Thanks to the prompting of a reader I am finally getting around to posting about my progress with hormone optimization and the other recommendations made by Cenegenics.

In short, things are great.   I am taking supplements and hormones that I believe are making a significant difference.  Based on the dietary recommendations I am closely following a low-glycemic eating plan and have lost 11 pounds in the first 4 weeks!  Also based on the recommendation of the nutritionist/trainer I am exercising 4 times per week…a big change for me.  I do interval training twice a week and high intensity resistance training twice a week with some cardio.  My perceived fitness has improved a lot.  I can tell in my daily life as well during workouts that my cardiovascular capability is improving and I’m definitely stronger.  I just feel more comfortable in my body.

Of course, since I’ve change three significant things (supplements, diet and exercise) it is difficult to ascribe which of these is the thing that’s making feel lots, lots better.  While I can see very direct evidence that the diet and exercise components are making a huge difference it’s harder to discern the effect of the supplements so directly.  Most of what I’m taking are specific vitamins and such along with some hormonal supplementation (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid).

The personal coaching from “my” nutritionist has been phenomenal.  I send her a daily journal of my food intake everyday along with a personal journal of my feelings, thoughts, observations.  She always responds with encouragement and, when necessary, suggestions for modifications to what I’m doing.

Both the doctor and nutritionist are very responsive to my questions.  The doctor has made several adjustments and even prescribed, through my pharmacy, a topical anti-inflammatory gel that has really helped some tendinitis that I have experienced.  They both have assured me that this is just the beginning and that my full result…my “optimum” result…will take 9-12 months so I should just continue to feel better and better.

I certainly feel younger. I feel more alert, my concentration and focus are great.  And I continue to feel better week by week.

The only real drawback to Cenegenics is cost.  It’s (for me) an expensive proposition to pay for the supplements and their monthly fee.  My current feeling is that I will continue through my next blood panel and see what, if any, adjustments they recommend.  At that point I may have to evaluate whether to continue with them or try to find alternatives.

The on

After stopping the melatonin I am now feeling fantastic!  The first day after stopping the melatonin I woke up feeling different.  More energized and just really good. Since then (it’s actually only 4 days) I’ve continued to feel great.

I started my interval training on Wednesday.  As Jen recommended I got on the elliptical machine and (finally) have a use for my interval timer.  I set the intervals to 20 seconds/45 seconds.  I did a 5 minute warm-up then a cycle of 20 seconds high intensity (amped up the resistance and my speed)/45 seconds low intensity for three cycles.  Then 2 minutes of low intensity.  Rinse-and-repeat for 30 minutes.  I actually really enjoyed it.  You have to focus to kind of keep track of what you’re doing so it kind of takes your mind of the boredom of being on a machine.  I felt awesome afterwards.  Really energized and good.  I don’t remember every quite feeling that way after a workout…so cool.

I’ve since done one session of high-intensity resistance traning with some cardio and another session of interval training…this time running.  The running was fun too and again the interval thing made it more enjoyable for me.  For the high intensity part I tried to sprint as hard as I could (although Jen wanted me to keep my heart heart in a certain zone…really not a problem since I can’t really sprint that fast…yet).  Again I felt really excellent afterwards and still felt quite good for the rest of the day.  The kids were over with the grandkids and I had plenty of energy to plan and run around.  So much better!

I know that I am often very optimistic and kind of high at the beginning of things.  I really want to make a significant change in my life not just my weight.  I’m finding this whole combination of exercise, diet (which is working great too.  I’ll blog about separatetly) and supplements to already have made me feel lots better.  After I asked the doctor she indicated that it could take 9-12 months to get a “full” result.  I can’t wait to see what that’s going to feel like!

I’m now in week two of my Cenegenics directed hormone and supplement plan.  I have to say I’m now feeling pretty good.  I’m over my cold or allergies or whatever they were and, generally speaking, am feeling quite good.  Hard to know if it’s placebo effect or reality.  But does that really matter ultimately?  How you feel is the real measure.

Due the festivities around my mom’s 90th birthday this past weekend I’ve been pretty stressed and between that and the cold haven’t really worked out much.  My husband, daughter and I took a look walk in the canyon with lots of hills.  I felt strong (although a little cardio challenged occassionally) and enjoyed it.

