bethsblog

Welcome to bethsblog! Be sure to scroll down the sidebars where you'll find links to my two cookbooks, Turtle Soup Resources for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), and Pea Soup: Recipes for Body, Mind, and Spirit from a "Kitchen Table Gourmet," a group of posts entitled Let's Eat: Befriend Your Body and Your Food, and bethsart, my gallery of original paintings, as well as links to my Flickr photos and Utube and Vimeo Videos.

Let's Eat: Fat and Fit?

Did you know that if a person is overweight or even obese, it doesn’t automatically make him or her unhealthy? I’ve been reading a great blog lately: Ragen Chastain, who strives to stamp out discrimination, shaming, and stigmatizing based on what people weigh, speaking with wisdom and clarity in step with the Healthy at Every Size Community, “...based on the simple premise that the best way to improve health is to honor your body, (HAES) supports people in adopting habits for the sake of health and well-being" (rather than weight control).

Speaking of unhealthy—as an impressionable teen, driven to be uber-thin by media images and pressures from my dance teachers, I fell victim to anorexia. Fortunately, I recovered from that insanity by my mid-twenties, but not from the obsession with my weight—I dieted on and off, down 30 lbs. then up 35 lbs, for 30 years, until 2 years ago... 

After reading Hungry by Crystal Renn, Unbearable Lightness by Portia DeRossi, Woman Afraid to Eat by Francis Berg, and the best book of all time on the subject of why diets don’t work, Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family by Ellen Satter; I heard a new and consistent message—“Try listening to your body for a change.” With fear and trepidation, along with a hint of naughtiness, I threw away my forbidden food list and my bathroom scale. Gradually, I learned to read my body’s signals—when it was hungry, when it was satisfied. The first 6 months I got a little bigger. My clothes got a little tighter. I hung in there. Then, almost miraculously, over the next 6 months, my appetite moderated and I got a little smaller. My clothes got a little looser. Had I at last found my body’s “natural weight?”

It seems so, because I'm still the same size 2 years later. I never weigh myself. My body can be trusted to be the weight that it needs to be and my appetite continues to faithfully guide me about what, when, and how much to eat. I walk or ride my bike most days. I do a little yoga for flexibility and isometrics for strength. Sure, I’m fatter than the “ideal” but my health and fitness is great for a 57-year-old gal.

I’ve done it before, and I could do it again. Diet, that is. Except I won’t. I’d be miserable and cranky. I’d have trouble sleeping. I’d probably go back to having food nightmares... waking up at 2 a.m., starving, dreaming of hot fudge sundaes and French fries.

Nope. 2 years ago I quit dieting. And I’m not about to go back.

But if I get tempted—longing for that long-lost thin body that only semi-starvation can provide—I’ll reread all those sticky-note marked pages in Ellyn's Secrets and I’ll check Regan’s blog. What a great champion for the fat and fit!

Here’s an article from Women’s Health, "Can you be Healthy at Any Size?", that states both sides of the issue.

 
This sculpture Bronskvinnorna (The women of bronze) by Marianne Lindberg De Geer stands outside of the art museum (Konsthallen), Växjö. It depicts two women, one obese and one anorexic, a demonstration against modern society's obsession with how we look. - fromWikipedia

This post is one of a series titled: "Let's Eat: Befriend you Body and Your Food", posts based on my life as a disordered eater and how I finally found order—got off compulsive dieting, got on normal eating, and reached a place of peace with my body and its natural weight—which is not exactly not thin, not exactly fat—but exactly right—for me. 

-Enjoy your food, celebrate your body, and be healthy and happy no matter your size.

For a jolly-good cookbook, chock-full of tasty, wholesome, real-food recipes click here to order your copy of "Pea Soup: Recipes for Body, Mind, and Spirit from a 'Kitchen Table Gourmet,'" by Beth Spencer.

Leo's Locomotive - part 6

On the rails:

To see more images of this work in progress, click here:

Let's Eat: Normal Eating

The other day a friend asked me... “What’s your life like now, after two years of this new way of thinking about food and body size. What do you eat and what about exercise?”

First of all, I always eat breakfast, selected from foods that I like in satisfying amounts... eggs, toast with butter and jam, muffins, fruit, yogurt, sometimes cereal with milk or a bagel with cream cheese. And guess what, they're not kidding when they say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Lunch and dinner are pretty much the same deal. Foods that I like, in satisfying amounts. No restrictions. I don't weigh my food, or count calories. I eat until I feel comfortably full and then I stop. With my history of starving and stuffing... it’s taken a while to acquire this skill. I try to pay attention to my food and really enjoy it. I eat a source of protein, fat, and carbohydrate at each meal and snack. Most days I get my whole grains and my 5 servings of fruits and veggies. If I get hungry mid-afternoon, I’ll have a little snack... maybe a cookie with milk.

