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When I was a kid, I remember my mother cutting up my meat for me in little pieces, and whenever it was steak,
well, I remember that was really important. It was like a celebration or something.
When you heard the word steak, well, it just wasn't the same as meatloaf.
A steak dinner was an event. As a matter of fact, in Japan, there are some exotic steak places
where it cost hundreds of dollars to enjoy the flavor of a real steak.
Now, good steaks have always been expensive, even here. It was not something we ever took for granted.
Then as I grew up, I started to notice there were some restaurants, and all they served was steak.
Steak and prime rib. Those were the two big ones, and I mean it was cooked to perfection.
And it was so tender, it almost melted in your mouth. And the flavor.
Well, just thinking about it, well, guess my taste buds kind of in a frenzy.
Well, there was this one restaurant in particular that used to bring a platter of raw steaks to the table,
all wrapped in clear plastic, so that you could see them and look at them and decide which one you wanted to order.
Then they'd take it back to the kitchen for you and cook it exactly to your liking.
To them, cooking a perfect steak was an art.
Now, I don't exactly know when it happened, but a few years back,
nutritionists and doctors tried to put a damper on our love affair with beef
by telling us more than we really wanted to know about it.
This is about the time that cholesterol became the new N-word, and we were warned about eating too much beef.
Like, who knew it was riddled with fat? Or even if we did, we thought that all the fat got melted away in the cooking.
Well, didn't we? Gosh, now, I think about it, I remember reading cookbooks that used to tell you to lard your steak.
That meant using a needle threaded with lard, which of course is another word for fat,
and actually weaving it into the steak to make it more tender.
Talk about adding fat to the fire.
Because sad to say, those health experts were right.
While beef has a lot of valuable nutrients, they tend to be outweighed by the high fat and cholesterol content.
Prime rib is probably the worst. If you were to eat even a three ounce portion, it would cost you seven fat cards.
That's if you eat the fat and the lean. No wonder you can cut it with a fork.
Notice I said a three ounce serving. Well, it's this much.
Now, before a deal a meal, who would have considered eating a steak this size?
We would have said, hey, hey, where's the rest of my steak?
Now, you'll notice on your deal a meal card, you will caution to select lean beef.
That would be sirloin, porterhouse, flank, the lean part of the ribeye, actually any steak that looks lean to you.
You can tell a lot by the looks of it.
Now, this one is obviously lean, and this one is not. See all that fat?
Also, trim away any visible fat before you cook it.
And if you're out in a restaurant, maybe you could persuade someone you are with to share a dinner with you.
So you can have half the steak and half the baked potato.
Now, if that won't work, ask for a doggy bag, and when they bring your food, cut off your portion and put the rest in the bag.
Out of sight, out of mind. Oh, and watch out for those rich sauces that sometimes serve with steaks.
Especially if it has kind of a French sounding name. You can be pretty sure it has butter in it.
The steak itself is a treat enough. You don't need the sauce.
Unless of course it's a little A1 or Worcestershire. And don't forget mustard and horseradish.
So your days of eating a steak the size of Miami are over.
I mean, look at this. This is a 12 ounce steak. There's enough meat here for four days.
But please don't think you can never eat steak at all. Of course if you choose not to, that's okay.
But if you were like me, there are going to be those days when the only thing you can think about is a tender, delicious piece of steak.
So once a month or so when I want a steak, I go ahead and have it.
So you can have your steak and eat it too. Just smaller, leaner, and not so often.
Today we're going to look at your Project Me passport. So get it out right now. Do you have it?
Well let's look at number 16. Here, let me read it out loud for you.
I am a terrific person and I like myself right now no matter what I weigh.
Have you ever taken the time to think about what being a terrific person really means?
Do you consider yourself a terrific person? Well if you don't, you're going to start right now.
What does terrific mean? Well in my book, being a terrific person is someone who cares about other people as well as themselves.
A terrific person is someone who is not selfish, someone who is sensitive to the needs of others,
someone who isn't afraid to go out of their way to help other people.
I bet that all of you out there really are terrific people.
But I would also bet that most of you don't realize you are terrific and that you don't give yourself credit for the fine individual you are.
So today I want you to get out a piece of paper and a pencil and you're going to list all the qualities that make you special.
Now don't get me wrong, we're not here to pump up your ego,
but you do need to give yourself a pat on the back every so often so that you can recognize and realize how nice you really are.
I've put together a little list here of some of the qualities that I think are at the very heart of a terrific person.
Let's go through this and I'm sure you're going to find that you have a lot of these qualities already deep inside of you.
Number one, a terrific person is a kind person.
I think kindness is one of the most important qualities that anyone can have.
I mean after all, God put us on this earth to live together so that we have to be kind to one another.
Think about what happens when people in our country or in other countries suffer a natural disaster.
It always amazes me to see how many people come to their aid.
If we didn't help one another, this world wouldn't be a very nice place to live in.
Number two, terrific people don't mind putting other people before themselves.
This is called being unselfish.
Remember when you were told to share your toys with your younger brother or sister or when you donated a toy for a poor child at Christmas time?
Well you were learning the lesson of unselfishness.
Hopefully you learned your lesson well and now you're able to teach your children how to be unselfish by your example.
Number three, terrific people make the time to be concerned about others.
Have you ever met someone who is so worried about themselves that they're totally oblivious to other people's feelings?
This is known as being insensitive.
But a terrific person tries their best to become aware of other people's feelings.
They are sensitive to others.
A terrific person takes the time to listen to people and to understand their feeling.
They're also not so wrapped up in their own little needs that they don't recognize the needs of others.
Number four, a terrific person accepts themselves for who they are but constantly tries to make themselves better.
Now I told you before that you have to like yourself for who you are, for who you are deep down inside.
There's no getting around that.
No, it's not the physical aspect of a person that counts.
It's what's in here, in your heart.
You have to like yourself whether you have ten pounds to lose or a hundred pounds to lose.
You can always lose the weight but you have to begin with a basic self-acceptance before you can hope to make a change for the better.
Think of it this way.
If you don't like yourself then you're never going to like anything you do.
So no matter how hard you try to lose weight or try to make a change you will never be able to satisfy because you don't like yourself very much.
So accept yourself for who you are.
Then you'll be able to make the changes you want to make.
Now these are just some of my ideas on what it means to be a terrific person.
I want you to really be honest with yourself and list the qualities you have.
I'll bet that when you really sit down and think about it you come up with a whole laundry list of your best attributes that you really never considered before.
And while you list the qualities that make you so terrific I want you to think about some other qualities that you would like to strive for.
Think about someone whom you admire and consider what makes them so likable.
Is there someone you think so highly of that you would like to invite them to your house for dinner?
It could be someone famous or it could be a close relative or friend.
Look at what makes that person so special.
If they have qualities that you like then strive to put those qualities in your life.
So today I want you to stand in front of your mirror, give yourself a pat on the back and tell yourself how terrific you really are.
Day 95 and time to weigh in again.
Debbie from Anaheim, California weighed in and she has lost 56 pounds.
And 34 pounds lighter is Katie in Hillsboro, Texas.
While Karen in Hendersonville, North Carolina has lost 163 pounds.
Wow, I'm impressed.
Three successful ladies whose hard work has paid off.
Sometimes when you write me I will ask you to send me a before picture.
But usually people who are overweight don't like to take before pictures.
They hide from the camera.
They're camera shy.
They see somebody pop out with a camera and they disappear.
So I know some of you don't even have a before picture.
Now I'm not talking about when you were six years old and they took a school picture.
I'm talking about a picture of you at your highest weight.
I must say I've received some really crazy before pictures.
When overweight people take pictures they like to put kids in their lap.
They like to be behind a tree.
Sometimes they just like to have their head show.
I mean I've even received photos of people who just sent me a head
with everything else just cut out of the rest of the photo.
One person even sent me a photo with her hand over her face.
She must have thought if she couldn't see the camera it wouldn't see her either.
Now I know that if you don't already have a good before picture
it is already too late because after all this is day number 95.
So you're well on your program by now and hopefully you're way below your highest weight.
But I truly believe no matter how good you look now that you could look better
and this has nothing to do with your weight.
Now I'm not talking about fixing yourself up in another 50 pounds or whatever.
I'm talking about accepting your appearance and liking what you see right now.
Now these are some things you can't change.
For instance, when I lost my weight well I wanted to be six foot two.
Now I could never be six foot two no matter what I do.
I could always be five feet six and a half.
I want to have straight hair like Clark Kent's you know with the part on the side.
When I lost my weight I didn't have straight hair.
When I lost my weight my teeth didn't get straighter.
There are some things you can't change.
There are some things you can change.
You can change the way you wear your hair.
You can change your makeup and the colors you wear.
You can go to any department store and get your makeup done for free.
I'm talking here about making the very best of what you have right now.
Being proud of yourself right now.
Even if you don't like your weight that's just part of it.
Enhance the things you do like.
It doesn't have to cost a lot to give yourself a new look.
Why not join up with a friend and make a project of giving yourself a makeover.
Right now before you lose another pound do something to improve your appearance now.
A new hairstyle, some new makeup, some different clothes.
If you've never really taken much interest in clothes or how you dress.
If you've always just bought whatever covered you up the most.
Well those days are over because from now on you're going to make it a daily mission to look your very best.
Let me ask you have you been wearing basic black for years?
Forget it.
Buy something bright and cheerful.
How about some accessories?
This is where you can splurge a little because no matter how much weight you lose your earrings will still fit.
Your favorite scarf will still look great.
A pretty pin, whatever it is.
Remember how you used to treat yourself with food?
Now you're going to treat yourself with some trinkets which may seem to cost a little more at the beginning.
But in the long run in terms of your health non-food items are a whole lot cheaper.
The whole point of this is that you need to take care of your appearance and make the very best of what you have.
And when you write me get yourself all dolled up and have your photo taken and send me a great picture.
Not standing behind a picket fence or in the back row of a family reunion.
I want a picture where I can really see you and see you at your best.
Putting your best foot forward as they say.
And you can do it and you know what?
I bet you're going to have fun doing it too.
The more you like yourself now and the more you care about how you look and dress
the better you'll feel and the more likely you are to keep off all the weight.
Oh and by the way when you have that picture taken forget saying cheese.
We all know that's too fattening.
Try, deal a meal.
I guarantee those words will produce the best smile of all.
Hi.
We all know the story of Cain and Abel.
Well most of us do anyway.
Cain and Abel were brothers and they were the children of Adam and Eve.
Well one day Cain and Abel offered their gifts to the Lord.
Well God was very pleased with the offering that Abel made.
But he wasn't too happy with Cain.
Well that made Cain very upset.
Cain was angry and jealous that his brother had God's favor.
So one day when Cain and Abel were out in the fields Cain killed Abel.
And when the Lord asked Cain where his brother was he said,
What do I look like my brother's keeper?
The story of Cain and Abel is probably the first and one of the oldest stories
ever written about jealousy and envy.
Now we're not having a catechism lesson today,
but we're going to talk about jealousy, one of the seven deadly sins.
So what does jealousy have to do with weight loss?
Well for one thing people who are losing weight are sometimes jealous
of other people who don't have any weight to lose.
Remember our discussion on Day 69 about hating thin people?
That hate really is jealousy and anger.
You're envious that someone else can be skinny and you can't.
Being jealous of another person isn't going to make you any thinner.
If you see a pretty blonde girl who is in great shape,
don't say to yourself, I hate her.
Look at her hair. I bet that's not even her real color.
I bet she's had plastic surgery. I bet that's not even her nose.
And you start to get a little mean and say really awful things.
Do you know that if you see a girl with a great body or you see a guy
with a great body that they've worked at it.
They weren't handed that body free. They weren't just born with it.
They had to do something to get in shape.
The other day a girl came into my class and I just couldn't stop looking at her.
She had the most perfect body I had ever seen.
Well the first thing I thought was how can anybody look that good?
I really was jealous of her.
Then she came over to me and told me she had lost 90 pounds using my tapes.
I would never have guessed that she ever lost any weight at all.
I thought she was born looking that good.
What you have to do is to turn jealousy into a positive thing.
You have to change the meaning of jealousy from hate to motivate.
For example, if you see someone who is in great shape,
use that as an incentive for you to get in great shape.
If you look at people and you always think, I'll never look like that,
well then you never will look like that.
If you say to yourself, I'll never be successful, then you will never succeed.
Try to look at that person who is in great shape and say,
gee, if I do a few more sit-ups each day then maybe I can get my stomach flat like that too.
You will bring success to yourself if you stop sitting around being jealous all the time
and start getting up and getting those buns working out.
You know, you can't trade your body in like you can trade in a car.
You just can't haul yourself into a body shop and say,
hey Mac, trade this one in for a new model.
But you can get the body you want by eating right and exercising.
So don't be jealous of somebody else's body.
Jealousy will destroy you.
It will break down your self-confidence and keep you from your goals.
You won't get anywhere by being jealous of people.
If you are constantly jealous then you are going to turn into a very nasty person
who always says mean things about people.
