Monthly Archives: September 2012

The Digest Diet: Day 18 and Wow! The Loss I’ve Seen!

27 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, The Healthy Life, Transitions

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This is more than a diet book. It’s a food book.

I know what you’re thinking. The Midlife Second Wife has really done it now. She drank the Kool-Aid. Have you not been following this? Kool-Aid is not allowed on the Digest Diet. But yes, I agree with you. Two exclamation points in one headline is a tad zealous. In my defense I could not help myself. Why? I weighed myself this morning and since starting this diet 18 days ago, I have lost nearly nine pounds. (Eight pounds six ounces, for the sticklers among you.) I am less than one pound away from my implicit goal: to get my weight under 200 pounds. Put another way, I began at 209 pounds four ounces, and I now weigh 200 pounds eight ounces. I have lost eight one-pound packages of butter, for crying out loud. Can you blame me for expressing a bit of fervor?

How is this even possible? I have rarely felt hungry, I haven’t had a single craving for anything I used to consume with such abandon, and I really enjoy preparing the foods in this diet book. To call it a diet book, however, seems wrong, somehow; I think—and I hope the coming weeks will bear this out—that this is really a food book. A book on the best food to eat, how to eat it, and how often.

Collateral benefits? I’ve had a few. My knee joints are not as painful as they once were. I have more energy. And my skin has much more clarity than it did two-and-a-half weeks ago.

Let me tell you what I had for lunch recently. No wait. I’ll show you first.

Gazpacho served with five-grain whole wheat bread and skim milk

Here’s how easy it was to prepare this lunch. First, go to the market and buy a small
boule (French for ball) loaf of five-grain whole wheat bread and a carton of skim milk. For the gazpacho, which is served cold or at room temperature, grab a couple of plum or Roma tomatoes, a cucumber, a small red onion, and—if you don’t already have some stored in your refrigerator—flaxseed meal. You probably have the rest of the ingredients in your pantry (red wine vinegar and Cayenne pepper). Then, do this:

Spicy Blender Gazpacho
—Makes One Serving

Coarsely chop two plum tomatoes, one-half of a cucumber (peeled), and one-eighth of a small red onion. Throw ’em in the blender. Add two tablespoons of flaxseed meal. Then, to your taste, add cayenne pepper and red-wine vinegar. Blend for about as long as it takes you to pour a half-glass of skim milk.

And that, my friends, is that. Delicious. And as I’ve found so often with these recipes, I couldn’t finish the entire serving. I’m going to have the one-quarter cup or so of gazpacho for lunch today with a tuna, egg, chickpea, and arugula salad (with buttermilk dressing, if you can believe it) that I made for lunch yesterday.

I’d hang around and tell you more about all of this, but it’s time for my mid-morning snack. What am I having, you ask? It’s a dreamy little concoction that reminds me of a prune Danish without the pastry. I stir two chopped organic prunes into one-quarter cup of low-fat ricotta cheese and add a pinch of cinnamon to taste.

(The book calls for dates but I don’t have any; I do, however, have a package of organic prunes in the fridge. It also asks for fat-free ricotta but I wasn’t able to find that.) Even using low-fat rather than fat-free ricotta, I’m on a roll. And it’s better to be on a roll than to have one around your middle. My roll, dear friends, is deflating as we speak.

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

Want to be a Renegade? Enter to Win this Free Book!

26 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Special Events, The Reading Life, What's the Buzz?

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Be the Queen (or King) of all the social media you survey with this handy book. SPOILER ALERT: there are photos of—and tweets from—Shaquille O’Neal inside!

