My 3 Favorite Salad Dressing Recipes

Many salad dressings you find at the grocery store are high in calories. And those calories can really add up if you use more than the usual two tablespoon serving on your salad like I do. My every day big green salads need more than that!

Commercially made dressings often contain ingredients that I either have never heard of or don’t know what the heck they are, such as: Guar gum, natamycin, calcium disodium edta, xantham gum, titanium dioxide, disodium guanylate, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. I don’t know what any of that stuff actually does but I do know I don’t need it in my diet or my salad dressing.

About 10 years ago, I started making my own salad dressings. Today, I thought I’d share my three favorite recipes that are easy to make, lower in calories than most commercial brands, and are free of hidden sugars, extra sodium and weird chemicals.

First, I’m sharing my own loose recipe for a simple vinaigrette that’s easy to customize to your personal preferences.

Make it Your Way Vinaigrette

Here’s what I use:
Fresh lemon juice
One big shallot or two small and/or 2 to 4 garlic cloves minced
Fresh ground pepper
Sea salt
Dijon mustard – lots of it!
Red or white wine vinegar, or both
Herbs de Provence, Italian or Mediterranean seasoning blend

Truvia, stevia, monk fruit or your preferred sweetener
Good quality olive oil – I go easy, olive oil is good for you but it is high calorie. I use 2 tablespoons.
Balsamic vinegar

Fruit jam (optional)
Maple syrup (optional)
Honey (optional)
Fresh orange juice (optional)

First I mince the garlic and/or shallots and put them in the jar. If I have both on hand, I use both.

Then I start adding the other ingredients.I begin with small amounts, knowing I can add more later if I want, but I can’t subtract.

To the minced garlic/shallots I add 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard and/or stone ground mustard, a little sweetener (I prefer monk fruit or stevia. Be careful with stevia drops as a little goes a long way!)

A pinch of salt, fresh pepper, dried herbs of your choice, 2 to 4 tablespoons of lemon juice.
1/4 cup of red or white wine vinegar, 3 to 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Stir and then shake until emulsified.

Now taste it. Is it too watery? Add more Dijon mustard. Is it too acidic and harsh? Add more of something sweet, some mustard, and a few tablespoons water.

Sometimes I will add the juice of an orange instead of water for extra flavor. I have also thrown in a heaping spoonful of a sweet jam for thickness and sweetness. I recently used the last of some low sugar jam and made the dressing right in the jam jar.

When you’ve got a vinaigrette that suits your palate, screw the lid on your jar and stick it in the fridge. Since it doesn’t have any dairy products in it, it will keep for quite some time. I usually go through mine, having salads nearly every night, in about a week to 10 days.

As far as a calorie count goes, it will mostly depend on how much olive oil you use. I tried not using any but the consistency was too watery for my liking. I use 2 tablespoons of olive oil and make a big batch of dressing. So I log in my dressing as 40 calories per 1/4 cup. Also be sure to factor in any maple syrup, honey or jam added.

Caesar Salad Dressing

As I discussed in the previous post, eating the same old salad every night can get boring quickly. The same goes for the salad dressing. When you need a change from vinaigrette, have a Caesar salad.

I found this recipe a couple of years ago and like it so much, I printed it out and put it in my old school recipe box. I’ve also committed to memory, I’ve made it so many times.

I always have this dressing on a kale salad – Dino or curly – but Romaine would certainly work (I’m a little wary of Romaine after all the food poisoning outbreaks over the years). It also works great as a sauce for vegetables and I’ve even used it as a spread in a wrap.

Mexican Salad Dressing

My newest find is this Mexican Salad Dressing. I use 3 to 4 garlic cloves and a lot more cumin in my version. When I made this dressing the second time, I forgot to add the olive oil and I didn’t notice a difference. So now I omit that and add a few scoops of salsa instead, either on top of the dressing or mixed in.

My husband and I had chicken tacos the other night and I made a salad to go with them. I added defrosted frozen charred corn and black beans to the salad, then used this dressing to top it off. We had the dressing again a few nights later on tacos – instead of sour cream – and it was delicious!

I shared this recipe with a friend who thought the base – yogurt, garlic, lime juice – might translate well into a Ranch style dressing with the right herbs. I want to try that next.

Do you have a low calorie dressing recipe you love? I am always looking for new ones to add to my trio.

Adrienne

Every Day Habits: Big Green Salad

Nearly every day at dinnertime, I begin my meal with a big green salad. It’s similar in concept to the Big Bowl of Fruit: it fills you up with lots of foods that have low calorie density prior to eating your main course.