I was planning on starting some interval training (as advised by Jen, my Cenegenics fitness trainer/nutritionist).  However, when I pulled into my driveway I felt so sleepy I thought “I’ll just close my eyes for a sec.”  Next thing I knew I was sound asleep and woke up (with my mouth hanging up…ick) about 15 minutes later.  That was a bit weird for me.  One of the things I hope to get from this program is increased energy but I’m not usually SO sleepy that I actually fall asleep.  Something similar happened the next day.  Late afternoon and I almost dropped off during a (boring) meeting.  Not like me.  I contacted my Cenegenics doctor and Jen.  The doctor advised that I stop taking my nighttime Melatonin (3 mg) and see if that’s what causing the sleepiness.  I’ll try that tonight although I will say I feel like I’ve been sleeping MUCH better but I’m taking so many things it’s hard to know what to attribute for that.

Also, I’ve been reading this really excellent book, The Power of Habits, about habits…how we get them and how to change them.  The book has some really interesting insights into how the brain forms habits and how one might influence that unconscious process to change one’s habits.  I definitely feel that’s what I need.  The book talks about the notion of “cues” that trigger an unconscious response.  For example, I noticed that as soon as I see food on a counter at home I feel an urge to have some.  I’m not hungry and, prior to seeing the thing, didn’t feel like eating.  As a result, I’ve resolved to keep things put away to avoid this “cue.”

I’m also thinking it’s important to take the notion of goals seriously.  In the past, I’ve made “committments” to doing things (exercise, eating better, etc.) but they were easily ignored.  The weren’t “real” commitments…more vague aspirations I suppose.  Realizing this here are my goals for the next two weeks:

• Interval training – minimum twice/week
• Strength training – 2/week
• Journal all food consumption
• Do some art thing every day (draw, paint, plan a project, sew something, practice quilting)

I don’t want to make too many commitments.  But these should be a good start.  I’ll try to post progress about them to help me keep them in the forefront of my mind and establish these things as routines.

I can’t seem to go to any site that has anything to do with health, fitness or aging without seeing an ad for Cenegenics.  Needless to say their strategy worked and I clicked on one of the ads.  Because who can resist seeing that picture of Dr. Life…I mean c’mon…a 72 year-old hot body?  Wow.

And so, my journey begins.

I clicked the ad and, feeling a little trepidation about giving my contact details, signed up to receive more information.  Within a short time I received an email from Dr. Weiss introducing himself and suggesting that we talk by phone.  I was busy and was feeling a little silly for trying yet another way to feel and look better.  The truth is that I feel somewhat obsessed with the whole aging process…and how to mitigate it. Probably my mother’s struggle with aging and, now, Alzheimer’s is a big influence. 

Part of me feels that I shouldn’t care about how I look.  I am a woman in her sixties.  I should be okay with that.  I’m told I look quite good for a woman of such advanced years which I, naturally, have a lot of trouble believing.  On top of that, I’ve gained 10-15 pounds in the last year and am the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life.  Not helping.  I was listening to a book and this phrase came up “she was an old woman of 60.”  Shit.  I do not feel like an old woman.  I’m afraid to be an old woman.  I want to accept being an old woman.  No, not just accept, I want to enjoy being an old woman!

Hence, Cenegenics.  I ignored the email.  I figured it would just be a sales pitch of some sort.  Then Dr. Weiss called me.  When I saw the number on my cell I didn’t know who it was but I was expecting a call so I answered.  Dr. Weiss was lovely.  He asked some questions about my health, fitness, etc.  Was quite nice when he tactfully explained that I would be considered “obese.”  (And if that’s not a scary, upsetting word…I don’t know what is.)  Then he explained the focus of the Cenegenics practice.  Basically, the idea is to evaluate your body chemistry (i.e., hormones, blood levels, etc.) and then help you through pharma- and nutri-ceuticals to restore your chemistry to a younger state.  By doing this, he explained, I would not only look better but actually feel better.  Since I read a lot about aging what he was saying made a lot of sense.