If you use social media to further your business or enhance your brand profile, please keep reading. If your use of social media is purely recreational, but you would like to understand how it affects the ways in which information reaches us, thereby changing our cultural landscape, please keep reading. And if you claim not to use social media at all yet you are reading this blog, well, you just told a teensy little white lie, now didn’t you? Don’t worry. I won’t report you to the FBI-U (Federal Bureau of Internet Users). That agency probably doesn’t exist. And yet, you never know…*

The regular readers among you are aware that I attended the whopping big BlogHer12 conference in New York City last month. I’m still amazed by how many critically essential connections I made there, and by how much useful knowledge I gleaned. I’ll be writing a post soon, for example, about a wonderful new phenomenon known as the midlife blogger (Hey! That’s me!). But today I want to tell you about an energetic, inspiring, and game-changing woman that I met at my very first BlogHer session, on Pathfinder Day. I was trying to find my path in this labyrinth of social media, and Amy Jo Martin is helping me do it.

I had the pleasure of meeting the awesome Amy Jo Martin after her talk.

Amy Jo is the author of Renegades Write the Rules: How the Digital Royalty Use Social Media to Innovate. And with more than 1.2 million followers on Twitter, she knows whereof she writes and tweets. (Forbes Magazine named Amy Jo to its list of “Best-Branded Women on Twitter.) Because I learned so much from that BlogHer session with Amy Jo—and I’m learning so much by reading her book—I’d like to share that knowledge with you.

This Friday, Sept. 28, I will choose, at random, a Facebook fan of the Midlife Second Wife.** The lucky winner will receive an autographed copy of Renegades Write the Rules. If you’ve previously “liked” The Midlife Second Wife on Facebook, you’re already entered. But if you haven’t, and you’d love a chance to win this fascinating book, all you have to do is go to the blog’s page on Facebook and click “like.” I’ll announce the winner here and on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, on Monday, Oct. 1, and I’ll tell you a bit more about the book. Now isn’t that a great way to start a new month?

Really, that’s all it takes. “Like” the Midlife Second Wife on Facebook, and you have a chance to win. Just think, you have a chance to become a renegade and a member of digital royalty. Because even renegades know that it’s good to be the Queen. Or King. (Both are fine. We’re nothing if not inclusive here at TMSW!)

*Guess what I just learned? To be absolutely positively certain that my made-up agency is non-existent, I Googled it and lo and behold! I discovered that the FBI actually has an organization called iC3—the Internet Crime Complaint Center. You’ve now been warned. Remember Google’s original tagline: “Don’t be Evil.” And to paraphrase Amy Jo, perform “random acts of your own Shaqness.” This footnote has been brought to you as a public service of the Midlife Second Wife. You’re welcome.

**Here’s how the drawing will work. I will print out my Facebook list of “likers” and create an entry card by painstakingly cutting each name into a separate bit of paper. I’ll then put all the bits of paper in a beautiful box, and ask the Midlife Second Husband to draw the winner. (I’ll have removed his name and mine from the pool in advance.) Although I can’t afford to have accountants from Price Waterhouse verify the results, I do hope to video the drawing with my iPhone and share it here.

A Fat-Releasing Salad That’s Good and Good for You

24 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, The Healthy Life

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Dressed with the Digest Diet Vinaigrette, this salad is worthy of any menu

It’s Day Fifteen of the Digest Diet, with six days to go. The needle has hovered at 203 for the last few days. (In a manner of speaking. I have a digital scale so of course there’s no needle; some visual memories just die hard.) I’m pleased to report, however, that this morning I dropped another half-pound, and have decided that even if I don’t meet my 15-pound weight loss goal, I’ll be satisfied to welcome a poundage report that does not begin with the number “2.” Can’t remember the last time I clocked in at under 200.

And now I would like to say a word about fat. There are, as I’ve learned on this diet, good fats and bad fats. Examples of foods containing good fats are coconut milk, olive oil, salmon, and nuts, seeds, and nut butters—especially flax, walnut, and sunflower. There are also bad fats, and I love cooking and baking with one of them—namely, butter. I must admit that for the past 16 days, I haven’t missed butter at all. I will welcome its return (I’m an epicurean gourmet, after all), but I will be mindful of my intake. That’s one fat lesson learned.

(And while we’re on the topic, stay away from margarine. That’s me telling you, not Reader’s Digest. I don’t think there’s anything real in margarine, and your body simply does not know what to do with that stuff.)

