Quick, Fabulous Mushroom Soup for the 5:2 / Fast Diet

Well, having been under the weather for the last month hasn't exactly helped my waistline any. I haven't really gained, but having had shingles has greatly reduced my ability to exercise. Feeling flabby. What it has done, though, is given me a little time to think up ways to make my fast days tastier. Since I am a firm believer in the Fast Diet (aka 5:2) which allows me the eat nicely on the 5 days I don't fast for my health, I'm always looking for tasty and filling foods to have on the 2 days I eat less. Usually this is Meaty Monday, but since it is a Fast Day for me, you're getting what I'm having today...

I love this mushroom soup. I love mushrooms, actually. I wouldn't make this with plain white button mushrooms as they are a little too bland. If they're all you can find, I recommend making it much more highly seasoned to make up for it. It's delicious, nutritious and quick. You need a pot, and a blender.  And a microwave if you want to garnish with a few mushroom slices...You can use a regular or immersion blender, although I prefer the totally smooth consistency you'll get with a regular container blender. Makes 4 good servings at less than 50 calories each.

Quick, Easy, Fabulous Mushroom Soup for the 5:2 / Fast Diet

Note: for a vegetarian version of this soup, replace the chicken bouillon with vegetable or mushroom bouillon, and the Worcestershire with either vegetarian Worcestershire or Pickapeppa sauce. All of the products I used are gluten free, but please read the labels if you are eating gluten free.

Creamy Mushroom Soup for the 5:2 Diet

Serves 4

1 lb. cremini mushrooms, 2 sliced, the rest chopped coarsely
4 cups water
1 packet chicken bouillon (I like Trader Joe's)
2 crushed garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Chopped parsley or basil for garnish (optional)

1. Place the sliced mushroom in a small microwaveable dish, with a teaspoon of water, cover and microwave for 1 minute at high. Set aside. (you can omit this entirely if you don't want to pretty-up your bowl of soup.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine all the remaining ingredients through the Worcestershire, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook , covered until the mushrooms are softened, about 10 minutes.

3. Carefully puree the cooked soup in batches, or with an immersion blender. Taste for seasoning, and  add salt and pepper as desired. Serve garnished with the microwaved mushroom slices on top and a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

The 5:2 Feast: Fabulous Filling Soup for a Fast Day

Fifteen lousy, rotten pounds. I've been trying to lose  them for the last 8 years or so. They just sneaked onto my body when I wasn't watching, because, well, before I hit 45 or so, I never had to watch. I always ate what I wanted and it was quite a surprise to watch the scale just creep up. Who knew pizza for lunch and dim sum for supper would start packing on the pounds? So I am a bit of a Judy-come-lately to the dieting game. What makes it rather ironic, is that as a nutritionist, I counseled others on how to lose and help keep those extra pounds at bay.

So a few years back I joined Weight Watchers, and I gained three wonderful friends and a ton of Facebook friends, but weight wise, I yo-yoed up and down with the same 10 pounds. I learned that for me, I can stick to a "Plan" for a few days, and then real life intervenes with croissants. Counting every bite, every day, no matter in Points or in calories is a giant pain in the butt. All those aphorisms like "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels" are baloney. Obviously, whoever dreamed that one up has never had a chocolate dessert in a fine French restaurant with a good pastry chef. Or fresh homemade bread warm from the oven slathered in butter. Good food is a wonderful thing. Watching every bite you take forever is not a life; its a life sentence.

Back when I was in my 20's, I was very thin, I ate like a horse some days, and others, I just wasn't that hungry, so I ate little. And somewhere, somehow, over the years, I'd managed to lose track of what was actual hunger, so I grazed all the time. I did manage to stop gaining by watching my sugar and grain intake, and held at the same weight for years. But lose, no.

I'm not much for popular diets. When clients would ask about them, I'd usually suggest they try something reasonably well tested, like Weight Watchers, instead of whatever guru had a book on the NYT Best Seller List. But I knew in my heart the success rates are low, because no one really wants to eat skimpy portions every day, or cut out favorite foods. Highly motivated folks, those who are obese, or with big health issues, whose lives depend on their losing and keeping their weight off may be able to do it, but for most people, those of us who are just moderately overweight, its tough. A chunk of Brie, with a few crackers and a glass of wine tastes much better and is more soul satisfying than a diet crispbread with tablespoon of non-fat cottage cheese and a glass of water.

