I developed a very good English Muffin recipe. It is a combination of recipes I’ve found online as well as a bread machine cookbook I have at home. They turn out very well! I like them better than the Thomas brand ones I’ve been accustomed to buying in the past. I actually increase the following recipe by 50% because it fits in my bread machine without overflowing, but you might want to start with this in case yours is smaller than mine:

1 1/2 c. milk
4 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. granulated sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
1 T butter (room temp)
1 1/2 t. rapid-rise active dry yeast
rice flour or corn meal for dusting

1. Put all the ingredients (except for the rice flour or corn meal) in your bread machine in the order recommended by your machine’s manufacturer. Some call for wet ingredients to go first, others call for dry to go first. If you are starting it right away, it probably doesn’t matter too much which way you go.

2. Set the bread machine to the dough setting. You don’t want the machine to bake the bread, just do the kneading for you. Press Start and let it do it’s thing.

3. Don’t just assume everything is good to go now. For the first few minutes help the machine out a little bit by scraping the sides so all the ingredients are being kneaded into the dough ball. About 20 minutes into the kneading cycle make sure the dough ball is firm, but very smooth and round. It shouldn’t be lumpy, but it shouldn’t be soggy and sticky looking either. If it is lumpy, you need to add a tiny bit of milk at a time (think less than a tablespoon) until it starts to smooth out. If it is too soggy, then add a tiny bit of flour at a time until it firms up a bit. This takes practice, so experiment.

4. The dough cycle has two basic parts. It kneads the bread for a while, then it rests and lets the dough rise at a warm temp. I like to let the machine knead, but when it gets to the rest stage I start the cycle over again and let it do the knead part of the cycle again. I think it helps give the bread a more chewy texture. Whole wheat recipes need more kneading. No play on words intended…initially.

5. When the dough cycle is done, roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/2 inch thick.

6. Use something that is about 4 inches round to cut out circle shapes. I use a plastic cup.

7. Place the cut out pieces of dough on a cookie sheet dusted with rice flour or corn meal. Lightly spray the tops with olive oil and place them in a warm place for about 20 minutes. If you think ahead, turn the oven light on in advance. Your oven will be just about the right temperature with it on. If that’s not an option, turn your oven on to preheat for a minute or two, then shut it off. The muffins should approximately double in size. Once they do you are ready for the final step.

8. Preheat a pan on the stove top with medium heat. I use a cast iron pan, and I think that gives the best results. Whatever you have should work fine. You shouldn’t need much cooking oil spray, but if you use it, you only need a very little. Once the pan is hot, cook on each side for about 5 minutes. I do 3 or 4 at a time. Both sides should brown. Using cast iron, I find that at first I’m doing 5 minutes per side, but by the end it is more like 3 minutes per side as the pan gets hotter. Be careful when transferring from the cookie sheet to the pan because it is very easy to make them “deflate.” I’m still not very good at this part. I’m successful about 50% of the time. No worries. They still taste good when they’re a little bit more flat than normal!

9. Let cool (or not), then enjoy!

These taste amazing fresh off the pan. You’ll never want to buy them from the store again. Feel free to share suggestions for improvement if you find something works better than what I have here. I’m still perfecting the recipe and the technique!

If I’ve learned anything in my quest to eat healthy, it is that it’s very difficult to know where my food came from…and exactly what happened to it along the path from the farm to my shopping cart. It’s all one big secret and that’s exactly the way your grocery store wants it. Chances are, if we knew what happened to our food at every step, we probably wouldn’t want to eat most of it.

Even produce, which most people assume to be perfectly safe has numerous issues associated with it, including: being harvested too early, taking nearly 2 weeks to deliver to your grocery store after harvest, pesticides applied during planting and/or after harvest, chemicals applied to make them look pretty on the shelf, irradiation, unsafe handling practices, etc. The list goes on and on.

It is really only possible to know where your food comes from if you grow it yourself! Unfortunately, here in Vegas it is very difficult, though not impossible, to grow anything edible. Others who will this live in climates that are very much the opposite of Vegas.  In either case it is difficult to grow anything for large portions of the year.

Fortunately, even if growing things outdoors isn’t an option, growing things indoors is always an option. This post is dedicated to the art of sprouting.  I’ve sprouted a number of different things, including: broccoli, black beans, pinto beans, peas, lentils and maybe a couple others. Sprouting is good for a number of reasons. For starters it can be a source of cheap, fresh, organic vegetables where you control the whole process. It is also believed that sprouts contain significantly more nutrients than the adult plants they grow to be (that’s what I’ve read anyway…don’t force me to prove this!). I’ve also read that seeds generally have high amounts of growth inhibitors. This makes sense because while conditions are not good for the seed to grow, it would be bad if the seed sprouted prematurely…in the absence of water, etc. In nature the growth inhibitors serve a purpose, but they are not good for us to consume in large amounts. Sprouting releases most of them so they are no longer an issue.

The sprouts I grow the most are broccoli sprouts. I use them on salads several times a week. It’s as close as I’ll get to owning a farm…for now. Most seeds can be sprouted with nearly identical steps as the following. Just Google “sprouting” if you need info on a particular seed. There’s tons of info out there on how to do it for every kind of seed you can imagine. Here are the steps (step numbers correspond to pics above):

1) Buy some broccoli seeds…a lot of them. You’ll need 1 1/2 or 2 Tablespoons of seeds for the purposes of this article (I use  1 1/2 T). I buy my seeds  at Whole Foods. They come in about an 8 oz package…which will last you several rounds of sprouts. They can be purchased online as well…again just Google it.

2) Use a wide mouth canning jar. Cover the seeds with an inch or two of water. Break up all the seeds that clump together and rise to the top. All your seeds should be resting on the bottom of the jar. Let the seeds soak for about 8 hours or so.

