Kathie,

Just some input for a cookbook.  I like to cook and am not afraid to spend the time cooking as I like very good food but during the week I generally don't want to spend a lot of time cooking.  So here are some suggestions for the cookbook.  First, in the US guide you forget to mention to wash the quinoa.  For people who do not cook regularly or who are unfamilliar with quinoa it is critical to wash it well otherwise it has a very soapy taste.  So any quinoa recipe needs to say that.  I would like to see some simple marinades and sauces that can be used on a variety of meat/fish.  My dinner is typically a grilled protein, grain and veg during the week so marinades would go a long way to changing the flavors.  I have some spice mixes that I got from Penzey's and they are nice too (they are just spices no additives) for sate, tandoori, etc.  but marinades add some moisture.  I would also like to see recipes for cold grain salads as they are handy for lunch and I have had trouble finding those out in the general world and also grain casseroles as those are hard to find too.  I find general soup recipes very easy to adapt so I don't see a need for many of those.  Just my opinion, but when you eliminate things like using flour for a roux, or cream as a slight thickening agent, or cheese, etc. I think many recipes end up being flat.  I felt that way about some of the recipes in the UM book; they had a lot of ingredients but some did not work very well, like that very soupy Moraccan dish.  I would suggest offering modifcations to recipes for those of us who are not eliminating all dairy and gluten or I would suggest having recipes that use small amounts of those to get a better result in the recipe.  If you don't want to go that route I would suggest you stick with simpler recipes using more concentrated flavors, like reductions, etc. Before putting a lot into the book, I would do some Internet research to find out what is already out there and what is lacking.  Maybe other people don't do this, but if I want to find a recipe that uses certain ingredients I Google them and see what I come up with.  I am good at adjusting and adapting recipese as I have been working on doing this for about 10 years, but if I can't find a recipe then I am stumped.  So I think it would be nice if the cookbook emphasized the things that are NOT out there.  That is why I particularly mentioned the grain salads and casseroles.  Also, it would be nice to have what I call mix and match like Fine Cooking and Cook's Illustrated do.  Provide several differnt dressings for the grain salads.  Provide a set of additives (veg, nuts, fruit) and a list of grains.  Then offer suggestions, like select grain A, pick one of the dressings, and then the following, nuts, veg, fruit are the best compliments to that.  It provides you with a lot of combinations that you can vary, or I can make up a few dressings and cook one grain but make 3 salads, as an example.  I hope that was clear!  If not let me know and I can you send you some examples of how they do this from one of those magazines that I mentioned.  Just my thoughts. 

I've been on the ultrasimple diet for a week and I can't say that I've been perfect in exactly following what was on the particular day's menu but I substituted mostly with more ultrabroth or ultrashakes. I haven't taken the baths every day but have been to the Y to swim twice and stayed in the steam room for awhile. I did not have meat before dinner and the lunches weren't always satisfying - I found organic almonds a life saver to at least have something "substantial" in my diet that would get me by.

So, where am I after a week? I am 6 pounds down from 230 (and 11 pounds down from the 235 I was 2 weeks ago before beginning exercise again) to 224 (222 first thing in the morning) and I am psyched. Part of the problem before was a slow growth in weight with absolutely nothing I was doing working to slow it down or lose weight. I have lost weight fairly regularly all week and while not yet 10 pounds, this diet has given me something back I had lost - hope that I could actually do something that would be effective. I've seen the results and those push me forward to continue.

I will definetly be on this diet long -- at least another week or so. I haven't been below 220 in 10 years and I am aiming towards 200. With my new found hope, I am completely bought into doing this longer. I want to add more detox stuff into my routine and see if I can speed this up.

Getting close to 200, I'll then see what I can do to maintain and continue while living in the "real" world of restaurants and functions with food - and sometimes the occasional ice cream with my children.

I am highly heartened after this week and will push through another and see where I am then - and where I'll go. I so appreciate knowing I can finally do something that actually results in weight loss and feeling much healthier.