Tag Archives: Readers Digest

And the Winner of ‘The Digest Diet’ Is …

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in What's the Buzz?

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

Isn’t it nice to start off a Monday with some good news? I’m ducking in very quickly to announce the winner of my giveaway. Congratulations to Mindy Trotta of Cambridge, Massachusetts! Your free copy of The Digest Diet, by Liz Vaccariello, will be departing the post office here in Richmond sometime this week. Watch that mailbox!

My thanks to all those who left comments on my blog post about the diet.

And in case you were wondering….I’ve kept all the weight off, even though I’ve reintroduced things I kind of missed—cream in my coffee, for example. But I’ll tell you something: I simply cannot eat the way I used to—don’t have the taste for it. And as Martha Stewart would say, “That’s a good thing.”

Have a great week, everyone!

My Gift to You: A Chance to Win ‘The Digest Diet’

08 Monday Oct 2012

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

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

Thanks to the good offices of Reader’s Digest, I’m happy to announce that I have a beautiful, jacketed copy of The Digest Diet to give away. Here’s how to enter:

Visit the round-up post about my Digest Diet journey and leave a positive comment. That’s your “entry form.” Just a few caveats, however:

  • You have to live within the contiguous United States;
  • There has to be a way for me to get in touch with you to notify you that you’ve won. If you’re not sure that I have your email and postal addresses, please go to the contact page (found above the masthead in the drop-down menu under ‘Who is the Midlife Second Wife?’), and send me an email with that information. (There’s no form to bother with, but that’s where you’ll find my email address.) I do not and will not share your information with any third party;
  • If I am unable to reach you by email to notify you that you’ve won, I will draw another name;
  • And of course, you need to enter by leaving a comment on the round-up Digest Diet post. (“Enter by leaving.” I like that. Think I’ll start a meme to that effect!)

I’ll pick the winner sometime this weekend, and announce it next Monday here on the blog. Good luck, everyone!

The Digest Diet Day 21: Did I Do It? Am I Done?

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

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

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This isn’t really a diet book, in my opinion. It’s more a handbook for a healthy way to eat.

Yes, I did it! I reached my implicit goal: to get my weight below 200. I now clock in at 199 pounds 8 ounces, for a grand total loss of 9 pounds 6 ounces. Yay me! Yay Digest Diet! Let’s recap, shall we?

I started the Digest Diet three weeks ago, weighing in at 209 pounds 4 ounces. I’m a 56-year-young thyroid cancer survivor with a job where I spend most of the day sitting in front of a computer in my home office. If you were paying careful attention, you can count three significant factors in that previous sentence: age, the loss of the body’s metabolism regulator, and lifestyle. These factors gave rise to my weight gain over the years. My issues with weight have been pretty consistent: I’ve needed to lose a good bit of it, and I’ve lacked the proper motivation.

There’s no motivator quite like telling the world what you’re up to. I believe one reason I’ve found success on this diet is because I’ve checked in a couple of times a week—not just here, but also on the Digest Diet Twitter hashtag (#DigestDiet) and their Facebook site. The community of Digest Dieters in the blogosphere has been incredibly supportive, as have the staff at Readers’ Digest.

If you’ve been tracking my progress, you’ll recall that my explicit goal was to lose 15 pounds. Although I fell slightly more than five pounds short of that goal, I’m satisfied with my results. The big deal for me, at least psychologically, was not to see the numeral two leading off the numbers of my digital weight. I cannot tell you what this means to me. I also went down a bra size, too. (I’m not much for measuring myself—I’ve always sort of gone by how my clothes fit and look on me—so I don’t have those stats.)

