How to Clean Celery Properly for your Holiday Guests (and Yourself)

The ladies over at eDiets, my fellow Atkins ("Strictly Atkins") ladies, gave me the idea for this post. Turns out, in a discussion about eating more fruits and vegetables, that a couple of them had never peeled celery before.

I mentioned that because I am appalled when I go to a party and see that the celery has not been peeled. Does the host actually like green organic dental floss in their teeth after each meal? (Does this bug anyone besides me?)

Celery strings are thicker and tougher on the toughest stalks of the celery bunch . In addition, I learned that the tenderer stalks are the tastier ones and the tough ones should be pulled off the stalk and discarded or used for soup.

So now I'm going to tell you how to clean a bunch of celery so you can discover this wonderful vegetable which requires more calories to eat it than it actually provides! How cool is that!?!!

Celery is also a good thing to give to kids with cream cheese, peanut butter, or "bugs-on-a-log" -- raisins embedded in peanut butter.

I recommend using a paring knife. I knew someone who actually uses a vegetable peeler to do this, but it takes off more of the celery and is more difficult to do (the strings catch in it) yet that method may be quicker, until you learn how to do it with a paring knife.

A paring knife is that little bitty knife - about a 4" knife blade - that is sold anywhere kitchen stuff is sold. They come cheaply, but try not to get one that is so cheap it bends. Your fingers will thank you.

• So, first remove the outside stalks from the celery bunch and wash the dirt off them. Set them aside for soup or discard (it's kinda fun to watch them spin when inserted whole, and in a standing position, down the garbage disposal, but the strings can cause problems for the garbage disposal -- I've heard-- so try not to have too much fun).

• Then, cut off the bottom hunk of celery (where it all comes together at the root). You can use that for soup too, if you like, or toss it. Clean it a bit better if you keep it because there are more crevices there for dirt to hide in.
• Now all your stalks should be "free" and independent of each other. One option is to cut the ends off (just scant) to clear the ending of dried, dirty stalk. Another is to cut it off just below the "joint" and use the top parts for soup (some will be longer than others).

• The center stalks of the celery are the tenderest, but some of them get to be very leafy. These look pretty in Bloody Mary's but I haven't found a liking for the leafy stalks otherwise, so if you do, enjoy. (My xh, who taught me all this stuff (and came from a fresh foods family), loved that part and ate it. Not me.)
• So, now we have the parts of the celery we might actually want to eat. Let's clean them up and get rid of those nasty strings.

• I use water and my hands to remove dirt - these parts are not that going to be as dirty as the other, so this is easy to do.

• Then I remove strings. The strings can be found easily with your fingernails but they (the strings not the nails) will break off a lot if you do it that way. The fingernails will also get gunky, so now is a good time to get out your paring knife.

• Putting your thumb on the back of the celery, you place the blade in the end of the celery (think how a vegetable peeler's blade needs to get underneath the peel) and cut in gently until you can pull back the celery flesh, squeezing it with your thumb against the blade. Your other finger is holding the blade firmly against whichever strings your blade located. Normally, you will find a lot of strings the first time, then look for stray strings later.

• Pull firmly but gently all the way down the stalk and the strings will be the only part of the celery being removed, not the flesh. Once you've gotten this to work, you'll see how easy it is. Go back and pull the other strings out.

You will find the toughest parts/stalks have the thickest strings. The tenderer pieces sometimes have next-to-nothing in the way of strings. Taste them to see which ones suit you best and now you know which celery you like the most.

The de-stringed celery may look a little odd to you, particularly if you mangle it a bit the first few - or dozens - of times you do it.

I recommend cleaning (de-stringing) the whole bunch of celery, then putting it back in a bag in the fridge so whenever someone wants one - straight-up or with PB or cream cheese (Atkins-friendly for Induction with CC or plain) - it's ready to go.

Put the other saved celery in a different baggy so you can just toss it in whenever you make a homemade soup like Chicken Noodle (which Mo made) or Chicken Soup. (Hmmm maybe we should go ahead and make chicken soup the same day and freeze it.)

Do you have any vegetables that you just don't like? Let me know and I'll publish some recipes or hints of ways that can maybe help you like it a little bit better, or maybe even learn to love it.

Planning Vacations

Recently someone on E*Diets reported she was on Day 3 of Atkins and doing well, then mentioned her upcoming vacation in August where "everyone (would be) eating pasta and drinking wine" and wondered how she'd deal with that. Here's a reply I wrote to help her, having gone through that myself - in more ways than one - during my own journey to drop 40 pounds; perhaps it can help you plan for your upcoming vacation, too!

"Hi Jazzee*,

You are right to think about the trip and vacation with everyone else eating pasta and drinking wine. Now is the time to develop a plan that works for you and that will deal with that. If you are very strict with the induction and continue til vacation time, including increasing your exercise a little bit each day (and taking a rest day or two per week so you don't feel you are killing yourself), plus drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water, you will have more leeway in what you can do while on vacation.

I would suggest the following:

1. Make a plan to ensure you get enough water per day THAT YOU CAN DRINK and work on a plan that will ensure you DO just that.

For example, if the tap water is not drinkable, can you buy bottled water for each day or the entire week or so that you are gone and label them for each day so you can keep track without having to think about it while on vacation?

If you CAN drink the tap water, do you have a system in place for vacation-time that helps you keep track of how much you drink without having to work too hard at it during vacation? I find - must be the golfer in me :) - that I cannot count past 3-4 and remember. With things that "look the same" in my memory (like the same bottle or glass), this holds true anyway.

So, I buy 32-oz gatorade bottles and either save the gatorade in a pitcher for my son or others, or empty it, so that I have a good wide-mouthed container which fits in MY van's cupholders (not my fiance's SUV unfortunately) easily.

