Brownies for Breakfast: Redefining Comfort Food for a Healthier You With Author, Lynne Bowman

Debra Coleman [00:00:09]:
Well, hello and welcome back to another exciting episode of Have A Seat, conversations with women in the workplace podcast. I am so thrilled to bring you this week's conversation. And the reason why I say it's exciting because it's a little bit of a personal note. My guest this week is miss Lynn Bowman. She is the author of a fabulous cookbook called Brownies for Breakfast, a cookbook for diabetics and the people who love them. It is a beautiful cookbook. Yes, it is a diabetic cookbook, but you'll actually enjoy reading and using this. It's not just it's yes.

Debra Coleman [00:00:47]:
It's it's a great resource and cookbook for diabetics, but and those who are in their lives who if you have a diabetic in the family that, you know, of course, goes under your roof or that you cook for quite often, this is a beautiful and very down to earth and relatable and easy to follow recipe cookbook that you should definitely add to your cookbook library. It is honest, complete, simple. It has your favorite sweets and comfort foods, but reimagined as whole food, plant based, sugar free, low carb, dairy free, and gluten free. They have these recipes are accompanied by wonderful commentary by Lynn, and beautiful graphics and photographs and nutritional facts for every rate for every recipe. Listen, friends, this is definitely a cookbook you will want again in your cookbook library. The recipes are super simple and flexible. And honestly, they will quickly become some of your family favorites. And those doubters in your family who are like, what? Diabetic recipe.

Debra Coleman [00:01:52]:
And trust me. One bite and they won't even know. They won't even realize. You don't have to tell anybody. It can just be your secret love cookbook. Listen, Lynne Bowman is a wonderful woman who has been featured at women's expos throughout the country. She has also teamed up with actress Deidre Hall to write and publish several of Deidre Hall's books called one called Deidre Hall's Kitchen Close Up and another called Dedra Hall's How Does She Do It? So you see in previous lives, Lynn won national awards as a creative director for Silicon Valley Companies, was a creative director at E and J Gallo Winery, an advertising manager at Redken Laboratories, and freelance for agencies in San Jose, LA, and New York. She is fabulous, and the advice and guidance she dispenses during her conversation is in valuable.

Debra Coleman [00:02:44]:
But what I love most about Lynn and her messaging is that she is so relatable and down to earth and just really brings it home. Because believe me, you all. Believe me. I get it. I understand. When I hear conversations like this, like eat healthier, eat whole foods, eat this and that, I up until a few months ago, I was sort of a doubter as well. But recently, a few months ago, Paul and I decided to adopt a sugar free lifestyle for our own health reasons. And let me tell you, it has been transformative.

Debra Coleman [00:03:19]:
Insane how wonderful our lives have improved. Our health has improved. And it is super simple. If you know me, you know I am not a baker. I am not I mean, I I measure with love. Like, I am not anybody who you can even I mean, you would not have me on a cooking show where I would, like, show you this is how you measure and do this and that. No. I am famous for tossing things in.

Debra Coleman [00:03:45]:
Just a shit ton of that. A little bit of that. Like, that's how I bake and and cook. Right? I I don't even bake. I'm not even gonna insult those of you who do by saving claiming to be a baker. But so if I can actually adopt this lifestyle and adopt our what we eat to just sugar free versions, you can too. Too. If you are at all interested or playing around with the idea or know like I did and Paul did, we knew in our heart we needed to make some better choices in terms of our nutrition and our diet.

Debra Coleman [00:04:15]:
And when I say diet, I mean, like, the food we were eating every day, like our just our overall menu planning. This episode is for you. Honestly, Lynn breaks it down in very digestible, no pun intended, steps and advice and guidance. It is it honestly, it is so much easier than you realize. So without further ado, here is my conversation with the delightful miss Lynn Bowman as we discuss brownies for breakfast, a cookbook for diabetics and the people who love them. Well, here we go. Oh, friends. Welcome back to Have A Seat Conversations with Women in the Workplace podcast.

Debra Coleman [00:04:54]:
Joining me today in the Have A Seat virtual lounge is the wonderful, wonderful, miss Lynn Bowman, author of Brownies for Breakfast among many dietary cookbooks for us out there. And it is this book is special, and that's what we're going to talk about a little bit today. But Lynn has so much experience with a healthy lifestyle and making healthy choices for us in our diets and in our daily menus and what we make for ourselves. And I, myself, selfishly, have just started on this journey with my husband. So I will be low key kind of, poking Lynn's brain, for my own interest as well. So just wanted to put that out there. But before we get started, let me formally introduce miss Lynn Bowman to have a seat. Thank you, Lynn, for taking time to have a seat with me today.

lynne [00:05:44]:
I love this stuff as you know already because we've been yacking our heads off. And, it's it's the most fun thing just about that I do. So thank you for for giving me a seat.

Debra Coleman [00:05:56]:
Love it. You are welcome. And I I was so excited, and it shows how much you love it. It really does. And and like you mentioned in the chat, we've been having even via email and in your website and in your book. It just it really shines through how much you believe in this, not only for what you are providing to us, but for us as well. Like, you can feel that encouragement and that empowerment coming through. And so that's that's another reason why I'm so excited to share you with my audience because they need to get to know all things, Lynn.

Debra Coleman [00:06:25]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, okay. Well, let's see. Let's let's take a few steps back if we if we can. And, first of all, you have had such a wonderful and successful career, and diverse career before pivoting into the world of healthy cooking and writing cookbooks. Can you please share with us, Lynn, what sort of made you pivot into that area and shift your focus to creating, specifically diabetic friendly recipes and cookbooks along those lines?

lynne [00:06:59]:
1st, I want to just say, you know why my career is so diverse? And, I'm old, Deborah, I'm really, really old. I've been working since the dawn of time for Pete's sake. And when I start my first full time job, 1966 ladies, okay, at an advertising agency in downtown LA, 1966. So the whole mad men thing, did you say, okay, that was me. That really happened. I was wearing those shoes, that jewelry. You know? I was walking that way. I was getting caught in the elevator by the boss.

lynne [00:07:44]:
Just, I mean, all that stuff. It happened. It really happened.

