Tip For Eating Right - Experiment with Recipes

Cheesy Tuna Melts - 234 calories each serving

When it became obvious to those around me that I was losing weight, even during the "holidays", I started getting the question, "What diet are you on?" I wish I had said the Double D Diet, as in Doc DeVore Diet.  Hmm. That would be the Triple D .

The question was usually asked by someone who wanted to lose weight but didn't want to give up their favorite foods. I am here to tell you that eating right does not have to mean eating rabbit food or tasteless drivel. For me eating right meant quitting all the salty snacks and replacing with regular meals, what my Uncle Buck would call "three squares" a day. For the last 18 months my "diet" has been pretty much the same every day. Eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast. Soup and sandwich for lunch. A pasta dish for dinner along with plenty of vegetables. A Clif Bar for snack in the morning, maybe another one in the afternoon.

But every now and then I spice it up by going over to AllRecipes.Com and looking for something that fits into my daily goals. Eating right can be fun! And tasty! If you get the AllRecipes Dinner Spinner Pro app for your phone, you can even "spin" combinations into view until you find one that you like. That's how I found Cheesy Tuna Melts. So, one Saturday morning I went to Publix, picked up the ingredients (see below) and baked up a batch. This was breakfast and lunch for three days - they warm up nice in the microwave.

Prep time about 5 minutes. Cooking time about 3 to 5 minutes. Three days of healthy meals in just 10 minutes.

Ingredients 1 (6 ounce) can tuna, drained 1/3 cup chopped celery 2 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 pinch salt 4 English muffins, split and toasted 8 slices ripe tomato 8 slices Cheddar cheese Directions Preheat oven to broil. In a bowl, mix together tuna, celery, mayonnaise and salt. Spread tuna mixture onto the toasted muffin halves and place them on a baking sheet. Top each half with a slice of tomato and a slice of cheese. Broil until cheese is melted, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Nutritional Information Cheesy Tuna Melts Servings Per Recipe: 8 Amount Per Serving Calories: 234 Total Fat: 12.8g Cholesterol: 37mg Sodium: 431mg Total Carbs: 14.6g     Dietary Fiber: 0.3g Protein: 15g VIEW DETAILED NUTRITION  About: Nutrition Info

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest.

Eat Right Means Nutritionally Smart: Seven Simple Ways to Eat Healthier (with Strawberry Orange Sorbet recipe)

A friend of mine, Anne Milford (@book_nurse), called the other day to talk about the transformation that Cheryl and I have made to our bodies, our life and our marriage. Near the end of our conversation, she asked me a question about counting calories, "did you always use MyFitnessPal.com?" The answer - not at first, not until about 4 months after I started. What did I do first? Made my best educated guess about portion size by reading nutrition labels on EVERYTHING I ate. I didn't know then what BMI or BMR meant. I didn't even know how many calories I should eat. At least not for the first few weeks. But I read everything I could about nutrition. I researched each category to find out how many carbs, how much or how little fat, what kind of carbs, what kind of protein. Then about a year ago, while looking up the calories for some food I had eaten, I discovered MyFitnessPal.Com. Soon I discovered they had an app for my phone. It's easy to use, so I keep using it. Only missed one day of logging in the last 365. Back to the phone call with Anne.

About 30 minutes after we finished talking, I had pizza for lunch, and dutifully opened the MFP application on my iPad. After recording the slice of pizza and the salad I saw a question posted by a friend on MFP - "How many of you went over on your sugars regularly and still lost weight? Is this negotiable at all?" It is the kind of question I used to struggle with. Maybe you do, also. Here's my advice, for what it's worth. It's not just about the sugars, or the sodium or the protein. You have to balance with your daily exercise. Calories in. Calories out. Eat Right. Exercise. So, before you stress too much, do some reading. Here's a good blog post on nutrition. I have not tried the recipe, but I found the information to be very good.

 I Want To Lose Weight Fast: Nutritionally Smart: Seven Simple Ways to Eat Healthier (with Strawberry Orange Sorbet recipe)

Another good resource is Tim Ferris' book, "The Four Hour Body." Get a copy and at least read the first 4 chapters. You can get the hardback, paperback, audio, or eBook by clicking over to buy.com.

OH, and if you have some old photos or scrapbooks from times when we might have been together in the same place at the same time, please send them to me privately by clicking this email link for photos@blogs.docdevore.com.  Please! With sugar on it?. Trust me - they won't end up here unless you give me permission.

Be sure to get some breakfast, and take Clif Bar with you.

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get plenty of rest.