Excerpt from The Mayo Clinic Diet : Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose Weight.

Thank you Anna Suknov for sending me this excerpt to post.  I currently am reading They Mayo Clinic Diet and I am getting ready to start using the Journal that goes along with it.  It's time for me to get that extra 20 lbs I've gained over the last few years off.  My health is improving and it's time to lose this weight.  From what I have read so far, The Mayo Clinic Diet is full of sound advice, and what else would you expect from the very esteemed Mayo Clinic.  Here's an excerpt about eating out, what to eat and what to avoid.  It's very helpful if you ask me.

Your Guide to Healthy Ethnic Cuisine
By the weight-loss experts at Mayo Clinic and Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H.
Authors of The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose weight.

These suggestions will help you savor the exotic, while keeping calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium under control.
Chinese

Look for: Stir-fried (ask to have it prepared in little or no oil) or steamed dishes with lots of vegetables, steamed rice, poached fish, and hot and sour soups.
Avoid: Fatty spareribs, fried wontons, egg rolls, shrimp toast and fried rice. To limit sodium, ask that your food be prepared without salt or monosodium glutamate (MSG). Request soy sauce (high in sodium) and other sauces on the side.

French

Look for: Steamed shellfish, roasted poultry, salad with dressing on the side, and sauces with a wine or tomato base, such as bordelaise or à la Provençal.
Avoid: French onion soup (high in sodium; high in fat if it has cheese), high-fat sauces (béchamel, hollandaise and béarnaise), croissants and pâte.

Greek

Look for: Plaki (fish cooked with tomatoes, onions and garlic), chicken kebabs (chicken broiled on a spit with tomatoes, onion and peppers), or a Greek salad.
Avoid: Dishes with large amounts of butter or oil, such as baba ghanouj (eggplant appetizer) and baklava (dessert made with phyllo dough, butter, nuts and honey). To limit sodium, avoid olives, anchovies and feta cheese.

Italian

Look for: Marinara (tomatoes with garlic and onions), Marsala (based in wine), clam sauce and pasta primavera with fresh vegetables and a small amount of oil. Simply prepared fish and chicken dishes also are good choices.
Avoid: Pasta stuffed with cheese or fatty meat and dishes with cream or butter sauces. Veal scaloppine and parmigiana (cooked with Parmesan cheese) contain added fat.

Japanese

Look for: Steamed rice, soba or udon noodles, yakisoba (stir-fried noodles), yakitori (chicken teriyaki), shumai (steamed dumplings), tofu, sukiyaki, kayaku gohan (vegetables and rice).
Avoid: Shrimp or vegetable tempura, chicken katsu, tonkatsu (fried pork), shrimp agemono, fried tofu (bean curd).

Mexican

Look for: Grilled fish, shrimp and chicken with salsa made of tomato, chilies and onion. Order corn tortillas (they're lower in fat and calories than are flour tortillas) as long as they aren't deep fried. For a side dish, order rice or beans (black, pinto, refried). Make sure your side dishes aren't cooked with fat or lard -- ask your server about this.

Avoid: Dishes with large amounts of cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. Chips also can add a lot of fat and calories.

The above is an excerpt from the book The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose weight., by the weight-loss experts at Mayo Clinic and Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.
Reprinted from The Mayo Clinic Diet, © 2010 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 
About Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., is chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine and a consultant in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. He is also an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. A specialist in nutrition and weight management, Dr. Hensrud advises individuals on how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. He conducts research in weight management, and he writes and lectures widely on nutrition-related topics. He helped publish two award-winning Mayo Clinic cookbooks.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy that the needs of the patient come first. Over 3,600 physicians and scientists and 50,000 allied staff work at Mayo, which has sites in Rochester, Minn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, Mayo Clinic treats more than 500,000 patients a year.

For more than 100 years, millions of people from all walks of life have found answers at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic works with many insurance companies, does not require a physician referral in most cases and is an in-network provider for millions of people.For more information, please visit www.goodbooks.com/mayoclinicdiet.

Absolute Power by David Baldacci (Audiobook)

Absolute Power by David Baldacci

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Publish Date: January 1, 2010 (originally published in 1996)

Unabridged Audio CD, 17 CDs

My Review:
First things first - I love David Baldacci.  I started with an audiobook of his from the library.  It was the first one in the Sean King and Michelle Maxwell series, Split Second (which I did not know was part of a series) and then lucked up when the next one I listened to was Hour Game.  Since then I have working my way through his backlist and when the opportunity to listen and review his first book came up - I jumped at the chance.

The first thing I loved about this audiobook is the foreward by the author that tells how the story came about.  Some of Mr. Baldacci's comments had me laughing.  The second thing is the reader, Scott Brick.  I love Scott Brick as an audiobook reader.  To me he does a wonderful job on each book he reads and I actually search him out when looking for a new audiobook.

As for the actual story - it's complex and amazing. If I had been reading it, I would have kept turning the pages.  I often sat in my driveway a few more minutes to listen to more of the book.  It's very entertaining and dark.  The fun was just when I thought it was getting predictable, it changed a little bit.  This is fast-paced suspense at it's best.  The characters that are the good-guys are likeable and you find yourself cheering for them.  The bad guys are sufficiently bad.  And there are few in-between characters that are bad but just doing what they have to.  This book is a good look at how the choices you make can affect your future and the choices you have to  make then.

If you like suspense, then you are in for a treat.  Note there are some graphic scenes, but the book is not loaded with sex.  There is also some profanity, but I didn't find it in abundance (or else I learned to tune it out, I'm never sure which).  Overall it is a wonderful book that will keep you interested until the very end.

About the Book:
A riveting debut novel of murder, honor, loyalty, and betrayal that reaches all the way to the Oval Office. A vicious murder involving the president and his mistress results in a coverup orchestrated by the zealously loyal chief of security and the Secret Service. But, unbeknownst to the president and his lackeys, one unlikely witness saw everything. Will Americans learn the truth?

About the Author:
David Baldacci lives in Virginia where he and his wife have founded the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. He invites you to visit him at www.david-baldacci.com and his foundation at www.wishyouwellfoundation.org.

FTC Information: I received this book from Hachette Books for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.

Booking Through Thursday - March 25 - Break

Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)

It's been awhile since I participated in BTT, but I thought I would join back in this week.

I do take breaks from time-to-time.  It depends on how the book is.  If it's just not gripping me at the moment, I will set it aside and come back.  Sometimes I have to set a book aside to read one for a review.  I try not to do this because I find myself confused when I come back to the book, but sometimes I just have to.

So what do you do?  Comment here and also see the main BTT post for what others are saying.