Do You Believe in Miracles?

Fellow eaters may consider a 0 calorie food a miracle. I kind of do, although in my dreams we’re talking pizza, cookies, ice cream or donuts….

MMmmm donuts.

…but I digress.

I decided it was time to put the famous (or is it infamous) Skinny Noodles to the test. I’ve eaten them a few times specifically to review, but never really got around to posting. Mostly because I wasn’t sure how to approach the controversy of it all.

On one hand, a 0 calorie food intrigues me, not because I think I can eat as much of it as I want or use it to reduce my calories to unsafe amounts, but because I believe in "bulking." It was something I learned to do way back in my Weight Watchers days.

As I say in this post I wrote FIVE YEARS AGO, (Holy Shnikes!) I do things like bulk up my chili with zucchini, add fresh fruit to my cereal and my burgers looked more like a salad then anything else. This is "the Volumetric" way of eating and I do it pretty intuitively anymore.

On the other hand, I tend to be suspicious (VERY suspicious) of any food that calls itself "skinny" or "a miracle" and, well, contains 0 calories.

What the heck is it made of?

Good question!

Besides water the main ingredient is Konnyaku Yam Flour (Glucomannan)

Apparently Konnyaku Yam (also know as konjak, konjaku, or konnyaku potato) is cultivated in Japan and looks like this…

Puurty.

(Thanks to PseudoGil for the image.)

It’s a root they grind up, turn to flour and make noodles out of. How is that any different then grinding up wheat and making pasta?

For some reason this made me feel a little better. I decided to give it another go last night. Join me on my Skinny Noodle adventure!

First, I cut open the bag and poured the noodles in a fine strainer.

I didn’t notice the "fishy" smell at first, but when you stick your nose right over them there is a distinct odor of seafood. It reminded me of what boiling shrimp or a pile of shrimp shells smell like.

It didn’t bother me much, I just rinsed them and separated the noodles.

They definitely have a gel like texture.

This is when the husband came in and asked what I was doing. When I told him he made his typical grossed out face. I missed it and only got this blur of a smile.

I poured the noodles on a clean kitchen towel to soak up some of the additional water.

Since the noodles have basically no nutritional value I deiced to add some kale in the mix. It’s also super low in calories BUT serves as a nutritional power house. According to WebMD, one cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.

I heated a skillet over medium-high heat, sprayed it with non-stick cooking spray and add about a cup of kale.

Toss it for a a minute with 2 tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt and –BAM–

cooked kale.

I added the skinny noodles and tossed it without the kale over the heat until the noodles didn’t stick together as much. About 2 minutes.

The kale got a little crispy and the noodles were warmed through.

The kale and the noodles looked so pretty, this is when I realized I probably could have just sautéed them in a little olive oil and garlic and been done.

But I had homemade sauce and shredded Parmesan cheese!

I have to say, the result was delicious!

I mean, it’s not traditional pasta by any means. The texture is more gel like, but it’s filling, and it gives you that spaghetti mouth feel. At the end of the day, it’s a noodle. It tastes like what ever you put on it. That’s what noodles do.

I don’t think I’d eat it all the time but it makes a great pantry item. Especially for those bottomless pit days when nothing fills you up and you’ve already went way overboard in the food department. Not that I ever do that or anything.

Ok, I’m ready to hear it all in the comments. Thoughts on the noodles? Hate? Love? Curious? Never tried? Lay it on me. I’m sure some of you have pretty strong opinions.

Note: Although I have purchased other brands in the past out of curiosity, Genki USA, Inc. sent me this sample bag back in May of this year. They did not compensate me in any way for writing this post. All opinions expressed are my own. If you are interested in trying Skinny Noodles click here to order them off amazon and I will make a small percentage of the sale.

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I Still Believe

If there’s a theme song for perseverance, determination, and…in the footsteps of my last blog…resilience, it’s “I Still Believe” by The Call. When I listen to it, I believe I can do anything. Michael Been sings as a man who’s been to heartache and back many times, and the contemplative lyrics were meant for such a voice as his. And mine. And yours. And anyone else who’s not given up.

