Chronicles of A Diet Soda Diva

Many of us shoo our children out of the kitchen while we're making a meal. However, it actually makes more sense to include children in food preparation. Cooking together not only teaches kids about food, but it widens their appetite for a variety of healthy foods, according to Susan B. Roberts, PhD, a senior scientist at Tufts University and author of the book, Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health: Birth Through Age Six (Bantam, 1999).

"Kids who cook feel more comfortable with new foods and are especially likely to feel comfortable eating healthy foods if they have cooked them, smelled them during preparation, and made them look appetizing themselves," says Roberts.

Many of us show our children out of the kitchen while we're making a meal. However, it actually makes more sense to include children in food preparation. Cooking together not only teaches kids about food, but it widens their appetite for a variety of healthy foods, according to Susan B. Roberts, PhD, a senior scientist at Tufts University and author of the book, Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health: Birth Through Age Six (Bantam, 1999).

"Kids who cook feel more comfortable with new foods and are especially likely to feel comfortable eating healthy foods if they have cooked them, smelled them during preparation, and made them look appetizing themselves," says Roberts.

Children can start helping out in the kitchen at an early age — even toddlers can pitch in. "My daughter made salad with me from about 2," Roberts says. "She would wash and tear up lettuce and mix together dressing ingredients, and we had a wonderful time while she was doing it." At age 3, children can help make healthy breakfast items such as pumpkin bread. And, they can shape bread dough into rolls (to save time, make a batch of whole wheat dough in your bread machine). "Getting them to shape bread rolls at this age is also a great way to make whole wheat bread enjoyable," Roberts says.

Another great food for kids to make is pizza. Whip up a batch of pizza dough in your bread machine (or buy it in your grocery store) and have your children customize their pizza with tomato sauce and healthy toppings such as reduced-fat cheese, peppers, mushrooms, onions, sliced tomatoes, and even pineapple chunks.

For recipe ideas, Roberts suggests avoiding cookbooks aimed at kids and instead, choosing simpler recipes in adult cookbooks. "The most important thing is to make things that taste good, and kid recipes are often oversimplified to the point that they don't taste great." As long as you are there to interpret the recipe (and to handle dangerous jobs such as slicing with a sharp knife and using the stove or oven) virtually any adult recipe works well with children.

Cooking with kids allows both parents and children to enjoy healthy foods and to develop their cooking skills. "The only way you learn to cook is with practice," says Roberts, "so by letting your kids join you in the kitchen, you are not only having a great time together — true quality time — but you are also giving them the skills they need to be able to eat a healthy diet in the future."

Do you drink your coffee black while others stir in spoonful after spoonful of cream and sugar? Do you prefer the bite of dark chocolate to that of milk chocolate? If so, you may be among the 25 percent of the population whose taste buds are not especially sensitive to the bitter compounds found in these foods. Another 25 percent is at the other extreme: Highly sensitive to bitterness, this group is likely to wince at the taste of an undressed salad. The rest of us fall somewhere in between.

"People don't live in the same taste worlds," explains Valerie Duffy, PhD, RD, associate professor of dietetics at the University of Connecticut. "We vary in our ability to taste bitterness, which in turn translates into differences in our perception of the flavor components of food and what we like to eat."

Bitter foods range from coffee to grapefruit and many whole grains, but vegetables are the biggest "culprit" for many people. Those who are less sensitive to bitterness are more likely to eat vegetables, says Duffy, because they can taste the more pleasing flavors in these foods. But if you can't detect the subtle hints of sweetness in a stalk of asparagus and you have to force yourself to consume broccoli and cabbage, don't despair. There are ways to minimize the bitter taste of so many vegetables.

Cooking & Taste
"Cooking is an important tool in altering taste," explains Duffy. Boiling leafy greens such as kale and collards in water for 10 minutes and then sautéing them in oil with garlic greatly improves their palatability. In addition, adding salty, sweet or sour flavorings helps block bitterness, so try a little salt or a squeeze of lemon. Other good toppings for bitter veggies include soy sauce, mild-flavored vinegar or honey. Another strategy that Duffy recommends is roasting vegetables or caramelizing them, which can produce delicious results as long as they're not overcooked (this tends to intensify their less pleasing flavors).

