Wednesday Weigh-In - Hungry Girl

In last week's Wednesday Weigh-In, I mentioned Vitalicious products.  I learned about Vitalicious from Hungry Girl.  Once you get past the "OMG, it rocks!!!" prose style, the Hungry Girl website (and email newsletter) is a great resource for anyone trying to shed a few pounds.  Hungry Girl was founded by Lisa Lillien, just an ordinary woman who was trying to lose weight.  She is not a nutritionist or a doctor; she does good research and provides sound advice. 

Her restaurant reveals, the nutrition stats for menu items at popular chain restaurants, are particularly illuminating.  Macaroni Grill serves a chicken dish with over 1400 calories per serving!  Good to know before you blow your daily allowance on one entree!  With this feature, you can learn how to eat out while maintaining your weight loss regimen.  Useful, even if you are not on a diet.

In Chew The Right Thing, she provides reinvented recipes that take much of the fat and calories out of favorites, like fried chicken.  Unfortunately, many of these recipes don't work for me because I try to avoid ersatz foods like artificial sweeteners.  But one trick I picked up that I really like is to substitute canned pumpkin for some or all of the fat in baked goods.  It keeps them moist, with a nice texture, and anyone who doesn't know about the pumpkin would never guess it was there.

Check out Hungry Girl and if you like what you see, sign up to receive the newsletter.

The stats:
weight lost this week: 1.0 pound
weight lost YTD: 7.0 pounds