CRUISECONTROLPLAN: MAY MAKEOVER

Freebies!    What does that word make you think of?

My Mom is a pro at getting freebies! A favorite stop is the duty free shop but she will ask anywhere. We have a lot of those handy things in our cupboards:

A fresh deck of cards from a now defunct airline.

 

a promotional hand towel

and a zippered cooler bag,

 

The best freebies I have in my life now are the ones listed in the book  The 100!  These are foods that are lowest in sugar calories. They ” will supercharge your weight loss because they keep insulin at low levels” says Jorge Cruise, author.  These are the foods that will be the key to keeping your blood sugar low, keep the fat burning  and will give you results you want!

Scan the lists on pages  169 –  180 of Chapter  8  of  The 100 by Jorge Cruise and find some for you!

Here are a few to be found on the list:

Cashews, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, avocado, mayonnaise, tuna, olive oil, cottage cheese, cucumber, cilantro, salmon,  almonds, Monterey jack, artichokes, orange roughy, tomatoes, bacon, pumpkin seeds, tea, sour cream, whipped cream, pepperonia, sunflower seeds, shrimp,  and more! Think of the meals that can be made from this!

Many of these make meals that are easy on the grill and in summer salads. Don’t worry: there are plenty of choices to marinate,  and baste with!

I love freebies. You will too!

 

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

 

 

Quote taken from The100: Count Only Sugar Calories and Lose up to 18 Lbs. in 2 Weeks written by Jorge Cruise.

 

 

©  copyright May 17, 2014, C.L. Hawker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRUISECONTROLPLAN: MAY MAKEOVER

There is a certain “afterglow” at the end of Mother’s Day.  The day, for most, is a pleasurable one . It is a time for thanksgiving. You think of the  memories of someone who raised you, nurtured you and loved you. And then, you make even more Mother’s Day memories with those in your close circle.

At least, that is how it is supposed to be. Sometimes, this does not happen.  With that comes loneliness, pain, fear and a struggle to understand why the path for you is so different. We might have seen our friend’s Moms or Louise Jefferson, Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, or June Cleaver to show how it can be.

When these emotions overwhelm us, it can cause any of us to lose our well-being and get out of balance. People search for a replacement for those needs. Many cope with addictions, including food.

This is the side of taking care of yourself that is more than following my favorite turquoise book: The 100: Count only sugar calories and lose up to 18 pounds in 2 weeks” by Jorge Cruise.

The emotional side of eating is the one that can be the root cause of why a person is not doing well. Ask yourself when you are going for another handful of junk food, “Why”?  Then you can continue on with the other questions that go hand in hand: Who, what, where,  and how. These five must be dealt with in any situation.

You know how I feel about following The 100. It is a huge solution to a very heavy problem that is heavy in a lot of our lives. You have to go deeper though, if you want to get past this point, once and for all.

If Mother’s Day has never been one that is good for you, then resolve that you will do something different next year. Be a good mother to your children, be a den-mother for a boy scout troop, find a surrogate Mother for you, or support a Mother who may be overwhelmed as a single Mom. It will be appreciated all year-long, and you too will experience the Mother’s Day afterglow, like the rest of us and the potato chips will still be there.

 

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

 

 

Louise Jefferson from CBS Show The Jeffersons

Gloria Delgado Pritchett, ABC Show  Modern Family

 

 

 

 

CRUISE CONTROL PLAN: MAY MAKEOVER

“How America Became a Food Truck Nation” was the title of an article in the Smithsonian Magazine a couple of years ago.   The article had a subtitle:  “Our new food columnist traces the food truck revolution back to its Los Angeles roots”. Is this so unusual that it is news worthy?

I am not talking this food truck I saw on the freeway.

I am writing about these:

With warmer weather, people are out enjoying the great outdoors everywhere! With that lunch time leg stretch comes the aroma of food. It is no longer just hotdogs and french fries.  Be ready because you will face it as a challenge and sometimes will want to be part of it. After all when you are with your coworkers or friends, you would like to order more than a diet soda.

