Proudly below average

A couple of weeks ago when I wrote about how I was a couple of pounds heavier than the average Canadian woman, I was a bit chagrinned with myself since last winter I had been thin, trim and happily below average. Just like every autumn of my adult life, I had gained weight.

Well, today I’m happy to say that I am once again below average! It’s been a couple of weeks of sacrifice and quite a few laps around my neighbourhood’s park trails but I’m now more than three pounds below average weight and still six inches taller than average. As a result I’m both above and below average at the same time. It’s a happy paradox!

While I’d love to celebrate with a donut, I’m smart enough to know that moderation will be my key to long-term victory. Or, it would be if I got a new job that didn’t require me to eat all day long, to develop 30+ holiday baking recipes each May, etc.. But, I digress.

What are my slimming food secrets? They aren’t rocket science, but here are three superhero snacks that I’ve found helpful as I’ve whittled my ass down to fit back into my skinny jeans:

• Green Giant Essentials Fibre (blend with pearl barley) makes a great lunch
• Soup at Hand Garden Tomato is my afternoon snack choice when I crave a mocha mid afternoon.
• Summer Fresh Salads Snackn’ Go Hummus is just the right amount of highly flavoured protein to make salad a satisfying lunch.
• Do you have any superhero skinny snacks you can recommend?

An open letter to the Slim Cleanse Company

Dear Slim Cleanse Company:

Allow me to congratulate you on your wonderful marketing campaign. Although I can’t speak for every woman my age, I can tell you that it effectively tapped into my insecure (and likely unrealistic) wish to totally rawk a bathing suit when I hit the pool this summer.

Your packaging claim that in just seven days this simple yet effective regime can gently purge my body of the unwanted toxins that cause midriff bloating is most seductive.

While I’ve only been using your product for two days, I must tell you that I think your copywriter may misunderstand the word ‘gentle.’ Unless, of course, by gentle s/he means that users of this product should like spending time in the bathroom and be able to bring their laptops into the bathroom if they want to get any work done.

Although I do so want to help you to achieve corporate success, I am sorry to advise you that I will be unable to complete your slim cleanse regime. I just don’t have the time or the toilet tissue budget to continue at this time and I’ll never get to the pool if I fall much further behind in my work.

Best of luck with your business.

~Dana McCauley

Sweet treats for dieters

Once a sweet tooth always a sweet tooth, I suppose. Although I’m trying to maintain my slim and trim new self, I do find it difficult to make the right choice when I get a hankering for something sweet. Cravings for Cluizel chocolate or Fat Witch brownies are only partially relieved by apple wedges or a yogurt. I have an aversion to the aftertaste of artificial sweeteners like aspartame so my sweet snacks, even the virtuous ones, need to be made with real sugar.

Although I’ll always love a decadent chocolate treat above all else, I have discovered a few better choices are that are satisfying and don’t leave me feeling like I’ve settled for second best.

Chimes Ginger Chews: Bonus points for coming in such a fab package, these all-natural, intensely flavoured confections are just 16 calories each. Each candy is individually wrapped, so you have to think twice before you pop a second one in your mouth.

Peek Freans Lifestyle Selections Cranberry Citrus Oat Crunch: Satisfyingly crisp and just sweet enough to cut the bitterness of coffee well, these cookies are less than 50 calories each.

Do you have a skinny sweet treat that you’d like to tell us about?

WTF Wednesdays

As regular readers here know, I recently slimmed down by 15 pounds and pledged to lose six additional pounds before spring. Although I plan to maintain my new shape, I also realize that mental health is as important as physical well-being and certainly much more important than physical beauty. (Although if I were to wrangle a tri-fecta of fabulousness by achieving all three qualities of physical health, mental health and gorgeousness, I’d see no shame in the accomplishment!)

February is a cold and dreary month here in central Canada and, to be honest, the lack of sunshine can lead to vitamin D deficiencies that aren’t good for a girl’s mood. Not good at all. Just last Wednesday I found myself feeling a little blue and with an overwhelming urge for cheese and champagne (bubbles make me happy), so I wasted no time at all and laid out a spread of yummy cheese and popped a cork of Lanson. Immediately I felt a wave of good feelings!

A moment or two later when my chef sprocket hubby came into the room (the pop of a champagne cork is like a dog whistle for that man!) I was happier still to welcome him to WTF Wednesday, my impromptu party thrown for no reason than to spread happiness.

So if you feel your new year’s resolve slipping away as the days in 2008 accumulate, take a break. We all deserve a WTF Wednesday. Just be sure it isn’t followed by a Debauchery Thursday and you’ll be just fine!

150-calorie breakfast

To lose weight, I follow a very low-calorie, low-fat regime. With only 1,000 calories per day to consume, I carefully choose every bite to ensure it delivers not only as much nutrition as possible, but also as much enjoyment as possible.

Breakfast is a difficult meal for me. I’m often rushed in the morning and, truth be told, scrambled egg whites with salsa get boring after a couple of weeks. When I was gaining weight, I often grabbed a tall latte and a blueberry-white chocolate scone from Starbucks on the way the work; however, that 560-calorie indulgence (100 for the latte, 460 for the scone) didn’t make my fat ass any smaller.

To find a breakfast option that’s easy and makes for a satisfying meal with less than 180 calories, I turned to a black coffee and bars. No, I didn’t drink martinis for breakfast — a dry vodka martini is about 210 calories so it exceeds my calorie criteria! I’m talking about meal replacement bars.

While shopping for breakfast bar options, I discovered that most energy bars are higher in calories than I wanted. Here’s a list of the bars that did fit my criteria. I tasted each one and recorded my impressions so that you don’t have to read as many labels or suffer through the bad breakfasts I endured:

Atkins Endulge: Coconut (40 g, 180 calories). Super sweet with a terrible artificial sweetener aftertaste that not only lingered for hours but also ruined the taste of my coffee.
Bottom line: Yuck!

PowerBar Pria: Chocolate Peanut Butter Crisp (45 g, 170 calories). Cloyingly sweet but satiated me for quite a while.
Bottom line: Not my favourite for morning but may be good for people who love sweets and miss them while dieting.

SlimFast Optima: Chewy Caramel Crunch (30 g, 130 calories): The caramel flavour is super fake and there’s a weird crystallized texture at the finish that isn’t appealing.
Bottom line: Better than most, but still not on par with an egg white scramble.

Dr. Bernstein Protein Bar: Coconut Almond (40 g , 150 calories): This bar goes very well with coffee and actually tastes darn good. The texture is dense and although the bars are small, it takes long enough to finish each one so you feel like you ate something.
Bottom line: My hands-down favourite. (Note: I also tried their Chocolate Peanut Crunch variety but didn’t like it as much as the Coconut Almond.) Have you tried any of the other flavours? If so, please comment below.

Check out an Almond Granola breakfast recipe for about 150 calories/serving and Oats Plus Porridge for 118 calories/serving at homemakers.com.

Have a low-cal breakfast tip you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it!