Eat Your Veggies
Practitioners of alternative medicine have long believed that bitter foods like lettuce and celery aid in weight loss by increasing the rate at which the liver breaks down fat. Conventional nutritionists have yet to unearth any science that backs up these beliefs, but they do agree on the bottom line: Vegetables are an important part of any weight loss plan, given that they are low in calories yet satisfying due to their high fiber and water content.

Some good news for vegetable haters is that you tend to become less finicky about bitter flavor as you get older. "Unfortunately, many people think they don't like vegetables since when they first tried them, their taste buds weren't fully developed," says Duffy. So if you have avoided your greens since childhood, give them another try — you might be pleasantly surprised.

1. Warm-up and stretch. Perform light warm-up and cool-down exercises during opening credits and commercials – jogging in place, jumping jacks, or any other low-level, full-body movements. This will elevate your heart rate, increase your body temperature and improve blood flow to your working muscles and joints.

Include stretches for all major muscle groups. Doing so helps maintain and improve the range of motion around your joints, lowers your risk of injury, and reduces post-workout soreness.


2. Commercials aren't just for fridge breaks anymore! Bypass the refrigerator and do some cardiovascular exercise. Each three- to five-minute break can be used to elevate your heart rate and stoke your calorie-burning furnace. Opt for in-place jogging or marching. Get creative and find cardio exercises that you enjoy – you will be more likely to stick with them.


3. Assign exercises to each character. Before your sitcom starts, assign each character an exercise. Perform that exercise each time the person enters the scene. For example, if watching Friends, do squats each time Joey walks in, switch to lunges for Monica, leg lifts for Rachel, and bicep curls for Ross, et cetera.


4. Movie marathons. After you've logged several weeks establishing your fitness habit, try your hand at a "movie marathon." The same concepts apply as to the sitcom routine above, but for a longer period. Initially, start off by doing back-to-back sitcoms, and then "graduate" to movies.


5. Family and friends. Consistency is the key to lasting weight management. So why not recruit family and friends to join you in your prime-time fitness endeavors? This can be a great motivator for keeping you on the straight and narrow, and you'll have fun together.


6. Exercise shows. You've heard the fitness-show hosts urge, "Come on, get up off that couch and push that tush, flatten that tummy!" Seriously, why not? These shows have been around for ages, and they are a good way to exercise safely and effectively.

Hello, do you know me? If you don't you should. I'm a
pound of fat, and I'm the happiest pound of fat that
you would ever want to meet. Want to know why? It's
because no one ever wants to lose me; I'm Only One
Pound, just a pound. Everyone wants to lose three
pounds, five pounds or fifteen pounds, but never only
one, so I just stick around and happily keep you fat.
Then I add to myself ever so slyly so that you never
seem to notice it, that is until I've grown to ten,
twenty or even more pounds in weight. Yes, it's fun
being Only One Pound of fat, left to do as I please.
So, when you weigh in, keep right on saying "Oh, I
only lost one pound." ( as if that were such a
terrible thing!) For you see, if you do this you'll
encourage others to keep me around because they will
think I'm not worth losing. And I love being around
you - your arms, your legs, your chin, your hips and
every part of you. Happy Days!! After all, I'm Only
One Pound of fat!!!

Get a timer at your desk for every 1/2 hour........when the timer goes off, get a big glass of water and drink it.

When getting in the car, grab your water bottle and challenge yourself to drink it all before you get to your destination.

Use the stairs instead of the elevator.

Every stop light you have to stop at, squeeze your bun muscles and keep squeezing till the light turns green. Another is your abs...squeeze them till the light turns green.

When getting up in the am........start with 10 push ups and 10 sit ups. Keep adding more on as you are able to achieve that amount.

When brushing your teeth, do 10 squats

You know You're a Weight Watcher member when...

You accidentally swallow toothpaste and wonder how many POINTS it had in it.