So what can you do so that you won’t be denied this summertime experience? Plan ahead. Like any other challenge, you must think about it before hand so you can work it into your food plan for the day!  You see if you don’t plan, you will either go off your “bigger” plan of losing weight or deny yourself. Denying yourself too long will also make you go off the food program.

 

NYC Truck Festival

Some food trucks are better than others in that they offer choices that can work for you. Take control by going to the ones offering roasted turkey legs (fit for King Henry VIII in size), tacos (eat only the filling), greek salad served with dressing on the side, bunless hot dog sliced with mustard and onions, grilled shrimp, a small soft serve cone etc.

Invited to a food truck festival? You will find vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free.  You must think ahead to make these experiences work for you.  You can always stay home, but what fun would that be?

Just stay away from the ones offering cotton candy, caramel corn and others that are huge temptations and you will do fine.  Enjoy yourself!

 

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our new food columnist traces the food truck revolution back to its Los Angeles rootsRead more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-america-became-a-food-truck-nation-99979799/#jBEyDc9sLIAQQhms.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

How America Became a Food Truck Nation

Our new food columnist traces the food truck revolution back to its Los Angeles roots

By Jonathan Gold

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-america-became-a-food-truck-nation-99979799/#jBEyDc9sLIAQQhms.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

How America Became a Food Truck Nation

Our new food columnist traces the food truck revolution back to its Los Angeles roots

By Jonathan Gold

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-america-became-a-food-truck-nation-99979799/#jBEyDc9sLIAQQhms.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

CRUISE CONTROL PLAN: May Makeover

Turquoise. A exotic word that originates from the French; they named it after the stone which came to them from Turkey. The stone’s unique shade of color can be found in these great things I have enjoyed in my life:

Mooney Falls, Havasupai

 

Zuni Earrings

Disney Character “Sulley” aka John Goodman

and one of my new turquoise favs:  the other “good book”!

 

This is a great food plan which gets to the root cause of why some of us just cannot get the weight off.  Sugar is really hidden in everything we eat. Not in the form of the white refined sweetening ingredient. It also  comes in the way of any carbohydrate that breaks down into sugars  when we eat it. Page 100  of this book makes this clear why this happens.  I read over and over and reconsider eating corn, oatmeal, crackers, juices (and more)  for the time being.

To enjoy all things turquoise in life, make sure the turquoise book is part of your weight loss plan.

 

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

 

 

Monster Inc. Character “Sulley” registered copyright Disney 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRUISECONTROLPLAN: MARCHING ON!

Hello!
I have not forgotten about you! I hope things have gone well for you since I last blogged and hope that you found some encouragement in the 70 plus blogs I have written since January to help you with your weight loss.
For those of you who are new: Welcome! I began the blog to help myself and others follow a weight loss plan based on the book by self improvement author, Jorge Cruise. Our choice: The 100: Count ONLY Sugar Calories and Lose Up to 18 Lbs. in 2 Weeks.

This is a wonderful food plan that kicks you off to a great start.Why? It gets you on track to start cleansing your body of toxins and with its combination of foods get your weight loss going quick! The food plan book explains why this is effective and how to manage good food choices easily.

Three things on the topic I last wrote about: YOGURT! Just three quick things about it today:

1) A March 14th headline in the news had me barking up the right tree with my discussion on sugar content in commercial yogurts! I wrote that many of the choices on the marketplace did not quite fit the food plan for The 100 as the sugar contents were too high.
“Dannon Teams Up With Michelle Obama’s Healthier Food Campaign Company Plans to Reduce Fat and Sugar in Yogurt Products” was the announcement. The first target: reducing sugar in yogurts marketed to youth. Danimals had been modified and taste tested by children who noticed no difference. Good stuff!

 

2) Jorge Cruise had made the right conclusion before I did that FAGE Greek Yogurt was the best for our weight loss plan.

He has listed this product in the section on Dairy in the “Other” category! How great is it that our own comparison concluded the same!

 

 

3) Professor Andrew Novakovic recently spoke on a local radio station discussing Greek Yogurt. He teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where there is an extensive program in Agriculture, Food Science and the Economics of Dairy Markets. New York State is significant in the size of its dairy industry.