Eating green salads to help you with your weight loss endeavors and improve your diet and overall health is not a new idea. We’ve all heard that adding lots of fresh vegetables to our daily intake is a good step to a healthy lifestyle. But not all salads are created equal. They can be very high calorie and can get boring when they’re on repeat.

I’ve got 12 ways to liven up a green salad and make this healthy addition to your diet more appealing – all without blowing your calorie budget.

1.  Sliced red cabbage

Red cabbage not only adds a little flavor and crunch but it helps to beef up the volume of your salad. I like to mix it in to my salad regularly. It helps my lettuce inventory last a little longer.

2.  Beans

I love garbanzo and kidney beans on my salads. They add fiber, protein and healthy fats to your salad and they’re filling. A quarter cup – 2 ounces – of canned garbanzo beans has 80 calories, 3.5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein.

3.  Dried fruit

Dried fruit is wonderful with a tangy vinaigrette. It complements the acidic flavors of the dressing. I like to use dried cherries, cranberries and raisins but dried apples and other fruits would be lovely too. Two tablespoons of raisins contain about 65 calories.

4.  Nuts

I love pecans and walnuts on my salad and they have some wonderful nutrients in them including good fats. Nuts are high in calories so I make sure I measure them before adding to my salad. Two tablespoons of chopped walnuts logs in around 100 calories and that same amount of pecans is about 70.

5.  Different types of lettuce

I always buy red leaf lettuce but that can get boring after awhile. Sometimes I make a salad with arugula or mix arugula with my red leaf. Other options are watercress, Boston, Little Gem, kale, micro greens, romaine, green leaf, Bibb, spinach and frisee. I even added nasturtium flowers to a salad once. They made an ordinary salad a beautiful and memorable experience.

6.  Parmesan cheese

I like to take a wedge of parmesan and a veggie peeler and peel some parmesan into several thin strips. The parmesan adds an umami flavor and the thinness of the parm keeps the calories low.

7.  Fresh fruit

Just like dried fruits, fresh fruit can add another sweet dimension to your salad. Try berries, apple chunks, melon and of course tomatoes and avocado are considered fruits too.

8.  Leftover veggies

I seem to always have some leftover cooked veggies in the fridge these days like roasted cauliflower, grilled zucchini, and steamed green beans. I put them on top of a salad, chilled, and treat them just like the rest of the veggies.

9.  Add an egg 

Full disclosure: I can’t stand eggs. But I wish I liked them because they check all the boxes – satiety, protein, convenience, availability, and extra flavor. One medium hard-boiled egg has about 70 calories.

10. Crumbly cheeses

Feta, goat cheese, blue cheese…they are all full of delicious flavor. Calories vary from 20 calories for 2 tablespoons Athenos fat free feta to 100 for 2 tablespoons of most blue cheese crumbles.

11. Lean meats 

When we have grilled chicken, I always try to grill enough breasts for more than just one meal. I can add a few ounces to my salad and make it more of a main course than a first course. And of course, beef, turkey, pork, seafood and vegan meats work too. 

12. Canned and jarred vegetables 

Olives, marinated red peppers, pickled onions, cornichons, artichokes can be delicious and flavorful additions to your salad. 

So what do you add to your salads to make them more interesting? I am always looking for more ideas!

Adrienne

Ask Adrienne: Fitness

I’m answering questions about fitness this time for Ask Adrienne. So let’s get right to it!

Question: When you started your weight loss journey, how did you start exercising?

Answer I became a lover of exercise in my early 30s. When I moved to Sonoma County after my husband and I were engaged, he bought me a membership at one of the nicest health clubs in the area as a birthday gift. I loved it and I met many new friends in a morning aerobics class, who I am still close with 21 years later. I went to the club 5 days a week until the kids started to drive themselves to school (I always worked out after I dropped them off). Then in 2016, we turned our formal dining room into a gym. Bill and I have lots of different equipment and we both spend time exercising in there almost daily.

So if I had to start fresh, where would I begin?

I would create a low pressure exercise routine that works with my schedule, includes things I enjoy and know I can do, and is accessible to me when I want to do it. Here are some tips:

• Choose an exercise you’re familiar with – something you used to do, perhaps, or an exercise routine you saw on Instagram or YouTube that looks doable for your skill level. Don’t think too hard about it. Just do something simple and accessible – think living room floor, some music, your body and a few exercises you already know. The point here is to just begin.

• If you’re brand new to working out, make your goals for exercise small – as in teeny weeny. Set your timer for 5 minutes. That’s it. If you do 5 minutes, that’s fantastic. Good on you! If you do more than 5 minutes, that is awesome too but do not go overboard. You don’t want to injure yourself or get overly fatigued. That will make you less likely to want to continue an exercise program.