Now here’s another nugget from the Reader’s Digest Diet: Some foods are actually “fat releasers.” That is, they are rich in certain micro- and macronutrients that encourage weight loss. Vitamin C, calcium (including dairy sources of calcium), protein, reservatrol (found in red wine, red grapes, and peanuts), fiber, vinegar, quinoa, honey, and cocoa are all beneficial—and natural—elements in a weight-loss program. The salad I made the other evening and pictured above is a great example of a fat-releasing dish. I served this with broiled cod and steamed green beans and quite frankly it was all so filling that I couldn’t finish my allotted portions.

I’m sharing the recipe for the salad and its accompanying vinaigrette here because it shocked me. How? Because its main ingredient is a green I previously disliked: arugula. I’ve never been a fan of bitter foods, and arugula is notorious for the bitter snap it leaves on the tongue. Something about the combination of watercress with the arugula, however, softened its bitterness. The fat releasers in this salad are the watercress, arugula, red onion, olive oil, lemon, Parmesan cheese, almonds, black pepper; in the vinaigrette, the troopers are the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper. (By the way, I use freshly ground pepper. Forever and always.) I really liked this salad and will be glad to serve it long after I’ve passed the final day of the Digest Diet. I hope you’ll enjoy it, too!

Watercress-Arugula Salad with Parmesan “Crackers”
—Makes 4 servings

1 bunch watercress (6 ounces), tough stems trimmed, coarsely chopped
4 cups packed baby arugula (about 4 ounces)
1/2 small red onion, very thinly slivered
3 tablespoons Digest Diet Vinaigrette (below), made with lemon juice and no herbs*
8 Parmesan “Crackers” (below)

In a large salad bowl, toss together the watercress, arugula, and onion. Add the vinaigrette and toss again to coat. Serve each salad with 2 Parmesan “crackers.”

Parmesan “Crackers”
—Makes 8 crackers

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I used freshly grated Parmigianno-Reggiano)
2 tablespoons almond meal (As permitted, I substituted ground up pistachios)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375-degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick liner.

In a small bowl, combine the Parmesan, almond meal, and pepper. Spoon 1-tablespoon mounds of the mixture onto the baking sheet, 4 inches apart. With the back of the measuring spoon (I found that using the heel of my hand worked better), gently press each into a round about 2-1/2 inches across (make sure there are no gaps in the mixture).

Bake until turning golden all over, about 10 minutes. Let cool for 3 minutes on the baking sheet, then carefully transfer (they’re fragile) to a wire rack to cool.

Digest Diet Vinaigrette
—Makes 1 cup

1 clove garlic
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (or fresh lime juice, or vinegar—red-wine, white-wine, sherry, rice, red balsamic, white balsamic)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon, oregano, mint, or dill (optional)*
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1. Grate the garlic on a citrus zester into a small screw-top jar or any tight-sealing container. Add the juice or vinegar, mustard, herb (if using), and pepper. Shake well to combine.

2. Add the oil and shake to emulsify. If you have the time, let the dressing sit for a while so the garlic can flavor the oil. Store in the refrigerator.

*I prepared this vinaigrette the first time it was a component of the diet, and I still have a fair amount left. Because I hate to waste food (and in order to save time), I used this version for the salad, herbs and all (I believe I added French tarragon), rather than make a new batch without herbs. Had I not already prepared this with lemon juice, however, I would have made a new batch.

Copyright © 2012 The Reader’s Digest Association. Used with permission.

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

 

The Digest Diet: Day 13 and (Slowly) Getting Lean

22 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in The Healthy Life, Transitions

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Shrimp Soup from the Digest Diet—delicious and satisfying

Well, here it is, the 13th day of the Digest Diet, and I seem to have plateaued a bit. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve lost six-and-a-quarter pounds and for that I’m grateful. I’m still on the downward trajectory—and that’s better than the alternative—but I’m trying to determine why the weight loss has slowed.

