Best and Worst Food Moments of 2009

Pounds lost since January 1st - 0.5
Days until my 50th birthday - 136

Nowadays, there are lists for everything - Best Movies of the Year, Best-Dressed Celebrities, Best McDonald's Drive-Thrus (oh, perhaps that one's just on my list). Food is a topic near and dear to my heart so why not a list of the best and worst food moments of the past year? Drum roll, please . . .

Best Food Moments of 2009
8. When my friend Bryan drove for hours so we could eat at Little America, which bills itself as, "The Finest Truck Stop in Wyoming." I don't even remember what I ate because I couldn't get over the fact that there was a chandelier over my table. At a truck stop. In Wyoming.

7. When Prof. Wonderful started packing Vegan Morningstar Veggie Burgers in his pants pockets "just in case" there wasn't food he could eat at the summer parties we attended. Not only were the dogs following him around, but I had to swat away a few vegan women, too.

6. There were many amazing discoveries in 2009, including a new giant rat species and the fossilized remains of a 42-foot snake, but none outranked the absolute joy Prof. Wonderful experienced when he discovered Go Raw - All Live Organic "Food" Bars. The bars are made of nuts and seeds and dried berries with no flavor added (they really didn't need to add that part; it's obvious). Prof. Wonderful describes them as "exquisite" but that's because he has not had sugar in over 20 years.

5. I made a great discovery myself - Coke made in Mexico is made with real sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup, and therefore I can drink it. Yes, I know carbonation depletes calcium; that's why I always make sure to have some ice cream after my soda. See? I'm always thinking.

4. When McDonald's brought back the McRib (for a limited time only!).

3. When I conducted the inaugural brownie contest to determine once-and-for-all the best boxed brownie mix. Don't try this at home; it will lead to pants with elasticized waist bands. The winner is Ghiradelli dark chocolate brownies with chocolate chips. Dark, crunchy bits of heaven.

2. Eating the last of the chestnut dressing at my Aunt's house. It's my grandmother's recipe and makes the holidays complete.

And the #1 Best Food Moment of 2009 is, without a doubt,
1. When I got a doctor's note saying I should not eat soy food . . . in any form (I had to pay a little extra for that last part). Tofurkeys everywhere breathed a sigh of relief that day. Tofu , soy milk, soy cheese, soy anything and everything was deemed off limits for me. Seems that for some people, soy can be inflammatory. I know I became inflamed whenever anyone tried to sneak some tofu into my food. Can I have an amen?

Worst Food Moments of 2009
3. When I realized that Pepperidge Farm was not coming out with its usual holiday cookie - the chocolate-dipped Milano double-chocolate cookie. Another sacred holiday tradition down the drain. The sorrow was quickly replaced by one of my Best Food Moments in 2009 - Chocolate-covered Ritz crackers. My doctor didn't say anything about not eating those!

2. Having to tell Prof. Wonderful that as much as I loved him, I just could not eat one more sandwich consisting of hummus on gluten-free bread. That was a rough patch, but we got through it.

1. Spending 2 days in San Francisco - a foodie's paradise - and not tasting one morsel of sourdough bread or dim sum. For those who do not know, dim sum is a traditional Chinese cuisine that consists of a variety of foods served in small portions for very large prices. Although some of it is not recognizable, there are lots of fried things from which to choose and that makes it all good.

STRATEGY #7: Create your own list of best moments from 2009. Like me, you'll probably find that the good far outweighs the bad.

AFFIRMATION #7: I enjoy eating foods that fuel my body.

First Visit to the Fitness Center

Pounds lost since January 1st - 0
Days until my 50th birthday - 138

Prof. Wonderful decided that the way to kick off the new year was a trip to 24-Hour Fitness. That meant I had to hurry up and get out of my pajamas and brush away the cake crumbs before he got to my house.

I thought fitness centers would still be quiet as people took advantage of the long holiday weekend to stuff themselves with leftover Christmas cookies and finish the last of the eggnog. Not these folks! Most of them looked like they had no problem passing the cookie platter. In fact, a lot of them looked like they didn't eat very often at all.

Prof. Wonderful and I got on adjacent treadmills and after my 5-minute warm-up, I hit 3.5, my usual speed for a workout. Problem was, I only lasted about 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes. What have they done to the machines since I've last visited? The speeds had to be off; I felt like I was running uphill. I nonchalantly brought the speed down to 3.0. Luckily, Prof. Wonderful keeps so busy checking out his own heart rate every 30 seconds that he didn't notice at first. When he did notice that I seemed to be going sort of slow, I cursed the blasted machines saying this was as fast as the machine could go and it needed to be fixed.

When I wasn't trying to stay on the treadmill, I was thinking of how delicious a frosty cold Dr. Pepper would taste when I got home. Drat that high fructose corn syrup that was contributing to my belly fat. Even found it in my so-called healthy cereal this morning. Seems it will take some time to weed this culprit from my pantry.

