Norpro Mandolin Slicer
- Exactly what a busy cook needs in the kitchen: a simple, sturdy, compact tool that's quick and easy to use! Definitely a time-saver!
- Includes five stainless steel blades for fine and coarse grating or shredding, 3-7mm slicing, including wedge or waffle cuts and 6mm or 9mm French fry/julienne cuts. Also, a safety food holder guard that doubles as a citrus juicer.
- Slice, grate, shred and juice with professional finesse in a matter of minutes.
- Create uniform and even slices to give dishes a nice presentation for get-togethers, holidays, potlucks or a family dinner. Blades with different sizes and shapes allow for several types of slicing, dicing, and grating. Grate carrots, julienne potatoes, shred cabbage and slice apples all with one tool!
- Legs fold for easy storage; concave notches on bottom helps mandoline rest securely on most containers. *Instruction Book Included!
Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned Square Grill Pan
Pre-seasoned pan is ready-to-use right out of the box
The Lodge Cast Iron 10.5-inch square Grill Pan puts restaurant stripes on your grilled favorites like a pro. Helps with low-fat cooking as the ribbed bottom pan lets you keep foods from simmering in fatty drippings.
Cast-iron is a multi-functional cookware that works wonders with slow-cooking recipes and all your favorite foods. Cast iron loves a campfire, a stovetop, or an oven, and can slow-cook foods without scorching. It retains heat well so you can sear meat at higher temperatures and will keep your delicious meals warm for a long time. Whether used in a kitchen or camp, theses virtually indestructible cookware should last for generations.
Made of cast iron, this cookware evenly distributes heat from the bottom through the sidewalls. Sporting a stylish black color, the cast iron grill pan looks good in most kitchens and it doubles up as an excellent source of nutritional iron. Cast Iron, like your grandmother used, still ranks as one of the best cooking utensils ever made. It gives you a nearly non-stick surface, without the possible harmful fumes generated by preheating chemically treated nonstick cookware.
The Lodge tempered glass cover (GLSQ10) fits this item (sold separately).
- Square cast-iron grill pan with ribbed bottom for low-fat cooking
- Pre-seasoned and ready to use; electrostatic spray of vegetable oil evenly baked into surface
- Sturdy handle with hole for convenient hanging when not in use
- Hand wash only; oven safe to 500 degrees F
- Measures 10-1/2 by 10-1/2 by 1-3/4 inches; lifetime warranty
Bare Fruit Apple Chips
Thanks to Dieters Carolyn and Jeff! They found a new apple chip we can eat! These things are killer good!!!
Only thing to be careful with is you can only eat ¼ of the bag in one sitting. That’s your fruit portion. So here’s my idea: pour out the whole bag. Divide them into four portions and keep them in zipper baggies. This way you won’t eat too many at one time. They are so addictive otherwise, you might go over and eat the whole bag!
Enjoy in defined moderation.
Cheers,
Chris, our VP of Anger Management talks with Dieter Insider Christie
Our dieters are real people (not celebrities with personal chefs and personal trainers). Christie reached her goal in two rounds of Plan Z and is maintaining her perfect weight.
Dear Zola,
I just wanted to share a success story with you and your Team. I went through my first reduction in September-October 2011 and did a second reduction Jan-Feb 2012. I went from 205 to 180 after my first reduction and 180 to 165 on my second. I have successfully maintained my weight at around 168 since last February with Z Life. I just listened to the 2nd Tuesday call from Jan 2013 and felt compelled to let you know how much I appreciate the ongoing education and continued access to the online information. Thank you! I feel a huge difference in my day to day life since starting plan Z. I really look forward to the 2nd Tuesday calls each month even though I can never seem to make them LIVE. I am trying to spread the word out here in the Pittsburgh area among my friends who are still asking from time to time how I did it.
I may even be ready to take my weight down even further now that I have made the life changes that give me confidence that I won’t gain it back.
Again Thank You,
Christie
Open Faced Sandwich with Italian Sausage and Mushrooms
Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3.5 (ZReboot 3.5) recipe. I don’t normally eat sandwiches but when I have an hankerin’ for one, this is a must.
Serving Size: Serves 4
Instructions:
- 1 pound of bulk Italian sausage (I used the spicy version. If you can’t find bulk sausage just buy the sausages and cut the casing down the middle and slide the meat out. Super easy)
- 8 oz of lean ground beef
- 1 Tbl of olive oil
- 1 cup of chopped onion
- 2 tsp of minced garlic. (jar garlic will work but the fresh will be worth the extra work)
- 16 oz of tomato sauce (no sugar)
- 8 oz of sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 red pepper, slices thin
- 1 Tbl of butter
- 1 tsp of dried Italian seasoning
- 2 cups of shredded mozzarella
- 4 tps of grated or shredded parmesan
- 4 pieces of bread*
- butter to spread
Instructions:
In a large sauté pan add the olive oil. Begin heating, and then add the sausage and ground beef. Begin to chop it into bite-sized pieces with your spatula while it cooks on medium high.
In another sauté pan add the butter. Begin melting it on medium high and add the mushrooms and peppers. Cook the mushrooms until the edges begin to brown. Just stir periodically.
