Karen here kitchen-for the love of great food

Lately I have been feeling the fun of all summer finally catching up to me, with bloating, aches and pains that seem to travel everywhere in my body and of course some weight gain, sluggishness, skin not so bright and clear, hair not as shiny, etc. etc..  Most of all though I have been feeling like my body has a ton of inflammation which as we have all heard now can lead to all of the above, plus more dangerous health risks.  Knowing that it was time to get this all under control, but not quite sure how I was gonna go about it.  I mean, really, who the heck wants to behave and go on a diet. Not me that is for sure. I love food, I love booze and well that about sums it up, lol.

On our recent, probably last vaca of the summer, I picked up woman’s world magazine of all things because the catchy headline on the front page was “Fat-blasting carbs can make you 21 lbs slimmer in 13 days.” Well ok, I took the bait and bought it, not really thinking it was going to be worth actually giving a try, I mean I have tried quite a few of these so called amazing diets and nothing, but I was curious. Actually I tend to fall more for the protein diets, as I am a carnivore and love my meat and usually stay away from carbs because they are bad for us, but what the heck. To my surprise this one actually resonated with me.  The rice diet, which again, I stay away from and all things starchy when possible, but this made sense to me and feeling that inflammation figured if nothing else I would bet it would calm down the inflammation in my body and maybe even make it less acidic, so after reading on the beach I shoved it in my purse and decided I was taking it home.

Very glad I did, because when I got home, my stomach was telling me I had really over did it this time and now I would pay even greater If I didn’t treat my body back with some love, so that is what I did. Straight to the grocery store to pick up some staples. Can you believe this was the first diet that the grocery list was not a mile long? Great, simple and easy I told myself.  Then stopping by the health food store to grab some probiotics. Like I was saying my stomach not happy and if you have depleted yourself of good bugs, well those bad ones are gonna run rampant right? No the diet plan didn’t mention anything about probiotics this is my add on.

So what is this rice diet you ask? Well pretty much like it states and apparently there is a rice clinic called Rice House if you want to admit yourself for a stay to slim down, which is were this diet came from. A couple things they state is not just your standard white rice, but brown or basmati rice. The kicker though is to make it resistant starch. Rice cooked, cooled for 12 hours and then reheated before eating. According to the article this make it 10 times more resistant starch and also according to the article resistant starch by eating this you will absorb up to 60% fewer calories from it and set of biochemical reaction in the body. So basically it is a fiber that our body cannot break down really faster making you less hungry. Less hunger, less eating, more work on the digestive tract which releases fat storage hormones and get those fat burning cells to work harder for 24 hours.  Oh, yes it does say it also feeds the good bacteria in our stomach. One thing I never knew is this kind of diet is also used to treat kidney disease, so there was the reason I was feeling it would be perfect for getting rid of this inflammation and set me back to feeling and looking my best.

Ok, super simple, besides the resistant starch rice, you can have gluten free starch like beans, potatoes, corn and quinoa, gluten free whole grain bread, oatmeal, whole grain pasta.  Wow another benefit as I have stayed as far away from not only rice, but corn, potatoes, pasta for awhile, so it all sounded wonderful to me.  You can also have 2 cups fruit a day and non starchy veggies, but stay away from salt and instead use sodium free seasonings or fresh herbs for flavor. If you need that extra protein from meat you can replace a serving of fruit with fish, or other lean protein like chicken, shrimp and I will say, not them, but me a lean cut of pork.  That being said if you want to see the entire article pick up your copy of this months Woman’s world mag, or I am sure you can access it on the website.  I will post for you at end of page.

Here is one of the recipes with my twist on it from last nights dinner. Also when I woke up this morning I was 2 pounds lighter and already feeling less uggghhh and tummy beginning to like me more as well.

Spaghetti with broccoli topped with tomato sauce

• 1 cup whole grain gluten free spaghetti noodles
• 1 cup steamed broccoli
• sliced red onion, 2 slices
• no salt tomato sauce
• fresh basil and garlic

cook spaghetti aldente (my fav) and drain. steam broccoli in separate pot until heated thru yet still crisp for that extra crunchy bite. heat up the tomato sauce, add fresh basil and garlic and the sliced red onion. Layer starting with broccoli on bottom, spaghetti and top with the tomato sauce and enjoy.

After enjoying that grab 1 cup of your favorite berries and drizzle with 1 tsp of honey for the sweet ending.  Believe me this was filling, tasty and I am not complaining with 2 pounds gone.

http://www.womansworldmag.com/

http://www.ricehouse.org/