You stand in the aisles at the grocery store with your WW PointsFinder figuring POINTS before you buy.

Everyone at your lunch table is asking you to figure the POINTS on their lunch.

You threaten to put your cat on WW.

You figure the POINTS on cough syrup.

Your child says there are too many POINTS in something they don't want to eat!

You don't want to share ANY of your food with anyone because you've measured it and know exactly how many POINTS are in it.

You know where every public restroom is wherever you go . . . you need it after drinking all that water!

You weigh yourself before and after the bathroom just to see how much of a difference it makes.

You ask your WW leader to bring in a curtain so you can weigh-in naked.

Your child gets an "A" in English for turning your journal in as a book report.

You convince the grocery store owner to organize the food aisles according to POINTS values.

You hang your 5 pound book markers from your car antenna.

You replace your college diploma with your 50 lb. magnet (now which one is actually tougher to achieve?).

You Calculate Activity points for Sex!

People at work know when your WI day is because you have the same outfit on that day EVERY WEEK

you call your family to the dinner table and instead of "what's for dinner?" they ask "how many points are we having for dinner?"

you take a bite and then spit it out because you realize it wasn't worth the points!

you mark all the food boxes in the house with points per serving

you carry your journal with you wherever you go

you take Molly McCheese with you to the restaurant so you don't waste your points on butter

you ask your family to hide the cookies and chips so you won't be tempted

"On The Side" become the 3 most uttered words in your vocabulary

you start parking in the back of the parking lot for the extra exercise

you start wondering why restaurant servings of most meals are large enough to feed 3 grown men

you start wondering how many points are in bubble gum

you look down at the backs of your hands and get freaked out by how skinny they look

you want to drive to Ben & Jerry's individual houses and drown them in a vat of Chunky Monkey

you take up knitting/crocheting/tatting/rughooking/paintbynumbers to keep your mind off food

the thought of having a bran muffin for breakfst gets you so excited you can't fall asleep.

you dance a little jig in front of the frozen foods case in the grocery store because you finally found Skinny Cows!

You stop licking postage stamps when you realize they are 1 tenth of a calorie each.

you know in advance, by heart, what you can eat at each and every resturaunt that DH may want to go to.

instead of carrying an armful of things thru the house, you intentionally made several trips to get in that extra 20 steps of walking.

you smile and gaze adoringly at the produce aisle.

your junk drawer at work has been revamped to include Milky Way Lites, LF granola bars, FF Pringles and lite peach cups instead of Cheetos and snickers bars.

you take a big black permanent marker and not only mark the points but also write your name and "DO NOT TOUCH OR ELSE".

everywhere you go, you take along two 'purses'. Your regular purse, and your Weight Watcher's Black Bag, with your points guide booklet and slider in there!

you dont wear any makeup to get weighed in , fearing it will weigh too much

you see really overweight people and want to tell them they can do something to change their lives!

You hold up your snacks next to your kids' snacks and warn them to be sure not to eat yours or it will result in their demise.

the jeans that you would have never dared to put in the dryer for fear that they would not make it back over your hips... are in there right now, as you hope to shrink them enough that they won't fall straight off!

Accept responsibility
Be confident and self-assured
Challenge yourself
Draw upon your strengths, assets, and talents
Empower yourself
Find supportive and encouraging people with whom to surround yourself
Guzzle water
Have a meaningful, well-defined, measurable, and realistic goal
Invest time in yourself
Jump, run, or walk - just move
Know you deserve the best
Live your life in the mind and body you desire
Mute negative self-talk
Nurture your body with healthy food and your mind with positive thoughts
Open your mind and senses to new ideas and possibilities
Physically move toward your goal
Quit procrastinating
Reward yourself every step of the way
Stand up for what you want. Don't allow saboteurs to infiltrate your dreams
Take the risk TODAY
Use your imagination, talents and abilities
Visualize what you want and what it would be like to reach your goal
Write in your Journal daily and write ideas that will work for you
Xpect it will happen. Don't just hope it will
Yield to no temptations or diversions
Zero in on your Winning Outcome and don't stray