Back on The Wagon...

But for the cravings of the belly not a bird would have fallen into the snare; nay, nay, the fowler would not have spread his net. The belly is chains to the hands and fetters to the feet. He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God.  
          ~ Moslih Eddin

Last year I wrote a few posts about our efforts here at home to get healthy. I had lost 65 pounds and was hoping to start an exercise regimen. I was at the point where my physician was hoping I could do away with the blood pressure, anti-reflux and joint pain meds.  My dear husband had also had a remarkable turnaround in his health, and was feeling more energy and less joint pain.  We had seemingly mastered the art of eating healthy, and maintaining our weight loss.

Then we went to Italy. Italian food, cooked by people who love to cook and eat, is truly an art form. We wanted to "experience" the culture, so we ate. We ate our way all over Italy. No restraint-- if we wanted it we ate it. We learned to love gelato-- that wondrous Italian version of ice cream that is creamier and more flavorful than anything you can get here in the US. We came home having gained weight despite all the time spent touring on our feet.

The pizza in Italy is... fabulous! I ate the entire thing...

This is an Italian calzone-- and yes, Lanny ate the whole thing too!

Then it was Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas. Both holidays have feasts and high calorie foods that are part of the tradition. I baked cookies. We ate them. The weather turned bad, so we couldn't exercise outside. The pounds kept creeping on.

Lanny's birthday was last week. He asked for a coconut cake. Not just any coconut cake, but one made with the recipe he had heard about on a radio program called "America's Test Kitchen". It was purported to be THE BEST coconut cake recipe ever. They had worked out a recipe that was moist, full of coconut flavor, and melted in your mouth. It sounded heavenly, so I went about finding the ingredients to make it. Finding coconut extract and cream of coconut proved to be a bit of a problem, but I managed to find them. We took a little trip out of town for his actual birthday, so the baking of this cake waited till we got back. Yesterday was the day...

It took me all day to make this cake. I had to haul out my big mixer. The butter had to soften. There was over a pound of butter in this cake and frosting! I had to buy cake flour-- a finer, much-sifted version of regular flour. I had to line the cake pans with parchment paper and grease and flour them. I had to toast coconut for the outside of the cake.

The end result was a magnificent cake-- tall and fluffy with beautifully whipped butter cream frosting and the toasted coconut. I placed it on an antique cake platter to add to the elegance. After a big meal of short ribs, we were full so we waited a bit before we tasted it.

With much fanfare, Lanny cut the cake. He served up giant pieces to us and dug in. It was rich without being too sweet. The cake was moist and flavorful. It was rich. Deliciously rich. Terribly rich. After a full meal, it was too rich. Both of us felt stuffed.

This morning, both of us fessed up that we had not slept well. We had both suffered from reflux-- to the point where I had to sleep sitting up. And now I get it... we are right back into the unhealthy eating habits we had kicked a year ago-- what took us a year or more to accomplish we were undoing in just a few months.

They say confession is good for one's soul. I am confessing to you, dear reader, that I have fallen off the overeating wagon and am having a terrible time getting back on it. I want to be slim, I want most of all to be healthy. 

So, today begins a renewed effort at getting back on the healthy eating wagon. I hate diets, and no matter what you call this, it is a diet. As the primary cook in our family I am also responsible for feeding my husband a healthy diet. We will both be grouchy over this. But we both know it needs to happen. It starts today-- not tomorrow or Monday or whatever.

Our first hurdle will be what to do with what's left of that coconut cake!

If we remain humble and hungry, we can win.
          ~Dave Allison