Lowcarbezine! 2 December 1999

Hey, Gang!  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!  And hope you all
got right back on the low carb track on Friday!  As I mentioned, I went
to my father-in-law's, and he took us out for Thanksgiving dinner, so my
Indulging was minimal -- a little stuffing, a few forks-full of
potatoes.  No dessert, since pumpkin cheesecake doesn't speak to me.
Which means I can, perhaps, have one extra Indulgence in the holiday
month ahead!  (Or just feel smug that it's the week after Thanksgiving,
and my new jeans still fit!)

Sorry this issue's a day late.  I got a late start due to being away for
the holiday -- and when I was three quarters done yesterday, my computer
crashed, eating the whole issue!!  Enough to make a publisher weep.  Or,
in this case, go soak in a hot tub with a very low carb beer and a
trashy novel, and start again today!

Dana

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Content Copyright 1999, by Hold the Toast Press.  All commercial use or
reproduction is forbidden.  As always, you may feel free to forward
Lowcarbezine! to friends and family who you feel may be interested, so
long as you forward it in its entirety.  If Lowcarbezine! has been
forwarded to you, and you enjoy it, you can subscribe for FREE at
http://www.holdthetoast.com .

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Thought For The Week

Okay, Thanksgiving is over, and I'm betting most of you made it through
with only minimal trouble, and are right back on track.  But don't drop
your guard now -- we're entering the busiest, most stressful, and most
junk-food-filled four weeks of the year!  Whether you celebrate
Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza, or Yuletide (and surely, somewhere out
there, there's an African American Christian married to a Jewish spouse,
facing more holidays than anyone should ever have to plan!), there's no
doubt that your family's traditions involve lots of shopping, lots of
cooking, lots of FOOD -- and enough stress to weaken anybody's will
power.  And then there's New Year's Eve Y2K -- surely the biggest, most
over hyped party any of us will ever see.  (Please God!)  If you don't
want to end up shopping the post holiday sales for larger sizes, you
need a few strategies, and fast.

As for the stress part, this time of year the women's magazines churn
out article after article full of useful suggestions for simplifying the
holidays, many of them excellent.  It boils down to letting yourself off
the hook -- realizing that we all have this major fantasy of what the
holidays *should* be, and that the fantasy is exactly that -- a fantasy,
made up of a mix of media images, childhood memories (of course the
Christmas tree was dazzling when you were a child -- it was *new*, and
so much bigger than you!), and nostalgia for the "old days" when moms
had days and days of time to decorate, shop and bake.

Let it go.  Your children will be dazzled anyway, and for the rest, if
love, good will, and a generous spirit aren't enough for them, that's
their problem, not yours.  Stop competing with mom and Martha Stewart.
Cut yourself a little slack.

But let's talk a little more about the food part, because so much of
holiday activity seems to revolve around food, and especially around
sweets.  Here's some strategies to help cope with the season's
International Junk-Fest:

1)  Start thinking *now* about your Indulgence Days.  Allow yourself 1-3
Indulgence Days during this season -- perhaps Christmas Day, or New
Year's Eve, or a party you've been invited to where you know the food
will be fabulous.  Knowing you have these coming up will help you avoid
a pity-party while others are scarfing down garbage.

2) Start rethinking holiday traditions that revolve around food.  Here's
an example:  For years, we've had friends in during the season to watch
"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "A Christmas Carol" on video.
Originally, we served lots of cookies, and eggnog -- a low carb dieter's
nightmare!  Since I've gone low carb, we still have the party, but I
concentrate on wonderful low carb hors d'oeurves -- wings, cocktail
meatballs, fabulous dips with low carb crackers for me, regular crackers
for the gang, things like that.  I still have a few cookies on hand, but
I deliberately serve store-bought cookies -- and buy kinds that I don't
much care about, like sugar cookies and pfefferneusse. I still sometimes
serve eggnog -- I don't care that much for it anyway, and my skinny
husband loves it -- but also have low carb drinks on hand. Can you adapt
this strategy for your holiday traditions?