Debra Coleman [00:07:49]:
I love

lynne [00:07:50]:
it. I love it. So a lot of my career movement was about getting fired, you know, getting tossed out on the pavement a couple of 3, 4 times. Finding myself, excuse me, just in the wrong place at the wrong time, which we've all done. You know, I didn't expect a smooth path because women didn't do that. We just didn't. I was brought up like so many women of my time to be a housewife, a mother, or a woman of social habits. Well, none of that particularly was going to happen easily.

lynne [00:08:36]:
I did want to be a mother and I eventually became a mother of 3, and now grandmother of 3, happy to say. But you know, boy it was a bumpy road girls. I mean, Yeah, I started out in LA so the jobs that were available typically were in show business in some way, related to show business. And so that I did makeup and I did script writing and I actually I dropped out of UCLA because well, a lot of reasons. But one, it was boring. Can I say that?

Debra Coleman [00:09:21]:
You can. Absolutely. Alright.

lynne [00:09:23]:
And but that was then, and it was boring. I hope it's no longer as boring. But I dropped out and I was going to go to Paris which I eventually did and be an artiste which I also did and still do from time to time. But those were I didn't have the ambition that young women particularly have now to be a thing, you know, an attorney who's doing work at the highest level. No. Those things were not available to us. And people are shocked, young ladies are shocked even when I point out as I'm fond of doing that in 1964 when I graduated from high school, I couldn't go to Harvard. Harvard didn't accept females.

lynne [00:10:24]:
It was not coed. And, you know

Debra Coleman [00:10:29]:
That's not that long ago.

lynne [00:10:31]:
I didn't really

Debra Coleman [00:10:32]:
In the history of life, that's not that long ago.

lynne [00:10:35]:
And I didn't particularly want to go to Harvard, but

Debra Coleman [00:10:39]:
Still.

lynne [00:10:40]:
The world has and now we're kind of going back the other way, which is all other discussion. And I'm not happy about that at all. But it was a different world in 1964. And it was a lot of fun in many ways, too. So I don't regret that. And I don't mean to say I regret it, but, it was different. So starting into a career, you didn't have a plan. There was no plan.

lynne [00:11:09]:
You did what was kind of in front of you to do. And one of the, after I went to Europe, I came back, I found a job. In those days we looked in the classified ads And the classified ads, Los Angeles Times, were help wanted men and help wanted women. Really? Those are different sections in the paper.

Debra Coleman [00:11:35]:
Gosh. I had no idea.

lynne [00:11:38]:
Yeah. And so I was always kind of looking at the help wanted men thing going, wait a minute. I could do that. I could do that. And so one of the things that I somehow stumbled into that I thought I could do was technical writing. I got a job at ITT, Canon Electric in Los Angeles writing about electrical connectors.

Debra Coleman [00:12:04]:
And that was not boring?

lynne [00:12:08]:
Well I was so excited. I wanted to work. I was excited. I didn't want to pay somebody for me to write for them. I wanted somebody to pay me to write for them.

Debra Coleman [00:12:21]:
Okay.

lynne [00:12:23]:
Because I knew I could write. Ask me how I knew, I didn't, I just, I knew. I'd been brought up by an English Lit major and unfortunately she died when I was 18. But she left me with a couple of very important legacies. One that I could speak and I could write, thanks to her and spell Because she always made me open up if, you know, I had to articulate the word correctly and if I spelled it wrong I had to look it up. And she also, by leaving me, freed me, liberated me in a very painful way, but a way that most women couldn't experience at that time. I didn't have anyone breathing over my shoulder telling me that I wasn't being correct or that I was doing something scary or whatever. Which now I understand so many women have those voices, whether it's their mother, their grandparents, their husbands, their sis someone, they have these voices telling them what they cannot do or what they should not do.

lynne [00:13:32]:
And especially now that I have friends who grew up in a very religious household, evangelical households and so on. The women are held to this completely different standard and spoken to a different way and brought up an entirely different way. And some have broken out of that and fought that, some haven't. So I realized that by leaving me, I was really ticked off at her for a long time for knowing, but she allowed me to be someone that I couldn't possibly have been otherwise. And I also understood from that point on what chronic disease did to a family. She had kidney disease, which she couldn't have helped, But what I saw was disease disintegrating a family. It took the money. It took the house, the dog, that my dad, everything was gone because she was unwell.

lynne [00:14:40]:
And this is happening still all the time. Something like 85% of the bankruptcies in this country are because of illness, ill health, medical bills.

Debra Coleman [00:14:52]:
Devastating.

lynne [00:14:53]:
You know, and we think we have insurance or maybe we don't, but even if you have insurance then you find out that oh that's not covered, that particular thing. And of course the the energy that it takes to get that insurance money, that's time and a horrible kind of process to go through. So that was a lesson learned early in my life. And so that is coming full circle now to what you're asking, which was how did I get here? How did I start to write about food? Well, guess what? Guess what the best way is to prevent chronic disease?