Several factors come to mind. First, last week a couple of events sort of knocked me off schedule. I didn’t eat any prohibited food, but I actually missed an afternoon snack and a dinner meal one day, compensating by having my afternoon snack in the evening. The practice of skipping a meal—or even a snack at this point—is one to avoid if at all possible. When you don’t eat, your body is tricked into thinking it’s in starvation mode and therefore clings to the fat for dear life. A paradox, but then so is the fact that women in France who eat butter- and cream-laden foods remain thin because they drink wine with nearly every meal. My resolve for the coming week: stay on track.

The other possibility is the fact that on the fifth day of the diet I shifted into its second gear. The Digest Diet is divided into three phases:

  • Fast Release
  • Fade Away
  • Finish Strong

During the first four days, the weight really came off—I lost three-and-a-quarter pounds by the end of this phase. I also enjoyed two delicious shakes each day and only one snack. I’m presently in the Fade Away phase, with only one shake per day and two snacks. The “Fade Away” phase is rather like a Mediterranean-style diet, with lots of green vegetables and protein, and it allows me a four-ounce glass of red wine at dinner (if I skip the wine I can have a handful of red grapes for dessert). I’m sure that diet results are as varied as people are, but I also wonder about something else.

I’ve heard that muscle weighs more than fat. I’ve been walking fairly regularly, and this past week I did get up to two miles. My legs look and feel more toned, but is it possible that my weight loss isn’t quite as dramatic right now because I’m replacing fat with muscle?

In an earlier post I stated my weight loss goal: to lose 15 pounds. I’m almost halfway there with eight days remaining in the program. I’m confident that I’ll make it, because even though I’m in something of a holding pattern, the meals on this diet are delicious enough, interesting enough, and filling enough, that I have no desire or intention to bail out.

It’s time now to prepare my lunch—a “Fade Away” shake. Tomorrow will be the last day of shakes on the diet, and I have to say I’m going to miss them. I don’t miss pizza, but I know I’ll miss these shakes.

Not missing pizza? That strikes me as another positive, and therefore another plus for the Digest Diet.

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

The Digest Diet: It’s Day Eight and I’ve Lost Weight

17 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in The Healthy Life, Transitions

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Bell peppers cut into short strips are sautéed with fennel and garlic in this delicious dish.

I won’t leave you hanging. So far I’ve lost five-and-a-half pounds on the Digest Diet.  This is amazing to me, not because I’ve never lost that much weight so early in a diet before, but because, with a few rare exceptions, I haven’t felt hungry or starved. I’m eating well—good, wholesome, healthy food—and it’s mostly been delicious. I wasn’t wild about a snack of green pepper boats stuffed with low-fat Ricotta cheese and sprinkled with pepper, but then I’ve never been a fan of raw green pepper. I love Ricotta. I’m half-Sicilian, for goodness’ sake. All of the meals I’ve prepared, using recipes from the Digest Diet book, have been superb. Take a look at this photograph, for example. Yes, those happen to be green peppers. They’re accompanied, however, by red and yellow bell peppers and sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil with fennel and garlic. Delicious.

And what a wonderful feeling to use salt again. I always cook with Kosher salt, using sea salt as a finish when a recipe warrants. The recipe for Peperonata with Fennel called for a generous pinch of fine sea salt. I buy coarse-ground, but since I have a mortar and pestle I simply ground the salt to the desired consistency and keep it nearby for later use.

I served this dish with a 4-ounce grilled boneless pork chop for Saturday’s dinner. And guess what? I enjoyed it with a 4-ounce glass of red wine—a robust Zinfandel. If this is what losing weight tastes like, well, I do believe I can keep this up for the full 21 days!

The recipes in this book are delicious and fun to prepare.

Everyone will tell you that it’s not enough to eat mindfully; it’s important to exercise, too. Monday through Friday last week, I walked one mile each day. I took the weekend off, and probably shouldn’t have. But this focused commitment to walking regularly is not in character for me. When I was walking regularly, it was only three times a week. (I wrote a post about the health benefits of walking last year. I’m disappointed in myself for not keeping the momentum going, but I’m trying. I really am.)