He explained that if I signed up for their program it would start with a very complete evaluation.  First, there would be an extensive blood panel.  Then I would go to one of their centers (they have seven) and would have a full day evaluation of fitness, body fat, etc.  Then a 2 or so hour consultation with the doctor who would likely recommend various things to get me back to where I want to be.  Once I got over the sticker shock I signed up.

Within a short time I received a couple of emails from personnel at Cenegenics and, specifically, the Los Angeles center that I would be visiting.  A few days later I was contacted to schedule someone coming to my home (or office) to draw blood for the chemistry panel.  I also received a variety of forms to fill out regarding my health, medical history and  lifestyle.

The technician arrived promptly and drew 7 vials of blood!  Apparently, they’re not kidding when they say they’re going to check everything your blood can tell them!  Then the very nice technician said, “okay…just need a urine sample.”  

“Uh oh,” I thought.  The appointment was fairly early (at least, for me) and, of course, I peed upon waking.  So I had nothin’.  He was very patient as I tried chugging down water and trying to eek out the small sample needed.  Nothing.  I asked if I could bring the sample somewhere?  He said, “I can come back and pick it up.”  Wow.  I had to go to work so I asked if I could leave it by the door (feeling kind of idiotic but when you’re dry you’re dry)?  “Sure,” he said.  Wow…again.

After more drinking and a small mishap spilling some of the “sample” as I was transferring it (per instructions) from the catcher jar into the sample vial I finally had enough to come up to the line indicated.  Phew!  I placed the vial in a plastic bag, set it out at my front door and left for work.

The appointment at the Los Angelese facility (which was scheduled during my original first call with Dr. Weiss) is next Monday.  Since I live in San Diego, I’ll drive up to LA and stay with my son on Sunday.  I am probably overly optimistic about what they’ll be able to do for me but it’ll be nice to hang out with Grant and Amy in any event.

There’s part of me that feels like I’m fighting uphill.  That I should just learn to accept the natural progression.  But what the heck!  I’m not ready to give up quite yet!

I haven’t blogged in a while and lots has happened.  I thought since I’ve started on the Cenegenics path I’d use it as a jumping off point to start blogging again with the ostensible purpose of documenting what I experience.  Along the way I hope to share more of what I’m up to, what’s going on in my life and generally enjoy capturing my thoughts and feelings.

I know it’s hard to picture but there IS such a thing as too much chocolate.

This weekend I finally made the cake pictured above for my dear friend’s birthday. I had made the cake before and it came out great taste-wise but it’s look were a bit sub-par. My friend’s birthday was in May and we’ve been trying to get together before and since. Trying to coordinate people’s social calendars is a pain.

The cake is from a recipe in Pure Chocolate.  The recipe is called ‘Blanc et Noir’ for obvious reasons. It’s a fantastic concoction of dark and white chocolate. The cake itself is a flourless chocolate cake. The filling is a white chocolate ganache. And the outer coating is a dark chocolate ganache. It would be hard to imagine cramming more chocolate per mouthful. Even the decorative swirls on top are done with white chocolate.

Making the cake is a two day process. The cake is made first and then must cool for at least 4 hours (or overnight) in the refrigerator. The white chocolate ganache also needs to be made in advance as it needs an overnight sit on the counter to setup properly. These two steps were done on Friday night after work.

The cake comes together fairly straightforwardly but there’s a lot of folding and chocolate melting. Last time I made it I used a stainless steel bowl set over a simmering pot of water to melt the chocolate and this required a lot of standing over the pot and stirring to ensure that the chocolate didn’t burn. This time I decided to try the microwave. Normally, I adopt a snooty attitude about using the microwave for “fine” baking. I *have* to do it “right”…from scratch…the old-fashioned way. Eh. Melting is melting. And, if you’re careful and do the melting in small increments, it works just fine. There was still plenty of hand mixing to do when it came to folding the whipped egg whites and sugar into the melted chocolate, butter, sugar mixture.

It’s a pretty heavy batter but it looks (okay, and it tastes) fantastic.   The heavy chocolate, sugar, egg yolk mixture is lightened with lots of folding of stiff egg whites (beaten with sugar).

