Steamed Cranberry Pudding
Cornmeal Griddle Cakes
Steamed Cranberry Pudding
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns of war fell silent.
This date in history is remembered for many events in recent years, but in 1918, at 11 a.m., the fighting ceased, putting an end to World War I. What may be most remarkable about the end of this war was the devastating treaty that severely punished the Germans for their involvement. Some might argue that World War II never would have happened if not for World War I, because had the Germans not been beaten down and berated so badly by the demands of the Treaty of Versailles, Adolf Hitler may not have risen to power in the 1930s.
If you have ever attempted weight loss, rejoicing in the pounds lost, only to be beaten down emotionally when they find their way back to your thighs again, then you know that berating doesn’t ensure a successful change. In fact, the opposite is true. When you are frequently in a punishment mode, berating and condemning yourself, it can lead to low self-esteem, a position of powerlessness, bad body image and a heavier you.
Body image is how you see yourself, and people with a poor body image tend to focus only on the body parts they dislike and disregard the ones they find acceptable. Taken to the extreme, this is called body dysmophic disorder, a mental disorder where the sufferer agonizes over imagined ugliness. They isolate themselves from social situations where they fear their flaws might be noticed. They are not fully living, waiting for the day when plastic surgery or weight loss “cures” them of their disorder. The loss of productivity and personality is staggering.
Imagine for one minute that your weight will never fluctuate again from what it is currently. That needle on the scale will stay stuck forever. If you were to live out the rest of your days at your current weight, what would you start doing? How would you start living? Try to come up with five things you would do differently. I’ll begin a list to get you started:
n Once and for all, toss out all those “skinny clothes” in your closet. Donate or relocate.
n Go to the beach or pool. Dig out that swimming suit. Swimming is a wonderful aerobic activity. Join that water aerobics class. It’s a great way to meet new friends, soothe arthritic joints and calm frayed nerves.
n Attend your class reunion. Putting it off until the weight is off is like waiting for the next lifeboat on the Titanic. Your ship may never come in. Don’t delay, start living today. You are more than a number on the scale. We don’t judge our intelligence next to Albert Einstein, so why do we judge our bodies as compared to Gisele Bundchen’s?
n Engage in a little mattress dancing. What could you do if you weren’t constantly focusing on the size of your thighs?
A recent poll conducted by AOL Healthy Living showed that only 11 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way they look. That leaves a whopping 89 percent who are struggling to “turn off the light switch” and limiting their lives in many ways.
n Treat yourself to your favorite dessert at a fancy restaurant. The days of eating the goodies in private are over. You don’t have to restrict only to secretly binge eat anymore.
Body acceptance doesn’t mean tossing in the towel and tossing down five doughnuts. It means focusing on all the good things your body can and does do instead of focusing on the bad. The more you can accentuate the positives, the fewer negatives you’ll have to dwell on. The resulting reduction in stress and stress hormones can equate with a leaner look.
STEAMED CRANBERRY PUDDING
Serves 10.
1⁄2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
31⁄2 cups flour
11⁄4 tablespoons baking powder
1⁄2 cup milk
11⁄2 cups cranberries
Cream the butter. Add sugar gradually, then eggs well beaten.
Mix and sift flour and baking powder, and add alternately with milk to first mixture.
Stir in berries, turn into buttered mould, cover and steam three hours.
Serve with thin cream, sweetened and flavored with nutmeg.
CORNMEAL GRIDDLE CAKES
Makes 10 cakes.
11⁄3 cups cornmeal
11⁄2 cups boiling water
3⁄4 cup milk
2 tablespoons fat
1 tablespoon molasses
2⁄3 cup flour
11⁄2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
Scald cornmeal with boiling water.
Add milk, fat and molasses. Add sifted dry ingredients.
Bake on hot griddle.
(Recipes courtesy “Foods that Will Win the War 1918”)
Lynda Murray, MA, RD, LD, CSSD, lives in Burlington, Iowa. She can be reached at dietitianmagician@q.com or www.dietitianmagician.com. Items in this column are intended to be informational in nature only. It is not intended to diagnose or treat.
