Little Bites.....BIG Calories

Over the Holidays I’m sure we all ate extra bites!  These extra bites can total up to Big Calories! Now the holiday season is behind us and it’s time to keep that New Year’s Resolution to lose 10 pounds.  An easy way to accomplish this is to become aware of those extra bites we consume in our day. Did you know that by adding a little extra mayo on your turkey sandwich you will add 100 calories to your diet?  It’s snowing outside and you’re curled up in your favorite chair reading a book and munching on the last bit of potato chips left in the bag, that’s 75 extra calories. You are a savvy shopper and always go for the bargain – super-sizing is definitely the better deal, right? Only if you are counting pennies and not calories.  That super-size will cost you an additional 190 calories. Drinking coffee to help through the mornings?  Those two teaspoons of sugar in your coffee will be 32 extra calories. Watch your serving sizes when dining out or enjoying an evening with friends. The UT Extension office and Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) want to encourage you to eat healthy and lean in 2014.

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Program provides hands-on nutrition education through a series of meetings.  In some cases a group might meet for an hour, once a week, for six weeks.  The time can be flexible.  If you are eligible for any assistance program such as WIC, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Head Start, you are eligible for EFNEP. Participants will receive a multiple recipes, kitchen utensils and a graduation certificate from the University of Tennessee, Institute of Agriculture. For more information on our County EFNEP program please call Karen Marshall, Community Nutrition Educator at 423-949-2611.
If you would like more information on this and other Extension programs please visit us at our facebook or Website

The Month After Christmas…

‘Twas the month after Christmas,

And all through the house

Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I’d nibbled, the eggnog I’d taste

At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number!

When I walked to the store

(less a walk than a lumber).

I’d remember the marvelous meals I’d prepared;

The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese

And the way I’d never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband’s old shirt

And prepared once again to do battle with dirt—-

I said to myself, as I only can

"You can’t spend a winter disguised as a man!"

So—away with the last of the sour cream dip,

Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished

Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won’t have a cookie— not even a lick.

I’ll want only to chew on a long celery stick.

I won’t have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,

I’ll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore—

But isn’t that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.

Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!