Refuse To Regain

Shawna’s Savin’ All Her Carbs For You!

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

I don’t remember this, but apparently sometime last week I changed my name to Shawna, moved to Austin, Texas, and became a spokesmodel for a resveratrol weight-loss product.

No wonder I’ve been so tired.

This is the third time (that I’m aware of) that a “weight-loss company” has stolen a photo from my website and used my image to sell their crazy products. The first time, a “lose belly fat by obeying one rule” scam cropped a photo of my (fully clothed) stomach. I was appalled and flattered at the same time, like I’d been whistled at by construction workers. The second time, a weight-loss “blog” selling acai berry pills included a link to my website, inferring that I used their product to lose weight. Of course anyone who clicked on the link would soon learn that I didn’t use a product to lose weight, but I was still bothered by the reference. (I wrote about it in January. Click here to view.)

This time, the before/after shots from the homepage of my original website, Lynn’s Journey, are being used to sell something called ResV. I know I shouldn’t “promote” the site by giving out the address here, but I want you to see just how ballsy these folks are. Click here to see the site. Scroll down…you’ll see me halfway down on the right. Honestly, I’m not sure what offends me more: that they’re using my image to sell a product I would never use or endorse, or that the “testimonial” they attribute to me is so poorly written. The image is clearly me, but the writing? Not so much.

I’m not as ticked this time as I was the first two times. First of all, there’s little I can do to have my images removed from these fake sites. I tried, ad nauseum, in the past to contact someone, but all they want is your credit card number. Second, I’ve come to accept that it’s just my photo, not my story or real name. I know who I am. I know my story. My image is nothing without my story. Besides, if someone is buying ResV or acai berries or belly fat weight-loss products to lose weight, my story of losing weight through a healthy diet and NO supplements won’t interest them much.

I’m also posting this blog on Lynn's Weigh because I’d like to reach as many readers as I can for feedback. The Internet is, in many ways, a free-for-all for cheaters, scammers and plagiarists. I’d like to know: 1) If you have a website, has your image been stolen to promote a product you did not endorse; and 2) How did you handle the situation (or how would you handle it if it were to happen)? As always, leave a comment or send an email to lynnbering@verizon.net.

Now on to the carb love. Whitney Houston’s voice was in my head last Sunday morning, as she is every time I anticipate lunch with my oldest daughter at our favorite western PA restaurant: North Country Brewing Company. Thank god Slippery Rock is no longer a “dry” town because this place serves up some mighty fine beer and PA wine. (The new Rosabella Pinot Grigio from Narcisi Winery is to die for, and I’m not usually a sweetish kind of wine lover.)

But I don’t love North Country for the drink. Oh no, my friends. I love North Country for the pita and hummus and field green salad with feta, walnuts, artichokes and green beans.

The salad is self-explanatory…and secondary, actually. It’s the hummus and pita….oh my….that make me so happy and have me singing my version of a Whitney Houston song.

Their chef makes a new hummus every day and every one I’ve had is gooooood (said in my best Elaine Benes accent). And I don’t know if it’s homemade, but the pita they serve with it is gooooooood, too. I mean “worth-every-carb-calorie” good.

The chef isn’t afraid to combine hot with mellow and savory with sweet. His hummus is always a taste explosion. And the pita is thick and white, grilled and a little sweet. It fills you up real quick, but it’s worth saving every last calorie you allot for the day just to savor more than a quick sample.

Carbs like this have become a once-in-awhile treat, unlike when I was obese and didn’t give carbs a second thought. I ate them regularly – and often primarily – as though they were a right. I bought whole wheat bagels and whole wheat English muffins and whole wheat pizza dough thinking I was eating “healthy,” but they were wreaking havoc with my body. It was only when I broke down my food intake into food groups (something I did months after I’d reached goal, not while I was losing weight), that I saw and felt the affects of carbohydrates on my body. Too many breads, crackers, cereals or fruits and I bloat up and gain weight. That’s why they’ve become once-in-awhile or tightly controlled foods. And that’s what makes the pita and hummus so special. 

With my apologies to Ms. Houston, here’s the song (my adaptation) that goes through my head every time I anticipate the hummus and pita at North Country – a place, I assure you, I only eat at once a month at the most. It would be too dangerous otherwise. 

