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. Join me in the Fasting Lifestyle.

The 1800s saw a religious revival in the United States. Existing religions flourished and new religions began. Mary Morse Baker was born in Bow, NH on July 16, 1821. Her parents were farmers, pious members of the Congregational Church. In her youth, Mary was often ill, to the extent that her older brother home-schooled her. Long days in bed gave her hours to read the Bible and she began to question the doctrine of predestination. At age 22, Mary married George Glover, a builder, and they moved to South Carolina. Within nine months, he was dead and their child was born. Without resources and in poor health, Mary Glover moved back to her parents’ home. After her mother’s death, Mary’s lack of support forced to give her child away to friends. In four years, she married again hoping for financial and emotional stability.The couple moved to Massachusetts and in 10 years, Mary divorced her husband due to his infidelity. During the Civil War, Mary visited a healer in Maine. Sometimes his efforts eased her pain, sometimes not. This taught Mary that ‘healing’ is partly in the mind and based on trust in the healer, perhaps having a religious element. A slip on the ice in Lynn, Massachusetts left her with damage to her spine and pelvis. The doctor feared that she would die, or at least never walk again. She called for her Bible and read all the passages about Jesus healing the sick. After a few days, Mary arose, got herself dressed, and walked out of the room — to the astonishment of all. For the next several years, she flirted with spiritualism and the work of mediums, questing for a religious or spiritual connection to her life and her having been healed. In 1875, Mary self-published her first book: Science and Health, which described her evolving belief that medical doctors and their medicines were unnecessary. If one believed enough in God, Christ would heal one’s illnesses. This was her new ‘science’, and she began to teach others how to be healers. She married one of her students, Asa Eddy, who was 10 years her junior. Mrs Eddy founded the  Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1881, and moved to Boston. In concert with her ideas that religion could heal, Eddy wished to turn her healing into a religion. She and her students transformed the Metaphysical College into The First Church of Christ, Scientist. Stepping aside from day to day church work, Eddy turned to publishing, founding weekly and monthly magazines filled with testimonials, then her lasting contribution to media: the Christian Science Monitor, a well-regarded daily newspaper. Eddy retired to a farm in Concord, NH which she called Pleasant View. She died of pneumonia in 1910, but her church continues with 400,000 members world-wide.

According to Minnie B. Weygandt, the cook at Pleasant View, Mary Baker Eddy enjoyed having pie on the table at every meal, as well as traditional New England fare. Thus we will have ‘pie’ at breakfast and a real old-fashioned dish for dinner.

Pumpkin Pie Breakfast: 216 calories… 4 g fat… 2 g fiber… 7.4 g protein… 38.5 g carbs… 98.5 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage. PB GF  My mother developed this recipe and to me it is the Gold Standard of pumpkin pies: smooth, creamy, and redolent of spices.  When prepared without a crust, it becomes more suitable for a Fast Day. NB: Mind the calories in the optional beverages to stay under 300 for the meal.

++ 1 ramekin of Pumpkin Pie ** ++++ 1 chicken breakfast sausage [36 calories each] ++ ++  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] ++ 

Remove a ramekin of custard from ‘fridge and place on a plate. Do this first to take off some of the chill. Cook the sausage and prepare the optional beverage. Enjoy being a ‘Yankee’ who has pie for breakfast.

**Pumpkin Pie Custards makes 6 ramekins	Heat oven to 400 F. Spritz 6 ramekins with non-stick spray.
1½ cups pumpkin puree—-½ cup brown sugar, not packed—½ cup white sugar—-	Canned pumpkin puree is perfectly acceptable. Combine in a sauce pan and heat at a low setting.
1 cup milk, non-fat—-2 two-ounce eggs	Whisk together, then stir into the pumpkin.Take sauce pan off heat.
¼ tsp ground mace— ½ tsp ground nutmeg—-1 tsp ground ginger—- ½ tsp salt—-pinch ground cloves—-1 tsp ground cinnamon—- pinch ground allspice–	Stir the spices into the mixture. Taste to see if any flavors need to be adjusted.
	Divide among ramekins. Put in oven, bake 10 minutes.
	Turn oven down to 350F, bake 20 minutes or until a knife poked in the center comes out clean.
36-calorie breakfast sausage—beverage of choice	Cool custards and refrigerate. Serve cool or at room temperature.

Red Flannel Hash & Egg: 249 calories… 9 g fat… 2 g fiber… 12.6 g protein… 18 g carbs… 43 mg Calcium…  PB GF This is a venerable New England farm meal, with the recipe coming from Hayden Pearson’s Country Flavors Cookbook.

++ 1 cup cooked diced beets (1/3” dice) ++++ 1/3 cup diced potatoes ++++ (1/3” dice) ++++ ¼ cup diced onions ++++ 2 slices Canadian Bacon/back bacon, diced ++++ one 2-oz egg ++++ lots of salt and pepper to taste ++

Cook, peel, and dice the beets and set aside to cool. [HINT: do this the day before] Peel and dice the potatoes. Put into a pan of tap water and put the pan on the burner. Turn on the heat and let the pan sit, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until the water starts to boil around the edges. Take off the heat and leave potatoes to cool in the water. Then drain and set aside. Dice the onions and bacon. Spray a saute pan with non-stick spray and add the Canadian bacon. Cook it as crisp as you wish, or not so crisp. Remove the bacon and set aside. Add the onions with 2-3 Tbsp water, and cook until the onions are transluscent and the water is mostly gone. Now put the potatoes in the pan with the onions, add salt and pepper to taste. Stir until the potatoes are cooked. Add the beets and bacon to the pan and continue to cook until heated through. Meanwhile, fry the egg: sunnyside-up or over easy as you prefer. Plate the hash and top with the egg. Country dining.