Potentially the best mac and cheese I've ever had, gluten or no. I don't normally like mac and cheese, or at least I didn't before being diagnosed with a wheat allergy. I didn't like how heavy and gummy it was, and how it never tasted cheesy enough to satisfy without tons of extra cheese.
Amy's gluten free Rice Mac and Cheese is amazing. The rice pasta is light and tender. The cheese sauce is rich and cheesy.
I originally bought this meal because I was feeling lonely and depressed after loading my shopping cart with glutinous frozen meals for my husband. I wanted to eat something normal! Even if I didn't remember liking it at all. Thank goodness Amy's delivers a product well beyond "normal."
Encouraged, I tried Glutino's Mac and Cheese. The box was much bigger but the actual product was about the same size. If you want an education in unnecessary food additives, compare the ingredients in Amy's and Glutino's Mac and Cheese. More does not equal better. I can't understand how Glutino is such a marketplace giant when their product simply isn't good. It took an additional 1/3c of shredded cheddar to make their product taste somewhat cheesy. I had to add salt, pepper, chili powder and parmesean to make it a decent meal. Naturally, I'm going to stick with Amy's which needs no enhancement
Friday, May 8, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The end of cereal dieting.
I've been dieting for a long time.
I think I was nine or ten when I went with my mother to a Weight Watchers meeting. The chairs were cold and uncomfortable. When we got home, the food my dad cooked for us wasn't as good as he normally made. My mom struggled to lose about 10 pounds for many weeks. I don't remember if it worked for her or not. I didn't think she was fat.
I didn't think I was fat then, either.
I was a pretty healthy child. I love gymnastics and swimming. I ate a big bowl of healthy cereal with skim milk and fruit before school. I had a homemade sandwich of lean turkey with light swiss, lettuce, tomato and mustard on super whole grain bread for lunch, accompanied by cut vegetables and no-added-sugar juice. Dinner always started with a big salad and my choice of vegetables on top. We had broiled lean meat, carbohydrate and steamed vegetables most nights with fruit or sugar-free Popsicles for dessert. My parents took me on long walks and bike rides as often as they had time.
Then puberty hit me with a stick. I went from 5 pounds overweight to 30, then 60, and finally 90 pounds over my target weight between age 10 and age 13. I quit gymnastics because I was the only girl with a woman's body in the locker room. I quit being outgoing and charming because I was called names all day long at school. "Slut" was a popular one, as if my womanly figure was somehow my fault.
When I read Susan Powter's "Stop the Insanity!" at age 12, I felt relief. Finally, someone who knew what it was like to be really fat (something neither of my parents could grasp) and who was, furthermore, prepared to help me stop being fat. I went crazy with low fat dieting.
In the 8th grade.
It breaks my heart now, because it was completely pointless.
At 16 I was introduced to the "non-dieting" movement with the workbook "Why Diets Don't Work" by Bill Schwartz. I earnestly filled out page after page on my overeating and emotions, seeking the secret key to why I was fat and so many of my friends with worse eating habits weren't. I learned to eat what I liked and to eat healthy food more often. I learned to love exercise. I lost weight and got down to a "normal" size.
At 17, I joined the Army and got a one way ticket to bad health and disordered eating.
I don't blame the Army for what happened to me. I came in with a bum pair of tonsils. Sometime during that four year period, they failed completely and died. No one could figure out why I got sicker and sicker every month. I was seeing the doctor every two weeks by the time I was discharged.
For being fat.
See, in that last year when I was dealing with depression, chronic fatigue, pnuemonia, migraines and psoriasis, something happened. My body stopped being able to lose weight and started being able to retain it quickly. I went from struggling to stay under 160 to 217 pounds in only 7 months. Most of that weight was gained in only 4 months. It came on at over 12 pounds per month, literally overnight. I couldn't see how much I had gained until I ripped the metal rivet on my favorite pair of (formerly loose fitting) size 14 jeans.
