Archive for category low fat recipes
What is ApoE4? Why You Should Be Tested – A Quick Primer on Paleo for the Confused Fat Consumer
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat-free recipe, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, heart health, heart-healthy, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe, Paleo on January 10, 2017
To Paleo or not to Paleo? That is the question.
If you are ApoE 3/4 or 4/4 that is not a question at all, you do not process lipids well – lipids are fats.
Approximately 25-30% of the population have the ApoE4 variant. If you do, you are at a higher risk for Cardio Vascular Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and more. Find out if you have this gene though lab testing…do it! You CAN fight your genes and win if you start the fight before it is too late. Get tested. Don’t know where to start? Talk to a health professional familiar with genetic testing and get it done. Here is a link to one lab that performs the tests required to get the ApoE4 answer. There are other labs out there, this is just a sample to help you get on the info track.
The diet data studies are in for us 4’s; low-fat, good-carb, is the only way for us to control our lipid profile. The Journal of Nutrition study looks at the ApoE genotype interaction with quantity and quality of dietary fat consumed. The Journal of Lipid Research study looks at how the ApoE genotype modulates the LDL cholesterol-lowering response to a diet. Both determine lower fat intake in ApoE4 affected people is paramount in optimizing lipid profiles. More data is out there, please do some Googling!
Paleoists, I am not trying to “harsh your mello”, but I would like you to stop trying to convince EVERYONE that eating saturated fats as a method of weight reduction is safe. I don’t want my fellow 4’s, which could potentially include you, the Paleoista, to be killing themselves slowly.
“If we view the population as a statistical whole, switching from an unhealthy diet to a clean Paleo diet even if it is high in SFAs in average lowers the risk for CVD. Unfortunately, if we break down the numbers according to APOE status, this remains only true for those of us that don’t carry the APOE4 gene.
For carriers of the APOE4 gene consuming saturated fatty acids can substantially raise the risk of CVD
Unfortunately, the wider Paleo community has not yet realized this important fact and still promotes the consumption of SFAs to everyone, potentially putting people in harm’s way.”
Everyone should monitor their lipids. A full cholesterol profile is a must to determine if your food consumption is producing positive health results. Optimal eating habits should be the goal. So many factors are involved and cannot be addressed in one short blog post, but to sum up, genetic testing, lipid testing, and macro balancing are key:
“With all general guidelines and medical research on APOE4 and nutrition, we should keep in mind that the reaction of our metabolism to dietary changes is highly individual. Determining the right balance of macro nutrients, especially balancing MUFAs and carbohydrates for an optimal cholesterol profile requires individual experimentation and frequent retesting”
Please note that losing weight on a Paleo diet, low blood pressure, low BMI, and or being “buff”, is NOT an indicator you are non-ApoE4, or that your vascular system is healthy. FYI -“Grass fed” is not a blanket insurance policy for clean arteries.
I am thrilled if Paleo works for you non-4’s, but please have your lipid profile done anyway. Sometimes even good genes cannot combat a bad lipid profile.
Confusion now cleared, we low-fatters can get down to the serious business of modulating our intake of fats and cholesterol.
No diet is “one-size-fits-all”. Food can be medicine or it can hasten an untimely demise. Choose your menu carefully: do your research – read, read, read, employ balance, stay away from fad diets, make healthy eating choices a lifestyle you can live with while on this earth. Do 20 minutes of exercise at least 3 days a week, more is better.
All the best for a Happy New Year, my peeps! Make 2017 your healthiest year ever!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
The Fat Free Gourmet
Fat-Free Swiss Cheese, Mushroom, and Spinach Mini-Quiches
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free recipes, fat-free, fat-free cookies, fat-free recipe, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, heart health, heart-healthy, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe on February 25, 2016
Fat-Free Swiss Cheese Mini Quiches made with Fat-Free, Gluten-Free, Lifetime Swiss Cheese
…made with Fat-Free Lifetime Swiss Cheese!
So here’s the thing, you have a small party, with your body-building buddies and you don’t want to cheat too badly…
No, no, wait…you have a get-together with friends that all have cholesterol or diet issues and you just want a light snack…
Well, not really, but perhaps you are serving breakfast to house guests who are on a low-fat/low-calorie diet, aaaand…
…or maybe you just want to treat yourself and that special someone to a romantic heart-healthy brunch!