3) Buy one of these handy lids with drain holes that are designed to fit on top of wide mouth canning jars. They are about $5 at Whole Foods, so you are getting ripped off for such a little piece of plastic. You can find them online too. You can also make your own with one of the regular canning jar lids and a piece of screen you cut out yourself. I went for convenience over cheap and am glad I did.

4) Drain the water out of the jar and then rinse the seeds with fresh clean water…then drain it again. This time tilt the jar upside down at an angle. I put mine in a bowl so the water doesn’t drip all over the place. Make sure the seeds end up evenly spaced along the side of the jar that will be face down as shown in picture #4 above. Then stick them in a dark place. I put mine in a kitchen cupboard. You can put them wherever you want as long as the temp is somewhere in the 65-85 (Fahrenheit)  range. Picture #4 also displays what your seeds will look like after one day in the jar. Every 6 hours (preferably) rinse the seeds/sprouts with fresh water and drain again. Always spread them out on the bottom of the jar again. Eventually spreading them will become impossible, so don’t worry when you can’t anymore. Also don’t worry if you can’t rinse at 6 hours. If you are at work, they will survive, just rinse before you leave in the morning. You can’t do too much water, but if you at least tend to them first thing in the morning and last thing at night, it’ll be hard to kill them with too little water. For best results, you’ll want to rinse 3-4 times during the day if possible.

5) Picture #5 only serves to illustrate what your sprouts will look like after 2 days. Rinsing is your only responsibility at this point. Easy stuff.

6) Picture #6 is what your sprouts will look like after 3 days. Just keep rinsing and draining…

7) Picture #7 is what your sprouts will look like on the 4th morning. They should be done by now. You could let them grow another day if you like. If you used 2 Tablespoons instead of 1 1/2 you they probably won’t have room to grow any longer than 4 days. I stop at 4 days regardless.

8) This is the only step that even approaches being difficult. It’s not really hard either. Empty your sprouts into a large bowl that can hold water. Pour a bunch of water over them so that they are covered by a few inches of water. Use your hands to separate all the sprouts. After 4 days in a jar they will be a tangled mess. The seed pods will also be in abundance. You don’t want to eat very many of them. They don’t taste good and don’t really do anything for you nutritionally either. While you are separating all the clumps in the water, most of the pods will float to the top. You can see all that brown stuff around the edge of the bowl. I use the lid with the screen to skim those pods off the top and then toss them in the garbage. I’ll sacrifice a sprout here and there in order to make this process more efficient. Some of the pods will be water-logged and will stay on the bottom. You can grab most of the sprouts out of the bowl by hand and transfer them to a strainer, leaving most of the remaining seed pods at the bottom of the rinsing bowl. Just dump those down the drain. You’ll still probably have 10% or so of the pods remaining in your sprouts, but I no longer notice they are there when the other 90% are removed. I’ve tried eating them without removing the pods. They were fine, but they taste much better when you remove as many as you can.

9) Rinse and drain again. Put them back in the canning jar with the screened lid and set them in a sunny place for a couple hours to develop the chlorophyll a bit (let the leaves green up). Rinse one more time and drain. Put a lid with no holes in the top on and stick it in the fridge. Lids for canning jars are pretty easy to find at places like Walmart. You might even already have one laying around. Sprouts will keep in the fridge for 7-10 days. Maybe a tad longer if you rinse and drain every couple of days to keep them fresh.

Hope this inspires you to some new ideas about getting more vegetables into your diet.

You might be looking at the pictures of the ingredients and thinking to yourself, “Wow, that looks like it is going to be a ton of work and will take way too much time. I’m too busy for that! Stop with the assumptions already! It might take a couple of tries to get into a groove, but once you have this down, you can make the whole meal in 5 minutes…that includes getting everything out and putting it away when you’re done. This is probably the fastest super healthy meal I know. Here are the steps:

1. Fry some eggs in butter. I typically use 2 eggs, but when I’m hungry or know lunch is going to be late I do 3. I have a little cast iron skillet (2 actually) I bought specifically for making eggs. It is the perfect size for the job. Well worth the money. If you are curious, click here to see the one I bought. Just throw the brownie mixture away. Trust me, they aren’t good enough to warrant the sugar content. I should have thrown them away too! Anyway, you don’t have to fry your eggs. I like my yolks runny so I leave mine sunny side up, but it is understandable if that grosses you out! Just cook your eggs however you want them done. You could even hard boil a week’s worth of them and keep them in the fridge. That will cut down your prep time even more.

2. While your eggs are frying, complete the rest of the steps starting with…Grab a large bowl and fill it with mixed greens. I eat out of serving bowls! I buy a big huge tub of organic mixed greens at Sam’s. Do what works for you. I find that if I have it on hand and it is easy, then I’m more likely to eat it!

3. Throw some cherry tomatoes on top. If time isn’t an issue, I’ll buy larger tomatoes and cut them up as I need them if they are cheaper than the cherry versions. Just buy the best tomatoes you can find. That’s tricky in the winter. Tomatoes picked too early and ripened with ethylene gas (most are) don’t taste good. You’ll tire of them quickly!

4. Chop up some green onions. See my previous post for how to keep your green onions fresh for a LONG time.

5. Toss some broccoli sprouts on top. I’ll do a future post on “sprouting.” I grow my own broccoli sprouts (among others) in my kitchen cabinet. If I have some sprouts available, then I’ll include them, otherwise go to the next step. I personally don’t eat alphalpha sprouts. I’ve read they are not good for you due to excessive growth inhibitors. Haven’t researched it further, so the jury is still out in my opinion. Just wanted to mention that since they are widely available in most grocery stores. Read up on that before you assume they are a good substitute.