• Once you find exercises you enjoy, create a routine around those exercises that work for you and your schedule. Be consistent and I always recommend tracking your progress. I write down every exercise session I do in a calendar. When I see the calendar filled with days of exercise, I know I am making fitness strides!

• If you like to walk, take a brisk walk a few times a week. Start small and increase your distance and time as you get used to it. Consider supplementing walking with some weight bearing exercise sessions on your non-walk days. If you’re 50 or over, you may want to read this article about preventing muscle loss. It’s important to keep as much of our muscle mass as possible!

Chris Freytag’s Get Healthy U TV is a great online resource for a variety of exercise classes including weight training – with and without equipment. She offers both a monthly paid subscription and free classes. She also shares videos on her Facebook page and Instagram.

Other wonderful types of exercises I enjoy are yoga, Pilates, hiking and badminton when the weather is nice. Yoga With Adriene is my favorite for yoga instructor online. She has a beginners section if you’re new to yoga. It’s so great for flexibility, strength and your mood!

Question: How did you and Bill get on the road to weight loss and fitness together? Is one of you leading in matters like this and the other one comes along supportively? Or is it something you decide and implement together right from the start? How do you encourage each other or hold each other accountable, or do you?

Great question! Let’s start with the fitness portion.

We are grateful to have a home gym. It’s been the best investment for our health, especially during the pandemic. I have been using our home gym regularly since we converted our formal dining room into a gym back in 2016. Even when I was at my heaviest weight, I still worked out frequently.

I was the only one using the gym until this year. Bill finally came around and started joining me after Christmas. I gave him an Apple Watch as a Christmas gift and he’s been working out several times a week ever since. Who knew that’s all I had to do to get him to exercise with me?

We like to do different things in the gym which helps keep things simple. He uses his heavy bar bells outside and I use my lighter weights inside. We take turns using the Pilates reformer and the treadmill, though lately we’d rather be hiking in the sunshine than trudging along on a belt.

As far as accountability goes, we are accountable to ourselves more than anything. We both want to hit the goals we’ve set on our Apple Watches. Bill and I are goal-oriented so closing all the fitness rings is the main focus (the rings show recorded movement, exercise and standing up throughout the day).

We are congratulate each other via text for our workouts – even though we are in the next room or sometimes standing right next to each other. It’s kind of dorky but the positive reinforcement works. So I guess I have Apple Watches to thank for our fitness success!

I’d like to add that making it a fun thing that we “get to do” rather than a chore we “have to do” is helpful. Oh, and we compliment each other on the physical results too. I am always asking Bill to flex his biceps for me these days!

As far as weight loss goes, Bill also wanted to lose weight – not as much as I did but still 40 pounds is nothing to sneeze at! So he was willing to make lifestyle changes with me and be supportive too. He doesn’t do Noom like I do, but he does do intermittent fasting and loves it. Men have an annoying tendency to lose weight easier and faster than women. So he can eat much more than I do and still lose weight and he doesn’t need to count calories.

Thank you to the two readers who submitted these terrific questions! If you have a question you’d like to ask me about weight loss, fitness, minimalism, giving up alcohol or something else, just use my contact page and fill out the form or send me an email.

Adrienne

Why I Record My Weight Loss Progress

At the start of my weight loss journey, I weighed in for the first time in a long, long time and I took my body measurements. I wrote the information down in this journal for safekeeping.

I didn’t look at the body measurement numbers again until I was certain I had made some progress, several weeks later. At that point, I got out my tape and took my measurements again, recorded them in the journal with the date then did a happy dance because I lost some inches! I continued to record my measurements several times throughout my year of losing weight.

The reason? Charting my progress was motivating and inspired me to keep forging ahead. Measurements gave me assurance beyond a weigh-in. I could clearly see, on paper, that the hard work I was doing was getting me where I wanted to go. 

I encourage you to record your progress. Even if you’ve already begun your weight loss journey, it’s not too late to start collecting that data.

This is what I did to chart, measure and record my progress:

• I used and still use the food log on Noom but I know there are many food tracker apps out there to choose from. If you want an app, try a few out and see what works for you. You could also just use Notes in your phone or use a traditional journal or notebook. 
• I entered my starting weight in a journal and my Noom app along with the date. Every time I weighed myself, I added the new weight and the date. 
• I took my body measurements: upper arm, chest, smallest part of waist, regular waist where your belly button is, hips, upper thigh, and calves. That’s what I did but it’s up to you where you want to measure. Use a fabric or soft plastic measuring tape (I use this one). Be sure to record the date!
• I took photos of myself wearing something that showed my figure. A swimsuit, yoga shorts and a tank top, or just jeans and a fitted shirt. No one but you needs to see it. I did not do that at my heaviest and I wish I had. Luckily a friend took a photo of me while we were in Tahiti last January at 235 – 240. I am so proud of myself whenever I look at my side-by-side.

