They Don't Call It Mardi Gras for Nothing

So, we're headed toward Mardi Gras--Fat Tuesday. It is preceded by Lundi Gras--Fat Monday. And even though I no longer live in New Orleans, I'm getting ready to head back down with friends for the festivities, from Feb. 1 through Feb. 5. So no blogging those days--there are beads with my name on them headed my way.

So, what's involved in Mardi Gras besides bead catching and parade watching? I didn't get it for a long time, but it's people watching and, being as it IS New Orleans, after all, eating.

Here's the routine. Hours before parade time, you head with your camping or festival chair out to the neutral ground (which the rest of the world knows as a median), where you strive to be closest to the street. You park your butt in your chair alongside your pals, and in a spot convenient to all you place your cooler. If you're a REAL man or woman, you rope in your seating area with police tape, set up your grill, put up your folding table full of side dishes and set your cooler of beer or whatever underneath, and plan to stay in the area until the cows come home or the parades end for the day, whichever comes first.

We're planning a middle range of activities--we're taking out the chairs and snacks, but no grill or police tape.

Which is all a long way of thinking about King Cake, the traditional New Orleans pastry covered with sugar dyed in the Mardi Gras colors of green, purple and gold. Sometimes it also has icing and often is filled with cream cheese or some sticky sweet fruit filling. And if there's anything worse for you than sugar, I'd imagine it's sugar coated in purple vegetable dye.

I haven't seen a King Cake since last year. Usually by this time, my office in New Orleans would have shared at least a dozen. If you look back at my NOLA blog about this time last year I was bemoaning the sea of King Cake Carbs floating around the office on a daily basis.

Now I look in my new office area, and I see a carton of yogurt and a bottle of Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch salad dressing. Sigh. It ain't the same, but no doubt it's healthier.

I Want It, I Like It, Give It To Me. Now.

My pleasure hot spot is bread. Or would it be cheesecake? Or ice cream?

We've all heard that cravings--particularly carb cravings, it seems, for many of us--are an addiction with a powerful psychological component to them.

It may all be in our heads--but it seems to be hardwired, according to a recent study from the University of Michigan.

According to the study, what we want (cheesecake) and what we like (cheesecake) are urges controlled by different brain circuits. When we both want and like something, there's a double-trouble effect that creates brain "pleasure hotspots" that make us want to eat more of the sweet food, and then to enjoy it more when we eat more.

The same circuits apply to people addicted to drugs, sex or gambling.

"We typically want what we like, and like what we want," said researcher Kyle Smith. "But these results suggest that wanting and liking are processed by distinct brain circuits and may not always go hand-in-hand."

So now I'm trying to think of something I like but don't want. A wool coat, maybe. I like them but why would I need one in New Orleans? Something I like in terms of food but i don't want. Well, I like watermelon but don't particularly want any right now.

The problem is when there's something we always like and always want. Watermelon falls in a whole different food category than, say, Blue Bell Banana Pudding Ice Cream or pralines. Want 'em, like 'em, but don't even get me started on them. Once I start, move outta my way.

Which is why sugar addicts need to stay away from the sweet stuff.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Which valentine gift works best for your sweetie? The Krispy Kreme heart-shaped donuts or the heart-shaped low-carb cheesecake? Or some heart-shaped cheese,better yet!

The 10 Worst Foods?

Interesting piece from The Center for Science in the Public Interest. Everyone's favorite killjoys have identified 10 foods that we should never, ever, ever eat--and it's obvious the CSPI folks are still under the hypnotic influence of the low-fat mafia. What are the 10 worst foods?

• Pepperidge Farm Original Flaky Crust Roasted Chicken Pot Pie, with 1,020 calories, 18 grams of saturated fat (oh the evils!) and 13 grams of trans fat. I agree this is a nightmare.
  
• McDonald's Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips. A five-strip order has 630 calores and "11 grams of artery-clogging fat." Frankly, I'd be more concerned about the 1,550 mg of sodium and the floury mix the chicken is breaded with.
  
