FAT Coalition

So, last winter I bought the Precision Nutrition Handbook. Never did it, but thought it was a very good approach, although a bit to serious for me. I want to get into shape, want to lose around 40 lbs and eat healthy. I want to workout at least five times a week. I find that PN is mostly for people who devote their lives exclusively to clean eating and exercise.

I love food, I love cooking, I love baking. I cannot promise that I will eat broiled chicken and spinach throughout my weight loss journey.

I joined Weight Watchers two weeks ago. The first week I gained .400....it was the week right after Thanksgiving (it's in October in Canada) and I had THREE dinner parties....the second week I lost 5.4 lbs....I am excited beyond belief...this is the first weight loss I've had in the whole year.

So, now I'm really watching what I eat. Thank God for activity points. I'm allowed 23 points a day, but since I excercise for an hour a day, I can add 9 points to that. Technically, if I wanted to see fast results, I shouldn't use my activity points, but I find that if I didn't I would really be starving...so I use them.

I guess that as time goes by, and I get used to eating less, I will use them less and less each day.

Thanks to all for letting me join FAT, I've read several of your blogs and hope to read more during the weekend...you guys are great, all that weight loss is so inspiring!

So, starting weight 187.6 (can't believe I'm actually writing this for people to see!!!!!!!!!).....after one week 182.2 my goal is to be 162 by 20 December and hopefully 145 by May 2008 or sooner.

Talk to you soon!

Inspiration (and how to find it....or not)

I've lost my inspiration. It's gone. As fast as it came, it left. Just when I thought that hey, maybe this was my calling, this was what I've been waiting for all these years, this is exactly what I've always wanted....write a bit about food, tell a little story (for those of you who know me, you know for a fact I cannot shut-up), but now that I can't talk about food, the inspiration is gone, nothing to talk about but the weather and that I can't even talk about since the weather in Montreal is crappy.

Hey, I'm not complaining, I know I chose to come here so it's not a complaint, just a fact. Winter is way to damn cold and summer.....hummm, ten days of heat and consider yourself lucky. And don't even try talking to anybody about how nice these hot and sticky days are (compared to the freezing winter) and they'll look at you like "yeah you come from the third world alright". So, unless you're talking about the great ski season (aha), you might as well not say anything at all. You're a "guest" here after all, so what's all this complaining about? Go back to you salsa-dancing-Spanish-speaking country if you're not happy...why did you leave in the first place?

Whoa...slow down cow-girl, not complaining here, just trying to make conversation.

So, with food and the weather out of the question, what else is there for me to talk about? Let's see....food, nope, weather, nope, children, no thank you, drugs, don't use them, sex? occasionally, but don't get too excited here, that's not a subject I'm keen to share in my book. Parenting? would like to say a few things on that one, but I think I could get in trouble as it might be considered child abuse, so skip.

Rats! I'm going to have to actually listen to people's conversations to see if I can pick something up that will serve me!

People on the train...that could definitely be an interesting subject. There was this guy on the train on my way back to the burbs and he must have been electrocuted or something because I'm telling you, the guy was sound asleep and every so often he would cringe or move a part of his body as if reacting to an electrical shock.

Fashion on the train could also be a subject (it's non-existent), makes you wonder if anybody in Canada cares about about fashion or is it just the people on the train (from the burbs) that don't care? Touchy subject again? See, I told you, nothing to talk about. Inspiration, how to find it? Later gater.

The Art of Peruvian Cuisine

As you can see from the picture, this title comes from a book, but in reality it's the mere truth....Peruvian Cuisine is an Art, but right now I'm artless, disarmed. I'm a writer without a pen, a cook without pots and pans, a warrior without a weapon, I can't cook!

21 weeks is the final countdown until my trip back home for Christmas and I refuse to be in Lima, during the summer, with these unwanted pounds hanging around.

I've had a personal trainer for the last ten months. I see her once a week and although my body fat percentage has gone down, which actually means I have lost a size....I haven't lost a freakin' pound.......what's a woman supposed to do?

