A woman in my exercise class had just finished 50 minutes of an intense strengthening class. Now she was going to take an intense cardio and strengthening class right after. Me, I can barely make it through one class. Two in a row is a lot of fitness for one morning.  I raised my eyebrows questioningly.

“I need to jumpstart my metabolism,” she said. “This extra weight won’t come off.”

A typical midlife camaraderie formed, and everyone in the class started talking about exercise, diet and weight loss.

“I just can’t lose this weight,” the woman complained. She wondered about possible causes. Could it be menopause? Hormones?

“Or maybe,” she then added, a thoughtful look on her face, “it has something to do with the bowl of ice cream I eat every night.”






Old Fashioned Popcorn to be Eaten Instead of Nightly Ice Cream (At Least Sometimes)

Adapted from Simply Recipes

This popcorn is addictive too – in a good way.





3 Tbsp oil with a high smoke point – I use organic extra virgin coconut oil

1/3 cup popcorn

Salt to taste



Heat the oil in saucepan over medium high heat. Shake some salt into the bottom of the pan.



Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.



When the kernels pop, add the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels to the bottom of the pan. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. I shake the pan a bit at this point. (This is meant to bring all the popcorn up to the same temperature. Not sure it’s necessary but it works perfectly so I haven’t experimented.)



Return the pan to the heat. Once the popping starts, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid on but slightly ajar, to keep the popcorn in but let the steam out. Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl. I've been known to eat an entire pot of this popcorn by myself. I recommend sharing some instead.