Random Ideas From Jiva DeVoe

Live the Life You Dream for Yourself

I’m going to keep this month’s entry relatively brief because I’m very much heads-down working on our apps. We just released iZen Garden 2 and now I’m turning my focus back to Edibles and Edibles Online again. Alas! No rest for the wicked. ;)

Over the next month or so, I’m sure that we’re going to see an influx of new users to Edibles Online. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you. We’ve worked very hard at producing products and services to help you achieve the goals that you’ve probably set for yourself this year.

New Years is always an exciting time, a time of rebirth and resolutions. A time when we look back on the past year, on our successes, and on our failures.

We’ve heard from a lot of users this year about how they have been successful using Edibles to lose weight. It fills us with joy every time we get an e-mail from someone telling us about how they’ve lost weight and how they are living a healthy lifestyle because of our work. Losing weight is one of the most challenging life goals that many people will attempt, and it is absolutely wonderful that we can be a part of your success.

If you didn’t achieve as much as you had hoped in 2009, don’t lose faith. Every day is a new day and a new opportunity to turn this day into a success. In the same way, every new year is an opportunity to achieve your goals and live the lifestyle you want to live. A new day, a new year, a new decade – New opportunities.

You can live a healthy lifestyle, and we hope that we can be a part of your success story too.

I’m reminded of the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Dare to live the life you dream for yourselves. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”

Everything about that statement speaks to the future. My New Year’s hope for you is that 2010 brings you success in everything you do and everything you try to accomplish.

If 2009 brought success for you please share your successes in the comments below – even if it’s not related to weight loss. We love, love, love hearing from our users and hearing about your success stories. To us, working with you is like a conversation. It’s best when we’re both engaged and sharing.

Happy New Year!

Jiva DeVoe is Founder and Chief Software Craftsman at Random Ideas Software.

Review: "The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook"

Happy (almost) New Year! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. This month I am doing a review of The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. One of my New Years Resolutions is to cook more at home. I will fully admit to not being an enthusiastic cook. I was looking for a cookbook with easy to follow recipes, not too many ingredients and a list of nutrition facts for each recipe. I’ve bought a number of cookbooks over the last 6-12 months, most have been too complicated or the end result didn’t taste like non-diet food – which is pretty important with 3 kids and a husband that shudders at the sound of the words “low calorie”. I found The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook a couple of weeks ago while browsing at the bookstore. I picked it up because it met all of my new cookbook/recipe criteria as well as having a lot of really nice photographs to go along with the recipes.

We’ve tried six recipes so far and every single one has been a success, which is a major feat in our house. The recipes are easy to follow. The ingredients (or substitutions) are easy to find at the grocery store. Best of all everyone in my family has liked each meal. A few of the recipes we’ve tried are Main Event Marinara Sauce , Pineapple Teriyaki Pork Chops , Baked Ziti, Spirals and Meatballs and Meatball Subs . The recipe that has been the best so far is Main Event Marinara which is a base for the Baked Ziti , Spirals and Meatballs and the Meatball Subs .

If I can find one staple recipe from a cookbook I call it a success, so that must mean this one is a great success! . We’ve enjoyed all those meals and we’ve only just begun to dig in to this cookbook. So, in short, I have to give it two thumbs up. I will report back in a month or so with an update on any future recipes we try. In the meantime, if you’re looking for some new healthy cooking ideas, The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook is definitely an excellent source!

Dawn DeVoe is Co-Founder, Staff Photographer, Designer, & Company Mom for Random Ideas. She was the primary designer of Edibles.

Random Ideas and Edibles Online is not paid to review products nor have we received any products for free for review. All product reviews are the opinions of the reviewers themselves.

Monk's Supper - Split Pea Soup

I hope no one minds soup two months in a row. It’s just that this soup is so good, I couldn’t wait to share it with you. This recipe deviates from my usual recipe criteria but is completely worth the extra effort. My daughter and I were studying Medieval Monastic life and this recipe was in a book we used for activities to go along with our studying. It is part of a “Monk’s Supper”. I thought it would be a good recipe for this time of year because a lot of families have ham left over from Christmas dinner. This recipe is © The Story of the World Activity Book Two: The Middle Ages.

