New video, plus Medifast Double Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe!

Here ya go:

Click on this link to see my latest CruzTube video, about teasing your hair!

Also, at lunch, I made some Medifast Double Chocolate Chip Cookies using the Medifast Brownies mix.

Ingredients:

--one packet Medifast Brownie mix
--one packet Splenda (I used the kind with fiber) or a few drops of liquid Stevia
--2 tbs. water

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl until they form a cookie-type dough. Using a spatula, scrape every bit onto either parchment paper or a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam, then bake for 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 3 cookies.

I kind of accidentally overbaked mine, so they turned out kind of too-brown at the tips, but still were soft and chewy on the inside. Also, if I were to give advice, I'd tell you to flatten the cookies out with a fork. :)

I enjoyed that meal!

My first recipe on CruzTube! Low-Calorie Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo using Miracle Noodles

I renamed my YouTube channel the CruzTube! because it seemed fun. Call me silly. :)

Click this link to see my first recipe video that I SLAVED over... it's Low-Calorie Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo using Miracle Noodles.

Click here to see my first recipe video on CruzTube!

I love me some Miracle Noodles... a bag of them count as a full GREEN serving on the Medifast Lean & Green meals (but Nutrition Support says to make them an infrequent green choice, like maybe once or twice a week max). I ate more last night, so that's two nights in a row. Last night I did a crab mix (for all you sushi lovers out there).

Click this ad with the Miracle Noodles pictured below this text if you want to purchase some noodles to try for yourself, but be sure to watch my video to see HOW I prepare them. The preparation is crucial!

Here are the fettucini noodles I used:



Here are the angel hair version of the noodles, which I think is the best choice for shirataki beginners:

Tips to increase your water intake

We all know we need to drink more water, since the body is mostly made up of water. I read in a weight-loss book more than a decade ago that the more water you drink, the more weight you lose. I also know a man, George Wyatt, who gave me a huge tip when I was trying to lose weight for the Miss Louisiana 2005 pageant. He said he had lost 45 pounds by drinking *16* glasses of water every day BEFORE NOON. Can you imagine? Well, guess what-- I started doing it... it wasn't the easiest thing ever... but I DID it... and I got down to my goal weight.

To increase your water intake, invest in a good water bottle. You see on the left my favorite one because it's big.





Studies show that if you bring a water bottle with you, you will drink more than if you rely on flying by the seat of your pants, using water fountains, etc. Also, if you are picky about the taste of your water, see my Bobble water bottle in the middle. It has a filter!

On the right and front and center, you see Crystal Light. Get those low-calorie water supplements to up the taste of the water. I'm about to try some Mio water enhancer today, so I'll let you know how that goes. :)

My first YouTube hair tutorial!

Click this link to see my first tutorial:

How to get Kardashian curls using hot rollers

So excited and proud! :) I know the video quality is not the best, but I'm using my laptop's built in camcorder. :)

Below are the tools and products I used in the tutorial.

This set of hot rollers is the BEST EVER. I own about 4-5 kinds of hot rollers, including some from Conair (and I'm sure you have some like the ones I'm talking about... I have the jumbo set of rollers, the travel set, the different size set, etc.)... these rollers don't even COMPARE because they are far, far better. I asked Nathan to buy them for me for my Valentine's Day gift because they are THAT GOOD. They have a ceramic core which heats up quickly, and they are the only rollers that work on damp hair instead of just dry (although I tried that once and it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped, but it's nice to know they can). I also love the stand-up on their side feature because they take up less space on my too-cluttered bathroom counter.

Update because of confusion from a friend: "Unfortunately, they're not available except online. I looked all over for them in Monroe salons, but they're only available for purchase through the web. Here is my Amazon Associates account link for you... I joined so I could share the CHEAPEST prices with my friends on my blog! Nathan bought them for me at $80 plus shipping and handling, but that was in February and it looks like now they're down to $68.99. They are worth every penny. Don't worry about separately purchasing those heavy duty hair clips I used in the video, because they come WITH the rollers! I should update/edit my blog to make that clear!!!"



I just like Garnier hair spray because it smells good... but it doesn't perform as well as other stiffer-hold products. At least, not for me. But my hair will smell nice!