Most days, mid-morning or afternoon, whenever I can get a free hour, I exercise... usually about 30 minutes of walking or biking followed by strength and flexibility moves... my own concoction of yoga, dance, light weights and isometrics. One thing is certain, what I do is not designed to burn calories. I just want to be reasonably strong, with enough stamina and flexibility to do things like lift my grandchild occasionally without throwing my back out. I treat exercise the same way I treat food. I do what feels good, in satisfying amounts, nearly every day.

When I eat out... maybe twice a week, and they bring me one of those gigantic cheeseburgers with a mountain of French fries, I usually put about half of it in a take-out box. Or I split it with Gary. I can pretty well visualize how much I need to eat to get full, and if I’m still hungry, I can always eat more. I have a small dessert almost every night, and sometimes if I’m hungry at bedtime, I’ll have a few crackers and cheese or peanut butter. It's all pretty normal...

Here’s a great page from my favorite eating guru Ellyn Satter, entitled: “Normal Eating.” 

This post is one of a series titled: “Let's Eat: Befriend you Body and Your Food”, posts based on my life as a disordered eater and how I finally found order—got off compulsive dieting, got on normal eating, and reached a place of peace with my body and its natural weight—which is not exactly not thin, not exactly fat—but exactly right—for me. 

Enjoy your food, celebrate your body, and be healthy and happy no matter your size.

For a jolly-good cookbook, chock-full of tasty, wholesome, real-food recipes click here to order your copy of “Pea Soup: Recipes for Body, Mind, and Spirit from a 'Kitchen Table Gourmet,'“ by Beth Spencer.

 

Ya-Co-Go-Dos

By request, here's my friend Jannah's yummy if somewhat goofy recipe:

Ya-Co-Go-Dos* **
Serves 2-4 

2 large yams or sweet potatoes
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
8 oz. crumbled feta cheese, divided
½ tsp. salt
1 ripe avocado, sliced, tossed in 1 T. lemon juice

Peel and quarter the yams; cut them in 1" pieces.

Cook them in boiling water until very tender.

Drain the yams and place them in a large bowl. Mash the yams, leaving them semi-chunky.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Combine the corn with the mashed yams.

Fold in ¾ cup of the feta cheese, reserving ¼ cup.

Spread the yam mixture in a greased casserole dish and sprinkle it with the reserved feta cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Top with the sliced avocado.

*Ya=yams, Co=corn, Go=goat (feta) cheese, Dos=avocados

** this recipe is not designed for the SCD.

This wonderful recipe is from Beth Spencer's 

Pea Soup: Recipes for Body, Mind, and Spirit from a
"Kitchen Table Gourmet " 

A beautiful, 116 page cookbook, chock-full of delicious,
wholesome recipes
you can wrap your mouth around and savor;
appetizers to desserts and everything in between.

Bon Appetit!

 

 

 

January Moonset over Lake Michigan

As usual, the alarm rang at 6:40, I hauled myself out of bed and into a warm shower at 7:00, dried off, and then I suited up for my morning yoga/isometrics. As soon as the sky began to lighten a little, I opened the drapes.

In the western sky, the full moon was setting, large and glorious. Abort workout! Apply winter coat and boots! Head to the beach immediately with camera!

 

Turtle Soup SCD Cookbook Website

I just finished designing a webpage for my new cookbook Turtle Soup: Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ from an SCD Mom. In fact, I've been working on redesigning all my web stuff lately, beginning with a homepage to... well... be a home for all my web stuff. I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, I know just enough about HTML to be dangerous. After a couple of hours of trying to figure out how to to design buttons, those green plaid rectangles with the red lettering in the sidebar, and how to get photos to link to stuff, I get fairly cross-eyed. Take now for example... time to take a break from the computer and take a walk!

New Year's Revolution

It’s that annoying time of year again. The time when all the talk shows, news shows, magazines, newspapers (what’s left of them) and homepages are blaring the latest diet fads so we lemmings can run headlong off the New Year’s Resolution Cliff. Those of us who ate liberally over the holidays and packed on several extra pounds of pudge are punished! So let’s hunker down over a nice bowl of steamed sticks and twigs and kick off 2012 with a fresh resolve to be the thinnest that we have ever been. Perhaps we can get 30# off by March... or at least by bikini season, which is right around the corner.

To help us out, this week on the Today Show, one of their regular “health” preachers, Joy Bauer, challenged us fatties to sign up for  the 10,000# weight loss challenge, and once again, losing weight became THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD.

Are we sufficiently shamed and willing to be driven by this razor-limbed waif to try, try again to attain the holy skinny standard? Because she’ll sound-bite us how to... Joy Bauer will mete out daily advice of the steamed stick and twig variety so that we can one day get into those elusive size 0 jeans.

Or not.

What if we ignored all this media diet-hype and just kept calmly eating. Food we like. In satisfying quantities at regular times. Meat. Veggies. Fruits. Breads. And cookies. And chocolate. Eating when hungry and stopping when full. Trusting our bodies to let us know when we’ve had enough. Trusting it to adjust our metabolism a little following a feast and to temper our appetite for a few days to make up for a little indulgence. That’s how it supposed to work, according to Ellyn Satter, my favorite food guru. And I guess worked, because that’s how I ate my way through the holidays. Now it’s January and guess what? My pants still fit.