8 servings

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 3/4 cups dried split peas
1 bay leaf
2 carrots, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 onion, chopped
3 TBSP olive oil
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
2 ounces diced ham
2 teaspoons dried chervil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a pressure cooker over medium heat, saute the garlic, onion and celery in olive oil for 5 minutes, or until onion is translucent. Add the peas, broth, bay leaf and ham. Cook under pressure for 10 to 12 minutes. (Note: If you do not have a pressure cooker, cook the peas over low heat for 3 to 4 hours or use a slow cooker (that’s what I did).
2. Once peas are soft, stir in the potatoes, carrots and chervil and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Season with salt and pepper to to taste. Add water as needed to adjust the thickness of the the soup.

Nutritional Information:

244 calories (using olive oil spray)
288.5 calories (using olive oil)

1g fat (olive oil spray)
6g fat (olive oil)

trace sat fat (olive oil spray)
1g sat fat (olive oil)

8.5g Cholesterol
969 mg sodium
44g carbs
13.5g fiber
15g protien

Note: I follow Weight Watchers Filling Food Option. Substitutions I made to make these recipes comply are :

Splenda granules for honey in Main Even Marinara
Olive oil spray for Olive oil in Split Pea Soup.

If you’re enjoying these recipes and want to share some of your own with Edibles members, send your recipes to recipes@random-ideas.net and we’ll try them out and post them here! Thanks for your continued support!

Dawn DeVoe is Co-Founder, Staff Photographer, Designer, & Company Mom for Random Ideas. She was the primary designer of Edibles.

Random Ideas and Edibles Online is not paid to review products nor have we received any products for free for review. All product reviews are the opinions of the reviewers themselves.

2010 - A New Year

DOES FOOD CONTROL YOUR LIFE?

According to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, those who “own” their power to control what they eat, lose more weight than those who don’t.

This is wonderful documentation of my belief system about weight management. Lasting weight loss is a state of mind, a commitment, and an attitude, not just a reduction of calories.

You must regain control of your life including your eating. It is your option to understand and change your relationship to food. This is a prerequisite for real weight loss. Do not give the power to anything or anyone outside of yourself. No excuses. You eat what you choose, and you choose what you eat.

No outside source can claim power over your eating. It doesn’t matter if it’s tempting food at a party or a friend coaxing you to “be bad” with her. You have to take full responsibility of what is put into your mouth. The size of your body is your choice. Genetics may have predisposed you to be heavier, and that makes it more difficult. Not impossible.

That may sound harsh, but it’s a truth you must accept before you can really commit to a weight loss program. You must command the ultimate power, and be the ultimate decision maker. This power cannot be shared with your husband, your kids, your friends, your co-workers, nor all the tempting foods displayed all around you. You alone must decide what is best for you. Others can guide and support you – those people can be a blessing. But you must be the rock. You are worth being a rock for.

The stronger you are in your mission statement and your game plan, the more success you will have. You can start by envisioning yourself as who you want to be. Think beyond a celebrity – they are airbrushed and have three hours of hair and makeup and stylists a day. Really see you, and who you could be. Write down the things you like about you on a sheet of paper. If you can draw the image, do so. Be sure that this image you see is attainable. Don’t lose yourself. Tweak your self into the best you imaginable.

Next, set a reasonable plan to reach your goal, including a healthy diet, exercise, relaxation, and rest. You will need to look at your relationship to food to change it. When do you overeat, or eat emotionally? What triggers it? Why does food comfort you and what else could you do to fill those needs at those times without overeating?

Lastly, shoot for realistic goals in short amounts of time, not just the HUGE ultimate goal. “I want to lose 100 pounds” may be what you really want, but is rather grandiose to start out with. It is overwhelming and can feel unattainable. How about losing 10 pounds in the next ten weeks? That is more manageable and more believable. Keep it small. Keep it realistic. Set yourself up for success.

Remember, you are going after lifetime healthy changes, not a quick fix. Think of all the “quick fixes” that ended up backfiring with an extra 10 pounds after you worked so hard to stick to that tortuous diet. This time’s for keeps. You must own the commitment to better your life, and you must live it forever. Every day counts. You brush your teeth so they don’t fall out. Now you think about what you ingest to allow you to have the body you want to live in.

