Yeah. I’ve been guilty of saying that in the past, and that was the excuse being targeted in tonight’s episode. For starters, the teams had an obstacle-filled challenge where they would knock down doors with correct answers to health-related questions. Wrong answer doors led to mud pits! Thankfully, because this episode was only an hour long (thank you, State of the Union), we breezed by the challenge and red team was declared the victor.

The spoils? Full and exclusive access to the BL gym while the Black team was locked out. This led to A LOT of footage of the teams working out both inside and outside the gym. Bob had to find ways to train them without using elliptical machines or treadmills while Dolvett played around with all the “toys” in the gym.

A few highlights:

• Mrs. Claus, AKA Chris, threw a hissy fit after losing the challenge. She wanted to go home, but somehow Santa and Bob talked her out of it.
• Nancy was finally shown working out!
• A check-in with the Aqua team in Chicago by Dolvett. The team has to lose 50 pounds by next week if they want to go back in the ranch. During Dolvett’s visit, they learned about the Biggest Loser Slim Coach, a fancy doodad that monitors the user’s activity throughout the day. I’m interested to see if they’ve lost the weight, I feel like they could add something to the house.
• Conda breakdown…or breakthrough!? Dolvett had to deal with Conda’s sassy self and it was exponentially worse than in previous episodes. She was being so bratty and rude that Dolvett kicked her out of the gym. In Biggest Loser fashion, the producers asked Conda if she felt like she was being disrespectful; She argued that Dolvett was pushing buttons on purpose. OF COURSE he’s pushing buttons! He’s trying to get to the bottom of what she hasn’t in the last 23 years. After a chat, Dolvett laid down the law and told Conda she has to figure out why she’s there and why she’s doing this. (A big, big step for anyone trying to lose weight, IMO)

Time for the weigh in! Black team weighed in first.

Emily -9

Chism-12

Cassandra -6

Jeremy -11

Gail -5

Chris -7

Megan -2

52 pounds in total. Read team needed 49 pounds to win the weigh in.

Buddy -10 (He was at home because his wife gave birth but lost a whole 10 pounds!)

Santa -6

Kimmy -6

Mark -11

Kim -10

Nancy -5

Conda -10

WOW. I was totally not expecting that. I was already thinking she’d gained weight based on the reactions from Dolvett before they cut to commercials. Alas, I was wrong. Conda pulled through, yay breakthoughs!

At the end of the night, Black team voted Gail, Lauren’s mom, off the ranch. It was a pretty close vote between Gail and Mrs. Claus, but we got to see Gail at home. She’s down 58 pounds, has been diagnosed with hip tendonitis and will be trying different things like swimming to lose the weight.

I’ll try to post next week’s preview when I find it. We’ll see if the Aqua team makes it back into the ranch!

Have you had a breakthrough recently? Multiple breakthroughs? If not, what’s the biggest thing holding you back?

Anywhoo, for last week’s episode, Bobby decided to re-do Paula’s shrimp and grits. Paula’s grits were originally filled with cream, butter and salt, so Bobby added a few ingredients while taking away others to lighten the recipe. Instead of grits, which require a lot of ingredients to taste better, Bobby used polenta (after a quick visit to chef Manu Malparta) which need no cream or butter. He added onions, peppers, garlic, crushed tomatoes, adding a whole other layer of taste to the dish.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, Daphne Oz showed up at Bobby’s door. I’m not opposed to guests, but there’s yet to be an episode where BD hangs by himself, I’m looking forward to that one but I feel like brother Jamie and girlfriend Kate are bound to make a cameo. (I can already see the themes: Bro Day and Date Night, respectively.)

Good ol’ Daph, yes, Dr. Oz’s daughter, stopped by to catch up with Bobby, and sample the lightened dishes. And, boy were they light. The shrimp-and-grits-turned-shrimp-and-polenta went from 1,422 calories and 47 grams of fat to 258 calories and 4 grams of fat.

The thing I love about Bobby is that, even as a dude who’s not really into sweets, he still adds a dessert to the 30-minute show!

For episode three, BD lightened Paula’s Fried Apple Pies into No-Fry, Baked Apple Pies. The butter usage went down to about 1 tablespoon (BONUS TIP: Daph says you can replace butter with coconut oil to cook up the apples), along with 3 tablespoons of sugar. The rest was just apples and spices in a flax-and-pecan-filled whole wheat dough. The pies went from 841 calories and 60 grams of fat to 190 calories and 5 grams of fat.