Savin’ All My Carbs For You (aka Savin’ All My Love For You)

A few stolen moments is all that we share
You’ve got your calories, and they feel like air
Though I try to resist, I put you on my list
Cause no other carb’s gonna do
So I’m saving all my carbs for you

No other woman, is gonna love you more
Cause this lunch is the lunch, that I’m ready to munch
We’ll be eating carbs the whole hour through
So I’m saving all my carbs
Yeah I’m saving all my carbin’
Yes I’m saving all my carbs for you
For you, for you

Emerging From a Food Rut

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

About a year ago, I wrote about how bored I was with my strength training routine (“Kicking It Up A Notch”). So I bought a barbell and got refocused. I don’t know what it is about this time of the year, but now I’m bored with my food choices.

Every morning I make a smoothie. Every afternoon I make a salad. Every night I eat a veggie, a protein and maybe a starch. I use different fruits in my smoothie or use a different kind of soy or almond milk, but it’s still a smoothie. I switch up veggies in my salad (hearts of palm one day, red onions the next – whoohoo) but it’s still a salad. I use different beans in my bean burgers, but they’re still bean burgers.

Yawn.

It’s not that I need to try all kinds of new foods or want to reintroduce meat to my diet. I’m pretty happy with the core repertoire I’ve got going as a vegetarian. It’s the combinations of foods in a recipe, the spices, the order in which I eat things that need to change. What happened to the Lynn who loved to eat breakfast for dinner and leftovers for breakfast? Life, I guess. There’s comfort in knowing I have the same old reliable foods on hand so I don’t have to put a lot of thought into what I’ll eat when I’m as busy as I’ve been the last few months. But the new grandbaby is here and my writing project is in the hands of someone else for the time being, so it’s time to get out of this rut.

This morning, I dug out one of my favorite cookbooks, one I haven’t looked at in six months or more: "Betty Crocker’s Healthy New Choices". I forgot how much I love Red Lentil Soup, and I discovered a black-eyed peas recipe that I wouldn’t have given a second look if not for having tried black-eyed peas a while back and loved them. So it’s off to the store to buy black-eyed peas and some red lentils, since the ones I have stored in an old margarine container in the back of the cupboard probably haven’t seen the light of day in a year. I’m surprised they haven’t sprouted legs and walked out on their own.

After perusing the cookbook, I automatically went to the freezer to grab frozen fruit for a smoothie. Wait! You’re thinking outside the box, remember? said the voice in my head. I opened the refrigerator instead. There on the top shelf was my husband’s light cream cheese. I say my husband’s because I haven’t eaten cream cheese in more than a year. Heck, I think it’s been two, almost three years, maybe.

I have a long history with cream cheese, and it’s one of those foods that makes me sad to eat in small quantities, if that makes sense. When I was 300 pounds, I chose between two standard breakfasts: 1) drive-through McDonald’s for two (yes t-w-o) Egg McMuffins and a hash brown; or 2) a toasted (very well) bagel with veggie cream cheese and a coffee loaded with half-and-half from our local coffee shop. Granted, the coffee shop uses only light cream cheese, but when you’re talking three or more tablespoons, there’s nothing light about it.

As I lost weight, I still ate a half bagel with smaller amounts of cream cheese whenever I went to the coffee shop, but when the half bagel was done, I wanted more. The craving was overwhelming. So much so that I had to give up cream cheese and bagels entirely because it was literally emotional torture to tell myself “no” to more cream cheese. Ridiculous, perhaps, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who understands this.

Back to this morning. I spied the cream cheese and thought, Hmmm…I’ve got some lovely chives growing in the garden, a whole-wheat Arnold’s Sandwich Thin in the bread drawer…I think I’d like to give it a try. 

I toasted the Arnold’s and snipped some chives, measured out a tablespoon of cream cheese and made a pseudo-bagel with cream cheese.

It. Was. Divine.

And I didn’t want or crave anymore than that one tablespoon. Could it be I have no more emotional ties to cream cheese? 

I wanted fruit for breakfast, too. Rather than reach for the old standby – a banana – I again grabbed one of my husband’s staple foods. A grapefruit. I see and smell the grapefruit he eats almost every day and think, You really should have some one of these days, but I always have the frozen fruit and a banana or apple, and since I only eat two fruits a day, I run out of “food time” for the grapefruit.

So I took out a grapefruit, and instead of cutting it in half and eating it with a grapefruit spoon, I peeled it and ate it in sections.

It. Was. Devine.

I always try to eat a veggie for breakfast, too. Usually it’s broccoli or asparagus from the night before. This morning, however, there were steamed carrots from – surprise, surprise – my husband’s meal last night! I heated those up, too, and…they were divine as well.