It’s been said that there is no such thing as will power. There is only want power. You have to want to be thin and healthy more than you want to eat a Big Mac and fries. You have to want to walk for a half hour more than you want to sit and watch TV. You will choose to make changes that will brighten your life, and ultimately, lead you to your goals.

YOU MUST CHOOSE once and for all – end the yo-yo cycle forever.

Choose to improve your health and your life may mean you still occasionally succumb to temptation. That is human and not catastrophic. Seeing it that way gives you an excuse to give up. Understand that life changes are not a one- way street and that setbacks are part of anything difficult. They are a part of succeeding if you “get back on the bike” and support yourself back on the right road. Don’t waver between success and failure as though they are black and white. There is grey area that is livable. You will have stronger days and tougher days, but your attitude to succeed must never waver. The commitment to your health must never waver. One day at a time.

Are you a fighter with vision for a better life, or a victim? You have to think seriously about this question. Fighting is a lot harder. It’s a lot riskier. Being a victim is being powerless, and being powerless is passive. Being powerless is pretty easy. Blaming others or external factors is effortless. You may even believe it. But, think about it, where does that get you?

Spend the time to think this through. Perhaps journal what you see your life as now, and what it could be with better self-care. This care includes diet, exercise, meditation, and rest. If you can imagine what your life could be like, try to go with it. What would you do that you can’t or don’t do now? Who would you call? What would you wear? What activity might you participate in that you can’t or don’t do now? How would you carry yourself differently?

If you can journal, draw, cut photos or magazine pictures out that inspire you, fantastic. Put them into a collage, or simply tape them up on a wall or your fridge. “THE NEW ME”, or “ME, ONLY BETTER”, of “ME LOVING ME”.

Internally, come up with new empowering mantras, such as “I no longer have the need to suffer”, or “I choose to be free of past negativity”. The words have to move and inspire you, and that’s all that matters. Say them, sing them, pray then, chant them. Write them in on papers all around you. Let them seep in. They will. That’s the job of a mantra. Our belief systems grow out of our experiences. Change your experiences. Shape your own belief systems about yourself in the present. The past is gone, and letting go of that is an empowering act. The future is yours to shape.

So stop belittling yourself for all the pounds lost and gained, and rejoice your choice to change. MAKE THE CHOICE TODAY. It’s 2010.

Happy, Healthy New Year.

Judith Bingyou, M.Ed. provides psychotherapy and counseling services, specializing in weight management and body image. For 28 years, Judith has helped clients gain control of their weight, and their lives. She can be reached at Judith@jbingyou.com.

iPod Touch Winner!

The Winner of the iPod Touch was:

Natalie Bailey of Manchester England!

Natalie will be receiving her iPod Touch in the next few weeks. Thanks everyone for participating in the giveaway!

What's Coming in Edibles 3.0

I can’t remember where I read it. I thought it was Joel Spolsky but I can’t find the reference now. But wherever it was… it was an excellent description of why one shouldn’t talk about future software features. The quote he used was “Every word I say is a promise.” Meaning, when you start setting expectations, you have to live up to those expectations. So I try hard, generally, to be vague about future features until the feature is already implemented and headed to market. You never know what’s going to come up… what schedule pressures are going to hit, etc, and when that release date is creeping up on you, you have to ship. Sometimes that means removing features you’d planned on implementing in favor of a bugfix, and so on. So, remember, when I talk about new features, until it’s implemented, it’s always a “Maybe.”

We recognize that there are lots of opportunities for Edibles to improve.

Edibles has been available now for a little bit over a year. In that time, it’s feature set has grown significantly. The first version of it was little more than a list where you could simply jot down foods that you ate, now it includes things like weight journaling, exercise journaling, an online database containing over 500,000 foods, an online backup and restore. These features make Edibles one of the most powerful and reliable diet journals available for iPhone today. What’s more, is that we have managed to add all of these features while still maintaining the amazing streamlined data entry interface that our users have come to know and love.

All that said, we recognize that there is still room for improvement with Edibles. The calculator is too hard to configure and use, exercise journaling could be improved, and so on. Also, Edibles Online could use a lot of improvement to make it easier to sign up, and usability improvements.

