August 10, 2008
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Healthy Thoughts/Healthy Actions
Weight Watchers Newsletter #19
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 Happy August!
This is such a busy time for me in planning the festival (see below) that this will ideally be a shortish newsletter. And since my festival falls 2 weekends from now I am afraid this newsletter will not get sent again until likely mid-week of the week following, just so you know!
I hope to address an interesting issue here which comes up frequently in our meetings. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
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 Meeting Topics / Late August
This week we will making a game of this Weight Watchering business. Like the Bejing athletes, we are in a competition too. Let's make it fun!!
And the week of the 17th we will be looking at how we set goals: what is realistic for short term, and looking ahead.
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RECIPE FOR THIS ISSUE
The apples are coming...The apples are coming!! I live on an orchard and they are falling all around me, and I'll bet you are in the midst of them as well. So I hope to provide a few good recipes for them in the coming months. Here is a remarkably low point yummy-sounding recipe! .
 Apple Phyllo Pie
Cooking hints: Brushing the sheets of phyllo dough with a mix of honey and warm
water rather than melted butter keeps the fat content in check. You
could also use butter-flavored cooking spray instead.
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
5 Gravenstein or Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp flour 1/4 cup honey 2 tbsp warm water 6 sheets 9-inch by 14-inch phyllo dough Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Coat a 9-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking spray.
Peel, core and slice apples thinly. Combine apples, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon and flour in a large bowl and set aside.
In a small pitcher or bowl, mix honey with warm water.
Stack six phyllo sheets on a clean surface. Working quickly,
brush the top sheet with the honey mixture and lay on the pie plate.
Push the dough into the plate, leaving the sides overhanging.
Brush the next sheet and lay on top of the first sheet.
Brush the third layer and lay it so that the sides overhang the
opposite side of the plate, making a cross shape. Do the same with the
fourth sheet.
Brush the fifth sheet with honey and lay it at an angle to the
other sheets, and lay the sixth sheet at the opposite angle to the
fifth.
Spoon apple mixture into the pie plate, forming a large mound.
Gather overhanging sides of phyllo sheets up to form a
galette-style pie (where some of the fruit remains exposed in the
center).
Place in the oven and Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Serves 6-8
Per Serving: Calories 173, Calories from Fat 9, total Fat
1g (sat 0.3g), Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 60mg, Carbohydrate 39.9, Fiber
2.5g, Protein 1.1g 3 pts per serving (most apple pies are 9 pts!!)
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 A Very Important Topic
In a meeting this week I was asked a question that gets asked frequently, in a variety of ways, so I thought I would address it here.
Harvey from Sonoma asks....
"How do I eat sensibly in restaurants?"
Those of you who have been following the program for awhile are likely aware of most of this, but just to do a capsule answer to this, here are some ideas.
1) BREAKFASTS: Skip the pancakes and waffles, and opt for eggs, or ideally egg beaters, or egg whites. A large egg beater omelete, with vegetables, salsa, olives, no cheese, will set you back 2 points! Have an English muffin and a couple of slices of Canadian bacon, or a fruit salad and you have added another 3-4 points. Oatmeal is also a great option, but ask for fresh berries, instead of dried, and non fat or soy milk.
2) LUNCHES: There is a myth that "salad" is a "diet" food, and that either means we assume every salad is low fat, or we are sick of them. First of all, many salads in restaurants are as fattening as a burger, so do not get sucked in by the name. Good choices for salads are: Grilled chicken or fish on top of greens, lots of veges, a Southwestern-style salad with whole beans, grilled chicken, salsa and greens, or a seafood salad, ala a shrimp or crab louie. Watch out for heavily mayonaissed salads, or ones full of sugary or heavy dressings and fried meat or chicken.
But there is no crime in having sandwiches. Choose bread wisely: whole wheat is the best, or a thinly sliced rye. Turkey, chicken, or avocado and vegetables are great choices. Skip the cheese, and the mayo, but load up heavily on all the veges and mustard, pickles, etc.
And soups can be great as well: just avoid the cream soups, unless they contain no dairy (some cream soups are made by pureeing cooked vegetables).
3) DINNER: There are so many ideas here I could write a book, but here are some basics:
In ethnic restaurants steer clear of the fried foods and the ones smothered in cream, or coconut-milk based sauces. Choose the vege and meat, chicken, tofu or fish dishes with lots of veges in lighter sauces or in soups. If you can, get brown rice instead of white. Watch out for noodle or pasta dishes, as they are usually heavliy oily or in cream or cheese sauces.
In basic "California cusineish" restaurants choose grilled fish, chicken, meat, etc, and if sauce comes on it, ask for it on the side. A baked potato is great, if you are fine with having salsa or Worcheshire sauce on it. Otherwise have rice. Ask for the veges without butter on them. Always order a salad first, with the dressing on the side, and dip your fork in the dressing, and then take a forkful of greens. You use vastly less dressing that way.
In Mexican restaurants my favorite thing is the fajitas, which need be ordered grilled without heavy oil. You have control over the tortillas, so ask for corn, as they are 1 pt each (flour can be as much as 3). Ask for whole beans and skip the cheese and sour cream. A tostada is also delicious, again without the cheese and sour cream, and just don't eat the fried tortilla.
Hope this gives you some ideas. I would love to hear feedback from you on this!
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A New EarthAwakening to Your Life's Purpose
by Ekhart Tolle
ekhart tolle CD 5
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Don't Miss it!!
The Bodega Seafood Art & Wine Festival is Coming Aug 23 & 24!!
I have been the producer of this festival since it started 14 years ago, and it is a wonderful event. Excellent entertainment (Tommy Castro, Mitch Woods, etc), awesome food (save your points, but there are some surprisingly healthy options here...), an impressive wine and microbrewed beer tasting and wonderful art and fine craft. It is a benefit for the California State Parks in the Russian River region (Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods) as well as the Bodega Volunteer Fire Dept, so come have a great time and support these wonderful organizations!
www.winecountryfestivals.com
And a special thank you to all of you who volunteered to work! We really appreciate it!
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For Your Information..
Life Coaching
 Besides being a Weight Watcher leader, I am a trained Life Coach specializing in weight managment issues. You may be coming to meetings, knowing full well what you should be doing, but not doing it. Would you like to understand why? Life Coaching goes far beyond Weight Watchers and explores what goes on deep inside that keeps us from seeing our dreams become reality.
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"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
--Maya Angelou
Lots of love and joy to all of you!
- Janet Ciel
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