Debra Coleman [00:15:36]:
A proper diet. Food. Eating right, eating healthy.

lynne [00:15:40]:
Yeah. Yes. But I don't like the word proper. I like the word fabulous, gorgeous, delicious. Because in this country, what we don't understand is that good food is healthy. It's wonderful. It's bad food. It's not healthy and wonderful.

lynne [00:16:01]:
And here's my theme for today, Deborah. Simplicity. Alright? I am not a great cook. I'm an impatient, sloppy cook. So I have written for people who may become like me, who don't have enormous patience with measuring everything and being sure they have everything in the cupboard that they need and, you know, being sure that they know what everybody wants. My system is I put one thing on I had 3 kids. It was a single mom, by the way. Married very badly several times.

lynne [00:16:36]:
Yeah. But But I always worked. And so my kids were brought up knowing that I was gonna put one meal on the table for everybody. I was not gonna put one thing on the table for junior and one other thing on the table for a little Mary Jane and another thing on the table for grandpa. No. No. No. We all ate the same meal because I don't have time for that.

lynne [00:17:02]:
Right? Or the money. So I have a system, a way of thinking about food, which is put something wonderful on the table based on what you already have in the house, if at all possible. Make it fast. I can throw a meal on in 15 minutes, no sweat. And then make it pretty. Make it yeah. And as long as you're eating whole food, real food, and now other people are starting to talk about this and you probably already know what I mean by real food and whole food. You're good.

lynne [00:17:43]:
Mostly plants. You're good. That's it.

Debra Coleman [00:17:48]:
Is that what real food is? What is real food since we're there?

lynne [00:17:52]:
Real food is food that your great grandma might have eaten. Real food does not come in plastic wrap. Real food does not have a list of ingredients. It might have 2 ingredients or 3 or 4 ingredients, but it doesn't have a list. And you can pronounce all those things and you know what they are. Real food is made in the dirt, not in a lab. Real food comes off the grass, walks, flies, or falls off a tree. You know what real food is, and real food isn't crap.

lynne [00:18:34]:
And so my mission is basically just to get people to stop eating crap Because that's what makes you feel like crap. And ultimately it makes you sick. And there's all kinds of science now about it. There's just tons and tons of research that keeps coming back to the same. And plus now we're in this digital world where, and you and I are podcasting all the time and we know who else is out there podcasting, and there are the bros in the muscle shirts, the short sleeves that want to tell you the ultimate way to eat. You know powerful way to eat. And they all have their kind of shtick that they're doing about it. So it's carnivore, it's Keto, or it's this or that.

lynne [00:19:29]:
You know what? It's the grandma way. It's the snarky grandma way. That's what it is. Just eat real food, whole food, mostly plants. And the reason that's important is because you know that Americans particularly don't eat plants. They eat bread, pretty much white bread, with some kind of unidentified meat like substance inside it, from who knows where. And their idea of a vegetable is the ketchup or the pickle on the side. And I don't want pickles derived in here.

lynne [00:20:12]:
Pickles are wonderful food by the way. And let's talk for just a second about fermented food. Because I'm shocked, I tell you shocked, at the number of people who kind of don't, aren't aware of the importance of eating fermented foods.

Debra Coleman [00:20:28]:
I am one of those.

lynne [00:20:31]:
Are you okay. Good. I got

Debra Coleman [00:20:33]:
you. Please. Please. Educate us.

lynne [00:20:35]:
Yeah. They're mine now. Alright. Fermented food is the food that has bugs in it. Microbiome bugs, microbes that feed your microbiome. Now there's lots out there in information all over the place about how there is this gut brain connection in people. Your gut is where you process food. You can't properly process food without all those helpful microbes in there.

lynne [00:21:14]:
And if you have, if you have for example, had an illness of some kind and you've been treated with an antibiotic, it's all been killed off. So you can no longer process food correctly. But even if you haven't had an antibiotic, very important if you have, but you need to continually supply the fabulous darling little microbes that you need in your gut to process the food that's coming in. And the way to do that is to eat sauerkraut. Y'all know sauerkraut? Know what it is? Yeah? Yogurt, live culture yogurt, and I'm talking about a live culture when I talk about bugs. When you eat yogurt, make it a whole Greek, full fat, all the way real yogurt. Not some little, you know, kind of long fat, you know, with strawberry goo in it. No.

lynne [00:22:19]:
No. No. Real yogurt. If you want strawberry goo put your own strawberries in it. That's fine. But good Greek yogurt. My new favorite, which I am completely addicted to is kimchi, which is Korean sauerkraut essentially. It's the same idea, but the vegetables and the cabbage are typically chopped up a little rougher, so they have a little more substance and it's hot.

lynne [00:22:52]:
It's it's typically got some spice in it. It's usually a reddish color. It's delicious in a very hot and naughty way. And, boy, I I make a I call it a kimcheese sandwich. I broil, a goat cheese on my toast and my toast is always a fabulous sourdough, whole grain with walnuts in it. So I put it in my toaster oven with some goat cheese on it, heat it up. Very easy. Melt the cheese and then I've squished the juice out of kimchi, chopped it up a little and put it on the middle.

lynne [00:23:31]:
And I have the goat cheese and the sourdough on either side. It's the most delicious meal. And that, kimchi, every day you should consume, if you can, some kind of fermented food. Pickles. Any kind of pickles, but please don't eat pickles with sugar in it. Eat dill pickles. Anything that is brined, preserved in salt water is going to be fermented and have great bugs. So one of my oh, another new favorite, kombucha.

Debra Coleman [00:24:10]:
I haven't had that yet. Kombucha? I haven't yet.

lynne [00:24:15]:
No. I So good.

Debra Coleman [00:24:17]:
What's it take what what tastes

lynne [00:24:18]:
it like? What,

Debra Coleman [00:24:19]:
is there different kinds? Or

lynne [00:24:21]:
Kombucha is nothing but, kind of fancy soda. It's it's sparkling water with bugs in it, but but it's flavored. I my favorite is a watermelon flavor, guava flavor, but barely a tiny bit of sugar, just enough in some of them to get them to react. Some of them claim to be sugar free, but it's fermented. And so you get the benefit of eating a fermented food. What am I forgetting? Sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, yogurt. I'll think of them all after we talk. I send this stuff out, and it's very important.

lynne [00:25:12]:
All of you know, and you can search what are fermented foods. And find something you like and make it a habit. And I don't like to pay too much for food either. So I'm a great fan of Trader Joe's. They have most of these items that I'm talking about.