So this morning, after drinking a mug of hot lemon water (that’s not in the Digest Diet, but actually a regimen a good friend recommended years ago, when I was recovering from surgery for a broken leg), I walked a mile in my favorite park.

Here’s a picture, taken last year, of my favorite place to walk. (It’s too early in the season to make way for goslings.)

I like to listen to French music when I walk. I wonder: if I continue to lose weight thanks to the Digest Diet and regular, brisk walks accompanied by the French chansons of Edith Piaf and Charles Trenet, do I have to count my weight loss in kilos?

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

 

The Digest Diet: Day 3 and 2 Pounds Free

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in The Healthy Life, Transitions

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I made this delicious Kale and Chick Pea Soup for dinner on Day 1. John liked it, too!

As I write this I’m into the third day of the Digest Diet. It’s nearly noon, I’m not even hungry yet, and I’ve lost two pounds.

I’ve been dreading writing about the poundage issue. I’m the one who removes every bit of jewelry, eyeglasses, and shoes before getting on the scale in the doctor’s office. Yes, I shave a few of them off my driver’s license renewal application. I’ve never uttered the numbers aloud to anyone, really. But if I’m going to do this, and have any hope of inspiring you to a healthier lifestyle, I need to ‘fess up. The morning I started the diet, I weighed (closes eyes, takes a deep breath) 210 pounds.

This picture, taken this morning, is my “before” picture. Note that I had already lost two pounds since Monday.

In my defense, somewhere along the way I lost half-an-inch. I have no idea where it went. But this morning when I weighed myself, I had lost two pounds, so maybe the pounds and the half-inch are in that nether place where lost things go—socks in the dryer, pens and keys—hanging out and having a good laugh about what it was like to have once been part of me. I like to think I gave them a good time.

For as long as I can remember, I was five-feet-seven-and-a-half inches in my stocking feet. Until I wasn’t. I also weighed 125 pounds on the day of my first wedding. I have fond memories of that 21-year-old body. And it saddens me to admit that even then, I thought I was heavy. (My second husband, bless his heart, told me early in our relationship that he “loves every inch and every ounce” of me. I ask you: Am I not the luckiest gal in the world?)

Let me be clear: I’ve never had an eating disorder of any sort, unless having a gusto for gastronomy to go with my zest for life can be called a disorder. (It can’t. And it shouldn’t.) But I was always aware that I tended toward the upper regions of the scale. My first conscious memory of this was shopping for school clothes and being directed to the rack on which the 6-Xs hung. Still, I was never really what you would call obsessed with my weight. I liked my body well enough—and I appreciate it even more now, even when certain parts tend to make their presence known in the way of aching joints and lower back pain. And even when the inventory of my “parts list” has been diminished by numerous operations. No, my attempts at dieting were typically triggered by a special event or a special outfit. And they were always, until reaching life’s midpoint, successful. The best diet up until this one was something published in Glamour Magazine in 1974—”The Do and Don’t Diet.” I would love to find a copy of this somewhere.

But here I am, trying this Digest Diet, and I have to say how impressed I am. The shakes are so filling that a couple of times I haven’t been able to finish them. They’re delicious, and so is the soup I made the other night. (Tonight I’m going to make a shrimp soup.) I’ve walked one mile each day for the last three days. With the exception of yesterday, when I slept in because I was plainly exhausted, I’ve felt energized. I recognize that what I’m doing is retraining myself how to eat. The book, written by Liz Vaccariello, explains the theoretical underpinnings of the recipes and food plans. Certain foods are fat releasers, others are fat retainers. The fact that all of this has already been figured out and tested, using current science, makes it pretty easy to follow. I measure ingredients, but I don’t have to weigh anything, count any calories, or keep track of points or carbohydrate grams. The premise that I love the best about this diet is that I’m eating whole, natural foods. I’ve been tempted by try those quick-fast meals and prepared shakes, but I’ve always feared the slippery slope of their preservatives and artificial ingredients.

So what are my goals for this? My first goal is simple: to remain on it for the full 21 days without backsliding. My second goal is to lose 15 pounds. That will get me below 200, something I haven’t been for a very long time. Bound up with these goals are others, like feeling more energetic, reducing pain in my joints, and finding the motivation to exercise everyday. The fact that I can likely achieve these goals while improving my health is a tremendous bonus.