6. Shred up some cheese. Make sure it is real cheese and not some imitation cheese. I stay away from anything that has food coloring in it. Did you know cheddar isn’t naturally yellow? Begs the question, why it is really hard to find cheddar that isn’t yellow?!? In doubt? Check the ingredients. If it has “annatto” in the list then they added yellow food coloring to your cheese. It should be fairly obvious though…if the cheese is yellow, then it probably has food coloring in it! Sorry…rabbit trail! My favorite cheese is Tillamook Pepper Jack. I also love their Medium, Sharp and Extra Sharp white cheddars. Cabot also makes a really good white cheddar, but I haven’t been able to find it here in recent months.

7. Dice up an avocado. I don’t always do this one either. Kind of depends on their price and if I have them on hand. Right now I can get them 5/$1.00, so today I had some on my salad. Some people just can’t pallet their taste…mostly people from the Midwest, in my experience. Anyway, your call…take it or leave it!

8. Add some dressing. I love hot sauce and Frank’s Original is what I use most often. I wish it was hotter, but the ingredient list is very good…no artificial or suspect ingredients. Sometimes, in lieu of hot sauce I grill up some jalapenos early in the week when I have the grill on anyway. Then I just chop up one or two on my salad while I’m making it each morning. If hot sauce isn’t your thing, then find something that works for you. Just steer away from just about everything on the salad dressing aisle at your grocery store. Most of those have lots of HFCS, hydrogenated fats and other undesirables that will kill you in them. Best to make your own out of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, various spices, etc. Google recipes for making your own salad dressing. Lots of ideas out there. Find one that works for you.

Once you get in a groove with this process, you should be able to fix the whole salad in the time it takes for your eggs to fry. Just dump the eggs on top of the salad and mix everything up. You’re good to go.

The absolute best part about this recipe is it is versatile. You can put other veggies on top of or instead of the ones I use. Even better…I have yet to find a grilled meat I don’t like as a substitute for the eggs above. If grilling is an option, fish, chicken, beef, etc. are all great diced and thrown over this salad. All the sudden breakfast becomes dinner!

Hope this helps you on your path to good health!

Fortunately, there is at least one vegetable I’ve found that you can extend its shelf-life several times over; green onions. Normally, they go bad in your vegetable drawer in about a week…less sometimes. Mine have lasted as much as 3 weeks. In fact, the onions I have right now are heading towards 4 weeks as I type. The picture here is at 2 weeks. They are bigger now and still as fresh as ever. I have no reason to believe they would stop growing for weeks to come. Under normal circumstances we consume ours in about 2 weeks. It’s always the inordinate circumstances that end up spoiling the food in our fridge. Anyway, if you would like to keep your onions fresh like this, here’s what you do:

1. Buy organic green onions. Don’t buy inorganic or the following won’t work because they are already dead when you get them due to irradiation…which not only kills off all bad bacteria that causes vegetables to decompose more quickly, it also kills the vegetable itself! I’ve tried inorganic a couple of times. They died both times. I buy Earthbound Organic at Walmart. I’ve actually started buying 2 packages because this method works so well…and my jar is big enough to accommodate all of them.

2. When you get home, get a large glass for water, a big canning jar, a vase or whatever you want that holds water and can hold all of the onions you just bought. Fill it about 1/4 of the way full and place the onions root side down in the jar.

3. Notice how the green onions have holes at the top and they are hollow most of the way down? Fill the onions themselves up with water all the way to the top and leave the water in there. If you don’t do this step your onions will probably all wilt by the next morning. I both learned this from experience and discovered the solution by experimenting. Trust me, it works.

4. Put the jar of onions in water in a sunny window and leave it there. Sunny is preferable. Just give them as much daylight as you can. Even wintery overcast daylight will do the trick. They will just do even better when the sun is at full strength. Your onions will not only stay alive this way, they will actually grow…sometimes twice as large as when you first bought them.

5. Whenever you’re ready for some green onions on your salad or whatever dish you’re fixing, grab a pair of kitchen sheers and chop one stalk up…use the whole thing or stick the bottom back in the water to grow some more.

6. If you have to go out of town for a week…no worries, give the onions some extra water and leave them in the window. They’ll be just as fresh and much larger when you return!

When you first buy them, some of the leaves will brown almost right away. Just peel them off if you don’t like how ugly they are. The rest of the onions will be more fresh and crispy than any other green onion you’ve ever had, and they will last for weeks!

It’s been way too long since I posted last. I’ve got a couple more posts I’m working on, so hopefully it won’t be nearly 2 months before my next post! Thanks for reading.

Before you disregard everything else I say, let me explain my reasoning for that assertion. First, let me clearly say what I’m NOT saying. I am NOT saying exercise isn’t valuable or that you shouldn’t exercise. What I am saying is that if you desire to lose weight, relying on exercise isn’t going to help you nearly as much as you think it does.

For the longest time I was under the assumption that regular exercise combined with an enforced calorie deficit was the key to weight loss. Self-control and discipline were the necessary ingredients for success. Problem was I didn’t have either of those two things in great enough proportion to be successful. That was frustrating, because I WAS trying VERY hard in both those areas. The problem with what everyone was telling me was the right way to lose weight NEVER worked in spite of my numerous tries.

My personal experience in this regard ought to be a warning for everyone. I’ve always enjoyed physical activity. Throughout seminary I’d get up early in the morning and play basketball with friends for a couple hours before classes 3 times a week in addition to lifting weights and frequently playing sand volleyball in the evenings. In spite of my regular physical activity, I gained 40 lbs while in seminary. After I tore my ACL I started running (I didn’t know my ACL was torn right away). I began running to rehab my knee; at first just a couple miles at a time, but within a year I was running a marathon. I ran a half marathon at 230 lbs and I ran my marathon at 220 lbs…not the weight totals one would expect from someone who can run 13.1 and 26.2 miles! It certainly isn’t what I expected when I set out to give long distance running a try. I was not at all what you call inactive, but I still managed to gain weight. When you couple my above average level of activity with my normally lowfat diet, I should not have been gaining weight!