Debra Coleman [00:25:33]:
That's good to know.

lynne [00:25:34]:
What else? Where are we? I'm just going on and on down.

Debra Coleman [00:25:38]:
I I know. This is so great. I'm, like, taking notes as we're talking. I gosh. I had so many questions. Okay. So I know I have some written down, but some came to mind. I love the advice.

Debra Coleman [00:25:50]:
I love your approach that really makes it okay to not have Trader Joe's in our pantry. Okay? Because or to make it seem like because I think what shies people away from healthy healthy food conversations like this is, okay. Here we go. What am I gonna have to buy? How many groceries am I how many ingredients? What do I not have? I know I'm, like, doing it wrong. You know, we just kinda, like, start to talk down on ourselves. But your approach and your messaging is very I love that you said, look, one meal and we're done funds. We don't have to worry about this. I offer you solutions of things that you probably already have or can easily get at your local grocery store in the produce section.

Debra Coleman [00:26:28]:
I just I love that approach. So talk to the members of those who are listening who are like, Lynn, I get you, girl. But who has I don't I don't know if I have time for that. I don't know if I wanna go to the store for that. I don't know. Like, what do you say to the doubters about how who they who believe this is a complicated choice?

lynne [00:26:47]:
Well, what I say and this is not we don't have video on this show.

Debra Coleman [00:26:52]:
No. Unfortunately.

lynne [00:26:53]:
Unfortunately. But, I like to say, okay, I'm 78. I can lift £65 deadlift. You know, I mean, I'll go on the whole list, but if you wanna be 78 like I'm 78, you have to do this. That's the only way. You have to eat well and smart, and if you're raising children, please, you've got to do this for them. And another, like, big, big thing we've talked about, fermented foods, but maybe the number one thing, Deborah, that I want everyone to do now today, listen up. You absolutely must quit eating sugar.

lynne [00:27:45]:
And I mean maple syrup, coconut sugar, honey even, those are sugar. And if you slip up, you know, once a week and have a half a teaspoon of honey, I'm not gonna come bursting through your window in flames and or anything. But as a habit, you must quit eating sugar, and I don't wanna hear the whining. Don't wanna hear it. You have to do this. It's literally killing you. It's poison. And, and as a former diabetic, and, obviously, I'm still diabetic, you always are type 2 diabetic if you slip up, if you get off the wagon, you know, and don't do what you're supposed to do.

lynne [00:28:33]:
So I had a very keen interest in it, but now I understand that even if you're not diabetic or borderline as they call it diabetic, this is a thing you need to do for your gut, for your skin, for your hair, for everything. You have to quit eating sugar. And if you're eating anything in a box or a bag or drinking something in a can, the next rule, it Lynn's rule is read the label. Read it.

Debra Coleman [00:29:07]:
Read the label. Mhmm.

lynne [00:29:08]:
And it's almost always gonna have sugar in it. So the bad news is you've got to make something. You have to cook something. Because the people who are making food for you are fine if you're killed by it. They don't care. They're fine if they've shortened your life by 10 years or given you a chronic disease. That's okay, long as they can't be sued, as long as they, credible deniability, they don't care. And I'm being a little snarky about it, but that is the truth.

Debra Coleman [00:29:44]:
It is.

lynne [00:29:45]:
There is an entire industry, couple of industries out there who are based on making crappy food that you can't quit eating. And the reason you can't quit eating it is because it's mostly sugar, which is addictive. I'm not the first person to say this or the only person to say this. It's the information is out there, it's known, but you have to quit. Right? It isn't enough to read about it or know about it. You gotta quit doing it. You have to. So here's your new best friend.

lynne [00:30:18]:
Wait a minute. Here's a word. If you don't know this word, I want you to know this word. Allulose is a great sweetener. It's what's called a rare sugar. It's a natural product. It's got one ingredient, which is allulose. It's actually squished out of corn or something.

lynne [00:30:36]:
But it's it's read about it. Look it up. Google it, as were fond of saying. Allulose. Another one is monk fruit, very, very good.

Debra Coleman [00:30:49]:
I've heard

lynne [00:30:49]:
of that. Mhmm. But if it's got monk fruit in it or allulose in it, you're good. And you're gonna probably have to buy it online because the stores don't necessarily stock it. They stock a lot of sugar.

Debra Coleman [00:31:07]:
Mhmm, yeah.

lynne [00:31:09]:
Tons and tons and tons of sugar. Tons.

Debra Coleman [00:31:12]:
Tons. I But love this part of the conversation. This is definitely one of the questions that I want to ask you, so I'm so glad you are expanding on this. In true transparency, I'm again I'm I'm I'm saving this for the show. I was so excited. I told my husband, I'm so excited. Talked to Lynn to share. Friends, what Lynn is saying, I I am 100% living.

Debra Coleman [00:31:33]:
About 8 weeks ago now, my husband and I chose to do a sugar free lifestyle. We were amazed. Everything Lynn is saying, 100 1000% true. We just flipped those labels around. And let me tell you, my first lesson was the difference between sugar free and no sugar added because there's, like, a Grand Canyon of difference here. I'm preaching to the choir. Long story short, we have never felt better. My husband has lost £30.

Debra Coleman [00:32:03]:
I have lost 15. We don't eat out anymore. We don't need to because like Lynn's cookbooks helps demonstrate, we can make it. I can make a meal faster than we could drive and order it and take it home and bring it Better. And it's And it tastes so much better. And we are controlling what we are making it with. We don't make any and no sugar is for us, it went beyond just, oh, the obvious. Okay.

