BITS-O-WISDOM: "A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand." --Unknown

December is Not a Holiday

Don't make December one long food fest. Get a grip. Yes, there's more occasions to indulge but that doesn't mean you need to go crazy every single day! Free Tele-seminar on using EFT and the 3-Day Rule for the holidays.

Picture Tricks - Editing to Lose Weight

In my Email: Q. "I'm trying to locate someone (or the software) who will either age progress a childhood photo of me or use a current photo and show what I will look like after weight loss. I think it would be a great motivator."

A. Try FotoFlexer.com.

I played with FotoFlexer to show how easily you can slightly
alter photos. It's easiest if you use something where you're
standing slightly to one side so you can just pull in your stomach or other saggy bits. Here's my retouched instant weight loss photo.

It works best if you're trying to shave 10, 20 or 30 pounds,
so make small alterations at first. It is a great motivator.
It's important to imagine or visualize yourself at a smaller size to get used to the idea, so your self-identity doesn't get in the way.

If seeing yourself slimmer isn't working for you, don't fight it,
instead try EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and learn how to quickly and easily change your self image without trauma. Learn by getting "The Daily Bites," sent twice weekly the bites are lessons in using EFT for Weight Loss.

Old & New Exercise Gadgets

Oddee.com has a wonderful summary of many fitness and exercise gadgets like the Dumbbell Phone.

Pilates Stick

The Pilates Stick is an easy way to incorporate pilates style moves into your workout right at home. Attaches easily to door frame or heavy object and you're ready to go. Yes, someone was recently murdered with a Pilates Stick but not while exercising with it.

I'm taking the Intro to Circuit Reformer pilates class at Santsang Yoga in Vancouver, Washington. It's a total blast and the fastest 60 minute workout you'll ever have. Try it.

+++ Get The Daily Bites: Your Jump Start To Lose More Weight +++
The Daily Bites are mini-lessons in how I use EFT to maintain
my 80 pound weight loss. Twice weekly and free

Food Facts

Nabisco bakes almost 18 billion Cheese Nips Crackers every year, enough to cover more than 3,500 football fields.

Playing with Food: Peeps all Year Long!

You thought Peeps were just for Easter, didn't you? Well, the company "Just Born" wants you to think otherwise, so they're introducing Peppermint flavored Peeps just in time for the holidays.

If you are a big Peeps fan, but don't want to consume tons of marshmallow, get a plush marshmallow Peep pillow instead.

Says Just Born company, "A great candy isn't made, it's just born."

The Ultimate Grocery List

Never go grocery shopping without a list, and especially not when you're hungry. Lists help the trolling the candy aisle. I'll get a single banana to eat on the drive home if I'm especially hungry while shopping. Just knowing there's something I'm going to eat in a few minutes helps tame the urge to toss every snack item in the cart.

The Slimming Pool, A Weight Loss Blog

Visit The Slimming Pool, A Weight Loss Blog for my latest finds, tips and funny business about losing weight. I've enabled comments too, finally, but they aren't working yet in the archives. (Just one more thing to do). Please stop by and post a comment.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

It's easy to make vanilla extract at home and now that you can get vanilla beans online for a fraction of the cost in those little jars, what's stopping you?

Some of my recipes call for three vanilla beans yet in my town a single bean can cost upwards of $8! Now I've found that online shops have vanilla beans at about a dollar each when you buy quantity. Get a few people together if you don't need lots of beans yourself.

Vanilla Extract Recipe

One fifth vodka (that's one normal-sized bottle in the US) 3 to 20 vanilla beans (use as many beans as you like; the more you use the stronger your extract).

Take each bean and split with a knife, leaving the end connected. Add the split beans to the vodka, then shake it a bit now and then and wait about 90 days (more is always fine). I have a bottle started with 20 beans inside! This is going to be some ubber vanilla.

Want more specifics? Check the links below. The good news: you can keep adding more vodka as you use the vanilla, so you get a practically never-ending supply of vanilla extract. You can also re-use the beans later, add them to sugar to make vanilla sugar (although I don't know when I'd want that), so never discard a vanilla bean again.

Vanilla Beans at Kitchen Project

Vanilla Recipes & Beans at Amadeus

I tried the Organic Vanilla Bean's Ebay store first and was thrilled with the beans I received.

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter

They say imitation is the best form of flattery. Check Serious Eat's great post on the multitude of "not butter" products we have from which to choose.