The most frustrating part for me was that I saw some correlation between exercise and my weight. If I exercised 5-7 days a week, then I often would lose a pound or two. If I exercised 3-4 times a week, I’d manage to maintain my weight. If I exercised less than 3 days a week, skipped it altogether or went on vacation or was in any situation where my regular exercise routine was broken, then I’d gain weight. In short, I had to keep up a demanding regimen of exercise to even maintain my weight!

Can anyone else relate to that frustration? It isn’t fun and it’s discouraging, isn’t it? Thankfully, I discovered that exercise is NOT the key to weight loss. What I learned is that what exercise does in the weight loss equation is serve to make you more hungry. Makes sense doesn’t it? When you exercise you burn energy. If you exercise really hard you burn a lot of energy and you’ll be really hungry when you’re done. If you exercise very little, you don’t burn a lot of energy and your appetite is much smaller than it would be otherwise. This explains why I didn’t really lose much weight while training for a marathon. Sure, I probably ran 5-6 times a week and for a total of about 50 miles, but I was also eating constantly! I lost a little weight, but not much. I suppose if I continued training for marathon after marathon, I’d eventually have ended up as trim as I am now. Unfortunately that training schedule is not something I can maintain being a stay-at-home dad with two kids. It isn’t realistic for most people to maintain a marathon training schedule perpetually. Thankfully you don’t have to!

I talk about my exercising past to make this one point: Eating the right food is about 95% of weight loss and control. Since I’ve discovered how to eat what my body needs I no longer need to keep up a demanding exercise schedule. Don’t get me wrong, most weeks I go workout at least 3 times. Two years removed from ACL reconstruction, I’m starting to play basketball again. I’ve been lifting weights consistently 2-4 times a week for a couple of years. I just started swimming again. It’s not like exercise isn’t an integral part of my life that I enjoy. The difference now is that I don’t feel obligated to exercise on a daily basis in order to maintain my weight. Every once in a while a week gets crazy and I don’t exercise. It doesn’t matter. My weight stays the same. I can go visit family in WI and my weight stays the same even though I generally don’t get to workout nearly as much. The reason my weight is always stable (for the first time in my life) is I maintain proper nutrition at all times.

Proper nutrition is a rather simple concept, but it can be difficult to start moving in the right direction if you’ve been assuming your way of eating is right all your life. I challenge you to take a step back and evaluate if you are in the same situation I was in a few years ago…constantly exercising, mostly maintaining a diet that doctors tell you is proper and still gaining weight. If that’s you, you would do well to seriously re-evaluate what you eat on a day to day basis. Here are the top things I recommend to get you going in the right direction:

1. Don’t eat refined sugar, including table sugar, high fructose corn syrup and all others found in most processed foods.

2. Eat fat and plenty of it! This includes saturated fat from animal sources, but also fat from plant sources like olive oil.

3. Get rid of all caloric drinks except for whole milk and drink water instead.

4. Eat as much as it takes to feel full 3 times a day. Just wait until the next meal. You won’t starve.

5. Eat lots of fruits and veggies. Use butter liberally on veggies. It makes them taste better, helps you absorb their nutrients and serves to satisfy your hunger better than veggies alone. Trust me. You’ll eat a LOT more veggies AND enjoy them if you use butter.

6. When you eat bread and other such things made of grain, insist on them being 100% whole grain. Eating white bread and other things made with refined/white flour is basically the same as eating sugar. Both cause insulin spikes and both will eventually lead to weight gain, heart disease and ultimately your untimely death.

7. By all means start or keep exercising, especially if you live an otherwise sedentary lifestyle. Exercise is good for you, but don’t expect it to help you lose or maintain your weight if you don’t change the way you eat!

As always, feel free to give me a shout if you need some ideas to get you going or help you keep going. I love to help people discover the freedom I’ve found in proper nutrition.

In this post I hope to do a very shallow education about yogurt and give you some ideas about how to use it for quick snacks or even meals. Unfortunately, all yogurt is not created equal. Let’s look at why.

Under normal circumstances I use Brown Cow Cream Top Plain yogurt. There are several good whole fat yogurts on the market, but this one just tastes the best. When I’m feeling selfish I like to eat the cream off the top when I first open the container! Normally, however, I mix it in and the whole container tastes really good that way. The only place I’ve found it here in Vegas is at Whole Foods. When one of the organic brands is cheaper due to a sale I would rather buy it that way instead…especially if it is cream top. However, since Brown Cow is at Whole Foods, I feel somewhat comfortable that responsible farming and processing practices are used since they are much more strict about that than other grocery stores. They abide by at least some sort of guiding principles, which cannot be said for places like Walmart.

The ingredients are simple, as they should be: Cultured Pasteurized milk, pectin and the live active cultures s. thermophilus, l. bulgaricus, l. acidophilus and bifidus. In a perfect world, they would lose the pectin which is uneccessary but not harmful. It would just be more thin. In one cup it contains 170 calories, 10g of fat, 6g saturated fat and 35mg of cholesterol. I point these out because they are the ingredients people tend to needlessly fear the most. Now is a good time for the reminder that your body needs all of these things. Without them you will starve. I contend that you need much more of them (save maybe calories…though I no longer count calories) than the average health professional will recommend that you consume. You will be hungry and continue to struggle with your weight until you start eating more of these macro-nutrients. Of course you need to cut all the non-food stuff out as well. Alas, I digress.

Let’s contrast the food label above. It comes from a yogurt (Dannon Fat Free Blackberry flavored) I used to eat in my former roller coaster low fat diet that I’ve happily left behind. This info comes from Dannon’s website.