Debra Coleman [00:32:30]:
No soda. No cookies. No cakes. No candy. It went beyond that. Like Lynn said, you'd be surprised. Flip the label. Oh my gosh.

Debra Coleman [00:32:37]:
Pancake mix? Out. Syrup? In the traditional sense, I'm talking about these foods. Out. Even, like, I have the I love this Thai chili sauce from Panda Express that they sell in the store. Oh my god. I flipped that around. It was, like, 19 grams of sugar. I'm like, oh, I can't.

Debra Coleman [00:32:52]:
You know what? You you'd be surprised.

lynne [00:32:54]:
But I don't feel limited. All the prepared foods. All the savory prepared foods have sugar.

Debra Coleman [00:33:01]:
Yes. Unbelievable, Lynn. So I am I am put picking up what you are putting down a 1000%, and I am behind you marching to the beat of your drum because it is so true. So true. I just applaud this because also, number 1, 2, we don't feel deprived in any way, shape, or form. Not at all. If anything, like you say, it's opened our mind to so many wonderful recipes and food combinations. I had cabbage and ground beef for lunch today.

Debra Coleman [00:33:28]:
Cooked cabbage and grab I it was so lovely. And wonder I found a sugar free barbecue sauce, so I made sugar free chicken barbecue chicken on top of cabbage. Didn't even miss the bun. Didn't miss all the all the stuff that goes on the, you know, the that go with it. Just making healthy choices, we don't feel limited. We have definitely gotten a healthier physique both inside and outside. And so, Lynn, I'm here to tell you, I am team Lynn all the way.

lynne [00:33:58]:
Okay. We're doing we're doing, high fives and fist bumps.

Debra Coleman [00:34:02]:
We are. We are. Sorry. I didn't mean to steal the show. I just had to testify for a second.

lynne [00:34:07]:
This is this is I live for this stuff. I mean, oh my gosh. That makes me so happy because, yes. Yes. Proof of concept. And for all of you out there who are struggling with a weight problem, I don't keep track of my macros. I don't journal about I don't have time for in that stuff and I'm not interested in that stuff. I wanna eat and enjoy my food.

lynne [00:34:41]:
I want and I don't limit how much food I eat. What I do is is I limit when I eat.

Debra Coleman [00:34:49]:
Yes.

lynne [00:34:50]:
Also very important. Yes.

Debra Coleman [00:34:53]:
And Yes. Talk about that a little bit. What do you mean by when?

lynne [00:34:56]:
A concept that is not new really, but it's getting some attention now. And that is autophagy. Another great word. Uh-huh. It's what your body needs to do. Your cells have the ability to clean themselves the while they're busy digesting all the crap you've just eaten. So you need to leave at least 3 or 4 hours before you sleep because the autophagy doesn't kick in until 14, 15, 16, even 18 hours after you've eaten. It's just think of it as the freeway repair.

lynne [00:35:49]:
Those guys with his shovels can't get out there until the traffic is gone. And it's this fascinating process, and you can look it up, read more about it. This process of all of the from your cells, all the little dead stuff that they're sloughing off, if you don't get rid of it, guess what happens? Not pretty. That's where disease comes from. That's where cancer comes from. That's where all because your body becomes literally gummed up with these cells that have no use and they just get in trouble. That's a bad grandma way of saying this, but look it up and find all the scientific information you want, all of the cellular process information that you want. But what I'm telling you, the bottom line is, don't eat too late and don't eat much late.

lynne [00:36:50]:
Eat in the middle of the day. Eat in the morning. Also the Ayurvedic tradition, if you've done any reading or been involved in that at all, most most traditional eating, except in Argentina systems, have you eating when the sun is high and your body is is very active and it can digest very well. And then as the day begins to wane, it doesn't want that to be happening anymore. Also, if you have sleeping trouble at all, if you're not sleeping well, one of the first things you should try is don't eat in the evening. My last meal, and it's not much of a meal if you want to call it that, my last food is typically at 3, 4 in the afternoon. Mhmm. But I eat Same.

lynne [00:37:43]:
What I want for breakfast, for lunch ish, or brunch, or whatever early afternoon. And my trainer has encouraged me to eat more protein right after I do a strength session, a lifting session for example, where you're really building muscle. And we've had a lot of laughs about it because I'm horrified I've gained £2. He's so happy because it's all muscle. Right.

Debra Coleman [00:38:13]:
Wait a minute, no,

lynne [00:38:14]:
no, stop. No, you can't. But, so this is new for me. I'm learning about strength building.

Debra Coleman [00:38:25]:
It's important for women, especially. Yeah.

lynne [00:38:28]:
Well, it is. I mean, I did it as a sort of intellectual exercise first, but it really is fun and engaging and fascinating. And as an older woman, not large, I'm about 5 3, 125, 120, somewhere in that range. We are notoriously weak boned folk. Yeah. Right. And one way that you can strengthen your bones is to lift, to do strength training. And another way, very important, y'all ladies out there, is to think about hormone replacement therapy.

lynne [00:39:15]:
Now we were scared of it for a lot of years.

Debra Coleman [00:39:18]:
Yeah.

lynne [00:39:19]:
Bad information, bad studies. Again, look it up. I am not making this up. I, have a friend, doctor Somal Rashid. She's got one of the books out that's really worth reading. I use topically applied bio identical hormones. Oh. Yeah.

Debra Coleman [00:39:41]:
Topically applied. I like that versus swallowing a pill or something. Okay.

lynne [00:39:45]:
Yes. And there are a lot of reasons for that. Again, too long for the show, but there are plenty of other people writing about it. And I'm happy to see that it that the news is breaking out there that we women have been cheated really for years years of the kind of longevity enhancing, health enhancing benefits that come with hormone replacement. Because guess what? It was all guys in the medical community. And I've seen such interesting things happen with more female voices in research and medicine. It's wonderful. So we get to have hormone replacement now, and have it be a healthy, productive, just fine thing to do.

lynne [00:40:40]:
And it's probably the best face cream you'll ever use is estradiol.