A totally different breakfast has me thinking in all kinds of different ways this morning. I’m really excited to make Red Lentil Soup this afternoon and the black-eyed peas tomorrow and any other different recipe I can find that is a little outside my ordinary of late.

Who says maintenance has to be dull? We have to shake things up once in awhile or we get bored. And as Hollywood hunk-o-rama Viggo Mortensen (whom I prefer without a beard, personally) said, “There’s no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there’s no excuse for boredom, ever.”

Savoring Food

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

After an emergency root canal yesterday, I’m rediscovering how much fun it is to eat.

So much of the time, eating is rote. While I plan and prepare meals, and mostly when I’m eating, my mind wanders in all different directions except to the food at hand. What emails do I need to write? When’s the last time I called my mother? Did I feed the birds? Don’t forget to vacuum. Stuff like that.

But when you only have half your mouth and taste buds to work with, at least in the first few hours as you wait for the Novocain to wear off, how to eat becomes front and center. And when the Novocain wears off and your jaw will only open a few inches because it’s rebelling against being held wide open for three hours by some medieval jaw-stretching device, choosing the right foods and eating them slowly becomes a priority. 

A leftover veggie burger was the first to go down. I was grateful I’d taken the time when I made them to chop all the veggies finely and not rush through the process and settle for using big chunks of carrots and onions. I’m impatient that way. It took about 15 minutes to eat it, and a little ketchup was stuck on my lip for about an hour because I couldn’t feel it, but it was much tastier than I remember it being last night. Why? Because last night I was eating dinner while watching “Jeopardy.” I can’t concentrate on Alex Trebek and a veggie burger at the same time, and Alex was more appealing at the moment.

Next I ate a banana dipped in PB2 (a powdered peanut butter I mix with water). Usually I just run the banana through a dish of PB2 while I work at my computer. This time I had to cut it up and add it to the PB2 and eat each little bit slowly. All the while I thought, Why don’t I do this more often? Savor the joy of eating? 

String cheese is a lot of fun when you peel it. Fresh raspberries taste much better one at a time. And Tic Tacs really don’t have to be chewed the minute you put them in your mouth. Who knew?

Back in July, I blogged at Lynn’s Weigh about what I consider finger foods. I reread it today and remembered it’s fun to eat broccoli or clean out a pudding cup with your fingers! I’ve put steamed broccoli on the menu for tonight along with a tomato and red lentil soup I haven’t made in ages.

It’s good to be reminded that eating should be fun, even if it that reminder comes in the form of a root canal. I’d like to incorporate less drastic reminders into my day, though, and would appreciate any tips you have. In what ways do you savor food? How do you stay present when you eat? Thanks, as always, for your ideas!

Kooky?

I want to welcome all of you who’ve never visited our site before. I know we have many new readers that are coming to us as a result of Jennette’s guest blog and I want to thank Jennette Fulda for her excellent post. For those of you who are new to us, we hope you’ll stick around! After all, maintenance is where we’re all headed and it’s never too early to start learning about how other people are managing it. You’ll find lots of inspiration from our passionate and literate community-at-large, so please consider this a heartfelt invitation to join us.

Barbara

In the years that I was laboring over my book, it somehow never occurred to me that people would actually read it and make comments about it. Isn’t that strange? Now that my “baby” is toddling around in the real world, I feel like a mom who is hiding behind every bush waiting to see what people think of my little treasure. One of the first comments that knocked me on my heels was an internet post by someone who liked the book, but thought it had some “kooky” ideas. Gee. I’d never thought of myself as kooky.

Since most of “Refuse to Regain” is pretty straightforward, I must assume that the “kooky” part is my advocacy of the Primarian Diet. As a good mom, I feel obliged to come to the defense of my creation.

First, let me say that I fully subscribe to the following philosophy: maintaining the weight you’ve lost, or even a part of that weight, is what is most important. If you have found an eating plan that does this for you, and if it’s not manifestly unhealthy (eating only small handfuls of M&Ms all day, for example), I think you’re doing fine. Different techniques may work for different people and rigidly advocating philosophies is never a good idea.

