The Plan Z Diet Lecture and the Plan Z Diet Lesson

The Plan Z Diet Lecture and the Plan Z Diet Lesson

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet




I want to offer up to each and every one of you sort of an electronic Plan Z Diet hug. I know clearly that we all have stressors in our lives. No matter how much or how little money we have, we have stress. No matter how close our family ties are, we still have some kind of stress. Whether we have the greatest job on the planet (like working for the Plan Z Diet!) or we have no job at all, we still have to deal with stress.

It’s the one thing we seem to share universally.

I was sent this story of a lecturer talking to his class. I could just imagine him standing up in front of a big blackboard in a major university lecture hall. The room is filled with students, all listening very closely. Read on.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked,

“How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter.

It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

He continued,

“And that’s the way it is with stress management.

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.

As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.

When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.

So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.

Don’t carry it home.

You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.”

So, my friend, why not take a while to just simply RELAX.

Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.

Don’t pick it up again until after you’ve rested a while.

Life is short!

Enjoy it!

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
Never buy a car you can’t push.
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
The second mouse gets the cheese.
When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
We could learn a lot from crayons… Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

I’ll be the first to admit that I learned a lot from this lecturer and I hope you did too.

For today’s recipe relax and take the stress out of cooking my letting the Slow Cooker do the work. I’m offering up another one-step meal–My Plan Z Diet Italian Crock Pot Chicken. Put this all in your Crock Pot and go to town.

Plan Z Diet Italian Crock Pot Chicken

Enjoy!

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

The Crazy Cruise

The Crazy Cruise

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet





I’ve been on enough cruises to have a pretty good idea of how the people captive on the broken down Carnival Splendor felt.

Stranded at sea after an engine fire.

Spending days in the hot sun with no air-conditioning. They couldn’t even swim in the pool because the ship could not pump chlorine and the company could not take the risk that the swimmers would get sick and make everything worse.

Waiting for hours in line only to be served Spam and pop tarts. Talk about the antithesis of gourmet.

No casino for entertainment.

No cold beer. The thought of drinking warm beer just makes me gag. No ice for drinks.

No TV even. Inside cabins didn’t even have light! They had to sleep with the door open if they couldn’t stand the thought of sleeping in complete blackness. And hot!

I’ve never had a mechanical failure on a cruise. I’ve never had a toilet that didn’t work. I’ve never missed a meal. We can all sort of imagine what a floating house of horror that was.

Now balance that off with the experience a small group of Cubans had on a cruise that I was on.

It was in the 1990’s. My husband and I decided to sail the Caribbean on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Sovereign of the Seas. It wasn’t the maiden voyage for the ship, but it was close. The ship was sparkling new.

There was a five story shopping center that went up the middle of the ship. The gold glass elevators floated up and down overlooking the shopping and the middle lobby of the ship. I’d never seen such a stunning floating city.

That ship, like the Carnival Splendor held about 3000 people plus over 1000 crew members. It was full.

Our weather was perfect at the start. We left Miami in early evening and watched the sunset as we watched the shoreline shrink in the distance. We had a lovely dinner, enjoyed a fun cabaret show and went to our cabin to sleep. On the way to the cabin we had a hard time walking in a straight line. We weren’t drunk. The weaving was caused by huge waves forming in the sea. There was a hurricane brewing further south. They warned us that it was going to get a bit wavy and we might have to change the itinerary of the cruise up a bit if it turned out we had to make our way around or away from the hurricane.

The next day we got up, had breakfast, lounged around and toured the ship; just sort of casing things out so we could plan our week’s activities. The waves were reported to be 10 – 15’ high now. It did cause the ship to sway but only slightly.

Just before lunchtime we noticed the ship wasn’t really moving. We seemed to be turning too. It’s hard to turn something that’s the length of three football fields so turning doesn’t happen very abruptly. We’re talking about a half hour. We just knew something was going on.

We went out on the deck and looked down. On the lowest decks, where only crew can go, we could see some scurrying. Men tossing out instructions to each other. Waving arms. Something was up.