Debra Coleman [00:40:47]:
Wow. Well, I your face is gorgeous. I can't oh my gosh. I'm just I wish you all I'm gonna take a screenshot before we get off and add it to the newsletter that I create for this episode so y'all can see how beautiful beautiful Lynn is. Oh.

lynne [00:41:00]:
Thank you. Make sure it's good. Well, I've got the light shining on me real real Yes. To have you here too, so that helps. And, you know, it's not all about being Hollywood level. It's about being healthy and happy with your body, and having your body able to do what you want it to do. And that takes some work.

Debra Coleman [00:41:25]:
And you

lynne [00:41:25]:
know the older we get the more work it takes. So I'm all about

Debra Coleman [00:41:31]:
Speaking of the work yes. And speaking of the work it takes, tell us more about the beautiful book behind you, Brownies for Breakfast, which, again, I know we're audio only, but Lynn is sitting in front of her book, her Amazon best selling book, brownies for breakfast. But there's a secondary title underneath that. Would you wanna explain to us a little bit about what that title refers to? And then a little bit about Brownies for Breakfast. Love the title, by the way. If that doesn't hook you right there, I don't know what will. And the gorgeous, yummy title picture, the book cover. Oh my gosh.

Debra Coleman [00:42:01]:
Chocolate for days.

lynne [00:42:02]:
It's been fun. The subtitle is A Cookbook for Diabetics and the People Who Love Them. That being of course everybody. We've all got diabetics in our family, among our friends, and most of us will become diabetic. Or borderline diabetic. Right? Funny thing, as I say in the book, it's the same prescription. If you have heart disease, if you have high blood pressure, if I mean, go down the list. And the thing that you need to do with your diet, and I'm doing air quotes here, is guess what? Eat whole food, real food, mostly plants, etcetera, etcetera.

lynne [00:42:54]:
It's all the same. So, you know, it's and and somebody has to actually cook the stuff, chop the stuff, source the stuff. So it needs to be as simple as you can make it. And the recipes in my book are retooled recipes that I grew up with or that I stole from friends and took the sugar out of it. The brownies, for example, are made with pumpkin and cocoa and nut butter and egg or egg replacer. If you're vegan, you the book is fine for vegans. It's fine for vegetarians. You just add a little meat if you want to here or there.

lynne [00:43:38]:
So I'm hoping that it'll continue to be usable and fun for most folks regardless of what your eating inclinations are. It's a bit fusion, got a little bit of, you know it's California y in a way. Yeah. But the main thing, I mean for example, yeah, do I ever get takeout food? You bet. We have a local taqueria here in my little bitty town on the coast of California and I wish for everyone that they have their own little local taqueria or equivalent. We have one that has fresh so I order a or my husband, if he's the one who has to go. I we order our burrito with no rice, and it's typically a shrimp burrito with no rice. That means there's no room in there for beans and cabbage and all the other good stuff that they put in.

lynne [00:44:35]:
I bring it home, I cut it in half or in thirds depending on how I feel, and put away half of it or 2 thirds of it for tomorrow. And I chop up real fast a bed of lettuce or arugula. Just whack it up and put it on the plate. I put my partial burrito on the plate. I put a lot of mozzarella cheese made from almonds on top of the burrito. And then I put some salsa on top of that and I nuke it. Yes I nuke things. And I'm a believer.

lynne [00:45:16]:
I have managed not to radiate myself in all these years. I got my first microwave in the 70s, and oh my gosh it's been such a boom. Anyway, so you just you nuke it, and it looks beautiful, it tastes so much better, it's good food, it's perfectly fine food. Yes, the tortilla is probably made with white flour, if you can't get a homemade corn tortilla kind of burrito. But what I'm suggesting is it can be part of your life without changing who you are. Right? I mean, if you just and another favorite trick Deborah is I always keep a bunch of Italian parsley on my sink in a little vase. And then scissors are my favorite tool. And that stuff gets snipped into everything.

lynne [00:46:13]:
And once you realize how wonderful it smells, how beautiful it is when you just sprinkle it on stuff, how great it tastes, how easy, it's fresh, it's wonderful, and it's cost you practically nothing. And as it happens, parsley is one of the most nutritious things you can eat. Oh. Yeah. Ounce for ounce. It's just the best food.

Debra Coleman [00:46:39]:
I have to

lynne [00:46:40]:
remember that. But we always threw it away, right? They put it in the packaging with meat and stuff and we just, oh, parsley, who cares? So, you just cut those beautiful, especially I mean I like all kinds of parsley, but those Italian parsley fronds are so gorgeous. And you can, I cut arugula up too all the time and sprinkle it on stuff? So I'm a great believer in kitchen shears. If you don't have any, get some. I do

Debra Coleman [00:47:06]:
have some. They are.

lynne [00:47:07]:
So and, you know, it's not all salads.

Debra Coleman [00:47:10]:
Right.

lynne [00:47:10]:
Right? It's Right. It's just making making a habit of putting something green on the table every time you sit down. Always have something green there somehow. It can be frozen brussels sprouts, or cabbage, just finely chopped, pale green or purple. Mhmm. But think green.

Debra Coleman [00:47:36]:
Yeah.

lynne [00:47:37]:
All the time.

Debra Coleman [00:47:38]:
That's what we we are doing now. I love that advice. And it's it it it's it's really easy. Once you sort of start to adopt this, and it's not like a light switch. I mean, we had to, like, really incorporate, make better choices when we grocery shop to where now if you open our pantry or open our fridge, it's maybe, like, you know, 70% more on the healthy side. And then 30%, we're just weaning ourselves, giving I am not a fan of throwing food out. So I will either give it to, like, neighbors.

lynne [00:48:06]:
Give it away to somebody you don't like.