This lesson was imprinted on me 30 years ago when I was a young teacher of the deaf. I worked in an “oral” school; a place that believed that all deaf students should learn to speak. Our pupils were forbidden to use sign language while in the classroom because that was the philosophy the school believed in. The only problem was Pedro Martinez. Pedro was profoundly deaf, nine years old, and completely incapable of forming even the most basic speech. When our class was given the assignment of performing a play for the school, I spent two months coaching Pedro to say his single line (a single word, actually. He had to point his finger and say “Go!” ) He never managed to get it out properly. Pedro was an adorable, lively little kid who should have had a way to communicate. But he ran aground of someone else’s philosophy. I remember Pedro whenever I hear people insisting that their way is the only way.

Having said this, I do believe that you should give consideration to a mostly Primarian approach for weight maintenance. Primarian is an invented term, but it’s meant to reflect the basic, or primary, nature of the foods that make up the diet. The idea is to eat foods that are closest to the ones humans have eaten for most of their existence. Here’s where the idea comes from:

1.  In my world view, overweight does not come from an overconsumption problem, it comes from a processing problem. If you’re overweight, fuel that should be burned is being diverted into storage instead. Naturally, there are some people who eat excessively---perhaps even enormous amounts. But most overweight people I know don’t really eat that much more than freely eating NOWs (never overweight people). Every one of us is aware of the fact that some people gain weight easily while others don’t. This fact has been borne out by studies where similar people were overfed by the same amount while exercise was controlled. The result? Some people gained lots of weight, others very little. In short, some burned the calories. Others stored them.

2. Why do some people store instead of burn? I believe that the reason has to do with too much insulin. Insulin is released when we eat starches or sugar (S Foods). While it is known to regulate blood sugar levels, insulin has another crucial function. It controls fat storage and release. When people chronically make a lot of insulin, they start to divert fuel into fat cells ( they store). In addition, the muscle cells that would normally process the fuel become “resistant” to insulin (less burning). These ideas are not unusual or revolutionary. They are well known. The question is, why do some people fall into this pattern when others don’t. No one knows. They simply may be more sensitive to chronic exposure to S Foods.

3. Given 1 and 2, I believe that diets which are low in starches and sugars lead to resolution of the insulin problem. Again, nothing radical here. Most weight loss diets cut back on S Foods (starches and sugars), or limit starches to the “complex carbohydrates”.

But, I feel that this knowledge points us to something more obvious. If we look at the diet that humans ate for most of their 2.5 million year existence, it is a diet that lacked S Foods. It is not much of a leap to hypothesize that as a result we are not well-adapted to these relatively new additions to our diet. Maybe when some of us are chronically exposed to foods our body is not prepared for, we start to malfunction. Maybe, when we bring our diet back in line with our genetics, we can heal.

4. For these reasons, I like a Primarian eating style. This is essentially the stripped down diet that our ancient ancestors ate: lean animal meats, poultry, eggs, fish and seafood, vegetables, fruits, nuts,and seeds—the foods that we ate as hunter-gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years. To add some flexibility, I include low fat dairy. This is not an ancient food, but it appears to be weight neutral—at least in my experience. What? No whole grains? No, because grains in any form—whole or not—are starches. They were never a part of the original human diet and they are not consumed by any other primate. This is not to say that you can never have a grain. But I advocate adding them back with care. And I go one step further: I question their importance in our diet.

The Primarian eating style is only a departure point. But it takes us all the way back to the foods our body is best designed to handle. And it’s good to start at the beginning. I think that Primarian choices should form the majority of foods eaten in maintenance. In time, we can each experiment to figure out the non-Primarian things that we can add back without restarting the cycle.

So. Are these ideas kooky? Not from where I sit. But then again, I’m the biased, nervous (proud) mom.

Gird Your Loins! The Assault is Coming

By Barbara Berkeley

Along with the snow, along with the cold and wet, along with the flu, along with the desire to bundle up and eat nothing but mashed potatoes for three months….along with all of that comes the food assault.

Food assault is the term I use to describe the feeling of being pressed in on all sides by food. This happens often enough at other times of the year, but it reaches epic proportions around the holidays. The food that’s coming to tempt us in the next couple of months is not your ordinary stuff. No. This is the candy, the delightfully decorated cookies, the steaming cups of hot chocolate, the puddings, the stuffings, the pies. Need I go on? What’s worse for us maintainers is the fact that all of these foods are tied in our minds to happiness, family and love. Food is happiness, yet we certainly won’t be happy if we regain our weight. How do we walk that tightrope?