• If you plan to do down two dress sizes or more, you may be getting rid of your bigger clothing along the way. Be sure to save a pair of jeans, pants or shorts that you wore before you began your journey. You can try them on as another way to chart progress and see how far you’ve come. I keep one pair of jeans in a drawer – they are the jeans I relied on when I was at my heaviest. They have no zipper or buttons – just pull-on and they saved the day for me many times. I am oddly sentimental about them. 

You don’t have to do any of this, of course. But I am betting you’ll be thrilled you did when you start noticing changes. 

As a side note, when I measured the smallest part of my waist in early February, it was 41.5 inches. That information rang all my health alarms because I knew a waist measurement over 35″ for women can elevate the risk of heart disease. A little over 13 months later, and my waist is now 29 inches, I am happy to report. Had I not measured, I would not know about the 12 inches loss from my waist. That is a foot, people! 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Adrienne  

Ask Adrienne

Since I began talking openly about my experiences losing over 80 pounds, getting the fittest I’ve been in my entire life, breaking up with alcohol while living in wine country, and purging my home of unwanted, unused stuff – all during the pandemic – I’ve received quite a number of questions.

So I started “Ask Adrienne” to answer your questions about my journeys. Each Ask Adrienne will focus on one broad topic. Today, the focus is diet.

Let’s get right to it!

Do you use exercise to knock off the calories you consumed?

I don’t work calories off after I eat because I only exercise in the morning and on an empty stomach. I also don’t add extra exercise the following day to try to balance out a heavy meal from the night before. It’s hard for me to plan the intensity of a workout anyway. Sometimes I am into it, sometimes I’m not. If I overdo it on food one day, I try to look for a lesson in it and move on. Every day is a new opportunity!

However, if I know I’m having a heavier, calorie-dense dinner – like homemade pizza, which we have often – then I might choose a workout that morning that burns more calories, like weight training or going for a long, brisk, hilly hike.

Mostly I see exercise as a way to relieve stress, tone muscles, get stronger, become more flexible and feel good! I focus more on food intake for losing or maintaining my weight rather than exercise. Exercise helps to burn calories but I find it’s easier to manage my food intake than depend on exercise for weight loss.

What are some of your daily eats and drinks?

Ah! I have so many and it really depends on my mood, the season and what’s in the fridge and pantry. Right now, I am enjoying my fruit bowls. I am loving the winter citrus and apples but I also can’t wait for stone fruits and watermelon this summer.

I am a big soup fan. I regularly make a veggie soup with or without chicken sausage. Sometimes I’ll add garbanzo or kidney beans. Making a batch of veggie soup is a great way to clean out the fridge when you have a surplus of veggies you know are about to go south. I always make a big batch of soup so I can freeze some for later.

I also like rice cakes. I finally found a brand that is both low calorie and not too airy – just 20 calories a cake. I have two with a slice of cheese, hummus or peanut butter after my fruit bowl. And I always finish lunch with an ounce of either dried apricots or prunes. Dried apricots are my favorite, especially if they’re on the tart side.

For a sweet treat, I like to have several squares of Lily’s chocolate. I am crazy about this new flavor!

For dinner, I almost always start things off with big salads. I make my own salad dressing so I can control the ingredients. Same old salads get boring after awhile, so lately I’ve been adding a little goat, feta or blue cheese crumbles or some chopped walnuts or pecans. A small amount goes a long way in the flavor and texture departments.

The main dish at dinner is always different but I try to always include a fresh green vegetable – steamed, roasted or sautéed – as a side dish.

For dessert, we often have popsicles but in wintertime they aren’t as appealing. These days we’ve been having non-fat Greek yogurt sweetened with some stevia, fresh or frozen fruit and topped with homemade granola. I use this granola recipe as my foundation but switch out the nuts with what I have on hand, skip the coconut and add chia seeds. I also use different dried fruits. Last time I used raisins and chopped dates. Dried chopped cherries are delicious too!

Drinks we enjoy include herbal teas and sparkling water. We have morning tea after our coffee and afternoon tea a few days a week. Last year we were going through so many cans and bottles of sparkling water after we gave up alcohol that we decided to buy a SodaStream machine. It’s much more convenient and we can flavor our water the way we want. Although I miss those colorful cans and fun flavors of Bubly.