I work out five times a week, rain or shine. I do cardio for 35-40 minutes and then I strength train for another 40 minutes, but I can't manage to keep my mouth shut. I just don't get it. I see these women on the food network and aside from Paula (but what can you expect from a Southern cook) and the Barefoot Contessa, they're all rail thin! I'm suspicious....how can a woman that cooks for a living, not eat? and if she does....how does she manage to stay thin? Laxatives, gotta be it.

My trainer has put me on an eating plan......the poor girl, who I love to pieces, is going to end up calling it quits on me....she's been training me for 10 months, I'm super toned (not complaining on the buff department), but the pounds seem to be set as solid as cement.

So my trainer e-mails me yesterday wanting to know how the first week went....(I'm allowed one cheat day a week....) and so I emailed her back saying that I had four cheat days last week.. it can't be THAT bad.......four out of seven...almost half the week. Ok, you've got to give credit...it was the first week and EVERYBODY knows the first week is the hardest..hopefully it'll be 3 cheat days this week, then 2 the following and you follow ......by week 5 I'll be on the soup diet since I will have managed to not have lost a pound.

Positive thinking...they (who are they?) say you can't receive until you actually believe you can receive....so I'm picturing myself everyday (while sweating bullets) in this nice little Pucci dress that I would (will) look absolutely fabulous in.

Therefore I'm on a mission...the muffin top must go, it's clearance day, everything must go....come, take what you want, I'm getting rid of all of it, so be my guest. Wanna follow me on the road to my success? Keep reading! I promise not to post a before picture of me in a pink bikini....

Wear my clothes-parfum-hair extensions

Have you noticed that almost every actress/singer/famous-for-being-famous have their own line of clothes/make-up/parfum/lingerie/bathing-suits/whatever? Like they're not making enough money already with their popularity, they have to go out and partner with some already top-notch store and "design a line"....?

Argh....pisses me off...I wonder if the people who actually buy the Britney Spears cologne, Jessica Simposon bathing suits, Carmen Electra lingerie or Madonna's clothing line think these celebrities actually design/create these items/pieces/ whatever things themselves?

I must say I find it revolting! The drop that overflew the glass (does this saying actually exist in English? la-gota-que-rebalzo-el-vaso) was Paris Hilton. I just read she's now actually going to be a cartoon? A car what???????? Can't wait to see my seven year old watching Paris on TV and asking me to go and buy her a Paris T-shirt! That'll be the day......

What ever happened to buying clothes actually designed by DESIGNERS?????? For the love of fashion I mean. Really. I wonder what Giorgio thinks of the Olsen's walmart line? Ok Ok, I understand that seven year olds would like to dress with the clothes of their "idols", but CLEARLY Paris Hilton is nobody's idol or putting it the right way SHOULDN'T be anybody's idol.

So, there you go, it's out,this is my story and I'm sticking to it.

B.T.W..I'm off to the drugstore, my hair is looking kinda flat and Jessica's extensions look fab.

Writer's block

I'm lying in bed, my laptop resting on my legs, and I'm completely blank. I'm thinking how hard it is to write something with a deadline. I'm thinking of my friend Rachel that writes something almost every other day, and always manages to crack me up. I could never be a writer! It's so much easier to talk about food, share recipes and/or if inspired, write about something that's bothering me, or something that's on my mind....but to write something with a deadline, feeling the pressure of having to write and not knowing what to write about is just too much! Writer's block, now I get it!

With mid-life crisis going on, at one point in time in between my struggle of trying to figure out whether I should go back to school of not, and if so, what would be the best thing to study, I actually considered going into journalism...I thought it would be pretty cool to write for a magazine, have a weekly column and just spill my guts out on anything that comes to mind. Now that I've had a taste of my own "column" and can hardly get myself to write once a week and with really no deadline, but my own, I'm stressed!

They say practice makes perfect...maybe it's just a matter of sitting down, making it a habit of sitting in front of the computer and just write, write and write.

I saw this movie the other day "Stranger than Fiction", it's about this guy that's a bit of a loner, lives alone, is very methodical and leads a monotonous work-eat-sleep life. One day, while brushing his teeth, he hears this voice narrating his life...from that point on, everyday, regardless of what he's doing, he can hear this voice narrating every step he takes, every page he turns, every breath he takes. Turns out, there actually is a writer, that's writing this book and she's narrating this story based on his life, without knowing him.....like the title says, stranger than fiction.