We also need to be adding new features to Edibles. Features that enable users of edibles to collaborate more easily and that take advantage of the unique iPhone hardware to make achieving a healthy lifestyle as easy as possible.

I’m not going to attempt to address all of these concerns in this post alone. Instead, I’m going to try to make this a regular feature here on Edibles Nosh. I’m going to try to give you, our users, regular insights into what we consider to be the big things that we’re working on right now in Edibles.

I don’t want this to simply be a broadcast message. I want this to be more of a conversation. I’m going to talk about the things that I want to do with Edibles, and I would love to hear from you, the users, about what you would like to see in Edibles. By working together, we can take Edibles to the next level.

As a first installment, I would like to use my remaining time here to ask you, our users, what would you like to see in Edibles 3.0? What are some ideas you might have?

To get you thinking, I’ll toss out an idea I have. One of the truly “game changing” apps I have seen recently is Red Laser, which offers excellent barcode scanning capabilities. What’s awesome is that they have an SDK which we can license to add Barcode scanning to Edibles so that you could scan the barcode of a food you’re going to eat and have it automatically look up that food in the Edibles Online database. Would this be something users would use? I think I would, and it’s got a lot of “Wow” factor.

Feel free to use the comments below, or to email me at feedback@random-ideas.net to tell me what ideas you have!

Jiva DeVoe is Founder and Chief Software Craftsman at Random Ideas Software.

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins

We’re doing two recipes this month. I made the muffins at the request of my 9 year old. She likes to help bake and you really can’t get more simple than this recipe. These little muffins would be great to bring to a brunch or to have for breakfast with coffee or tea on Thanksgiving morning. The second recipe is a fall favorite. It is a little more time consuming than the muffins but soooo good for dinner on a cold night!

Chocolate or Spice “Pumpkin” Muffins

1 box chocolate cake mix or 1 box spice cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Spice Cake.)
1 small can pumpkin
1/2 cup water

Mix 3 ingredients together. Divide into muffin tins (24 regular muffins, 48 mini muffins) and bake according to package directions. When I made the mini muffins I put 2 chocolate chips in the tops of each of them. I figure the calories are negligible as long as I’m not eating more than 1 or two muffins.

24 regular Muffins
Calories: 92
Fat: 3g
Fiber: .5g

48 Mini Muffins
Calories: 46
Fat: 1g
Fiber: 0

Points will be the Points for the cake mix (dry) as listed on box. Most likely 2 to 3-Points per regular muffin and 1 Points per mini muffin, but double check on your cake mix box to be sure!

Sausage Minestra Soup

Croutons:

2 tsp olive oil
1 Baguette cubed
1/2 cup parmesan, grated

20 servings of croutons
Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 75
Fat: 1.5g
Carbs: 11g
Fiber: 0g
Protein: 3g

Heat the oil in a saute pan. Add cubed bread, toss until toasted and crisp. Remove from heat toss with parmesan. Set aside.

Soup:

2 cups onion, diced
1TBSP garlic, minced
2 tsp dried italian season
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (I left these out)
1 lbs chicken or turkey italian sausage (remove from casings)
Pam Olive Oil spray
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup dry orzo pasta (or other tiny shaped pasta. I couldn’t find orzo.)
3 cups fresh spinach, chopped

Spray soup pot with pam. Crumble and saute sausage. Add onion and garlic until onion is soft and sausage is cooked through. Add remaining ingredients; cook 3-4 minutes. Deglaze with wine and reduce until almost evaporated. Add broth, tomatoes and orzo; bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked. Stir in spinach until wilted. Serve soup with croutons on top.

8 servings
Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 200
Fat: 7g
Carbs: 20g
Fiber: 1.5g
Protein: 14

Dawn DeVoe is Co-Founder, Staff Photographer, Designer, & Company Mom for Random Ideas. She was the primary designer of Edibles.

Review: Betty Crocker Potato Pouches

Just in time for the start of the holidays, we thought we’d review something you might find on your table this Thanksgiving. We tried Betty Crocker’s Potato Pouches.

You know what a pain making mashed potatotes can be. You have to wash the potatoes, then skin them, then cut them, then boil them, then mash them, then season them! What a headache! Well, the Betty Crocker Potato Pouches solve all that! They’re super simple to make! Just two steps and ready in 3 minutes.