This is the salon spray I was telling you about in my video. I first learned about it from 2004 Miss Louisiana Jennifer Dupont after she won 1st Runner-up to Miss America. She was telling me about this super-cheap, awesome hairspray that smells great and holds amazingly. I bought some, and never looked back! You can find it in the hair product section in Walmart that has hair relaxers.
 


Bed Head products all smell great and work well. This product is lightweight, and doesn't make my hair greasy at all. On television, it was great for giving that healthy sheen.



Best teasing brush ever! How did I ever get by all these years teasing with a comb?!



Hope this blog helps you in your quest for awesome hair. :) Please comment and let me know your thoughts! 'Cuz I made this video and posted these recommendations for YOU! :) :) :)

Good Friday, Earth Day and long blog

Since I'm off work today (yay working for a family-owned news station instead of a corporate-owned one!), I'm enjoying the day and catching up on belated housework. I have a LONG list of to-do cleaning items, so I'm effectively procrastinating by blogging. :)

First of all, my friend Dr. Attapol Kuanliang (professor of Criminal Justice at ULM) is on a flight AS I TYPE, right now, with President Jimmy Carter! Here is the pic he texted me:

Isn't that cool? Attapol said he's seated in the first class and the President is there. He says he almost cried when he shook hands with him and he can't stop looking at him, so the Secret Service agents are looking at him funny now.

Anyway, I have a ton of food pictures/recipes to post, so let's get started. Oh, by the way, I'm down another pound. That makes 9 pounds gone in 9 days!

For breakfast, I made Medifast Caramel Chocolate Chip Pancakes. All I did was make the regular Chocolate Chip Pancakes according to the boxed instructions, and topped it with Walden Farms Calorie-free Caramel Sauce and Walden Farms Calorie-Free Pancake Syrup (if you haven't started using Walden Farms Calorie-Free products yet, YOU NEED TO START RIGHT NOW!!!), as well as some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray.

That's what it takes to make them oh-so-delicious. It's the extras that really MAKE the dish delish!




Sometimes, when I'm feeling particularly indulgent, I'll add a squirt of Fat-Free Redi-Whip on that. That feels like I'm cheating, but I'm not! Here is the final product, half-eaten:

Sorry it's almost all gone, haha!

Another fun recipe I tried today... Medifast CANDY! Yup, good old candy.



Ingredients:                                                                                                 

--one packet Medifast Hot Cocoa
--3 tbs. Walden Farms Calorie-Free Pancake Syrup   

Mix the two ingredients together and put them on parchment paper (although I sprayed a metal pan with non-stick spray). Freeze for 1-2 hours.

I froze them for too long, so I had to microwave them for a few seconds so they'd be edible. They were good!

I also made a honey bun recipe. It was OK, but I wouldn't recommend it. It came out hard, and I like my baked goods to be soft and chewy. Maybe I baked them too long, but the flavor wasn't enough to entice me to try a second batch.

Tonight, I plan on having a crab salad for dinner. :)

I'm trying to post on YouTube a video I slaved over yesterday... a cooking video of me showing how I make 350-calorie Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo using Miracle Noodles. It's a Medifast Lean and Green. Hopefully I can get it to work and upload today, so I can post it to this blog!

Hope everyone is having a great Good Friday and Earth Day!

Lost Another Pound, Found a Baby Bird

I'm down another pound today, making a grand total of 8 pounds gone in 8 days. That's a wonderful thing! I bet I would have lost another extra pound or two if I hadn't chosen canned chicken one night for a lean, and an Appleby's steak with cheese for another lean. I notice when I eat sodium-filled foods, I won't lose anything.

When I came home on my lunch break just now, I walked my dog Mogwai (whose picture you see at the top of this blog). On the way back in, I found a BABY BIRD that was obviously alive on the ground. 

He was a strong little booger, because he was lifting his little head! I had no idea what to do because there is a mean, huge cat that roams the parking lot who attacked Mogwai yesterday. I just knew that cat would kill this bird if it found it. I also know you're not supposed to mess with wild animals, but this bird's nest was probably up high on the roof of our third-story apartment complex.

So I had one of the apartment workers pick it up (using soft paper towels) and put it in a lined box. I brought the box to the apartment complex main office and left it with a worker there. That may seem like a terrible cop-out, but I am on my lunch break and have to go back in to work... oh, right about now! I hope that bird turns out ok. Bless his little heart!