This recipe will fit the bill for any of the above, so let’s roll!
First, a big thank you to Lifetime for making their wonderful Fat-Free, Low-Fat, and Gluten-Free line of delicious cheeses! I will be featuring their product in future recipes, and wow have I got some great recipe ideas for you! If you cannot find their cheeses at your local store, talk to the store manager or put in a written request for your store to carry Lifetime Cheese. Get their info and/or visit them on Facebook, Twitter, or on their yummy Website. Check out their full line of epicurious cheeses and look for more scrumptuous recipe ideas!
Let’s do these Quiche!
Ingredients
1 medium sweet onion, diced (I used Maui Sweet)
2 cups baby spinach, coarsely chopped
* Fat-Free cooking spray
* salt and pepper to taste (I use sea-salt and freshly ground)
1 8-ounce package Fat-Free Lifetime Swiss Cheese, grated
3-5 mushrooms sliced 3/8″ thick
1-1/4 cups fat-free egg substitute
1/2 cup fat-free half and half
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* salt and pepper to taste
12 3-1/2″ square wonton wrappers
1) Heat frying pan to medium high heat, then spray with fat-free cooking spray and immediately add chopped onions. Cook for 15 minutes stirring them often to brown evenly. You do not need a lot of spray just a light coat. When browned nicely, add spinach and 1-2 tablespoons of water to keep moist and wilt the spinach. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Onions after 15 minutes of cooking.
Add baby spinach and a bit of water to wilt and moisten the mixture
2) Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
3) Whisk or blend in blender just until bubbly: egg, half and half, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Set up for prep and ready to assemble
4) Lightly spray a standard 12-muffin pan, or two 6-muffin pans, with cooking spray. Place wonton wrappers evenly into the cups. Do NOT press firmly, allow them to fold with air pockets, they will settle as they are filled and cooked.
Wonton and first layer of Swiss Cheese
5) Sprinkle 1/2 of the Lifetime Fat-Free Swiss Cheese dividing equally into each wonton cup. Next, top with spinach and onions, then the remaining cheese. Top each with a mushroom slice. Pour egg mixture into each cup, dividing evenly between the 12 cups. Hint: fill each quiche with scant amount needed, go back and repeat a second time to ensure the mixture is distributed equally.
Ready to bake in the oven – 350 degrees for 20 minutes
6) Bake for 20 minutes. Quiche should be a light golden brown, centers should be set. Serve immediately. Quiche can be reheated in the microwave. Best if served fresh out of the oven. Can refrigerate and reheated the next day.
Tweaks: I like them with a garnish of honey mustard and lots of freshly ground pepper. Fat-free sour cream laced with a touch of cream sherry is a fantastic brunch garnish squiggle on the plate! Add more mushrooms if you like, or replace the baby spinach with Swiss chard or your favorite cooked greens. They are perfect served with a fresh fruit salad for breakfast. As an appetizer, serve with a slightly sweet wine or a sweeter wine such as Moscato.
Fat-Free Mini Quiche fresh out of the oven, Yum!!!
Thanks again, Lifetime, for making this wonderful fat-free, gluten-free Swiss cheese.
Enjoy LIfetime Fat-Free Cheeses!
Everyone enjoy!
Fat-Free Swiss Cheese, Mushroom, and Spinach Mini-Quiche Nutritional Data
Servings per recipe 12
Per Quiche:
Calories 78
Total Fat 0.02g
Saturated Fat 0g
% of Calories from Fat 0%
Cholesterol 4.7mg
Sodium 207mg
Carbohydrate 11g 207mg
Fiber 0.6g
Sugar 2.2g
Protein 2.8g
Make it a great day! Eat to live and enjoy life!!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
Melinda’s Favorite Fat-Free Christmas Cookies
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free recipes, fat-free, fat-free Christmas cookies, fat-free cookies, fat-free recipe, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, heart health, heart-healthy, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe on December 23, 2015
The Fat-Free Gourmet’s Amaretti – the perfect heart-healthy Christmas Cookie
Fat-Free Amaretti
Making my way, or I should say eating my way, through Italy with my parents at the ripe ol’ age of fourteen, there were four things I ate and drank because I absolutely loved them: Asti Spumanti, an Italian sparkling wine made in the town of my maternal Grandfather; Binoli, a scrumptious little custard filled pastry; pasta, all kinds; and last but not the least, Amaretti cookies!