Then we saw it. Just a speck at first but there was something in the water and the crewmen were preparing to catch it. What was it? What was so important that a cruise ship would stop and turn like that?

We watched for about 30 more minutes while the scurrying ramped up to a minor frenzy. What came into focus was a small craft with people on it. This craft had an engine of some kind. The engine was spewing a constant cloud of black soot. The people were hardly recognizable. They were coal black from head to foot.

We could tell one of them was a woman because she had a dress on and long hair. One looked like a small child; probably a boy but we could not be sure. Then there were two men. One was trying desperately to navigate the craft toward the massive cruise ship. The other man just kept waving his arms and trying not to get tossed out of the craft by the large waves.

As the boat got closer we could see it. This rickety craft was built from metal pieces. Junk. The front bow was made from the hood of a car. The rest of it was just pieces you’d find in a salvage yard. They had managed to weld it together and attach something about the size of a lawn mower engine on it for power.

It took probably another 30 minutes to get the craft (I don’t think it could qualify as a boat) next to the cruise ship and help the people on it get off. The high waves really made it difficult for all involved.

By now our side of the ship was pretty much covered with passengers leaning over to see what was going on.

When they got the people out of the pile of junk and onto the cruise ship applause broke out from the observers. Then something shocking happened. It didn’t take two minutes before the craft they were in was swallowed by the sea. It was gone.

What if they’d still been in it? Talk about timing.

The excitement seemed to be over. Everyone went back to lying in the sun, swimming in the pool or drinking in the bar. But everyone was talking about these people rescued from the sea. The ship was all abuzz.

It was just a couple of hours before the Captain came on the intercom to give us an update.

He told the story of how this craft was spotted on radar. We were the closest ship to the craft and maritime law dictated that we were immediately designated as a rescue ship. We were required by international law to go find out what that craft was and find out if they did indeed need to be rescued.

Turned out this was a group of relatives that had escaped from Cuba during the night. They had been on that little craft all night long, trying desperately to make their way to Miami. They could have easily died but they were desperate, so they took the risk.

Awhile later someone else from the crew came on the PA to ask for clothing. The sizes of the men, the woman and the little boy were broadcast over the speakers. These people had nothing more than what they had on their backs. And that was covered in soot and ruined. They needed a shower and clothing. The people who worked on the ship came up with the idea to ask the passengers to donate clothing.

And get clothes? They did. Tons of them. More than they needed, for sure.

The saga continues.

That night if you went to the big show room to see the performance you got a treat. They brought the Cubans out on the stage, all cleaned up and in their new clothes. They introduced them to the audience. Everyone cheered, of course.

But now it got complicated.

Remember that we were on a cruise that had an itinerary including several stops. Our next stop was going to be a foreign country. Maritime law then also dictates that you take the people you rescued to the next country and drop them off. This particular country would have taken them into custody at the immigration office as soon as they disembarked. This was not good news. What was going to happen was that country intended to send then back to Cuba. That would mean sure death or prison for a very long time.

The ship we were on is registered Norwegian so they were okay as long as they were on the ship and until the ship got to port. We had two days before they’d be turned over to authorities in the other country.

Now what?

Many of the workers on the ship spoke Spanish and were immigrants themselves from countries all over the planet. They got together and brainstormed. They made a plan. They figured out that the only way these people could remain on the ship until we docked back in Miami is if the US would clear them for asylum before we got to that next country. The radio airwaves were very busy as they crew made calls to negotiate with US authorities.

The US officials came back with word that they US was only willing to clear them if they had jobs lined up in the US.

These same crew members started kicking into high gear and contacted relatives and friends in and around Miami to find companies who would hire these people sight unseen. No time to interview. Just know they are strong, healthy people desperate to live in the US.

Sure enough. Within 24 hours all of the adults had confirmed new jobs when they got to the US.

They were not only rescued. They were saved.