STRATEGY #6 - Find a workout partner. Find lots of workout partners and do different, fun activities with each. I've had workout partners who like to power walk the mall (this can get expensive if the stores are open) and others who like to push a stroller through the park. It's all good.

AFFIRMATION #6 - "Every person in my life supports my healthy lifestyle."

The Law of Attraction Really Works!

The Law of Attraction teaches us that what we focus on grows. My question is this: WHO HAS BEEN FOCUSING ON MY BEHIND? Because it's definitely growing!

A friend of mine, whom I now lovingly refer to as, "She's dead to me," said wasn't it funny how I started a blog in 2009 about losing weight and I've actually gained some weight since then. If my hands hadn't been busy trying to get the last piece of brownie out of the baking pan, she would have been in real trouble.

The good news is the Law of Attraction really does work and it's true - what we focus our attention on grows. Key is focusing on what I want - to have a slimmer, more healthy body filled with vitality. Truth is, I spend a lot of 2009 focusing on what I didn't want - like brownies. I'd focus so much attention on those brownies that I "didn't want" that I was burning my mouth because I couldn't wait for them to cool from the oven.

Each day is a new beginning and a new chance to choose how we will live our lives. Today is the dawning of a new year and a new decade. Today I can make one small change that will make a difference by the next time the ball drops at Times Square. Today I choose to focus on a strong, healthy body and I know one way to do that is to cut out high fructose corn syrup from my diet.

For companies like Nestle, Coke, etc., it's a cheap way to make what we eat and drink taste sugary good. Problem is, doctors now think it short-wires the mechanism that tells us we're full so we keep on eating. That's good news for the manufacturers: they load their foods and drinks with a nonnutritious sweetener that makes us keep eating. It's like crack for foodies!

Sodas are first to go (and I love me some Dr. Pepper). That's a small change, but for today, it's enough. Wishing you enough in this wonder-filled New Year.

STRATEGY #5: Focus on what you want to create in your life.

AFFIRMATION #5: My body is filled with health and vitality.

5 Sure-Fire Ways to Lose Weight During the Holidays

Studies show that Americans pack on two- to three-pounds during the holidays. What a bunch of wimps! I can do that in a weekend. Haven't these so-called "Americans" ever heard of fried turkeys? Sweet potato pie? 5-cheese mashed potatoes with cheese gravy?

Like most, I look forward to celebrating this sacred holiday by tithing heavily at Best Buys and other major retailers. And this year I've had lots of opportunities since retailers started decorating for Christmas before Halloween. Who doesn't enjoy hearing Christmas carols ringing gaily through the store while buying suntan lotion in July? Without that reminder, I just might forget that Christmas is coming; that is, if every radio and TV commercial didn't remind me that the best way to show someone I care this holiday season is by giving big gobs of my money to a store. This year I plan to avoid the hassles of shopping and just send my money directly to the stores. Maybe I'll send a JCPenney's giftcard to Macy's and visa versa.

But getting back to the diet tips, I have indeed found a way to actually lose weight during the holidays, during vacations, and during any other time that you might want to actually enjoy food. Grab a pen and paper, you'll want to write this down:

1) Eat with a vegan.
2) Eat with a vegan.
3) Eat with . . . . oh, you get the idea.

Vegans are people who for health or ethical reasons do not eat meat, dairy or any food with actual flavor. They do eat something made from bean curd that they laughingly call, "tofurkey." It's well known that tofurkey is a leading cause of convulsions among friends of vegans who unwittingly have tried this "food," so, you see, it's not really a laughing matter.

This year, I celebrated two Thanksgivings; one filled with sugar, butter and lard the way our forefathers intended, and one with my vegan partner, Prof. Wonderful. Let me be clear - I am very grateful to have Prof. Wonderful in my life. But I am also very grateful that King Sooper's was open on my way home so I could truly start the holidays in style - with chocolate-covered Ritz crackers. Yes, this really is at a supermarket near you this holiday season! My heart almost stopped when I saw them; and that was before I ate them! And yes, everything does taste better on a Ritz. Geez, maybe I should give that tofurkey another try.

What happened?!?

There I was, cheerfully planning how I was going to be Fit by Fifty! That was in May. And then came my birthday. Even if you're dieting, everyone knows you get to have cake on your birthday. Nothing wrong with that, except . . .

I ran out of ice cream before I ran out of birthday cake, so I had to buy more ice cream. What's a girl to do? Next, I was out of cake but I had some ice cream left. Had to get some brownies to go with the ice cream. This makes complete sense somehow in my mind.

Then, after all the sugar, I needed to cleanse my system and everybody knows salt is an excellent cleaner. Just check out any "natural cleaning" blog; you'll see. I chose my salt in the format of potato chips. But they looked so sad and bare so I bought them some dip. (This also added food groups to my daily snack - now I had vegetables, dairy and MSG (well, the government might as well declare it a good group; it's in everything!).

This cycle has continued until . . . just now. When I tried to get a pair of jeans on - and they are already THE FAT JEANS. OK, here we go again!

DIETING TIP: Do not try on jeans after ingesting a Family-Sized! bag of Fritos.