I know that there are times when it's really hard not to be jealous of someone.
If you see someone who is in perfect shape, you kind of say to yourself,
gee, how come they got the lucky breaks and I didn't?
We always think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
What we don't stop to realize is that the grass on the other side has weeds in it too.
We just can't always see them.
I don't think that any of us ever really escape that little green-eyed monster called jealousy.
We will always be jealous of people from time to time.
It's just part of the curse that Cain left us.
But you know what? Cain wasn't a very smart fellow.
If he had really been on top of things,
Cain would have found out just what Abel did that was so great and he would have copied it.
Now maybe some of you would say that's cheating,
but I say that's being a pretty smooth operator.
After all, like the old saying goes, if you can't beat them, well you might as well join them.
And then there's the one about the early bird catches the worm.
And a stitch in time saves nine.
Or a bird in the hand is worth two in the...
I love my kitchen.
Oh, I love...
Hey, let's talk about your kitchen.
Are you involved with your kitchen?
Do you plan your meals ahead of time and stick closely to your list when you go shopping?
Do you have a well-stocked deal-a-meal kitchen like we showed you way back on day six?
Or is your kitchen one of those hit-and-run areas where you dash in to heat something in the microwave or make a cup of coffee?
If you really take some time to equip your kitchen with all the ingredients that will truly help you stay on track,
you'll be making things a whole lot easier.
By now you should have English muffins and bagels stored in the freezer like I showed you with all the haves facing the same way.
You should have a plastic bag full of chicken stock ice cubes,
and if you use bacon it should be in the freezer in single slices separated by sheets of wax paper.
I'll tell you what else I do that saves a whole lot of time.
I freeze individual chicken breast portions, which I usually skin and bone first.
Now you can just pop them into a small Ziploc bag, or if you want to freeze a larger quantity,
place them on a baking sheet so they aren't touching like this and freeze them.
As soon as they are frozen, then you can put as many as you'd like into one bag,
and they won't stick together if you freeze them individually first.
I like to keep ground turkey in the freezer, too.
I weigh it out and I freeze it in little one-ounce patties, which I freeze individually, the way I did the chicken breast.
Then when I'm ready to cook, I just take out as many one-ounce patties as I need for the recipe.
You also want to keep in the freezer some frozen vegetables for those times when you might not have fresh veggies in the house.
You may also want to keep some frozen fruit on hand, like these delicious strawberries.
Now let's see what else you should have in your pantry.
In addition to the staples mentioned before, I think an important staple is brown rice.
It takes longer to cook than white rice, so I cook it in quantity,
then divide it up in half-cup portions and freeze it,
or just keep it in the fridge if I know I'm going to use it within five or six days.
And where would I be without pasta?
I like to keep it in all shapes and sizes, and also a jar or two of all the naturally prepared spaghetti sauces,
and of course, some Parmesan cheese.
Are you getting the idea?
If you keep basics like this on hand, you can't possibly say there's no food in the house.
And in case I run out of fresh fruit, I always keep some raisins and some prunes and a jar of unsweetened applesauce in the cupboard.
Other basics in my pantry shelf are canned beans like garbanzo and kidney.
They're great in salads and casseroles.
I guess what this is all about is having food on hand for emergencies,
being able to pull a good meal together from ingredients you already have in your freezer and cupboards
without having to dash to the store for something.
It's about knowing you have good, nutritious foods at your fingertips if you were snowed in
or if there was an earthquake or some other kind of emergency, like unexpected guests for dinner.
You should be able to take all that in stride if you have a well-stocked kitchen.
If you have all of this above, you could probably eat like a king for a month or so.
So please do me a favor. Get your kitchen organized.
Make it a safe place for you to be, and don't ever run out of your basic foods.
As you use them up, write them on a shopping list and replace them.
These are the steps that will ensure your ongoing success.
So don't forget, get that kitchen ready because I love my kitchen!
Today we have a success story about Debbie from Peoria, Arizona.
One day as I was going through my mail, I opened a letter and out fell this piece of pink ribbon.
I thought, oh no, some cheap person is sending me gift wrapping, but no gift.
Then I looked more closely and it had something written on it, and this is what it said.
Richard, I'm now 14 and a half inches smaller. 14 and a half inches gone forever.
Well, I measured the ribbon and sure enough, it was exactly 14 and a half inches long.
Wow, what a novel idea, I thought. Debbie was thinking in terms of inches lost.
I couldn't wait to read her letter to find out more. It was amazing.
With that 14 and a half inches, she had lost 16 pounds and she wrote that she had 46 more to go.
She went on to tell me why she decided to lose weight.
She said, I kept picturing the time I went shopping with my five-year-old daughter, Sarah.
I was looking at some pretty summer clothes when Sarah said, mommy, these clothes are for skinny people.
The fat people clothes are over there. It really hurt and it really hit home.
It hurt and worst of all, I knew she was right.
One day, Sarah asked mommy, when I grow up, do I have to be fat like you?
Richard, I've heard you say that fat mothers can raise fat children.
There was no way I would ever want my daughters to have to battle their weight all their lives.
I took a good long look at the example I was setting for them
and decided then and there to get my dealer meal out of the closet.
Does everybody keep their dealer meal in the closet?
Well, since no one has ever sent me anything like this, I couldn't wait to call Debbie to hear her story.
She was doing great. Her first words were, Richard, I have now lost 32 pounds and I'm sending you a new piece of ribbon.
The next one is 17 and a half inches long.
I asked Debbie how she got the idea to send me the ribbon
and she said it was a way for her to visualize her progress.
She said, Richard, at 200 pounds, people just don't notice when you've lost 15 or 20 pounds.
The ribbon was a way to give myself positive reinforcement when no one else did.
It was something tangible I could hold in my hands and say, look, look what I did.
Debbie is married with three small children and she works part time in a restaurant.
So you know she needs a lot of energy to get through the day.
She had tried to lose weight several times without dealing meal,
but she never seemed to get past two or three days because then she would blow it
and that would be the end of that till the next time.
Debbie told me she had always carried a little extra weight around,
but never to the point where she felt obese.
And after her first pregnancy, she managed to get back down to her goal weight of 135 pounds.
Well, the second time it wasn't so easy.
Debbie said that being pregnant was like a green light going off, permission to eat whatever she wanted.
So that's just what she did and she never lost the weight.
Well, then she got pregnant a third time and never lost that weight either.
So it just kept building up until she found herself at 197 pounds.
She told me, Richard, I think the hardest thing for me was that every time I slipped up the tiniest bit,
I would beat myself up over it and just slide right back.
I'd figure, oh, I just can't do it. I might as well eat the whole bag.
It's that voice of temptation. Once it calls us, we think we are total flops if we give in.
But you just got to pick yourself up and try some more.
And that is what Debbie did.
She finally realized that's what she had to do and her progress is terrific.
In fact, just this morning, she sent me a new piece of pink ribbon that I really could use for gift wrapping.
Look at it.
It says, I've lost three inches from my bust, eight inches off my waist, seven inches from my thigh for a grand total of 31 inches.
That translates to 41 pounds with only 20 to go.
Isn't that great?
I'm very proud of Debbie.
She has an air of determination about her and a very realistic approach.
You can't beat this for hard evidence of success in the making.
Thank you, Debbie, for sending me this very beautiful and meaningful piece of ribbon.
Can you believe all this mail?
One of these days, someone's going to find me buried alive under sacks of mail.
Well, let's dig in and see what we have today.
Dear Richard, Every day I follow my cards faithfully.
I eat all my meals like I should and move my cards over for each meal.
I don't have any problem following your program.
Yay!
What I do have a problem with is that by 10.30 at night, I am famished.
It's like a little alarm clock has gone off in my stomach and it starts growling furiously.
I don't have any cards left so I can't have a little snack and I don't want to cheat on my cards either.
What can I do? Please help me because I'm afraid I can't last much longer.
Loretta.
Well, let's take a minute to look at the word famished.
Famished.
To be severely deprived of food.
Loretta, on 1200 or 1400 calories a day, you are not deprived of food.
If you were eating 500 or 800 calories a day, then I'd say yes, you were famished.
So famished is not the word you should be using.
What's happening is that psychologically your mind knows that you are out of cards for the day.
So it immediately triggers the hunger sensation.
It's like your mind is playing a game with you.
This late night snack attack happens to a lot of people.
And in tape two we discuss some of the dangers of late night eating.
Here is what I suggest will help you, Loretta.
To get rid of your hunger pains before bed.
First of all, try not to use all of your cards during the day.
Maybe eat a little less lunch or dinner so that when you get hunger pains at 10.30 before bed,
you can have a little snack.
For example, try to rearrange your cards so that you have a fruit card left over
and that way you'll be able to have a piece of fruit for a snack.
That may help to satisfy you so that you can go to sleep.
Secondly, Loretta, try getting involved with a project
or something that will keep you busy for a few hours after dinner.
If you just eat and then sit in front of the TV set after dinner,
that may be causing you to feel hungry.
You've heard of getting the munchies while watching TV?
Well, if you're just sitting around with nothing to occupy your brain,
maybe you're sending signals that it's time to start eating again.
Remember, busy fingers will keep your hands out of the refrigerator.
Alright, let's take another letter.
Dear Richard, I'm allergic to dairy products.
I can't have yogurt, ice cream, poor dear,
or any of the other products listed on your dairy cards.
What can I do?
I need to get some calcium in my diet, but I can't have things like milk and cheese.
Any suggestions? Love, Jody.
Well, Jody, there are a few possibilities for you.
First of all, if you like milk and you want to drink it but you're allergic,
it may be the lactose in the milk that you are allergic to.
Why not try the new nonfat lactose fat-free products that are available today?
Check with your doctor first.
But if you could drink this type of milk,
you would count your dairy cards the same as you would for regular nonfat or skim milk.
If you can't tolerate the lactose-free products, then here's another suggestion.
Remember that a dairy card is worth 90 calories and you get two dairy cards per day.
That means you get 180 calories a day in dairy cards.
My advice is to spend those calories in another way.
Now, I have a friend who is also allergic to dairy products,
and she added an extra bread, a meat, and a vegetable card to her Deal & Meal wallet.
That equals 180 calories, and that takes the place of two dairy cards.
That way you can still get the total amount of calories you're supposed to have,
but you can bypass the dairy products you're allergic to.
Now, this applies to other foods also.
Now that you know the caloric equivalent of your cards,
you'll be able to top substitute food that you're allergic to.
Finally, to get your daily calcium requirements, increase your intake of vegetables.
It has been proven that broccoli has a higher calcium content than even milk.
So although you are allergic to dairy products,
you can still get the calcium you need through sources like broccoli and other dark green vegetables.
So you see, even if you're allergic to certain foods,
you can still stay on Deal & Meal simply by substituting the cards you can't use for others that you can.
And you thought it couldn't be done!
Well, goodbye, Lorena. Goodbye, Jodi. I've got to get back to my mail.
Hey, I know a lot of you live alone. I live alone, too.
And one of the biggest problems is what to cook for dinner.
Well, there's a natural tendency to be lazy when you're fixing food just for yourself.
And there are so many menus delivered to your house.
Well, you can have pizza or Chinese food in four seconds.
But this is a very simple way to get your food to be cooked.
You can just put it in a box and it's ready to go.
And you can just put it in a box and it's ready to go.
And you can have pizza or Chinese food in four seconds.
But this can get expensive if you do it all the time,
and you know you're shortchanging yourself in good nutrition.
Yet it's so easy to talk yourself out of cooking a proper meal.
When you come home tired and hungry, the last thing on your mind is cooking,
especially when there's no one to share it with or help with the dishes.
Now, one obvious solution to this is to cook some meals ahead of time
and freeze or refrigerate them for use throughout the week.
A lot of you have talked to me about this very situation
and have said it's too hard to have ready prepared food in the refrigerator
that you are not supposed to eat until a specified time.
If it's cooked, you want to eat it all right then.
And if it isn't cooked, well, you just can't be bothered.
You'd rather go for something easier.
Well, this is the attitude that got you into this pickle in the first place.
It takes effort and planning to eat good, balanced meals.
And if you want to be thin and healthy, you have to get with the program.
So if you're not crazy about cooking and you live alone,
let's look at a few easy meals you can put together quickly
without too much time or fuss.
To be honest with you, one of my favorite easy home alone meals
is a stuffed baked potato.
And the fun part is you could have this every night for a week
and have it be different every time.
I am very content with a salad and a stuffed baked potato.
Now, in a microwave, this whole meal could be ready in minutes.
If you use a regular oven, you will need to allow about an hour.
What I do the minute I walk in the door, well, after I say hello to the dogs,
hello dogs, is I scrub a small russet potato,
pierce it with a fork and micro-vit on high for three to five minutes
or until it feels soft when pressed.
I usually turn it over after two minutes for more even cooking.
While it's cooking, I get together my other ingredients.
Sometimes I take one or two of my one ounce ground turkey patties from the freezer,
mash a clove of garlic and get some Italian herbs.