I don’t usually follow the exact directions. I boil some water in my electric kettle, add it to the potatoes, stir and serve.

We decided to try three of the five flavors available; Cheddar and Sour Cream, Homestyle Creamy Butter, and Loaded Mashed Potatoes. They were all good, but our family favorite is the Loaded. The texture was pretty consistent with home made potatoes. The flavor was excellent, and overall, I’d say in a lot of ways, they were even better than home made! Best of all, they’re only 80 calories per serving!

So, if you aren’t a mashed potato purist who loves the process (you know, wash, scrub, peel, cut, boil, mash by hand etc) of making home made mashed potatoes, these will make an excellent addition to your Thanksgiving table! They’ll be on ours!

Betty Crocker® Pouch Potatoes

These potatoes are so good! They’re quick and easy to make as well.

Roasted Garlic
Cheddar & Sour Cream
Homestyle Creamy Butter
New – Homestyle Reds
New – Loaded Mashed

Nutrition info for the Loaded Mashed are as follows:

Serving size: 2/3 cup
Calories: 80
Fat: 1g
Sodium: 480 mg
Carbs: 17g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 2g

Dawn DeVoe is Co-Founder, Staff Photographer, Designer, & Company Mom for Random Ideas. She was the primary designer of Edibles.

Random Ideas and Edibles Online is not paid to review products nor have we received any products for free for review. All product reviews are the opinions of the reviewers themselves.

Empower Yourself: Thanksgiving

There are two different views on Thanksgiving:

1. Thanksgiving is a wonderful day to celebrate family, tradition, and blessings.

Or…

2. Thanksgiving is an all-you-can-eat buffet of fat-laden foods that will leave you with indigestion and guilt.

Number 2 is clearly a recipe for disaster. I’m guessing it might look familiar to many of you. So many people dread the holidays for exactly that reason. Who wants to be left feeling guilty or like a failure? What happened to the “happy” in Happy Thanksgiving? Why put yourself through it?

Why not change it?

Thanksgiving is the kick-off of the “holiday season”. These many weeks can be a steady IV drip of stress for many people for many reasons. Dieters view the holidays as a constant test of their willpower and resistance. Overeaters dread this season like many women dread childbirth. It is too long and too painful. Every event is another ordeal of temptation and anxiety.

Can we reduce the stress level enough to reconnect to the joyful and meaningful parts of this annual autumn holiday?

This November could be your first Thanksgiving of true joy. You could commit to take care of yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually. You could strive for moderation and you could strive to be calm. 2009 could mark the beginning of loving you enough to protect yourself from anxiety. You could care enough to arm yourself from the abundant temptations all around. You could hold your head high with confidence.

Are you with me?

My tips for dealing with the stresses of Thanksgiving for the dieter are both conventional and non-conventional. The main points are simple:

Make a game plan, control your portions, and stay active.

That can be really easy if you actually do it. Let’s explore specifically what I mean:

Making a game plan means being prepared. I will assume you’ve been to many Thanksgiving celebrations, and have pretty much got the drill down. You know what will be there, (food, smells, people, noise, and more food), and you know how you typically respond to the day.

By thinking this through ahead of time, you know what you are up against, and have time to reshape your next experience.

Remember: It is only a day, only one meal.

That bears repeating:

Remember: It is only a day, only one meal .

Close your eyes and imagine the day. Decide what you want to happen, and how you want to feel. If your choice is to splurge, then enjoy it. If indulging would only make you feel badly or guilty, DON’T. Choose and stick to the choice and feel good about it. No wavering.

Give yourself quiet time to make the change. Changing a pattern takes time. Not many people practice being calm. It is an incomparable gift you can give yourself.

A mantra is a phrase said over and over again to reinforce your wish and make it your belief. You can manifest change with your belief system. A mantra can be used while sitting quietly in meditation, or you can pound it out while taking a run. Sing it in the shower. There are no rules or right way to make it work.

Try these mantras on for size:

“I can love and take care of my body.”

Or…

“ I will not hurt myself with food.”

Or…

“I choose to not let food control my life. I am more powerful than food.”

