Wanna lose weight? Eat!

As the title notes, if you want to shed pounds, you must eat.

Huh?! Everyone is telling us not to eat; deprivation; pain; growling stomach.

But if you eat, a few things will happen that are of critical importance to your well-being and your figure:

• You will feel happy and satisfied.
• The food you eat will stoke your metabolism to continue to chug along like a finely-tuned machine.

The trick, of course, is to eat well, to eat so that your body and soul are satisfied.  That means wholesome foods.  Now, don't get excited - I said "wholesome" - not rabbit food.  Wholesome food includes meat and potatoes, pasta, cake.  But judicious planning is called for when consuming denser-calorie foods.  You want to join your friends for a buffet breakfast with all the trimmings? Peach cobbler, waffles, grits.  Go ahead.  Knock yourself out.  Relish the biscuits with honey and butter.  But do so with a resolve to mitigate some of these festivities - take a long walk, skip dinner that evening (not recommended under normal circumstances), prepare an incredibly gorgeous salad with everything in it as a way to balance whatever damage you may have done with your carb fest.  I call it my Therapy Salad.

Therapy Salad

Ingredients

Arugula, baby spinach or lettuce
Cherry tomatoes, whole
Seedless cucumber, sliced
Carrot, thinly sliced or grated
One pear, sliced
Red onion, sliced
Green or black olives
Raisins
Cashews or almonds
Goat cheese (optional)

Toss all ingredients together, and drizzle with dressing.

Dressing

1/4 c. wine vinegar
1/2 c. roasted sesame oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
Pinch of chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a sealable jar and shake well, then drizzle over the salad.

This salad is not only incredibly delicious, full of flavor from the roasted sesame oil to the almonds, olives and vegetables, but also filling, crunchy and sustaining.