How about a simple, if my wife and me can, you can type story?

In December and January of this last year my wife of 27 years landed in the hospital for over 2 weeks because of her body was simply giving out. At 328 pounds, the excess weight was literally weighing down her lungs and heart so much, she just couldn't move another inch or catch her breath.

It was time to do something! Even though my wife is 67 years old and has battled obesity her entire life (including a intestine by-pass surgery back in the 70's that didn't really work), she'd learned how to live in the mid 200's pound range from her mid-teens on. Then our daughter died unexpectedly at age 39 followed by me having a leg chopped off which sent my wife down an emotional toilet where food became her obsession. In less than a year she gained an additional 70 more pounds. She couldn't tie her own shoes, put on her pants or get up fast enough to go pee. She'd hit bottom.

The doctor told me that if Anne went on a 1,200 calorie a day diet along with exercise, she'd finally be able to shed this fat that was killing her. Since I do 99% of all the cooking, I went crazy learning anything and everything about how to make every calorie count. The first thing we did was we started an hourly log. If my wife intakes a single bite, she logs it down. Thanks to a free little program for my IPhone, there's not a food out there that I can't learn the calorie count on. Any place to eat, brand at the grocery store or food type, their all at hand so we always know exactly how many calories she's just ingested.

Now 4 1/2 months later she's down 61 whopping pounds. She's eating a balanced diet and there isn't one gimmick in our new diet plan, but please understand we never call it a diet. Instead we always refer to it as a new way of approaching the way she eats and relates to food. The results are real and because we're not only loosing weight, we're changing her patterns about how she lives, I feel very confident that we're not going to see that yo-yo effect like so many experience. No diet plan ever holds for long because the patterns and habits that helped the person get so huge were never changed. That's where Anne's success is and that's where I'm sure anyone else can have just as good of results.

If anyone wants to know exactly what we're eating and how we're doing it, please feel free to contact me and I'll share all. Don't worry about it costing a fortune, in fact our food bills have actually dropped. Don't worry about spending hours a day with food prep because I'm not. Do worry about the negative effects carrying around all that weight is having on your quality of life.

By the way Anne was taking two 60 mg shots of insulin a day and now we're down to 20 mg twice a day so her sugar numbers have never been better.

If my wife who loves food more than anything else can do it, I know anyone can. I'm here to help if you'll let me. Bob.

Congratulations to the both of you! You're a saint for doing this for your wife. You probably saved her life.

I've lost right at 30# by changing the way I eat. I started out by eliminating sugar. Then I started eating "clean" which means mostly whole foods, multi grains, lots of fruit. veggies and water. No processed food. I feel so much better. I can eat like this the rest of my life. I'd like to lose about 10 to 15 more pounds.

I'd love to hear more about your eating plan.

Congratulations to you and your wife.
that is fantastic what you guys have accomplished.

oh please share some of your low calorie meals?????
we are so bored with mine.
We are not really eating much starch, mostly meat and veggies.

thank you for sharing!
bizi

Bob's stupid cooking class lesson 1:

First, I love the fact that you cut out the sugar because we too learned that it's not the calories in sugar that gets a person in trouble, it's just the sugar plain and simple. No wonder you've already been getting great results too.

Now on to how we actually did it, but first a little history about my wife and what she likes to eat and some of the hurdles I had to overcome. For ease, this is going to be a multi-part discussion since there's so much to share.

My wife and me live in MO where if it's not deep fried, why eat it. At my old place of employment I had co-workers who never ate anything green and fruit was only something added to a cocktail, so we're in an area where a balanced diet is something the other guy does and why wouldn't everyone want to go through a 6 - 12 pack of beer with some pork steak and anything else fried for your daily meals? Even though we live in a small area, we have over 1 pizza joints per 900 residents. The grocery stores stock what they can sell, so it's been an uphill battle please let me assure you - but I've fought back and so can you.

If you're like us where dental concerns such as dentures, partials and all the other stuff they do to our teeth is a constant issue, then you'll see that my common sense approach is geared so you're not requiring 4 stomachs to get everything fully digested.

I use to love eating at great restaurants since I'm originally from the west coast, but back here the options are deplorable and what most places serve should be considered against the law and a misdemeanor at best. I'm still shocked at what people actually eat and what they avoid because they know before they've ever even tried something that weird foods such as avocado's and mango's are on their list of things they'd never eat in a million years. Now on to some examples that thanks to Martha Stewart and some other great chiefs I've finally wised up enough to copy, emulate and go on some tangents of my own with. What I'm sharing all started with books and Food TV so if I can do it even though my cat and me are intellectual equals, anyone can.

First: Have you learned the power in roasting? When it comes to veggies, there's simply no better, healthier way to do it and the ease of prep is almost embarrassing. Here's how I do it.