Now just sit back for a minute and think about their introduction to the US. Can you imagine what it felt like to come from abject poverty to being on one of the most lavish cruise ships to ever sail? To be housed, clothed and fed the cruise ship’s midnight buffet on your first day out of Cuba? I’m not sure how they managed to survive the shock. It makes me tingle at the thought. My reliving that cruise while I tell you the tale of the Cuban refugee rescue makes my hands shake again; just like they did the night they brought those amazing people out on that stage to face 3000 people who were applauding them in a welcome to their new life in the United States of America.

God bless this land and its people. And double bless those from the various nations that worked so hard on behalf of a few soot-covered strangers.

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Plan Z Diet Talks about Carb Addiction

Plan Z Diet Talks about Carb Addiction

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

This article hit me like a ton of bricks. It is so well written. I highly recommend it.

You’ll be shocked, and you’ll be better educated when you have completed your reading. I promise.

Now for a little back story.

Before I began the Plan Z Diet by Zola I was fat. I was fat by anyone’s measurement. I felt I had tried everything to lose weight. I ate less. I exercised. Nothing moved the needle. It seemed the harder I tried to get thin the fatter I got over time.

I did everything the dieting experts asked me to do. I ate smaller portions. I ate less fat. I ate whole grains. I ate diet foods almost exclusively, yet I gained weight. I’ll admit I treated myself at times. When you spend all week dieting and not getting anywhere (year after year) you get sick of it and then splurging on the weekend at a dinner party doesn’t seem like such a sin. You deserve a little treat here and there. Right? So I got stuck in this cycle of lose a pound, gain a pound. Oops make that gained 2 pounds until I was off the charts. And I was miserable.

So it was July of 2009 when I got hold of a lecture given by award-winning science writer, Gary Taubes. That lecture changed my life and my whole perspective on food chemistry. It was the beginning of my research for the Plan Z Diet. I’m not talking about the lecture today, but the article I’m about to connect you to had the same effect on me as that lecture did.

As I watched that lecture I could not believe my eyes or my ears. What Gary Taubes was telling me was close to completely the opposite of what I had learned about dieting starting in the 80’s. Everything the dieting industry jammed into my head decade after decade was all ripped apart by the Taubes lecture. No wonder I was fat. I did what they told me to do and what they told me, over and over, with grand enthusiasm and bravado beyond compare was wrong.

Suddenly I felt exonerated. I cried. I had done what I was supposed to do but it was wrong. Pretty much, all wrong. All of that diet macaroni and cheese was eaten with the greatest of intentions but it just kept making me fat.

What you are about to read isn’t just another “down with carbs” article. This one has great science in it. This one explains it in detail and it doesn’t mince words. This article, written by Paul John Scott in Details Magazine equates carbohydrates to a cocaine addiction. No kidding. And when you read it and consider your own experiences with food, I bet you are going to make the some of the same connections I did. At least I hope so.


Feel free to send me your comments. I’ll welcome them with open ears.

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

The Plan Z Diet Explains What Happens to the Nutritional Value of Food over Time

The Plan Z Diet Explains What Happens to the Nutritional Value of Food over Time

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet





When I was a kid, my mother and I did all of the grocery shopping for the week on Saturday. My mother was cooking for seven kids, so the grocery cart was full to overflowing. During the week, the milk and dairy were delivered by the milkman. The egg lady brought the eggs, so what was in the cart didn’t even include those items. During the summer we went to the farm stand on the edge of town. So check that off the grocery store list, too. What was in the cart was mostly meat or anything we needed from the aisles of the store; the canned stuff or things in boxes.

My mother was concerned about food spoilage so that explained why we had chicken on Mondays. The chicken was the first to spoil.

But my mother and I never discussed how quickly the produce we selected would lose its nutritional value. We were mostly concerned with spoilage. Turns out spoilage wasn’t the only thing to keep track of.

As is always the case with the internet, when I started my research for this Plan Z Diet column I came across some conflicting information. Some writers profess that produce loses nutritional value at an alarming rate and some don’t. I try to stick with sources that cite studies or come from publications I trust.