I started needing to drink 3 per day and am down to 2-1/2, tho I am trying to up that to 3 since I am trying to lose weight (10 lbs I regained falling in love and the effects on all three areas with time constraints mostly).

2. Food - do you like chicken or steak Caesar salads? These, and those with meat/cheese primarily and caesar, blue cheese, ranch, and some italian dressings are easily found at italian restaurants (tho I can't speak for Italy itself if you're going there!). Chicken wings, meats, eggplant parmigiana, etc, can work well ESPECIALLY if you can FORGO the pasta itself.

Italian restaurants did me in back in January, starting at New Year's Eve and going to 3 such places within a month. The first one I did pretty good at, but then I gave in to the pasta.

3. Find a way to exercise daily - 10 min of stretching in the morning, racing (for you) up and down flights of stairs for 3-5 minutes at some point during the day (or just walk an extra one til your heart or breath feel it, then maybe one more if you can), and then 15 min of stretching at night.

If you can turn on a song and dance like it's 1999 thru the whole thing (i.e., full gusto of joie de vivre involved, no matter which beat you choose), try that once a day too.

If you can go dancing, do that and choose water to drink instead of alcohol.

4. Try to limit your wine to 6 oz of red wine per day, enjoying it thoroughly while you do. There are heart benefits to this, even tho it's verboten during induction. Only 4 carbs for red wine - more for the others.

5. Game plan alternatives to staying OP (cause we all know you won't, the above are ways to LESSEN the effects):

a. goal is to maintain weight loss (no gain)

b. goal is to say the heck with it, and start over when you return (remember day 3 of Atkins is the hardest, but you will eventually beat the cravings).

Remember, we do this so we can enjoy the things that matter the most to us. Weigh each bite against the enjoyment obtained with the work it will take to get that off again, assuming you want to work it off, too. Some things are worth it; some are not.

Have a great time! When do you leave?"

*Name changed.

Another thing I did not mention in my reply to her - because she had not mentioned it in her own post - was dealing with car trips, where boredom on the road can lead to road munchies and crunchies (my favorite are Carb-heavenly Combos and Gummy Bears). I learned that I needed NEW MUSIC to keep me entertained. With a child in the car, that means (s)he might need headphones so the adult(s) can play their own music without listening to whining, too. Always have back-up water sources in the car, too, in case of highway stalemates that come up in the middle of nowhere and lead to road/block parties for 1-2 hours or more. Plan for potty breaks as well.

Ediets Community DOWN

The community support groups on E*diets have been "down" for a few days now.

Is anyone out there needing to vent about this? Drop your comments here now.

What's been going on with you today? Here's the list of 3 things we should all be doing daily:

1. Drinking water: 1/2 our body weight in ounces of water (up to 100 oz daily).
2. Staying "OP" or "On" program - within our carb level, our calories, sodium, whatever each of us tracks to see how we are doing daily with our energy/food intake.
3. Exercising - 20-30 min a day usually. I like to do about 250-300 min/week and put it into about 3 days a week rather than daily.

Been a bit lax on that myself lately. I did get all my water in yesterday.

Stress has not been my friend this week - coming at me from all directions, and I see it in the food choices I am wanting to make. Forcing the water in yesterday helped me. Taking my supplements helps me. I will get back on track; just knowing that gives me strength.

The "demons" that tempt us to eat badly, neglect our exercise and neglect our homes, family, and friends, and ourselves most of all, do come back to visit from time to time. Know that you do not need to let them stay long. Use the 3-day rule (both company and fish goes bad after three days?) and send them packing after you've had your little visit.

Going into work today this Sunday, planning to take off tomorrow to take in an opening day major league ballgame - I hear they are pretty fun.

What are you doing for yourself today?

I'm eating the elephant, one day at a time.

The Lighter Side of Low-Carb: Better-Than-Ever-Best-Yet Revoloopsie Rolls!

Some ladies on my e*Diets Atkins support group - one of several support groups I had to help me through trials and tribulations in the past year - had found this website, which I want to share with you. With a sense of humor, and a tremendous weight loss just in 2008, this blogger shares with us all her OOPS-I-goofed-the-recipe-but-yum!-aren't-these-better? low-carb rolls.

I'll also add her to the sidebar for easy finding later!

The Lighter Side of Low-Carb: Better-Than-Ever-Best-Yet Revoloopsie Rolls!

Keeping a Sense of Humor

Not everything we do works out the way we plan. That's when "Plan B" - a sense of humor - comes in handy.

We try; we fail; we get back up and try again; we fail again. It can deplete your patience and your sense of humor. But stepping back and laughing, recognizing that as humans we really are allowed to err, allows you to move on and succeed.

I have always thought I was not good enough. So I tried harder. Failure was not really an option. Being less than perfect was embarrassing for me. When I took up quilting, I learned both patience and the release that comes from allowing myself to not be perfect.

I still push myself, but I also have more patience with myself, recognizing my "adult" side must be the "parent" to the "child within" me who seeks approval and wants to be accepted, even with my failings. So I accept that I am not always perfectly "on program" as we call it on my e*diets support group, and that is not going to stop me from being "on program" another day, even if it is not tomorrow.

I find a sense of humor, being able to laugh from time to time, helps me with that.

A friend sent me a link to this YouTube video by three young men. It's called "Carlos Man of Love" and it always makes me laugh. I hope you find something that always makes you laugh or otherwise find contentment and make peace with your frustrations. As they say, this too shall pass. Try to laugh today, while it's happening, rather than tomorrow when you look back. (P.S. It helps your stomach muscles, too!)