All this to say, that the writer was having writer's block, trying to figure out how to kill this character. In her stories, always, the main character died, and this one would not be different, but she couldn't figure out how to kill him. I'm not going to narrate the whole story, just wanted to make a point on writer's block.

So, the question is this, do writers constantly think about what their next piece will be on/about? or do they just sit in front of the computer and then all of a sudden, start typing away, words flowing naturally, as easily as air flowing, letting us breath? All week I've been trying to think about something to write and nothing has come to mind, nothing interesting or worth sharing anyway.

Any suggestions on defrosting a writer's block?

Imelda Marcos

Man can't live on shoes alone now, can he? While downloading some pictures of my cakes from my digital camera onto MY laptop, I come across a gazillion pictures that my thirteen year old son has taken of his sneakers, baseball caps, jeans and hoodies...and of course, of him wearing all these clothes in poses showing of his cool and smooth persona.

He's a character my son Nicolas. He is a natural comedian. Last night I was going to the movies with my husband...I wanted to see I pronounce you Chuck and Larry and my husband wanted to see Live Free or Die Hard with Bruce Willis. Actors should have an age-limit to film those kind of movies. Firstly, I can't believe he actually convinced me to go see that movie....I guess I agreed just because I wanted to see if Willis still looked hot, and he does in a tough kind of way, but I was saddened really to see that a man his age is still filming those kind of films....he looks like Ken's dad...and Barbie's mom wasn't around.

Anyway, Nick calls me on my way to the movies and tells me he's cut his hair. When I come back from the movies I knock on is door to find that he's shaved his head completely. He asks if I like it and I say "just don't do it again" to which he replies that I'm the only one who doesn't like it because everybody told him it looks good.

The joys of motherhood. I tell you, nothing you have ever done in you entire life can be as hard as being a parent to a teenager. So mad housewife, hold on tight cuz you've still got quite a joy ride ahead of you!

Going back to Nick and the pictures I found...sneakers. He's obsessed with sneakers. He's probably got about 8 pairs, AND they have to match the XXX-LARGE t-shirts. A couple of months ago, I bought him a pair of black sneakers, and now he tells me he needs another pair....I swear he's the re-incarnation of Imelda Marcos....I have to admit, he takes after me....I'm also obsessed with shoes...and bags and clothes in general! So, in all honesty, I have no moral authority whatsoever to say anything to my poor son! And I promise you, we have no relation whatsoever with Imelda or any other Filipino for that matter!

It just amuses me to see that a boy could be such a perfectionist with style. My husband on the other hand, if I don't chose his clothes for him....I wouldn't dare to go out with him in public! For my son, it's an art....everything, although I have to admit, not my style AT ALL, he takes his time and lays out everything on top of his bed to mix and match the whole outfit. It always has to be 2 t-shirts, color perfectly combining with the sneakers and even if it's 100 degrees outside, jeans three times his size that look like he's actually "pooped" in this pants. But, God forbid I make a comment because he'll snap back at me saying that he never says anything to me about my old-lady bad ass clothes.....the nerve!!!!!!!!

Yup, we're definitely old for teenagers. But as long as I have my shoes and bags, I can walk the world, with my head up high, forgetting for a while that I have two teenagers at home and one in progress, that I have to go back to at the end of the day.

Marry Me

Growing up in Lima, there was not one girl that when playing with other friends wouldn't sign "Arroz con Leche, me quiero casar...." (Rice pudding (or rice with milk as in the translation), I want to get married....); therefore, every time a make rice pudding I think of that song.

I have NO IDEA where this song came from and/or how it got started. Why you would be singing to the rice pudding about wanting to get married at age 8 is beyond me.

I found this in google:

Arroz con Leche
This song is also a game. Children hold hands and walk in a circle around a boy who stands in the middle. He chooses a girl to be the señorita and she takes his place in the middle of the circle. She chooses a boy, etc. A version of this song may be found in Arroz con Leche, Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America.

Arroz con leche me quiero casar
Rice with milk, I'd like to get married,

con una señorita de la capital,
to a young girl from the capital,

que sepa coser,
who knows how to sew

que sepa contar,
who knows how to sing,

que sepa abrir la puerta
who knows how to open the door

para ir a jugar.
so we can go out and play.