For example, I came across this excerpt from an article published by the Chicago Tribune: “University of California studies show that vegetables can lose 15 to 55 percent of vitamin C, for instance, within a week. Some spinach can lose 90 percent within the first 24 hours after harvest.”

That doesn’t say much for the baby spinach I use in my salads. If the University of California is correct, the best I can say for the spinach I buy at the store is at least I get fiber!

Today must be a day when I am optimistic because I focused on some work published by Jane Lear, who was on staff at Gourmet Magazine for over 20 years. I have always found Gourmet Magazine to be a reliable source. Jane’s take is also backed up by published studies and bodes well for fruit in particular.

“According to an important study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in May 2006, researchers were surprised to discover that fresh-cut fruit such as mangoes, pineapples, kiwifruits, strawberries, watermelon, and cantaloupe do not lose most of their nutrients—including antioxidants vitamin C, carotenoids, and phenols—when stored in clear plastic clamshell containers and refrigerated for a few days. They were compared to the same fruits, left whole, stored for the same duration but sliced or diced on the day of sampling.

In general, fresh-cut fruits visually spoil before any significant nutrient loss occurs,” wrote the researchers, who didn’t add any chemicals to prevent the fruit from oxidizing or losing its visual appeal. Here’s the rundown of how much vitamin C, for instance, each type of fresh-cut fruit lost in six days:

Mango, strawberry, and watermelon: less than 5%
Pineapple: 10%
Kiwi: 12%
Cantaloupe: 25%

And although the total content of carotenoids (antioxidants related to vitamin A) decreased in cantaloupe cubes and peeled kiwifruit slices during refrigerator storage for up to nine days, it actually increased in mango and watermelon cubes in response to light exposure.

And that brings me to an exciting discovery published just a couple of weeks ago in the journal Current Biology. A team of scientists at Rice University and the University of California at Davis has found that, for some days after harvest, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, carrots, sweet potatoes, and blueberries continue to respond to circadian rhythms (day-night cycles of light), allowing them to alter levels of certain phytochemicals that protect them from being eaten by insects and other herbivores. Those same chemical compounds have anti-cancer effects when eaten by humans. It will be fascinating to see what the consequences are for everyone who stores produce, including growers, shippers, and sellers—whether at the farmers market or the grocery store.”

Jane also addressed some concerns for busy cooks who have to prepare food ahead of meal time. I agree with what Jane offered up so I am passing that along to you, too.

Preparing food ahead of time—a few helpful techniques, tips, and strategies

“Every smart, organized home cook knows that meals—or components of meals—made ahead of time are like money in the bank. And children who grow up eating delicious home-cooked food—even if it’s prepared in advance and reheated by a caregiver—are far more likely to cook for themselves when they are adults. A happy and grateful assortment of roommates, boyfriends, girlfriends, and spouses will have you to thank.

Blanching is one way to keep vegetables flavorful and crisp; you simply bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the vegetables—green beans, for instance—for a minute or so. But water-soluble vitamins (B complex and C) do leach into the cooking water and eventually go down the drain. To help protect those nutrients, avoid using too much water or cooking the vegetables too long. It also helps to repurpose the cooking water, so use it to make soup, rice, or pasta. You can even use it instead of oil to sauté broccoli rabe or broccoli after blanching. And remember, B and C vitamins are found in lots of foods. If your family eats a varied diet that includes both cooked and raw fruits and vegetables, they’ll receive plenty of both.

Steaming vegetables in a rack placed over simmering water is another way to go. Because the vegetables aren’t actually submerged in the water, they retain more water-soluble vitamins. You can reuse the cooking water from steamed vegetables as well.

Roasting vegetables couldn’t be simpler—simply toss the vegetables with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and pop them in the oven at 375 to 400°. The high heat will caramelize (brown) them, turning them crisp around the edges and sweet. Many a child who says he or she hates vegetables has fallen hard for roasted carrots or slices of sweet potato.
(You’ll notice in most of my recipes I go the roasting route with vegetables. I find the flavor stays with the vegetables as they roast and the result is a deeper flavor than cooking any other way.)

