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This is a sub-page to Calorie Counting on Line: To read the main page please go to: www.sentex.net/~oficserv/Calories2.html These pages are continually revised.

A balanced diet requires thought, planning, understanding of the minerals, fats, sugars etc which any animal needs for good health.

5th November 2002

I recently bought Yves Veggie Breakfast Links .. and was very pleasantly surprised. (I had bought other veggie burgers previously and could not use them. I had found them to taste artificial and unpleasantly over-flavoured). The Yves Breakfast Link Sausages would have fooled me, if I had not known they were actually vegetable based. They contain only 70 calories for two link sausage. The links I bought were made with maple syrup and I cooked them on the stove-top. I have read the ingredients and notice they do not contain the preservatives which animal products require. Also, they do not contain monosodium glutamate. In future I will buy these in preference to animal based products. Yves has a web site at www.yvesveggie.com.

When considering whether to try a delicious food, remember to check the calories first. Even though it may appear to be low in calories and quite well balanced, you can easily be fooled. For example: yesterday I bought a tiger-shrimp ring, with garlic butter sauce. This was so good that I consumed the entire ring, with some broccoli. I followed this with coffee and an apple. THEN I calculated the calories. WOW! The shrimp ring with sauce was 1152 calories .. almost my whole daily requirement.
For years I had stopped counting calories. .. that resulted in a slow almost inexorable weight gain of nearly twenty pounds and an increase in my appetite to match. My husband became diabetic. I began to have joint and back damage.
One of the culprits was our weekly consumption of pizza. I had not even heard of pizza until about twenty years ago, when it became very popular. A personal-pan-pizza contains about 1500 calories. It also has plenty of fat and chloresterol. If you are trying to become obese .. then just eat a pizza once or twice a week.
Sandwiches are another caloric trap into which many of us fall on a regular basis.
The bread slices are worth about 115 calories each.
Meat or fish, about another 100.
Dressing another 100.
Butter or marg another 100.
Veggies on top about 20.
That's 435 for a sandwich.
Coffee or tea with milk about 40.
Apple or orange about 80. That's 575 calories for lunch. Can your exercise requirements use this many calories? If you are an office worker, probably not.

This is a nicely balanced meal.

The "Highliner" fillet of salmon in a light dill sauce is worth 137 calories. (It is about the size of a pack of cards, as recommended for fish or meat portions, it weighs about four ounces). The cut green beans are approximately 40 calories. The brown rice is approximately 100 calories. For seasoning when boiling the rice and beans I like to use two sprigs of fresh mint and a little salt The small glass (about four ounces) of sparkling "Kurhauser" white wine (2 in sugar content)is approximately 80 calories. I do not eat desserts. I actually prefer Kellog's all bran with a tablespoon of raisins, skim milk and "Coffee Rich" frozen soy creamer; Coffee; 2 Wasa or Ryvita, with a teaspoon soft margerine and 2 slices non-fat cheese. Also, I do not eat my whole meal at once. If I have time I prefer to spread my meal over at least several hours.

A small steak dinner with fresh green salad.

This is a good meal. The salad has iceburg lettuce, green spring onions, sweet red pepper, baby carrots and radish. For dressing we use balsamic vinegar and light oil, fresh ground pepper and a little salt. We always make enough salad bowls for three days, this saves having to make this mixture every day. It keeps well in the fridge with Saran wrap over each bowl.
The 3 or 4 oz steak (after cooking, we have to cut steaks in half .. use next day as well) was pre-seasoned with barbeque seasoning and left for a few hours. It was then cooked on the barbeque (set at low/medium) for about twenty minutes. At the same time, the mushrooms were seasoned with "Great Shakes" barbeque steak seasoning and cooked on the barbeque in a foil pie plate. The half a russet baking potato was also placed on the barbeque and baked.
The branches of broccoli were sliced and cooked in the microwave for six minutes on high, in a Corningware pot, with a little water, two sprigs of mint and a little salt. Remember - meats and fish portions the size of a pack of cards. Little salt means LITTLE SALT!

A light ham-steak dinner all prepared in the microwave.

Half a ham steak (3 oz. about 200 calories). Half a baking potato with some Imperial marg. (about 150). Six mushrooms (30). Cup of broccoli (30). Slice canned pineapple, with juice (100).

Any meal should be not more than the size of your fist. If you can imagine all the food compacted. This prevents stretching the system.

My Canadian Specialist and Surgeon recommended eight FULL glasses of water each day. He particularly said that "water means WATER, NOT tea, coffee, pop or juice!". This water is not supposed to be taken with meals. Oh I know you don't like plain water .. but you have been spoilt rotten and should learn to behave like an adult in charge of your body .. stop your whining!