 

Professor Novakovic shared that the Greek style yogurts are so popular because they are nutritionally good products. Specifically, he stated that Greek style yogurts offer higher protein per serving. He shared that the Chobani Yogurt company has invested into the food science research at the university. Part of their work: using the Greek style to make new products. Greek style beverages and ice cream! Let’s look for that in a few years!**

Let’s hope that Chobani keeps the sugar low in all of these future products.

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

 

Resources:
*http://online.wsj.com/news/articles
** WHAM Radio 1180, Bob Lonsberry Radio Talk Show, March 2014

CRUISECONTROLPLAN: MARCHING ON!

I have always been a dessert lover. I choose pie over cake or ice cream. Pie is too good to wait for Thanksgiving! There are so many choices but my 2 favorites are lemon meringue and cherry.

Today, I am going to serve up some humble pie. I will probably have another slice later today, and over the next few days and months.

This author made a serious error which defamed 5 yogurt companies and more. In doing the “math” for the blog for the last 3 days, I posted incorrect information, and I must make those corrections. Logically, it did not make sense but when you are in a hurry, mistakes are made. I apologize for that and have revised the previous blogs.

Please read on as I do  not want you to make the same mistake I did when you are calculating your sugar calories. Let’s reference our weight loss book, The 100 on page 88.  It involves the foundation formula of this  weight loss plan.

The premise of the food plan is to reduce sugar intake in our eating. We have chosen to have 100 sugar calories maximum each day. In reading food labels, we look at the serving portion and then look at “total carbohydrates”. We take the total carbohydrates and multiply this x 4 to obtain sugar calories. This is where the mistake was made in my blog on March 6, 7 and 8, 2014.

For today this is what I know:

• I sincerely apologize to my readers, and to  the companies who make Yoplait, Dannon, Astro, FAGE and Muller yogurt brands
• Yogurt is more wholesome that I stated
• I ask that my readers review the information to know the correct information
• Total Carbohydrates x 4 will give you Total Sugars
• Slow down; mistakes happen when you hurry
• I should have trusted my instinct
• I will stay the course and continue to blog after I eat my pie
• Feedback and questions are always welcome
• Corrections have been made to March 6 – 8, 2014

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

* “Humble Pie” picture from “cutestfood.com”.

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CRUISECONTROLPLAN: MARCHING ON!

Happy Saturday, wherever you are!

Over the last 2 blogs, I compared 5 different brands of strawberry yogurt.  I had one “Greek” style in the mix because that food company only made Greek.

I am dedicating this blog to comparing Greek style yogurts from all 5 of the same food companies to give them a fair shake. Here are the results with regards to “total” sugars.

Strawberry Greek Yogurt Comparison

Brand     Serving  Carbs.    Sugars Calories

Yoplait   150g       22g         88calories

Dannon 150g       19g         76calories

Astro*    150g        19g        76calories

Fage     150g         17g        68calories

Muller   150g          24g       96calories

In looking at the results, one company’s product is most reasonable with the amount of sugar. Still, it contains the equivalent of 4 bags of sugar. And with that, I am going to put in the “worried dog” look:

In conclusion, even though Greek style yogurt appears to be a better choice, 4-6  bags of sugar in a 150 gram serving is still a lot of sugar and that is what we are trying to reduce by following the food plan in the weight management book, The 100: Count ONLY Sugar Calories and Lose Up to 18 Lbs. in 2 Weeks.  Think of it this way: Would you use 6 bags of sugar to sweeten your coffee?

I think I have learned that strawberry yogurt is a good product, but pay attention to the food label to know its total sugar calories by looking at the total carbohydrates. Secondly, not all yogurts are created equal.

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

* Astro brand yogurt provided nutritional information for a 125 g serving. I recalculated the carbohydrates and sugars for a 150 g serving so that all the yogurts were comparable.

 

Author’s note: this blog was posted on March 8, 2014 and revised. Revisions are shown in the text with bold lettering.

 

CRUISECONTROLPLAN: MARCHING ON!