I’m going to take a minute to talk about Paula’s announcement from last week. After three years as a diabetic, PD went public on her disease. Unfortunately, she did this while endorsing a diabetes drug and launching a new site with healthy diabetic recipes (this is also a point of contention). Basically, she’s banked from sharing butter-heavy recipes with Southern food lovers and she’ll be banking as she promotes a “healthier” lifestyle, using drugs to regulate diabetes and not acknowledging any changes to her diet.

As one of the first TV chefs I latched onto while learning how to cook back during my second year at UTSA, I have to say I’m disappointed. You never want to think of someone you learned something from as manipulative. It’s just a little sad.
Anyway, what are some substitutions or additions you make to lighten meals? What are your thoughts on Paula’s announcement?

The show started out with the first temptation of the season. The players were brought into a Chinese food-filled room where Allison explained that there are 41,000 Chinese food restaurants in the U.S., more than McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s combined. Whoever ate the most calories would have a 2-pound advantage and also pick teams for the face-offs this week. I happen to hate the temptations; they’re self-gratifying. It’s really just a way to get them to talk about food lustfully.

After way too much talking and strategy, Cassandra from the Black team ended up eating two 30-calorie fortune cookies for the advantage and the team picking. She choose as follows:

Santa v. Emily, Jeremy v. Lauren, Joe v. Nancy (this didn’t really matter at the end because Joe went home to his family. By the by, what the heck is Nancy still doing there?), Chism v. Kim, Mark v. Mrs. Claus, Megan v. Buddy, Gail v. Kimmy and Cassandra faced Conda. The point was to pair the weak contestants with the strong contestants.

The biggest peg this weak was the competition between Cassandra and Conda. It was a bit much. They had a little Burpee competition using Bosu balls and Cassandra CLEARLY won, but Conda said she was cheating. It was petty, really. A rematch was scheduled for the Last Chance Workout. Really, Conda hasn’t dropped that much weight and Cassandra’s considerably smaller, and much more of a fighter.

The challenge this week called for the teams to carry buckets of tinted water through a serious of obstacles and use the water left in said buckets to melt a giant block of ice. I don’t care for the challenges, y’all know this. This one was no different. In the end, red team won a skyping session with family members back home which is always a sweet point of the season. If only Joe had stayed and helped his team win he could have chatted with his family…sad.

I feel like there was more gym time in this week’s episode. For the rematch, Dolvett had Cassandra and Conda run a length of squares back and forth and then plank their way back through the grid. Cassandra won by a mile. No surprise there.

Time for weigh-ins! Because of Joe’s departure the Black team automatically forfeited a point. Nancy lost 2 pounds. Megan beat Buddy somehow. Gail beat Kimmy who only lost 3 pounds. Jeremy lost 11 pounds to Lauren’s 3, no surprise here. Emily lost 6 pounds to Santa’s 9 and she was visibly upset about it. Chris lost four pounds to Mark’s 8. Chism, the youngest and one of the biggest in the house lost 9 pounds to Kim’s 6. For the final weigh-in, Cassandra lost eight pounds to Conda’s 3, so Black team won the weigh in.

As far as Conda goes, she stood on that scale and made every excuse in the book. One thing Adam, my friend who trains me once a week keeps saying during our work outs is that I’m better than my excuses. He’s totally right. I am. it’s about shutting up and just doing the work. (Sure, sometimes I throw in a sassy comeback, but usually they’re not very good or worth repeating.)

Deliberation time was wonky. I won’t beat around the bush but they sent Lauren home because she “doesn’t have the obstacles everyone else has like kids and jobs and parents” or whatever. It was sad, but really, you could tell it was coming because she had no camera time whatsoever this week.

Lauren’s progress report was good; she’d lost 53 pounds so far and was running a half marathon to prove to herself that she does have an athlete inside her.

Overall, the episode was a little too game-heavy for my taste, but did include some awesome gym time clips. I’m looking forward to next week when Conda faces off with herself and likely Dolvett.

Who’s your favorite so far? I think my money’s on Emily. Here’s the sneak for next week:

Click for video

Bobby Deen’s Not My Mama’s Meals recap up tomorrow!

So of course when I heard Bobby Deen was doing his own show on the Cooking Channel, I knew I had to watch. But wait, there’s more. He’s taking his mom’s recipes (Paula freakin’ Deen) and making them lighter to fit his new lifestyle (I guess he moved to NYC and he’s super buff now). Who wouldn’t love that?