The batter goes in a buttered, parchment lined and rebuttered quarter-sheet pan.  I diagonally cut the corners of the parchment and overlap to get nice crisp corners.  The batter is smoothed into the pan making sure that you get it even and the edges and corners have an equal amount of batter.  (Last time I didn’t pay enough attention to the corners and edges and they came out too thin and brittle).

I use pretty high end chocolate for my chocolate concoctions (in this case El Rey and Guittard for the cake, Valrhona white chocolate for the filling and Scharfenberger for the dark chocolate ganache). I may be rethinking this after the later developments of my chocolate weekend.

Once the cake was in the oven, I proceeded to the white chocolate ganache. Ganache is surprisingly easy to make. Heat some cream to just boiling and dump in a bunch of chocolate. Let the chocolate warm for a minute and then mix together. You need to make sure the cream is well heated so all the chocolate can get warm enough to melt. Stir until all chocolate is melted and then cover with plastic wrap touching the surface (to prevent a skin forming). Just leave it on the counter overnight to setup.

The only bad part about making this wonderful confection is the cleanup. It creates a LOT of cleanup: bowls, pans, counters, utensils all covered in dark chocolate. Although there are a lot of things to wash they do clean up pretty easily (chocolate melts off in hot water) compared to cleaning up after making bread. Dough does not melt…it clumps.

The cake bakes for about 45 minutes and then it briefly cools on a wire rack in the pan. Then it’s placed in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (or overnight – if overnight wrap it completely in plastic after it’s been in the frig for an hour or so).

The next day is mostly assembly.  First the dark chocolate ganache is prepared by heating a cup of cream and pouring it over 8 ounces of dark (I used 66% El Rey) chocolate. I gave it a minute to get melty and then stirred (and stirred and stirred) to get a smooth velvety consistency. 1/4 cup is placed in the frig to harden up a bit while the rest is left to cool down and reach a thick, pourable consistency.

The cake is removed from the pan by inverting another pan on top of it, flipping the whole thing over and then removing the parchment paper. Now for the construction! Carefully measure the cake (it shrinks some when cooled) and figure out the widths for three even pieces (from the length of the cake). In my case, the cake had shrunk to about 11 1/2″ in length so I made each piece 3 3/4″ by measuring and putting a toothpick in to mark the spot. Then I used a T-square to get nice perpendicular cuts. Now you have the three cake layers.

The white chocolate ganache should be the consistency of warm butter (not melted but gooey) after setting up overnight. It gets whipped in the mixer to create a light mixture to use as the filling. I created a base for the cake by cutting a 4″X8″ piece of cardboard. Then I cut a larger piece of cardboard and covered it in parchment paper to make a foundation to put the cake on. It looks nicer that way and is easier to handle.

I placed one layer on the 4X8 cardboard and then cover with 1/2 the filling. I made sure the filling went all the way out to the edges so that, when sliced, each piece would have an identical look and the finishing ganache covering would be even. Then the middle layer went on, followed by the other 1/2 of the filling and then topped by the third layer.

By this time, the 1/4 cup of dark chocolate ganache had setup a bit too much (it was solid). So I gave it a quick nuke (20 seconds) and it returned to a spreadable consistency. This bit of ganache is used to make a crumb coat on the layered cake in preparation for covering completely in ganache. Once the crumb coat was complete I turned to the ganache which seemed a bit clumpy when I checked it. So this went on top of a pot of simmering water to warm it a bit. It was about 94 degrees when I felt it was ready for pouring.

To be ready for the final decoration step, I melted 2 ounces of white chocolate (I just used Candy Melts since it’s such a small quantity) in the microwave and then added 2 tablespoons of oil (so it doesn’t harden too quickly). Now for the ganache pour!

The setup for pouring ganache is also easy. I just set out a (non-stick) pan, place a rack over it and then set the cake (on it’s little cardboard) onto the rack. First I pour the ganache around the edges of the top making sure the sides get a good coating. Then I pour along the top and use an offset spatula to smooth and allow the ganache to run over the sides. The smell is heaven!

Once the cake is complete covered you have to work pretty quickly. I had prepared a small parchment paper cone and loaded the white chocolate/oil mix into it. I quickly cut a very small hole in the tip and made three parallel lines down the top of the cake. Then, using a toothpick, I made figure eights through the lines to create the swirls. Simple!