Microwaving cooks vegetables faster than other forms of cooking and with very little added fat or water, so they generally retain more nutrients than they usually do. Using the microwave oven to reheat foods is also easy and quick.”

I am one of those people leery of microwaves. I use mine mostly to melt butter or soften cream cheese.

If you are lucky enough to have your own garden or have a farmer’s market nearby this body of information definitely supports the effort it takes to buy local.

And often.

I shop almost every day but I’m spoiled. I realize most folks can’t do that. So do your best to get the freshest and the most local you can. Buy what you can eat and don’t expect that celery sitting in the bottom of the produce drawer for a couple of weeks to offer much up in the way of nutrition.

From all of us at the Plan Z Diet enjoy your fruits and veggies!

For This Week's Featured Recipe try my Plan Z Diet Berry Pie Filling for a refreshing summer dessert.

Plan Z Diet Berry Pie Filling

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

A Prescription for Owl Eyes

A Prescription for Owl Eyes

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

It’s not easy being cross-eyed and far-sighted with a serious astigmatism.

Most folks are near-sighted. It’s easy to make a contact prescription for them. Those are the folks that can order through something like 800-CONTACTS. Their lenses come right away. Mine, on the other hand have to be custom fit and then custom-made. There’s a lot of handwringing and mumbling that goes on with the optometrist’s staff when I need new lenses.

I began wearing glasses at 18 months old. I was just a tot. My mother noticed when she asked me to pick something up that I’d reach down and put my hand right next to what I was going after, but never right on it. My eyes weren’t crossed every minute. She realized that they must be crossing when I went to focus on something. So off to the specialist. An optometrist was not specialized enough. I had to go to an opthamalogist. You can hear the bills adding up as I type. I was an expensive kid when it came to my eyes.

My first glasses had to be custom made too. My head was so little and my prescription so rare. The glasses ran $160 per pair. This was 1959. That was an astronomical amount of money. Then to make matters worse I kept taking them off. I was 18 months old. I thought they were a toy. I’d hide them.

When I hid my glasses the whole neighborhood got involved. They had to find my glasses. We could not just go buy another pair. I am pretty sure I liked the attention too. Everyone was focused on me when my eyes were completely unfocused without my glasses. I’ve heard the legendary stories.

One time I hid them under the door. They were so small that I could put them on the floor and slide them under the door. Easy to find if you moved the door. Not so easy to find when you had no idea where in the house to even begin looking!

Then there’s that time I hid them under Freckles. Freckles was our neighbor’s dog; a big, fat Hush Puppy dog. We used to ride Freckles. Freckles was so big we could sit on his back and he’d get up to walk away and we’d “ride” him. Freckles probably didn’t think this was all that funny. We were just pestering little kids. But we thought it was hilarious. One morning Freckles decided to take his post-breakfast nap next to a large tree in his yard. I decided to hide my glasses under Freckles’ big belly. Really funny. It took several hours to find my glasses that time. I never seemed to help. I never seemed to remember where they were either.

I’ve seen the pictures. Sometimes I had pink glasses; then baby blue ones, cute little beige, sparkly ones. They always had that pointy sweep to the sides. Very Jackie Kennedy-fashionable in the ‘60’s. Every time I grew a little bit, or my prescription changed, I needed new glasses. I looked like a little owl too. When you are far-sighted your eyes are magnified by the glasses. Huge eyes and a cute smile. Call me precocious. I was it.

I went off to school looking like that little owl. I was a smart little school child. The glasses made me look extra smart.

At 15 years old I saved enough babysitting money to be able to buy contacts. My dating years started right then. I was no longer just the smart girl with the ridiculously large eyes. Boys took notice.

I’ve worn contact lenses ever since. It’s really hard to fit me in glasses and I continue to loathe the way I look in glasses so I’ve never pushed to get new ones.