Adapt any of these, or create your own that feels right to you. Make time to repeat your mantra. Write it on little stick-it notes and post them around your house. Say it enough to believe it and for it to calm you. Say it every day, not just on Thanksgiving. Soak it in. Embrace it.

If the meal is at your home, you have a lot more freedom to decide how the meal is prepared. I’m sure you already know how to substitute light or fat free items, and you can prepare some things specifically to suit your needs. If you go to some else’s house, offer to bring one dish, and make it something that will please you all around. No one needs all the fat – they’ll probably thank you if you tell them.

Preselect exactly what and how much you will eat and drink. Try to prioritize the foods, and choose your three favorites. See them on your plate, and imagine how good they will be. Perhaps turkey, stuffing, and yams are your “must haves”. By omitting gravy, or any kind of casserole, you have cut your fat and calories way down. Skip the rolls. They’re empty calories and search for butter or something greasy to soak up. If you choose your true favorites, you shouldn’t feel deprived. Even vegetables can be cooked in butter, so choose honestly. Don’t forgo a “forbidden food” if it’s what makes you happy.

There will be no procrastination when you get to the table. It is only one meal, and there will be others. This is what you have chosen for yourself for this meal. Stick to the plan. Stick to your vision. Again, no wavering. You’re in control.

Don’t go to dinner ravenous. That’s a set-up to overeat and make bad decisions. Eat healthy, nourishing, food beforehand – enough to keep you satisfied until you get to the table.

Before the main meal, do not touch any appetizers. No dip, no nuts, no cheese, no candy. Stay away from them. Don’t lose control this early in the game. Stick to the plan.

As for alcohol, use your best judgment. Alcohol stimulates your appetite, lowers your resistance, and adds calories. Be the designated driver and drink seltzer or water. Those will fill you up, and keep you in control.

Control your portions. The protein (turkey) is what will sate your hunger. Go for white meat (half the fat!) and absolutely no skin. I’m sure you know the “size of your fist” rule, but it’s okay to increase that a bit if it keeps you away from the green bean casserole.

Your other two portions should be fair and reasonable. They don’t have to be “just a taste”, but shouldn’t be any amount that will overwhelm you when you’re done. Go in knowing that you will have absolutely, positively no seconds. Again, no wavering – no seconds. Enjoy what you planned for, and be done. This is not your last meal. We’re shooting for zero guilt.

EAT SLOWLY. Talk to people and take your time. Enjoy your food and the people you’re with. I’m not an advocate of putting your fork down between every single bite, but do remember to breathe.

As for dessert, consider asking to take it home for later when you’re not full. If dessert is a priority for you, eat less at dinner, and budget for dessert. It’s your plan. It has to suit you.

Exercise before the dinner, and bank calories. The day will be easier after some form of exercise. It will both energize and relax you. After the Thanksgiving meal, get people to move. Make it a group activity. Go for a walk. Play football. Dance. Play a game. What you do doesn’t matter. Get up and away from the food. Exercise will always help you maintain a sense of control.

Hold on to your mantra, hold on to your plan, and hold onto your own hand. Be thankful to have yourself as an amazing support system.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Judith Bingyou, M.Ed. provides psychotherapy and counseling services, specializing in weight management and body image. For 28 years, Judith has helped clients gain control of their weight, and their lives. She can be reached at mailto:judith@jbingyou.com.

Welcome to Edibles Nosh!

This is the premier edition of Edibles Nosh, a newsletter and blog for Edibles Online users.

In the coming months, we expect to bring you monthly installments of articles by Dawn DeVoe, co-creator of Edibles, Judith Bingyou, Psychotherapist, and Counselor, specializing in weight management and body image, and myself, Jiva DeVoe, President and Chief Software Craftsman at Random Ideas, and primary developer of Edibles.

The articles will range from reviews of low-calorie foods and recipes, to strategies for successful dieting, and announcements of new Edibles and Edibles Online features.

We hope you’ll be as excited to follow us on this journey as we are to bring it to you!

Does Food Control Your Life?

Do you feel guilty when you eat “bad” foods?
Does the number on your scale dictate the quality of your day?
Do you eat when you’re not hungry and keep going when you’re full?
Do you eat when you’re angry? When you’re just bored?
Do you exercise to eat?
Do you measure the success of your day exclusively by a calorie count?