I sometimes buy kombuchas as a treat but really, hot tea and bubbly water is all I need.

When we have warm weather, I love a tonic water over ice with a squeeze of lime once in a while. Fevertree makes a lemon tonic water that is so good! I also like Q Tonic Water.

How do you cope with desires for calorie heavy foods?

This has been a process for me over the last 12+ months. There was a time during my journey that I was afraid of eating heavier foods. My husband would suggest lasagne, and I would cringe and wonder how I would avoid blowing my diet that day. I used to think that enjoying foods like lasagne automatically meant I wasn’t adhering to my diet and would never lose weight, therefore I thought I could never eat things like lasagne.

Noom has completely changed my thinking on this. I can eat what I want and am not on a diet, but rather I am changing the way I eat. No foods are off limits. But if it’s a calorie dense food like lasagne, I will plan ahead a little.

For me, planning looks like:

Making that green salad a little bigger by adding extra vegetables. Make my side vegetable – maybe sautéed zucchini or steamed broccoli – to go with the lasagna. Then I start with a reasonable portion of the main course and a big helping of the side veggie.

Usually that satisfies me but if it doesn’t I will have more veggies and a little more lasagna. In the last 8 months or so, I have not gone crazy gorging on any food. I might eat more calories than Noom says I should for that day, but it has not resulted in any issues for me, physically or emotionally.

And what about sudden cravings?

Those darn cravings! They don’t happen to me very often anymore but it was a big problem initially. I ate all the cheese puffs, Red Vine licorice, ice cream sandwiches, Triscuits and so on. I caved in to every craving in the beginning. But I let myself indulge because not only was I trying to lose weight, I was breaking up with alcohol and needed to have substitutes and distractions.

After a while, I got sick of that – as in grossed out but also bored with it. When I started Noom, I began my food intake education (also known as calorie counting) and realized I was eating much more than I needed to. So I chose new and healthier treats, started weighing, measuring and logging my food and soon, I gave up the junk. Thankfully, the cravings soon diminished. Research shows that eating junk food increases your cravings for more junk food. It’s a vicious cycle.

The best advice I have for dealing with a craving is wait. Want that cookie sitting on the counter? Tell yourself to wait 10 minutes and then if you still want it, eat it and enjoy it. But it’s essential that you change your surroundings in that 10 minutes.

Leave the room, engage your brain in something else. But please don’t stand there staring at the cookie for 10 minutes (who could do that anyway?). Watch a video, text a friend, play with your dog or cat, paint your nails, clean out a drawer, drink a glass of water, sing a song or do a crossword. Just do something else in a different room. There’s a good chance you’ll forget about the cookie altogether. Also, do not leave cookies on the counter in the first place!

I love questions. Have one for me? Leave it in the comments or send me an email (info on my About page!)

Adrienne

Minimalist in Training

As you may have seen on my Instagram page, Kate Williams of Sonoma Index-Tribune, our local newspaper in Sonoma Valley, interviewed me recently. The story ran Friday and you can read it here. 

In the article, Ms. Williams discusses the 30-Day Minimalism Game that my husband and I undertook in January. I thought I would expand on that in today’s post. 

Before we began our challenge, Bill and I watched “Less is Now” on Netflix, a documentary by The Minimalists about – you guessed it – minimalism. The Minimalists also created the Minimalism Game. 

Here’s how it works:

For all 31 days of January, we got rid of the number of things that corresponded to that day’s date. On the 1st, we each got rid of one thing. On the 2^nd, we each got rid of 2 things, and so on until the 31st, when we each got rid of 31 things.

This pile of stuff is about 2/3rds of what we chose to say goodbye to. The rest was in the garage waiting to go to donation, given away, or tossed out because it was too worn to donate. 

Between the two of us, we have unburdened ourselves of over 1000 things! It was exhilarating to remove all that unwanted stuff from our lives. 

Bill and I pledged to make changes going forward so we’d never have to do this challenge again. It was a fantastic organizational project but more than that, it was a learning experience. 

When the Minimalism Game concluded at the end of January, I posted about the experience on Instagram. It’s been a month now and I’d like to share an update. 