Maybe our first response should be to unmask the true nature of holiday food “happiness.” For example:

• Many of the people who are making and offering holiday food can least afford it themselves and won’t be happy in the weeks following the holiday binge
• While a little sweet food may be love, a lot of it is destructive to POWs (the previously overweight)
• There is nothing necessarily good about pushing away from the Thanksgiving table with a stomach so distended that it’s painful
• The foods we confront during the holidays are really just a more intense form of the SAD (standard American diet)…the very diet we’re trying to distance ourselves from.

I’m a big fan of planning. It’s around this time of year that I start prep work with my patients, so why not online? It’s time to visualize your Thanksgiving dinner. It’s time to imagine some of the food challenges you’ll likely face this holiday season. Once you’ve got these scenarios in mind, I advise you work on designing a plan that circumvents them. Here’s some of what I’ll be suggesting this year:

• Imagine the exact situations you’ll find yourself in and picture your response.
• Think about what you’ll allow yourself to put on your plate.
• Imagine how you might divert yourself by getting into conversations or helping out (away from the food)
• Figure out how to keep your hands busy.
• Plan on the clothing you’ll wear and pick something snug. That both shows off your new shape and keeps a check on eating!

In addition, I advocate an overall strategy. Since this is a food war, it’s a good idea to know what your campaign will look like.

Here are two possible strategies:

1. The “ Diet of Conviction” strategy

a. Probably the most effective strategy of all. Simply: keep doing exactly what you do the rest of the year. Don’t give yourself a pass just because it’s the holiday. I often remind my clients that vegetarians don’t start eating meat just because they go to a party. They base their diet on a certain conviction and stick to it no matter what. I know that many of you do the same and find that this thinking is key. This doesn’t mean you can’t make slight departures, but by and large…you adhere to plan.

2. The “I will…but then” strategy

a. In this strategy, you decide in advance what off-plan foods you will allow yourself. Making this decision ahead of time is critical, because you never want to get caught on the defense in front of a table full of pie and cake! Decide what you want to “spend” and don’t go over budget. This is the “I will…” part.

b. Decide in advance what you will do after you’ve gone off plan. This is the “but then” part. Here are some examples:

i. I will eat a serving of stuffing and a full piece of pumpkin pie, but then I will go the gym the next day and do a full work out;

ii. I will have those potatoes with the marshmallows on top, but then I will weigh myself in the morning and if I’m up even slightly, I’ll do a mini-diet that day.

I am sure that all of you experienced maintainers will be sending your comments. For those of you who are about to go through your first holiday season since losing weight, remember that we’re here for you! Gaining over the holiday is not inevitable if you make a plan and enjoy the cleverness it takes to carry it out!

Mom Cooks!!! (Occasionally)

By Barbara Berkeley

As you all know by now, I maintain my weight by following a Primarian (or ancient) diet. That works really well for me when coupled with one other trick I’ve learned during five years of maintenance: the less involvement I have with food the better. Science has a name for this approach. It’s called “stimulus narrowing.” Many researchers have noted that too much choice and exposure is overstimulating and can even cause us to become anxious. I’d be willing to bet that every one of you has experienced that feeling when you’ve entered a huge, well-stocked supermarket. All 50,000 items seem to call your name!

As a result of my determination to keep things basic, my meals have tended to become more and more simple. Just give me a handful of ground turkey and a George Foreman and I’m truly content. My daughters who are grown and (mostly) out of the house, like to grumble about the fact that “Mom never cooks.” That doesn’t mean that we don’t have food in the house. Just that we don’t fuss with it much. I must admit that ever since my gourmet cooking days ended, my food preparation skills have become a little rusty.

My reluctance to get too involved with fancy preparation is hard on guests. Living on a small farm out in the country, we tend to get stay-over company. Everyone comments that coming to our house with its complement of donkeys, turkeys and other wildlife, feels like a stay in a bed and breakfast. Oops! That means I have to provide breakfast…and not just the basic kind…more like the spread I tend to avoid nowadays. In order to keep guests happy while keeping kitchen exposure low, I have gotten better at quick guest recipes. Like Lynn’s pesto, these are recipes that throw together easily, look gourmet, and aren’t completely off my own diet. A nice selection of colored bowls, a vintage tablecloth and a jug of cut flowers go a real long way toward making the bed and breakfast thing happen.

When the house is full and I get back to chopping, paring and mixing it feels awfully good. If my daughters happen to be home, they will cry, “Mom’s cooking!” But after the dishes are done and the tablecloth is in the wash, I must say that I am very happy to tote out my grapes, my nuts and my George Foreman once again.