Then when the potato is cooked, I let it rest for a couple of minutes, rest,
while I thaw the turkey patties in the microwave
and I quickly saute them with the garlic and the herbs.
I then slice the potato in half like this.
Scoop out most of the potato, just leaving enough so it holds its shape.
Then I mash the potato with the turkey mixture,
pile it all back into the potato shell,
top it with some chopped parsley and microwave again on high
for two minutes or until it's heated through.
In the meantime, I pull together some lettuce,
which of course is already washed, spun and chilled,
some cucumbers, some sliced tomatoes,
and a couple of tablespoons of low-cal dressing, and bingo!
Dinner is served.
Now if you round up all those minutes, you're really only taking about 15 minutes.
I don't know what it is about potatoes, but I just never seem to tire them.
Something else I like to stuff a potato with is some steamed broccoli
and a little bit of Dijon mustard topped with an ounce of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Now my other favorite is one quarter cup of cottage cheese
mixed with a few sauteed mushrooms, a little thyme, some chives or parsley.
The cottage cheese melts through the potato and makes it sort of gooey.
Sometimes I add a little spaghetti sauce as well. You'll just love it.
Every time I do this, I try something different.
Somehow it's easy to try new things when you're experimenting only on yourself.
Now who is the most important person in the world that you could cook dinner for?
Why you, of course. Your health and your energy level are of vital importance to you.
It really is true that you are what you eat,
so it's crucial for you to take the time to fix a nutritious, flavorful meal for yourself.
So you see, what did I show you? Cooking for one can be fun.
Do you ever say these things to yourself?
I'll never be worth anything.
Woe is me. My life is worth nothing.
Oh, here's a good one.
Knowing my luck, I probably won't be able to do this.
Are you a walking encyclopedia of self-pity?
I mean, do you feel so sorry for yourself that you just can't get anywhere in life?
There are a lot of people who are like this.
You know, there are people who walk around with these droopy little eyes.
You know, they're called puppy dog eyes.
And all they talk about is how sad their life is, how everything goes wrong,
how they never get any breaks.
Well, I call this the Poor Me Syndrome.
Now, the Poor Me Syndrome can hang over your head like a dark storm cloud,
ready to rain down on you at any moment.
It breaks down your self-esteem.
In fact, it practically destroys it,
and you live your life always moping about all the things that are wrong.
You pity yourself, and you look for other people to pity you, too.
My theory is that you develop the Poor Me Syndrome sometime in early childhood.
I think it really depends on how you're raised.
If you are around people who have low self-esteem, then you become that way, too.
You start believing the negative things that people say,
like if they can't do it, then you can't do it either.
It's kind of like when you learned your alphabet.
A, B, C, D, P, I, T, Y.
Self-pity has a way of taking hold of a person's life if they let it,
and it's difficult to shake it loose.
When I was younger, and I used to get myself in such a negative mood,
I would say,
nothing is nothing, because nothing is nothing, because nothing is nothing.
Before you knew it, I believed that there wasn't anything in my life that was worthwhile.
I began to feel sorry for myself, and I was filled with self-pity.
I would get myself feeling so down because I had actually convinced myself that I was nothing.
Self-pity can drag you down, and it can keep you down to the point where you can't get up again.
You know, I get all these letters, and people tell me all about their life stories,
and some of them go on and on about how they don't like themselves very much,
how their life is really not worth anything.
Some of these letters are very moving.
I have compassion for everyone who writes to me, but I don't pity anymore.
I really don't. I don't believe in pity anymore.
I don't believe that someone has no worth.
I always think that someone can do better, and taking pity on someone doesn't really help them.
Sometimes it takes a drastic event to break the chain of self-pity.
I have a very interesting letter from a man, and he wrote me after I called him.
He was completely filled with self-pity, and here is what he said.
Dear Richard, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me to see the light.
When we spoke on the phone two and a half months ago,
you said you couldn't do anything more to help me.
I was mad. I needed you to save me from me, and you wouldn't accept that responsibility.
And now I really thank you for that.
I am binge-free and cigarette-free for 32 days now.
It took having major surgery for me to do it.
As I laid in the ER at the hospital, I told two friends that I am crazy.
I don't want to die like I thought I did. I really wanted to live.
I realized at that moment that I had so much to live for, so much left to do with my life,
that I didn't want to be over yet.
I asked God to forgive me for all the times I said I wanted to die.
It took laying in the ER with a serious medical problem for me to realize that my life was worth living.
I stopped feeling sorry for myself right then and vowed to start over again with a fresh slate.
If only God would see me through this emergency.
Thank you, Richard. You helped me throw away that crutch of self-pity I leaned on for so long.
Sincerely, Jack.
Here is a man who felt so down about himself that it took a crisis to make him realize that he was a worthwhile person.
It's a shame that it took a trip to the emergency room for Jack to see that his life was worth living.
But sometimes people need a shock like that to help them break the poor me syndrome.
Self-pity does nothing but destroy.
It's like taking a hammer and smashing all the windows in your house,
or like that hurricane that hit Florida a while ago, tearing everything apart and causing destruction in its path.
If you are always feeling sorry for yourself, if you're living in a world filled with self-pity, please take the time to look at your life
and see the things that you have been blessed with.
You're not poor at all. You see you have one of the greatest treasures of all.
You have the gift of life.
Don't wait until you're in a hospital bed like Jack did to find out just how rich you really are.
Time to get on that bathroom scale again. It's day 102.
If you're not at goal by now, I know some of you are getting really close.
Today we're celebrating with Debbie in Ridgecrest, California, who has lost 35 pounds.
And Jennifer from Jessup, Georgia, who is 10 pounds lighter.
And Susan from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has lost 13 pounds. Good!
Every pound or part of a pound loss is a step in the direction of your goal weight,
a journey to greater health, vitality, and longevity.
I think all of you are doing just great.
I know from your letters that you have people in your life who are noticing your weight loss
and encouraging you to keep going.
Some of you are so successful that your new appearance is inspiring others to start dealing with too.
I really do love all your success stories.
But I sometimes get letters that aren't about success.
There are some of you who have more to struggle with than just your weight.
You have people in your life who for whatever reason are threatened by your success
and who become more insecure with every pound you lose.
They would love to see you fail.
Well, you know who they are.
Often they are family members and sometimes they are so-called friends.
People have always seemed to be on your side in the past,
but now as they see you succeeding in this special way,
they have turned into what are called saboteurs.
They want to sabotage your success.
Maybe they are very subtle about it.
They may just leave a few cookies around,
or they may take you to a fancy French restaurant
where it's very difficult to choose all low-fat food.
Or they may blatantly buy your favorite chocolates or candy bars.
They are simply not on your side.
They are not supporting you.
Why on earth would anyone want to stop you from being your best healthy self?
There are lots of reasons for this, and you know, the bottom line is,
it doesn't even matter why they are doing it.
It's enough that they are.
And I'm not here to try to figure out the insecurities
and weirdness of your family and friends.
I'm here to look out for you.
You are the one I care about,
and I want you to succeed because I know you can and I know you must.
Now, if you stay with this program and follow all the steps on a regular basis,
you will reach your goal.
That's just the way it works.
This can be very intimidating to people who aren't very good at achieving goals
or who aren't very successful
or who don't want others to be more successful than they are.
Perhaps your friends and families are also overweight
but don't have the willpower and determination that you have,
and your success is making them uncomfortable, to say the least.
What can you do about this?
Well, family is family, so you can't change that,
but you can certainly deal with them differently.
One of the first rules is do not share your dreams, hopes, and goals
with anyone who isn't totally on your side.
This means that while you may be living with your family,
you don't have to share your progress with them if they're not in your corner.
Just do your own thing without a lot of hoopla.
Now, let's face it.
Friends who aren't supportive are really not friends.
Well, not in my book.
A friend is someone who supports you through thick and thin.
So if there are people in your life who can't give you this support,
just let them go. You don't need them.
If you think that sounds ruthless, well, fine.
Sometimes, that's what it takes.
You need to look out for your best interests at all times.
You deserve to have people in your life who love you
and who totally, totally support you unconditionally.
And guess what?
When you release from your life the people who aren't loving and supporting,
you are just making room for the right friends to come into your life.
And don't forget, I am always there for you.
I'm your greatest supporter of all.
I am so proud of these brave steps you were taking.
Never, ever lose sight of your goal,
and don't let anyone come between you and all your dreams.
Just keep doing it, heading in the right direction of your goal weight.
You've come this far. You can go all the way.
And you know what? I know you can do it.
Did you ever hear the expression, three squares a day?
Well, what does that mean, three squares?
Is it a math equation? I don't think so.
Does it mean running around the block three times a day? No.
This cute little phrase really refers to getting three square meals a day.
I wonder why they call them square meals.
Do you think the food is supposed to be arranged in a square?
Or maybe it should be served on a square platter?
Well, I'm not really sure about the origin of this phrase,
but I do know that we are talking about is getting three well-balanced meals a day.
People write to me all the time and tell me that they skip breakfast,
eat a package of crackers for lunch, and grab fast food for dinner.
Well, as you know by now, if you're not eating three full meals a day,
you are ruining your metabolism.
Skipping meals is a no-no.
So let's talk about the three meals we should never, ever miss.
Our first meal of the day is breakfast.
Breakfast means exactly what it says.
You are breaking the fast from the evening before.
Beginning your day with a good breakfast will help you get through your day
with energy and vitality.
We've already talked about some great ideas for a healthy breakfast,
so I hope you're going through your cookbook
and choosing some of the recipes we've shown you.
Sometimes people will say to me,
but Richard, if I eat breakfast, then it will make me hungry for lunch.
Well, there's nothing wrong with that.
I want you to eat lunch.
That's your next square meal of the day.
So let's do lunch.
I always take a lunch break.
When I'm working, I need to take that little break in the afternoon
to get something to eat and get myself ready to finish out the day.
Now, the only thing you have to watch out for when you eat lunch
is that you don't overeat.
Sometimes, if you have a heavy meal for lunch,
it will make you sleepy.
Wouldn't it be great if we could all take a little siesta after lunch
like they do in the European countries?
Well, here in this country, our lifestyle just isn't geared
for taking a nap in the afternoon.
So you want to have a satisfying lunch that will re-energize you
without putting you to sleep.
Try some of those sandwich ideas we talked about on day 65.
You won't use all of your Deal & Meal cards,
and you won't fall asleep either.
Our next and final meal for the day is dinner.
Now, most of us look forward to dinner as the highlight meal of the day.
Dinner brings a family together.
It is the time of day when everyone can get together
for conversation and good times.
We like to experiment with different recipes
to make dinner interesting and enjoyable,
and dinner time is the time when we can unwind
and relax after a hard day of work.
Dinner means dine early, but unfortunately,
some of us have schedules that may not allow us to dine early.
As much as we look forward to this meal, if we eat too late,
then we'll suffer all the consequences of having a heavy meal late at night.
If you can't have your dinner around the 6 or 7 o'clock hour,
then you have to plan a lighter dinner so it won't stay on your stomach.
So be sure you eat three meals a day.
Notice, I said three meals a day.
Now, I don't mean saving up all of your Deal & Meal cards
to have one huge meal.
Just because you're on 1,200 or 1,400 calories a day
doesn't mean you can eat them all at once,
and I don't mean eating five or six meals a day.
That's what you used to eat when you were a baby.
I'm talking about three well-balanced meals
spread out between morning, noon, and evening.
This is the best way to keep your metabolism at an even pace
so that you're spacing out your calories in equal amounts,
not bunching them up into one or two meals.
I know that a lot of you have very busy schedules,
but it's really important to make time for your meals,
just like you have to make time for exercise.
But running out the door with a piece of toast
stuck in your mouth is not taking time to eat.
And stuffing down peanut butter crackers for lunch
is not good either.
We've talked about making more time for you.
Well, that includes making more time for you to eat.
When it's time to eat,
sit down for about a half an hour and really enjoy your meal.
Then after you've eaten, you can rush off
to do all the other things you have to do.
Meal time should be the relaxing time you take
to replenish your entire body.
Don't let anybody rush you through your meals.
Eat at a slow, even pace, and don't stuff and run.
So there you have it, our three meals a day philosophy.
Your body needs you to keep it on a regular schedule.
So if you're constantly skipping meals
or overeating at one meal,
you're just not doing your body any good.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
are the three best things anybody ever invented.
So what do you say, partner?
Should we go get ourselves one of those square meals?
Lots of people walk around saying,
I'm so depressed.
Well, there are a lot of things that get us depressed.
For example, watching soap operas can be depressing.
I mean, all that drama, all those problems
the characters are having,
why it could positively make you want to jump off a bridge.
People who watch soap operas like to get into the characters
and try to solve their problems.
And when things don't work out, they get all upset over it.
I mean, really, it's just a story.
Reading sad novels or seeing sad movies can get us depressed.
You know those real tear-jerker kind of movies?
Remember that movie, Beaches?
Well, when I went to see that,
I had to get up in the middle of the movie and walk right out.
It wasn't because I didn't like it.