You’ll notice it conforms nicely to everyone’s fears. Only 80 calaories, zero fat, zero sat. fat and a minuscule 5mg of cholesterol. If that’s all you’re concerned about when you read nutrition labels, then you’ve got bigger fish to fry! Look at the ingredients which are much more important. Modified food starch is the first mystery ingredient. It is supposedly harmless. Food starch is used as a thickening agent in things like gravy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a long shelf life and so what is being thickened will go runny after a day or so. Thus it needs to be “modified” to extend its shelf life indefinitely. I’m sure this ingredient helps to keep this “food” thick enough for people to consider it as yogurt. It would otherwise be just like skim milk. For those who have food allergies to grains of various sorts, beware, because modified food starch can be made from any number of grains, not just corn. They don’t have to tell you which grain they used!

Also notice the sweeteners that are used. Fructose is the only caloric sweetener, but this product also contains aspartame, acesulfame and sucralose. These products are generally regarded by the FDA as safe, but several studies show a possible links to the contrary. I propose that whether safe or not they are unnecessary, unhelpful and mysterious enough that they should be avoided if at all possible.

Notice especially what this “blackberry” yogurt does not contain in the ingredients: blackberries! You can be certain that the natural flavors ingredient takes care of this conspicuous absence. You can also be certain that there are a lot more ingredients in this yogurt than you are reading on this label. The manufacturer only has to say “natural flavors” because they’ve invested much money in developing these chemicals to imitate the taste of blackberries. It is therefore a proprietary secret. Just know that the size of the ingredient list probably more than doubles and all the new ingredients aren’t words you are likely to know!

One other thing I like about the Brown Cow ingredient list over the Dannon list is the number of live active cultures. The live cultures are helpful bacteria. You consume harmful bacteria all the time. It makes you sick if you get too much of it in your system. Eating yogurt helps boost your immune system because you are introducing the helpful kind directly into your digestive system. It’s a good plan all around!

Hopefully you are now motivated to actually look at the ingredients on the back of your yogurt (and everything else too) to see what chemicals you are needlessly consuming and what macro-nutrients you are missing out on! The objection most people are going to have at this point (assuming they are convinced that fat and cholesterol are not in fact killing them) is the taste of plain yogurt. Personally, my pallet has adjusted and I now like yogurt plain…though I rarely settle for plain yogurt when I’ve got other options. There is a simple solution…mix some actual fruit into the yogurt. Wow! That was simple wasn’t it?

Our family favorite is berries. In the summer we use whatever berry we can find in season and on sale. Our fridge is typically 25% yogurt and 25% berries in the summer. You can still do berries in the winter, but for the budget conscious grab the frozen kind. I buy a huge bag of mixed berries at Sam’s and thaw a small Tupperware full at a time in the fridge so it is ready for consumption the next day or two.  Just make sure that berries are the ONLY ingredients. Sugar in any form negates the health benefits.

Experiment, try lots of different fruit. Many different kinds taste great in yogurt. Some ideas to get you started that we like: banana, mango, cherry and peach. Crunchy fruit like apples and pears can be good too…though if too crunchy it might be best to heat them until tender on the stove. Eating yogurt this way tastes soooo much better than the “natural flavors” manufacturers add and you can be sure it is healthier for you too!

Anyone else have any ideas for how to eat yogurt? I’d love to hear them!

Ingredients:

3 c. whole wheat flour (I grind my own which I highly recommend, but you can certainly use store bought too.)
2 c. whole fat plain yogurt
4-5 T. melted butter
1/2 c. pure maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 tsp. sea salt
2-3 t.  baking soda

Instructions:

1. Mix 1^st two ingredients (also add 1/2 c. of water if only making plain whole wheat bread) together in a mixing bowl and cover in airtight container in at least room temp  for 24 hours. Don’t skip this step. The bacteria in the yogurt is the leaven and the traditional aspect of this recipe. It might look slightly moldy the next day. That’s normal. In Vegas’ hot summers, I let mine sit out in the garage instead of inside in the A/C. If you are doing a lot of cooking and your oven is always on, set it by the oven. Heat is your friend in this case. Room temp is fine if that is all that is available. Just don’t stick in the fridge. It won’t work.
2. After allowing to set for 24 hours in a warm place use a food processor or hand mixer to knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Again, this step is very important. I’ve made the mistake of skipping this step on accident and just adding the rest of the ingredients before kneading. Your bread won’t rise.
3. Add all the rest of the ingredients except for baking soda and use hand mixer to blend well with dough.
4. If you are making one of the variations listed below add appropriate ingredients here.
5. Once all other ingredients are well blended add baking soda. You’ll have to experiment with how much. Use at least 2 teaspoons. You’ll probably need 3. Baking soda is what works with the leaven and the acidic content of the yogurt to cause it to rise. If your bread turns out flat even after following all the instructions, then add a little more next time. You need to bake right away after adding the baking soda or your bread will go flat no matter what you do!
6. Bake at 350. Small loaves for ~40-45 min. Large loaves for about an hour. Since you are using a natural leaven process, you want it to be cooked through so use a toothpick or whatever method you prefer to make sure it is done all the way. This recipe makes a LOT. Probably about 4 small loaves or at least 2 large loaves…depending on the size of your loaf pans. If you don’t eat a lot of bread, consider cutting the recipe in 1/2.
7. One bit of final advice: Keep this bread in the fridge if you don’t consume it within a couple of days. It will go bad. That’s a good sign. Food that spoils is actually food that’s good for you. It isn’t designed with profit margins and shelf-life in mind, but for your nutrition needs. It’ll keep for a little over a week in the fridge. I’m sure you can freeze a portion of it if you don’t think you can eat it that fast. Haven’t tried though.

