen 230 0
Traditional Lasagna Dinner 240 6.29 Frozen 399 0
Turkey Chili Dinner 260 5.29 Dry 435 0
Turkey with Gravy Dinner 270 6.29 Frozen 398 0
Vegetable & Chicken Potstickers Dinner 290 6.29 Frozen 269 0
Protect Plus Dinner 290 12.99 Frozen 269 0