Never Say Diet

I had great fun over the holidays but Monday hit with a hard clash and sent me trudging back to the office. I forgot my breakfast. I forgot my jewelry. I even forgot the password to my workstation. That is how thoroughly I checked out of work. While working through the piles of email today, I felt my mind drift to the great books I read over my break. I love vacation for reading. I feel like I learned a lot and had fun. So I decided to share all my learning's with you, my humble readers.

I found a cookbook at the thrift shop titled, "The Never Say Diet Cookbook" by Richard Simmons. It is arguably the best reading cookbook I have ever picked up. In fact, I stayed up way past bedtime last night to continue reading. That man has more personality in his pinky than I do in my rumpus and that's saying something. Yes, Mr. Simmons seems like a wacky weirdo who sells cheesy workout tapes and hams it up for the camera. But in reality he totally gets the weight loss conundrum we all face and shows us how to practically live a healthy lifestyle. He calls it the "Live-it" instead of a "Diet" because he intends for the reader to stay on this life-plan for, well, life. His main points are eat less and exercise. But he has some very funny anecdotal quips:

When introducing you to meats he says"

"I sure hope you like chicken because chicken likes you."

When going through things you will need in the kitchen:

"This is your sink. Your sink is your friend. You wash your fruits and veggies here. The sink is your baptismal font where you will start your Live-It life anew." (this had me cracking up!)

And then he takes you through how to clean out your fridge and freezer.

"Now let's look up in the freezer. Oh my God, no! Frozen Milky Ways? Three different kinds of ice cream? A Sara Lee pound cake? Hawaiian Punch popsicles? I can't believe my eyes, TV dinners? Well, excuse me, folks, we've obviously taken you into an X-rated freezer."

He does a whole stint on your new morning routines with pictures of stretches(remember leotards?) And then cinched it with this quip about morning snack breaks:

"I'm cleaning up this town, and you are on my hit list. That means I'm going to come over and personally hit you if I see you put one more crumb to your mouth between breakfast and lunch."

Can I just admit it? I love Richard Simmons. Everything he writes makes complete and total sense. I love his "I don't count calories" approach and truly wish I had run across this book and its predecessor earlier in my journey. My only beef with the cookbook is his approach to low-fat meals. I have never bought into the low-fat craze and until only recently loved to eat my share of whole milk dairy products. I do love that in the early 1980's he was promoting whole grain pastas, long before they were popular. Oh, and the recipes look fantastic!

The other book I have been reading is called "Grain Brain" by David Perlmutter. I don't know if I can adequately put into words how I feel about this book. Part of me still thinks a dairy free/gluten free lifestyle is for kooky health nuts. But most of what Dr. Perlmutter presents by way of various medical studies makes complete and total sense to me. His correlation between whole body health and brain inflammation is startling(a word he uses quite frequently). I started reading this book after I began my little experiment with cutting out dairy and gluten and much of what he writes seems applicable to me. He recommends a diet high in (healthy) fats and low in gluten and carbohydrates. And while I think studies can be biased, in my humble opinion, the research presented in this book definitely addresses rise of gluten intolerance in the American population, among other things.

Here are a few things I have learned from this book:

1) Alzheimer's is preventable via dietary changes early in life.

2) Cholesterol is a critical brain nutrient essential for the functions of neurons. (what does this say about low-cholesterol diets? Are we starving our brains with low-cholesterol diets?)

3) Food sensitivities(and resulting inflammation) are usually a response from the immune system.

4) Sugar is Toxic(wait-I already knew that!)

5) Brain Inflammation can cause anxiety, depression, seizures, and migraines(among many other things).

So this book is not really just about grain, but about preventing disease in general. I find it extremely informative with a lot of facts(by way of studies) to back up the information presented. More importantly, the information just makes sense to me as I work towards conquering my food addiction.

When not obsessing about living a healthy lifestyle,(the other 10 minutes of my day) I have read several novels. I love a good fiction book. I picked up Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine which was fabulous, and The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, by Andrew Sean Greer. With so much good fiction on the market I find myself completely satisfied. Now if only I could finish my book.

One other random tidbit of note: Trader Joe's is awesome. I've seen people go on about this chain and I never bought into the hype. I am utterly sold. I discovered their Simply Lite gluten free/dairy free/sugar free 50% cacao bar and fell in love. They have so many amazing products that fit my lifestyle and it makes me so happy. I especially love their coconut chips. So even while abstaining from cookies, pies and other various holiday desserts, I was completely happy and not at all deprived.

Once I try one of the Richard Simmons recipes I will post the recipe with pictures. And you may hear more about Grain Brain as I'm only 62% of the way though(God bless Kindle which enables me to read while riding the elliptical of doom!)

Happy Monday, y'all!