• The Cheesecake Factory's Six-Carb Cheesecake, with 610 calories and 29 grams of saturated fat. Oh heaven forbid! Hey...where can I get this. Wish we had these restaurants here.
  
• Dove Ice Cream, with 300 calories and 13 grams of saturated fat for a half-cup. Uh, what about all the SUGAR?
  
• Mrs. Fields Milk Chocolate and Walnuts Cookies, with 300 calories "and as much saturated fat as a 12-ounce sirloin steak." Yummmm...steak. Also has six teaspoons of sugar per cookie!
  
• The Starbucks Venti 20 Oz. Caffe Mocha with Whipped Cream, which CSPI calls "A Quarter-Pounder with Cheese in a cup." 490 calories and 16 "grams of bad fat."
  
• The Burger King Quad Stacker. Four patties, 4 slices of cheese, 8 strips of bacon, and sauce on a bun, with 1,000 calories, 30 grams of saturated fat and 1,800 mg of sodium. Hmmm. Wonder what the carb count is without the bun...
  
• Campbell's Chunky, Select, and Red-and-White-Label Condensed Soups. Too much salt. I agree with this one. All those noodles and flour aren't too cool, either.
  
• Chipotle Chicken Burrito, with 1,180 calories and 19 grams of saturated fat. Is this a chain? I'm not familiar with it. Anyway, it's tortilla, rice, beans, plus chicken and salsa. Mexican is hard to low carb, by the way--my office is doing a Mexican birthday lunch tomorrow and I still haven't figured out what to eat. I think fajita without the wrap.
  
• Haagen Dazs Mint Chip Dazzler. Three scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, Oreos, chocolate sprinkles and whipped cream. The 1,270 calories and 38 grams of saturated fat aren't the biggest problems here.

How Did I Miss This One?

I'm always amazed by "fair food"--you know, the weird food that is sold at fairs and festivals. Most of them are a low-carb nightmare. Or would that be a high-carb nightmare?

Some of the best (worst):
--The battered, deep-fried candy bar. Snickers and Milky Way Bars are popular. I've heard this actually started in Scotland, where Fried Mars Bars became a delicacy. I just can't imagine.
--(Fill in the Blank) on a Stick. In Louisiana, 'Gator on a Stick is popular. This is actually a perfectly good low-carb option!
--Deep-fried Twinkies. Nuff said.
--The Fried Banana Pudding Wrap. Hmmmm. I didn't make this up--there's a sign here.
--Fried Pickles. Well, okay, I've tried these and they are good.
--Deep-Fried Coca-Cola, invented by the same guy who invented...
--The Deep-Fried Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Banana Sandwich. Where's Elvis? Wasn't this one of his favorites?
--The Deep-Fried Cosmopolitan, a pastry filled with cheesecake, fried and topped with a cranberry glaze and a wedge of lime.
--Deep-Fried Oreos.

See a trend here?

Anyway, I stumbled across an article about the big trend for 2006 in fair food, which seems to have begun with the Gateway Grizzlies minor-minor-league baseball team, who signed an agreement with Krispy Kreme to develop Baseball's Best Burger. It consists of a burger topped with sharp cheddar and two slices of bacon--then the whole thing is placed between Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts.

Then it took off in California, where an "extreme fair food" developer came up with the healthier version, which is the Chicken-Swiss Krispy Kreme Sandwich with a side of honey. Yikes!!!

Tanker on a Diet

Tanker, November 2000


Tanker, January 2007


A full 25 percent of last month's paycheck went to the vet, where my two dogs were boarded, vaccinated, microchipped and treated to a day of beauty while I was out of town for the holidays.

Both of them are about seven years old, and both were rescued at age 1. Shane, the Irish/Australian terrier mix, was neglected and underweight and had never had any vet care but was otherwise healthy. Tanker was a street stray who came one day and wouldn't leave, a rottweiler/chow mix who had pneumonia, heartworms and was so skinny at 39 pounds that his hip bones stuck out. His diet had consisted of trash, when he could find it, and leaves.