If you answered yes to many (or all!) of those questions, you’re normal. That’s the sad, but good news.

Most American women are dissatisfied with their bodies, regardless of their size. Heavier women feel “fat and ugly”, and thin women are never thin enough. The focus is more on size than on health. Many women don’t consider themselves worthy of good things in their lives until they lose that 20 pounds.
.
It is time to reclaim your power! Watching calories and exercising are critical to weight loss. Logging your activities into a diet journal ensures that you’ll be honest with yourself. There are no magical cures, and by keeping an accurate log, you’re taking the smartest and most positive action to losing excess pounds.

But that’s not enough. Your worth as a human being must be determined separately from your food intake and your body size. Your personal power must be connected to your ideals and your actions. Your value must be measured by the quality of your character, not by the size of your thighs.

Sadly, women in our society are oppressed by media images of beautiful models and celebrities, who eat lettuce and chain-smoke to stay stick thin. Many are anorexic and jeopardize their lives for image, but the media doesn’t share that. Fashion designers pump out jeans in size 2 (not the average-American size 12) and six-foot models strut down the runway looking painfully chic. How discouraging!

Recent ad campaigns representing the “average woman” as beautiful and sexy are wonderful, but scarce. Emme is a magnificent plus-size role model, but she’s not nearly as glamorized as the more commonly featured “skinny bitches”.

Society’s negative messages about body weight and size can seriously undermine any efforts to improve your self-image. By eating smarter and exercising, you are not being a victim, and that’s exciting. The challenge is to focus on your goals and not succumb to the negativity.

The pressure on women is overwhelming. But if food controls your life, the power is yours to regain. Armed with the right weapons, you can fight back. Join me here each month, as we explore the ways to win your freedom.

Are you ready to fight?

Recipe: Pumpkin Ginger Bread

Happy Fall Everyone!

I don’t know about you but when fall comes around I’m ready for some comfort food! Nothing says fall like pumpkins and ginger bread. The recipe I’m sharing today combines both into a delicious tasty treat! If you make the recipe as written the nutrition stats are as follows:

Calories: 159
Fat: 2g
Carbs: 31.5g
Fiber: 4.3g
Protein: 5g

if you choose to leave out the chocolate chips they are as follow:

Calories: 133
Fat: .5g
Carbs: 28.5g
Fiber: 4.1g
Protein: 4.8g

I hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Ginger Bread

Ingredients:

One 15-oz. can pure pumpkin
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute
1/2 cup granulated Splenda
1/4 cup molasses
3 TBSP mini chocolate chips
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp granulated sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine both types of flour, Splenda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and ginger. Reserve 1 tsp of this dry mix.

In a medium bowl, mix together pumpkin, egg substitute, molasses and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingedients slowly, mixing well until combined.

Toss chocolate chips with reserved flour mixture, fold these into the bread batter. This step will help suspend your choclate chips in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom. (That tip is from Good Eats!)

Pour batter into a large loaf pan (about 9" X 5") sprayed with nonstick spray. (I like to use the kind with flour in the can.) Sprinkle the top of the batter with the 1 tsp of granulated sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or the top of the bread is firm to touch. Don’t over bake it or it’ll be like a ginger bread brick! The bread should be moist inside. Cool before serving.

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

Win a FREE 3rd Generation 32GB iPod Touch

Edibles is a year old, and we have just released version 2.5 of Edibles, which includes the ability to search a food database containing over 500,000 food items. This food database was contributed primarily by users of Edibles Online.

To show our gratitude to these users, we’re going to be giving away a brand new, 3rd Generation, 32GB iPod Touch to one of them. The winner will be chosen at random from among all Edibles Online users on October 31, 2009 at Midnight, MST. No purchase is necessary. To enter, simply sign up for a free Edibles Online account.

This is a great opportunity, if you have an older iPhone or iPod Touch, to upgrade to the latest technology. Alternatively, if you know someone who has been thinking about getting an iPod Touch and who might be interested in Edibles or Edibles Online, have them sign up, and maybe they could win!

We’re thrilled to give back to our users who have given us so much over the past year. Without them, we are nothing. We’re looking forward to drawing the name for the giveaway on October 31!

