Our Lady of Weight Loss ™®
is a division of Oy-Caramba! Ltd.

December 27, 2004

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Mrs. Finney: Can’t we have some peace in this house, even on New Year’s Eve?
Sadie: You got it mixed up with Christmas. New Year’s Eve is when people go back to killing each other.

~ Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993), U.S. director, screenwriter. Mrs. Finney (Connie Gilchrist), Sadie (Thelma Ritter),
A Letter To Three Wives, after listening to Lora May (Linda Darnell) and Babe (Barbara Lawrence) arguing (1949).

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faToid The new year was first celebrated in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago (in March). Their most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment. Order your faToid & KICK T-Shirts NOW!

NEWS Bite Our Lady of Weight Loss in the NEWS (recent past and present) Cuchifritos Art Gallery showing thru Jan 22 Good Housekeeping The Weight-Loss Artist Prevention Magazine nonextreme makeovers

Does your weight loss history looks like an EKG? YIKES! it's time to contact Weight Loss Coach, Janice Taylor.

Glorious Greetings Spirited and Spiritual

Concupiscence Cake Save Thyself! Want a piece of cake? It's the FCC: Fat-free, Cal-Free, Carb-Free

Good Luck and Prosperity in the New Year

The New Year is the time when many of us from just about every country and every walk of life hope for good luck and prosperity. These hopes, dreams and aspirations have inspired many food traditions.

Foods used to guarantee good luck have to be foods that are familiar to all, available to all and abundant at this time of year.

• In Spain and in Cuba, twelve grapes signifying the twelve months of the year are eaten one at a time, with every stroke of the clock at midnight.
  
• Northern Chinese traditionally eat dumplings that look like nuggets of gold, signifying good fortune. 
  
• Cambodians celebrate their new year in April by eating sticky, sweeet bean rice cakes.
  
• To ensure a year of good luck, the Irish give gifts of bread, salt, coins, and whiskey. They traditionally serve shortbread.
  
• The Vietnamese celebrate their new year in late January by serving carp, a round-bodied fish. It is believed that the carp carries the god of good luck on its back.  
  
• Eating noodles at midnight is customary at Buddhist temples in Japan.
  
• German folklore says that eating herring at the stroke of midnight will bring luck for the next year.
  
• In Denmark, boiled cod brings in the new year.
  
• And here, in America, black-eye peas, a staple of the South for over 300 years, has long been associated with good luck. Greens, thought to symbolize money, are often eaten with the peas. 

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Righteous Recipe ~ Skinny Hoppin' John (Minus the ham hocks, if you please!)

1 cup black-eye peas, dried
2 large plum tomatoes (Romas), seeded and diced
2 scallions (green onions), white and green parts, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely diced
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
1 jalapeno chile pepper
1/2 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste; a bit more salt to taste, if you must.
1 tsp fresh lime juice

Rinse the peas and place in a deep saucepan with 2-1/2 cups cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until the beans are soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir in the tomatoes, scallions, celery, onion, chile and salt into the hot beans. Simmer 25 minutes over medium heat. Season to taste with the pepper. Mix in the lime juice and serve.

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Divinely Delicious Good Luck Pancakes

Start the year off with this Kwanzaa celebration recipe.

2 cups Dried Black-eye peas
1 medium Onion -- coarsely chopped
1 Egg
1/4 cup Water
2 teaspoons Chili powder
1 teaspoon Salt
4- 4" squares aluminum foil
Salsa for serving

Place the black-eye peas in a medium bowl with water, and soak the peas overnight.
Drain off the water.
Place the peas, onion, egg, water, chili powder and salt into the bowl of a food processor or blender.
Process until the ingredients form a smooth paste.
Place 2 heaping tablespoons of the pea mixture on a square of aluminum foil.
Tightly fold the foil around the mixture.
Place the foil packets in a medium pot and cover them with water.
Boil for 1 hour, until the your Good Luck Pancakes are firm. Serve hot or warm with spicy salsa.

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Black-Eye Peas and Rice, Vegan Style

Want to whip up another dish? This way to Righteous Recipes past.
Send Our Lady your favorite recipe? Keep them easy, low-cal and FUN. If yours is used, Our Lady will send you a prize!

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Chewing the Fat - How you doin'? Write Our Lady.

Dear OLof W, I walk alot but I don't always work up a sweat. Do you still burn calories w/o sweating?  I make a diligent effort to either walk outside with some neighbors and/or on my treadmill in the basement. I figure even five or ten min on the treadmill is better than sitting and doing nothing. Right??? ~ Holly of Suffolk

Dear Holly of Suffolk, Without question, 5 or 10 minutes on the treadmill is MUCH better than sitting, doing nothing or eating, for that matter! And, yes, you are burning calories. Every activity burns calories - even thinking. However, you're not giving yourself a cardio-vascular workout. Burning Calories, How to Walk for Weight Control, has a lot of great info, as does KICK #26, Our Lady of One Foot in Front of the Other. Kudos to you and your neighbors for walking together. Keep up the good work. ~ OLofWL

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SPECIAL MENTION: Nutrition Science pioneer Sheldon Margen dies at 85
"Well aware of food fads and trends, Margen often recommended a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and low in saturated fat. He spoke against quick-loss diets, arguing that they destroy protein and vital tissue. He corrected a misconception that grapefruit burns away fat, saying that no food can do that. He opposed a popular weight-loss diet that consists primarily of meat and eggs, citing dangers including kidney failure and mineral deficiencies." Mary Rourke LOS ANGELES TIMES

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The Art of Weight Loss Group - The Art of Weight Loss group is set to begin on Saturday, January 8. It's an ongoing group, so please feel free to join with us whenever you like. We will share weight loss thoughts, frustrations, successes, recipes, and think of creative ways, both literally and figuratively, of how to redirect our feeding frenzies. You need not have an artistic bone in your body - just the desire to have some fun and keep it light while we stay steady the weight loss course together.

Let's support each other and create the healthy bodies that we want!

TOPIC #1: Are you ready, willing and able? Or just ready?
We're all ready to wake up thinner, but are we willing to do what it takes? And is doing what it takes really all that difficult? (No, it's not!)

For more info ... click here or
contact: info@ourladyofweightloss.com

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The KICK in the TUSH Club provides a weekly reminder in the form of an Art-KICK for those who wish to anchor themselves to their weight loss and/or health goals (or for those who need to satisfy their craving for a quirky kick). It's fun, fab and fat-free. Sign-up now (there's no charge). Click here! Our Lady. (Or send an email to: info@OurLadyofWeightLoss.com) and say, "YES! I need a KICK in the TUSH.

Sign up now!
It's fun, fab and fat-free -
no charge either!