3)  Think up *new* traditions that have *nothing* to do with food!  I
mean, food isn't really the meaning of any of these holidays -- love,
joy, and reverence do *not* equal chocolate.  Maybe you could start a
tradition of getting holiday books from the library, and reading a new
one to the children every evening.  Maybe you could make Christmas
ornaments instead of cookies to give as presents.  Maybe you could
organize a caroling party -- if you don't want to bundle up and carol in
the cold (or if your neighborhood is iffy), there are no doubt nursing
homes or other institutions that would love to have you come.  (One of
my warmest Christmas memories is of being one of a small group from my
prep school that went to carol at the local mental hospital.  It meant
*everything* to those people.  The staff told us that the saw smiles
from people who hadn't reacted to anything in years.)  Maybe you could
have a party where you watch holiday movies, instead of the annual
cookie exchange.  One of our favorite traditions that we've invented for
ourselves is the annual Toys For Tots shopping spree -- we go to a local
discount store and buy piles of crayons, coloring books, Play-Doh, and
other inexpensive toys, and give them all away.  Never fails to make me
happy!

4)  Okay, you can change your approach, but you ain't gonna change the
world.  You're still going to be surrounded by cookies and candy
everywhere you go.  The best defense is a good offense!  See if you can
bring something to the party that you can eat -- for the next few weeks,
the recipe section of Lowcarbezine! will focus on great party foods and
low carb sweets.  If you have a fridge at work, keep a sugar free
dessert in there!  For a festive flair, add a few drops of peppermint
extract to the usual recipe for Sugar Free Chocolate Mousse To Die For!,
for a chocolate mint thrill.  (If you don't have the recipe yet, get it
at http://www.holdthetoast.com !)  At a party, try the cheese ball
instead of the chocolate truffles -- bring your low carb crackers along,
or scoop with veggies from the relish tray.  Keep yourself happy with
all the great tasting low carb stuff you *can* eat!

5)  At the risk of belaboring a point, eat your low carb, high protein
breakfast every day.  It will moderate your appetite, and keep you on
track.

If you find a strategy that works really well for you, send it in!
We'll put in in the next issue!

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You've been to the bookstore, and found Atkins, Protein Power, The
Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, The Zone, and 492 other low carb books, and
you're *confused*!  Or maybe you've read one or more of these, and
bogged down in the boring, technical, medical jargon -- I mean, what the
heck is "delta-6-desaturase" anyway?!  Read the low carb book that's
easy, clear and fun to read, and gives you *lots* of options!  _How I
Gave Up My Low Fat Diet And Lost Forty Pounds!_  Read the foreword, and
the first chapter, and scope out the table of contents for FREE at:
http://www.holdthetoast.com !

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Product Review

Of all the foods that people dread giving up, chocolate has to be at the
top of the list.  And when you come in from a hectic day of work,
followed by hours of fighting holiday crowds at the mall (hey, shop
online this year!), and slogging through slush in the parking lot, few
things are more soothing than a cup of cocoa.  Well, now you can have
one!  Swiss Miss brand "Diet" hot cocoa  mix tastes great, and has only
4 g of carb per cup, one of which is fiber, for an effective carb count
of 3 g per cup.  Not bad!  And you may have *real* whipped cream
(artificially sweetened, of course) on that, if you like!

Since this comes in individual packets, this is a good thing to carry
with you if you know there's going to be mondo junk in the break room at
work, or if you're going to a party.  Easy to make in the microwave,
too.

By the way, don't confuse the Swiss Miss "Diet" with the Swiss Miss
"Sugar Free", which has a higher carb count.  I read every darned cocoa
label at the grocery store -- always working for you guys! -- and the
Swiss Miss Diet is the lowest carb.

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That's it for this week!  More next week!

Dana W. Carpender
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