Light Summer Meal at the “Bed and Breakfast” : Best served on a porch and eaten out of doors.

Curried Tuna Salad
Serves about 4

I first tasted this recipe when I was a medical resident in Boston. There used to be a great sandwich shop in Harvard Square that made this salad. After some trial and error, I figured out the recipe for myself.

3 large cans of solid white tuna packed in water
1 large apple, washed with skin on. (a sweet apple like gala is best)
1 medium red onion2 stalks of celery
¾ cup of raisins (more to taste)
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 Tbsp curry powder (adjust to taste)
Small amount of light mayonnaise

Chop celery fine. Coarsely chop red onion. Add these ingredients to the tuna and chop lightly to mix. Add a small amount of light mayonnaise diluted with some water until the texture is a bit more smooth.

Coarsely chop the apple and add it, as well as the nuts and the raisins to the salad. Season with curry powder. I use the mild type.

Hard Cooked Eggs and Salsa Cruda
Serves 6

This is one of those dishes that needs to stand and develop its flavors. Make well in advance for the best result. Best in the summer when tomatoes are fresh and sweet. Love this recipe!

6 large eggs
4 tomatoes diced (the recipe calls for peeled and seeded…but I usually just chop them up skin and all)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1½ Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Dash of balsamic vinegar
Dash salt, fresh ground pepper
10 basil leaves

Place eggs in a pan of cold water, bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for 7 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water until cool enough to handle. Peel and chill until ready to use. This will give you an egg with a slightly soft center.

Combine tomatoes with garlic, oil, salt and pepper to taste, and vinegar. Tear basil leaves into pieces and stir in.

Chop eggs and mix into tomato mixture. Keeps well in a tightly covered container for about 2 days.

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4 to 6

This is a non-Primarian dish that I serve for non-Primarian company. On the other hand, since I believe in eating anciently 90 percent of the time, this is a great dish for an occasional “deviation.” I try to limit myself to no more than a few of these. For those of you who eat sweet potatoes, this is truly a winning recipe. I’ve never known anyone who could resist these..and they are incredibly simple and foolproof.

1 tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried hot red pepper flakes (optional…I usually omit this)
1 tsp kosher salt
2 lb. medium sweet potatoes
3 Tablespoons olive oil

Preheat over to 425. Coarsely grind coriander, fennel, oregano, pepper, and salt in a spice grinder or coffee grinder. Peel potatoes and cut into 1” wedges. Toss wedges with oil and spices in a large roasting pan. Roast in the middle of your oven to 20 minutes. Then turn the wedges and roast until tender, about 15-20 minutes more.

I have also done this recipe on the grill. I just put the wedges, spices and oil in a foil packet, seal and cook till tender.

Serve all of the above with a green salad and some interesting fruits. And don’t forget to design an attractive presentation. My mother is the master of this and her lessons haven’t been lost on me. Arrange things like artwork and use garnishes. Everyone will be impressed. A glass of wine wouldn’t hurt either!

Introducing Our New "Recipes" Page

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering

As a fairly new vegetarian and so I don’t get bored in maintenance, I’ve made it my goal to try one new recipe a week. Some weeks are better than others, but at least I’m expanding my food repertoire.

In that vein, Barbara and I have added a Recipes page to the site for us to share some of our favorite recipes and for you to share yours. Simply leave your recipe in the comment section and we’ll add it to the page. Eventually when we have a “real” website, we’ll break down recipes into categories. For now, it’ll be a bit of a free for all, but hopefully fun and information nonetheless.

I grow a lot of basil in my garden every year, so I’m always looking for good pesto and basil-centered recipes. I add fresh basil to my spinach omelets in the morning and to sautéed vegetables along with a little balsamic, but that’s just a leaf or two. I harvest cups and cups every week! Thanks to the magazine and online site Taste of Home, I’ve found my favorite pesto recipe so far this year. Here it is:

Tomato-Walnut Pesto

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
½ cup boiling water
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/3 cup reduced-sodium vegetable broth (for you non-vegetarians, you can use chicken broth)
¼ cup chopped walnuts, toasted
¼ tsp salt (optional)
1/8 tsp pepper
3 T olive oil

Place the tomatoes in a small bowl; add boiling water. Cover and let stand for five minutes. Place the basil, cheese and garlic in a food processor; cover and pulse until chopped. Add the tomatoes with liquid, broth, walnuts, salt and pepper; cover and process until blended. While processing, add oil in a steady stream. Serve immediately over whole wheat pasta, spaghetti squash, or my favorite, shredded butternut squash.

