Eating to Run: Pumpkin Mousse Pie

Want a healthier alternative as we fall into pie season? Here's an easy, no-bake, low-fat holiday treat that's only 4 POINTS (TM) on Weight Watchers--less than half the points of a traditional pumpkin pie. Stas' and I made it together and it was a yummy fall treat.

Pumpkin Mousse Pie

Ingredients:
1 reduced fat graham cracker pie crust
1 1/4 cup cold fat-free milk
1 package (4 serving size) sugar-free fat-free instant vanilla pudding and pie filling
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tub (8 oz) light or fat free cool whip, thawed
1 T. pumpkin pie spice OR 1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon, 3/4 t. ground ginger, and 1/4 t. ground cloves
1 beaten egg white (optional)

1. For tastier crust, brush with egg white and bake 5 minutes at 375. Allow to cool before filling pie.
2. In large bowl, beat milk, pudding mix and spice with whisk for 1 1/2 minutes. Whisk in pumpkin. Fold in HALF of whipped topping. Spread in pie crust.
3. Top with remaining whipped topping. (Or pipe on in decorative manner.)
4. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Garnish as desired. Store in fridge.

YIELD: 8 servings
4 WW POINTS each

Recipe adapted from Keebler Co. & Weight Watchers Magazine

Graphic & Photo (c) 2007 Ann Hetzel Gunkel
Digital Supplies: Bump in the Night Collection by Erica Hite at Scrap Girls; Software: Adobe Photoshop

BOO! Here Come the Holidays

Boo, Scary!! For runners and health enthusiasts, Halloween can be a marker of impending doom. It's not just the fun-size Snickers that mark this scary season. In my nutty holiday-maniac universe (Just call me Jingle Dell...did anyone else see Wild at Heart?), 12:01 a.m. on November 1st marks the beginning of the entire holiday season. Just three weeks until Thanksgiving and it all goes wild!

Many people who are watching their weight and health find the prospect of coming holidays to be the scariest part of Halloween. But it doesn't have to be that way. Just remember what Stephen Gullo noted,

"No one ever gets heavy from one meal. It happens when you start a 30-day free-fall buffet on Thanksgiving Day."

One meal won't make you fat. But one meal that leads into a 6-week season of unconscious eating sure will! Start planning and strategizing now, so you can enjoy and indulge in a mindful way. There's no reason not to enjoy life (.....she says after her fun-size Reese's!)

On a personal note, I had the best Trick or Treat ever. At my Weight Watchers meeting, I hit my personal best goal weight. My BMI is now 23 (down 40 percent from my highest BMI of 38!).

I am now a total of 90 pounds less than my highest weight 5 years ago. And I've lost 62+ pounds with Weight Watchers. Spooky! I weigh 30+ pounds less than my wedding day 17 years ago! And much less than I weighed in high school! Having been plus-size my whole life, I have not weighed this since GRAMMAR SCHOOL! (Now, that's scary!)

HABITual Offender

Before embarking on my fitness and health journey, I was convinced that diet and exercise were a matter of gargantuan will-to-power, a triumph of the will beyond my abilities.

Not to diss my old friend Freddy Nietzsche, but there is no such thing as willpower. Drop this notion from your lexicon fast! (Existential Aside: Wille zur macht is a useful concept in critiquing the metaphysical drive to truth. I heart Nietzsche. But it's useless in thinking about the physical drive to sit on the couch.)

Here's what I learned about the myth of willpower:
We spend lots of time, hours, days--maybe even years?--gearing up for that moment when we will finally possess the strength to bypass brownies and run a marathon. The waiting never amounts to much. It drains the life out of you, though. You wait and scheme...and hope and wait... and convince yourself that tomorrow is the day. An hour from now is the time. A week from now, I'll turn it around.

I spent a lot of time burning psychic energy waiting for the magic of will power to arrive. Yeah, you already guessed it: the parcel of willpower is never delivered.

Did it take gargantuan willpower to will myself to sit on the couch? Nope. Don't think so.
Did it take an epic burst of commitment to will myself to be sedentary? Nope. Don't think so.