In my current status I’m dealing with all that comes with age. Add bifocals to my prescription now and everyone goes into a tizzy! I’ve been wearing reading glasses for years now but the technology has advanced once again and my new doctor thinks he can fit me for lenses that cover my cross-eyed challenge, my far sightedness, my horrible astigmatism (that apparently is the worst part) and now the addition of bifocals.

I’d been waiting almost a month for the contact lenses I picked up last Friday.

He explained to me that he ordered one for my long distance vision. The other one is for short distance reading. My eyes were going to have to get used to them though. I was going to have to go without my reading glasses to force my brain to make the adjustment. I walked out of the store feeling like I just got introduced to my first set of lenses and that they guy who gave them to me was a complete whack job. I could hardly see! My husband had to read the menu to me that night at a restaurant. The next day I could only read the headlines in the paper. Thank goodness it was the weekend! I’d never have been able to function in the office.

The body sure is resilient and adaptable though! By Sunday afternoon in my office I could read everything on my computer. My eyes were no longer tempted to cross in an effort to focus on the words. I could see without reading glasses and I can read type down to about 5 point! That’s pretty teeny! He tells me I probably will never be able to read the miniscule type on the back of some bottles without reading glasses for an assist but that I should be able to work without them.

Sure enough. He’s right.

And this guy thinks HE can fit me for glasses; just in case I want a back up pair. That’ll be the day, but he might just be right about that too.

For recipes today I'm offering My Mom’s Meatloaf recipe. On the Plan Z Diet by Zola all of the dieters are so looking forward to cooking healthy meals this year and serving them to their families. Healthy meals, they now know don’t have to be boring. This Plan Z Diet recipe is one of my favorites an perfect for the whole family.

So enjoy!

Plan Z Diet My Mom's Meatloaf

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

The Hunt Was On

The Hunt Was On

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

My niece found out she was being awarded a fun new job.

The job was is in Chicago.

She was living in Madison, Wisconsin.

She was starting in 10 days. They asked her if she could handle moving that fast. “Sure,” she said. (That’s what you say when someone offers you a new job in a job market like this one. Make it happen.)

First item on the list. Get the old apartment sublet. That happened lickety-split. It went so fast she had to move out that weekend.

Then get to Chicago and find a new apartment. No time to put off that possible new tenant. That tenant wants to move in right away so that means move your stuff out of the apartment and put it in storage even though you will, with any luck, have to move it again into the new place within a week.

That is if you can find a new place. There’s the challenge.

Call in Auntie Z.

Zola loves to shop for real estate; be it a house, an apartment a new office. It’s an odd hobby. It’s not a hobby that I can do just because I have spare time though. I have to have a reason. A niece with one week to find a place to live is my kind of reason.

Kick it into high gear Zola.

But don’t go overboard. If your niece wants to do this on her own, she’s a young adult. Back off if you are not invited. Back off on influencing what size of apartment to get, what location, what budget, what amenities. You’re not living in this place Zola. She is.

It’s a balancing act. I realize how real estate agents feel. They have to be sort of impartial. Just present the available real estate and back off if they don’t want your opinion.

My niece gave me direction. She wanted modern, a safe location, laundry in her unit if possible, parking would be nice, one bedroom would be nice or an efficiency will do. In the big city it’s hard to tell what you can afford until you get into it. She told me what neighborhoods she preferred and they were not the ones young adults out of college usually gravitate to. And she gave me her budget.

We looked at 7 places in one day. We were in a few different neighborhoods. Nothing had everything on the list but most of them would “do”. My niece told me later she was about in tears but then at 5:30 PM we walked into her perfect place.

It has everything on her list and more. She has a garage; not just parking. She can walk to the train. It’s only 2 blocks from her house, so she can commute to her office. The walk to her office from the train stop is less than a block! She has a cut little front courtyard with hydrangea trees and bushes. She can sit and have coffee out there. Or she can have that coffee in her sun porch. Yep. She has a sun porch that’s glassed in; a perfect place to read a book in a rainstorm. She has a back yard. It’s not in great shape at the moment but it has plenty of potential!