I like spaghetti squash as an alternative to pasta, but lately I’ve liked its sister, the butternut squash, better. To make the squash, peel, deseed, and shred squash. Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray. Add the squash and some minced or diced onions if you like. Sprinkle with some garlic powder. Cook on medium heat until the squash is slightly brown.

I’m also growing rosemary this year. Here’s my favorite pasta sauce recipe. It’s the rosemary and balsamic vinegar that makes it so unique.

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pasta (and Pizza) Sauce

2 pounds Roma or plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
6 peeled garlic cloves
1 T fresh rosemary leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
1 T fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 small can tomato paste
½ tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary and thyme on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Spray veggies lightly with non-stick spray. Roast for 20 minutes. Flip the vegetables and roast for another 20-25 minutes or until they start to brown. Scrape everything into a food processor fitted with the chopping blade and process until pureed.

Pour contents into a large saucepan. Add vinegar, tomato paste, salt and basil. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. I sometimes go an hour for richer flavor.

This sauce keeps well for a three to four days. In fact, I think it tastes even better the next day. It’s great on pasta, squash and homemade pizza.

Now it’s your turn! Bon appétit!

On the Road in Food World (written Memorial Day weekend)

By Barbara Berkeley

It’s a gloriously sunny day and my husband Don and I are on the road for three days. We’re driving to the wedding of a friend’s daughter on the east coast.

There’s nothing like a little travel to take you out of your maintenance comfort zone. Travelling makes me appreciate the steps I’ve taken to structure my personal food world. Now that I’m out the comfort zone, 7½ hours from home, the protections I’ve come to rely on are gone. I am in the thick of the SAD world of American eating.

Day One:

Almost 8 hours on the road with no food except fast food or the stuff that passes for food at highway rest stops. Generally, Don and I are better prepared with things to eat for travel. We usually bring fruit, baby carrots, nuts and left-overs. But we were late getting out of our house. “We’ll stop on the road”, we said. Big mistake. At a Sbarro’s on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, there wasn’t a salad or vegetable to be had and even if we’d wanted the pizza or pasta, it looked toxic. Outside of McDonald’s in the same rest area, a hugely overweight couple stood in front of a colorful sign which read, “Great Choice!” and showed a life sized picture of a breaded, fried fish sandwich. The stores that sell logo shirts (I heart Pennsylvania!) were full of snacks, but even the bags of nuts were oily and crusted with salt. We settled for rounds of diet soda and some pretzels. ( I eat a diet that’s 95% Primarian and occasional pretzels are one of my 5% deviations. Particularly the big pretzels shaped like a “Q” that they sell at the Cavs games at Quicken Loans arena! I scrape off about the half the salt though.)

We stop quite a bit with all that diet soda. At each bathroom break, I am impressed by the new size of America. People are simply huge in a way that I can’t remember from when I was younger. As always, that makes me feel angry, because no one chooses to be that size. I feel angry at the fact that food manufacturers, schools, doctors and governments aren’t providing the information and support that Americans need to stay at a weight that doesn’t endanger them.

We check into our motel at 10 p.m. Back in the day, motels were one-story buildings arranged around a pool and a set of swings with a tiny office out front. If you happened to wander in after 9 p.m., you had to ring a bell and dig the owner out of bed. This motel, on the other hand, is a veritable palace, complete with anxious-to-please desk clerks pushing room keys across polished granite counters.

Our motel lies in the midst of what can only be described as a fantasy island of food. Before we get off the highway, I ask Don if we can stop and get something real to eat; a bowl of soup or something. “I don’t think anything will be open at 10 o’clock”, he says. Not open? After exiting the highway, we spend about 30 minutes on a major road that passes from one town to another through an endless unscrolling of places to eat. Like sea sirens luring sailors to death on the rocks, each one calls out alluringly. Pretty signs. Flashing lights. Billboards full of dripping sandwiches. Almost everything we pass is a chain restaurant and many seem to rely on architectural “hooks” to get attention. Of course there are the familiar shapes: the golden arches, the KFC rotating bucket of chicken, but now they are joined by fake Mexican casitas, fake western saloons, fake Italian villas complete with fake deteriorating plaster, fake beach houses with hurricane shutters....a veritable Disney World of food.