The cake was served to our friends that evening and pronounced delectable. But wait! There was more chocolate to come. My husband likes to take treats to work for his colleagues. This week there was a request for brownies (with nuts) and fudge (without nuts). The brownies were made first and came together easily and deliciously. The fudge. Oy. The fudge. That turned into the most horrible, inedible mess I have ever created. Who knew that fudge was that hard to make!? Of course, forgetting a key ingredient (like milk) in the recipe certainly didn’t help. Nor did letting it get too hot. Again, who knew the when you let chocolate/sugar syrup heat up too much it turns into rock hard candy that you can only get out of the pot with a chisel?!! And then you have the privilege of throwing away a pound of very expensive chocolate along with everything else.

Undefeated I’m going to pick up a digital candy thermometer today and the fudge and I will be going at it again. We’ll see who survives.

A wonderful, busy weekend!  My beautiful daughter, Cassie, was in town for the weekend and that always makes for a wonderful time for me (and I think for her too).  One of the great delights of parenthood is having adult children who you really like.  I am lucky enough to like all my children but there is a special relationship between mothers and daughters.  Especially since my daughter and I are so very much alike.  Even though we don’t look much alike, our personalities, verbal and facial expressions, mannerisms, world-view and sense of humor are practically identical.  Our communications are so easy because we intuitively “get” each other.

Cass was going to a get together at an old friend’s place.  She was very enthusiastic about baking some things to take.  After polling a bit on Facebook, the consensus wanted chocolate and peanut butter preferably in cookie form.

This was fine with me!  I had also had my eye on a recipe for a Cherry Upside –Down Cake and hadn’t really have a good enough reason to tackle it so this provided a perfect excuse.  So we decided on Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies based on a recipe from the Martha Stewart Cookies book AND the cherry cake.

I made the cherry cake while they were out looking at houses.  I based it on a recipe in Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More but increased the size since it was for a large’ish group (plus I wanted to keep some for us).  Cass had the foresight to bring 1 ½ of cherries on the plane from Seattle.  So we had “genuine” Washington bing cherries.  I had recently acquired an OXO cherry pitter that had been waiting for the right opportunity.  We made quick work of pitting those cherries on Friday night (her boyfriend was tasked with eating any cherries that were incompletely pitted…he made an excellent garbage disposal).

The recipe starts out with one of the trickiest bits: making a caramel sauce.  While not particularly difficult since it’s just mixing up some sugar, butter and liquid and heating it up, it does require vigilance as the heated sugar can quickly go from a lovely amber caramel to a horrible, burned, sticky mess.  Making such things underscores the need for patience in baking and cooking (and life).  Keeping the heat under the pan moderate enables one the control the process but can really try one’s nerves if one doesn’t have a patient nature (or hasn’t cultivated one).  And, I must admit, this one hasn’t.  Patience is a virtue that I have managed to eschew for a long, long time.  So standing there, stirring and watching sugar boil (a process very similar to watching paint dry or grass grow), was the most difficult part of the recipe.

Once the sugar concoction had reached a deep (but not burned) amber color, it was poured into a pan pre-prepared with a butter coating (even though I was using a non-stick pan I buttered it well since I wanted to make sure the cake would easily slide out when flipped).  The caramel was left to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes and then I began the process of lining up the cherries in the caramel.  It took a bit of time to make sure the cherries were uniformly distributed with pitted side up (so the prettier un-pitted side would on top once the cake was complete).  I used a 9X13” pan and, it was another trial of patience to line those cherries up across the entire pan.

Now that the cherries were all marching together through the caramel, it was time to make the cake.  The cake batter used the creaming method but with the twist of using egg yolks and sour cream for the liquid and then folding in whipped egg whites to really lighten the texture.  The batter was a really smooth, thick texture.  I carefully piled it onto the cherries and then gingerly, using an offset spatula, smoothed it out and made sure the corners had cake.