In episode two, Bobby turned Paula’s Pimento Cheese sandwiches and her Ooey Gooey Butter Cake into better-for-you versions of themselves.

Originally, her sandwiches were 736 calories and 57 grams of fat per serving. The cake was 330 calories with 15 grams of fat per serving. Those are kind of scary numbers when you stop and think eating the sandwich and a slice of the cake would be half of your calories (if on a 2,000 calorie-diet). Whoa.

Cute cute!

This week’s show was actually quite fun because Paula surprised Bobby at his apartment. I love her. If I could take her out for a beer or cocktail, I totally would. This put the pressure on Bobby to make the meals just as good as PD’s.

The biggest takeaway from the show is that you can make lighter food without losing the taste. This is actually a huge thing for me because diet food is the least appealing thing on earth. Substitutions are easy when they make sense.

For the Pimento Cheese sandwiches, Bobby replaced mayo with Greek yogurt and added more fresh veggies including a red and green pepper and a touch of jalapeno to give it some kick. For his Gooey (with Less) Butter Cake, he replaced regular cream cheese with neufchatel cream cheese, reduced the sugar dramatically, added only 1 tablespoon of butter (which made for some awesome Paula reactions) and added Greek Yogurt to the topping.

The result was a sandwich with only 261 calories, 6 grams of fat and a serving of cake with 222 calories and 9 grams of fat.

Bonus recipe! Bobby made spicy sweet potato chips that made me want to bust out my mandolin.

Best of all, Paula seemed to enjoy all of the lightened versions (especially the cake). I really do hope we get to see more of her, or at least big brother Jamie.

Highlights:

• Bobby on Paula using her finger to try the pimento: “Oh, I forgot. You’re Paula Deen, you eat with your fingers.
• Van has a crush on Bobby!
• Paula’s reaction to her original cake’s calorie count: “I need a pants-down spanking, don’t I?” Followed by Paula slapping Bobby.

The episode ended with Bobby and Paula passing out box lunches outside Bobby’s apartment. I was terrified they’d get  mobbed! Then we got some history on The Bag Lady, Paula’s first business. It really did leave me wanting more. I’ll be making the spicy sweet potato chips tonight!

Back with another recap this Wednesday!

Look at their tiny little faces

I’ve watched the BL on and off for the last 13 seasons. It’s ridiculously motivational…to a point. I have to remember that it is “reality TV.” Oh, for those new to the blog, and let’s face it, when you don’t blog consistently you lose readers, I tried out for season 9 of the Biggest Loser in 2009. You can read about it here.

Back to the show. This season seems very promising. The players are physically smaller, no more of this 524-pound-man business from a few seasons back. The players came in as teams (brothers, sisters, father-son, mother-daughter, strangers!) but halfway through episode one were split into two teams main teams (red with Dolvett as a trainer and black with Bob), therefore none of the original teammates were together. That’s another thing, there’s only two trainers and they’re both men. It’s a pretty interesting dynamic so far.

I usually watch the show and immediately connect with one or two contestants. This year, Conda and Emily are my two faves. Conda is near my starting weight, and she’s super sassy. Emily is kind of adorable and she uses time as an excuse (hello!).

Emily in Pink

Conda in Green

To be completely honest, I zone out during the challenges. They’re usually some intricate maze of random activities all leading to either immunity or a car or in this week’s case, a six-week supply of Biggest Loser meals (which I’ve heard are actually quite good).

A few highlights of this past episode:

• The show nutritionist took them grocery shopping. It was very educational. The amount of ranch people it is amazing. Ranch isn’t my thing, actually dressing isn’t in general.
• Random tension between trainers. I love you, Bob Harper, but I don’t buy it.
• People actually addressing their issues. It was refreshing.

On the flip side, I always hate, hate, hate elimination. I understand it’s a game, but wow. First of all, the show is two hours long. Why? Because they spend half an hour weighing in people and another half hour voting a contestant off. Oh, don’t forget the 20 minute-long challenge. Seriously, I’d love it if they showed more gym time. Individual gym time?

In the end, food, booze and nicotine addict Mike was sent home. It seems the elimination helped him get to the bottom on his problems and he’s dropped 50 lbs at home.

Anyone else watching Biggest Loser this season? Is it still motivating??