Back to the meat. When it’s half cooked through add the onions and garlic to the pan. Continue to break the meat up and cook the onions and garlic with the sausage mixture. When there is no pink remaining in the meat add your tomato sauce and the cooked mushrooms and peppers as well as the Italian blend.
This will look like chunky spaghetti sauce. Continue to let it bubble on medium until the sauce thickens and some of the moisture is cooked off. This won’t take more than 10 minutes or so.
You are ready for assembly.
Take your bread out and toast it. Spread both sides of the bread with a bit of butter. That will cut down the glycemic uptake and add more BIG YUM factor.
Place the toast on a cookie sheet and put a scoop of the meat sauce on top. Top that with mozzarella and the Parmesan. Place under the broiler for just a minute to melt the cheese and begin to brown it.
Serve. You can have this plain for a small meal or add veggies and a salad to round it out.
*bread. Bread is sugar. High carb! Bread in slight moderation can fit into your diet and not cause you to gain weight back. You will just have to experiment with it. I will warn you never to plan to make bread a part of your life again. I only eat the bottom of the bun on a hamburger. Or I might have a sandwich like this one at home maybe 4x a year. I want you to be wary of bread but not afraid of it.
What I am going to do here is list various breads in ascending order of BAD. The best for you will be at the top of the list with the progression going downward.
- Multigrain or whole grain. The more seeds and large format grains in the bread the lower the glycemic index. Be aware though that this is STILL high carb - 11 grams of carbs per slice. Glycemic load 5
- 100% whole wheat bread – 12 grams of carbs per slice. Glycemic load 5
- Sourdough/French or Italian Vienna bread – 18 grams of carbs per slice. Glycemic load 11.
Some experts will argue that sourdough is actually better for you than this number indicates. There is something about the sour element of the bread that slows down the glycemic load.
- White bread – 23 grams of carbs per slice. Glycemic load 14
Spend time in the bread aisle reading the labels. Brands will vary widely. These are averages. I keep reading labels until I find one that is as low carb as they are offering. There is a small bakery in Chicago that makes an authentic low carb bread. It only had 9 grams of carbs per slice. I buy that whenever I want bread and can find it. Keep an eye out in your town or try to get a local baker to make low carb bread and promise you’ll buy it.
To give you perspective if you are not used to counting carbs: The average adult can usually handle somewhere between 70 – 90 grams of carbs per day before they’d begin to get fatter. When you add in the carbs from fruits, veggies and other items this number mounts really FAST. So I could never imagine eating commercially baked white bread; not even a slice. If I’m at a fancy restaurant I might have one roll made of white bread that was baked by some master baker. To cut down the glycemic load I’d put a nice big bit of butter on it. Remember when they used to tell you butter was the bad part? Now we know it was the bread.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
The Chemical Effects of Sweeteners on Your Liver
The average American consumes an astounding 2-3 POUNDS of sugar each week. No lie! I know you’re not pulling up to the sugar canister with a spoon and digging in, so you’ve got to be wondering where all that sugar is coming from. And it’s not just table sugar.
Highly refined sugars in the forms of sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn sugar), and high-fructose corn syrup are being processed into so many foods it’s crazy, and they include bread, breakfast cereal, mayonnaise, peanut butter, crackers, ketchup, canned soup, spaghetti sauce, and a plethora of microwave meals. You’d be hard pressed to find any processed meal in a box in the freezer section that does not contain some kind of sugar. It might say meat and potatoes on the box, but there’s sugar in there. You can’t even find cough syrup these days that doesn’t have sugar or an artificial sweetener in it. It’s everywhere, and the names for sugar just keep on coming so every time you think you know all the names for sugar, they come up with a new one. In an effort to sneak out from behind the demonization of the descriptor, “high-fructose corn syrup,” the corn refiners got together and thought they’d fool us by re-naming it “corn sugar.” They thought if it sounded more natural we wouldn’t notice.
In the last 20 years, we have increased sugar consumption in the U.S. at an alarming rate. We are up another 26 pounds to 135 lbs. of sugar per person per year!
Prior to the turn of the last century (1900) the average consumption was only 5 lbs. per person per year! Cardiovascular disease and cancer were virtually unknown. Today we can point to sugar and high fructose corn syrup (and corn sugar) for not only cardiovascular disease and cancer but high blood pressure, diabetes and dementia. Yep. You read that right.
I wanted to get you a quick overview of what all that sugar is doing to your body. And I’m not just talking about getting fat. It’s killing you from the inside out.
At Plan Z we will give you the cutting edge information you need to learn how to read a food label and understand the mysteries hidden on the side of a box or the back of a can. We’ll also give you education like this so you’ll be a well-informed consumer, whether you decide to cut the sugar or not.
Watch this short clip. Whether you are a fan of Pat Robertson is no matter. He just introduces the news piece. It starts off sort of boring for the first few seconds but hang in until the news piece starts. I chose this video because the news piece is clear and to the point.
Cheers,
Fritos
Well, lo and behold I picked up a bag of Fritos and read it. I was shocked at how simple the ingredient list was. Corn/corn oil and salt.