If you have never had them, they are wonderful, crunchy almond cookies made with ground almonds and egg whites. The good imported brands are sold at most Italian delicatessens and in some specialty grocery stores. I simply cannot pass them up! Needless to say, the following is not an original Italian recipe, but it mimics the original quite nicely! Serve with coffee or as an accompaniment to a fruit salad for a light desert. Perfect for Christmas-time treats, just sprinkle with red and green colored sugar topping before baking!
Ingredients:
1 medium egg white, fresh only, no carton eggs*
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups Kellogg’s Special K cereal
Raw or colored sugar for topping
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk together egg white, cream of tartar, and sugar until blended and syrupy. Do not beat into meringue.
Whisk in almond extract. Fold in cereal until evenly coated.
For the best results bake on silicone baking mats and do not use cooking spray. Spoon one tablespoon dollops of the mixture onto lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle cookie tops with raw sugar or colored sugar.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies should be a light golden brown, centers should be crisp not chewy. Allow cookies to cool for at least five minutes, then transfer to cooling rack. Cookies will harden as they cool. Store in an air tight container. Makes approximately 20 cookies.
Enjoy!
*Boxed egg products are pasteurized, meaning they have been pre-heated to prevent spoilage and bacterial growth. They will not yield a good result in this recipe, you must use fresh egg whites, out of the shell. Trust me, I have tried it, lol!
Fat-Free Amaretti Christmas Cookies
Amaretti Nutritional Data
Servings per recipe 20
Per Cookie:
Calories 31
Total Fat 0.01g
Saturated Fat 0g
% of Calories from Fat 0%
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 26mg
Carbohydrate 7g
Protein 1g
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to All! Let’s make 2016 a Healthy and happy year! Eat to live and enjoy life!!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
The Fat-Free Gourmet’s favorite Christmas Cookie, Amaretti
The Fat Free Gourmet’s Zucchini and Corn Flakes — or How big is too big?
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat-free, fat-free recipe, fat_free cookbook, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, heart health, heart-healthy, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cookbook, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe, Thyroid, Uncategorized on November 8, 2015
Fat Free Zucchini and Corn Flakes with Fat-Free Ranch Dressing
A fat-free recipe for medium garden grown zucchini,
or other vegetable of your heart’s desire!
Ahhh zucchini.
You can stuff them, steam them, sauté them, even eat them raw! They are a low-calorie vegetable that will take on the flavor, be it sweet or savory, of whatever you choose to mix with them.
Garden grown zucchini present a special challenge…size – it really does matter.
Young tender 6 to 7-inch zucchini squash are perfect for steaming or sauté, 8 to 10-inch are great for stuffing. If you allow them to grow larger, they become a problem: the skin is tough, the flavor is strong, and they tend to be a little bitter. Typically, zucchini larger than 10 inches go to what I call, “grated recipe” status; I use them in breads, fritters, cookies, salads. But, oh those seeds, what to do with them, they definitely must go!
This year’s garden provided an overabundance of larger zucchini nearing the end of the growing season due to my waning attention. With a glass of Moscato wine in one hand, and a 14-inch long zucchini in the other, I decided to do something daring…
I laid it on the counter. There it was, in front me, about 2 inches in diameter. What to do with it? I grabbed my knife and hesitantly sliced it in half. (Now, here is where it gets tricky: how big are the darn seeds?!) Hmmm, I inspected. This one had smallish seeds, and so I finished the slicing of it. I continued into ½ inch thick round slices. Not holding anything back, I spontaneously moved forward with a recipe I had been flirting with for quite some time!
You don’t really need a certain sized zucchini for this recipe, not a giant, smaller is better. Suffice it to say, my 14-incher turned out cravingly well even though it was a slightly larger sized zucchini than I would have normally chosen to use.
Here comes the fun part of this recipe: the tweaks! Those fun creative touches that will make this recipe your own. I am all about experimenting and trying new things! Looking forward to hearing what tweaks you did and the results. Try some of these and create a cravable new favorite!
- Use any sized zucchini except a giant, and cut it into any shape you like, you may have to adjust cooking time for smaller or larger sized pieces.
