ChrisSpark's Journal, 21 July 2014

You did a fantastic job of staying focus. You are on your way to a new you for sure. 

i hear you with the depression. i have bipolar disorder. i don't like to cook normally, and when i am depressed it is really hard. that's when we order in, and it's hard to make good choices. and the heat! ugh! it's too bad your friends weren't perkier and uplifting. i would probably cut those people out of my life. unless i was related to them. you desrve peoplie in your life that make you happy. maybe it was just a short term thing and they are usually better. but don't let them drag you down. i hope you enjoyed that strawberry shortcake. strawberries are in season now, so it must have been pretty good! i have to try to eat real meals, not snacks. with the snacks, i just get carried away. for me i find it's been good to get full on 3 meals instead of trying to eat every 3 hours or something like that. i'm also trying for healthier snacks when i do have them. i am just about to eat some herries right now. i'm looing at your weight history chart, and it looks great! good job!! 

Mmmm....the strawberry shortcake was a delight. I think the lovely smell of real strawberry was even better than the taste. I love fresh strawberries. Actually, my relatives are an even bigger bummer! The people aren't close, I won't see most of them again and the one lady is ok. I find using the meal planning on Plan to Eat helps me stick to making food a bit better. It even lets you set up notes to remind you to take meat out of the freezer or do other prep work ahead of time. The beauty of it for me is that it scales recipes down to one serving with one button. Only problem that I am running into now is converting the home cooked food to entries in FS. It's getting to be a bit labor intensive so that's why my food journal has been lagging a bit. Saw 249.8 on the scale this morning and even though it wasn't a big drop, it sure was nice to finally break the 250 mark ! Balancing life, health and good food planning sure is a challenge, isn't it? Hoping the cooler weather will be back soon. Hot, humid weather drives me inside. Ick. 

i never noticed a plan to eat. is it on the app or just on the website? i looked for it on the app but couldn't find it. i make the same things over and over, so it isn't too hard for me to enter them into the log. i just hope no one can see my "recipes" because i don't include any directions, i just put in the food! congrats on breaking 250. i know what you mean because i just broke 260. it IS a challenge. it's cool here today, the last two days were really hot and humid. but i think it is going to be hot again tomorrow. i hate the humidity. we bought a house with central air last year, and i am loving it. i've never had central air before. 

Oh my, I grew up without AC and once I had it in my home I can't give it up ! Plantoeat.com (they don't have an app but they do have a mobile site) lets you add your own recipes, plan the meals and it creates your shopping list. There is a 30 day trial, then it is $39 a year. I've saved $39 in wasted food and not eating out already and I haven't finished my trial yet. One thing it doesn't have yet, but plenty of members have asked for it, is automatic calculation of the nutritional information, but I found http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php, and after I scale the recipe down for one I find the nutritional information on there. It is a lot of work, but at least I can save a recipe as a "meal" here on FS and it will be there if I make it again. My dream would be for Plantoeat and FS to join forces....or for plantoeat to get nutritional values calculated automatically. I did find that when I went to my grocery store with my printed out list it was easy to stick to it. Plus there were so many produce items on it that I don't normally eat, that I was well occupied just finding them, LOL ! Today I made candied ginger for baking, zucchini bread with very little sugar, froze zucchini and minced ginger for a couple of future recipes and I am having a grilled portabella mushroom for dinner. Never made any of this before. You can friend people on Plantoeast and share recipes and menus. I like it, but I love geeking around with the computer, lol.  

i can't give it up now either! oh, i thought plan to eat was part of fs. i will take a look at it. i could really use the reminder to take things out of the freezer. it does need to do the nutritional info. i'm interested in the zucchini bread. is that on the site or did you find it someplace else? good for you for trying so many new foods! 

The zucchini bread recipe is here: http://www.food.com/recipe/low-fat-healthy-zucchini-bread-375809. I had to make a few substitutions and my bread did rise very much. Not sure what was responsible. Next time I will use coconut oil instead of olive oil. I hope you like plantoeat and find it helpful. Cheers, 

what's the name of the recipe, if you don't mind? fs is cutting off the link. 

Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that fs would cut it off. It's called "Low Fat Healthier Zucchini Bread". I think the reason mine didn't rise is because I substituted oat flour for whole wheat flour. It was all I had on hand. It still tastes yummy. You might also like the morning glory muffins you can find in the recipes here on fs. They turned out yummy and I used pumpkin puree instead of carrots. It satisfies my sweet tooth without all the processed chemicals in store bought stuff. Enjoy! 

i will look for those! thanks!