I’ll have more to say about body image in a future post. But for now, I’d like to share with you an article that really touched a nerve with me. Tell me, has anyone ever made you feel bad about the way you looked?

Related article:
“Being Hip,” by Amy Sue Nathan in HuffPost Divorce

 

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

The Man Who Wasn’t There: A 9/11 Post Revisited

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

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I took this photo last November at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Sept. 11, 2012—A note to the reader: I published this post last year in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I would like to share it with you again, today, as we acknowledge another sadly inevitable milestone, and leave you with these words from the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay:

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

—From “Dirge Without Music”

Please click here to read the post.

May the victims & heroes who lost their lives find eternal rest; may their loved ones find solace.

21 Days of the Digest Diet: Days 1-4, There’s a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, The Healthy Life

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To market, to market: my shopping basket at Whole Foods

So just how popular is the Digest Diet that Liz Vaccariello, editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest, devised? Here’s some anecdotal evidence. On Saturday, the Midlife Second Husband went grocery shopping with me at Whole Foods in Central Virginia to stock up on the items we knew we’d need. (He’s going to do one-third of the diet with me, which is to say we’ll eat the same dinner.) According to the nifty shopping list for Days 1-4 available on the Reader’s Digest website, I was to buy one 16-ounce box of nonfat milk powder—an essential ingredient in the “Fast Release Shake” (more on that in a moment). I wanted to buy an extra box for my pantry so I wouldn’t have to drive back to Whole Foods. Guess what? I bought the last one on the shelf. I asked the associate who helped me find it in the first place: “The Digest Diet?” “Yep,” he replied. “This is the last one we have left.”

Can you believe it? Powdered milk, for crying out loud. I’ve never bought powdered milk in my life yet here I am feeling like a bride-to-be who ended up with the short end of the veil at Filene’s Basement “Running of the Brides,” and all because I can’t buy more than one container of powdered milk.

Quite a few people have written me, or shared comments on last week’s post, that they’re trying the diet, too. (Do y’all live in Virginia?) I feel as though I’m leading a small army into battle. And yes, you know I have to say it: It’s the Battle of the Bulge.

So here’s some of what I bought at Whole Foods. I also pinned the Digest Diet list on my Pinterest board, which I’m ever-so-slowly building.

1 green bell pepper
1 small head Romaine lettuce
1 head broccoli
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 head celery
These are snacks, people. SNACKS. No candy, no chips, no nothin’ I’ve ever called a snack before.

While we’re in the produce section, I’ll also mention that I bought zucchini, garlic, kale, and Swiss chard to make two amazing sounding soups I’ll be having for dinner the first four days. Plus strawberries for the shakes I mentioned earlier. Since I’ll be preparing my first shake this morning, after going for a one-mile walk, here’s the complete recipe as I’ll be making it.* (The key ingredients, yogurt, coconut milk, fruit/fiber, healthy fats, and honey, are considered “fat releasers.”) I’ll also have another shake for lunch. I might even kick up my heels and swap out the strawberries for a banana!

Fast Release Shake (Days 1-4)
Hands-On Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Makes: 1 shake

3/4 cup (6 ounces) nonfat yogurt
1/4 cup light coconut milk
3 tablespoons nonfat milk powder
FRUIT/FIBER (I’ll use 8 fresh strawberries PLUS 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal)
HEALTHY FATS (I’m opting for 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter)
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
FLAVORINGS (These are “optional” but I’m definitely adding both of them. And I’m pleased with the choices: 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder and/or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
4 ice cubes

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until nice and frothy.

*There are other variations on the theme—I could use banana, apple, red grapes, or mixed berries instead of strawberries. And one can choose among healthy fats—I love peanut butter, so that’s what I’ve opted for.