From there, I went to war on my body for the next 6 years. For 6 years I studied alternative health, medicine, dieting, human physiology and exercise looking for the secret key that would finally let me lose weight. I knew there was something wrong with me but no test could find it. Even my own mother didn't really believe me. Just this year, at age 28, I learned what happened back in 2002 when the weight came slamming on me faster than I had ever lost weight.
I found the answer. In 2002, I became gluten intolerant.
So this is the end of cereal dieting. This is the end of most prepackaged foods, of not planning ahead, of dinner on the go, nuking something in a box... the end of thoughtless, gluten-rich eating.
Welcome!
I think I was nine or ten when I went with my mother to a Weight Watchers meeting. The chairs were cold and uncomfortable. When we got home, the food my dad cooked for us wasn't as good as he normally made. My mom struggled to lose about 10 pounds for many weeks. I don't remember if it worked for her or not. I didn't think she was fat.
I didn't think I was fat then, either.
I was a pretty healthy child. I love gymnastics and swimming. I ate a big bowl of healthy cereal with skim milk and fruit before school. I had a homemade sandwich of lean turkey with light swiss, lettuce, tomato and mustard on super whole grain bread for lunch, accompanied by cut vegetables and no-added-sugar juice. Dinner always started with a big salad and my choice of vegetables on top. We had broiled lean meat, carbohydrate and steamed vegetables most nights with fruit or sugar-free Popsicles for dessert. My parents took me on long walks and bike rides as often as they had time.
Then puberty hit me with a stick. I went from 5 pounds overweight to 30, then 60, and finally 90 pounds over my target weight between age 10 and age 13. I quit gymnastics because I was the only girl with a woman's body in the locker room. I quit being outgoing and charming because I was called names all day long at school. "Slut" was a popular one, as if my womanly figure was somehow my fault.
When I read Susan Powter's "Stop the Insanity!" at age 12, I felt relief. Finally, someone who knew what it was like to be really fat (something neither of my parents could grasp) and who was, furthermore, prepared to help me stop being fat. I went crazy with low fat dieting.
In the 8th grade.
It breaks my heart now, because it was completely pointless.
At 16 I was introduced to the "non-dieting" movement with the workbook "Why Diets Don't Work" by Bill Schwartz. I earnestly filled out page after page on my overeating and emotions, seeking the secret key to why I was fat and so many of my friends with worse eating habits weren't. I learned to eat what I liked and to eat healthy food more often. I learned to love exercise. I lost weight and got down to a "normal" size.
At 17, I joined the Army and got a one way ticket to bad health and disordered eating.
I don't blame the Army for what happened to me. I came in with a bum pair of tonsils. Sometime during that four year period, they failed completely and died. No one could figure out why I got sicker and sicker every month. I was seeing the doctor every two weeks by the time I was discharged.
For being fat.
See, in that last year when I was dealing with depression, chronic fatigue, pnuemonia, migraines and psoriasis, something happened. My body stopped being able to lose weight and started being able to retain it quickly. I went from struggling to stay under 160 to 217 pounds in only 7 months. Most of that weight was gained in only 4 months. It came on at over 12 pounds per month, literally overnight. I couldn't see how much I had gained until I ripped the metal rivet on my favorite pair of (formerly loose fitting) size 14 jeans.
From there, I went to war on my body for the next 6 years. For 6 years I studied alternative health, medicine, dieting, human physiology and exercise looking for the secret key that would finally let me lose weight. I knew there was something wrong with me but no test could find it. Even my own mother didn't really believe me. Just this year, at age 28, I learned what happened back in 2002 when the weight came slamming on me faster than I had ever lost weight.
I found the answer. In 2002, I became gluten intolerant.
So this is the end of cereal dieting. This is the end of most prepackaged foods, of not planning ahead, of dinner on the go, nuking something in a box... the end of thoughtless, gluten-rich eating.
Welcome!
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