Now I normally refer to Frito-Lay as part of the Evil Empire but in this case, it appears as though we should be able to have a teeny snack of Fritos (original flavor only) and not lose our grip on ZReduction.
Your trick is going to be to stick to 8 chips only. 8 chips equal 4 grams of carbs. That’s all you get per serving. But if you are having a bowl of chili or the new taco salad I just designed, it just might do the trick for your crunch.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Sean Croxton Interviews Gary Taubes
Sean Croxton discusses why we get fat in a laid back conversation with Gary Taubes. They set out to crush the antiquated "Eat less, exercise more" dogma by revealing where our public health system went off the rails.
Your family is probably really proud of you for losing weight on Plan Z. However, chances are they fear for your life now that you’re eating cheese omelets for breakfast instead of granola. Learn the truth about cholesterol and heart disease and why you need to eat more fat in order to not get fat.
Starch is Your Enemy!
An old buddy of mine told my husband and me about a book he was reading called Younger Next Year. Written by an older guy (Chris Crowley) and his doctor (Henry S. Lodge, M.D.), it’s subtitled Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond.
Here’s a section on starch that I thought really hit it on the head.
“One of the foods that are killing you is starch (refined carbohydrates), which means the current buzz about bad carbohydrates is basically correct. How refreshing to have a major food fad turn out to make some sense. Bad carbs are the white foods—potatoes, white rice, and pretty much everything made with refined flour. The good carbohydrates are the ones found in nature—in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, which have relatively few calories per pound. Starch is bad because it continually signals you to take another bite. Fat and protein signal your body to stop eating after a certain point, but carbohydrates, whether good or bad, don’t. In nature, you had to eat prodigious amounts of them to get enough calories to stay alive, so a full stomach was the only shutoff signal you needed. . . .
“Here’s something to think about at dinner tonight. There’s more free sugar (the stuff that flows right into your bloodstream to trigger your digestive response) in mashed potatoes than in tablespoon of sugar. And here’s something else. There’s as much free sugar in a single can of cola as in five pounds of venison. And what about this – there’s more free sugar to say nothing of saturated fat—in a supersize side of fries than in five pounds of elk. How does your body respond? With confusion. Because the signal you send with a 1,000 calorie meal of soda, fries and a burger is that you have just eaten 10,000 calories of “natural food” and your body goes nuts rushing out insulin and other digestive chemicals in response.
“That’s the real problem with starch. You have called for ten times the amount of digestive power you actually need. Ten times the insulin, gastric acid and a few other dangerous chemicals. And things start to happen. First, you hyperabsorb every last calorie from the food you ate. Second, because you obviously just killed a huge animal, your body tries to store every excess scrap of energy as fat. Third, because you now have enough insulin to digest a large animal, but have killed only a soda and some fries, your blood sugar plummets and you’re hungry again. Very, very hungry, and so you eat, usually quite a lot. What your poor Darwinian body reads is that you’ve gone from gluttony to starvation in a couple of hours—and it has no possible explanation for this! This ultra-rapid cycling between gluttony and starvation has no parallel in nature. We talk about the signals you send with exercise or being sedentary, but our modern diet is so far outside your original design parameters that you are not sending any coherent signal. The whole system breaks down into a welter of hyper absorption and decay. It’s like rock stars smashing their guitars onstage. Noise comes up, but no more music. Adult diabetes is one of the results of this breakdown. Obesity, arthritis, heart disease, cancer and stroke are some of the others.”
When you do Plan Z, you find you can live without sugar and starch. When you are on the next phase, ZReboot, it’s fine (even important) to add back fats, fruits and vegetables. Just don’t add back the “white stuff.”
Chris Crowley looks pretty good for a 71-year old. I found his speech (above) online and agree with the notion that you can avoid a lot of the ravages of aging.
You’re going to spend a third of your life in old age. Don’t let it creep up on you.
You can get by on a lot less exercise than Chris Crowley advocates but you do need to exercise to get stronger (you do NOT need to exercise while you are losing weight). Getting stronger will buy you bonus time as you get older. You won’t become frail as soon.
My grandmother lived until about 2 weeks before her 100th birthday. I hope I have her genes.
In the late 1970’s the local newspaper went to her house to do a feature story. This was a 90+ year old woman who was still living alone in her stand-alone home. She was a story.
My grandmother didn’t own an exercise bike. She did not go to the health club and take a spinning class. The picture of my grandmother that the newspaper published was taken outside her home with my grandmother standing in front of her garden. My grandmother did most things to run her own home. She washed her dishes by hand and she worked in her flower garden; a very pretty flower garden it was too. She pulled weeds for exercise. She dug holes and planted in the spring. She tidied up around the yard. That’s the only exercise I witnessed my grandmother involved in during the 20 or so years I knew her; that and catching that piece of flying whole wheat toast as it launched out of the toaster. She also made a mean cup of tea.
My husband’s mother Sally lived until she was 86. She was in amazing shape for her age. She had legs any 40 year old woman would kill to have. Sally started walking five miles a day in the late 70’s. She didn’t run marathons. She just went out and got fresh air and took in her miles at a brisk pace.