What it took was the HABIT of sitting around. The HABIT of being sedentary. The HABIT of mindless eating. Not an effort, a struggle or strength of character. Why should the reverse be any more true? Don't let the lie stop you from making the changes you want to make. It doesn't take strength of character or epic effort to be active and fit. It takes the HABIT of being active and fit. Sorry to disappoint those fellow philosophers among me, but there is no will-to-power in the health & fitness universe. There is simply habit. Good habit, repeated without undue psychic energy.

If you hear this message, "I'll just get myself psyched up and then I'll go run." Stop! This is a dead end. Just go and do it. No willpower is necessary. Just do it. And then do it again. And do it again. And soon the neural pathway of habit has you doing what you need to do. No struggle, no willpower, no torture needed. It really is that simple.

So if you don't have any willpower. No problem. It is absolutely unnecessary. No kidding.


Layout & photo (c) 2007 by Ann Hetzel Gunkel. Software: Adobe Photoshop; Digital Supplies: 727 Collection by design butcher at Scrap Girls.

NSV: Becoming a Lifer

This week marked a major milestone in the health & fitness journey: I received my Lifetime Membership Key at Weight Watchers and I crossed my one year anniversary on the health & wellness road. The hardest part of the whole thing, I think, was overcoming my own skepticism regarding my ability to change. From the vantage point of a year ago, I couldn't have possibly imagined a whole new me. But voila! It actually works. Perhaps this is a good time to reiterate the saga behind On Beyond Running for those of you looking for some inspiration.

Exactly one year ago this week, I was a middle-aged, 40-something, couch-potato mom with a family, full-time job and a part-time career on the side. I'd been a plus size for most of my childhood and adult life. I was sure given the weight of four score decades of "proof," that I was doomed to be fat.

Presto! Chango! In one year, I've lost over 10 clothing sizes, 33% of my body mass, and gone from frump to fab. My former 2x self now wears size Small. My double digit jeans--hell, I didn't even bother with jeans; just too brutal!--are now a size 4. My frazzled and frantic --but completely unfit--lifestyle has transformed completely. I've run two 5k races, am training for my first half marathon and run between 30 and 50 miles a week.

On behalf of my awesome physician, who helped me on this path, I should also report all the good stuff vis a vis my health: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, BMI, resting pulse. Perfect. Every last one of them.

Unexpected and amazing side effects of these transformations: these lifestyle changes "pay it forward." My spouse is now 40 pounds ligher and hotter than ever! and my six year old kid sees the importance of regular activity (we just biked 20 miles together last week on a family outing!) and scorns trans fats and fast food!

Here's the deal, if you think it's too good to be true: None of this was done with fads or fanaticism. It took serious commitment, serious planning and serious work. None of it happened fast or easy. That being said, there is no secret that you've been missing. It was painfully simple: eat less, eat better, exercise more. Be mindful of what you are actually doing. Have a plan. Stick with it for the long haul. Between two poles: Weight Watchers and running, it was absolutely workable.

One year later--god willing--was going to show up anyhow. It could have shown up with the old me or a new & improved me. I'm really glad I chose to risk the new & improved version. One year later, as Labor Day approaches, I've never been happier about the work I've done.

Hi-Tech Training for the Type A Runner

You know its bad when it comes to this: a birthday arrives and there aren't flowers or perfume or other niceties. Instead, you unwrap a runner's GPS and think, "What a great gift!" (Thank you spouse & son!)

For all runners (like me) who are also documentation-oriented, this is a fun training toy. Till now, I've timed my runs every day with a plastic watch that doesn't always work. Now, the GPS kicks in, the timer rolls, and I can get mileage or time alerts on the road, glance down to see my pace or distance, and upload the whole thing for training logs to analyze.

And this is a gift that really keeps on giving for the Type A personality. Once the GPS is rolling and the run is coming to a close, I think, "Well....but only .3 of a mile more and that would be a nice round number." Or "Gee, that pace is faster than I thought, I suppose I could try a little bit harder." You get the idea. This device is not so much hi-tech as it is automated gadfly. Another incentive to push the limits (just a little.) The GPS induced goal for my next birthday year: log a minimum of 1000 miles in those 364 remaining days. (I probably already do that modest amount anyhow--but the GPS makes it seem official.)