I have the BEST recipe ever for rice pudding (taken from the Art of Peruvian Cuisine). Maybe the recipe is so good the little guy in the centre of the circle after trying the rice pudding decided he wanted to marry the little girl who prepared it and therefore the name? Ah, I don't think so....anyway...

Boil the rind of 1 orange with a cinnamon stick and 5 cloves in 5 cups of water. (First you must boil the orange rind changing the water 3 times). Once the water has come to a boil, add 1 cup of rice. When the rice is cooked, add 2 cans of condensed milk, 1 can of evaporated milk a handful of raisins and 1/4 cup of Porto and a pinch of salt. Let it come to a boil again. Remove from heat and add an egg yolk. Make a simple syrup with 1/4 cup of Porto and 4 tablespoons of sugar. Beat an egg white and add the simple syrup. Fold into rice pudding.

Watch out rice pudding lovers, this is pure joy from the first to the last bite. Sorry, I'm married.

Freaky Friday

The WEIRRRRRRDEST thing just happended to me. I logged in to www.tobeornottobe.blogspot.com (and forgot to put sweet at the end) and it was somebody else's blog...and guess what the title of the first entry was? Just Do It! Bright minds think alike?????

Just thought I'd share this.

Causa Anybody?

Causa is one of the many typical peruvian dishes I will want to share with you in my blog. It is probably one of my favourites foods.

For the causa:

Yellow potatoes
Ají amarillo (hot chili pepper paste)
Vegetable oil
Lime juice
Salt and pepper

Quantities will vary depending on how many you are making (individual or a big one). I normally use a cheesecake ring which serves 12 (but really 6, because everyone and hear me right, will be having seconds!)

For the filling:

2 avocados
Tuna mixed with mayonnaise, lime juice and diced onion.

Garnish:

1 fresh ají amarillo, seeded, deveined and diced
Black olives, pitted
Shrimp (for decoration)
Diced onion, parsely and aji marinated in lime juice, salt and pepper

Boil potatoes with salt,cook until tender. Once done, mash them by pressing them with a fork or a potato ricer.

Working with your hands, add vegetable oil, ají, lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Line the base of the mold with a layer of the potato and then spoon in a layer of the tuna mixture. Add another layer of potato and then a layer of sliced avocado sprinkled with a little lime juice and salt. Finish off with a layer of the potato mixture and garnish.

I would recommend not to let the potato cool too much before mashing it. It is easier to handle warm.

This is something I get asked for ALL THE TIME. The tangy flavor of the lime juice mixed with the potatoes, the touch of hotness, tuna and avocado is a mix that will leave you asking for more and more......make it once and you will become an addict.

So, Causa Anybody?

Introducing Myself

Maybe I should have started here, by introducing myself. Anyway, doesn't matter, right? The whole point of a blog (as far as I'm concerned) is sponteneity and writing your heart's desire, so what does it matter if I introduce myself after a couple of entries, either you like the blog or not, it's not my face that's going to make you like it better, if anything...it would just be curiosity...putting a face on the person who's sitting in front of the computer writing.

Anyway, to the point. I'm married (18 years), I'm a mother of three (17, 14 and 8 almost) and am originally from Peru although I have been living in Montreal for the last 7 years.

I consider myself a happy person...if there's one thing I would change...it would be those unwanted kilos hanging there in MY body...why are they there? who invited them? I certainly didn't and I definately don't want them..go away, they're annoying!!

I'm a secretary by day, a mother in the evening and a glamorous home goddess in between. My kids DIE for my cakes and I love to feed people. My life revolves around food. Somebody is born, we have to eat, somebody dies, we must eat, birthdays, let's celebrate with LOTs of food and so on and on.

So that's me in a nutshell, introducing myself.

For the love of Cake

Can there possibly be anything better than cake or home made fudge for that matter?

Fudge
2 cans of condensed milk
2 cans of evaporated milk
8 tablespoons of cocoa powder dissolved in water (a cup more or less)
2 tablespoons of vanilla
and 1 tablespoon of butter (at the very end)

Mix all ingredients together in a heavy-bottom pot and stir with a wooden spoon until you reach desired consistency (aprox. 25 mins). Don't stop stirring (making 8's) or it will stick to the bottom of the pot.