OneMoreBite on Facebook

I'm entering the world of social web sites, so if you have a Facebook.com account and would like to drop by my Facebook page and say hello, please do. Add me as a friend so you can see what I'm up to!

Originally Facebook was for college kids only, and why they changed that I don't know, but they did so to keep tabs on my son I got myself an account. Come visit my Facebook profile for a more personal glimpse into my life.

Dangerous Toys and Dangerous Chocolate

Recalled toys aren't your only worry. Now we've got chocolate on the chopping block. Baker's Premium White Chocolate in 6 ounce blocks, recalled for Salmonella. That's just dandy. Even our chocolate isn't safe.

Check here for the US Gov's food recalls site.

Check regularly. These are often reported but not always on your local news.

Sound Pod at Hidden Lake Retreat

What's a Sound Pod? It's an experience with sound, instruments and vibration that generates inner health in a way you may not have experienced before. The sounds gave me a deep feeling of connection and relationship with spirit.

Shape Magazine Back Issues

Shape magazine's back issues from Dec 2001 to the present. I love reading old magazines to see how our thinking and trends about weight loss change over time. Some things never change like calories in, calories out, and adding healthy nutrition and purposeful movement (exercise) never goes out of style.

+++ ---------- Ending Emotional Eating ---------------- +++

You've gone to seminars, read books, bought gadgets, and tried
everything to lose the weight, but still nothing works. Could
it be you're an emotional eater?

If now is the right time to end your struggle losing all the
weight you want, get started on this self-paced, home study
program today. (Includes follow-up, so you still get personal
attention).

http://onemorebite-weightloss.com/weightloss-class.html
http://onemorebite-weightloss.com/register.html
+++ --------------------------------------------------- +++

OMB Weight Loss Article: How to Lose that Last 5 Pounds

Seriously, those struggling with only a few pounds to lose have just as hard a time as those with 100. Why? Because they too must change their regular habits else any weight they lose won't stay lost! Darn it all.

Read this short article on how to lose that last 5 pounds

Kitchen Disasters

I've been on a "kitchen disaster" jag lately. Seems pretty much whatever I try to do, it's not working well. So sad.

1. Make Sure It's Not Raining When You Make Caramel (or divinity) or a Thousand Other Things

I went to make a batch of caramel. I've made it before and it turned out great, except not this time. Maybe it was raining (I didn't think humidity mattered?). It reached the right temperature but never turned into the creamy caramel consistency.

I thought maybe it would finally do its magic if it got hotter (where do we get these ideas?). It ending up too hot and got a slightly burned smell. Nice.

In a fit of "how do I save this?" I decided to add nuts, and turn it into a caramel covered nuts deal. The first nuts I saw happened to be Macadamia so in they go. You know what I'm going to say. It didn't work. So now I wasted all the ingredients for the caramel, and also added a pound of ridiculously expensive Macadamia nuts.

2. Don't Forget to Weigh the Meat

My husband went to get the beef for a recipe I wanted to try. I needed 5 to 6 pounds, and he brought back a package with two giant roasts, so I took one and proceeded to spend half the day putting it together. (I tend to find recipes that take lots of time, don't know why). After a couple hours cooking I started getting worried; it seemed to be almost done and I hadn't even added the vegetables yet! It was supposed to take another 90 minutes so I knew something wasn't right.

I ask about the weight of the package. Oops, seems the whole package with both roasts didn't quite weigh five pounds, which was weird when I said I needed that much, so I think he didn't help here, but I didn't ask either or bother to look at the package so we're both guilty.

It turned out okay, even though the meat was dry because of the Cabernet sauce that was part of the recipe. Really close call on that one.

3. My sis offered this important tip: Don't use your vacuum sealer on soup. She created a nice explosion.

Way Cool Kitchen Stuff

I've always thought one dinky refrigerator isn't enough and recently saw a two-sided number that was a full-sized fridge on the right, with full-sized freezer on the left. About time. It was about 1600 dollars, so a bit high for most of us, but it's a start.

Imagine cooking your Thanksgiving turkey in 43 minutes! The Turbo Chef Oven can do this. It's said to use "high speed hot air and occasional microwaves" so if you're not a fan of microwaves, guess you'll be skipping this one. It also includes 500 preprogrammed settings for converting recipes.

+++ Learn Advanced EFT +++

Why Quit?

Great web site with lots of info for anyone that still smokes (who could afford it?). Check out the e-books, video lessons in how to quit smoking and more all free at WhyQuit.com.

