Eat Out Eat Well

Holidays

Where’s My Peeps?

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Peeps: the blazing yellow and hot pink marshmallow bunnies and chicks that were hatched over 50 years ago. They’re called PEEPS because the original candy was the yellow chick.  Now they’re produced for many holidays – in seasonal colors and shapes, of course –  and they continue to be the subject of lots of design contests (you’d be amazed what you can make out of peeps) and scientific experiments (some claim them to be indestructible). Just Born, the parent company of PEEPS, claims to produce enough PEEPS in one year to circle the Earth twice.

PEEPS have been the number one non-chocolate Easter candy in the US for more than a decade. Although yellow is America’s favorite color for PEEPS chicks and bunnies, they also come in pink, lavender, blue, orange, green, and other seasonal colors.

What’s In Them?

They’re made of sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, and less than 0.5% of potassium sorbate, natural flavors, dye, and carnauba wax, and they are gluten and nut free.  (No wonder some claim that they’re indestructible!) You can even get sugar free PEEPS made with Splenda.

Five little chicks (42g, listed as one serving size) have 140 calories, 0g fat, 1g protein, and 36g carbs.

PEEPS Preferences

Some people like their peeps nice and soft.  Others leave them out in the air to age to perfection so they get a little crunchy on the outside.  They’ve been microwaved (careful, they expand and can make quite a mess), frozen, roasted, used to top hot chocolate, and added to recipes. They don’t toast well on sticks like regular marshmallows – the sugar coating tends to burn.

 

Jelly Beans: What’s Your Favorite Color?

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Jelly beans —  little nuggets of sweetness that come in multitudes of colors and flavors.  Their gummy insides might have originated centuries ago from the treat, Turkish Delight.  Their outsides are basically the same as the colored hard candy coating, developed in the late 17th century, for the Jordan almond.  The modern jelly bean appeared during the American Civil War when Boston’s William Schraft encouraged sending candy to Union soldiers.  Because of their egg shape they became popular as Easter candy around 1930.

Although standard jelly beans come in fruit flavors, there are now so many flavors — some goofy, some sophisticated — like spiced, mint, gourmet, tropical, popcorn, bubble gum, pepper, and cola.  They also now come in a sugar free version (seems weird, but true – wonder how many chemicals are in those).

What’s In Jelly Beans?

Jelly beans are primarily made of sugar and also usually contain gelatin, corn syrup, modified food starch, and less than 0.5% of citric acid, sodium citrate, artificial flavors, confectioners glaze, pectin, carnauba wax, white mineral oil, magnesium hydroxide, and artificial colors (takes some of the fun out of them, doesn’t it).

They may give you Technicolor insides, but they are fat free.  On average:

  • 10 small jelly beans (11g) have 41 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no protein, and 10.3 grams of carbs.
  • 10 large jelly beans (1 oz or 28g) have 105 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no protein, and 26.2g carbs.
  • 10 Jelly Bellies have 40 calories, no fat, no protein, and 10g carbs.

Some Jelly Bean Trivia

  • Jelly Belly jelly beans were invented in 1976. They were the first jelly beans to be sold in single flavors and to come with a menu of flavors.
  • It takes 7 to 21 days to make a single Jelly Belly jelly bean.
  • Very Cherry was the most popular Jelly Belly flavor for two decades until 1998, when Buttered Popcorn took over. Very Cherry moved back into the top spot by only 8 million beans in 2003.
  • Jelly Bellies were the first jelly beans in outer space – sent on the 1983 flight of the space shuttle Challenger by President Reagan.
  • Enough Jelly Belly beans were eaten in the last year to circle the earth more than five times.

Goal!!!

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Do you remember being told to line up in size places in elementary school?  How about getting a star for hanging stuff up in your cubby – or winning a candy bar for hitting the most tennis balls over the net?

We’re a goal-oriented society.  From very early on we learn to work toward a goal or an end result – and often receive some kind of reward if we succeed.

Why not apply that focus to healthy eating and managing your weight?

Goals Can Be Tricky

Have you seen the hang-dog look on an athlete’s face when he or she is in a goal scoring drought?  What about the look on a goalie’s face when that blasted ball or puck lands in the net?

The same thing holds true for goals we might set for ourselves.  Many of us set these broad – huge – goals that are virtually impossible to accomplish.  For instance, (despite Biggest Loser results) you’re not going to lose thirty pounds by the end of next week.

All those huge non-specific goals just end up making you feel positively awful when you don’t succeed at achieving them.  You’ve basically set yourself up for failure and you’ll be physically and/or emotionally sporting that hang-dog demeanor.

Are You Starting Small And Specific Enough?