I’ve taken my lunch to work twice this week. That’s kind of huge for me, so there’s that. I’m finally back in the gym and have work out dates planned. Stay tuned for Thursday’s Not My Mama’s Meals recap!

Kickin' off the new year with mustachioed buds

A week into the 2012 and my “goals for the year” are going, slowly. I won’t be divulging the major one yet, because I’m still working on it and because of this little article right here.

As far as the little ones go, I’m making it a point to not do several things this year (and in years to come): I’ve given up soda and fast food. I took both up last year and we all know where that got me, so no more. This actually helps another of my goals which I can share: making and keeping a budget. I’m working on this one as well since I’ll be paying for a lot more things in the new year.

A while back I started taking pictures of myself to keep note of progress. I won’t be doing that on the blog, I’ll be doing that on my twitter feed so follow me there. And if you’re so inclined, you can also keep track of what I’m eating on my Twitter feed, too.

For now, I’ll be posting three little, bitty, pequeno posts a week. One on Sundays for weigh-ins and progress reports, the other on Tuesday after watching Biggest Loser (this season looks legit, guys!) and the third on Thursdays after watching Bobby Deen’s Not My Mama’s Meals, where he takes Paula’s crazy recipes and modifies them into “better for you” recipes.

Oh, I’m working on another project, but I can’t really say much right now. I’m cloaked in secrecy!

But in summation, I’m posting three times a week. You can follow me on Twitter at @shrinkinfoodie and see what I’m up to there.

Oh! My bestie is blogging and you’d be silly not to check her food adventures out. And! My co-worker Stef is also blogging, check her out if you’re looking for a fun creative outlet.

What were some of your goals for the year? Are you telling people? How do you make sure you keep said goals?

Failsauce.

Anywhoo, after not leaving the office for lunch and working until about 7 p.m., I came home, had a sammich for dinner and waited out the droves of college co-eds. Or so I thought.

I strolled into the gym at 9:15ish and there were still a TON of people there. It’s really no big deal, I’m easily distracted by all of them. Oh, I forgot to mention on my way in, a random good looking dude moved out of my way and said “Go right ahead, ma’am.” MA’AM?!

After cycling for 10 minutes, walking on an incline for 10 minutes and 15 minutes on the grasshopper looking elliptical, I stretched and drove home. I had to get that work out in. Sitting in a chair for 8 hours is awful and I was super stressed.

Tomorrow’s work out might have to be a dance party: Covering the Euphoria tour stop with Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull. Or I can squeeze something in during lunch, we’ll see.

I always seem to forget that I need sleep when I work out. We took today off because I couldn’t work out in the AM and we were going to a fashion event in the evening. Tomorrow’s probably going to be an equally long day, but I have to go to the gym.

Let’s discuss: How do you start a work out regimen? Do you plan out how many times you’ll go to the gym, how many times you’ll focus on conditioning, how often you take days off?

Know what isn’t so bad? Being late and still getting a work out in! Woo! (Also, sorry Fidelity!)

After a warm-up walk, nice work out (30 minutes cardio and arm work) and a cool-down walk back to our cars, I drove back home and I was STARVING. Had I not woken up late, I totally would have eaten breakfast before the gym, but I didn’t.

Instead I used my leftovers from earlier in the week to assemble this:

Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Muffin, quiche and fruit

Came in totally handy. And now, I can go get ready for the day! What’s everyone doing this weekend? Happy Friday, folks.

And because I get carried away (and I should probably look into why), I made two batches of muffins: one sweet, one savory.

For the savory muffin, I went with the bacon-cheddar corn muffins I found on Cooking Light. The magic word was bacon. It’s also relatively low in calories, has 4 grams of protein and less than 300 milligrams of sodium. The recipe says to stir until moist so don’t overdo it. Otherwise you’ll end up with flat muffins like mine Bonus: The apartment smelled of bacon for the rest of the night.

For the sweet muffins, I remembered a recipe a friend on Facebook had shared more than a year ago. You mix a 15.25 ounce can of pureed pumpkin, a cup of chocolate chips and a spice cake box mix. Mix until well combined and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. I cut down the chocolate chips to a half. Update: If I did my math correctly, the chocolate pumpkin spice muffins are 194 calories each. Huzzah!

Muffin Party

I’m not sure if these would be the best muffins to freeze, and they’re pretty tasty so why would you wait? I took them to work in the AM and made everyone re-heat them for about 15 seconds each. Who likes cold muffins?

You can find more recipes at Cooking Light, Eating Well and Women’s Health.