- Use any vegetable you like, simply adjust the cooking time for the density of the vegetable. For instance, potatoes and cauliflower may take a little longer cooking time to achieve the desired tenderness.
- Serve as an appetizer, a side to your favorite main dish, or as a main dish if you are doing vegetarian.
- Change up the ethnicity! Add different spices to the egg or the breading mix, your choice, let you imagination go wild! (I like to season both mixtures to give ‘two layers of flavor”.)
- Serve with a sauce and garnish! Fat-Free Ginger Sesame Dressing (Lighthouse Sesame Ginger Dressing is one of my favorite!) or a few dashes of soy sauce for Asian; with fat-free pasta sauce for Italian, with traditional fat-free Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing for game day festivities, or make up your own low-fat or fat-free sauce! You can even top them with a few sprinkles of fat-free cheese for the last minute of baking in the oven. Pictured are Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli Sauce, a dollop of spicy mustard, and sprinkle of cilantro; also pictured with fat-free ranch or blue cheese dressing.
- Marinate the zucchini before you bread them for another layer of flavor. A 20 minute soak in your favorite marinade would do the trick. How about soy sauce mixed with seasoned rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, or perhaps balsamic vinegar with a dash of garlic. Dill pickle juice for that “fried pickle” flavor!
Here’s the basic recipe:
1 14-inch long by 2 inch in diameter zucchini, cut ½ inch in thickness, or equivalent vegetable, cut accordingly
1 ½ cups fat-free egg substitute
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 ½ cups Kellogg’s Corn Flake Crumbs or finely crushed (see photos) corn flakes
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
Salt to taste
(add 1 tablespoon of grated low-fat parmesan topping to this mixture if desired)
Pre-heat oven to 350°. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, then spray with a light coating of fat-free cooking spray. Set aside.
Cut vegetables, set aside.
In a shallow bowl mix together egg substitute and onion powder, set aside.
Beaten egg and onion powder. Add other spices to the wash for an extra layer of flavor!
In another shallow bowl mix together the last four ingredients, set aside.
Corn flake breading mixture…yum!
Set up your breading prep area; from right to left or left to right whichever is most comfortable for you. Set up in a line with vegetables first, egg mixture second, corn flake crumb mixture, then baking pan. First dip vegetables into the egg mix using only your left or right hand, next into the corn flakes using the opposite hand, then place onto baking sheet. This method is the best way to keep your hands from getting “breaded”!
Set up for prep area, start from the side most comfortable for you.
Ready to bake!
Bake for 30 minutes or until desired color is reached, and vegetables are fork tender. Serve warm. Serves 6.
Fresh out of the oven!
Can be made ahead and reheated in the microwave.
(Yum, I just devoured some of the photo shoot left-overs from yesterday!)
Serve with the sauce and garnish of your choice.
Nutritional Data
6 servings, zucchini only, no garnish or sauce
Amount per serving:
Calories 127.8
Total Fat 0.0 g
Saturated Fat 0.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 282.9 mg
Potassium 321.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate 24.1 g
Dietary Fiber 1.9 g
Sugars 3.5 g
Protein 8.6 g
Enjoy!
Fat-free baked corn flake encrusted zucchini with Mae Ploy Sweet Chili sauce and spicy mustard.
Let me know how your “tweaks” turned out! Leave your comments below or on any of my social media haunts! I welcome everyone to share their ideas and results!
Hope you and yours are looking forward to a loving holiday season! I will be publishing the “Pumpkin Spice Latte Gelato” recipe soon, so be on the lookout!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
Eliminate the excess – eat to live! ❤
Quick and Easy Super Yummy Fat-Free Yuletide Eggnog
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, heart health, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cooking, low fat recipes on December 25, 2014
Serve this delicious nog with a spice dusting of your choosing: pumpkin pie spice blend, apple pie spice blend or just good ol’ freshly ground nutmeg…a dollop of fat-free whipped cream, or even a few mini-marshmallows…or all of them if you are feeling it! This fat-free eggnog will blend well with your favorite spirits or a shot or two of espresso for a yummy Eggnog Latte!
1/2 gallon fat-free milk
2 small packages (4 serving size) instant vanilla pudding mix, sugar-free or regular, French Vanilla flavor works well
1 tablespoon Brandy extract
1 tablespoon Rum extract
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, freshly grated or pre-ground
¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)
Add all ingredients into a large pitcher. Whisk together or blend with immersion blender or hand mixer until incorporated. Chill and serve.