It was just too sad.
I just couldn't imagine losing my best friend that way.
Think about some of the other things
that make you sad or depressed.
Sometimes certain music can put you in a depressed mood.
The music can invoke memories or feelings
about something that maybe happened in our past.
I knew a lady who would get all choked up
when she heard a certain Christmas song
because it reminded her of her father
who died when she was very young.
Even artwork could be depressing to some people.
Somebody told me once that they got all depressed
looking at art by Van Gogh.
There was something about the colors
that always made them feel very sad.
Well, it's natural for all of us
to go through certain periods of depression.
We're all going to experience some low points
during our daily lives.
You have to learn to recognize these lows
and deal with them.
For me, when I'm feeling down or depressed,
I try to limit that depression to five minutes.
The trick is not to dwell on what is depressing.
Thinking about that depressing thought
over and over again, reliving every aspect of it,
will not get you out of your depression.
It will only make you sink further into your depression.
For some people, depression is a very serious problem.
What happens to people who are chronically depressed
is they just can't limit their depression.
They start out having mood swings
and then gradually these swings increase.
They go from happy to sad, happy to sad.
If this cycle continues, then after a while,
they find that it gets more and more difficult
to swing back to the happy mood.
They begin to feel so hopelessly in despair
that their lives have so many problems
and it's too overwhelming to handle.
This type of serious depression
usually requires some medical attention.
But for most of us, just a simple readjustment
of our perspective may be all that we need
to get ourselves out of a depressed mood.
So if you find yourself depressed,
here's what you should do.
Number one, think about why you're depressed
and then chase those thoughts right out of your mind.
Try to think about those things that make you happy.
Then you'll be able to face whatever is troubling you.
Number two, don't go to see too many sad movies.
If you're constantly watching those tearjerkers,
you won't be able to get those sad scenes out of your mind.
Number three, try not to sit around the house
with nothing to do.
Sometimes people get depressed out of boredom.
If you're sitting around with nothing to occupy your mind,
then all the sad thoughts that are tucked all the way
will start to come down.
So find yourself something to keep you busy
and you'll be able to keep yourself in a real good mood.
And finally, if you start to get depressed about something,
stay away from the food.
People who are depressed have a tendency to start eating.
When you're feeling depressed,
put a funny movie in the VCR,
listen to some upbeat music, or maybe go for a walk.
But whatever you do, just don't head for the refrigerator.
Eating will never make your depression go away.
You won't feel any better or any happier
after you polish off that piece of pie or eat a turkey.
Food is not a remedy for depression.
It will only make your depression worse.
You know, people stay depressed
because they think they can never be happy.
Well, I know that happiness is not beyond your reach.
Why, as long as you stick with me,
you are on the road to happiness every single day of your life.
So keep your head held high, keep your chin up,
because Happy Days are here again!
It's Day 105, Success Story Day.
I think these are my favorite days
when I get to share with you the successes of others on Deal-A-Meal.
I hope these stories inspire you as much as they do me.
Today I want you to meet a wonderful lady.
Her name is Joanne, and she lives in South Charleston, West Virginia.
Joanne keeps a diary in her computer,
but instead of writing Dear Diary, she writes Dear Richard,
then sends me a printout at the end of the month.
Well, it's like reading a book,
the kind you just don't want to put down
because you always want to know what's coming next.
When I first started reading Joanne's diary,
I thought, wow, what a fabulous, positive person.
This lady is just so alive in the way she writes.
Her exuberance bubbles right through the pages.
Then on the 16th day she wrote,
Dear Richard, well today is yet another milestone,
a red-letter day in my life.
Today I weigh in at 414 pounds.
That means that I have officially lost 82 pounds.
414 pounds? Had I read that right?
Yes, there it was in black and white.
I was totally blown away.
Here I had been reading the extraordinary,
positive, upbeat progress of someone who had started out at 496 pounds.
What I love about Joanne is that she's able to celebrate
all her successes or milestones as she calls them.
Like the day she wrote me,
Today I sat in an office chair with sides.
That has been my personal nemesis for quite some time now.
The fit was still a little snug,
but the important thing was that I fit instead of just sitting on the edge.
I'm really proud of myself because yesterday
I managed to eat a healthy and exercise a little more than usual.
See what she does?
She records her daily successes and she owns them.
No wonder she's able to look on the bright side.
Even when her entries mention some setbacks along the way,
Joanne is able to see them for what they are,
and she just keeps looking forward.
She's funny too. Listen to this.
I didn't do so great over the weekend.
It seemed like the longer the weekend went on,
the more I wanted to eat everything in sight.
I swear I think that if a cow had wandered into my living room,
I think I would have killed it with my bare hands
and eaten the whole thing.
Here's another milestone.
Today while sitting and talking with some friends,
I realized that my feet were together.
I have never been able to sit with my feet together in comfort
because there was just too much fat on my thighs,
keeping them apart.
Of course, being a girl, I just had to tough it out
and wear longer dresses to help cover up what I couldn't keep closed.
Here's something that would have caused a lesser person to give up,
but not Joanne.
She writes,
Dear Richard,
Well today I'm weighing in steady at a loss of 55 pounds,
the speed limit.
Unfortunately, I had my spirits slightly trampled on.
Someone came up to me and said, in their snotiest tone of voice,
I heard you lost a lot of weight, but I can't tell that you've lost a thing.
Richard, I think I was devastated, even though I know that it's not true,
and I know I shouldn't let what people say bother me,
but that really did.
I've been listening to your tapes daily
and really trying to keep a positive attitude about all of this.
I really thought I was beyond the pettiness in my mind,
but I guess I'm really not.
It's amazing to me that I could actually let one negative comment bring me down,
after all the positive ones that I've had over the past few months.
But the day wasn't a total loss.
The old Joanne would have just said, the heck with it, and given it up.
But the new and improved Joanne went to Wendy's drive-thru for lunch,
ordered a Gordon salad with locale dressing and a diet Coke to go.
Joanne is really terrific.
I wish there was time to read it all to you.
She has joined a low-impact aerobic class,
and even though she was scared about being stared at, she did it anyway.
She just moves through all the setbacks and obstacles,
stares fear in the face, and confronts difficult situations head on.
Joanne has it all.
She is putting the whole program to work with an unswerving commitment,
incredible stamina, and a great, great sense of humor.
Joanne, you are a major success in my book.
So you keep on writing, and I'll keep on reading.
And we'll check back with Joanne again and see how this sweet lady is doing.
We the people of the United States of America,
hey, recognize this?
Of course you do.
It's the Declaration of Independence.
Way back in 1776, Thomas Jefferson put in writing that it was our right
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This is not merely a piece of paper,
but a piece of paper that we can all use to write about our lives.
It is our formal announcement to the world that we are a free people,
independent of all other countries, with the right to govern ourselves.
And you, my friend, are an independent person.
It's a right that our forefathers gave us over 215 years ago.
So here is our word for today, independence.
Let's look it up.
Independence, or being independent, means not governed by a foreign country.
It means not governed by a foreign power.
Self-governing, free from influence, guidance, or control of another or others.
Independence is a strong word.
It's also a word that we have grown up with and may be taken for granted.
Perhaps some of you have relatives or grandparents who know what it was like
not to be independent, not to live in a country that guarantees freedom of speech
or the freedom to choose your own religion.
So why is it that most of us who have lived in this free and independent country
all our lives find ourselves dependent on something else to make us happy
and make our problems disappear?
Why are we dependent on food?
Think about it.
Every year we celebrate the 4th of July, Independence Day, and what do we do?
We eat.
To celebrate our independence, we barbecue everything but the family poodle.
Instead of recognizing July 4th as an important day in the history of our country,
we recognize it as a great day to eat.
Now, I'm not saying that there's something wrong with eating as a way of celebrating.
It's fine as long as you don't carry it too far.
But eating as a way to solve problems or depending on food to wash away our troubles
is a very serious situation.
We can't depend on food for happiness.
We can use food to help celebrate times like weddings and holidays,
but food by itself won't make life's problems disappear.
How do people become dependent on food?
Well, it's almost like when people become dependent on alcohol or drugs
to help them get through life.
Sometimes things don't always go the way they should.
A person gets laid off or fired from a job.
A lot of times they will bury themselves in food
rather than face the reality of their situation.
Suppose a relationship doesn't work out.
Maybe you get separated or divorced.
Well, depending on food to make things better won't solve the problem.
Food is not a marriage counselor and it won't straighten out what's wrong with the relationship.
Like it or not, you have to face the reality on your own.
It is a daily fight to be independent of food.
That's because it's just so easy to turn to food
because food is everywhere.
It seems like there's a convenient market on every corner.
And you can't buy gas today where there isn't a little mini market
to buy snacks and sodas while you're paying for the gas.
And buying food isn't like buying drugs.
You get arrested for buying drugs.
But when you buy food, you're helping the nation's economy.
So the stores want you to buy more.
Well, while we're dependent on food for nutrition and health,
we must be independent on food when it comes to dealing with our problems.
We have to be self-reliant and look inward to ourselves to handle what life stitches out to us.
Learn to depend on your own judgment and decision-making
rather than depending on a plate of food.
Remember, only human beings can think and reason.
You have the power within you to face up to the challenges.
And whichever choice you make in handling your problems, right or wrong,
at least you know that you are in control.
You are independent and free from the influences of control of anybody or anything, including food.
Remember how we fought as a nation years ago to become independent from any other country?
Well, I want you to declare your independence from food.
Make this your own personal Fourth of July
because I want you to fight to be free from the control of food.
You live in an independent nation.
You are an independent person,
and your independence is a right that nothing and no one can take away from you.
We the people of the United States of America.
I hope you're having a terrific day.
Let's talk about lunch, shall we?
Can you imagine having to actually hunt for your food?
I bet there was no such thing as an overweight caveman.
Well, today we don't have to hunt for our food, chase after it.
We don't even have to cook it half the time because it's just handed to us already prepared.
No wonder we sometimes eat too much.
It is all just too easy, except for lunch.
I don't know, doesn't lunch seem difficult to you?
Lunch is probably the toughest meal of the day for me because it's the hardest one to control.
Often I'm away from home, so I have to eat in restaurants a lot.
But even if I'm home or I can take something with me, lunch takes some planning.
If you work outside the house and you need to take lunch with you,
depending on the time of the year, there's just lots and lots of possibilities.
In the summer, I love to take a fruit salad, which I eat with cottage cheese or some yogurt.
And in winter, well, I'm a soup person.
A good hearty soup with a piece of bread or some crackers gives me just the energy boost I need.
If you like soup, well, invest in a good thermos and take it with you every day.
You can make a big pot of vegetable or bean soup and have it last several days.
The other thing I like to do is wrap something delicious into a tortilla.
You might like to try this too.
First of all, I spread the tortilla with two tablespoons of fat-free mayonnaise and a little Dijon mustard.
Then I take an ounce of turkey, some cucumbers and sliced tomatoes,
one-eighth of an avocado and some sprouts or lettuce, and I roll the whole thing up.
I wrap it in plastic, well, and it's done.
Very easy to carry and very easy to eat.
Here's what you have to do.
You have to count one bread card, one joker for the fat-free mayonnaise,
one meat card for the turkey, and a fat card for the avocado.
Add some carrots and celery sticks and a piece of fruit.
Pull out a veggie card and a fruit card for those,
and you have a lunch that will sustain you and invigorate you.
Now, sandwiches are, of course, the most obvious choice for lunch because, well, they're just so portable.
When I'm in a restaurant, I often choose the super salad that comes with a half a sandwich.
You'll find that on most lunch menus.
And if I am brown-bagging it, well, soup and sandwich are still my first choice.
Another brown-bag idea is to take along a sandwich filling, like tuna salad or egg salad,
and instead of making a sandwich, just eat it at lunchtime along with a slice of crusty bread
or some crackers or bring along a pita pocket and stuff it into that.
If you assemble it just before you eat it, the bread won't have a chance to get soggy.
Always be careful when you're brown-bagging it that cold food is kept really cold
and that hot food is kept really hot.
You don't want to get food poisoning from improperly packed food.
And please remember that lunch is the meal that balances your energy between breakfast and dinner.
Stay away from fat and sugar.
You might feel revived for a minute or two, but then you'll suddenly feel weary.
So make choices that will give you energy the boost it needs to get you through the rest of the day.
There is usually a bigger gap between lunch and dinner than between breakfast and lunch,
so don't forget to tuck away a little extra something for a snack around mid-afternoon.
You know, I always like to bring along a piece of fruit, something I can really sink my teeth into.
See, if you keep your energy level balanced throughout the day with careful planning,
you will feel great and you won't get cravings for the food that can cause trouble.
So plan what you eat, then eat what you've planned, because this lunch is totally foolproof.
Do you like fairy tales?
I used to love to read them. Grimm's fairy tales were my favorites.
Well, let's do something kind of fun today and read a fairy tale.
I just happen to have one all ready for you. So here we go. Ready?
She would stare out the window for hours, just watching and waiting.