• My online shopping habit has diminished greatly. For the entire month of February, I bought a set of resistance bands for the gym (replacing an older set), a tube of tinted lip balm, a cover for my MOTR, and 4 books. I also bought a swim top and two swim bottoms. 
• In January, while in the midst of the challenge, it became rather obvious to me that I had quite a robust online shopping habit. And that habit had been going on for a long, long time – decades. I wanted to do something about it so I began being mindful of my purchases. I started writing down the things I wanted, or thought I wanted, in a space in my monthly calendar. I have a running list and as I move through the month, I check off the things I bought and cross out the things I have decided I no longer want. One rule is that after writing the item down, I have to wait one full day before I buy it. In other words, I need to sleep on it. If I’m still certain I want to buy that item the next day, I will. But usually I have lost interest and it’s crossed off the list.
• At the end of each day in my planner, I write down what I bought that day. If I didn’t buy anything, I write that phrase at the bottom of the column. I have many more “Didn’t buy anything today” notes than items in my planner, I am happy to report.  

• I love being able to find things! I know exactly what I own and where to find it. That was not the case prior to our challenge. 
• I am still getting rid of things, even after saying goodbye to over 1000 items. It’s an ongoing process. 
• I gave away our previously stuffed under-the-bed storage bins and now all of our folded items fit in our two dressers. I am proud to say I know all of their contents. 
• I can get dressed in an outfit I like in seconds. Before the challenge, it took me ages to riffle through all my clothes – that were in three locations – to pick out an outfit. 

Most of my fall/winter wardrobe

• I can tell I have more work to do as far as shopping urges go. With my drastic weight loss, I will eventually need to replenish parts of my wardrobe. The trick is choosing things I will want to wear, that will last and look good on me. Easier said than done, but I am in no hurry.

I don’t know that I will ever be a true minimalist. But I like this lighter, more organized household and lifestyle. And since my husband and I are on a fixed income in retirement, it would be a smart move to get a handle on my shopping habit.

Tomorrow is March 1^st, the beginning of a new month. Of course you can begin the 30-Day Minimalism Game anytime, but I always look at the first of a month as a great starting point for challenges. 

If you are interested in ditching some clutter, cutting back on shopping or both, I would encourage you to watch The Minimalists’ “Less is Now” documentary and consider trying the challenge. If you want to watch the documentary later and get the details on the 30-Day Minimalism Game, here’s a short video.

Let me know if you have any questions! 

Adrienne

Why I do Intermittent Fasting

A reader asked if I would write a post about my experience with intermittent fasting. I am happy to oblige as intermittent fasting – or IF – has been an important tool in my weight loss success. 

Let’s start by clarifying that losing weight, while complicated at times by hormones, stressors, genes and environment, can be summarized in a simple formula: 

Calories expended (exercise plus the calories your body burns by breathing, regenerating cells, circulating blood) minus calories consumed (food and beverages) = either a deficit of calories (weight loss) or a surplus (weight gain).

Intermittent fasting is not in itself a weight loss trick. You can’t magically consume more calories because you’re only eating in a 6 or 8-hour window. 

I learned that myself last spring when my husband I first started IF. We would eat whatever we wanted during our eating window, including ice cream, Cheetos, cookies, mac and cheese, red licorice by the package and potato chips. For several weeks, I was losing weight but that was probably because I had given up alcohol in mid-January and had returned to regular exercise.

By early April, I was gaining again. I had even dialed back on the food intake during my window, but the scale was still slowly climbing back up. 

That’s when I joined Noom and discovered I was just eating too much food. Period! After being on Noom for awhile, it dawned on me that I could eat the same amount of food in 45 minutes, 6 hours or 24 hours and it didn’t matter because it’s about the overall calories, not when you eat them. 

So why would I bother doing intermittent fasting? Here are the main reasons I continue to do IF. 

It’s one part of a bigger plan: 

IF is a tool I’ve used for over a year. I believe it has contributed to my success, but it’s not the only tool in my toolbox. I use it in conjunction with other methods, namely not consuming alcohol, developing an exercise habit that I enjoy, and doing Noom. 

I find IF easy to do: 

I am not a breakfast person and I never have been. I find eggs repulsive and while there are other breakfast foods I like, I’m just not hungry in the morning. This was a source of frustration for my parents and me while I was growing up so this isn’t a new thing that I can change. I have tried. So not eating until 12 or 1 pm everyday has not been a problem. I don’t miss eating breakfast.  

Feeling the hungriness: 

I went a long, long time without ever feeling hungry. Hunger was an unfamiliar sensation and so easy to fix if I had even a nanosecond of a hunger pang. IF helps me recognize the feeling of truly being hungry and now I know how to distinguish it from wanting to eat because I’m bored, stressed, happy, sad, etc. 

It makes my life easier: 

Preparing two meals a day rather than three means more time to do things I enjoy. It also means buying fewer groceries, having less dishes to do, and I can eat bigger lunches and dinners.   