But let’s take a look, shall we? Here are my before and after pictures:

After

Before

When I tell you that this is the best diet I’ve been on, these are the indices I used:

  • I continually lost weight. I might have plateaued a day or three, but I never reversed direction. The trajectory was down, down, down. And I hope you can tell from the photos, but the sleeve on my shirt is looser than in the first photo, the girls look more reined in, and one of my middle bulges is nearly gone.
  • My self-esteem trajectory was up, up, and up.
  • I had more energy. It was easier to take extended walks for exercise—at minimum one mile—because I didn’t get winded and my knees didn’t hurt.
  • My skin has more clarity.
  • With one or two rare exceptions, I’ve absolutely loved every recipe I’ve prepared from this book—so much so that I plan to incorporate almost everything I tried into my regular routine. And here is the answer to the second question in my headline: I’m not done. Not by a long shot. Not only do I not want to see weight creep again, I want to continue this pattern of healthy eating. And I promise to check in with you down the road to let you know if I’ve done so.

Here’s what I cooked for dinner the other evening, toward he end of the diet. My husband loved this, and so did I.

Spaghetti with Super Mushroomy Marinara

I’ll try, before the end of the week, to share the recipe for this pasta dish. Coming from someone who is half-Sicilian, you know you can trust me when I tell you that this satisfied my pasta fulfillment requirements.

Now, three minor caveats about the Digest Diet:

First, it will help enormously if you love to cook, don’t mind cooking frequently, and have access to a good market with a wide array of produce, seafood, and the occasional esoteric item, such as almond oil. Fortunately, I love to play in the kitchen and a fabulous market recently opened up within walking distance of my home, so I enjoyed pulling these recipes together. But do note that there is a time, labor, and shopping factor involved here, and this diet will require a level of commitment that must take those factors into account.

Second, I’m not sure I would have been as successful on the diet if I were working full-time away from home. The flexibility that being self-employed gives me enabled me to weave the demands of frequent cooking, shopping—and yes, eating—into my day. You’re eating five times a day on this diet, not three, so those with a different daily schedule might find it all a bit challenging. If you are willing to be more organized and dedicated, you’ll do fine. Trust me. Two days into this you will want to keep going. When you see the results and experience how you’re starting to feel, you’ll find it’s worth spending the extra time in the kitchen and at the market.

Finally, there are no guidelines in the book about eating out in restaurants while you’re on the diet, something that my husband and I do about twice a week. (We just avoided restaurants for the duration.) I did, however, find a page on the Readers’ Digest website that addresses this issue. Perhaps a subsequent edition of the book could incorporate the great information on the website.

Last Friday I had a lunch meeting with a client, my first foray into a restaurant since starting the diet. I chose a tossed green salad with feta cheese, grilled chicken, walnuts, and cranberries in a raspberry vinaigrette. I ate some of the cranberries but felt they might have too much sugar, so I left most of them on my plate. Once you’ve been on the diet for a week or so, you’ll get a sense of what foods to avoid and what foods will help you continue to release those damn fat cells.

Would I recommend this book to someone struggling with weight? In a New York minute! I have tried so many diets throughout my lifetime, and nothing—I repeat, nothing, compares to the Digest Diet in terms of results. At no time did I feel I was starving or denying myself of something delicious to eat.

Do you believe that some things in life are just meant to be? I do. I was meant to go on this diet, right now. Here’s the sign the universe sent to tell me so. Do  remember the chocolate chip/coconut/walnut cookie from my first Digest Diet post? You know, the “Royale” from Richmond’s Café Caturra? Here’s a photo to refresh your memory:

The restaurant doesn’t make this cookie anymore. They changed distributors and no longer have access to the required ingredients. Now if that’s not a sign from the gods, I don’t know what is.

(Just don’t ask me how I know.)

Related posts:

How to Buy the Book

13 Things You Didn’t Know About the Digest Diet

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

A Fat Releasing Salad that’s Good and Good for You

The Digest Diet: Day 13 and Slowly Getting Lean

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

The Digest Diet: Day 3 and 2 Pounds Free

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

Buh-Bye, Cookie. I’ll Be Blogging it Off With the Digest Diet

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.)

 

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.)