**Later in the day update** Some people on my Facebook account commented on the baby bird's picture that I posted, and said sometimes a mother bird will see something wrong with the baby bird and push it out of the nest. This baby bird, although you can't see it in the pic, has a swollen bottom. I don't know if it hatched from an egg that way, because I found a half-broken eggshell about 10 feet away.

Here is a picture of Mogwai in the Shreveport Mardi Gras pet parade, the Krewe of Barkus and Meoux. He hated his costume, obviously, but the crowd loved it! He was a huge hit with the kids!

I lost 7 pounds in one week!

Now that I'm back on the 5 & 1 fat loss phase of Medifast, I feel GREAT, and I have lost 7 pounds in 7 days! I have been following the plan, drinking tons of water, and exercising for 30 minutes of cardio at the gym every day. The exercise is optional, but it makes me feel cleansed when I work out.

I have hit my "stride" and the plan is effortless. It wasn't even a struggle to start because I was so motivated. I had bloodwork done last Tuesday, and the doctor said I had high cholesterol (229! ACK!) and high triglycerides. The office wanted to put me on medication, but I said I had a plan (hello, Take Shape For Life!) and to give me two months to lower that number. The person on the line sounded very dubious. My Filipino physican in my former town of residence said if I was told to take meds, I should take them, since your body produces half the cholesterol and only the other half is produced by what you eat... but I have such faith that having this health program and exercising will make a tremendous difference in my numbers. I told her to give me TWO MONTHS so I could make the difference on my own, then if the numbers hadn't changed at that point (which I KNOW they will have), I will take meds.

Plus I'm too young to be on cholesterol medication, anyway. :)

Beef-- it's what's for dinner (with salad, of course)

I used some pre-made fajita strips and weighed out 5 oz. of them. I chopped some lovely, fresh lettuce (kept so fresh by my Green Boxes-- they make fresh veggies last SO much longer!) and topped it all with some ranch salad spritzer and Walden Farms 0-calorie Caesar dressing. Yum!

I love to buy fresh produce, but before I purchased veggie-keeper boxes, I would WASTE probably tens of dollars because I wouldn't eat the fruit or veggies in time before they went bad.  Now, because I use green boxes, I'm all set!

Cheesy Chicken "Enchilada" from Medifast Cream of Chicken Soup

This morning, I made an Enchilada out of the Medifast Cream of Chicken Soup!

Ingredients:
--a packet of Medifast Cream of Chicken Soup
--3 tbs. of water
--slice of fat-free cheese (not recommended by Medifast, but can be counted as an optional condiment)

Mix the soup with the water to form a paste. Spray a plate with non-stick Pam, and ladel the soup mixture into the plate. Microwave it for 90 seconds. Cut a slice of fat-free cheese in half and place the cheese length-wise in the middle of the tortilla. Microwave that 20 seconds to melt it. Fold the sides of the tortilla inwards like an enchilada, and dig in!
Sooo delish! Kinda tastes like cheating. :) Be sure to take tiny bites so it lasts longer.

Today, I'm wearing a blue dress that I don't love because it makes me look pregnant. Literally, the last time I wore it (about a month ago), I had a cashier ask me, "When are you due?" I had to inform her, with a polite smile, that I am NOT pregnant, just chubby. She was sooo embarrassed, but I told her it was fine-- the embarrassment should be on MY side for looking like I'm carrying a baby when I'm not!

Fun pampering/indulgences

Today I got a funky, trendy pedicure. I call it my Ke$ha pedi because the pop star always wears blue lipstick or something like that... Whenever I do a lot of exercise, I always feel that I EARNED the indulgence of a foot massage. This was a nice treat!

For dinner, I mixed 6 oz. (was supposed to be 7 oz. for a full Medifast LEAN option, but I forgot the extra ounce) of canned tuna with 2 tbs. of reduced fat mayonnaise for 2 healthy fat servings. I seasoned the mixture with lemon pepper and Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning. I divided the tuna salad up amongst green, leafy lettuce, like a tortilla wrap but the lettuce was the tortilla... and it was so fresh and delicious! And I normally hate tuna!

Today at work, I had the pleasure of seeing a fun promo I had written come to creation. I'll try to upload the finished product tomorrow... it's super-cute in a cartoon-y way. :)