It’s taught me some things: 

I have learned to be more disciplined and IF provided me with a way to create structure in an area where there was little.  

Possible health benefits: 

I have scoured the Internet for concrete proof that IF indeed has health benefits and this is the best and most reliable info I could find. There are a lot of maybes, as you will read. 

A few things to note: 

• Noom does not suggest you do IF or any particular diet, but does not dissuade you either should you want to. Noom advises eating breakfast everyday as part of a healthy eating lifestyle. 

• I gave up cream in my coffee in order to make IF work for me. I loved my cream and never thought I would give it up for anything. But I decided to try it for a week, and now I enjoy my coffee as is. I have black coffee every morning, just one mug. I actually taste the subtle flavors in coffee now that there is nothing else in it and have become a bit of a coffee snob. So between 7 pm and 1 pm the following day, I have coffee, lemon water, herbal tea and plain water. That’s it. 

• If I get a headache, and I had many for months while slowly recovering from Dengue Fever, I will eat something no matter what time of day it is so I can take Advil or Tylenol. I usually eat a banana or a slice of cheese. It’s more important to me that I feel better than it is to maintain my fast. 

• You don’t have to do 1:00 to 7:00 pm like I do. If you’re a breakfast lover, your eating window could be 9:00 – 3:00 pm, just have an early dinner. Or extend your window to 8 hours and make it 9 to 5 pm. 

• I did not start doing IF with a 6-hour eating window. I gradually got there. If you’re just beginning IF, I would start with a 10 or 8-hour window of eating and if you want, shrink that slowly. The first month or so is not always easy. You may have low energy, headaches and general malaise. If so, expand your time to accommodate or reevaluate IF. 

IF very well may not be for you and that’s okay! Remember that in the end, it’s all about the calories in and calories expended. Please talk to your doctor about IF if you’re concerned about the health aspects. 

Let me know if you have any questions! 

Adrienne

Every Day Habits: Lemon Water

Starting our day with lemon water is something my husband and I started doing over a year ago. Not it’s a habit firmly planted in our morning routine. My guess is this isn’t the first time you’ve heard about drinking lemon water in the morning. It’s been touted as a healthy habit for many years and for good reason.

This article from Cleveland Clinic lists 7 healthy reasons to choose lemon water to begin your day. I particularly like getting the vitamin C, phytonutrients, and potassium boosts. Plus, it wakes up your taste buds and I find it refreshing.

I use about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a 16-ounce glass of room temperature water. Sometimes I add a tablespoon of liquid probiotic to my lemon water. This one is my favorite.

Over time, we’ve streamlined our lemon water routine by squeezing a bag of lemons at once, storing the juice in a bottle in the fridge. It usually lasts about a week.

In addition to our lemon water, I use the lemon juice in hot teas, homemade salad dressing, and as needed in recipes. I have heard you can also freeze lemon juice in ice trays, which I may try someday.

Do you start your day with lemon water too?

Every Day Habits: Big Bowl of Fruits and Veggies

Part of being successful in any weight loss or fitness endeavor is being consistent with food choices and exercise. By being consistent, you develop habits that support your goals.

Over the last year, I have developed some every day habits that I want to share with you. The first one I want to tell you about is a big bowl of fruit and veggies that my husband and I share daily.

Bill and I started intermittent fasting last February. We eat between the hours of 1 pm and 7 pm and begin the day with lemon water followed by black coffee. We have our first meal around 1:00 pm and always start with a big, beautiful bowl of fresh fruit and vegetables. After we finish that, we eat whatever we’re having for lunch – usually a sandwich or wrap, a salad, a bowl of soup, or leftovers from the night before.

I know these bowls look like a lot of food and it is a lot of food! I eat half of this, which usually adds up to around 350 to 400 calories. I log everything into my Noom app to be sure.

Depending on how hungry I am, I shoot for about 500 to 600 calories for lunch so I’ve still got plenty of room for a turkey or hummus wrap or a big bowl of homemade veggie soup with some parmesan sprinkled on top. The fruit and vegetables are packed with vitamins, nutrients and fiber and they’re delicious. They also fill us up because most of the foods in our fruit and veggie bowl have a high water content.

But there is more to it than that. These foods have low calorie density. Mayo Clinic describes high and low calorie density like this: 

Simply put, energy density is the number of calories (energy) in a specific amount of food. High energy density means that there are a lot of calories in a little food. Low energy density means there are few calories in a lot of food. When you’re striving for weight loss, the goal is to eat low-energy-dense foods. That is, you want to eat a greater volume of food that’s lower in calories. This helps you feel fuller on fewer calories.Here’s a quick example with raisins and grapes. Raisins have a high energy density — 1 cup of raisins has about 434 calories. Grapes have a low energy density — 1 cup of grapes has about 82 calories.”