Once we turn off the main road onto a smaller one, we find ourselves in a compound of three motels (ours being one). Although food world is less than a one-minute drive away, there are two large chain restaurants within the compound itself, each flashing its neon beacon late into the night. We stop and I am able to get a single, pre-frozen piece of soggy chicken and a thimble sized portion of limp broccoli at one of them. Clearly, this place is better at constructing towers of onion rings and nacho platters.

On check-in, we are handed a goody-bag from our hosts. I love goody bags, but since switching to the Primarian lifestyle, they have become more of a spectator sport for me. A friend of ours meets us in the lobby, already bemoaning the fact that she has eaten most of hers. She is worried about being able to fit into her outfit in the morning. A bit overdramatic?

Allow me to accurately describe the contents of this goody bag: Four oversized bakery cupcakes (with the name of bride and groom inscribed), 2 Nutrigrain Strawberry Yogurt bars, 1 Nature Valley Trail Mix Fruit and Nut Bar, 1 Caribou Coffee Caramel High Rise bar, 1 Caribou coffee chocolate mocha bar, 4 squares of Ghirardelli chocolate, 1 box tic tacs, 27 hershey kisses, 28 large individually wrapped mints, a lip gloss and 2 packs of puffs facial tissue.

Because this is a fancy place, the management has placed two chocolates on the bed. But just in case a guest is still hungry, the hotel also provides instant access to delivery food. A large, colorful brochure in the entryway of our room displays foods that can be brought in from local restaurants at the snap of a finger. The brochure has over 20 pages and features Mexican, Italian and Indian choices among others. On the cover: a large bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, a slab of ribs, a hoagie and a plate of fried chicken.

By the way, it isn’t necessary to worry about the morning, since breakfast is included and will be served in the cherry-wood lobby.

Day Two:

We find the invited guests downstairs at breakfast. There’s fruit, fake scrambled eggs and a chafing dish full of little, flat sausage patties. Everything else on the buffet is an instant sugar load: potatoes, muffins, bread, bagels, cereal, Danish and several very sweetened juices. Again, I notice many very over-sized people at the motel. I can’t help but worry about what those muffins and bagels are doing to their insulin levels. In the elevator, I am standing next to a couple who are bringing their breakfast up to their room. It’s free. They can hardly manage the trays.

At the wedding, food is actually a bit sparse. I notice that the bride and groom and their friends are mostly lean. To see their weight future, you only need to swivel your head to the older tables. I’m actually getting very hungry, when by 4 p.m., I still haven’t had anything except some vegetables and dip. Everyone else is having cocktails instead and are racking up the sugar calories with margharitas and other mixed drinks. The dinner finally arrives. A salad drowned in bleu cheese dressing, baskets of rolls with butter, a small piece of chicken drenched in an unknown sauce on perched on a mammoth bed of rice, followed quickly by large slabs of wedding cake. Shortly after the catered party, we adjourn to the motel where a friend from college has ordered several pizzas. The day ends up with pizza and beer, cupcakes, cookies and the pooled left-overs of various goody bags.

Day Three:

I wake up feeling off balance. Even though I’ve tried to control my intake, I’ve been unable to get the kinds of foods I would normally eat and I don’t feel right. I like to eat light and pure and that simply hasn’t been available. I usually start every day with a skim milk café mocha (Starbucks, 2 splenda). I’m not a breakfast eater, so that’s my substitution. It begins my daily eating process and keeps me full until noon. Now, at day three without it, I’m adrift. I was so hungry the night before that I gave in to a slice of pizza. Sure, I know that one piece of bread won’t do anything to me, but I don’t enjoy departing from routine. And the next day, I always find myself being more interested in starchy things.

I clean out our motel room and toss the uneaten cupcakes in the trash. Ditto the candy and granola bars. Don and I say good bye to the wedding party. They are getting the most out of their last free breakfast by loading up on anything that has insulin written all over it: toast, bagels, muffins and little pastries. A guest I met at the reception corners me. “I hear you’ve written a book about weight loss,” she says between bites of toast. “I’ve cut back on drinking alcohol and I’m doing more exercise. But I’m not losing weight. Should I get my thyroid checked?”

Don and I hastily load the car. Can we find a Starbucks somewhere? One skim milk mocha and maybe I’ll be able to turn a blind eye to the barrage of rest stop food that I’ll have to confront over the endless drive through Food World. Eight hours to food sanity!

We wave goodbye. As we pull away, I hear a faint call, “Let us know when your book comes out…”