So many of us are guilty of all-or-nothing thinking and overly ambitious goals. Guess what happens?  We shoot ourselves in our collective feet and call ourselves failures.  Do it often enough and we solidly embed a “no can do” attitude and habit in our brains.

The key is to start with very small, realistic, and accomplishable goals – like putting mustard on your sandwich instead of mayo, or riding your exercise bike for 15 minutes three days this week (instead of saying you’ll ride for an hour seven days – most likely it ain’t gonna happen).

Write your goal down (writing reinforces it) and set a time target for achieving it. Leaving it open ended is just an invitation to put off taking the necessary action (a form of procrastination).  Commit to taking whatever action is required twice a week, then three times, then everyday. Start small and with things that are fairly easy to do and that don’t disrupt your lifestyle. Get some success under your belt.  Then move on to bigger challenges.

You’ll be amazed at how good you feel with a nice sense of accomplishment tucked under your belt.  Makes you want to go back for more!

Have You Broken Your “I’m Going To Lose Weight” Resolution Yet?

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The definition of a resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something. Have you made one or more resolutions recently – and does one or more of them have to do with losing weight or changing an eating habit?

The #1 New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. A recent study by a psychology professor found that for people who make resolutions, 75% keep them for the first week of the New Year; 71% are still maintaining their resolution after two weeks, and 46% are still keeping their New Year’s resolutions at six months.

Are those better stats than you thought? New Year’s resolutions really help you to define your goals and to identify what you want to accomplish or change.  But, identifying your goals or desires is one thing, realizing them requires a plan, work, and most of all, a commitment.

Why Do You Want To Lose Weight?

Losing weight and keeping it off takes time, effort, and a long-term commitment. It’s important to ask yourself if you’re really ready to make permanent changes and to decide if you’ll be making those changes for the right reasons  — for instance, losing weight because your want to feel better and be healthier, or that you want to look better because you want to look better – not because your spouse or partner wants you to look better.

Staying Committed

To stay committed you really need to be focused. It takes a lot of energy, both mental and physical, to form new healthy habits. So, to clear the way, first try to address the other challenges in your life – things like relationship or financial problems. It’s awfully tough to focus on multiple challenges at the same time.  While some challenges may never completely go away, managing them should make it easier to focus on losing weight.

Then, when you’re ready to commit to working on losing weight, pick a start date and go for it. Weight loss is a personal journey.  No one else can make you lose weight, although others can certainly help support you and hold you accountable in positive ways. Try to identify what will motivate you and keep you focused and then figure out a way to call on those motivators during those inevitable moments of temptation.

To use a frequently overused phrase – weight loss is a journey – but for this journey there is a map you can draw and follow – your own foodMAP to weight control.

Next post: goals, goals, and more goals.

What Are You Drinking To Toast The New Year?

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So many of us toast to the New Year with drink in hand – alcoholic or not.

Here’s a quick primer so you can make some informed choices:

  • A standard drink is 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer.
  • Nutritionally:
  1. 12 ounces of beer has 153 calories and 13.9 grams of alcohol
  2. 12 ounces of lite beer has 103 calories and 11 grams of alcohol
  3. 5 ounces red wine has 125 calories and 15.6 grams of alcohol
  4. 5 ounces of white wine has 121 calories and 15.1 grams of alcohol
  5. 1 1/2 ounces (a jigger) of 80 proof (40% alcohol) liquor has 97 calories and 14 grams of alcohol
  • Alcohol has 7 calories per gram but doesn’t fill you up the way food does, so you can drink a lot and not feel stuffed.
  • Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and your resolve not to eat everything at the buffet table often flies right out the window.
  • Eating something before drinking can help blunt alcohol’s intoxicating effects.
  • Drinking light beer rather than regular saves about 50 calories a bottle.
  • Mixed drinks and fancy drinks significantly up the calories.   For instance,
  1. A frozen margarita has about 45 calories an ounce
  2. A plain martini, no olives or lemon twist, has about 61 calories an ounce
  3. An 8-ounce white Russian made with light cream has 715 calories.
  4. The alcohol, heavy cream, eggs, and sugar in a cup of eggnog has about 343 calories and 19 grams of fat
  5. Mulled wine, a combination of red wine, sugar/honey, spices, orange and lemon peel has about 210 to 300 calories per 5 ounces, depending on how much sweetener is added.
  • Watch your mixers — per ounce club soda has no calories, tonic has10, classic coke has 12, Canada Dry ginger ale has 11, orange juice has 15, and cranberry juice has 16.
  • And, if you’re toasting to health and happiness in the New Year with champagne – it’s a comparative caloric bargain at about 19 calories an ounce! To your health!

My very best wishes for a very happy and healthy New Year.

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