Preheat the baker oven (or house oven/stove, but why heat up the whole house when you don't need too) to 400 degrees. Grab a shallow baking dish that's glass or metal and line with tin foil for easy cleanup. You'll need olive oil, kosher salt and curry powder (I know this sounds weird but just trust me).

Sweet potatoes (look for mid size that have a fat round middle shape, but avoid the ones that are thin and sort of tangled looking because they don't cook as well): Scrub the living daylights out of it. Then place a potato apiece (if they're really huge, cut in half) and then place them in the dish. Using olive oil (it's a spring oil that's good for you and it's fats that make us feel like we've actually had something to eat later) cover the entire surface with oil rather liberally. I use one hand that I keep all greasy during this process and keep the other one clean. By covering them with olive oil you're increasing the cooking temp by another 20 degrees which is vital when you're roasting any kind of vegetable. Then liberally cover the entire exterior of each potato with curry powder (we're talking about 1/2 a teaspoon or more per potato is just fine since it always stays on the outside on the skin only), and then sprinkle kosher salt pretty liberally on top of that. You'll want the entire sweet potato covered with the curry so it's messy while you're putting it all together. Bake for 1 hour starting, but depending on the size it can take 10 - 20 minutes longer. I always check to see if it's done with a table knife, not a sharp knife. A table knife is blunt enough so it gives real resistance when you're pressing the knife through. If the knife goes through nice and easy, it's ready. By the way, as it cooks, the entire skin will puff up and actually start to separate away from the meat inside.

After you're positive it's done, and don't be alarmed by the little bit of dark char look on the ends, the skin will peel off very easily with a knife and fork. We just put a little plate on the table with us for the cast off skins. I don't know how the curry works, but while there's been none that actually got inside, the flavor is amazing, and yes this is one of those things I dreamed up while having a moment of perspiration. You'll never eat a sweet potato out of a can ever again and don't even think of using marshmallows - please!

This is the same way you should always cook a normal baking potato minus the curry by the way. Olive oil and kosher salt is all it takes. Always cook at 400 degrees when roasting any veggie and please whatever you do, don't cover the potato with tin foil because that only steams it and the flavor is left flat compared to leaving the potato out in the open hot air. When you're cooking a normal potato, I always use a kitchen knife (forks are to hard on the hand) and gouge some slits in and around the whole potato. Don't ever do this with the sweet potato less it won't puff up and steam inside its own jacket as well.

Beets: Fresh is so much better than out of the can, but because eating healthy isn't near as in vogue as the grocery store magazine racks would like to pretend it is, they can be a bit of an indulgence since they're a little high in price at times - but since you'll find your food bill drops anyway, we can afford it.

After you've lined your baking dish and your oven is preheating, you'll need another little piece of tin foil that you'll shape into a shallow cone type shape as a separate cooking dish, so your beets don't bleed out on whatever other veggie you have cooking. Two dishes would of course work, but I'm into ease of anything since I'm a gimp.

Peel the beets after washing them. I know, they'll bleed so you'll have some red mess. For these wonderful things, I don't care. Like before the 400 degree oven and olive oil bath. Then find some of those great herb grinders. I found some at Dillard's that are higher quality than the stuff I can find at my local grocery store and when you're cooking simply, the importance of each ingredient can't be overstated. I've found Italian flavored grinders but also grinders with orange and lemon in them. It's the lemon and orange dried goodies that I grind heavily all over the greased up beets before popping them in for no less than 1 hour. If after an hour the table knife still won't insert, this is the one time I cheat and use the microwave for 3 - 6 minutes on full power till they're finished cooking. Cover of course after placing in the microwave oven less you'll hate me for the mess later.

Squash: Butternut and acorn are great but cutting them in half can be a problem. Get out the biggest chief knife or cleaver you've got. Then grab your hammer and center the knife on the squash. Hammer your way through. Instead of using a large spoon to clean out all the seeds and gunk, I use an ice cream scoop. Now that you're not using it anymore, it's time to find a new purpose for an unwanted reminder of those pudgier days behind. The ice cream scoop seems to make easier work out of a good deep clean inside.

400 degrees, make slits with a kitchen knife, olive oil and then whatever grinder sounds good to you. I've used both flavor based and so I care more about matching it up with the rest of the meal. On the butternut I also will sprinkle a moderate ((but not the heavy handed approach like you do the sweet potato) amount of curry once again and the aroma's alone will drive you batty.

Turnips and parsnips are another favorite but for unknown reasons we've now been seeing they're all usually coated with this wax type substance so you'll need to peel this off first which is messy. Depending on the size of the turnip, you can cook them either whole or will need to chop them in half before oiling, sprinkling with a grinder and kosher salt. Use the table knife for checking doneness as usual. Since parsnips are carrot shaped I usually cut them in half and then put the cut side down. You'll find parsnips will sometimes be a little to brown on the narrow end so if you want, cook them for only around 40 minutes and then finish them in the microwave for 3 - 6 more minutes to avoid this problem. Once you find out how wonderful a roasted turnip is, you'll never go a week without them.

