How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, son of an Oxford geometry professor, was born on February 22, 1857. His father, Reverend Baden Powell, died when Robert was three, and his mother changed the family name to ‘Baden-Powell’. Sent to Charterhouse boarding school, Robert was not an avid student. He spent as much time as he could skipping class to play in the woods. Baden-Powell said that he learned a lot about tracking and stalking [also called ‘scouting’] while hunting animals in that forest. He also caught them and cooked them. Besides hunting small game, Robert was an artist, musician, and actor who loved canoeing trips with any of his seven brothers. After graduation, Baden-Powell joined the army. He served in India and then South Africa. As an officer, he realized the value of ‘scouting’ the countryside to avoid enemy encounters and to know the lay of the land. His skills as a scout were enhanced and he wrote a training manual called “Aids to Scouting”. Baden-Powell became a hero in Britain after he lead his garrison at Mafeking through a 217-day siege, surrounded by 1000s of Afrikaners. Back home, he was knighted, and was amazed to find that his army manual was being used by youth groups to promote outdoors-manship. He teamed up with William Smith, the leader of the Boys’ Brigade, to host a camping trip in 1907 for 22 boys from different social strata. This was to test their ideas to encourage a vigorous nature experience for youths. “Scouting for Boys”  followed in 1908, and lads from all over enthusiastically formed Scout groups. The movement was so popular, that King Edward VII suggested to Baden-Powell that, instead of rejoining the army, he would do more good as an organizer of Scouts. Scouting grew by leaps and bounds, from 100,000 members in 1910, to one million in 1922 in many countries. In 1910, the Girl Guides were begun under the direction of Agnes, Baden-Powell’s sister. When he was 55 years old, he married 23 year old Olave Soames and they had three children. In 1938, the Baden-Powells retired to Kenya, where he died and is buried. In the 1930s, Hitler banned the Scouts, setting up the Hitler Youth instead. When America joined the war, he scoffed that those ‘Boy Scouts’ would be no match for his Hitler Youth. [Oddly, Baden-Powell had read Mein Kampf, and rather liked it, naively thinking that fascism was better than communism.] His grave in Kenya is marked with the Scout ‘trail sign’ meaning ‘Gone home.’

Outdoor cooking is part scouting. Eggs cooked over a campfire can be wonderful or awful — it is a learning experience. And what could be more typical for a camp dinner than baked beans with hot dogs! [Girl Scouts would follow that with a round or two of S’mores, but Boy Scouts disdain to copy the girls.]

Mushroom ScrOmelette:  142 calories 5 g fat 1 g fiber 9.6 g protein 8 g carb 64 mg Calcium  NB: Food values shown are for the ScrOmelette and fruit only, and do not include the optional beverages. PB GF  When camping, it is easy to prepare a wonderful breakfast of mushrooms, fresh eggs, and apples. In the back-country, one might pack in dried mushrooms and powdered eggs, but closer to home we’ll use fresh ingredients. 

1½ two-oz eggs HINT: If you are serving one person, crack three 2-oz eggs into a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Whip up those eggs and pour half of their volume, into a jar with a lid and put it in the ‘fridge for next week.   1/3 oz mushrooms  1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese        pinch of rosemary    1½ oz of apple OR unsweetened applesauce             Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]    Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]

Chop or slice the mushrooms and saute with a little water in a skillet. Remove and set aside. Now whisk the eggs with seasonings to taste. Pour into a heated skillet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cook, tipping the pan and lifting the cooked eggs until the bottom is set but the top is still moist. Top with the mushrooms and cheese, fold and plate. Serve with fruit, plus your beverage and smoothie. You are off to a good start.

Beanie Wienies:  300 calories 4 g fat 8.6 g fiber 14 g protein 43 g carbs 74 mg Calcium  PB GF  Dear Husband grew up eating this with his childhood chums. Our sons grew up eating this on camping trips with the family and with the Boy Scouts. What could be simpler? And the carb count is due to the good fiber of beans and carrots. So complex.

1 reduced-fat beef hot dog @110 calories   ¾ cup canned baked beans  1 oz carrots, cooked or raw

Put the baked beans in a small sauce pan. Cut the hotdogs into 1” pieces [on the diagonal, Dear Husband would say] and add to the pan. Warm thoroughly. Plate with the carrots and think about food memories of childhood.

Ingredients for next week: Breakfast, single portion for Monday …………………………… single portion for Thursday:

1 two-oz egg = US large +  peach	2 two-oz eggs + apple + honey
leek + 2%-fat cottage cheese	2%-fat cottage cheese + almond meal
onion +  chives	Parmesan + lemon juice + cinnamon
grated Parmesan cheese  + red pepper flakes	Canadian/back bacon + melon
optional smoothie	optional smoothie
optional hot beverage	optional hot beverage

Dinner, single portion for Monday:………………………….. single portion for Thursday:

halibut + side salad  or asparagus	eggplant + onion
relish: rhubarb + onions	corn kernels + garlic
ground cloves + allspice + cinnamon	zucchini + cooked chicken
cider vinegar + light-brown sugar	corn tortillas + enchilada sauce
Sparkling water	Sparkling water