Variations:

1. Banana Bread – Add 3 very ripe bananas and 1 T. pure vanilla extract to ingredient list and blend well with dough before adding baking soda. You can probably get away with less maple syrup due to the sweetness of the bananas. Try 1/3 c. for starters.  You can also add blueberries, mixed berries and/or nuts if you like that sort of thing in your banana bread.
2. Pumpkin bread – Add one 15oz. can of pumpkin, ½ Tbsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp nutmeg and ¼ tsp all spice to ingredient list and blend well with dough before adding baking soda. I’m still experimenting with this one. You might try playing with the levels of spices…add more or less depending on your appreciation of them or lack thereof. Also, I intend to see if there is improvement in the taste by adding pure vanilla extract next time as in the banana bread above.
3. Herb Bread – The original recipe that I’ve adapted slightly for my own use is called “Yoghurt Herb Bread” (yes, I realize I spelled yogurt that way, just copying exactly), and is found in “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig (pp. 484). I highly recommend this cookbook/nutrition primer. Anyway, you can add 1/2 tsp. each of dried oregano, thyme, basil and tarragon. This tastes very good, but I’d recommend it along with a roast or something like that…not as a wheat bread for normal use.
4. Your Ideas Here – Any other ideas? I’d love to hear them. Post in comments!

One of the greatest nutritional “Aha” moments I’ve had is that it is possible to be very overweight and starving at the same time. Of course the term “starve” needs to be defined if I am going to make such a claim. The way most people use the term it means “to go without eating for a long enough time that one experiences intense hunger.” Instead of using the term the way we often do, let’s use some of Webster’s definitions instead: a) to perish from lack of food, b) to suffer extreme hunger, c) to deprive of nourishment.

The reality is that each of these fits with starvation while being overweight. I, personally, have experienced definitions b & c many times in my life…even in my very typical American way of life.

For the first 31 years of my life I believed that healthy eating consisted of limiting calories to a certain number. As long as you did that successfully, then one should maintain a healthy weight…or lose weight if too heavy. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life in the overweight category. At times I was 240 lbs…well overweight. Many in America can identify with that type of situation. Those who can identify with being well overweight can probably also identify with trying to limit calorie intake by some means or another, AND likely struggling mightily in doing so.

Here’s how the situation played out constantly and repeatedly for the first 31 years of my existence:

1. I’d go on vacation or visit family for a week and eat whatever I wanted because it was vacation and that’s what you do on vacation.
2. I’d get home and step on the scale to see what the damages were. It was not uncommon for me to gain about a pound a day for trips that I’d take. In my early 20’s we went to see family in WI. I gained 15 lbs in 14 days. Incidentally, it took me until I was nearly 30 to finally get all that weight back off. Anyway, that situation played itself out for nearly every special trip we took.
3. I’d decide to “go on a diet.” I even developed my own spreadsheet to track calories and fat grams of things I ate most. I’d limit myself to 2,500 calories and 50 grams of fat a day religiously. The weight usually dropped pretty quickly at first.
4. I’d decide along with the diet that I needed to get back in shape, so I’d start lifting weights 3 times a week and I’d run 3 or more times a week as well. I even did long distance running for a couple of years thinking that would definitely get me fit and trim. It helped a little, but even after training for and completing a marathon, I still weighed 220 lbs.
5. I’d be losing weight and feeling pretty good for at least 2 weeks, but then I’d stop losing weight, so I’d cut my calories even further to get the weight to start coming off again…say 2,250 calories.
6. At some point soon after further restricting my calorie intake, I’d inevitably hit a wall. I’d get really tired and not be able to exercise and/or I’d be SO hungry that I’d eat everything I could find in the fridge…and totally blow my calories for the whole day in one sitting.
7. After blowing it, I’d either get back on track for another week or two, or continue to blow it…usually the latter.
8. The weight would slowly come back on and I’d eventually find myself back at the same weight where I started…usually worse. After I ran my marathon, my weight shot back up to more than 230 lbs. Frustrating!
9. I’d be depressed and upset with myself for my lack of self-control. Why can’t I keep myself from blowing it???

I used to ask myself that question a lot. I finally figured out that it wasn’t my will power that was the problem. Turns out my will power is in plentiful supply. I did run a marathon, and though I’ve failed diets at least 100 times in my short life, I’d always try again. The problem was that I was starving!

We have no concept of what starvation is or what the body does to cope with it because we always have plenty of stuff to eat. The stuff that we are eating is the problem. When I learned to replace the stuff I was eating with food, starvation was no longer an issue.

In a non-industrialized setting where one would have to live off the land for everything one eats, the body goes into starvation mode when it isn’t getting the nutrients it needs for survival. It does this by slowing down its own metabolism and storing what little food it does get in the form of fat. The longer the period of starvation, the slower the metabolism slows. Obviously in cases of severe starvation the fat comes off because the body slowly uses it to keep itself alive.

In the case of Americans who have plenty of stuff to eat, the body can be literally starving for lack of nutrients from real food. In this case the body slows its metabolism and stores fat from everything it takes in. When we “go on a diet” by restricting calories, we are literally attempting to slowly starve the body. The problem is the body is designed too well to trick it into dropping the fat. When you restrict your calories, the body restricts its own metabolism.

The solution of course is easier said than done: Stop starving yourself! You’re probably asking how that is possible. No one WANTS to starve themselves, it’s just what we’ve been told to do to cope with being overweight. The over-arching premise is that one needs to eat nutrient dense food. Here’s what I’d recommend in VERY general terms:

1. Stop eating refined sugar, white flour, white rice.
2. Don’t be scared of saturated fat and cholesterol from animal fats. Your body needs them, and until you eat them your body will think you are starving. So, drink whole milk instead of skim. Use butter (not margarine or buttery spreads/sprays…those will kill you) in cooking. It tastes really good on vegetables…and bonus, it helps absorb vitamins A & D. Give yourself permission to enjoy the fat on beef, chicken and fish. It’s okay to eat it. Don’t feel guilty. God designed you to need it and he designed you to think it tastes good for a reason.
3. Get your carbs from whole grains like oats, wheat, barley and rye, or from fruits and vegetables. Acquaint yourself with the produce section of the grocery store. Make it a goal to learn to try and prepare everything your local grocery store has to offer in produce.
4. Don’t eat pre-packaged and highly processed foods. Admittedly this one is tough…and nearly impossible to accomplish in our culture. The closer you can get to that goal, the less you will be starving yourself. Prepackaged food contains almost no nutrients…in spite of the health claims written all over the box.
5. Don’t rely on supplements. In spite of what scientists might tell you, they don’t really know what your body needs and they can’t recreate what God has already made very well. Synthetic vitamins and minerals are only imitations and are absent the synergistic affects that take place when they are consumed by eating the fruit, vegetables, etc. in which they naturally occur.