I know it sounds like a bit much--and it is--but its fun. For me, the effort is real when there's data that follows. I can train against an imaginary partner, time splits, or not. More likely not. But I like the idea of it. And that's what gifts are for.

LO Details: Design (c) 2007 Ann Hetzel Gunkel; Software: Adobe Photoshop; Digital Supplies: Daydream Collection by Erica Hite at ScrapGirls

NSV: Bon Voyage - On the [European ] Road with a Runner

Three weeks in Polish food heaven.

Doughy Obwarzianki from Krakowian street vendors. Smalec (old-style lard) on fresh rye bread. Late afternoon cafe breaks on the medieval Krakow rynek with some spectacular sweet pastries. Hot Paczki in the streets of Warszawa. Pierogi z truskawkami. [Pierogi with fresh strawberries.] Lody z makiem [Poppy-seed gelato.] Pure bitter drinking chocolate at Wedel. Toasting our relatives with chilled vodka and salty caviar. Enjoying every bite and every moment of our favorite restaurants and elegant old-school kawiarnie.

Victory: Arriving home jet lagged and burned out, exactly # -.2 less on the scale than the day our journey began. How to live it up and find this result? Stay tuned for my secrets!

First of all, I am not advocating the all-lard diet (although I do believe that the icy shot of vodka with my smalec & rye appetizer has magical power.) I was able to live it up without the scale going up. I am able to eat dessert without Weight Watcher's desertion. This is a first in my life. It marks an amazing non-scale victory.

1. Runner's bodies rule. After a year of lifestyle change, fitness and healthy habits, my body simply works better. It is efficient, muscular and burns more calories. It can handle a few weeks of fun. Wow! What a revelation.

2. Live it up! I had no intention of engaging in my annual and much anticipated hang-out in Poland by playing idiotic ascetic games with myself. I'm here to live and enjoy, not prove how spartan I can be with self-denial. This has never been a diet. I was not going to miss out on what I love in deference to some macho dietary will-to-power.

3. Activity. Activity. Activity. As always, we walk everywhere in Poland. With the exception of a few tramwaj [streetcar] journeys for the edification of my street-car obsessed son, we walk all day long. We walk anywhere from 2 to 5 hours a day. That's a lot of activity. At one point, I was earning about 50 AP (activity points on the Weight Watcher's plan) a week. For those of you not conversant with WW lingo, that's a lot.

4. Woda. Woda. Woda. Water. Water. Water. Like many Euro peoples, the Poles are drinking Woda Mineralna (bottled mineral water) around the clock. We do, too. On the road, it really helps with everything health and fitness related. Whether you choose gazowana or niegazowana, it's a good thing.

5. A fitness plan. Although I had mapped out runs in my favorite Polish cities, I had a backup plan for fitness. A really simple one. I threw a jump rope in the back of my suitcase. And I skipped rope (for the first time in my life!) every morning after Sniadanie for 30 - 60 minutes. Sucky? Kind of. Challenging? Yup. My legs hurt for the first 6 days and then I got over it. But I discovered that a runner can do such things. It's not a big deal when you are used to fitness.

6. A food plan. I took a little notebook, logged my fave Polish foods for reference, and kept track of my points for my entire trip. By the way, for the first time ever in my Weight Watcher's career, my weekly points exceeded their allowance. There was NO way I was going to stress about it. The deal was simply about keeping track and being mindful. Some days I had spectacular Lody Kompozycja (Polish ice cream creations). I logged the points and loved every second. It wasn't about denial but about mindfulness. I knew what I was doing and I owned it. After every meal, treat or indulgence, I asked myself, "Was it worth it?" The answer was usually yes, and I loved every morsel. No guilt. No mind games. No monkey business. "Was it worth it?" When the answer was no, there was no encore.


Upon returing home, I found it was the question on everyone's lips, "Well...did she gain it back? Did she collapse in a sea of szarlotka or start chain-drinking pure chocolate?" The answer is no.

These very ordinary concepts are my not-so-spectacular secrets for the victory of maintaining weight loss on a major European road trip. The revelation for me was that I can be en route and not unravel my fitness. A runner's healthy lifestyle gives me just enough wiggle room to live it up. So don't stress about bon voyage. It really can be a great journey.