Stress Leads to Weight Gain

National Do Not Call Registry Leads to Stress

Who knew the National Do Not Call Registry would expire the numbers listed every five years! How convenient. Now you have to track when you signed up and when your number expires so you can re-register it. Just great.

It's not difficult but why would anyone suddenly want to receive these phone calls? Go to DoNotCall.gov and check if your number is registered. If it is, it'll let you know when
it is scheduled to expire.

Pre-Announcing One More Bite's 2-Day Private Retreat March 2008, Hidden Lake Retreat

Our Oct 2007 retreat was a huge success. This hands-on retreat will take you to a new level with limited participants so we can focus on your individual issues. Everyone will have one private session (or two short sessions depending on timing) during the weekend with me, all eight weeks of the Ending Emotional Eating workshop will be covered, demonstrations, craving reduction, fear of diet failure and that popular bugaboo, what happens after I've lost the weight?

The 2-day weekend is just the beginning. As soon as you get home you'll be starting the 8-week Ending Emotional Eating workshop, and you'll know what you're doing and why you're doing it. You'll get results like never before because you'll know how to use the tools.

We will meet thereafter once a month for six months (or choose an entire year of follow-up and support). You'll also have my private phone number to call when you need help, or e-mail at any time. Follow-up and a weekly check-in is critical. Studies prove that having a support system makes
all the difference in weight loss.

If you are truly motivated to lose the weight and keep it off, and if you are willing to commit to a six month or one-year program, then now is the time.

You want weight to come off fast, yes, but you also want to learn to make it permanent. The 8-Week Online Workshop, Ending Emotional Eating is designed to cover everything that might come up during your journey but many want the added dimension that being in-person can give.

See details for the 2-day One More Bite weekend workshop in March 2008

Fun Food Facts: Salad Dressing, When to Go Low

If you thought it's best to always eat non-fat salad dressings, think again. Study found the absorption of nutrients was hindered if there's no fat in the food, so if you eat a salad as your dinner, use reduced (not fat-free) or full-fat dressing (but go easy, every tablespoon is about 100 calories and 10 grams of fat)

If your meal already has fat, which is easy if you're having anything with meat, or butter, or oil, then you'd use the non-fat salad dressing.

Book Report: Extreme Fat Smash Diet by Ian K. Smith, M.D.

Sorry but this is a lousy book. The suggested menus are lacking in every respect. Day 1's tally is about 536 calories (I may have missed something here or there but way under 1000). Day 2's calories came in at 1103. Okay, it's a very low calorie thing, but that's never expressed in the text.

Out of 200 pages, about 60 are recipes, but none of the recipes are allowed in the menus so what's the point? Oddly enough, one is a sandwich with three pieces of bread that serves one.

Day 3, 848 calories. No wonder they call it extreme. Frankly you'd be so hungry you'll just want to gnaw off your arm. The author suggests you won't be hungry since you're always eating. That's a laugh.

Sample Menus: Meal #1: 6 ounce plain, low-fat yogurt and 1 piece of fruit. Okay, lots of people skip breakfast so this isn't the worst of it. Keep reading.

Meal #2: 1 small salad (optional 1 egg white) and 1/2 cup mixed sliced fruit. --Why the egg white, who adds an egg white to a salad?

A piece of fruit is generally about 80 calories so why limit it to 1/2 cup of sliced fruit? If I eat a whole cup have I just blown it?

Meal #3: 1 veggie, soy, or tofu burger (just the patty, no bread), 1 teaspoon of ketchup or mustard (gross ketchup on a veggie burger?) and 1/2 cup of cooked beans (plain boiled beans like kidney, yum), lentils, or chickpeas.

Okay, do you eat a pile of boiled chickpeas? Neither do I. A few sprinkled on a salad, yes, but not a mound on my plate. Other cultures use chickpeas in recipes but I doubt they eat a pile on the plate either (maybe I'm wrong but why not suggest vegetables your readers might actually eat?).

That's it. That's your food for the day! Wow, I know. Eating all day for sure. Oh, but wait. You also need to add 70 minutes of cardio for the day! Not a problem since you're so fueled up with all that food! (note sarcasm).

All this would be fine if they suggested staying on this plan no more than a few days, but that's not how it works. Dr. Smith suggests you cycle this three times through, so you are on it for roughly 21 days, and if that didn't do it, you can start over.

If you want to try a VLCD (very low calorie diet) there are better ways to structure it so you won't be missing out on critical nutrients. This book rates zero stars but Amazon only goes down to one.

Until next time, yours in good eating,
Kathryn Martyn Smith, M.NLP