Lisa Cain - Snack Girl to the Rescue!: A Real-Life Guide to Losing Weight and Getting Healthy with 100 Recipes Under 400 Calories

Copyright 2014 by Lisa Cain
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. www.crownpublishing.com

Harmony Books is a registered trademark, and the Circle colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.

Some of the recipes and information in this book have appeared, in different form, on the authors website, Snack-Girl.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cain, Lisa, 1969
Snack Girl to the rescue!: a real life guide to eating healthy, slimming down, and enjoying food/Lisa Cain.First edition.
pages cm
1. Reducing dietsRecipes. 2. Reducing exercises. 3. Health. 4. Nutrition. I. Title.
RM222.2.C224 2013
613.25dc2 2013020382

Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-385-34908-6
eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-34909-3

Book design by Maria Elias and Elizabeth Rendfleisch
Illustration on courtesy of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Cover design by Nupoor Gordon
Cover illustration by Kirsten Ulve

v3.1

For Matt, Ruby, and Alex, my whole enchilada

Do you need to be rescued from the diet roller coaster or junk food? Im guessing if you are looking at this page, you probably need some help. Im glad you picked up this book because I, Snack Girl, am here to lift you up with encouragement, practical advice, recipes, a little humor, and a lot of love. My website, Snack-Girl.com, has thousands of readers every day who get inspired to change what they eat. If we can do it, you can too.

When I was in my twenties, I ate whatever I wanted and I looked and felt great. I had joined the dot-com boom in San Francisco, and had the luxury of biking to and from work every day. The office buildings were filled with people who loved to throw a Frisbee at lunch and would go on eight-mile hikes on the weekend. I was so active that I hardly ever packed my lunch or cooked a meal; I just ordered whatever my compatriots were eating (burritos, doughnuts, pizza) and enjoyed it. The mantra at the time was Work hard, play hard. I never read a food label, gave a damn about saturated fat, or thought about the origin of my produce.

The dot-com crash burst my personal bubble and I was out of a job three times in a two-year period. I kept getting laid off as each company that I joined failed for a variety of reasons. After I was humiliated (yet again) when a security guard stood by as I cleaned out my desk, I decided that I needed to focus on some other life goals, because my career was in a nosedive.

Right at this moment of career crisis, I met a sweet Australian and we fell in love. He surprised me by asking me to marry him and we decided to have a family. Our plans were for both of us to continue working and have a few rug rats. Ruby arrived about a year after we were married and I was so in love with her that I didnt want to go back to work. Fortunately, our finances allowed me to stay home and I began a life of diapers, laundry, and insufficient sleep. I was exhausted and, other than pushing a stroller up a hill, daily exercise was no longer part of my routine.

Did I feel like getting a gym membership? Heck, no! I spent most of my time dreaming of a hotel room with a comfy bed. In my dream, the white bed was made and all I had to do was change into my (free of breast milk stains) soft jammies, put my head on the pillow, and sleep. Alone. I thought about this a lot my first year of motherhood.

We added rug rat number two, Alex, two years later. Alexs first year of life is a blur. Needless to say, I have since apologized to my husband for my behavior for the entire year. Yes, I was grumpy, demanding, and difficult. I did my best to nurture my children and did a lousy job of nurturing myself. I loved being a mother, but I was ill suited for all the interruptions, messy meals, crying, naps, and general chaos that having children brings.

About a year after Alex was born, my doctors office called to remind me that it was time for my physical and, in a move to start taking care of my health, I scheduled an appointment. There, as I sat on the edge of the examining table, my kind doctor looked me straight in the eye and said, We need to talk about your weight.

I panicked. My weight?

Lisa, you need to lose weight. You are increasing your risk factors for a bunch of diseases and if you keep adding pounds like this, you will become obese.

How could I be having this conversation? Yeah, I was carrying around some extra weight, but I kept thinking it would magically come off.

I wanted to shout, Its my kidsthey wont let me sleep! Its the doughnut place around the corner! I just need a gym membership! I just cant give up the cream in my coffee!

I said, Okay, Ill work on it. I left his office with my chin dragging on the ground.

What was I going to do? My love affair with Food is a long one and I didnt want to change it. We are so good together, Food and I. When I was sad, bored, or lonely, Food was there to lift me up. When it was time to celebrate, Food and I had a great time.

What was I going to do without Food? Sniff.

On the other hand, my children, Ruby and Alex, instilled in me a burning desire to live for as long as I could. I love their smell, their laugh, and their little hands in minefor me, the closest thing to heaven on earth.

Also, I didnt feel very good. I had no energy and I always felt like I wanted a nap. I couldnt stay up past 9 p.m. and when I walked up the steep hills of San Francisco, I felt winded after a few steps. Sometimes I was so tired that I would count the hours until my children went to sleep. Three hours to go! I would think and just try to get to 8 p.m. without losing my temper. I was eating mega cookies or cupcakes every day at 3 p.m. with a large double-shot latte to stay awake, then crashing at 5 p.m. when the sugar had left my system. I blamed this on my childrens habit of waking me in the night, but the truth is that extra pounds take more energy to carry around.

My doctor was telling me what I didnt want to hear. That time of my life when I could do what I wanted and consequences be damned was over, baby.

I approached the problem like the trained scientist that I am. Though I was now a stay-at-home mom, I had earned a PhD in genetics in 1997 and had quit science to join the Internet revolution.

First, I started dieting and read every diet book I could get my hands on. I found the conflicting messages in the books confusing. Many of the books seemed to be advocating extreme approaches to food. For example, there was the no-carbohydrate approach. Ummm, I dont want to spend my life without rice, pasta, or bread.

Or there was a quick-weight-loss strategy where I would consume only 1,000 calories per day (the FDA recommends an average of 2,000 calories for an adult). How was I going to do that and not become incredibly irritable? If I get too hungry, I start to act like a crazy person, and no one wants to see that.

Going vegan was another route. I can see how giving up all animal products could lead to significant weight loss, but my toes curl at the scent of bacon. Couldnt I just eat less meat?

So many of these diets seemed faddish and ultimately unhealthy. They were asking me for sacrifices that were, in my mind, unreasonable. They promised me quick results, but I wanted sustainable weight loss that would help protect me from developing cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Looking good in my clothes again, having more energy, and just feeling good were also priorities.