About the Image: Layout design, photograph & digital papers (c) 2007 by Ann Hetzel Gunkel. Ribbon from Thao Cosgrove's Friendship Collection at Scrap Girls.

Notes about the Obwarzanek. This distinctly Krakowian street food is the heavenly, chewy cross between a pretzel and a bagel. The obwarzianki z sol [salt obwarzianki] are to die for. To preserve their unique flavor and regional presence, these doughy delights are currently under consideration for protected food status in the EU.

Running to Eat: The Paczki Avant-Garde

Being a runner allows me to really enjoy things that I love, to wit: paczki (the filled puff of Polish pastry dough.) During this most recent trip to Poland my family uncovered the ultimate paczek.

Understand this loud and clear: we are paczki people. We love paczki. We've had hundreds of paczki. We savor the subtleties and make mental notes. Heck, even our last dog was named Paczek in honor of this heavenly bit of plush dough. So when we say we've found the ultimate paczek it comes from a place of profound paczki connoisseur-ship.

Here's how it happened. We wander into an alley in Warszawa off Nowy Swiat. This narrow strip of ulica Chmielna is like any other. Except suddenly, I find myself following a scent, feeling like I'm floating on the aroma of paczki in the air. It hits all of us at the same time. "Dave, why am I floating on the smell of paczki? It's like a dream." "I don't know--but I smell it too." We follow the magical scent like someone in a cartoon, nose floating after the trail.

Then we spot it. A line of people queued up from here to eternity at an unassuming window. Cukiernia Pawlowicz. Gorace Paczki. [Pawlowiocz Sweets Bakery. Hot Paczki.] Our pastry-based dreams have come true! Out of this window, ladies are selling hot paczki. Hot. Plush. Sweet and un-bee-lievable. Paczki with rose-petal marmalade and coated in sliced almonds. Paczki with budyn (a simple pudding.) Paczki with forest fruit marmalade. Paczki from heaven.

Our excitement builds, we order (only PLN 1,70 for something this spectacular?!) one for each of our crew. The lady wraps them in a whisper thin paper sack, suitable for immediate on-the-street consumption. My son steps back after one bite, suitably dramatic for the momentous event and proclaims, "This paczek is out of this world. This is the best paczek I've ever had in my life." And although he's not quite six years old, he's had a lot of paczki in his time. And he's right.

Dead on. These are the very best paczki on earth. After 40+ years of paczki passion, we've found the holy grail of paczki. That this qualifies as a major life event in our clan means we are either elevated foodies or total losers (maybe both).

But really, these are the very best paczki on earth. We return to this spot, to this magical window of bakery bliss, every day for the rest of our stay in Warszawa. We call our relatives on the komorka (cell phone) and order them to the spot where we stand. We call my cousin on his komorka and entreat him to meet us in the alley. All must share in the paczki passion.

In celebration of this miraculous metaphysical paczek, I invent a new fictional punk band name for myself (an old habit of mine, by the way. Creating fictional band names for myself, despite the fact that I'm decades past being in a punk band or any other kind of band for that matter.) I have it now--the ultimate name for my ultimate band.

T-PAG: The Paczki Avant Garde. T-PAG. Has a kind of Tupac hip-hoppy ring to it. T-PAG. Has my initials in it, The Paczek of Ann Gunkel. Yes, my dream band about this dreamy pastry is The Paczki Avant Garde. T-PAG. At the forefront of paczki research. I've suitably marked this random discovery of the best paczek in the universe with my pretend punk rock tribute.

And this, by the way, is why I don't diet. This, by the way, is something I have no intention of skipping. This, by the way, is what makes life so fun. And this, by the way, makes every last bite worth the daily workout. It's the very best reason I can think of for running to eat.


Note bene for you who are not wise in the way of paczki. Paczek (punch-eck). Singular. Paczki (punch-kee). Plural. The "un" sounds is nasal as this is a diacritically marked Polish "a."

Layout Design & Folkloric digital paper (c) 2007 Ann Hetzel Gunkel for Scrap Girls. Photo by David Gunkel.