When you roast a veggie, it concentrates the flavors by caramelizing their natural sugars which is why they taste so much better while at the same time retaining all the nutritional goodness instead of washing them away like steaming or cooking in water does. It goes without saying, green veggies don't work with a roasting technique except for the following.

I will blanch asparagus and then use my grill pan for a final cook and sear, but things like cauliflower, green beans of all types and broccoli does well with stove top methods and water.

Look for my next posting that will be even more boring than this one, because I've only gotten started! Bob.

Thank you Bob!!!!
for taking the time to tell us your secrets...I have to tell you that I microwave sweet potatoes on high for 5 minutes and they are perfect!
so if you are ever in a hurry....
WE love parsnips greens with chopped up bits of parsnips, we steam these and they are very good, we use the frozen greens and cajun spices.
We like mustard and collard greens this way.
Have you ever tried these greens?
bizi

Thanks, Bob! I enjoyed reading your recipes. You should consider writing a book! You're a good writer.

I eat alot of summer squash, zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, Vidalia onions, cucumbers and tomatoes.

I love yellow squash cubed up with a big vidalia onion and sauteed in about 1 teaspoon of olive oil. I wish broccoli and cauliflower didn't stink so bad when cooked!

I also eat alot of in season fruit. I love cantaloupe and grapefruit. Watermelon is still pretty expensive here so I haven't had any this season yet.

Do you drink alot of water, too? I try to drink at lest 64 ounces a day. Keeps me running to the potty all day but I count that as exercise!

I'd love to, but I can't. Because of darn blood thinners I can't have anything green and no I'm not kidding. There are times I just want to bounce off the walls because of cravings. Of course on rare occasions I do break the rules which I'll be sharing in another recipe/posting to come.

Thanks for telling me the fast way of cooking one of my favorites foods especially when I'm running low on energy after a long day. I'll be adding your trick to my list!

Take care, Bob.

You are most kind, most kind. Evidently my medications had kicked in for the day when I was putting my post together.

If want more, I've only started but before I bore anyone anymore I wanted to make sure I was wearing my pedicure down to the bone for a reason. Now you've given me one, so brace yourself - there's more on the way.

I couldn't agree with you more about the stinky veggies and there's some I don't eat because of both my medications and because I already spend to much money each month trying to keep our home all nice smelling.

Call it fate, but the one thing I can't call my wife is domestic, in fact there's not one single gene in her whole body that quite understands homemaking in general, but for 27 years I've been crazy over her in love. When most husbands bring home their wives a dozen red roses, mine is much happier when I get her a new yard tool like I did this last weekend when I finally located this really snazzy Black & Decker gadet saw called an Alligator. It's the safest chain saw/trimmer I've ever seen or used.

For decades I've done design work on homes from the stud all the way up to the final flower arrangement as a second job so when we decided to gut the 100 year old family farmhouse I finally got to do a project of our own. I've always approached our home as being one great big playground that actually alter and improve the way people enjoy their homes when they're willing to design it correctly according to their needs and tastes so my domestic side has many venues you might say.

Thanks to a family that raised me with the values that a guy can really prove he's a man when he can do anything including ironing, sewing a hem, cooking, cleaning and tearing apart the outboard motor for the boat in the backyard, I've always been rather eclectic by nature. My bi-polar tendencies make me enjoy computer programming just as much as playing Mozart on the piano or figuring out how a gimp can lop off tree/bush branches from my rider mower. Meanwhile my wife is right now out on a rider as happy as a clam.

Don't get me started, but I'm afraid you just might have! Thank you from the bottom of my heart - really. Bob.

I love turnip greens, collard greens....don't think I've ever had mustard greens. But........the only way I've ever eaten them is when they are cooked with a big piece of fatback. That's how my Momma cooked them....and boy, were they good. Especially with a big piece of hot, buttery cornbread. Sorry.....I know I made myself hungry with that. I probably made ya'll hungry, too!

The only green veggie that my Mom ever cooked without fatback was Kale. And I love kale. it's a bugger to wash and clean (all the grit and sand) but it has such a fresh, clean taste. I think I'll get some next time I go to the market.

I've been eating alot of fish (talapia) and fresh veggies this week. I've sort of lost the desire for fattening foods.

Thanks for your stories, Bob. I love reading them!

Dear Bob,
You sound like an awsome husband!!!!!
firstly I think they are misleading people telling you taht you cna't eat greens.
They can adjust your coumadin doses.
If you are going to eat greems eat them every day so they can adjust your coumadin doses accordingly.
I am a nurse and this is what I learned in school.
thank you for joining us here!
bizi