Find something you’re passionate about and stay active as long as you can. Staying active helps you keep your bone density and your aerobics in good working order. Strive to be stronger but you don’t have to kill yourself in the process.
Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce
Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3 (ZReboot) recipe. This sauce is my new favorite. I was pleased as punch when I finished this up. I decided this would be great on turkey at the holidays but it can also go really well with chicken, steak and even fish.
Serving Size: Serves 8. Can easily be doubled.
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds of assorted wild mushrooms, cleaned, sliced and stems trimmed*
- 2 -4 Tbl of olive oil
- ½ cup of minced shallots
- 2 Tbl of minced garlic (jar garlic will work fine)
- 1 tsp of dried thyme
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- 4 cups of whipping cream
- 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
*Let’s discuss the mushrooms. You can use many mushrooms for this dish; even domestic button mushrooms. I recommend a mix. I used cremini, shiitake and porcini. I feel Porcini are the most important ones I feel that give this dish a hearty and wonderful taste. Usually porcini mushrooms must be purchased dried. They come from Italy. I used one half cup of porcini for this dish. To prepare them just cover the porcini in hot water until they are soft. To loosen them up the fastest put them in your microwave floating in the water and heat the water on high for one minute. Then let them sit for a few minutes to soak up some liquid. When ready to cook, drain off the water and put the porcini’s on paper towels. Put another layer of paper towel on top and dab at them to get as much liquid out as you can. Then dice them. I leave the other mushrooms in much bigger pieces but the porcini are rich in flavor so the smaller pieces work better. For the cremini I just buy them sliced and ready to go. For the shiitake I take off the stems and cut them into strips. Now, make your sauce….
Instructions:
In a large sauté pan add the olive oil and the shallots. Cook on medium until the shallots loosen up. Stir and sauté for a minute more and add the mushrooms. Cook on medium high to get the mushrooms cooking. When they just begin to brown a teeny bit add the garlic and sauté a couple of minutes more. Stir often. Season with sea salt and pepper. Add the cream. Turn up to high and get the cream boiling. You must be careful and keep an eye on this. Turn the cream down far enough that it will still bubble but you don’t want a rolling boil or it will boil over. Don’t even turn your back for a minute or this can happen easily. You need the cream to be lightly bubbling and burbling so it will thicken.
When the cream is beginning to thicken you are almost done. At this point it can be turned off, let to cool and stored for a day in your refrigerator if you want.** When you are ready to serve heat the mixture back up until it’s hot but do it slowly and stir often so you don’t scorch it. Let the sauce bubble so it thickens some more. When it’s thicker yet smooth, add the Parmesan, stir and serve.
Leftovers are great. Just gently re-heat.
**When preparing for a large meal I make this in the morning and then I can put the final dish together at the last minute without a lot of fuss.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Meet Paul, our 100 pound loser
Paul Rehm, a veteran radio salesperson in Fort Dodge, IA, began Plan Z last November. Less than a year later, he is 100 pounds lighter. Congratulations Paul!
Paul writes,
“My motivation for starting Plan Z was seeing the results a co-worker had achieved. After viewing the video on the website, I knew from previous diet failures that THIS plan made sense and it was time to take the plunge. That was November 1, 2011.
Since that time, three Plan Z reductions have resulted in 100+ pounds of weight loss. I feel SO much better and have the energy to go up and down the hills of Iowa on my bicycle or take long walks with my wife. This summer I consistently swam for a half-hour at a time without stopping. I can work in the garden without coming up for air, and personal relationships have improved because I’m not depressed about my overweight appearance.
With Plan Z’s OUTSTANDING support program I’m not only learning why I gained weight, but how to eat healthy forever and keep the weight OFF! Even though I’ve maintained the weightloss for four months, my friends continue to tell me they think I’m losing more weight. It is a MAJOR plus to hear all the “attaboys.”
In his hometown, Paul has been extremely public about his weight loss.
Click here to listen to Paul talk about his incredible weight loss on Plan Z (recorded when Paul lost 70 pounds):
There are no magic shakes or prepackaged meals on Plan Z. You eat real food from the grocery store.
Here is one of Paul’s favorite ZReduction recipes:
Paul's White Fish with Sauteed Vegetables
Tasty white fish and vegetables have been a regular part of my ZReduction regimen. My favorite is starting with a 6-8 ounce mahi-mahi fillet AND a 6-8 ounce hake fillet (hake has a more pronounced flavor and the mahi-mahi helps to tone it down a bit) purchased frozen in big bags at Costco. This results in a “double batch” meal with the second half going in the fridge to bring into the menu flow a day or two later.
Servings: Serves 2
Ingredients:
- 6-8 oz mahi-mahi fillet
- 6-8 oz hake fillet
- 1 cup of onions, chopped
- ¼ cup bell peppers, sliced
- ¼ cup cucumber, chopped
- ¼ cup tomato, diced
- ¼ cup celery, diced
- Cookies Flavor Enhancer (or your favorite fish seasoning)
- Olive oil spray
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Salad greens (Paul prefers a spring mix combined with fresh kale)
Instructions:
Lightly spray a large nonstick pan with olive oil spray. Add the onions and sauté on medium heat for about a minute. Add the peppers, cucumber, tomato and celery and cook until the vegetables begin to soften (about 3-5 minutes). Near the end of the sauté process, add both fillets and piece them up with a spatula as they cook. Mix it all together and season to taste with Cookies Flavor Enhancer http://store.cookiesbbq.com/CookiesBBQ-Sauces-Seasonings/Cookies-Flavor-Enhancer.aspx.