Each of those 5 points deserves a post of its own…and you guessed it, they are coming soon! Feel free to comment on your thoughts and concerns. Some of what I say in this post is very controversial, but I’m passing on what has worked very well for me.

Stop starving yourself! I can’t tell you how great it feels to not feel hungry all the time AND not have to worry about my weight. You’ll have to experience that yourself. I’d be happy to help in any way I can.

I must admit, my current situation is pretty enviable in that regard. I’m a stay-at-home dad, I do the grocery shopping and therefore live in a pretty controlled environment. On top of that we haven’t lived in Las Vegas long, so we don’t have a ton of friends here. Most of our family lives in WI, so outside influence on our nutrition is at a minimum. I really only have to guard the backdoor so that nothing unhealthy comes in the house.

My situation wasn’t always so easy. My wife’s current situation more closely resembles what I used to go through on a daily basis. Every day people bring in treats and leave them in a convenient location for everyone to enjoy. Invariably, these treats are sugar laden and are anti-nutritious as a result. When these goodies are present, they are difficult to avoid!

I’m a recovering cake and doughnut addict. I haven’t eaten either in quite some time, but my exposure to them used to be on a daily basis. I worked at Office Depot in seminary. Whenever someone had a birthday a cake would show up. I had a very difficult time passing it up. I don’t think I ever was successful in doing so. In fact, I usually ate several pieces. To make matters worse, I love frosting, so I’d always take the corner AND scoop up any frosting that was left behind by others.

While in seminary various organizations would donate day-old pastries and bread to the seminary for free consumption by the students. I knew exactly what day and time to expect the delivery. I always made sure to be there promptly. Unfortunately, doughnuts don’t fill you up, so I’d eat several. As you can imagine, I put on a lot of weight in seminary…about 40 lbs.

I tell those stories to illustrate a point: our culture does not set up well for healthy nutrition. The grand majority of people out there don’t care about their own nutrition, let alone yours!

Here are some common scenarios to consider along with my opinion on how to handle them:

1. FREE food constantly available in the workplace – Don’t eat it just because it is free. We all love a bargain, but eating junk food is no kind of bargain. You will pay for it in MANY ways. If it isn’t healthy, don’t eat it…even if whoever brought it is slightly offended that you won’t try it. Just politely excuse yourself from eating it because you are trying to be more careful about what you eat. If you ever have opportunity or desire to bring food to work, then consider bringing fresh fruit. You won’t be popular, but there are certain to be a few of your co-workers who will appreciate a break in the onslaught of junk food. Harmful cultural practices can only be changed if someone is willing to initiate the change.

2. Dinner at a family/friend’s house where NOTHING can be considered actual food, let alone healthy – If you know from experience that your friend/family is going to prepare nothing but anti-nutritious food, then politely insist on bringing an awesome salad or fruit tray. Also, eat a little nutrient dense food before you go so you don’t feel like cowing on stuff that isn’t good for you. I personally make it a practice to eat whatever the host/hostess serves, but just one serving…healthy or not. That way if what is served is unhealthy, you can just tell them that part of your approach to eating is to only eat one serving. Eating bad for you food every once in a while isn’t going to kill you, so don’t make enemies by refusing to eat what you are served in such situations (I’ve made that mistake with family before). People generally tire quickly of someone who is constantly criticizing how bad for you their food is (again from experience). You have my permission to skip dessert though! Most people understand that part of a meal is optional. If they are mad at you for refusing, then that is their problem! If you typically eat a healthy diet, you’ll be fine. Just get back on track the very next meal.

3. Parties, holidays, vacations and special occasions – We often use these times as excuses to let loose and eat whatever we want. Problem is, if you look at a calendar, you won’t find too many weeks in the typical American schedule that doesn’t include one of these types of days…or weeks. Therefore, you have to party smarter. If you MUST let loose on occasion, pick one special occasion per quarter that you will allow yourself to indulge in whatever you want. Even in those cases do so in moderation. On the other occasions just make the best choices available at the party. Load up on the fruits and veggies if they are available. Offer to bring them if they won’t be. Skip as much of the sugary stuff as possible. Learn to enjoy parties for the people instead of the food. Learn to enjoy vacations/travelling for new experiences and activities. Better yet, try to host parties yourself. That way you get to plan the menu. If others offer to bring stuff, ask them to bring fruit and veggies. You’ll have to make some awesome healthy food though…or your friends and family will never come back to one of YOUR parties!

Remember, being healthy is much more important than what others think! The best advice for all situations is to focus on proper nutrition at all times. If you are eating nutrient dense foods at all meals, every day, then you will be less likely to be drawn to the junk food…free or not.

What other cultural situations present difficulties for you? What solutions have you come up with for these or other dilemmas? Comments are strongly encouraged. If you comment on facebook, I’d appreciate it if you also click through to the blog and comment there as well! Thanks for reading!