So much of what we strive to do in our lives – what we really deep down want to achieve – is in defiance of what we’ve been told (by others and ourselves) we can’t do. How many times have you lost weight, only to gain it back? How many times have you started exercising, only to quit after a few months? When have you heard (and by whom?), “You can’t do that! You tried before and failed! Come here. Have a cookie.”

<--------raising my hand

We all have a voice inside us urging us on, telling us what it thinks we should do. Often times, it’s a not-so-wholesome plea: “____ will like me more if I do _____.” “I’ll be happy if I just do ______.” “Life will be perfect once I have ____.” But sometimes, after some contemplation and planning, or just due to plain stubbornness, what we hear is a wholesome plea: “You want this for yourself.” “You’re worth it.” “I believe in this goal and you!”

But I still believe
I still believe
Through the shame
And through the grief
Through the heartache
Through the tears
Through the waiting
Through the years

For people like us
In places like this
We need all the hope
That we can get
Oh, I still believe

What we do in response to that voice is what makes the difference between striving and retreating. I wrote in a post on Lynn’s Weigh on Facebook the other day that I’d agreed to do something outside my comfort zone and that my initial response was to eat mindlessly – to just stuff M&Ms (which I didn’t have in the house, thank goodness) or roasted soybeans (I’d just bought a 12-ounce bag) in my mouth as I contemplated my commitment: to fly to New York in early February and tape a segment on weight maintenance for “60 Minutes Australia” (same show as the U.S., just down-under).

Doing TV turns my stomach into a slip knot. (So how come I “wanted” to eat after I sent the “Sure…I’ll do it!” email?) TV makes me sweat, my heart palpitate. I wake up in the middle of the night wondering what the heck I’m going to wear, and I worry that during the interview I’ll get dry mouth and sound like I’m chewing marbles. This worry and future thinking is not very mindful/Buddhist of me, I know. But I never said I was enlightened.

I’d initially said no to the “60 Minutes” offer, telling the producer I wasn’t the poster child he might be looking for because I’d gained some weight and was struggling with arthritis. His reply? Oh…his reply. Made me rethink a whole lot about the “truths” I’d convinced myself of recently:

“May I say it sounds like you are being a little tough on yourself! You're are still half the weight you once were and despite your body having some issues, you are still living healthily and not stacking on too many pounds.

“It’s not so much the 'poster child' we are after, but the real story of someone who has broadly succeeded in not reverting to their former weight, and being determined about it.”

Determined. I read that word over and over. ‘Heck, yeah, that’s me! Doggedly determined. I’ll be damned if I’m going back to where I was. I’ve come too far, worked too hard, learned too much to do that.’ In the passion of that moment, I wrote back and said I’d do it. That’s when the knot formed in the center of my stomach and I wanted to eat. But instead of consuming copious amounts of whatever, I took a bunch of deep breaths, got dressed, and went to visit my grandkids. Because what I realized is that despite the stress and the doubt, my deep down desire is to make weight maintenance part of our culture’s dialogue. To make it as popular as weight loss. If that’s truly my goal, then that voice inside me can say all it wants about my fear of being on TV. My will is stronger.

I still believe. In me. I still believe that through the bumps in the road, through the temptations and heartaches, through the worries and self-doubts, that I can do what I (and others) tell me I can’t do.

I still believe. I hope you do, too. Listen to that song and let it sink into your bones. Dance to it in the kitchen. Let it drive you on the elliptical. For people like us, in places like this.

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Bikini Monday: Don’t Believe The Hype

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Grab some Shakeology in my Beachbody shop.

Contact me with questions about Shakeology.

Get the Facts On Shakeology

Shakeology is the all-natural meal (shake) developed by Beachbody, the makers of P90X. The shake will help you lose weight, reduce cravings, improve digestion, and lower cholesterol. It can also improve stamina and libido, alleviate hormonal issues (including menopause-related), aid memory, support immune function and boost serotonin levels to improve mood and symptoms of depression, while also reducing the symptoms of high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis.

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Chocolate: 18g protein and 140 calories. View the nutrition label.

Greenberry: 16g protein and 140 calories. View the nutrition label.

90 Days of Shakeology: My Experiment

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