Chapter 3 finds Mireille in a three-month “re-casting” mode… She is resetting her individual equilibrium, with the help and guidance of Dr. Miracle. Yes, the beginning is three months of resetting new/old (French style) habits. Dr. Miracle fully understands that quick fixes will not yield long-term results.

Before beginning this process, it’s important to consider a couple of really important questions…

1. Ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” So often, our reasons are fear and self-loathing based, or what others or media says we should look like… What is your why?

Mireille states in chapter three, “To embrace recasting, you have to be ready to embrace pleasure and individual happiness as your goals… It may be easy for a wife, mother and full-time worker to neglect pleasure; perhaps a part of you even thinks it’s selfish. But you must understand there is nothing noble in failing to discover and cultivate your pleasures. (It will make you not only fat, but grouchy.)”

1. Qu est-ce qui se passé? (What’s going on here?) This question reminds us “You can’t start eating and living well in a physical or emotional vacuum.” Consider for a moment why you gained weight to begin with… like in Chinese Medicine, you can’t just treat the symptoms, you have to treat the root cause.

It could be because of age, family or work pressure, loneliness. It could be because you just had a baby or just you just quit smoking. It could be due to a more traumatic emotional experience that’s being buried.

Hopefully you’ve tracked your diet for a few weeks, now it’s time to evaluate and identify your worst offenders. Now remember, this is the French way, so this does NOT mean immediately deprive yourself of all of them, but start to decrease them gradually. You also want to consider which of these “offenders” give you the most pleasure, and which don’t really give you that much pleasure.

You may be able to eliminate the ones that are not REALLY giving you pleasure, so that you can decrease but more enjoy the fully pleasurable’s…

Here are some great guidelines to incorporate during recasting and always:

Slow and Steady – There is no lasting glory in rapid weight loss.

Variety – crash diets run the risk of nutritional deficiencies, not to mention boredom. Remember, quality over quantity!

Ritual Preparation – French women love to shop and prepare food. Dr. Miracle advises, buy only what you need for the next day or two. Cook simply and cook at home, really see and know what you’re putting into your body. In my recent tele-class, this was a big point that I made, when you cook at home, your put your love and energy into your prep and you’re in control of the ingredients.

Water – we almost all need more. Increase incrementally; don’t try to do it all at once.

Ritual Eating – this is so important, Mireille dedicates an entire section on this later in the book. But for now, remember, sit at the table, do not eat in front of the T.V., use cloth napkins (I always do), eat on plates, not out of cartons, set the mood, light a candle, you get the idea…

Portion Control – As this is often a losing battle with most Americans, the best advice mentioned, that I fully support is, cut back gently.

Don’t stock the offenders – self-explanatory.

Substitutes – As Mireille’s biggest offender was sweets; Dr. Miracle provided a great recipe to help her satisfy that need.

Apple Tart Without Dough

Ingredients:

4 medium-size Golden Delicious apples

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 Cabbage leaves

1-tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Dots of butter

1. Peel and core the apples, cut into quarters, slice each quarter into thirds, and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Place the apples on the cabbage leaves.
2. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle almost all of it on the apple slices (leaving enough ot cover the dots of butter). Add small dots of butter and cover with the remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture.
3. Bake the tart in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A couple of other mentions:

Move – more on this later, but there are so many ways to incorporate movement into your day.

Never Be Hungry – According to Mireille, one of Dr. Miracle’s wisest prescriptions.

En-Cas – Carry “just in case” healthy snacks.

To wrap this chapter up, I think some of the most important things to remember are adjusting anything in small amounts will be the key to moving toward your equilibrium. And! Learn to cultivate QUALITY over quantity!

Chapter 4 shares some great success stories…

Please let me know your thoughts about this three-month re-casting period and the recipe !

Is it just me, or do you smell the scent of cinnamon wherever you go this time of year?

It seems like the holiday season brings about the scent of cinnamon. The weird thing is, I hate the smell of cinnamon candles, cinnamon scented oils and incense. I also do not like the taste of cinnamon candy and gum. I do, however, like the taste of cinnamon in most baked goods… Whew, good thing, because I am hearing more and more about the health benefits of it.

What cinnamon reminds me most of is my grandmother’s rice pudding. She seriously made the world’s best rice pudding—the best I have ever tasted—and she used to always sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Cinnamon is one of the oldest known spices; it is even mentioned in one of the earliest books on Chinese botanical medicine, dated around 2,700 B.C. Historically, it has been used as a spice as well as natural medicine.

Cinnamon’s nutrients come from the essential oils from the bark of the cinnamon tree. When the bark dries, it rolls and forms a quill, or what’s more commonly known as a cinnamon stick. You can use whole cinnamon sticks in some recipes, or, of course, ground cinnamon powder.

It is amazing how such a sweet and tasty spice can have so many essential health benefits. Some of the benefits that cinnamon has include anti-clotting, anti-microbial, and anti-inflammation actions as well as blood sugar regulation.

Cinnamon’s anti-clotting activities have been shown to prevent the collecting of blood platelets, and it can improve the flow of blood. Therefore, it may reduce the dangerous risk of blood clots and benefits your cardiovascular health.

Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory qualities that can decrease joint and muscle pain, especially the joint pain associated with arthritis.

As an anti-microbial agent, cinnamon has been well studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including Candida in yeast infections and H. pylori, the bacteria that can cause ulcers.

Additionally, cinnamon is a great source of calcium and manganese, which are both great for strong bones, dietary fiber, and iron.

In Chinese Medicine, cinnamon is considered a “warm herb” meaning it warms the energetic channels in our body to relieve pain, improve circulation, and warm the extremities.

Although cinnamon can be used year-round, it is ideal to use it during the colder winter months since it’s considered a warm spice/herb.

Here are some great ways to consider using herbs. Remember: to keep the maximum number of nutrients and flavor of cinnamon, try adding it only at the end of the cooking process.

• Try sprinkling it in homemade, warmed almond milk sweetened with a little agave nectar or honey.
• You can add it to your morning oatmeal.
• How about sprinkling some into warm apple cider?
• Sprinkle it on sweet potatoes or winter squash.
• Add it to black beans that you could use for a burrito.
• Sprinkle some cinnamon on whole grain toast with a drizzle or two of honey or agave nectar.
• Of course, you can make rice pudding like my grandmother used to make… though I am not sure anybody can make rice pudding like she used to.

Please feel free to add any of your favorite cinnamon recipes!