Diets schmiets

Well, evidently the newest diet craze is the Wheat Belly Diet.  As I understand it, the wheat we have these days is evil, unlike anything our parents knew as wheat, and if you are fat it's because of wheat.  It isn't all that fast food or potato chips or candy or cookies or french fries you consume...  oh no, it's the wheat.  Give up wheat and you can have all the sugar and lard you want.    
I'm sure that isn't an accurate description of the diet, since my only knowledge of this new fad is from a five-minute TV interview some news guy had with the doctor who came up with the idea.  I have never hopped on any of the diet bandwagons, because most of the faddish ones tell me about all the foods I can never eat again.  Spoiled little five-year-old Donna still lives at my core, and if you tell me I can't have something, that is exactly what I'm going to have.  

Oh, and I am STILL looking for someone who lost weight on the Atkins diet and kept the weight off.  But I digress.  

Cliff and I are still staying on target with our weights.  He got down to 211 when he was sick, and it would have been nice if he could have stayed at that number.  But he hadn't eaten for so long, I felt he needed some food.  We hope now to simply keep him under 220, which we realize is more that he should weigh according to the experts, but it's an attainable goal.  I am getting awfully close to 150 and a size 10, but I want to stay at the size 12 I'm wearing now.  Cliff agrees, saying I start to lose my shape if I get thinner than I am now.  That's where it gets so easy to get off the mark:  I start thinking things like, "Dang, I could stand to gain five pounds, let's go eat pizza!"  
I still rely on Sparkpeople.com to keep me honest with my calories.  There are other sites that help keep track of calories for you, but I have added so many of my own personal recipes with nutrients and calories that I am bound to stay with Sparkpeople.  Just this morning I added "Average Jane's Beef Enchiladas" and was pleasantly surprised to learn that if I made it 8 servings, one portion is only 530 calories.  This is good stuff, and it freezes well.  We'll have it for dinner today and again tomorrow, then freeze the rest.

Ingredients 1 1/2 lb ground beef 1/4 cup diced green pepper 1/2 cup diced onion 1/3 cup taco sauce 1/2 tsp pepper 1 tsp garlic chopped 1 can refried beans 1 small can chopped black olives 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese 2 10-oz cans enchilada sauce 1/2 package corn tortillas Nutritional Info Fat: 38.8g Carbohydrates: 16.3g Calories:530.6 Protein: 28.7g Brown the hamburger with green pepper, onion, black pepper and garlic. Stir in the refried beans, olives and taco sauce and simmer lightly. Remove from heat. Combine the enchilada sauces in a medium saucepan and warm on the stove. Dip each tortilla in the sauce, spoon in beef mixture, sprinkle with some cheese and roll. Place in a 13x9 pan. Repeat until pan is full (single layer). Pour remaining sauce over all and top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 until sauce bubbles and cheese melts. Let sit about 5 minutes before serving.  Serving Size: serves 6 at 707 calories or 8 at 530 calories Number of Servings: 8

Anyhow, that's why I stick with Sparkpeople.  I'm sure I have at least 50 of my own recipes there, and I am not about to leave them behind.  Here's an example of how the recipe calculator shows all the nutrients in a recipe.  This is for the above recipe:

  
 There are lots of good things in that dish!  The sodium, of course, is from the canned ingredients like the enchilada sauce, refried beans, and the olives.  I can type the ingredients to any recipe in the recipe calculator and find out calories per serving.  

I'm still off Facebook, working on getting my blogging mojo back before I return.  I'm starting to get back to the old feel of things.  I know blog entries about food and diet are boring, but this is what's on my mind today.  Besides, I intend to be very open and honest about how well Cliff and I are maintaining.  My readers can keep me accountable.