She has the one bedroom with the big closet she was hoping for. She has an open concept with the kitchen running into a dining space and into the living room. She has one of those “candle” fireplaces. Very cute and romantic. She has wood floors and brand new cupboards and counter tops in her kitchen.

My brother and sister-in-law brought a 16’ truck with all of her belongings. We moved them into the house and now she gets to settle in.

She picked the only place that’s not quite “done”. The guys were working on it even after she moved in. I didn’t see her this morning so that means the water was hooked up to her shower.

Oh, and her Auntie Z lives less than 4 blocks away. Now, won’t this be fun!

Enjoy!

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

How Sweet It Is

How Sweet It Is

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet



Here’s one at the top of my Frequenly Asked Questions list at the Plan Z Diet. “What’s stevia?”

I use stevia in a lot of my Plan Z Diet recipes. I use stevia because I am trying to keep the carbohydrate level and the glycemic index level of my recipes at a minimum. Stevia helps me with that goal.

Stevia is a natural sweetener. It’s made from the stevia plant.

I recently got hold of an interview with the guy who started the manufacture of stevia sweeteners, 28 years ago. That’s a LONG time ago. It just shows you how long it takes sometimes to make a product financially viable and to get distribution of the product to enough places so it catches on.

I’ve talked before about how the average dieter on the Plan Z Diet by Zola loses 31 pounds in 50 days. That’s pretty remarkable. There are lots of reasons the Plan Z Diet works so well but one of them is the use of stevia as a sweetener. Everything works in concert.

Most people have a sweet tooth. We know that. And I don’t want to take away the satisfaction of being able to eat something sweet during the day. In fact, you get dessert twice a day on the Plan Z Diet by Zola. I have learned to use stevia as a sweetener and take the carbohydrates out of desserts without losing the satisfaction of the flavor.

The brands of stevia that are most popular and most widely distributed are Truvia and Purevia. I use those in most recipes because those are the easiest to get. Jim May owns the company called SweetLeaf. His packet of stevia is twice as strong as sugar so you need to factor that in. His line of liquid sweeteners are fabulous for making your own soda at home or flavoring coffee and other drinks.

Stevia can also be purchased “straight” but it’s so powerful that the amount needed to sweeten coffee would stand on the head of a pin. The processed versions we use for sweetener are usually categorized as erythritol. So just look for the brands I have listed and you will have your sweetener without the bad side effects that come from most artificial sweeteners. Stevia is natural. The other ones in all those little yellow, pink and blue packets are artificial; they are chemistry experiments gone wild. Stay away from them. Forever.

I have also set another goal. That one is to bring a new level of health to the holidays. I’m calling it “Happy Healthy Holidays”. My mission is to take some of the recipes you normally find on the dining table at Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years or even the 4th of July and convert them so they are healthier. These dishes will lose their carbohydrate count but will not lose their flavor or satisfaction. The Plan Z Diet is not about suffering. This is about eating with excitement!

These dishes will be low carb; not necessarily low fat. Your relatives probably think you have to make something low fat for it to be healthy. I and a lot of other scientists and diet experts disagree. Our contention is that fat doesn’t make you fat. Carbohydrates make you fat. They also make even thin people unhealthy as the addiction to sugar, breads, pastries and more creep higher and higher.

So healthier holidays will include recipes like the one I am sharing today.

And for your dessert today, because after all, today’s theme is stevia and how to work with it I have included a special new recipe for my Plan Z Diet Pumpkin Cheesecake. This is as light as heaven in your mouth and will make a lot of people happier and healthier than when they eat pumpkin pie. I hope you choose to serve some of these new, healthier options at your holiday table. I’ll keep ‘em coming for a few weeks. We’ll tackle the turkey, more desserts and even more side dishes to give you a full array of options for your Happy Healthy Holidays.

Plan Z Diet Pumpkin Cheesecake

Enjoy!

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/