With a generous salad helping of spring mix and Kale, it’s a quick, easy and DELICIOUS meal!
Voila!
Paul
How To Order in a French Restaurant and Not Get Fat.
I’ve been on a French Bistro kick. I must admit I’ve been on this kick for about 2 years now. I currently much prefer to eat simple food prepared lovingly with local ingredients over eating a chemistry experiment with all the pomp, circumstance and endless tasting courses. Those places do serve their purpose but I think eating in small, locally-owned restaurants in Chicago is fine dining too.
And fine dining it is. You can eat wonderful things and not gain weight if you’re just careful about what you choose to order. And if the menu offering isn’t exactly what you’d like, the restaurants are much more accommodating these days. Let me tell you what I ate last night.
Following a business meeting I walked a block to one of the fancier French Bistros in Chicago. Henri is located on Michigan Avenue which automatically elevates its status. It also elevates the rent for the restaurant so the prices are a bit steeper than the tiny bistros in the neighborhoods but the décor, the service and the food presentation make it worth that little bit more. The chandeliers are stunning. My favorites.
As soon as we were seated and “watered” a young man brought perfectly shaped French bread rolls and butter to our table. In most restaurants I won’t eat the bread. The carbohydrate content of bread very closely equates to dessert. Your liver can’t tell the difference between bread and dessert. It’s all just varying amounts of sugar so I don’t usually eat it. When I do eat the bread served before a meal I just consider that I’m getting part of my dessert early. The secret to making the bread slightly more appealing to your body in not jacking up your blood sugar level is to go liberally with the butter. The fat in the butter will tame the glycemic index value on what you’re eating and the butter slows down the uptake so it’s not such a sugar jolt in your system.
Already, to many, I sound like a heretic. For decades we were told the butter is what’s bad for us. Eat the bread. Skip the butter. Well, that was wrong. As I shout so often, it’s now been proven that FAT doesn’t make you FAT. It’s the carbohydrates that do. So if you’re going to eat the bread, slather it with butter and enjoy in moderation. Save the bread consumption for the warm, wonderful bread. Skip the rest.
For a first course I ordered the fois gras pave. I’m a huge fois gras fan and when formed into a mousse, I’m salivating. The term pave just translates to “cobblestone” so anything formed into a pave is going to arrive on the plate looking like a square or rectangular block. This dish was served with a few peach bits, some peach preserves and a dusting of pistachios. And of course, on the side they served the traditional toasted brioche. Bread again. But when you are at Henri you know the bread will be the finest available so you indulge just a bit. In this case the fat is not coming from the butter but from the fois gras. I keep my brioche consumption to an absolute minimum by stacking the fois gras on a little thick. They serve 5 brioche triangles with the dish. I don’t eat quite two. I leave the rest.
For the dinner course I ordered the venison tenderloin. Venison is even leaner than beef tenderloin and was offered as the game course of the day. The venison arrived perfectly prepared. Maybe 5 ounces tops. The dish was surrounded with a few teeny seasonal vegetables and a three tablespoon smear of the best pureed cauliflower I have ever seen and tasted. I told my husband the flavor was “transcendent” and the waiter overheard me. He commented over his shoulder that he couldn’t believe his taste buds earlier in the afternoon when, he too, had a chance to sample it. It was white as snow and fluffier than warm marshmallow cream. Divine.
So I ordered fat for first course. And lean for the second one. I skipped dessert altogether. I was full and perfectly satisfied. We enjoyed a Cote Rotie for our wine accompaniment and were ready to leave very happy diners.
When the waiter brought the check he also came with a teeny plate that had two perfectly cut ½” square brownies with a chocolate mousse dab on top. Decadent, delightful and just the exquisite last bite.
I woke up today .4 pounds lighter than I did yesterday. So much for getting fat in a French restaurant.
As a side note: When I order dessert in a French Bistro I often order a cheese course with a bit of late harvest French wine or maybe an Armagnac. The French are masters at tempering their cheeses so the lushness of the flavor stands out. They GET IT when it comes to cheese. They don’t serve it to you refrigerator cold and the little bit of fruit accompaniment (often figs or dates) satisfies my sweet tooth. No big, sugary dessert required. If I do experience a regular dessert it’s often split amongst 4 – 6 people and I am perfectly happy with a bite or two. Any more than that I’d be out on the curb with my head spinning from the sugar. Once you get that stuff cleared out of your system your tolerance for the side effects of sugar plummets. Your body is trying to tell you something. Sugar = BAD.
Other Favorite French Bistros in Chicago: if you come to Chicago these are the places to check out. I often get email from readers who are coming for a conference so save this list for reference.