We’ve set up a special website specifically for more information about the giveaway. Please visit http://giveaway.edibles-online.com for more information including the official contest rules. This contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law. Employees of Random Ideas and family members of such employees are not eligible to enter.

Review: Jell-O Brand Sugar Free Puddings and Mousse

This month’s product review is more of a product comparison than a review, per se.

I love Jell-O brand Sugar Free Puddings. They come pre-made. You can find them in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. They come in several flavors; Chocolate, Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl, Double Chocolate (my favorite), and Vanilla as well as two new flavors, Boston Cream and Cinnamon Roll. They’re 60 calories of sweet goodness! There are six containers to a package.

A few weeks ago while looking for my favorite pudding I noticed something new, Jell-O brand "Mousse Temptations. They’re found in the same section as the Sugar Free Pudding. They come in three flavors; Chocolate Indulgence, Dark Chocolate Decadence and Caramel Creme. Like the Sugar-Free Puddings they have 60 calories per container.

My family has tried all three flavors. It was about a 50/50 split on whether we liked them or not. Two of my kiddos didn’t like the texture at all. My husband and other son liked certain flavors but not all. I liked the Dark Chocolate Decadence, though I’m not a big fan of the mousse texture.

Verdict

My final verdict is that the Mousse Temptations, like the other Sugar Free puddings, have great flavor, but you might need to choose your dessert for the texture you like.

If you like smooth and creamy, go with the pudding. If you like light, fluffy and airy, go with the Mousse Temptations. You can’t really miss with the flavors!

NOTE If you’re someone that likes to avoid artificial sweeteners, these contain sucralose.

Edibles 2.5 Launches

Nine months ago, Random Ideas announced the creation of Edibles Online. A web service which enabled users of it’s popular diet journal, Edibles, to safely store their Edibles diet and weight journals online. Additionally, it enabled users to contribute and share their food data with each other as well as collaborate with friends in weight-loss teams.

Now with Over 500,000 Foods!

Now, thanks to this “crowd-sourced” accumulated data, Edibles is able to leverage the Edibles Online service to provide an unprecedented diet resource for it’s users. Using unique, top-secret algorithms, Edibles Online is able to filter and rank this huge 500,000 food database to determine the most accurate entries and provide only the best, most accurate data to our users. Because the data is contributed from users, it will continue to grow and become even more accurate over time.

With version 2.5, Edibles is able to search this online database directly on the user’s iPhone or iPod Touch. This combined with features we’ve already had in Edibles for over a year, such as weight journaling, exercise journaling and daily accountability tracking, makes Edibles the most easy to use and powerful diet journal for iPhone OS.

Come Back to Edibles Now

Dieting is hard. It’s a challenge, and we know that a lot of Edibles users may have fallen off the wagon. You might have meant well, might have made new year’s resolutions but didn’t follow through, whatever! If you’re one of those users, we’d like to encourage you to come back to Edibles and Edibles Online. Check out the new tools we’re providing, and see how we can help you to achieve your weight loss goals!

Come back to Edibles, download Edibles v2.5, create an Edibles Online account, and lose weight now!

Random Ideas From Jiva DeVoe

Live the Life You Dream for Yourself

Review: "The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook"

Monk's Supper - Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:

Directions:

Nutritional Information:

2010 - A New Year

DOES FOOD CONTROL YOUR LIFE?

YOU MUST CHOOSE once and for all – end the yo-yo cycle forever.

iPod Touch Winner!

What's Coming in Edibles 3.0

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins

Chocolate or Spice “Pumpkin” Muffins

Sausage Minestra Soup

Review: Betty Crocker Potato Pouches

Empower Yourself: Thanksgiving

There are two different views on Thanksgiving:

Make a game plan, control your portions, and stay active.

Welcome to Edibles Nosh!

Does Food Control Your Life?

Recipe: Pumpkin Ginger Bread

Happy Fall Everyone!

Pumpkin Ginger Bread

Ingredients:

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Win a FREE 3rd Generation 32GB iPod Touch

Review: Jell-O Brand Sugar Free Puddings and Mousse

Verdict

Edibles 2.5 Launches

Now with Over 500,000 Foods!

Come Back to Edibles Now

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.