Ham and Cheese Crepe.

Plus Mixed Messages From Diet Hell.

Ham and Cheese Crepe. Recipe and photo by Anna Vocino. If you patiently read this newsletter post, the recipe appears below.

GREETINGS FROM DIET HELL…

I’m going to send you a mixed message.

If you’re new to my newsletter, books, or social media, I collect email sign-ups by offering a very kick-ass Eat Happy meal plan and recipe sampler PDF. It has other stuff, but that’s mostly what people are after, and I don’t blame them. It’s fantastic.

The people who find me have been on every diet known to man. They’re exhausted. They just want to be told what to do. They don’t want to have to think about food and meal planning anymore. They just want to get healthy.

So I came up with the aforementioned meal plan and recipe sampler.

Problem is, human nature dictates that most of us won’t stick to a 31 Day Meal Plan. Life happens. Feelings happen. Kids, stress, work, obligations, and social temptations happen.

Sticking to a meal plan for 31 days feels like an insurmountable task stretching out over an interminable length of time.

So to sum up where we are so far:

1. You’ve declared you’ve had it with your current way of eating and vow to rein it in once and for all.

2. You sign up for my 31 day meal plan and recipe sampler, plus you trot out the copies you have of my books and dog ear the remaining recipes you need to make.

3. You go grocery shopping and make a couple of days worth of food and feel great.

4. By day 4, you haven’t made all the meals on the schedule, food is going bad in the fridge, and you’ve become completely distracted by stress from work/life/fam.

5. You give up on this meal plan thing and order take-out or just swing into the nearest drive-thru.

6. You feel mad at yourself for bailing on your commitment to yourself, but chances are you repeat step 5 for more days. Days turn into weeks, which turn into months.

7. You decide you’ve finally had enough, and you start all over again at step 1 to once again regain control of how you’re eating.

This is why diet plans, schedules, counters, or even meal delivery services don’t work in the long term.

The mindset you were in when you made the decision to follow a meal plan is 99% of the time a different mindset than how you actually live your life.

My suggestion:

The wisdom of the ancients (from Christianity to Judaism to Ancient Greeks):

KNOW THYSELF.

Stop trying to follow someone else’s plan and figure out what works for YOU.

I absolutely LOVE my 31 Days of Eat Happy meal plan and recipe sampler. But it may not be set up for how your brain or life works.

Figure out what works for you so you can best honor your life, your family, and your body.

Diet culture never wants you feel that level of freedom. In fact, I could go on and on about how diet culture doesn’t want you to trust yourself. If you trust yourself, you won’t buy the diet plans!

You have permission to take what you want and leave the rest.

You have permission to be constantly seeking and asking questions.

You have permission to tweak as you go along…sometimes leaving the meal plan and then coming back to it when it serves your purposes.

Some of you hate meal planning and like to figure out what to make at the spur of the moment. Some of you love meal planning and are fabulously inspiring about how much you can meal prep in advance. Most of us, however, fall somewhere in the middle.

MIXED MESSAGE SUMMARY

Please go sign up for my wonderful 31 Days of Eat Happy Meal Plan, if you haven’t already.

But I invite you to use it how YOU see fit. It’s simply a another tool in the toolbox.

I bet as you get used to cutting out processed sugars and grains and start to shed the diet mentality, you will have your sea legs and plan your own meals in a way that works for your life.

And I can’t wait for you to do that as that is true freedom.

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Did all of that reading make you hungry?

Let’s make some breakfast.

A Ham & Cheese Crepe is stick-to-your-ribs comfort that will power you throughout your busy day.

In case you are new here, this is a gluten-free, grain free crepe, so it takes a delicate touch to roll it up without breaking it.

Patience, grasshopper. A steady hand wins the crepe race.

As always, the downloadable, printable PDF version of this recipe lives here.

HAM AND CHEESE CREPE

(serves 1)

• 1 egg

• 1/2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

• 1 tablespoon sour cream

• Salt and pepper

• Butter for cooking

• Ham and swiss slices, chopped

Whip egg, heavy cream, and sour cream in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. In a large, flat bottomed, nonstick pan, heat 1 teaspoon butter on medium heat until bubbling. Pour egg mixture into center of the pan. Gently tilt the pan in all directions until egg mixture has spread thin across the entire pan. Cover for 3-5 minutes while egg mixture cooks into a crepe. Remove pan from heat, remove lid, and add chopped cheese and ham to the right side of the crepe. Very gently roll crepe, starting at the right side with the filling until all rolled up. Serve immediately.