Today I realized, sadly, that my holiday cookie supply is running low. For me, there have to be treats in the house so I don’t fall into deprivation... ever... treats that I can enjoy with a nice glass of cold milk when the spirit moves. So this morning I baked my Great Grandmother’s Spice Cake with Caramel Fudge Frosting. 

My beautiful cake is now sitting on the counter waiting for me. I’ll savor a slice tonight. With joy and gratitude.Yum.

 

If you'd like the recipe for this cake, click here.

This post is one of a series titled: "Let's Eat: Befriend you Body and Your Food", posts based on my life as a disordered eater and how I finally found order—got off compulsive dieting, got on normal eating, and reached a place of peace with my body and its natural weight—which is not exactly not thin, not exactly fat—but exactly right—
for me. 

-Enjoy your food, celebrate your body, and be healthy and happy no matter your size.

 

Turtle Soup SCD Cookbook - podcast

I'm so excited! Jordan Reasoner at SCD Lifestyle interviewed me just before the holidays about my new cookbook Turtle Soup: Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet^TM from an SCD Mom.* In the podcast, "Beth's Best Baking Secrets," I share candidly about my daughter Amy's journey to wellness through the Specific Carbohydrate Diet along with many of my favorite cooking tips and insights related to the diet. Thanks Jordan for hosting me, and for promoting my cookbook. I hope many SCDers are helped and encouraged!

*gluten-free, grain-free, refined-sugar-free, low-lactose

May The Joys of the Season be Yours!

Merry Merry Gingerbread!

A few days before Christmas I always make gingerbread cookies; cozily alone in my kitchen, my favorite holiday CDs playing on the stereo. Mom's classic recipe, just the right combination of butter, flour, sugar and molasses makes the best gingerbread cookies in the whole wide world.

She always cut the cookies out in bird shapes—Danish Ginger-Birds she called them, then she'd decorate each cookie— carefully outlining the bird's silhouette with a thin ribbon of pure white icing, embellishing it with a few tail and feathers, finally dotting a tiny white "eye".

 

Danish Gingerbread Cookies – Libby Peterson
Makes 6-8 dozen
(Have all the ingredients at room temperature.) 

½ cup (1 stick) very soft, Land O’ Lakes unsalted butter
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1/6 cup (2T. plus 1½ tsp.) Grandma’s Original Unsulphured Molasses
⅓ cup light corn syrup
2¼ cups sifted, all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. ground cloves

Place the butter in a large bowl. With an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugars. Add the molasses and corn syrup and beat the mixture until light and fluffy.

Sift the flour into measuring cups and level it with the flat blade of a knife. Place the flour with the rest of the dry ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well-combined. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in a couple batches, stirring by hand after each addition. When the dough is thoroughly combined (it will be dry and lumpy) dump it onto your counter top or pastry board and gather it together as if you were packing a snowball. Knead the dough until smooth. Divide it into 3 portions. Form each portion into a patty about 1" thick. Wrap each patty in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until the dough is firm.

When ready to roll out the dough, remove the patties from the refrigerator, and let them stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes until they warm slightly.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Unwrap one patty; between floured hands begin flattening it into a larger circle, taking care not to split the edges of the dough. Place the circle of dough on a floured pastry board or counter top. Working quickly, so the dough stays fairly cold, roll the dough with a floured rolling pin into a large circle, ⅛" thick. Lift the dough frequently and sprinkle additional flour beneath it as it expands, to keep it from sticking to the work surface. Cut the dough with floured cookie cutters and transfer the cut-outs carefully to cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment paper.

Gather the dough scraps into a ball, flatten the ball into a patty, then roll and cut out cookies as before. If the dough becomes too soft to work with, return it to the refrigerator until it firms up. Repeat the rolling/cutting procedure with the other two dough patties. When you have completed two roll-outs of each dough patty, combine all the scraps together for a final rolling, until the dough is gone.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 7-9 minutes or until they are just starting to brown at the edges. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks. They will crisp as they cool. Decorate the cookies with “Royal Icing,” below.

Royal Icing

2 T. meringue powder (available in cake decorating departments of larger grocery stores)
4 T. cold water
2-3 cups powdered sugar
a pastry bag fitted with a small decorating tip

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the meringue power with the water until soft peaks form.

Beat in the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until the proper consistency is attained—thick enough to hold peaks but still soft enough to put through a small decorating tip. (You may add a little more water or powdered sugar to adjust the consistency.)

Beat the icing on high for 5 minutes.

Decorate the cookies and place them on a clean surface to dry. Let the frosting set for several hours until completely hardened.

Store the cookies airtight, stacked between layers of wax paper.

This wonderful recipe is from Beth Spencer's 

Pea Soup: Recipes for Body, Mind, and Spirit from a
"Kitchen Table Gourmet " 

A beautiful, 116 page cookbook, chock-full of delicious,
wholesome recipes
you can wrap your mouth around and savor;
appetizers to desserts and everything in between.