A typical shake contains the following:
395 calories | 16 g protein
18 g fat (5g saturated)
9.5g fiber | 430mg calcium
40mg vitamin C
50g carbohydrate
210mg sodium

I’ll send out a tweet later today to let you know if I loved this shake, or if it’s left me shaking my head. I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook. You can keep up with this great weight-loss adventure by following me on Twitter @midlife2wife or on the Facebook page for The Midlife Second Wife.

See ya later! I’ve got a date with the walking path!

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

Buh-bye, Cookie. I’ll be Blogging it Off With the Digest Diet

06 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in The Healthy Life, The Writing Life, Transitions

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Do you see this? This is a cookie. A rich, chocolate-coconut-walnut-laden cookie from one of my favorite lunch restaurants in Richmond, Café Caturra. Take a good, hard look at it. I’m certainly going to. Because if good intentions have anything to say about it, this cookie and I won’t be seeing each other for a long, long time.

Sigh. It is a delicious cookie. I enjoyed every decadent crumb yesterday for my mid-afternoon snack. With coffee, of course. And then I promptly decided to join Team Digest Diet. Starting Monday, September 10, I will officially begin the Reader’s Digest’s “Blog it Off!” campaign. For 21 days, I will study this book, follow its guidelines, try its recipes, and—if there is a God—watch the pounds melt away. I’ll also blog about the process.

I’m telling you this because I’m going to need all the moral support I can muster. Eating delicious food is one of my favorite pastimes. Dieting? Not so much. But as I’ve gotten older—and especially since I had to bid farewell to my thyroid gland after it went and turned on me by developing cancer—the pounds have crept on. I know how important it is to my health to lose weight and exercise more. I’ve been bad about this, especially as I’ve gotten busier and more sedentary. (Computer, I love you but we’ve got to stop meeting like this. Is there an app that will boot me out of the house for a nice, long, invigorating walk? I didn’t think so.)

And so this diet challenge. I discovered The Digest Diet at the BlogHer conference I attended in New York City last month. Reader’s Digest, one of the conference sponsors, had a suite at the Hilton where I happened to saunter in one day because I heard they had cupcakes. (They were delicious. But they were from a different book—Reader’s Digest’s new Taste of Home Best Loved Recipes. Oh yes. I’ll be trying some recipes from that book, but after the diet challenge, as a reward for good behavior.)

In the interest of full disclosure, the kind folks at the Reader’s Digest suite gave me a copy of the diet book to try. (They probably saw me eating the cupcake.) And at my request they also sent me a copy of Best Loved Recipes, from whence the cupcake recipe came. But that’s it. There was no expectation on their part that I’d do anything with either book. This is something I want to do because, as I’ve already established, I need to lose some weight. And, as you already know, this blog is chock-a-block full of recipes, and I’m always on the lookout for more to share with you. Reader’s Digest is not paying me, either.

Now that I’ve dispensed with that business, I will tell you that because I signed up for the challenge, I will be checking in with you a couple of times a week to let you know how my experiment with the book is going. (I’ll share some of my favorite recipes from the Digest Diet, too.) And I’ll be tweeting and facebooking about it. You know, I’ve tried Weight Watchers before and enjoyed great results, largely, I suspect, because of the communal nature of the enterprise. But since I’m working from home (alone) and on the computer all day anyway (walking for exercise the exception), I view social media as just another way to supplement my efforts to lose weight. It’s kind of like keeping a food journal, but in a very public way.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a huge step for me—not just the jumping-on-the-diet wagon part but the being-so-public-about-it part. I’m a little fearful of things like letting the world know how much I weigh. Nevertheless, one of my editorial missions for this blog is to present you with good information and resources. If this diet works for me, you’ll observe it happening. If it doesn’t—for whatever reason—you’ll see that, too. You’ll learn while I learn. (And if I lose my resolve or willpower, I hope you’ll cheer me on.)

So there you have it. Starting Monday. That gives me the rest of today, Friday, and the weekend to gear myself up for the Digest Diet challenge and strengthen my resolve to leave the sweet treats and rich foods behind me for a while. After all, turnabout is fair play; they’ve certainly remained on my behind for a while.

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)