Weight Management with the SueGreggCookbooks

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Not Another Diet Plan
We've been careful about promoting the SueGreggCookbooks as a weight loss program. In fact we've almost avoided it altogether. You know the cycle of broken promises and unmet expectations, of diet plans that come and go. Nevertheless, folks keep reporting that they've successfully lost weight and maintained that loss by using our recipes. Perhaps the reason is that we've focused on something that few weight loss programs do----helping people make a transition to whole foods with recipes of proven appetite appeal with quality ingredients that really do fill you up instead of refined, processed foods with "empty" calories.

      Consider the wisdom of the early Christian 3rd and 4th century Egyptian Desert Fathers:

      Aba Joseph asked Abba Poemen: "How should we fast?"

    Abba Poemen said: "I myself think it's good to eat every day a little at a time so as not to get full."

    Abba Joseph said: "Well, when you were young, didn't you used to fast for two days at a time?"

The old man said: "Believe me, indeed I did, for three days, and even a week. But the great elders tried all of this, and found that it is good to eat every day a little less each time. In this way, they showed us the royal highway, for it is light and easy."

    Abba Poemen teaches us that we should be careful not to undertake efforts too great for us. It is better to make slow and steady progress with moderate efforts than to become discouraged or to miss the goal altogether with efforts too great for us.
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BASICS FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

1. Learn to cook whole foods. Food and the pleasure of appetite is the Creator's gift to humankind. Your God given task is to manage it and prepare it. For most of us discipline and determination are not enough. If we are going to eat less, then we need to pay more attention to the aesthetic appeal of that less to avoid feeling deprived. That is why you must take the time to prepare well-designed recipes and balanced menus.

2. Engage the active support of your spouse and a small group of confidential friends for encouragement and accountability . You are not alone. You were designed to live in an interactive relational community of humans.

3. Take care of your Creator-designed body. Drink lots of water. Engage in exercise and renew yourself with rest.

4. Balance protein, fat, and high density and low density carbohydrates in a way that manages your weight. One size does not fit all.

5. Set realistic long, long term goals. Think in terms of months and years. Aim to become fit to honor your body's Designer, to serve people you are called to love, and to minister to a world which, for the most part, goes to bed hungry, not just for a smaller waist line.

6. Calories do count. Find a plan that makes the counting task easier so you can enjoy what is on your plate. Aesthetics--color, taste, textures, temperatures, etc.--count, too! Satiation, appetite satisfaction, is crucial as well. That is why we've published a special section in Introducing Whole Foods Cooking, Soups & Muffins,and Breakfasts titled Menus for Weight Management. That task of keeping calories, aesthetics, and satiation in balance is about to become a lot easier.

7. Portion management--eating with the eyes: The amounts in the Menus for Weight Management sections of the books listed above will give you a visual picture of appropriate amounts to put on your plate. Use "eye-size" not just "feeling full" to reinforce the mental picture of how to eat.

8. Short fasts such as a day a week on juices and nibble fruits help because they are do-able with moderate efforts to flip your "reset switch" by a change in routine.