On another note, I was looking around the web and there are lots of great spreadsheets that have information on how your weight changes, and how you can rule out the day to day fluctuations.  So if you are good with Excel I would recommend modifying this spreadsheet. It will rule out any daily sudden increases with the five day moving average.  I know it has me feeling better.

I don’t relish the thought of taking on a weight loss plan in the middle of the holidays.  It makes social events awkward for me.  I have generally been the one to keep a pretty full wine glass, and would nosh on everything.  My last social event was highly restrained, me drinking water the whole evening, and not inhaling all of the wonderful cookies that were floating around.  At times I would sell my soul for a fresh out of the oven cookie. 

I seriously love DietGourmet, and will be using them a couple of times a week to make dining easier.

So for the past two weeks I have been following something between Nutrisystem, and Weight Watchers.  I actually ordered the Nutrisystem monthly supply, but it took two weeks to arrive, so I joined the Weight Watcher program online.  I can definately tell you there are large differences between the two programs.  Large.  The Nutrisystem food while isn’t horrible, at times, isn’t tasty either.   I find the Nutrisystem concepts of breakfast not to be that satisfying, but their lunches, dinners, and snacks range from ok to decent. 

Weight Watchers gives you the opportunity to eat regular food, or if you want to use one of their frozen dinners, or anyone else’s for that matter that tends to work out fairly well.  My thoughts on this are to eat up my month’s supply of nutrisystem and not re-order at this point.  For me, frozen dinners seem to be more healthy and cause me less gastric distress than shelf stable food. 

My results so far, in about two weeks I have lost 6.3 pounds, which isn’t too bad.  One thing is for certain, I am eating a lot more vegetables, and lettuce than I have in a long time.  I also thankfully am not suffering from what I thought were pretty large pangs of hunger that I did for the first week or so.  See me around lunch time, and unfortunately, I can’t balance out breakfast, and a morning snack enough to keep me from needing to eat lunch because I get a little light headed and feel like I am starving.  One thing though, taking my lunch to work, is less expensive even if I am buying special meals.  I work in an expensive side of town, so inexpensive lunch options are not to be had.

Additionally I have been taking the dog for walks in the evening, so there is more exercise going on there.  My life is unforunately fairly sedentary, and it is hard for me to break out of this.  I work during the day at my regular job, and my nights are spent working on the website, and getting my book together.  So I do a lot of sitting.

We are so educated today that you think we would know how to diet properly, and we would know how not to over indulge, but it seems so difficult to do.  It is difficult for me to do.  Reading about food, writing about food, and not having run from too many meals means that I have struggled with my weight for quite some time now.   So hopefully I can hang on a little while, and drop some of the excess weight, and enjoy cycling again!

It isn’t often enough when a cookbook gives you more than just recipes. Nourishing Traditions is filled with fact based nutrition that counters some of what we see in the trendy news everyday. Someone really hit the nail on the head when they said this was like ‘Joy of Cooking’ in the sense it was a textbook as much as it was a cookbook. Honestly this book as been on my coffee table since it was purchased because of all of the information in this book, and the recipes are top notch too!

What I really like about this book is this first few chapters, Sally Fallon goes over nutrition over the ages, and dispells some of what’s currently noted in our pop culture media. Guess what sometimes everything is good for you in some circumstances. Food isn’t inheritantly evil. We have the responsibility to ingest high quality food, and we should not leave these important decisions to food manufactors or mass media to tell us what is best for us. She then goes over important kitchen appliances, and ones that aren’t so important. She covers basic ingredients and gives multiple suggestions for incorporating better choices into our diet.

I love her recipes. She has many recipes for making your own saurkraut, and a variety of other pickled and fermented vegetables. These are so easy to make. What you aren’t going to find in this book are recipes that ask you to put in ingredients with a lot of preservatives in here. She is never going to ask you to add Miracle Whip or Italian dressing to anything. The recipes do not lack flavor, in fact, you won’t even miss a lot of these off the shelf ingredients that we so often use.

I am passionate about this book. If you are wanting to improve your diet sensibly, this is the book to pick up. She isn’t asking you to become a vegan, or even go vegetarian, she gives information and then recipes to help you give yourself better nutrition. I would recommend this book as a starter book in trying to eat more healthy. You can’t go wrong with Nourishing Traditions.

So often in western medicine we are given cookie cutter diets that are perscribed to everyone, and this book really helps you develop a more customized approach. I like that this book will ask you questions and go over a variety of symptoms then explain why your body may behave like it does, and then the author will help you make changes that will help with these symptoms and help you heal your body. Generally none of the approaches are too extreme, but rather small choices you can make that will help make a difference.

My only complaint with this book is that it really advocates leaving out the dairy and meat out of your diet. Personally, for me, this isn’t a choice I want to make at this time. I do choose to limit red meat intake, and ensure that the quality of protien I get is high, and I sometimes eat vegetarian, but not always. If you are interested in a wholistic approach that teaches something other than low fat diet, check this book out. This is an amazing read and if it can help you with even one or two minor health issues this is worth the price of the book just on the fact you don’t have to reach into a medicine cabinet and try to cure yourself.