The cake baked in a 350 degree oven for about 60 minutes.  The cake turned a deep brown and when poked to test doneness, lots of steam from the cherries escaped.  The smell was heavenly.  I removed the cake and let it cool on a rack for about 45 minutes.  Then it was time for the last tricky bit.  I didn’t have any flat plates or platters, so I used a cutting board.  I placed the cutting board over the cake, scooted it toward the edge of the counter (the pan was still quite warm – I had to keep oven mitts on), grabbed it toward the middle of opposing sides and quickly flipped it over.  Gratifyingly, it easily slipped out of the pan and stood there looking very proud of itself.  The caramel had oozed onto the cherries and into the spaces between.  The top was a gleaming dark, dark burgundy color and the cake was a lovely, moist bed with cherry juice dripping down.

With all that accomplished and turned my attention to the dog, Gyro.  He would have preferred that I didn’t because the attention manifested itself as a bath.  Actually, he got bathed with two different medicated shampoos and then had a crème rinse.  Personally, I would have loved that kind of pampering.  Gyro didn’t seem to share that sentiment.  Poor itchy dog.

Once I recovered from the bathing process, got myself bathed and dressed, my husband and I fed, Cass returned home.  We now tackled the cookies.  This was a great recipe.  Really easy to throw together…after the creaming of the butter and sugar everything just gets dumped in.  We had a couple of half-sheet pans lined with parchment paper and, using a small scoop, dropped cookies onto the sheets.  A quick bake and they were ready.  This recipe produced some lovely, chewy cookies.  The oatmeal seemed to give them a very tender texture and the combination of chocolate and peanut butter…well, how could you go wrong.

Once cooled we packed all the goodies up and I drove Cass to Emily’s house (Cass has know Emily since junior high school).  The party was organized for their friend Rebecca – one of Cassie’s closest friends. She has known her since third grade.  I was convinced to pop-in and say hello before disappearing (okay…it didn’t take much convincing – it’s fun to see those little girls I knew all grown up).  Based upon the empty containers I received back later, I think the baking adventure was quite a success!

Cherry Upside Down Cake Recipe

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 9X13″ cake pan, preferably non-stick.

Caramel

• 3 ounces (6 tbl) butter
• 8 ounces (1 cup) granulated sugar
• 3 tbl lemon juice
• 2 1/4 pounds sweet cherries, pitted (about 6 cups)

Melt the butter over medium heat (keep the heat fairly low so butter doesn’t burn or brown…just melts), then stir in the sugar and lemon juice.  Turn the heat up slightly and bring to a boil (keep mixing and WATCHING).  As it boils it will eventually (about 5 minutes) turn a rich amber color.  Once it turns amber remove the pan from the heat and pour the caramel into the prepared pan.

Place the cherries, in a single layer, on top of the caramel with the pitted sides up (so the top will look pretty).

Cake

• 13 1/4 ounces AP flour (2 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 9 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons)
• 12 ounces granulated sugar (1 3/4 cups)
• Zest and juice of one orange
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream

Whisk flour, cinnamon, baking power, baking soda and salt together.  Using a mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and orange zest together until light and fluffy.  Add egg yolks one at a time and allow to incorporate (scraping down the sides of bowl).  Then add orange juice and vanilla.  Add the flour and sour cream, alternating 1/3 flour mix, 1/2 sour cream, repeat and finish with flour mix.  The batter will be quite thick.

In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed.  Fold half the whites into the batter and incorporate completely.  Then fold the remaining whites into the batter.

Carefully pour the batter over the cherries, trying not to disturb the cherry arrangement.  Smooth the batter over the cherries with an offset spatula making sure the batter completely covers the cherries and is evenly distributed.

Bake for 60 minutes or so.  The cake should turn a nice golden brown and spring back when pressed.  The internal temperature should be at lest 190F.  (The cake may crack from the escaping steam from the cherry liquid but don’t worry about it since you’ll be flipping the cake.)  Let the cake cool on a rack for 45 minutes.

Now the slightly tricky bit.  Place a flat plate, platter or chopping board on top of the pan.  The pan will still be pretty hot so make sure to use oven gloves or pot holders.  Hold the pan and plate firmly together in the middle of opposite sides and gingerly rotate your wrists, turning the whole thing upside down.  Lift the pan straight up and the cake will slide right out and you should be staring at a beautiful sight!

The cake will keep up to 3 days wrapped in plastic (after it has cooled completely).