Chez Moi. Chef Dominque will accommodate any low carb diner. He’s happy to come up with special tidbits for appetizer or dessert. Many of his entrees are low carb too.
Kiki’s Bistro. This place has been on a quiet little street called Franklin for decades. Kiki is a perfect example of a French gentleman with a bit of flirt in him. The décor is very country, barn French.
Bistrot Margot and Bistrot Zinc will make you feel like you just stepped into Paris.
La Sardine and Le Bouchon have the same owners. La Sardine is Le Bouchon’s big sister. You can find me at Le Bouchon for lunch. It’s about six blocks from my house. Parisian authenticity all around.
Café Absinthe has been on my radar for almost 30 years. And a perennial favorite. The lighting in here is done by a theater designer and is so romantic and dramatic. The draperies too.
Chez Joel is a teeny place on the south side of Chicago. Well worth the venture down there.
Gemini Bistro gets high acclaim and has freshly roasted chickens for take-out when we Chicagoans want to eat French bistro at home. This place has a busy, buzzy feel. Lots of chatter.
And this weekend, for our 28th wedding anniversary we will be dining at the NEW French bistro Maison Brasserie.
Can’t wait.
Cheers,
Ron Lost 69.1 Pounds
Dieter Ron wrote Zola this letter after doing two rounds of Plan Z. He lost 69.1 pounds and reached his goal weight of 157.4 pounds.
Dear Chris & Zola,
I hardly know where to begin–but here goes.
My weight problems began a couple of years after returning Stateside from Vietnam in May 1970, weighing in at 148 lbs & 5’8” tall, and in great shape. I started putting the weight on after switching from farm work to factory work. I have always been very active throughout life but still began to pack on the lbs.
When I asked my doctor about a good dietician at 168 lbs all he said was that it looked like I was handling it pretty well!! Not what I wanted to hear.
That was in 1972 or thereabout, but I didn’t know who to talk to or trust at that point, so I just forgot about it. Tried to reduce intake and get more exercise on my own but always felt like I was starving & tired all the time – so I just gave up.
Fast forward 36 years to 2008 and another 52 lbs gained. Still at the same GM factory. Working 3rd shift maintenance with 2 of my brothers, all 3 of us in different areas of the plant. One is a slim 6’1” and 1.5 years older than me, the other 5’ 9” and 6 years older than me, but another 25 lbs heavier than me.
I received word from a close friend of ours, shortly after our 2AM lunch break, that my oldest brother was at the plant nurses’ station–and that I should get up there immediately. I had one of the worst rides of my life as we transported my unconscious brother, by ambulance, to Mercy Hospital that morning. He never regained consciousness due to a massive stroke. God, how I miss that guy and his cheery personality – he was always up to some kind of trickery.
He had confided in me that he had been fighting high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat and borderline diabetes. Two years prior he had open heart surgery (5 by-passes).
He had tried & struggled over the years to lower his weight, also.
It still took me another 3 years after my brothers passing to finally get involved with a plan to get it right, because I feared I was heading down that same highway–a picture of him burned in my memory, lying there so motionless, with the paramedics struggling to keep him breathing.
After listening to 1030AM talk-radio host, Mitch, talk about his success with Plan Z by Zola, on “Outside the Box”, I felt, just maybe – and at last, I had found an answer. Yes indeed I had. A big “Thanks”, to Mitch, for using & promoting your Plan Z!
Beginning my first binge on our 42nd wedding anniversary my wife, Jean & I celebrated in style, with me weighing in at 223.5 (portly) lbs before the binge. Two days later I was an even more portly 227.5 lbs on Z Reduction Day 1! Little did I realize that two days prior to Thanksgiving Day I would be down 41.9 net lbs & on my 1st day of ZReboot. My goal was to crack the 200 lb barrier—and here I was at 181.6 lbs. These numbers just amazed me! From a starting weight of 223.5 down a whopping 41.9 lbs—all I can say is WOW!! My wife & I had all of our children over for Thanksgiving Dinner as usual. We put together a wonderful healthy meal for me. It didn’t bother me a bit to see others eat things I used to partake of, but can’t or won’t, unless or until approved of by Plan Z. After 42 days in ZReboot and many, many delicious 3 meals a day using ZRecipes I weighed in down another 2 lbs at 179.6 lbs, or 43.9 lbs down from 84 days earlier on Oct. 11th. My new set point was between 2800-3000 calories per day to maintain my new weight.
Early on in ZReduction, within less than a week from Day 1, I’d say, things began happening which were surprising to me. From what I had read and studied in the Z Plan notebook I figured some of this would happen but didn’t know for sure if, how soon or how much. Such as—heartburn, which I struggled with for years, GONE! My right ear ached (very painfully) nearly daily, GONE! Knees ached daily, GONE! Huffing & puffing climbing stairs or even tying my shoes, GONE! Headaches & neck aches that came on occasions, GONE! Other things that have disappeared for me are: Pain pills (Acetaminophen-Extra Strength) 6-8 tablets a day some days, anti-acid tablets daily.
