The path to cooking light and fighting 50

I'm ready to start posting some great new recipes but I have to put a frame around what is trying to be accomplished: reengineering 30 years of cooking habits because we can't burn the calories like we used to. (I thought about Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig, but who wants to eat that for the rest of their lives, plus I love to cook). It has been roughly two weeks of learning and experimenting and I already have a "top 10" list of my personal learning tips. Here they are:

1) Educate yourself about foods and their value to you. Read about nutrition. Some good books: Flat Belly Diet (from the editors of Prevention). Cook this, Not that by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding (This one will scare you from eating out)

2) Eat like a cat (Eat a mouse sized portions 4x's a day). Most books say four, 400 calorie portions in a weight loss scenerio. If you do it right, it is very satisfying (see 3rd tip).

3) Experiment with foods that you can't even pronounce and never had as a child: like Quinoa, CousCous, bulgur wheat. All in the amazing grain family and more tasty than rice and easy to cook.

4) Like a friend with diabetes does: avoid the foods in white, white bread, white rice, white sugar, white flour, white potatoes, white pasta (you get the picture). Converts too rapidly into sugar.

5) Don't skip breakfast even if you aren't hungry. It sets the tone for the day and is said to jump start the metabolism.

6) Try drinking a glass of "sassy water" with each meal. It's mostly lemon juice in water. (It's documented in the Flat Belly Diet book). Again, helps get the full feeling.

7) Exercise. I just got a pedometer. Interesting.

8) Set realistic expectations. I now consider it a game that can be won.

9) Take the skin off the chicken. Ouch, next to bacon, it's a favorite food group. I cooked Ellen's Thai chicken with the skin off and it was better because the marinade permeated the meat better.

10) Buy one of the Cooking Light Annual Recipes books. I'm using one from 2007 that my friend Kathleen gave me a few years ago. I wish I used it more then.

So; there you have it and what I will be contributing to the blog next will fit in the world of cooking light. So long Paula Deen, for awhile.........