~ Mayo Clinic

There are other benefits to the fruit and veggie bowl: 

• I am getting plenty of vitamin C by eating these bowls. No supplement needed. Right now, citrus is in season and so tasty. I buy loads of tangerines, oranges and grapefruit and we’re eating them in our bowls and as snacks. 
• All this fiber is helping our digestion.  
• We are upping our hydration levels, which in turn also helps digestion as well as energy levels. 

Fruits and veggies aren’t the only low calorie density foods. So are beans, grains, white fish, egg whites, chicken breasts and fat-free dairy (like Greek yogurt). If you are unsure of the calorie density of a food, use this math equation -> divide the food’s calories by its weight in grams. 

Here’s a link to a chart with some popular foods’ density: https://whartonmedicalclinic.com/…/Caloric%20Density.pdf

If you want to lose weight, try adding more low density foods to your diet and see if you notice the difference!

Adrienne

Why I Recommend Noom

In my post, How I Lost 80 Pounds, I talked about how I lost the bulk of my weight by using Noom. I have had some questions about how the Noom app works, since it’s difficult to find detailed information about it online. Noom doesn’t tell you much about how their program works and I suspect that is part of why it’s so effective for many people. I had heard of it, watched the commercials on TV and ads on social media, but it took a friend sharing a positive recommendation on Facebook last spring for me to sign up.

I don’t want to reveal too much about how Noom works so that it retains its effectiveness, but I will share a few important things that might help you decide if Noom is right for you.

What Noom Does:

• Educates you and helps you change some of your beliefs about food, exercise, etc. through proven science and psychology.
• Motivates and inspires you. It’s a feel good program! No shame or judgment.
• Gives you access to an easy to use app with which to record your weight, exercise, and food. It also allows you to save articles you might want to re-read later and Noom comes with a recipe database.
• Provides you with a coach you may contact privately if you need her/him.
• Provides you with a group for support from other Noomers. Your coach leads the group and will post questions, inspiring messages and other information regularly.

What Noom Doesn’t Do:

• Noom itself is NOT a diet!

I’ve always wanted to be able to eat in the real world while maintaining a healthy weight. At 52, I didn’t think that was possible. Having done some form of keto/low-carb/Atkins many times since 2004, with initial success but ultimate failure, I was done giving up entire food categories in an attempt to lose weight. Noom gently guided me into a lifestyle where every food is an option for me. And it’s a lifestyle I know will be sustainable for me longterm, hopefully forever.

A Typical Day on Noom:

• Weigh in, read that day’s articles, log your food, log your exercise.

Noom gradually gives you information for you to absorb, ponder and see how it applies to your life. That is where the magic is and why I recommend Noom. It has been worth every penny!

Someone asked if there is anything I don’t like about Noom. I don’t love to measure, weigh and log my food every dang day but it gets easier and almost automatic after awhile. I like having the information recorded and it’s been a big part of how I learned about portion-sizing and what foods are calorically high and low.

A Few More Things I Love About Noom:

• Noom tells you what to expect on your weight loss journey.

In the Noom articles you read, you are often told (or warned) what to expect during your weight loss journey. For instance, Noom let’s you know from the early stages that your weight loss will not be a straight trajectory in a southerly direction. Don’t expect to see a drop in your weight every time you step on the scale. That is not going to happen.

There will be spikes to the north, long plateaus, and anything but a straight downward line. If you zoom in and look at a 3-week weight graph of mine, you can see the numbers zigzagging all over the place. Knowing ahead of time that I would consistently experience up and downs – that everyone does – helped me to stay the course.

But then take a wide view of my overall weight loss – 8 months – which doesn’t show those crazy up and downs/ What it does show is a lovely declining trajectory.

If you keep adding your weight into the app’s graph, you’ll have it to look back on. So now I know how much I weighed on say, August 11, 2020 (193 lbs.), if I want that info for some reason. More importantly, I have a visual to remind me of just how far I’ve come. I often looked at my graph for motivation along the way.

• You can choose how quickly you want to lose weight.

When setting up your profile, you can decide how fast you want to lose weight. There is a scale with nine speeds, varying from “tortoise” to “cheetah” and speeds in between. Of course the faster you go, the less calories per day you will have to work with. I have tried them all and found the middle, which is the hare, is best for me.

Please feel free to ask me questions about Noom or anything else. I am happy to answer them!

Adrienne