After that you can die. I promise you. What you see on the top of the cake above is fudge. This cake is called "Bliss" (although the inventor of the cake (my sister-in-law)) originally named it "Exorcist" (I will explain later). It's three layers of a very thin spongy-light vanilla cake layered with fudge and whipped cream. Heaven. Everybody's favourite. Could there possibly be anything better than cake? Sex maybe (but I'm not going there!)it's an immediate satisfaction...pure bliss from the very first bite.

This recipe has been tested on more than a gazillion occasions with always the same result. SPECTACULAR!!!!

The fudge making process is a bit tedious, but it's all, for the love of Cake.

Just Do It!

What a great motto....if it were only that easy. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Herbal Magic, I thought I had heard and knew about all of them until I found the Weigh Down Diet....frankly scary. They claim obesity is a sin and to eat other than when you have hunger pangs is to commit a sin.....Yikes!

What ever happened to actually enjoying food for the love of food? Not talking glutony, just enjoying the pleasure of a nice sit-down home made meal in the company of friends or family...would that also be considered a sin?

I'm not obese, I'm overweight, but with size ZERO models on the cover of every possible imaginable magazine on every newstand, overweight is the new obese. Argh.

A day at a time. Doesn't work. Or maybe it does, I just maybe haven't had too many days-at-a-time. My day-at-a-time lasts a day and when something from the "forbidden" group is eaten, that's it, you might as well just call your day-at-a-time bye bye. By now, I am probably the biggest theory expert on diets, proven, tested and failed. My point...diets don't work. Once you've forbidden yourself from any food group, that's it, your bound for failure. Might as well just start off with a cheesecake binge.

Portion control, key to living a healthy, happy balanced life, enjoying all the foods and losing weight. But how do you portion control when you are having cheescake? Two tablespoons just won't do it. How do you get to the point where you know you have to stop and you can actually push your plate away so that you don't have to beat yourself after?

Just Do It! Eat half the plate and push the rest aside....Toss it immediately or feed it to you dog or put it in a doggy bag....just don't eat the whole thing...I think I'll try that....Just Do It!

The Time is Never Right...or is it?

My daughter came up to me while I was whisking up a batter and asked "Mom, are you a professional?" I thought...humm...what does it take to be a professional? Is it a Diploma? I definately don't have a Diploma, unless Make-Up Artist I, Bilingual Executive Secretary or Small and Medium Business Administration Specialist count......

When you reach mid-life something happens...for men it's wanting to be 20, wanting to have affairs, getting a convertible sports car, taking up a new sport (and body for that matter) and trying/wanting to feel wanted and young (and pretend they still have hair on their heads!) for women it's totally the opposite.....we have the need to feel accomplished, to fulfill ourselves, and/or our lives with things that matter....we need to feel like we are in this life with a purpose and we want to do meaningful things that we will be remembered by when we row away to greener pastures.

During a conversation with a friend a couple of days ago, I was telling her about wanting to go back to school to earn a degree. I said I'm debating between Nutrition and Cooking....Cooking I said is my real passion, it makes me happy, but in my struggle with weight-control I thought Nutrition could be a good balance to combine my passion for cooking with something that could lead to a healthier way of cooking (right?)

My friend asked me if a Diploma would make my cooking any better? Her question left me thinking, and I've been still thinking about it since last week. Cooking is a passion, it's an art, you feel in in your stomach, your heart, your head, it's a rush that is constantly pushing you to create, innovate and leaves you wanting more and more.

When I cook I feel I am the master of my life, I feel like I have everything under control and that nobody can beat me. Although I know I have tons to learn, I know I have what it takes.

I have to battle my own fears. My wanting to obtain a Diploma is really only my fear holding me back from achieving my full potential. My fear of failure is what is postponing my creations.

I created this blog because I know there must be some women out there, who have put their passions on hold based on fear.

I am hoping that I will find other women who are in the same boat, and that together we will discover a way of breaking through the fear and become the best we can be in whatever our passion is.

The Time is Never Right..or is it? We have to make it right. Now.