Now, I have finished my 2nd ZReduction (and my last) as of today, Feb. 14, 2012. My Dr. had taken me off of 3 prescriptions (as of last Mon. Feb. 6th). All 3 were for high blood pressure and are now permanently taken away. On my previous August 2011 Dr. visit, my Dr. told me I would probably be on another prescription for controlling my sugar count if I didn’t do something about my diet/weight. So in actuality I have eliminated 4 prescriptions (really Plan Z by Zola made it possible).
Not only is all of this great for me health wise & psychologically but financially, too. Prescriptions alone cost me $212 last year, (I got an annual printout from my pharmacist), let alone any other over the counter meds mentioned above. Minimum saved for me alone is easily $250 per year and then fewer Dr. office visits, for more savings. What a major bonus!
I just can’t thank Zola & her team enough for helping me get my health back.
Your strong support was and is critical and much appreciated,
Sincerely yours,
Ron M.
Spinach Cheese Pie
Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3 (ZReboot) recipe. This makes a great side dish. It’s vegetarian and it works as a light entrée with a side salad too.
Serving Size: Makes enough for six side dish servings or four lunch-sized servings
Ingredients:
- Six large hands full of BABY spinach. You want a nice handful for each person because spinach wilts so much. 1-1/2 cups per handful or so.
- 6 eggs
- 4 oz of cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (or your choice of other hard cheese)
- 5 chopped green onions
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- tomato bits for garnish (optional)
Instructions:
In a large saucepan, add about 3” of water. Heat to boiling. Add the spinach in handfuls squishing it down into the water with a spoon. Cook on a medium boil for 3 minutes. Drain and cool. It’s going to look like a mess of spinach all boiled down.
When the spinach is cool you can make the crustless pie.
In a medium-sized bowl add the eggs and cream cheese. Blend with your mixer until it’s well mixed. You might still see some white bits from the cream cheese but that’s fine. Then add the cheddar cheese and onions. Stir by hand to incorporate them. Now break up the spinach so it’s not in a big blob and add it in. Stir. Season with salt and pepper.
Pour into a 9" x 9″ ovenproof dish that has been sprayed with olive oil.
Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Take out of the oven and let it rest on the counter for 5 – 10 minutes before you cut it to eat it.
Garnish with chopped tomato bits or cut up cherry tomatoes if you like.
This makes a great side dish. It’s vegetarian and it works as a light entrée with a side salad.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Speckled Salmon with Fresh Cantaloupe Salsa
Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReduction) recipe. This dish has some zing from the speckled sprinkle (rub) you’ll put on the salmon. The salsa has jalapeno in it but it really just tastes wonderfully fresh and not hot. You can do this dish with any fish or even chicken.
Servings: Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 4 fillet pieces of salmon, 6 oz each
- olive oil spray
For the rub:
- 1 tsp of paprika
- 1 tsp of garlic powder
- 1 tsp of ground ginger
- 1 tsp of grated sea salt
- ½ tsp of ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp of ground cloves
Mix all of the rub ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
For the salsa:
- 1 medium cantaloupe, peeled and cut into large dice
- 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and cut into dice
- 6 scallions, cleaned (chop white part and light green part only)
- 1 large jalapeño, seeded and minced
- 3 Tbl of fresh mint, minced
- juice of two limes
- grated sea salt and pepper to taste
Salsa Instructions:
To make the salsa, put all ingredients in a large bowl and stir. Just let it set while the fish is cooking.
To make the fish:
Spray the pan with olive oil spray. Spray the top of the fish too. Then sprinkle on the rub. I used the whole amount over the four pieces but I LIKE FLAVOR. If you want less you can back off and keep the leftovers. You have several options for cooking this dish. I cook the salmon flesh side down for 2 minutes on medium high. Then I flip it and put it in the oven at 375 degrees for 7 – 10 more minutes until the salmon is done. This requires an oven-proof pan.
You can alternatively cook the salmon on a grill if you want.
Pour a cup of salsa over the fish and serve. If you use a full cup of salsa this will use up your fruit allotment for this meal. You can still have a veggie on the side and a side salad.
Enjoy!
Cheers!
How to survive the summer social events and not blow your diet.
People are faced with social events all the time; not just during summer. It’s just that during summer most of the events focus on picnic food and most picnic foods can be disastrous to your dieting success. I have several strategies for party participation that don’t involve you feeling like you have to suffer or turn down the invitation. Socializing has to fit into your diet protocol too.
Show up Early. Show up Late.
If you are a dieter that feels you have very low self-control, you have two options that will help you avoid temptation.
The first is to show up early at the party. Parties take time to warm up. If you show up early and the host starts bringing out too many things that will make you feel like you are suffering or you’ll feel tempted to gorge on the guacamole you can bow out and leave earlier than you might have otherwise– and not feel guilty. You will have stayed long enough to be polite. You don’ t have to stay until dessert is finished and the candles are burned out. There are other strategic reasons to show up early too, and I will get to those.