I ran into a classmate last month from grad school who looked wonderful. When we were studying dietetics, she was trying every fad diet under the sun, both to lose weight, and to write her thesis. She had watched the documentary  called "Eat, Fast & Live Longer"  while she was in England last summer and was doing their fasting program, which calls for 2 days of fasting, and 5 days of normal eating. You heard me. Normal eating. She'd lost 15 pounds. And kept it off. The documentary showed here in the States on PBS. So of course by the time, I tried to find it online, PBS had already pulled it, probably saving it for one of their fundraisers. I couldn't find a link. My brilliant friend Michelle, got her also brilliant husband Chris to find it for me online. This is it, with commercials, but truly worth watching: http://documentaryheaven.com/eat-fast-and-live-longer/  The book is called The FastDiet, and I highly recommend you get it and read it before embarking on this plan. http://www.amazon.com/The-FastDiet-Healthy-Intermittent-Fasting/dp/1476734941/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

This is a lot the way I used to eat when I was thin, and I decided to give it a try. I've been on it 2 and a half weeks, today is my 5th fast day, and I have lost 4.5 pounds. And this week has included quite a few birthday treats  and dinners out.  Hunger really does just come in waves, and staying busy is good. Plus, I just tell myself I'm not going to starve to death missing a meal or two. I know that's true. Neither will you.

Since my buddy Amy keeps asking what I eat, here's a recipe for her. It's a very filling soup that I'll reheat at work tonight for my dinner. My 500 calorie fast day is usually 100 calories of Greek yogurt or a 100 calorie protein drink,  a lunch of a small green salad with a little tuna, tomato and balsamic vinegar, for another 100, and a 300 calorie dinner.

This Asian-inspired soup is very delicious,  spicy and satisfying. You can certainly use shrimp alone, or chicken alone or any other protein you like, if you keep the calories from the protein under 200.

A Fabulous 5:2 Meal in a Bowl
Spicy Chicken & Shrimp Asian- Style 5:2 Soup

Spicy Chicken & Shrimp Asian-Style 5:2 Soup
Serves 1
Note: to make this easy and fast to prepare, buy pre-frozen, individually wrapped, antibiotic free chicken breasts, and IQF bags of frozen, peeled raw shrimp. You can also use whatever vegetables you like or have, as long as they come to a total of fewer than 50 calories. Greens are good. A kitchen scale is also a good thing to have, if you truly want to be accurate.


1 8 oz. bag Shirataki noodles, spaghetti style
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon Thai Green Curry paste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of Thai fish sauce
1 teaspoon  grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 3- 4 oz. raw, boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 oz. raw small or cut shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 medium zucchini,  coarsely shredded
1 small scallion, thinly sliced
2 cups raw baby spinach, loosely packed
2 Tablespoons shredded fresh basil
2 teaspoons lime juice

1. Drain the noodles into a strained and rinse well.  Drain, and place in a glass measuring cup and microwave for a minute or two, and then drain thoroughly, cut into spoon-manageable strands (I use a clean scissors) and set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan, place the water, the curry paste, garlic powder, fish sauce ginger and salt, and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken breast,  cover, and cook for about 10 minutes until cooked through. Remove the chicken from the stock and  add the shrimp. Cook until just opaque, and remove the shrimp. Shred the chicken with two forks and set aside with the shrimp.

3. Add all the vegetables and bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minute. Add the noodles, the shrimp and chicken, and stir well. Stir in the basil and the lime juice and serve hot.

Disclaimer: Just under 300 calories, approx. Your calculations may differ, so please run your own numbers and adjust your ingredients accordingly.

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: The Jelly Bellys are Gone But Mine Isn't

I ate the last Jelly Belly from Easter today. I started with a pound of mixed flavors, and because I'm somewhere between one and crazy, I've eaten them color by color. If you love Jelly Belly jelly beans, you'll understand that each color has a distinct flavor. My current favorite is the Buttered Popcorn.  But I digress.

My issue here is that in less than a week, I've eaten a pound of jelly beans, and there is still good French  dark chocolate to be eaten. I STILL need to lose ten pounds, and with my favorite candies around, that isn't going to happen. I have no willpower. All I need is one jelly bean, and all bets are off.

My cousin Donna and I "Lented" on things we love. She does it for religious reasons, I assume, and I do it because I think its good for me. She went off of chocolate, and I have a feeling she didn't gorge herself on it at Easter. She has amazing willpower. I gave up sugar; and like a racehorse out of the gate, I ran for the Jelly Bellys on Easter morning. And I've had some every day until they were gone. They have them by flavor in bulk at Wegman's, but at least I didn't buy MORE.  Sad, aren't I?