The watching and waiting would go on for most of the day, usually until sunset.
The lady was looking for something, but at the end of the day, when she didn't see what she was looking for,
she would turn slowly away from the window and a tear would roll down her cheek.
What a sad picture she made. A solitary figure waiting by the window, day in and day out,
with always the same ending, disappointment.
The lady waited for this each and every day for years, but nothing ever changed.
She never did see whatever it was she was looking for, and she lived all of her days in disappointment and despair.
Wow. You're probably wondering, who in the world wrote that story?
That's not like the fairy tales I'm used to hearing.
Well, to be perfectly honest, I wrote that story, and you're right, this isn't your typical fairy tale.
I mean, where's the happy ending? Where's the princess being rescued by the handsome prince?
Where the heck is the castle? Well, there aren't any of these things in this story.
And the lady waiting by the window?
Well, she was looking for that handsome prince to ride up on his white horse,
scoop her up, and gallop off into the sunset to take her away from all of her loneliness.
But that didn't happen, did it?
Even though this is a make-believe fairy tale, are you like the lady waiting by the window in real life?
Have you spent most of your life waiting for someone to sweep you off your feet,
make all of your weight disappear, and make you happy for the rest of your life?
If you have, then you'll be waiting for a very, very long time.
Because you see, there are no knights in shining armor who gallop around rescuing damsels in distress.
That's only make-believe. In real life, you have to seek out and find your own happiness.
You have to make your own way, not stand around waiting for someone else to do it for you.
You can't look to me as your knight in shining armor either.
Yes, it's true that we do spend about five minutes together every day,
and we talk, and I help you through some of the difficult times.
But I can't rescue you. You have to do that for yourself.
Now, I'm giving you all the tools you need to help you lose the weight,
and I want you to lose it, to keep a bright and positive attitude, to like yourself and be good to yourself.
But I can't do it for you. You have to want to take everything I've given you and put it into your own life.
I mean, I could spend 24 hours a day talking to you, but if you really don't want to help yourself,
if you're really not dedicated to making this change for yourself, then it wouldn't do any good.
Don't you think that if I had a magic wand, I would just wave it over and make all your troubles disappear?
But that can't happen either. There is no such thing as a magic wand.
But there is such a thing as determination, commitment, and willpower to make a change for the better.
That's the magic that you have inside of you.
I don't want you to waste your life wishing it away.
I've told you before that you have the power within yourself to make your life happy.
No one is going to ride you up and sweep you off your feet and carry you away from all of your troubles.
You have to take responsibility for your own life, for your own destiny,
and most important, for your own happiness.
So please, I hope you're really watching and listening to these tapes and taking every word I say to heart.
We don't live in fantasy land. This is the real world, and you have to deal with reality.
You can change your life if you really want to.
You can make your world a happier place by doing the things we've talked about.
Your life can have a happy ending if you wanted to.
You can rescue yourself from unhappiness because only you can be your own knight in shining armor.
It's day 109, and it's way in day again.
Time to congratulate Audrey in Trenton, New Jersey, who has lost 13 pounds so far.
Mary up in Vancouver, Washington has lost 22 pounds,
and Karen from Hendersonville in North Carolina has lost 163 pounds.
Whoa! That is absolutely fantastic.
Losing weight takes time, as you know.
There is no quick fix, no magic formula for quick permanent weight loss.
Well, there are certainly ways to lose weight quickly, but none that are safe or permanent,
and I want to talk with you about that today.
Just to reassure you that you're not doing all this hard work for nothing.
Believe me, if there really was an easier, quicker way to do this,
I would be the first to be shouting it from the rooftops.
A lot of the quick weight loss plans around advocate semi-starvation or modified fasting.
Is this the ultimate diet or the fastest way to die?
Do you remember the last chance diet a few years ago?
It was very popular until a few people died on it.
Even the doctors who were supposedly supervising their patients on this diet
did not anticipate all the devastating side effects, the most drastic of course being death.
Yet in spite of all the horror stories we constantly hear about how dangerous these so-called miracle diets are,
there are still people who are willing to put their health in jeopardy just to experience the thrill of quick weight loss.
They want the results now, and to heck with the price they might have to pay down the road.
I know what it's like.
It's no secret that once upon a time I starved to get thin, and I'm sure a lot of you have too.
I got very sick because as you see the numbers going down so quickly on the scale,
it gives you the exuberance to keep going no matter what it's doing to your health.
All you are thinking is numbers on the scale going down and down.
You are not thinking about your health.
It's very tempting. You see the ads. It sounds so easy.
And they even say medically supervise, so you think it must be safe.
It's just amazing to me that in this age of supposed enlightenment,
there are still people who believe in Santa and the tooth fairy and quick permanent weight loss.
It's quick, yes, but permanent, no.
And the price, believe me, if it's free, it's still costing you more than you can afford.
Let's look at some of the things that happen to your body when you starve
or go on one of those very low calorie modified fasts.
First thing is you lose a lot of muscle tissue,
which happens to be the very thing that burns up the food you eat.
So you want to build muscle tissue, not lose it.
Your body metabolism slows down and holds onto its fat store
because it thinks it has to conserve energy when there is very little food coming in.
So you end up with less muscle tissue to burn up food and more efficiency at storing fat.
You know what else happens? You lose water, vitamins, and minerals.
Now the people who push those milkshakes and other liquid diets
will have answers to dispel every one of your fears or concerns,
and those who are looking for that quick fix fall for them all the time.
Well, who wouldn't rather lose weight by some quick magic formula
than the hard, slow, day-to-day drawn-out process that real weight loss requires?
This is why I want to reassure you that the road you are on is the right one,
the road that is keeping your body healthy and happy while you lose pounds of fat,
not precious lean muscle tissue.
Why on earth would anyone want to put their body through such torture,
especially when the results are short-lived at best
and bring a bundle of other problems as baggage?
Let's face it, your body is a brilliant machine,
but it does require balanced nutrition to keep everything working smoothly.
What are you doing when you're starving?
You're punishing your body and depleting it of all the things that it needs.
Remember, every single day that you live, your body needs vitamins,
every day you need minerals, every day you need protein, and so on.
Where do you get these nutrients? From the food you eat every day.
So please do me a favor, forget starving, forget dieting.
At last, you are learning how to lose excess fat
while eating satisfying, delicious food every single day.
This is the way it is supposed to be.
This is the way your body will stay in balance, and so will you.
Wow! Did you know that God actually made some foods without any calories?
He did, and it's called fiber.
Okay, it's not exactly a hot fudge sundae, but it's better than nothing
because whenever you eat foods that are high in fiber,
they fill you up without filling you out.
Do you want to know why?
It's because the human body cannot digest fiber.
Let me explain this a bit more clearly.
The food does actually have calories, but they slide right by in the human body,
kind of like the stealth bomber,
and the calories don't count because the body has no nutritional use for fiber.
It does have dietary use for fiber, however.
High-fiber diets help to eliminate and prevent a lot of intestinal problems,
like constipation, diphthyculitis, and even colon cancer.
Fiber keeps food moving through your system.
It stops stuffs from sitting around for too long and causing problems.
It even helps to balance out your blood sugar level.
We're always being told the importance of fiber, but it's funny.
Scientists are still arguing about what it really is and what it really does.
There's still a lot we don't know about it,
but what we do know is that it comes in many different forms.
It is definitely beneficial,
and it's the second best way to attack the problem of obesity.
Well, the first, of course, is a low-fat food program.
So if this stuff is going to help you lose weight,
and it doesn't have any calories, where do you get it?
Well, let's take a look.
Well, first of all, it's in all fruits and vegetables, but not in the juice.
So next time you're thinking of having orange juice,
eat the whole orange, pulp and all.
It's much better for your digestion.
Fiber, well, it's in brown rice and whole grain pasta
and any other product made with whole grain, flour like a bread.
Probably our best source of fiber is beans and legumes.
So whenever you choose those in your diet, you are doing your body a great favor.
There is some fiber in nuts and seeds,
but those things are also very high in fat, so forget them.
A good rule of thumb is that there is no fiber in any food of animal origin.
So there is none in eggs, cheese, meat, fish or poultry.
It's the foods that come from whole grains, vegetables and fruit
that give us the fiber that we need.
Now, with white rice, all the fiber has been removed during processing,
so it's all sticky and soft in your mouth,
and you can swallow it with hardly any chewing.
It is just like glue, but when you eat a portion of brown rice,
well, that really takes some work.
You can use up a whole bunch of calories just chewing it.
When you eat brown rice, you'll feel more satisfied.
Also, it balances out your blood sugar, and while it moves through your body,
it acts like a little broom in your intestines, cleaning everything as it goes along.
Fiber really works hard for you, and it does a terrific job if you just give it a chance.
Go to a health food store and start checking out grains like whole wheat, berries and millet.
There is a whole new world out there just waiting for you to find it.
Did you ever get heartburn, indigestion, constipation,
and you just take an antacid or a laxative and think everything is going to be okay?
Did it ever occur to you that when you get a pain, your body is trying to give you a message?
Maybe that message is to eat much more high-fiber foods.
When you do, what happens is you get a lot of indigestible bulk inside you,
and this tends to pass through your system much more efficiently
than if you're eating high-protein, high-fat, low-fiber foods.
That's when you get things like heartburn, indigestion, and constipation,
and any other uncomfortable feeling along your digestive tract.
Think of fiber as your body's own personal street sweeper,
getting into all the nooks and crevices, pushing through any junk it finds along the way,
and keeping your insides squeaky clean.
Now, one word of caution.
Don't suddenly switch all your food to high-fiber overnight.
If your fiber content has been kind of low until now,
make the changes gradual and make sure you're drinking plenty of water.
Well, here's fiber to you. Happy chewing.
I have to ask you something.
Are you driving yourself nuts about losing weight?
Has this become an obsession?
I mean, I know it's a fragrance, but has this taken over your life?
We have to talk seriously about this for a minute today.
Here we are, 111 days into this program.
Now, I know that every day we've been focusing on your goals,
on how to reach your goal weight through eating healthy and exercising,
but there is a very fine line between losing weight and becoming a weight loss fanatic.
I have to be sure I haven't created a monster here.
So let me ask you, has your weight loss taken over your life?
Is everything you do judged by what you weigh?
Are you so determined that you're going to lose this weight
that you don't care what it takes, even if it kills you?
I don't want you to lose your sanity while you're losing weight.
I don't want you to become so obsessed with losing weight
that you become an emotional wreck.
It'll ruin your health faster than you can blink an eye.
We've discussed before what to do if you're stuck on a plateau
or if you've gained a few pounds on weigh-in day.
Don't let these little fluctuations push you over the edge.
Just relax. You know you're doing the best you can.
You'll get there, I promise.
Now here's something else to consider.
Are you driving other people nuts about your weight loss?
I drove my parents so nuts about losing weight, well that made them furious.
I really mean it.
Every day all I did was talk about my weight, talk about diets, talk about weight loss.
Finally, my mother had enough and she told me if I didn't stop right this instant,
she'd put me up for adoption. It's a true story.
Now listen to yourself when you talk to people.
Does your conversation immediately turn to losing weight?
When people come up to you and remark how good you look,
do you immediately launch into a speech about good nutrition and low-fat foods
and what kind of exercise you're doing and on and on and on?
You won't have any friends left if you keep that up.
Think about it. Who are you driving nuts?
You'd better apologize to them right now and just tell them you had a temporary loss of sanity.
Are you the kind of person that when you start losing weight,
you have to let everybody know, you have to write letters to people,
call your friends up on the phone, you have to announce it,
hey everybody, I'm on a diet. Did you rent the Goodyear Blimp and announce it?
If you're doing these things, then you've got to stop it right away
because all you're doing is driving people away from you.
They might be people who love you but can't stand to be around you anymore.
That's because all you do is talk about losing weight, gaining weight,
trying this product or this low-fat product.
Believe me, this kind of obsession is a nuisance to people and they don't want to hear it.
Now, let me ask you this. Have you taken over as the official weight loss expert?
I mean really, are you trying to take over my job?
Do you try to be the counselor for every person who needs to lose weight?
Are you so obsessed with losing weight that you become Johnny OneNote
always singing the same weight loss tune?
If you are, let me say it again. You've got to stop.
People don't want to listen to it.
No matter how much support you may be getting at home or from your friends about weight loss,
if you were driving them nuts, you're going to drive them away.
It's as simple as that.
The problem is people don't want to be around someone who is obsessed with anything,
whether it's weight loss or something else.
Nobody wants to put up with a know-it-all.
That's why you have to really listen to yourself when you talk to others.
Be conscious and aware of the fact even though people care about you,
they don't care about reliving your weight loss experience.
So catch yourself before you open your mouth.
Constantly talking about weight loss is not going to make the weight come off any faster.
It's just going to drive people away.
And what good is being thin and not having any friends?
Finally, don't become everyone else's conscience.
You know about good nutrition.
You've learned what it takes to lose weight and keep it off.
You know what to do and to take care of your health.
Don't go around trying to convert everyone to think your way.