One of the more frustrating things in life, for me, is that not everyone gains weight really fast from eating copious, or in my case – small,  amounts of sugar. I don’t really know why for sure, but I suspect it is due to genetic make-up. Some people are just built to burn through whatever calories come their way. Problem is, in the case of sugar, it really doesn’t matter whether you pack on the pounds from eating it. If too much is consumed, it will eventually evidence itself in other forms, including: dental carries, loss of bone density (which is really much the same thing), diabetes, heart disease and cancer (blanket statement alert!). I know not everyone (maybe not even most health officials) attributes the last three things on that list to sugar consumption, but in my view they ought to at least consider it as a possibility.

At this point I could go off on a tangent about all the evils of sugar, but I’ll reserve that for a slightly more scholarly future post on sugar and other sweeteners. For now I’ll focus on what I KNOW to be true: when I don’t eat sweeteners of any kind (save for small amounts of uncoooked honey and pure maple syrup) my appetite and my weight are stable. When I had lots of extra weight to lose, cutting sugar caused my weight to start dropping quickly. The more I cut the faster it dropped.

I’m kind of an obsessive “weigh-er.” I weigh myself just about every morning and every night. It’s kind of just a habit now, but I initially started doing it a while ago because I wanted to better understand how my weight responded to various things I ate. The one predominant thing I’ve noticed is that when I eat sugar, other sweeteners, things made with white flour or white rice, I gain several pounds the next day. Granted, I gain weight more quickly than the average person to be sure, but if this sounds anything like your struggles, I’d highly recommend you cut as much sugar as possible out of your diet as fast as possible. You will not regret doing so!

If your consumption of sugar and other sweeteners is quite high, then this is going to be difficult…but look on the bright side, if you can knock sweeteners out of your diet, you’ll be one BIG step towards success! Also, you are not alone if your consumption of sugar is high. Here is a chart that shows the average consumption of both sugar and high fructose corn syrup over the last 30 years. The chart is actually provided by a major maker of HFCS, and they think the stuff is awesome. I couldn’t disagree more, so I’m not going to provide the link. Their website doesn’t need any undue traffic. HFCS is of the devil (IMO)…but, alas I digress. Here’s the graph:

One thing to be aware of when reading this graph is the numbers here take into account the amount of sugar and HFCS sold, but not necessarily the amount actually consumed. It is difficult to estimate how much soda, for example, gets thrown away after getting a refill and not finishing it at McDonald’s. Basically, food that is thrown away is the wild card. Still, most people tend to finish desserts…at least I do anyway! Bottom line: we are consuming a lot more sweeteners than we used to and that isn’t good for our health. Another statistic that I’ve read in numerous places is that the average American consumes about 1/2 a cup of sugar a day! The American Heart Association is now recommending 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men as a maximum (ONE 12 oz. can of soda has about 8 tsp!)! I recommend you stop eating it altogether. It simply isn’t worth the health problems it causes. Still, I’ll take a drastic reduction if you are willing to at least try that.

Reducing sweetener intake is pretty difficult. There are many obstacles to overcome: 1) It’s prevalence in most processed foods 2) Addiction to the “ups” 3) Constant presence in social situations like work, parties, etc. 4) It tastes good 5) Saying “goodbye” to some of our favorite foods 6) Getting through the first couple of weeks without it is quite difficult…just to name a few.

The benefits of reducing sweetener intake, per my personal experience, are also numerous: 1) Saying “goodbye” to the seesawing number on the scale 2) Seeing the number on the scale plummet faster than you thought possible 3) Gaining a stable appetite that makes it easy to turn down dessert 4) Retraining the taste buds to prefer the natural sugars in things like honey and fruit 5) Saying “hello” again to produce. 6) No longer having to deal with the “ups” or the “downs” 7) Feeling better in every way about yourself…and the list could go on and on. Try it, you’ll see.

Here are the steps I recommend you take. You might need to try one per week and focus on making it a habit if you are in need of doing all of this:

1) Stop drinking soda. Just stop. Even the “diet” stuff is bad for you. Studies show that people who drink diet sodas are at least as heavy as those who drink regular. That’s likely because drinking diet leads most people to think they can now indulge in other sweet things since they “saved the calories.” The reality is diet sodas are crammed with chemicals, not to mention drugs (caffine) that are designed to make you want to drink one after another. Tell yourself it is okay if you never drink one again. You don’t need to be loyal to your favorite brand. They don’t care about your health. They care about making money…even if it kills you…and it will. Drink water instead. You will be so shocked at how much better you will feel if you make this one simple decision! I own stock in Pepsi and I still want you to stop drinking it!

2) Stop drinking fruity drinks from the juice aisle. If it didn’t start out in the fridge at the store, just don’t drink it. I don’t care if it is V8…just don’t. Look at the ingredients on anything in that aisle. Not good. Even if it did start out in the fridge, make sure there is no sweeteners in the ingredients. Best not to buy store bought juice. Make your own if you instist on drinking it. Better yet, stick to water and eat the actual fruit!

3) Go through your cupboards, fridge and pantry. Read ALL the labels, even the ones you presume to be healthy. See how many of the foods have the following caloric sweeteners as ingredients: white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn sweetener, fruit juice concentrate, sucrose, dextrose, fructose, glucose, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar,and syrup. Also look for all the artificial sweeteners: saccharin (Sweet & Low), aspartame (Nutrasweet or Equal), acesulfame-K, sucralose (Splenda) and neotame. Surprised how many things contain multiple sugar sources? You’d do yourself a huge favor if you throw all these foods away. Don’t worry about the waste. Worry about your waist and more importantly your health. At least begin the slow process of replacing the products you use one at a time with products that don’t have so much sugar. If any of these ingredients show up in the first 2 ingredients on the list, then you really should consider throwing it away. At the very least, avoid buying it again!

Sugar really is that bad and it really is difficult to eliminate it from your diet. The good news is that once you do, you’ll feel a TON better than you ever thought possible. Trust me, I’ve been on both sides.

Please feel free to open a discussion with comments on this subject. If you comment on facebook, I’d appreciate it if you also click through to the actual blog and leave the comment there too!