Now, during my sugar abstention, I didn't lose much more weight than I normally do when I watch what I eat,  but at least I didn't gain. This week I have an extra half-pound. It's all going in the wrong direction. Sugar is the devil.

Guess I'll just have to pretend it's Lent again...just as soon as those two big French chocolate bunnies are gone.

The scale is not my friend.

The Christmas Cookies Live On...and On

Christmas is over, and I mean over. The drive home now is dull, there are no inflatable Santas bobbing on front lawns, no cheery lights on porches and trees. Even my tree is nearly put away. The only vestige of Christmas that remains is the cookies. We still have Christmas cookies. Lots of them.

Thanks to Chuck baking what appears to be close to 20 dozen chocolate chip cherry cookies, and everyone brought batches over, too. I also have a few mocha squiggles, and some fruitcake stashed, too.  Since we're pretty much off the sugar wagon now, these cookies may very well still be hanging around by the 4th of July. God help us. As it is, they are well past their prime now, I'll probably be able to skip them across the duck pond by July. I may be stuck with these things, and since I am trying to lose a few, along with probably 20 million of my fellow Americans, eating them isn't an option.

The problem is, right after Christmas, everyone is loaded up, so no one wants to take any off your hands. Then, once January rolls in, everyone is on a diet. In this house, there is no even considering tossing them out, or there will be hell to pay.There is no winning the leftover cookie war except to eat them...or take them to work. Hope the crew at the store is hungry. Otherwise these cookies may just live on, and on...on my hips.

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: Never say D-I-E-T

I wrote this post last summer, and for the last week or so have been bemoaning my fate: I need to start a diet. Sadly, it seems I need to take my own advice and reread my own, ahem,  wisdom...If you turn on any sort of broadcast media at this time of year, the advertising is practically back-to-back diet plans, and the programming is all about losing tons of weight and exercise gurus spouting THEIR epiphanies on health and wellness.Quick, buy their new book. Ick. All to get you to turn your New Years resolutions into dollars in their pockets. So, read and weep. A diet is not the answer.

The evil scale, henchman of the d-i-e-t.      

Really, I was brought up in a household where nobody swore on a regular basis. I only ever heard my mother swear once in her 89 years, and it was a simple damn! when an oil painting she'd been working on for days fell face down, off the easel into newly mown grass. My father could be a little more colorful, but even then it was generally confined to situations like a flat tire, or finding that one of us had beat him to the chocolate ice cream in the basement freezer. I, however, have an entirely different 4-letter word I want to eliminate from my lexicon. D-I-E-T.

As soon as you use this word, or let it creep into your vocabulary, you are done for. I have just done a month of no grain foods and nearly no sugar. Not easy. But I have had some food allergies along the way, and elimination is the way to go. Sugar for me isn't an allergy, but more like an addiction. Gary Taubes is right. I will have a dessert or candy when it is worth eating. If a restaurant has a great pastry chef, I'll have dessert, but a supermarket doughnut, no thanks. Sugar is a real trigger for me that is best left alone. Grain starches are another separate issue. But now I do know when and how to manage that. If your plan doesn't have ANY wiggle-room ( unless you will become deathly ill if you vary), you will not be able to stick with it. I learned all about that with my diabetic clients, and later for my very own self.

I refuse to call it a diet; some people like to call it a way of eating or a "WOE". The problem with using the word diet is that it connotes a finite time. Diets have a beginning and an end, and most people just go back to the way they used to eat. They lose all the goodness they gained while their eating habits were better. A diet isn't the way to go. The real way is called permanent change. Pick a way you are willing to eat forever. Because that's the way it is. There is no going back.

Never say diet.

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: 362 Dieting Days Before Christmas

Every year, I swear I won't start mainstreaming Christmas cookies a week before Christmas. Every year, in spite of my best intentions, I start shoveling them down with abandon. And then, the morning after Christmas I swear the DIET STARTS AGAIN when I step off the scale. Until nightfall and there are still cookies begging to be eaten lurking in my kitchen. Like these.

They look so lonesome. I must eat them.

