Eating And Watching Your Weight

From time to time I discover some great blogs and web sites on the subject of food. The most common way is someone leaves a comment @ Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen or sends me an email and I quickly take a look at the site they link to. Roni's Weight Watchen Page & the sister blog of Green Lite Bites (spelled GreenLiteBites) are two such web sites. A couple of weeks ago, Roni left a comment here, and I clicked to see her web site. It turned out to be an interesting experience.

As the title says, Roni's Weight Watchen Page, is about watching weight. Yet, just a cursory examination of the site tells us a great deal more. Roni is honest. She tells us how she had to deal with eating disorders (a lot more common than some of us would think), and her constant battle with weight gains and loss. Her page devoted to her story is an eye-opener.

One of the posts at Roni's Weight Watchen Page is entitled, Fast Food Fiasco – A Rant. The first time I began reading this post as I read the first paragraph, I was sorely disappointed. Here is a supposed Weight Watching Blog and the author begins by telling us:

Let me start at the beginning….

I’ve had a long busy day, running here, running there, trying to squish too many things in 24 hour period as usual. There was no time for dinner so I decided the little guy and I would hit the drive thru on the way to the gym. I really wanted Chick-fil-a but Burger King was on the way so I settled. I should go on the record as saying I think Burger King has the worst options for anyone who is WeightWhatchen but that’s not he point. So I order the best I can…

For the toddler - Kid’s Meal with 4 Chicken Nuggets, applesauce and a milk

For mommy - A Tendergrill Chicken Sandwich no mayo and a bottle of water

Not too bad for a meal on the run, although not my first choice.

I scratched my head here. Most of the regular readers @ Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen know that I do not mind fast food from time to time, though I think it is mostly horrendous on the taste buds, on health and on everything else you can think of. But fast food is really part of our way of life and does serve a purpose from time to time.

But what the hell is someone who is devoting a blog about Weight Watching talking about fast food for?

It took me a minute to discover that is part of Roni's charm. She is HONEST. She is STRAIGHTFORWARD. She admits to the foibles and mistakes we all make in eating and would like to forget. That is really a plus.

She ends the piece, Fast Food Fiasco – A Rant, as follows:

So that’s it. That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back. I am TIRED of paying for bad (UNHEALTHY) food and bad service at these “fast” foods joints. I’m done.

My husband is not going to like this, but I am starting a boycott of fast food restaurants that do not provide good service or good food. Life is too short to waste a meal on junk and deal with bad service.

Will you join me? Can you do it? Can you vow to avoid fast food? Are you already doing it? Let me know and spread the word.

Well Roni, I wont vow to avoid fast food for the rest of my life. But I will avoid it as much as humanely possible. (Though I really have to remove Pizza from the list!)

What makes Roni even more charming and certainly fun to read is her Green Lite Bites blog. Here she has a constantly growing compendium of recipes, which include the "why" as well as the "how". And unlike yours truly @ Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen she has begun adding videos of herself making the recipes. (Don't even think it folks! I am not yet at the stage where I will do a video. Almost though. Sometime in 2008 I may surprise you!) Just for an idea take a look at her Vegetarian Chili over Spaghetti Squash. She also uses Cumin in the recipe so she made a fan of me right from the get go.

Roni also offers nutritional information with her recipes. The following is from Vegetarian Chili over Spaghetti Squash.

I also happen to like her humor which comes out not only in the recipes but even in her photographs. I ripped off one picture from the recipe Vegetarian Chili over Spaghetti Squash (and I hope Roni forgives me for this) just to give you an idea.

Roni also categorizes her recipes in interesting ways.

• Bites By Meal
• Bites By Type
• Bites By Ingredients
• Other Categories

Of course, not all the recipes here are kosher, but Roni cooks healthy, and almost all of those that I viewed, can easily be made kosher with a bit of thought and inspiration.

All in all Roni's Weight Watchen Page & the sister blog of Green Lite Bites (spelled GreenLiteBites) should not be missed. These are real good sites by a "real" person, not ashamed to admit her mistakes and her battle with the food monster.

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Tags: Cooking, Baking, Recipe, Cooking Related Appliances, Humorous Stories, Ingredients, Kitchen Appliance, Parve (Meat or Milk) Recipe, Kitchen Utensils, Kosher, Meat Recipe, Milk Recipe, Kosher Home, Spices, Single Parenting, Vegetarian, Cooking Stories