Debra Coleman [00:48:09]:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But that's oh, I love it. And that's why brownies for breakfast is so wonderful because it is so relatable and it makes it easy. And you have an appreciation for what it's like. You know, you said to yourself, single mom, you know what it's like those crazy days, preparing meals for kids, preparing meals for yourself, dashing off to work here and here and here. And so when I think when people think also about eating healthy, they that scares them a little bit.

Debra Coleman [00:48:34]:
Like, I just don't have time to sit. Believe me, the little bit of planning that you do, be more conscientious when you form that grocery list. Start to incorporate some of these things that Elaine is mentioning, and you'll be amazed at how oh my gosh. I have made those choices. Oh, my I'm yeah. That's crazy. It was easier than I thought. So I appreciate your down to earth and relatable advice.

lynne [00:48:55]:
There's nobody on earth cheaper than I am, by

Debra Coleman [00:48:58]:
the way. Right?

lynne [00:49:01]:
I mean, I have been accused of being frugal, let's call it, you know, beyond necessity. Yeah. But as a habit, I'm not gonna apologize for it because look what's happening to food prices. And part of the problem with the restaurant, we cannot go in and get a sandwich anymore for under $50. And I don't wanna harsh on the people in the restaurant business. Not their fault. Food prices have gone up. The business is changing, but few of us can afford to be eating out all the time at these prices.

lynne [00:49:41]:
And if you are shopping around the perimeter, as we've been told, but it's true, of the grocery store, I mean, parsley is $2 for a giant bunch of it. And, you know, so many of the other, things that are greatest for you to eat, sweet potatoes. They're not expensive.

Debra Coleman [00:50:06]:
No. Cabbage, super cheap. I use cabbage now as my base where I used to have white rice and potatoes. Now cabbage is my base. And it's so easy. Culpepper rice, super cheap in the freezer.

lynne [00:50:16]:
Chop it real fine and yeah. Put some grapefruit on top of it. Yes. And here's a quick recipe too.

Debra Coleman [00:50:23]:
Oh.

lynne [00:50:25]:
Because I love recipes that you can talk, that are so simple that you can just talk them. So here it is. Two ingredients. Ingredient 1 is a really good balsamic vinegar on the sweet side. So I I have a place, local place, Sigona's, where I can buy a Grabenstein apple balsamic or a Blenheim apricot balsamic. Great tool. So just a little bit has a huge snack of flavor. So a little bit of that in the bottom of your salad bowl and then a blob of tahini.

lynne [00:51:03]:
Mix it up and throw the greens on top of it and toss it. And you've never had a better salad dressing. Tahini. Tahini. So healthy.

Debra Coleman [00:51:15]:
Sugar free? It has low sugar, low to no sugar?

lynne [00:51:18]:
There's nothing in it but sesame seeds.

Debra Coleman [00:51:20]:
Oh, okay. Okay.

lynne [00:51:23]:
I mean, I wish I had one. I should have one here so I can read it to you. But, yeah, tahini is typically really clean. Okay. And and the vinegar is also fermented.

Debra Coleman [00:51:38]:
Ah, there we go. We're back to we've come full circle. It's back to the fermented.

lynne [00:51:43]:
But I love that you don't measure it. You don't you can't really do it wrong.

Debra Coleman [00:51:48]:
Mhmm. Mhmm.

lynne [00:51:49]:
You know, it's very intuitive. Like, people are talking about intuitive eating now. Yes. It's very intuitive. And then you just toss your greens on top of it and stir them up and you're done. And another thing that we need to think about is sitting down to eat from an actual plate with actual utensils is good for your spirit, and good for your family and good for your microbiome. All of that. Eating out of a bag in the back of a car is not.

lynne [00:52:20]:
And Right. And it's important to think about every time you're eating your tahini salad dressing or whatever, you're a friend of the earth too if you're not eating crap. If you're not eating out of a bag with all the paper and the plastic or a box with all this stuff, or that's made by a company that is mistreating animals or whatever, the healthier you eat, the healthier the planet is. And I don't think that's a minor consideration anymore myself.

Debra Coleman [00:52:56]:
Agreed. Agreed. That is top of mind I've ever for a lot of people right now and companies and organizations. Good advice. Good advice. It is bigger than us. You know? It is bigger than us. So yeah.

Debra Coleman [00:53:07]:
Yeah. So drive right through. Don't order that extra extra large extra number 2 with fries. Just, go straight to your grocery store and shop the produce out, shop the outer rim. Honestly, it's it's say it has saved us on our grocery bills. Right? You're right. I mean, this thing

lynne [00:53:22]:
is cheaper.

Debra Coleman [00:53:24]:
So much cheaper, and it lasts. We can stretch it. We stretch these meals. They do last several days.

lynne [00:53:30]:
Are you growing any food yet, Deborah?

Debra Coleman [00:53:33]:
No. Not in the 7th realm of hell known as Nevada. We're not growing anything.

lynne [00:53:38]:
Okay. No. You can do sprouts in your window. You know, you can do parsley in a little pot because it's fun. And for those of you who have kids who are listening, you know, kids love growing stuff.

Debra Coleman [00:53:49]:
That's right.

lynne [00:53:50]:
That's right. And eating what they've grown. And it's such a great education for all of us. Oh, that's how that comes to be? Yeah.

Debra Coleman [00:54:01]:
It is. It's really neat. Yes. Yeah. My neighbor grow has a lemon tree, and I get my lemons from him. And they're the most gorgeous. I just, oh, nothing beats homemade well. Yeah.

lynne [00:54:12]:
That's a heck of a gift. And there are wonderful things that do grow in the desert. If you have just a little bit of dirt. Yeah.