Happy Holidays and enjoy! ❤
Epicuriously to you,
Melinda
http://www.thefatfreegourmet.com
The Fat Free Gourmet’s Gran Marnier Holiday Pumpkin Pie
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free recipes, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cooking, low fat recipes on November 24, 2014
The Fat Free Gourmet’s Gran Marnier Holiday Pumpkin Pie
Have you been searching for that special holiday recipe? The one that will get requested over and over again cause it’s just so gosh darn yummy?
…something a little more enticing and a bit more gourmet but easy to prepare??
…a special treat that might be on the menu at your nearest upscale haunt???
Yup, me too…
this might be it…
Pumpkin pie has never been my favorite, so I decided to attack it! My father had a way of spiking everything so I thought good old pumpkin pie deserved it, and I did it with one of my favorite liqueurs, Gran Marnier!
Serve this as a delicious ending to your Thanksgiving dinner with a steaming mug of coffee, espresso, or spiced tea. A splash of Gran Marnier Liqueur gives this tasty treasure that special ‘cravable’ flavor. Festively garnish with some light drizzles of Hershey Caramel sauce (it’s -!) and a dollop of Fat Free whipped cream. You will delight your family guests with a special treat that doesn’t even hint at being fat-free! Oh yeah, it’s that darn good – I had a difficult time taste testing this recipe, or should I say, had a hard time “over taste testing”, he he! I just love Gran Marnier and it blends perfectly with pumpkin!
Crust:
16 crunchy ginger snap cookies
1 tablespoon fat-free cream cheese
Filling:
1 – 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1 – 14 ounce can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1 – 4.6 ounce box cook-n-serve vanilla pudding mix
¾ cup egg substitute
½ cup fat-free milk
½ cup Gran Marnier Liqueur
2 teaspoons brandy extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or mix your own blend of pumpkin pie spice blend to taste
Pre heat oven to 450 degrees.
Lightly spray a 10” springform pan with cooking spray, set aside.
In a food processor, process ginger snaps until fine and no large cookie pieces remain. Add cream cheese one teaspoon at a time and process until evenly distributed. Add to springform pan. Press onto pan bottom and up the sides about 1 ½ inches. Set aside.
Add filling ingredients to bowl of food processor or electric mixer with wire whisk attachment. Beat or process until smooth. Pour filling into crust.
Place pan on center rack of oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 40 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool for 15 minutes and remove springform pan sides. Refrigerate until cold or overnight. If desired, pie will easily transfer off of pan bottom onto serving dish. Serves 12.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, your family, and friends! Make it the best year ever!
Just out of the oven! Smells fantastic!
On the serving plate with no garnish yet, an open palate for your food design!
Enjoy!
Nutritional Data
Serves 12 Calories per serving 210 Fat 1 g Sat. Fat .2 g Cholesterol 4.5mg Sodium 176mg Carbohydrate 37.5g Sugar 30g Protein 5.7gYour Health Cocktail – What Are You Drinking?
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, heart health, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cookbook, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, Thyroid on October 30, 2014
We all have a mix, a cocktail if you will, that got us to where we are, our own personal brew that makes up our health profile. “Yeah, right, life is like a cocktail!” you’re saying to yourself. Just stay with me here. ..compare your life to a Tequila Sunrise, a mixed drink made of orange juice and tequila with just a touch of grenadine syrup to make that beautiful red-orange sunset in a glass. Imagine that is your current life situation contained in that glass. The orange juice is good for you, you could conservatively drink it every day and no real harm would come to you, given that you have no physiological adversities to it. Now, the tequila, well that’s an entirely different story – just a non-essential shot of alcohol to give the drink a kick. The Tequila Sunrise tastes wonderful while you drink it but you probably would not want to make a constant habit of consuming it because the tequila will eventually cause some type of problem. The good and bad mixed together may be palatable and even make you happy for a while, but it might take a toll on your health.