Yesterday we compared  5 different brands of yogurt to see if the products were something that is good for us to enjoy.  Products were randomly selected, strawberry flavored and we chose the recommended 1 serving portion.

We read the nutrition label to get the carbohydrate count of each product. Applying the formula from The 100 weight loss plan book, we calculated the number of grams of total sugar. This is a summary of what we found,  and equated our sugar calories into  number of sugar bags in each product.

132 sugar cal: 8 sugar bags

112 sugar cal: 7 sugar bags

100 sugar cal: 6 sugar bags

68 sugar cal: 4 sugar bags

100 sugar cal: 6 sugar bags

We can conclude that the best product of these 5  on The 100 food plan would be the FAGE yogurt. This company only makes the Greek style yogurt.

In future days, we will compare only Greek style products to see if the companies that have jumped on the Greek band wagon have made a more wholesome product.

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

 

Author’s note: this blog was posted on March 7, 2014 and revised. Revisions are shown in the text with bold lettering.

 

CRUISECONTROLPLAN: MARCHING ON!

At work, there were two choices for lunch most days: the cafeteria and “bring your own”.

On Fridays, a few of us would head out to get a quick lunch special at the Chinese place 5 minutes way.  The restaurant was always prepared for rushed business people. There also was Chino-Bandito which covered both Chinese and Mexican. Imagine having a Taco with a side of Kung Pao Chicken. Whoa!

Many  lunches consisted of a sandwich or a cup of yogurt on busy days. By 3pm, this 200 calorie meal was leaving me hungry and you know what that means: finding something to tide you over until you got home. That can be dangerous!

I looked at yogurt to see how it stacks up on the weight loss plan, The 100: Count ONLY Sugar Calories and Lose Up to 18 Lbs. in 2 Weeks. See for yourself how making this choice for lunch stacks up.

Brand & Size                         Calories      Carbs.     Sugars*

Yoplait Original                       170                33g          132cal.                                       6 oz

Dannon, Fruit                           150               28g          112cal.                                        on Bottom, 6 oz

Astro                                              140              25g            100cal.                                       125 gr.

FAGE                                               170            17g              68cal.                                         5.3 oz

Muller, Frut Up                         140             25g            100cal.                                        150 mg

* The portion size, calories and carbohydrates (carbs) are taken off the yogurt manufacturer’s nutrition labels. However, the sugar calories above are calculated by using the method illustrated in the weight loss book, The 100 .   All sugar calories are calculated by taking total carbohydrates (carbs), and multiplying by four.

Yogurt brands and flavor randomly selected.  Part 2 of this: Tomorrow!

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!

 

 

Author’s note: this blog was posted on March 6, 2014 and revised. Revisions are shown in the text with bold lettering.

CRUISECONTROLPLAN: Marching ON!

One of the things I learned from  working  in the business world was the need to use sports terminology to convey information. I will use it with you today as life keeps giving me curve balls to hit!

If you have  watched a baseball game  on TV, the announcer will often replay the pitch in slow motion as a pitch can reach up to speeds of   85 m.ph.   As a curve ball pitch travels to the home plate, its trajectory is indeed curved, making it hard for  the batter to know how to approach it.

When life is throwing me these kind of pitches,  I am going to do what I can to adjust.

Right now, the term that fits me  best in following the food plan from the book, The 100  is “change up”. I know there is a movie from 2011 with that name, but I am referring to the “change up” pitch.

The pitch is thrown to look like a fastball but arrives much slower to the plate. I am going to meet my opponents of life: stress, worry, lack of motivation, fatigue etc. by knowing to do something new, slow things down, and expect different results.

I noticed  that since mid February I have not been as keen following the food plan every day as I was in January.  Winter blahs, Valentine’s Day foods around, and just choosing the same food choices have kept me from being on top of my game. The coach inside me is telling me that I have the  ability use other things to win the game!

Spring season baseball camp will begin this month and you  know what that means:

• the ump with the little broom will come out to clean

• Summer (a.k.a. Swimsuit season) is not that far away

Do something different while you stay the course.

 

Let’s go on the ride together, and get on Cruise Control!