Leave that to me.
When you go out with friends to eat, you say,
Hey, hey, you shouldn't eat that.
What you suggest is they're about to put the first fork full in their mouth.
Now, I'm not saying that I don't want you to be proud of your weight loss
or what you've accomplished so far.
You should be proud.
And I want you to feel good about yourself.
You're doing a wonderful thing and you should be happy about it.
Your example says more than words could ever say.
So take it from me.
If you need a little obsession, just spray it on.
It's a constant challenge bringing you these success stories on a regular basis
because I want them to be as fresh and exciting for you as they are for me.
I'm going to let Tammy from Lombard, Illinois tell you her story in her very own words.
Tammy is a writer, yet she told me this was one of the most difficult things she ever had to write.
Here is Tammy's wonderfully special letter.
Dear Richard, I lost someone who played a significant role in my life
for as long as I can remember.
She was overweight, depressed, and self-absorbed.
Her self-esteem was at an all-time low,
and she had lost complete respect for herself
and the world in which she lived.
Cookies and cakes had become her toys,
and fast food wrapped itself around her like a warm blanket on a cold night.
If she wasn't eating, the majority of which was done in her car,
behind closed doors, or in the parking lots of the food stores or fast food restaurants,
she was thinking about eating.
She even knew what time to leave her best friend's house at night
in order to get a Big Mac and two large orders of fries at McDonald's drive-in before it closed.
She might not have known who the secretary of defense was,
but she knew which aisle to find the Ho-Hos or the M&Ms at her 24-hour market.
She was clever when it came to food.
Hiding the candy wrappers in the empty packages of cat food was ingenious.
Her mother would never think to look there.
Then there were those midnight trips where she would take a grocery bag full of empty cartons
and boxes and bags and wrappers and drive to a local park
where she would dump it with the rest of the garbage.
Then, since she was already out in the car, she would drive to the market and restock for the night.
You wouldn't be mistaken if you thought this routine wrecked havoc on her life.
She couldn't get up in the morning because of what she ate the night before.
She couldn't wear anything but one pair of black pants,
the elastic waistband of which was abused on a daily basis.
She couldn't get her work done on time because she was engrossed in thought about her next binge.
She couldn't get along with her mother, who was concerned about her health
and tried desperately to help her with her weight.
She couldn't eat in restaurants because she could no longer fit into a booth.
She couldn't go out dancing because her back hurt just walking to the front door to get the mail.
She couldn't do anything but eat and sleep, sleep and eat.
She was not eating to live, but living to eat.
Ironically, however, she wasn't living.
She was slowly killing herself with every candy bar she devoured
and with every whopper she literally stuffed into her mouth.
Eight months ago, I realized that I had no room in my life for a person like this.
Not only has she drained me physically and emotionally,
she had taken a toll on my career and my relationships.
She had taken over my life.
She, however, is a thing of the past.
Now there is someone else in my life who is very dear to my heart.
She is happy, self-assured, confident.
She respects herself, imperfections and all.
She likes herself and the world around her.
She likes fruit and vegetables.
She loves to exercise, especially sweating to the oldies.
She's early to rise and she arrives at work on time each morning.
She gets along with her mother and she loves to dance, walk, run, bicycle ride
and anything else that involves some good old-fashioned muscle.
She loves life.
I wish I had met her sooner, but they say hindsight is 20-20.
I do know that I wouldn't have met her in this lifetime if it hadn't been for my support group,
which consisted of my best friend Cindy, my mom and you, Richard.
Deal-a-meal was my salvation.
Deal-a-meal was my inspiration.
Deal-a-meal was my miracle.
If you had told me eight months ago that I would be writing you this letter,
I would have called you a liar.
This letter, by the way, is long overdue.
I started one many months ago, but I never got past the date.
What do you expect from someone who stored her just-arrived Deal-a-Meal program in her closet for two years?
With your help, Richard, and with the support of my family and friends, I have lost 140 pounds.
On March 1st, I tipped the scale at 295 pounds.
My dress size, a 30.5, was higher than the numbers of birthdays I had, 26.
On November 22nd, I stepped on the scale, wearing my best friend's size 12 jeans, and weighed 155 pounds,
my goal weight established eight months ago.
Your program taught me how to portion my food, how to watch what I ate, especially the fat content,
and to exercise on a regular basis, which I have done faithfully for 38 weeks.
I have all four of your Sweat into the Oldie tapes, which I can now do with my eyes closed.
They have shaped once a figuralist, obese individual into a conditioned, shapely woman.
Losing the excess poundage has not only lightened the load I was carrying around in my body,
but it has lifted my spirits beyond what I ever imagined.
I am happy for the first time in my adult life.
I like myself for the first time in my life.
I respect myself for the first time in my life.
What can I say?
Tammy, I think you've said it all.
Your eloquence has taken my breath away, and your success and happiness has just added to mine a hundredfold.
The mail's here. Let's see what we have today.
Dear Richard, I've been on Deal & Meal for about five months and have lost 24 pounds.
Yay! I am so thrilled, but I just found out that I am pregnant.
Can I use my Deal & Meal cards while I am pregnant, and if so, how do I use them?
A happy mother-to-be, Laurie.
A lot of people are getting pregnant these days. I mean, are we having a baby boom or what?
Anyway, the first thing I want to say to Laurie is congratulations.
Being pregnant should be a happy time for you.
And if you're not too sick, I hope you can enjoy your pregnancy.
But I also want to tell you that when you're pregnant, the last thing you should worry about is losing weight.
Your health and your baby's health should come first.
So you should be more concerned about good nutrition and a well-balanced food program than about losing weight.
On the other hand, just because you're pregnant doesn't mean now's the time to let loose because you're eating for two.
You have to eat well, but in moderation.
Putting on too many pounds during your pregnancy will make it very difficult to get back into your pre-baby shape after the birth.
Now, I have a lady at my exercise studio who is pregnant, and I went to the doctor's with her because I wanted to know about this too.
Her doctor recommended that she should be eating 2,000 to 2,200 calories per day for a healthy baby.
That equals 7 meat cards, 8 bread cards, 2 dairy cards, 6 veggie cards, 5 fruit, 5 fat, and 2 joker cards.
The card values I just recommended are an average. They don't apply to everyone.
So if you are pregnant, you absolutely must go to your doctor and find out from him or her the food groups and calories you should be eating.
See your doctor on a regular basis. Get weighed in and follow the instructions you are given.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a healthy body to bring a healthy baby into the world?
No, that one's done. Let's take another one.
Dear Richard, I'm a very busy person, and at night when I come home, I pop in one of those frozen dinners.
I just don't have time to cook a meal for myself, and it's so convenient to heat up a frozen dinner in the microwave or oven while I do a few things around the house.
They are actually quite tasty too.
My question is, if I'm on Deal-A-Meal and I want to count my cards, how do I do this?
Do you have any suggestions? Sincerely, Maria.
This is an excellent question, Maria, because I know that there are quite a few people out there who are on Deal-A-Meal,
and every so often they like to eat a frozen dinner.
You're right. Frozen dinners are very convenient, especially if you live alone or if you're in a hurry for dinner.
To tell you the truth, well, I love frozen dinners too.
When I was growing up, my mom would sometimes set up the TV tray and put one of those frozen dinners in the oven, and I couldn't wait for it to be done.
Oh, my favorite one was the one with turkey and stuffing with gravy and mashed potatoes, lots of them, and corn, and they always came with this cute little biscuit.
I just loved them.
Well, as you can imagine, these dinners tasted great, but they were loaded with fat and calories.
Thirty years ago, nobody cared about fat grams. We just wanted food that was tasty.
Fortunately, today we have an alternative.
There are frozen dinners on the market that are low in calories and fat without sacrificing taste.
Most of the frozen dinners have a listing of calories on the back of the box, so you can get a general idea of how many calories one dinner will cost you.
But you can use your Deal-A-Meal cards to break down a dinner.
For example, on the days when I don't feel like cooking, I take out a lean cuisine fiesta chicken dinner.
I think this one's a good one, a very good one.
The chicken is skinless, so fat grams are lower.
One serving of this meal would cost two meat cards, one bread card, one fat card, and one vegetable card.
Now, one more thing on frozen dinners.
Part of the reason they taste so good is because many of them are very high in sodium.
That's salt.
As you know, salt brings out the flavor in food, but you know all about the evils of too much salt in your food, so be aware of the salt in these dinners.
You should limit your salt intake to no more than 2,000 milligrams or one teaspoon of salt.
Now, I don't recommend that you substitute good old-fashioned home cooking with these dinners,
but if you're in a hurry or you just want to break from cooking, a frozen dinner is fine if you follow the simple rules we just talked about.
Remember, no matter what you eat, you still have to pull your cards.
And if any of you have any more questions, just drop me a line.
Oh, I'm so glad that today has finally arrived because I've been wanting to share one of my very favorite recipes with you, and today is your lucky day.
I'm sure you have recipes that are tried and true, probably that have been in your family for years,
recipes that perhaps remind you of your childhood when you make them.
Usually the problem with these dishes is that most of them are loaded with fat, which is no doubt why we like them and remember them so well.
Now, the dish I'm going to show you somehow gives that substantial warm, homey feeling, and yet, as you notice, it uses no fat cards at all.
It's a recipe from my first cookbook, which I know you don't all have, so I wanted to share it with you today.
Once you've tasted this, it will become one of your new family favorites because they'll want you to make it over and over again.
The recipe makes an individual serving, so if you have more than one mouth to feed, just multiply the recipe, okay?
So what is it? Oh, I know you're dying to know.
It's called blueberry bread pudding, and sometimes I call it blueberry breakfast pudding because it makes a fantastic breakfast,
and it's ready in an instant because I always make it the night before.
Now, see these ingredients? This is all it takes.
We have one slice of whole grain bread, one cup of low-fat buttermilk, one egg, one tablespoon of sugar,
a half a teaspoon of vanilla, and one half cup of frozen, unsweetened blueberries.
Here's what you have to put with your dealer meal cards.
A bread card, a dairy card, one meat card for the egg, and two fruit cards for the sugar and blueberries.
So how do we make this delicious pudding? Well, I can't wait to tell you, and it's so easy.
First of all, you have to turn on your oven.
Uh-huh. That's the big square thing in the corner of your kitchen.
Come on, dust it off and turn it on to 350 degrees, and while it's heating up, here's all you have to do.
Put all the ingredients except the blueberries in a blender or a food processor and process until blended.
Slowly stir in the blueberries and pour the whole thing into a one-pint baking dish.
That's it. Now you put it in the oven for one hour or until it's set, and there you have it.
A delicious blueberry bread pudding, and it smells so good.
Okay, so if you want to know when you're supposed to eat this, it's really up to you, but I'll tell you what I do.
Now, as I told you, I make this the night before I plan to eat it, and I usually make it when I have the oven on for something else.
Say I'm baking chicken or potatoes or something that takes a 350-degree oven.
Well, I just whip up this pudding and pop it in the oven alongside the other things.
That's called saving energy, when you cook more than one thing at a time.
Now, there's no law that says you can't eat this warm from the oven if you want to, but I've always preferred it cold, so that's why I always let it cool overnight.
Now, if you think that that's too long to wait or you think you might eat it in your sleep, hide it out in the mailbox or lock it in your safe.
But believe me, in the morning, you'll be glad you waited.
Here's the best part. This is the dish that travels really well, so if you decide not to eat it for breakfast, take with you to eat it for lunch.
Or if you have an offbeat schedule and work at night, this will be one of your favorite take-along meals.
What would you have thought you could make something like this just with a little bread and some buttermilk and an egg and a few blueberries?
Maybe, just maybe, you really can enjoy deep-down delicious food that really satisfies you without all those empty calories that come from sugar and fat.
It's worth a try, and I think I'm going to try some right now. Bon appétit.
We're going to talk about friends today. We all need friends. Everybody needs someone to walk with and talk with.
We make friends when we're in high school, in grade school, in college, at work. There is always one person we seem to get along with.
And lots of people make great friends with their neighbors. Having friends can be a lot of fun.
It's great to go out and share good times with our friends, and it's nice to have someone you trust to be there for you when you need support and encouragement.
But as you know, forming friendships with people open you up to the possibility of getting hurt.
We become vulnerable when we let friends in, so we have to be willing to accept that risk.
Sometimes, even though we want the love and support of a friend, a friend's help can seem like a nuisance.
Maybe you're not really in the mood for your friend to help out. Maybe you'd rather just be left alone for a while.
But if you said that to your friend, you might hurt their feelings.
Well, since we're on the subject of friendship, I want to share with you the story of two ladies who have a very special friendship.
A few months ago, I got a letter from a lady named Robin.
She wrote me and told me that she and her friend, Lori, had started on Deal-A-Meal together.
What was so special about Robin's letter was that she wasn't writing to me about herself.
She was writing to me about her friend, Lori. In her letter, she told me how great Lori was doing on Deal-A-Meal.
Imagine. This lady was writing to tell me how great her friend was doing.