Last week, I was informed that Tanker, at 74 pounds, is officially overweight. He's fat. He needs to lose 8 pounds. "I'm sure it's his Katrina weight," said the vet tech, referring to the stress poundage all of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 experienced. I had 25 Katrina pounds of my own, which I have, thankfully, lost.

So now Tanker is on a diet, and he's going to join me in a new exercise regime.

Will I give Tanker the new Canine Obesity Pill? No way. All diet pills do is offer you the promise (usually unfulfilled) of allowing you to continue your bad eating habits without paying the consequences. Tanker needs fewer treats, just like his mama.

And, if the last couple of days is any indication, it isn't going to be a piece of cake (pun intended).

'Tis the Season

It's that time of year in New Orleans--Mardi Gras season, which officially kicked off this past weekend on Twelfth Night. The real parade season won't start for another month, but in between there is King Cake Season.

A King Cake is a big round circle of cinnamon-spiked soft Danish-style pastry, into which has been baked a plastic or ceramic baby. On top are some variation of the Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold--sometimes in colored sugar, other times in icing with colored sprinkles. There are lots of variations--bavarian cream filled, fruit filled, etc., but they're all made along those lines.

The tradition goes that if you get the plastic/ceramic baby inside your piece of cake, it's your responsibility to purchase the next cake.

My office loves cake.

In the final frenzy leading to the weekend before Mardi Gras Day itself, when my office shuts down for four days of parade-going, we have had a new King Cake show up every single day for two weeks. We've had contests among the different venues around town selling King Cakes.

Last year, I succumbed once or twice to King Cake. This year, despite making the pre-emptive strike and buying the first one for the office today, I hope to make it through the next six weeks without eating any at all.

I hear them out there now, crowded around the table, munching away. Glad I got the photo before my co-workers arrived!

Talking to Myself

Low Carb "birthdate" Aug 6, 2006
Lost so far: 47 lbs

Okay, so I've started reading Linda Moran's interesting little book, Surviving Your Diet. There's a lot of food for thought there (pun intended). So far, there's a lot of talk about, well, talk. Specifically, self talk. The voice inside your head that screams "Outta My Way--Sugar Ahead" when you approach the food table at a party. The one that whines "Everybody else gets to eat what they want, and why do I have to do without, wah-wah-wah" when everyone else is eating birthday cake and you're sitting there stoically with a cup of diet soda.

Well, okay, now you've heard some of the voices in my head. If I had to boil them down to one emotional stereotype, it would be the petulant child.

"But I WANT it."
"I deserve it--it's been a hard day."
"My home is floating in three feet of water from Hurricane Katrina and I need chocolate."

Well, you get the picture. I'm the spoiled 3-year-old who wants what she wants.

Now, how do I get from there to the adult who can shut down the pity party once it begins, give myself permission to eat, and then eat like a self-controlled adult? Well, heck, if I knew the answer to that I wouldn't be in this shape to begin with.

Baby steps, baby steps. Coming up tomorrow: Chapter two, and maybe some answers.

Resurrected!

Start Date: Aug 6, 2006
Lost to date: 39 lbs.
Still to go: Triple digits

Okay, so I need a place to rant! So I'm back.

Not exactly burning up the scales, but I've been staying on my low-carb plan despite way too many social obligations--I swear I never had any social obligations before starting this way of eating. Tomorrow is a festival out at the Destrehan Plantation, and I'll be waltzing among such local delicacies as crawfish bread, beignets, onion blossoms and alligator sausage on a stick. Hey, wait! I can eat alligator sausage on a stick.

Sunday will be a Thanksgiving banquet at my church--the dreaded pot luck. I should take my standard low-carb broccoli salad so I'd have something to eat besides a lonely slab of turkey on a plate, but my 81-year-old mom, who lives with me, wants to make a CHOCOLATE CAKE, so who am I to tell her no. I hope everyone scarfs it up so it doesn't come back home with us and I have to look at it all week.

But here's my broccoli salad recipe--it's too yummy!

1 bag shredded broccoli, raw
2-ounce bag of slivered almonds
6 thin slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cidar vinegar
1/8-1/4 cup Splenda, to taste