Your personal life cocktail is made up of many ingredients, some positive some negative. For instance; being sedentary is negative (tequila), daily exercise is positive (orange juice). Some ingredients may be temporarily or permanently out of your control and unchangeable, so we are forced to include them in our mix at present or for the rest of our time here on this planet. These unchangeable bitter ingredients might include an illness, stress related to our employment or lack of, our relationships, our financial state – these things can be fluid and may change quickly or over time. If you have too much tequila, try adding more orange juice!
I thought I was the hostess with the perfect cocktail, ha ha, silly me! It took awhile to figure out just what was in the bottom of my cocktail shaker! I came from a family where my brother was my abuser, not physically, just a narcissistic bully who never grew up. I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism at age seven. My father, had hypothyroidism, cardiovascular disease, age onset diabetes, and died from his second massive stroke at age 64. I met and married a man just like my brother (just felt like home I guess!). I was married to him for 23 years and had two children with him. I ran a small corporation with my ex-husband and homeschooled my children. Eventually my mother developed Alzheimer’s disease and came to live with us. Stress was a major factor in my life! Over several years, three different medical doctors told me that if I did not change my current situation I would probably end up very ill. My mother passed and after that time I decided to listen to the doctors and left my husband – my kids and I moved 400 miles away. That’s my tequila.
Here’s my orange juice! My father had what the doctor called, “familial high cholesteremia”. No matter how little fat he ate his lipid levels would remain high. He was a chef, owned a restaurant, and had a difficult time staying away from fats. I started to create low and fat-free recipes for him…I was ten years old at that time. His condition made a huge impact on my personal choices. I stopped drinking milk. I stopped eating butter, margarine, and mayonnaise. I ate smaller portions of red meat. By the time I was 19 years old I was on a very low-fat eating regime. I joined a gym. I snow skied, water skied, hiked, played tennis, lifted weights, and took aerobics classes. I took up meditation and yoga. My weight always fluctuated due to my out of control hypothyroidism and pregnancies, but I remained active and didn’t eat much fat.
I was 52 when I finally left my husband. At age 54 I had a major heart attack and subsequent bypass surgery…more tequila to my mix. What a shock that was. Before the heart attack I could do 30 minutes straight, full-out on a ski machine without stopping, lift weights, and play tennis. I did yoga and meditation, and wore a size 3! My cocktail was palatable but it took its toll. Stress and my adrenals had given out. I didn’t realize how bad the stress was until after I left the marriage and moved far away from the situation. Reality set in, I had way too much tequila in my daily Tequila Sunrise for far too many years.
There are ingredients in your life cocktail of which you are in control, don’t wait, take control as soon as you are aware of them. My cardiologist told me that I probably put off my heart attack by a good ten to fifteen years because of my eating habits and exercise. Too bad I couldn’t have avoided it completely and taken care of myself. I just didn’t get out of my bad situation soon enough and my thyroid and adrenal system was about to fail due to the stress. Out of control thyroid disease causes heart problems.
Some of the best information out there on cutting edge therapies, tests, and strategies for preventing or reversing arteriosclerosis and heart disease are contained in this book, Beat the Heart Attack Gene: http://www.amazon.com/Beat-Heart-Attack-Gene-Revolutionary/dp/1118454294/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414623249&sr=1-1&keywords=beat+the+heart+attack+gene
Exercise, eating correctly for your genotype (genetic testing to choose the proper diet for the way your body metabolizes lipids), and maintaining well-being are important ingredients that should be generously mixed into your life cocktail, don’t skimp on any of those. Make time for yourself and always make sure you have a good balance to the mix. Get a complete cardiac blood panel with genetic marker testing from a reputable lab that does a full cardiovascular analysis. Here is a link to the lab I use, Health Diagnostic Laboratories, which is also recommended by the above referenced book: http://www.hdlabinc.com
One more thing that helped me to get on track after my heart attack, I found a brilliant thyroid doctor. My thyroid went completely bonkers after the bypass surgery and I needed individualized thyroid treatment to regulate my endocrine system. I do not take heart medications or cholesterol lowering drugs, just thyroid meds, minimal hormone replacement, and lots of good vitamins, but that is a whole other blog post!
Mix your life cocktail with as many good ingredients as possible, heal and stay healthy. Shaken or stirred, I wish you a long, happy, and delicious life!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
Please come visit me at any of my web haunts for more ideas, inspirations, and fantastic fat-free recipes!
My website: www.thefatfreegourmet.com
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