Robin wasn't doing so well herself, but she was so proud of her friend, Lori, that she had to write to me and tell me all about it.
And Lori had no idea that Robin was writing to me.
Here is a lady who wasn't jealous of her friend, who was losing more weight than she was.
In fact, she was very proud of her friend's success.
Well, I was so impressed with Robin and her letter that I just had to call her.
When we got on the phone, I told Robin that I was very proud of her for being such a wonderful friend.
We talked about friendship and how friends don't compete with each other. They help each other to succeed.
I told Robin that she was the meaning of a true friend.
Now, a few weeks later, I got another letter from Robin.
She told me how much it meant to her when I called.
She said that she was doing better herself now, that she had gotten back on track, and she was now losing weight, too.
She also told me that her friendship with Lori had grown even stronger,
and they were both encouraging each other to keep going and to make it all the way.
Isn't that a wonderful story?
Here were two people who had formed a real friendship.
What can we learn from Robin and Lori?
Well, first of all, we can learn that a true friend is someone who pushes just far enough to help you,
but steps back when it's necessary.
A friend is someone who is not afraid to tell you what they think, to be honest with you, but not be mean to you.
And a friend accepts you for who you are and doesn't try to judge you or compare you.
A true friend will love you through thick and thin. They will stay there by your side and see you through all kinds of tough situations.
You can always count on a true friend to be there when you need them.
And another thing, a true friend will never let you do something that will hurt you.
They will always try to lead you in the right direction.
Success can break up a lot of friendships. So can jealousy.
You know that we all have a little bit of jealousy in us.
We all are envious from time to time of other people.
But a true friend wants to share in your success and recognize your accomplishments.
A true friend will look beyond their own jealousy and stand behind their friend.
It must have been really difficult for Robin to write that letter to me.
It's hard for people to recognize their friends' accomplishments when they haven't been able to reach their own goals themselves.
But a true friend will have the courage to stand up and recognize you even though it is very difficult.
You know the truest friend you can ever have in your whole life is you.
So learn to be your own best friend first.
And Robin and Laurie, I'm proud of both of you.
You have really taught us the true meaning of friends.
Hi. Have you weighed in yet today?
Don't forget, are you writing your weight down each week and watching your progress?
I hope you are because this is part of the reward, the fun part.
I got some lettuce from people I want to congratulate.
They're enjoying the results of being on Deal-A-Meal.
First we have Ellen in Hicksville, New York.
Ellen's lost 145 pounds.
What an achievement.
Then there is Joy in Pomona, California, who has lost 13 pounds.
And there's Betty in Nutley, New Jersey, who has lost 10 pounds.
I'm delighted with all of you.
It is really great when you get on the scale and the weight is going in the right direction, down.
But what happens when you have a lousy day and you just don't do anything right?
Where is it written you can't have a lousy day?
You got up in the morning and you had two chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.
Okay. You said, hey, this is a lousy day.
So for lunch you said, this is already a lousy day, so let's make it a real lousy day.
You open the jar of mayonnaise and start with the leftovers and then you chow down.
As a matter of fact, you were eating something while you were preparing something else for lunch.
And later someone said to you, did you have lunch yet?
And you said, no. You lied and ate another lunch.
Ay, ay, ay, it's a lousy day.
Then you call up and order a large pepperoni pizza to be delivered and you eat the whole thing.
Let's face it, this is a lousy, rotten day for you.
You ate like there's no tomorrow.
It's as if you were on death row and they said, what would you like for your last meal?
And you said, two chocolate chip cookies, a pepperoni pizza, some leftovers.
What should you do?
Well, you could punish yourself.
You could throw it all up.
People do that. Come on, you know some people do that.
Or you can make yourself completely miserable in thinking that you've thrown away that day
and you can also make everyone else around you miserable.
Or you could just say what it says in Project Me.
Number 11, if I didn't do great yesterday, I will try harder today.
Are you trying harder today?
That means that you have to plan the meals.
That means that you don't grab the chocolate chip cookies.
That means that even if you win a pizza and it's delivered to you on a golden platter,
you will cut it up and put it in the freezer, whatever it be.
It means you will try harder to make better choices and better decisions than you did yesterday.
Yet think about what you did yesterday and where it got you.
Is it two steps forward and three steps backwards?
Are you moonwalking with Michael?
How many of these lousy days are you having each week?
A lousy day here and there is human.
But if you're having a bunch of them, then face it, you're just not committed.
You haven't decided that you were worth it.
You're not sure it really works, and it won't if you let those off days pile up on each other.
This has to be a commitment you renew with yourself every hour of every day.
Hey, you know what?
Next time you crawl out of bed and find your hand in the cookie jar, stop.
I mean it. Just stop it right now. You can do it.
Even if you're already eating a couple of cookies, so what?
That's done. Don't think about the past.
Think about right now and what you're going to do that will be good for you and for your future health.
So if you're having a lousy day, you don't have to have a lousy afternoon and a lousy evening.
You can nip a lousy day right in the bud and say, hey, who wants to have a lousy day?
Not me. I will try harder today and every day.
So get away, you lousy day. I do not like your style.
You suck me in with leery grin and tempt me with your guile.
Today I'm trying harder and there's nothing you can do.
No cookies, pizza, fries or pies can change my point of view.
So get away, you lousy day. Today's a whole new dance.
And I have planned my meals and cards so you don't stand a chance.
Yes, yesterday was lousy, but today's a brand new slate.
So off you go, you lousy day, because now I'm doing great.
Hey, we've been talking about exercise a lot and you might be getting a little tired of hearing all about exercise.
But remember for this program to really work, you not only have to eat properly, you have to exercise.
Well today I want to concentrate on exercise for your upper body.
Now here are your arms. Hello arms.
You may have noticed by now that as you are losing weight, one of the first places you see a difference is in your upper arms.
You might be seeing that the skin is hanging a bit and needs to be tightened up.
So I want to give you some tips on how to tone up this area.
Your upper arms are made up of muscle groups. Do you know what they are?
Well, right here, this muscle is called your bicep.
And this muscle is called your tricep.
Now everyone thinks that the bicep is the biggest muscle, but it's not. It's the tricep.
When you see bodybuilders, they always have huge upper arm muscles.
That's because when they're lifting weights, they focus on this area to give these muscles definition.
Now I don't want you to look like a bodybuilder or the Incredible Hulk,
but you should concentrate on building up these muscles too by toning them and increasing your upper body strength.
Now I'm sure you've seen these little hand weights.
Just kidding. These little hand weights. I'm sure you've seen them because they're so popular now.
These weights range from one pound to five pounds.
Now let me show you a few exercises you can do with these to strengthen your arms.
Let's start with the bicep curl.
Now what you do is you take the weight in your hand and you curl your bicep up very slowly.
The hand weights put resistance on this muscle, so it has to work harder to pull up the weight.
As the muscle works harder, it tightens up, and that's when you begin to develop the muscle tone.
Now working with these hand weights is really easy, and you can use them almost anywhere.
Because they are so small, you can take them to the office with you,
and you can work on them when you're at break time or lunch time.
The important thing to remember about these hand weights is that you will see results.
You have to do repetitions. Do the same number of curls each time.
I like to do about three sets of 12 curls per arm.
If you do too many reps, as they're called, your muscles may become fatigued,
and you won't be able to lift up your arms. I don't want that to happen.
If you don't do enough, you won't see any results.
You can also do your arm curls while you're watching television.
Remember we said that if you're sitting around and not occupied by something, you might get the munchies?
Well, you can make much better use of your TV watching time by doing some arm curls.
You'll be busy enough to keep yourself out of the refrigerator,
and you'll be toning up your arms at the same time.
Remember we talked about the big muscles, the tricep?
Let me show you an exercise you can do for your tricep.
Grab that hand weight, lift your elbow up, and slowly extend your arm back away from your body.
You should do the same amount of these exercises as you did for your biceps, three sets of 12.
And if you look, you can see that muscle working right now.
Having nicely toned upper arm muscles is very attractive, and is a sign that you're in good shape.
You'll vary your exercise routine to include a workout for your arms and your upper body.
Then, when you wave goodbye to someone, you'll be putting your best arm forward.
Buongiorno! Come sta oggi?
Today we're going to talk about one of my favorite types of food, Italian food.
Molto bene, delicioso!
There's something about Italian food that's so romantic.
When I was younger, I lived in Italy for a while.
I learned how to speak the language, and I saw many of the great masterpieces of art.
But most of all, I really got interested in the food.
One of the things I learned about Italian cooking in the old country is that it's very different than here in the new country.
I also noticed that many people over there lived to a ripe old age.
Then I realized that the Italian people prepare foods in such a way that it's lower in fat and cholesterol.
Now, one of the first ingredients that is essential in Italian cooking is olive oil.
That makes sense because there are olive trees all over Italy.
But since the olive is a fruit and not a vegetable, the oil that comes from the olive helps to lower your bad cholesterol without hurting your good cholesterol.
Olive oil ranges from extra virgin, which has the most flavor, so you only need a little teeny bit of it for taste,
to extra light, which is not as strong in taste but is still very flavorful.
You can use olive oil in salads for sautéing and marinating, but remember, even though olive oil helps your cholesterol, it's still very high in calories.
So don't overdo it. One teaspoon of olive oil is one fat card.
The next ingredient that any good Italian chef wouldn't be without is garlic.
Fresh garlic adds zest to almost any dish you prepare, and it's been proven that eating garlic helps to reduce your chances of strokes.
That's because it keeps the blood thin and helps prevent blood clots from forming in your arteries.
Now, I don't expect you to eat cloves of raw garlic, but use a little bit in your cooking for extra flavor.
And for those of you who find garlic hard to digest, there's a new type of garlic on the market today that's milder and is great in food but easy on the stomach.
Fresh vegetables and seafood are the mainstay of most of the dishes prepared in Italy.
There isn't much red meat available in Europe, and since Italy is surrounded by water, there's seafood aplenty for the catch of the day.
And finally, you could not prepare any Italian dish without the numero uno ingredient, pasta.
Pasta comes in all shapes and sizes and can be prepared in so many different ways.
You have regular string spaghetti, linguini, rigatoni, masticcioli, which looks like little pencil points. All different types.
The important thing to remember about pasta is not which type you eat, but what you put on it.
Well, here's what I mean. Let's say you've gotten a taste for good Italian food and you want to eat out.
Well, on an Italian menu, there's lots of choices, but the number one choice for most Americans who eat in an Italian restaurant is Fettuccine Alfredo.
So let's break down this Fettuccine Alfredo and see what really is in it.
One half cup of Fettuccine noodles will cost you one bread card, but in the restaurant you usually get like two cups of pasta, and that would cost you four bread cards.
Now how about that Alfredo sauce? Do you know what's in that sauce? Well, there's butter, cream, eggs, ricotta cheese, and a little Parmesan cheese.
Does that sound like a cholesterol overload or what?
So one serving of Fettuccine Alfredo in a restaurant will cost you a total of four bread cards, six fat cards, and one meat card per serving.
What about the traditional spaghetti and meatballs?
Well, one order of that with two meatballs will cost you four bread cards, four meat cards, two vegetable cards, and one fat card.
So when you're in the mood for good Italian food, what should you order?
Well, you definitely want to stay away from any of the creamy Alfredo sauces or white sauces.
Instead, order spaghetti with the Primavera sauce, which is a meatless sauce prepared with fresh vegetables.
Oh, how about a pasta with a fresh tomato and basil sauce?
Just watch out for anything that says creamy tomato sauce.
When I'm in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs, I usually make my own.
Everyone has their own different recipe for spaghetti sauce and meatballs, but here's a tip that all of you can use no matter how you make your sauce.
Prepare your sauce the day before you are going to serve it.
Let it cool, cover it, and put it in the refrigerator overnight.
The next morning you will see that all the fat has risen to the top of the sauce and has gotten hard.
Just skim off the fat and you will have a spaghetti sauce that is lower in fat and cholesterol without losing a single ounce of flavor.
So, if by chance you find yourself in a romantic mood, create a masterpiece with the best Italian food.
Take care to avoid the creamy sauces wherever you go, and if you do, you will have a meal that is truly magnificent.
Hello. Today is day 119, and I want to talk to all of you who have been successful on Deal-A-Meal,
but who have never written to me, have never acknowledged the fact that you made it,
that you reached a milestone in your weight loss journey.
Why haven't you written me?
Maybe you think I already get thousands of letters and yours would just be lost in the shuffle.
Maybe you think I wouldn't read it, that I couldn't possibly be interested in you.
You couldn't be more wrong.
Your letters are what sustains me and gives me all my energy to keep going.
I love it when you write and share your story and your life with me,
and yes, I do get a lot of letters, and yes, I am very busy,
but I'm never too busy to read what you have to tell me.
I want to know it all. Were you always overweight or did you gain weight as an adult?
If so, why? Was it pregnancy that made you fat? A divorce? A death? I want to know.
I want to be sure that you know.
If you can pinpoint what triggered the weight gain, you are most likely going to keep that weight off.