I can pass up cake, I can pass up pie, but not cookies. I am married to The Cookie Man. He only makes chocolate chip cookies, but he also makes, minimally 12 dozen, and usually double that. Add to it those I make, those the girls make and those brought by guests, and maybe you can see my dilemma. There are a lot of really good cookies around, and since my family and friends are not slouches when it comes to baking, there is no tossing them out. they get eaten, and many of them by me.

This morning's weigh-in was not pretty. I am two pounds heavier than I was at Thanksgiving. It's also four weeks closer to swimsuit season. I have excuses: I'm tired and need quick energy since I work retail, and the early dark and short daylight hours are depressing so I eat ...cookies. None of it matters when I step on the scale on a cold, dark morning. It'sd the damn cookies. I refuse to take responsibility for any of it.

In a week or so they'll be gone, and on New Year's day, I will join millions of my fellow Americans in resolving to lose a few pounds. Again.

Luckily, there are another 362 dieting days before Christmas 2013.

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: Diet is a 4-Letter Word

The evil scale, henchman of the d-i-e-t.                                             

Really, I was brought up in a household where nobody swore on a regular basis. I only ever heard my mother swear once in her 89 years, and it was a simple damn! when an oil painting she'd been working on for days fell face down, off the easel into newly mown grass. My father could be a little more colorful, but even then it was generally confined to situations like a flat tire, or finding that one of us had beat him to the chocolate ice cream in the basement freezer. I, however, have an entirely different 4-letter word I want to eliminate from my lexicon. D-I-E-T.

As soon as you use this word, or let it creep into your vocabulary, you are done for. I have just done a month of no grain foods and nearly no sugar. Not easy. But I have had some food allergies along the way, and elimination is the way to go. Sugar for me isn't an allergy, but more like an addiction. Gary Taubes is right. I will have a dessert or candy when it is worth eating. If a restaurant has a great pastry chef, I'll have dessert, but a supermarket doughnut, no thanks. Sugar is a real trigger for me that is best left alone. Grain starches are another separate issue. But now I do know when and how to manage that. If your plan doesn't have ANY wiggle-room ( unless you will become deathly ill if you vary), you will not be able to stick with it. I learned all about that with my diabetic clients, and later for my very own self.

I refuse to call it a diet; some people like to call it a way of eating or a "WOE". The problem with using the word diet is that it connotes a finite time. Diets have a beginning and an end, and most people just go back to the way they used to eat. They lose all the goodness they gained while their eating habits were better. A diet isn't the way to go. The real way is called permanent change. Pick a way you are willing to eat forever. Because that's the way it is. There is no going back.

Never say diet.

Disordered Dressing and other ex-diet refugees.

I admit it. Along with the hundreds of cook books, I have a shelf of diet books. Partially because I have a background in nutrition, but mostly because I am perennially 10 pounds over where I’d like to be.  Weight Watchers, Atkins, Paleo, Hungry Girl, Sugar Busters, all the biggies are there, and truthfully while all the books have recipes in them; I’ve cooked very few things from them. So many of them are so full of disgusting substitutions, like half the stuff from Hungry Girl, that once you try making one or two of the recipes you’ll never want to try them again. Please strike me dead if I ever even CONSIDER making onion rings encrusted with Fiber One. Those diet books are are huddled together on a bottom bookshelf like refugees in the hold of a ship.

I do have a “diet” recipe that I use quite often, for a salad dressing that actually didn’t come from a diet book. I’m sure it’s in one somewhere, though. It’s simply equal parts good quality balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard. The recipe was actually explained to me by the mother of a young woman being treated for an eating disorder, as the only dressing the girl would eat. I was doing a clinical rotation at the time in a residential facility, and I was taking down notes from the mother who was talking about her daughter’s fear of fat in her food.

Later in the week, I was out of time one morning, and wanting a salad for lunch, I mixed the two ingredients in the bottom of my lunch container and took it with me. It’s delicious. Since then, I’ve messed with it, added some oil, a bit of garlic and a dab of sweetener, and it’s a good, quick go-to dressing. It’s good even in its original form, without any of my changes. You can however mess with it infinitely with different vinegars, mustards, seasonings, sweeteners etc. Hence, the name I’ve given it: Disordered Dressing.

So while I rarely have anything in my repertoire that came from a diet book, this little refugee is delicious.

Disordered Dressing

1T good Balsamic Vinegar

1T Dijon Mustard

1 teas. sugar or sweetener

2 teas. Olive Oil

Dash of garlic powder

Stir it all together until the sugar dissolves. Makes enough for 1 good sized serving.