SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE YOUR MIDDLE

I was probably one of the first people to pre-order the new book, The 6 Week Cure for the Middle Aged Middle, by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades. When the publication date passed and others were already blogging and posting about it, and I still hadn't received my copy, I gave up and ordered it again. Then I had to read it, collect the necessities, and wait for a time when my husband, whom I shall hereafter refer to as D, would be home for 2 weeks at a stretch to start the initial 2-week phase. (I decided that wasnt going to happen so we started anyway; he's going to miss 2 days of the second week).

I had been dropping hints for months that I thought we should try the protocol; D never responded, but then he didnt say no either.

I knew it would be difficult to follow a special diet while I'm still testing recipes for my own book; for almost a year now, weve been eating whatever I needed to make. (For the last few weeks there has seldom been a time when I didnt have at least 3 pie crusts on the kitchen counter, sometimes 6. They are low-carb, but not exactly part of the Cure.) I anticipated another problem after reading the description of the plan. For the first two weeks, we would be drinking 3 protein shakes a day plus eating one low-carb meal. That appealed to me because it sounded easy compared to cooking 3 times a day (we cant really live on pie), but D has never been fond of meal replacement shakes. Today is day 5 of the Cure and I've been trying to "shake" things up to keep him from getting too grumpy.

So far, Ive made Italian soda shakes (DaVincis syrup, cream, and carbonated water), Diet-Right Cola shakes, and chocolate-cherry, raspberry, and strawberry shakes. Ive turned them into hot chocolate (I just heat the liquid part, in case the protein is heat sensitive) and frozen yogurt. I plan to try turning the ingredients into pudding, mixing it into yogurt, and perhaps making a gelled dessert of it.

Ive also deconstructed themthe authors included the option of putting a raw egg in one of the shakes if you wanted to add some good, undamaged cholesterol to the diet, so I thought it would be acceptable to eat the egg, lightly cooked so the yolk is still liquid, with our morning shake so it would feel more like a real breakfast. They also suggested that you could add cup of berries, so I put fresh raspberries in a bowl with a little of the cream that would normally have gone in the glass to serve along with the noontime shake. Then at about 4:00 PM we have our one meal of the day, which holds us nicely until the third shake that serves as an evening snack.

When I went to the store today, I looked for powdered flavorings that could be put into baggies with pre-measured shake mix and packed in a plastic shaker bottle to send along with D in his suitcase while hes traveling. I didnt find much, since most of them are made with aspartame, but Im going to try using some sugar-free cocoa mix and unsweetened Cool Aid. If the hotel supplies coffee, they may have those little cream packets that dont need to be refrigerated that he can stir in.

You can probably tell that Im the motivated one here, but hey, I do what I can.

BTW, Im using MRM, All Natural Whey Protein Powder because Dr. Eades said in one of his blogs that it is the one they use. I order it from http://www.bodybuilding.com/ at an incredibly good price. It is about half the list price and they have been running a 3-for-the-price-of-2 special. Their shipping is the fastest Ive ever seen. I get an e-mail from them almost as soon as the order goes in, saying, your order has shipped. They have a warehouse in Idaho, only one state over from me, and the package is on my doorstep the next day. (I think Im now required to tell you that I have not received any free products or special perks in return for mentioning this company or recommending their product.)

PS
I don't know what I was thinking--my husband said there was no way he would try getting on a plane with a plastic bag full of white powder! Unless I can find prepackaged protein powder in individual packets, he'll have to make do with low carb bars when he flies.

2009 Judy Barnes Baker