Recipes 

Cookbooks 

I thought of the idea of using the bible as a diet guide in 1993 when I was fast approaching 275 lbs., unhappy about my job and just ending a marriage that broke up in large part due to my weight. The concept didn’t really go anywhere until March 1994 when I read a book of fiction titled Millroy the Magician by Paul Theroux.

Millroy the Magician

Theroux’s book is an allegorical novel about a magician, Milroy, who eats only foods from the bible and plans to live until he’s 200 years old. Milroy builds a band of followers who are persecuted by eventually become the envy of everyone else for their clean living.

Theroux’s book is an allegorical novel about a magician, Milroy, who eats only foods from the bible and plans to live until he’s 200 years old.   Milroy builds a band of young followers who are persecuted by eventually become the envy of everyone else for their clean living.

Theroux had taken the bible diet concept pretty far in his novel and I seized on its.  From March  until July of 1994, I lost 80 lbs.  In 3 months!   In addition to the diet (which I followed strictly) I bicycled 6 times a week, up to 150 miles per week.  By August of 1994 I was able to ride in the Hotter-N-Hell bicycle race in Wichita Falls, TX and successfully complete the 100 mile ride in 100+ F° in 4 hours and 56 minutes.  All this just 5 months after I weighed 275 lbs.   I stayed at or around 195 lbs. until  January of 1995.

Relationships and Diets

I stopped exersizing.  I started dating a woman who didn’t eat well and even though I didn’t return to being a beef eater, I did eat cheese.  Eventually I ballooned up to 255 lbs.
Then in May of 1996 I broke up with the woman and put myself back on the dating scene.  I ate better and by Christmas 1996 weighed 247 lbs.  I still didn’t exercise and I still didn’t strictly follow diet secrets.

I spent Christmas alone that year and picked up a book to read while I was alone.  On the day after Christmas I decided that if I was going to sit around reading a book I might as well read it on the exercise bike.  I started reading like this for 50 minutes a day.  On Dec. 28 my girlfriend (a new one) called me and told me  that she was concerned that I was letting myself go.  My hair was getting long, my clothes were not always the best and that this was aggravated by my being overweight.  On Dec. 30 I decided to restart ‘Diet Secrets of The Bible’

Back to Basics

Between Dec. 1996 and June 1, 1997 I have now lost 50 lbs through following the Diet Secrets and by staying on a strict exercise regimen. I weigh 197 lbs and plan to continue trying to lose weight until 175 lbs.

I will stay on Diet Secrets of The Bible for the rest of my life. Eventually my weight will plateau at a point that is right for me. I suspect that that point is 175.

Cookbooks
 

	The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast  -  Jeff Smith Turns out the The Frugal Gourmet is a Methodist minister.  He does a great job of talking about the use of food in Biblical customs.  The central theme is that we should share our efforts in the kitchen.  I agree.  Alot of the recipes are not Diet Secrets because of meat and fat, but there are some good things here.  You have to take the book at face value and forget about Smith's legal problems.
	Breaking Bread: The Spiritual Significance of Food - Sara Covin Juengst - By examining the Biblical customs connected with food, Juengst discovers new meaning in familiar passages and presents six theological themes related to food and feasting. Palmer says that Juengst shows "how food is woven as intricately as faith into the entire fabric of our lives."
	Moosewood Restaurant's Low-Fat Favorites - Pam Krauss - This cookbook doesn't have much to do with the bible per se, but it has some gourmet level recipes that fit within Diet Secrets of the Bible.  I highly recommend it as a basic cookbook to have around the kitchen.
	Sushi Making at Home - Yasuko Kamimura - This book could last you forever as a Sushi party chef.  Sushi isn't called out in the Bible of course, but fish, grains and vegetables are.  You just need to avoid shellfish and mollusks (shrimp and squid) and you'll be OK.  Sushi as a cousine is the BEST food for following Diet Secrets.  Healthy and Low Fat.
	Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey  -  I'm finding this cookbook pretty easy to use.  However, you probably want to have an Indian grocery close by.  Mostly non-Bible food though.  So far I've avoid the cream based sauces and have substituted Olive Oil for butter.
	If I Can Cook/You Know God Can -    Ntozake Shange   Vertamae Grosvenor   OK. So both these women are poets.  And they've written a Soul Food cookbook. Vertamae has a cooking show.  Ntozaake has a show on Broadway.  I'm buying it and I'll try and let you know.