Showing up late is another strategy. If you come after the main course has been served you can mingle with guests and no one will notice you didn’t eat the meal. Be polite though. Tell your host you will be arriving late so they don’t buy food for you or worry because you are not there yet. The most extreme version of this strategy that I employed was one year at Thanksgiving. I told my mother I would be late, but I hadn’t told her yet that I was beginning a VERY restrictive diet. A liquids-only diet. I had decided to do the same liquid diet that many of you will remember Oprah was involved in. Turns out Oprah and I were on the same diet at the same time. She lost 67 pounds and dragged a wagon full of fat on stage. I lost 52 pounds that go-round. Because I was doing that liquid diet and it was early in the process, I was too scared to tell anyone (except my husband) that I was on it, so we showed up for the dinner about the time my mother was carving the last bits off the turkey carcass and putting away leftovers. My husband grabbed a plate and piled it with his Thanksgiving dinner. I just stood in the kitchen socializing. Even my mother never noticed I didn’t eat. Worked great.
Dealing with drinking on a diet is another conundrum. I show up early for parties and make my drink before anyone will notice I’m not drinking alcohol. I grab a rocks glass, fill it with ice water and garnish it with lemon. Most folks think I’m drinking vodka and they don’t ask questions. I have found that if you drink alcohol while on a serious diet (even wine) you will lose about 60% less weight than you would if you don’t drink. So knowing 60% is a lot less weight to lose will give you the strength to abstain.
If you don’t show up early for the party, just try to make your drink while no one is really watching. They don’t care that much. You just think they do. I have had a lot of experiences where people told me they felt uncomfortable that I was not drinking. When that comment doesn’t immediately get me to fall apart and cheat, they back off and leave me with my sparkling water. You don’ t have to catch their guilt ball. Just let it fly by.
One way to know you’ll have things you can eat at the party is to bring your own. I have gone to many parties or business meetings with my own food. When it’s time to eat I just get out my little package, open it and begin to eat. Just make it something that smells good, looks good and tastes good. Especially at meetings, you’d be surprised how many people look at what I am eating and are jealous. They wish they could eat my dish instead of the lousy sandwich buffet they were offered at the meeting. Then they want to know what diet I’m on and how they can get involved. They are proud that you show so much discipline. That garners respect.
At picnics I bring something I know I can eat. I set that on the buffet table and make sure I get in line to eat in time to get some of my own food. I am brash enough that I might even make a cold entrée or a substantial appetizer. That way when I eat it I know I won’t go hungry, and most times I can eat least find a veggie tray that someone else brought and I can have some of that too. Also a good strategy to bring a beautiful bowl of strawberries. Voila! Dessert for me!
So what can you if you have a relative or friend who tries to push food on you that’s not allowed on your diet? Do what I do. Tell them you are “temporarily allergic” to that food. Most folks don’t hear the word “temporary” but they respect the word “allergic” and quit bugging you. If they know darn well you are not allergic they find that phrase clever and funny. That starts up a conversation. It’s okay to be on a diet and be proud of the fact that you are taking the initiative to take care of your health. This behavior also bolsters the commitment you have in your dieting quest. The more public you are about the process, the more likely you will stick to it.
I’ll admit that on some occasions, I have cancelled my calendar in order to sequester myself and be on my diet. I have not found that to be a solid strategy. I’d say that’s fine for the first weekend. Sometimes it’s just good to go to a movie and drink mineral water that first weekend. Those are the hardest first days of a diet. There really is no reason to keep up this behavior. You don’t have to be a mole and go underground. If you get out after losing some weight people will begin to compliment you and you’ll feel better about yourself. That strategy will give you extra confidence to see yourself through all the way to your new weight goal.
P.S. One last strategy for picnic dieting success? Throw the party yourself. That way you’ll have control over the whole menu and you can serve things like this!
Here are two, new, picnic-perfect burger recipes you can make for your next party.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Hot Dogs!
Some hotdog manufacturers are getting a ‘clue’ and making hotdogs that are good for you! Hebrew National is one that is widely distributed that is allowed on ZReduction. You can even have 2! Just no bun. A new manufacturer that I found is called Applegate. They make a beef hotdog that has no nitrites, and is very lean. Look for the red package. Have two of those too! In fancier grocery stores like Whole Foods you can also find organic hotdogs that fit the bill. Just make sure there is no sugar in the hotdog, and none of the nasty stuff like nitrates.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Vlasic Pickles and Banana Peppers
Lots of people ask me if they can have pickles on Plan Z. I tell them yes…. but only if they are careful to read the labels. Most pickles are chock-full of sugars. If you can find the ones that don’t have any sugar you can eat them.
I have approved Vlasic Kosher Dill Pickles and Vlasic Deli Style Banana Peppers for ZReduction.
Just remember they are cucumbers and you need to subtract them from your veggie allotment. So these slices might be good if you want to have one slice with your burger and still have a vegetable.
For those that want their burger to have an extra zip of banana peppers you can. You can put these with your hot dogs too. Plan Z doesn’t want to spoil your picnic. We want to make it healthier! Just remember… NO Bun.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
The Skinny On Obesity Episode 1: An Epidemic for Every Body
How did we get so fat, so fast? The debut episode of this 7-part series debunks the theory that obesity only affects "gluttons and sloths" and is, in fact, a public health problem that impacts everyone.
Series: "UCTV Prime: The Skinny on Obesity"