Spaghetti Carbonara

Its supposed to be spring in Chicago but we had a snowstorm for Easter. This week, the rain and gloom are enough to discourage anyone. To the rescue: David's healthy version of Spaghetti Carbonara. Healthy, hearty, and comforting. Enjoy!

Ingredients
* 1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti
* 1/4 lb. pancetta or bacon
* 4 egg whites
* 1/4 cup fat free half & half
* 1/4 cup pecorino romano cheese, grated
* 1 onion, diced
* cracked pepper

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Meanwhile, cook bacon. Remove from heat & drain. In teaspoon of olive oil or cooking spray, saute the onion. When translucent (about 6 - 7 min.), add bacon back to the pan. Continue to saute for 2 min. more. Deglaze with pan with 1-2 T. of pasta cooking water. Add the half & half, cook for 1 min. Drain the pasta and add to the pan. Remove from heat and slowly add egg whites while mixing, until creamy. Add pepper & cheese. Toss. Must be served immediately. Will not keep.

At 5.5 WW PTS (TM) per cup, this is a creamy and tasty meal!

Layout Design (c) 2008 Ann Hetzel Gunkel
Digital Supplies: Adobe Photoshop; Papers & Embellishments at Scrap Girls

The Substitute (Secrets for Staying on Track)

One of the key techniques of Weight Watchers is SUBSTITUTION, that is, finding an alternate food option for a bad-habit food or craving--or for a food which tends to wind up in overindulgence. Today's post is a soda-fountain creation that my son and I whipped up for fun. In all honesty, it has no real nutritional advantages, but it is a fat free, low calorie (90), low WW points (only 2) (TM) option when cravings for an ice cream sundae or some other extreme goody come calling....

Enjoy our Old Fashioned Soda Fountain CHERRY CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM FLOATS:

Ingredients: (For each float)

* One can Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper Soda

* 1/2 cup (One scoop) Breyer's Fat Free Double Churn Chocolate Ice Cream (or other FF ice cream)

Scoop chocolate ice cream into tall soda glass. Pour cold Diet Cherry Chocolate De. Pepper over the ice cream for a frosty float. Serve with a straw and tall spoon. Enjoy! (Only 2 WW points / 90 calories / 0 g fat!)

Digital Scrapbook Layout: Photo & Design (c) 2008 Ann Hetzel Gunkel

Digital Supplies: Hearts Desire Collection by Erica Hite at Scrap Girls

Just Eat Food (and other avant-garde advice)

Its time for many of you to be in the "resolution" zone...either making one, breaking one, or faking one. I'm here to remind you that sensible committed healthy practice really works. There is no magic and there are no secrets. We all keep looking for them but it really is this simple:

Food theorist and high priestess /scholar of nutrition, Marion Nestle has a simple message, "Eat less, move more, eat fruits and vegetables, don't eat too much junk food, and enjoy every bite you eat." (Nestle, What to Eat) The key here is ENJOY every bite. Don't eat crap. Eat great stuff and love it. I think PASSION (rather than compulsion) is the key to health & fitness. (On that note...Thanks, Juliet, for sending those sublime torrone from Modern Pastry in Boston's North End!)

Food journalist and author Michael Pollan sums it up simply, too. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." [In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, Penguin 2008] His newest tome is another fabulous discussion of the cultural backdrop of eating in contemporary U.S. life. The title alone makes the book worthwhile to me but this gives you a sense of the Manifesto's message:

• "The first time I heard the advice to "just eat food" it...completely baffled me. Of course you should eat food--what else is there to eat?...Taking food's place on the shelves has been an unending stream of foodlike substances, some seventeen thousand new ones every year--'products constructed largely around commerce and hope, supported by frighteningly little actual knowledge.' " (Pollan, 147)
• "EAT MEALS. This recommendation sounds almost as ridiculous as "eat food," but in America at least, it no longer goes without saying." (Pollan, 188)

Michael Pollan is the Knight Professor of Journalism at Berkeley and award-winning author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. Marion Nestle, Ph.D. is Professor of Nutrition and Public Health at NYU. What to Eat and Food Politics are among her many publications.

Read these books. They're food for thought. Oh... and keep running, moving, walking, etc. While not terribly exciting or sound-bite suited, these really are the secrets to my "After." So don't give up on those resolutions just yet.

NSV: Personal Best

Today's Edison Park (Chicago) Turkey Trot was a reason for me to be thankful for how far I've come in two short years. I ran in the snow and enjoyed a great race, making PERSONAL BESTS in every category:

- my fastest mile (ever!)
- my fastest race time (ever!)

My first mile out was just under an 8 min. mile (I usually train at a slow, steady middle-aged marathon pace of 11 - 12 minute miles). Within half a mile I was at the front of the pack with all the high school and college track kids and the marathon runners. It was great fun to see how incredibly strong and fast I have become in 2 years. I ran almost 35 % faster than my first race 2 years ago. And I cut just short of 10 minutes from last year's race time, shrinking last year's speed by another 35%. The real blessing of beginning health & fitness later in life: it's easy to log amazing progress stats!

In the end, my main personal goal was to finish in any time under 30 minutes for the first time ever. I met that goal and discovered how delightful it is to run faster than ever before at the "old age" of 44.

For that, I am grateful. Happy Thanksgiving!

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.