Some of you write to tell me of the success of your friends,
and I've even had wonderful letters from some husbands boasting about the weight loss by their wives.
But still, no word from you, about you. I'm waiting.
Don't leave it to someone else to write me your story. They might get it all wrong.
I want to know in your own words what Deal a Meal is doing for you.
If you're already at goal, I want to know the steps you're taking to maintain that goal weight.
I want you to tell me about the little successes as well as the big ones.
I know that many of you don't start Deal a Meal as soon as it arrives.
You put it away in the closet, waiting for the right time, after the holidays,
after the birthday party, after the election, after hell freezes over.
Then before you know it, it's been gathering dust for several months while you gain weight instead of losing it,
until something happens and you finally get your Deal a Meal cards out, dust them off, and get serious.
I want to know what prompted you to finally start.
Was it a visit to the doctor? Was it a comment from a friend or family member?
Perhaps it was someone else's success that made you realize you really could be thin and healthy.
Or did you just run out of excuses? Once you started, what kept you going? Who supported you?
What was the hardest thing you had to deal with? Are you still dealing with it?
I'd really like you to tell me about it in a letter.
You know, it's amazing, but no matter how many letters I get and no matter what you tell me,
I find I can always relate in some way to what you are experiencing or what you've gone through.
People who have been through what you and I have gone through have a very special connection.
We all understand each other.
Do you think a naturally thin person could possibly comprehend the sanity of a person
who would drive somewhere in the middle of the night to get a particular candy bar or a couple of candy bars?
Every day you manage to follow your Deal a Meal program. You are a success in my book.
Every day you do the very best you can, you are a success. And every time you have a lousy day
and get back on the program, you are a success.
So why haven't you shared this success with me? It isn't fair to keep it all to yourself.
You should be shouting it from the rooftops. This is no small achievement.
Did you have any idea how many people try to do what you've done but give up?
As you know, it takes tremendous determination, persistence and commitment.
Because you have succeeded. I know you have all three qualities.
I know you wanted to lose weight more than anything.
Something clicked and you decided it was time to put yourself and your health first.
And you did it. Now it is part of your normal routine to exercise on a regular basis
and make good eating choices in the right portions.
You are a success, Dory, and I'm proud of you. So write to me.
Send me your before, during and after photos. Look. Look at these empty frames.
They'd look a whole lot better filled with your special pictures.
So come on. Don't make me wait by the mailbox forever. I'll be watching out for your letter.
Don't forget. And don't forget the photos. I really want to see your photos.
Hey! Do you remember that song by Aretha Franklin? R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Well, the other day that song popped into my mind and it gave me the idea for our word today.
So let's talk a little bit about respect. Our dictionary gives a very simple definition for respect.
Here's what it says. Respect. To have the highest regard for someone or something.
When we talk about respect, we are really talking about how we treat other people and how we treat ourselves.
I remember when I was a child, I was always told, you better respect your elders.
Well, I never really understood what that meant. I just knew that if I ever made any smart,
out of remarks to people who were older, my mother would get so upset.
Respecting people means that we recognize another person's worth.
Everybody has some special talent or qualities that make them unique.
Well, you have to respect a person for their uniqueness.
You have to give a person credit for their talents because in their own individual way,
that person is making a contribution to this world.
Respecting someone also means that you recognize that everybody has their own way of doing things.
Even though you may not agree with the way other people accomplish their goals,
you have to respect a person as an individual.
I mean, this world would be a pretty boring place if we all did exactly the same thing.
When you really respect someone, you must admire that person too.
Maybe that person has a talent that you wish you had.
For example, I really admire someone who can play a musical instrument.
I respect them for taking the time to master their talent,
even though it probably meant many hours of practice and rehearsal.
And it's nice when people share their talents with other people.
How many times have you heard and said to yourself, gee, I really respect her for all the work she does?
Or isn't it great how she finds the time to do this or that when she is so busy?
What you were saying is that you respect that person for being who they are.
Now remember I said that respect involves other people as well as yourself.
Well, let me ask you the million dollar question today.
Do you respect yourself?
Do you consider yourself in the highest regard?
I hope you do by now.
You've heard some of the letters I've shared with you so far from people
who didn't respect themselves or like themselves very much.
But I'll bet you, you can sit down and think about it.
You can come up with lots of reasons why you are so special.
In fact, remember when I asked you to make up that list about why you are such a terrific person?
Well, I hope you saved that list.
If you did, get it out and look it over.
You'll be surprised at how many worthwhile qualities you really do have.
And then you will have a newfound respect for you.
I don't want you to be afraid to respect yourself either.
You do a lot of things that are respectable.
But sometimes we're afraid to admit that we can do something well.
We're afraid to say to ourselves, great job.
There's nothing wrong with recognizing your own accomplishments.
You know, we are our number one critic and our number one judge.
But when we do something outstanding, when we have a talent that's special or unique to us,
we just can't bring ourselves to say, wow, I really admire you.
I want you to get over that fear and look at yourself in a whole new light.
I mean, after all, we've been together for four months now.
Four whole months.
You have hung in there all that time.
You've made the effort to listen to these tapes every day.
You've changed your lifestyle as difficult as it may have been.
Well, I don't know about you, but I would say that is pretty darn commendable.
Finally, with respect comes the realization that you have self-worth.
That's what this program is all about.
You think enough of yourself to want to make the very best of your life.
When you respect yourself, you were saying that you deserve to be in this world,
that you have a contribution to make, and that you are not afraid to stand up for yourself.
You know, you can't put a price tag on your self-worth because it really is priceless.
So don't you ever be afraid to stand up for who you are
and give yourself the credit you deserve because one thing is for sure,
you deserve some R-E-S-B-E-C-T.
Some people were raised on love.
I was raised on grease.
We had frying pans hanging on nails above the stove,
and on the stove was a coffee can filled with lard.
If my father and mother were making eggs, well, they put a little bacon grease in the pan.
If they were making home fries, more bacon grease.
Even if they were cooking eggs, more bacon grease.
I was raised on love.
I was raised on love.
If they were making home fries, more bacon grease.
Even if they were cooking bacon, they'd add extra bacon grease.
I mean, I came out of the womb and I slid right into a household of greasy food.
They added grease to everything, and if a little was good, then a little more was even better.
We had grease in some form at every meal of the day.
Butter melting into the crevices of English muffins, heaps of butter and a baked potato.
That's what made it so good.
If you put a lot of butter in, it would turn completely yellow.
I had never tasted vegetables without some butter or bacon grease added to them for flavor.
I mean, didn't everyone add bacon grease to their string beans?
I don't know too many people who weren't raised on greasy foods.
I mean, look at a typical breakfast with greasy bacon, ham or sausage, fried eggs and fried potatoes.
Then for lunch, those greasy fried bologna sandwiches or the roast beef dipped in that fatty gravy.
Or a fatty hamburger and fries, and of course for dinner, we'd have chicken fried steak.
I mean, I thought you could chicken fry anything, but really, greasy food was all we knew.
We didn't know that food without grease could taste good.
And if it wasn't greasy, well, we didn't even know how to swallow it.
We were brought up on food that just slid down easily.
Well, things have changed in the past decade or so, and we know that if we don't want to clog our arteries,
we should stay away from this kind of food.
Now, I will always love greasy food, but what happens now that I'm in my 40s?
Greasy foods cause major heartburn for me.
I can almost get heartburn from just thinking about food that's greasy.
I mean, forget about eating it.
As a matter of fact, just recently in the South, you know, I travel a lot.
I was someplace and they brought me this dish.
It was some kind of meat with a sauce or gravy on it.
Now, you can always tell a greasy sauce because you can see those little pools of oil floating on the top.
You know what I'm talking about.
So I said, excuse me, what is this?
And they said, well, this is red-eye gravy.
And I never heard of red-eye gravy, so I said, well, what is it?
And they said, oh, it's just a little bit of this morning's coffee and some pig drippings.
Now, that's what I call serious grease.
Grease, fat, it's all the same thing.
You might try to kid yourself and say, well, I've given up butter.
I only eat margarine now.
Big deal.
Your body doesn't care.
Butter, margarine, Crisco, bacon grease, olive oil, they're all 100% grease.
Oh, I know.
Some are better because they're polyunsaturated or they're cholesterol free.
And that's all true.
But whatever their credentials, they are still just plain old fat.
So instead of thinking you're doing good by just replacing one kind of grease for another,
study that fat card and stay within the given portions.
Getting the extra fat out of your food is not only the best way to lose weight,
it's the best way to keep it off.
But you know how slippery fat can be?
Even with the best of intentions, it can slide right back into your food,
right under your very nose.
All those times we take an extra pat of butter, eat a few more nuts,
neglect to order our salad dressing on the side, that fat is creeping back into our bodies.
And isn't that the very thing we're trying to get rid of?
How on earth can we lose the fat in our bodies if we just keep piling more of it right inside our bodies?
It's just plain crazy.
Now don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying you should cut out all the fat out of your food.
Your fat card has a definite purpose.
God made all food for a reason.
So your body does need some fat every day to provide certain fatty acids and vitamins
that it can only get from food.
And as we already said, fat gives food a satisfying special flavor.
If you gave it up altogether, your taste buds would be restless and start craving fat big time.
So a little bit each day keeps things in balance.
It is when extra fat hides in your food that it moves into your fat cells and sets up house.
So I'm sure you see by now that grease is grease and that you can only have it in controlled portions.
But what about all those different spreads that are now on the market?
They're not quite butter and they're not quite margarine.
Well, what are they?
Well, trust me, they're still grease.
I've seen one or two that have six grams of fat in one tablespoon.
So that means you can have a little less than one tablespoon for one fat card.
But if you like a buttery flavor without having to count a fat card or any card for that matter,
feel free to try some of the Shake On Natural Butter Flavored Seasonings.
Just flavor and no fat, great on popcorn or vegetables.
I like to keep some in a salt shaker right on the table.
So be honest with your fat cards and tread with caution in the slippery world of grease.
And don't ever doubt that too much oil is dangerous.
I mean, look at that oil spill in Alaska.
Everyone has the capacity to show emotion.
Emotions are the outward sign of the way we react to the things that happen in our lives.
We laugh at things that are funny.
We cry at things that are sad.
We get angry when things don't go our way.
And we jump for joy when everything is perfect.
Some people are raised to never show their emotions.
They keep their emotions hidden and never let anyone see what they're feeling.
Well, I wasn't raised that way.
I was raised that it was okay to be emotional.
I express my emotions all the time.
I think a person is more full of life when they can express their emotions.
But there are some people who nurture their emotions and express them with food.
These people are called emotional eaters.
I am an emotional eater.
When I am sad, I nurture my sadness with food.
If I'm happy, I celebrate with food.
If I'm angry or upset, I don't yell. I eat.
Every single one of my emotions is wrapped around food.
The problem is, because I'm so emotional, I'd be eating all the time.
The trick I've learned is that you have to get through the emotion without feeding it.
That's a very hard thing to do.
And I admit, I slip every now and then and reach for something to eat whenever I feel emotional.
If you do the same thing, then try to work through your emotions by focusing on something else.
For example, if you're feeling sad,
then maybe you need to just have a good cry to get it all out.
There's nothing wrong with crying.
It's very natural for all of us to cry, whether you're a man or a woman.
So instead of reaching for food when you're feeling down, have a good cry and reach for a tissue.
Some people keep their emotions all locked up inside of them.
Then they use food to build a wall around their emotions so that the emotions won't come out.
That way, they won't have to deal with the emotions.
They can avoid what's really troubling them by surrounding themselves in that comforter of fat we spoke about.
They use the foods as a shield or guard so that they won't have to face up to their emotions.
Well, you know, this is a Catch-22 situation.
On one hand, you don't want to use food to express your emotions.
On the other hand, you can't use food to hide your emotions.
Either way, if you turn to food, you're going to put on weight.
So you have to strike a delicate balance between both of these situations.
I would rather see people express their emotions and deal with them than keep the emotions inside.
I'd rather see you laugh or cry and yell or scream than have a straight face and hide everything.
Once you get that emotion out, it's easier for you to move on.
If you express your emotions, you have a better chance of not turning to food.
Because after a while, people who keep everything in will run out of room.
That's when you see people just fall apart emotionally.
They come apart at the seams.
They just don't have any more room to hide all of their emotions.
There is nothing wrong with being emotional.
Just don't try to hide or camouflage your emotions with food.
Try to work out your emotional problems so they won't cause you another emotional problem.
Talk to someone you trust.
I know I've said this before, but you can't go on living with everything all knotted up inside of you.
Emotions are meant to be expressed.
They are the positives in our lives.
Don't use them to tear down your soul.
Use them to enrich your spirit.
Like I said before, I am an emotional person.
Maybe that's why you relate to me.
How many times have you seen my eyes well up with tears?
I'm the kind of person that lets my emotions out.
I can translate my emotions into laughter or tears or whatever.
And you should do that too.
I've been criticized for my emotions, but that's just who I am.
It's only when you can accept your emotions that you can really find peace.