Debra Coleman [00:54:20]:
There are, it is beautiful. I do love it. I say that in jest, but you're right, Nevada is really pretty, especially Northern Nevada. I will say it definitely over the Lake Tahoe area. But no. So true. It is doable, friends. It is absolutely doable.

Debra Coleman [00:54:35]:
And if you need a nice kickstand or a partner, silent partner next to you, I highly encourage you to check out the show notes for ways to connect with Lynn to see more of what she's about. Also, to check out brownies for breakfast. It is, I dare I say, game changer, but it is but it's not in a way again, that's not a light switch. Like, well, I go to bed Monday. And Tuesday, I'm everything Lynn just talked about. No. It is a nice, gradual it's okay. I have you by the hand.

Debra Coleman [00:55:01]:
We'll get through this together. You're doing something positive for you and your family. You got this kind of vibe, and I really appreciate that messaging you have in your book.

lynne [00:55:10]:
Deborah, I wanna leave one more summer recipe, 2 ingredients.

Debra Coleman [00:55:15]:
Please. Yes. Yes. I'm all about those.

lynne [00:55:18]:
Because we use this every day. We serve it to our company every time we have people here. Cranberry sparkler, I forget what page it's on in the book. But all it is is mineral water, soda water, bubble water of any kind, with a splash of 100% cranberry juice. No sugar. Whole cranberry juice, just cranberries. Read the label. And then you can squeeze a little lemon or lime in it and then put it on the glass and make it look pretty.

lynne [00:55:51]:
There is no soda any better in the world than a cranberry sparkler. And you can just guzzle it.

Debra Coleman [00:56:01]:
I love now that, you're singing my tune. That I love sparkling water, and adding anything other than a lemon wedge. That sounds fantastic to me. Cranberry juice, 100% cranberry juice. You said whole cranberry juice. Okay. Okay.

lynne [00:56:16]:
Right. So it's just you read the label and if it just says cranberries, cranberry juice, then you're good. Most of them will have sugar, of course, in them. But you don't need it. You just don't need it. It's so good with just a little because it makes it pink, which big believer in pink. You can tell by my you can tell. The folks listening can't, but I have on my Taylor Swift lip today, which is a very, very deep pink.

lynne [00:56:44]:
I enjoy this.

Debra Coleman [00:56:45]:
It's beautiful. Perfect summer color.

lynne [00:56:48]:
Summer color. But you're gonna love cranberry sparklers. And plus, let's talk about how much less money that is than whatever you're spending on the beverages that you're serving to people.

Debra Coleman [00:56:59]:
Yes. Make a nice pitcher of it and dispense it out, and there you go.

lynne [00:57:02]:
You can also put lime, slices in it, and it looks great. Right? That's pretty. Yes. Oh, nice. That green against the

Debra Coleman [00:57:10]:
the pink. That's nice. Yeah. Yeah. Look at this. If you want more of this, check out the show notes Lynn will offer. She has so many more of these wonderful type of recipes and brownies for breakfast. Healthy, good for us, down to earth, relatable recipes.

Debra Coleman [00:57:26]:
And and as a sidebar, it will help you build up your pantry. So then the next time you go to make some of these, there you go. You know? You're oh, I already have that from the last time. Or you know? So yeah. That's what I love about it too. You build upon them, so it's great. So do you have time for one quick question before I let you hop?

lynne [00:57:45]:
All yours, and we don't have to make it quick.

Debra Coleman [00:57:47]:
Oh, I love it. Oh, you that's a podcaster's dream. Thank you. Dream answer. As you have shown us, you are a busy lady, but you do seem to keep it all together. But I'm sure there are moments or seasons where there's a everybody wants a little piece of Lynn and she's running around in 50 different directions. What activities or what do you like to do to help bring it back to center, to just sort of find Lynn again and just find kinda find that center so you can go on living your fabulous life that you are?

lynne [00:58:21]:
2 things. 1, like many of you, I obsessively clean. After so many years in business, thinking way too hard about way too much, sometimes it's a delight just to dust something, just to dust the heck out of something that nobody cares about but me. I'll do that. And then the other thing is I have a magic chair, an old white chair that sits out on some grass under an oak tree behind my place, just by itself. And you can just I can go and just sit in that chair by that tree. And I look from a distance at my house, at the redwoods that surround us, at the fog that's coming up the valley, at the dragonflies that are flying around, at the swallows in the evening who are busy up there fighting with the crows. You have to slow down whenever you possibly can and just look.

lynne [00:59:31]:
I'm so grateful to be where I can hear those sounds and see those things and, have a clear sky a lot of days and I want that for everyone.

Debra Coleman [00:59:45]:
Beautiful sentiment from a beautiful woman who has been dispensing such wonderful and life affirming advice today. I thank you so much, Lynn. This has been a wonderful conversation. I really hope that if we can at least change one mind, I think this was a huge success.

lynne [01:00:02]:
That's how I see it. Absolutely.

Debra Coleman [01:00:06]:
And that wraps up my incredible conversation with Lynn Bowman. What did I tell you? What did I tell you? I I can appreciate that this show is a little longer than my shows typically run, but worth every second. And if you were like me, you know, I I looked at my watch, I'm like, what? How is it almost an hour? Like, that's crazy town. It's just because Lynn, I'm telling you, she's so like, she speaks and you just sort of listen and just and and it's just so wonderful and and free flowing and empowering. And plus, her experiences, you know, coming up in her career in the early days of her career and experiencing Los Angeles in the mid mid to late sixties. I mean, my gosh. Like, she alluded to mad men vibes, you know. It's just so it was so delightful to be brought into her world a little bit.

Debra Coleman [01:00:54]:
But I truly truly wanna say thank you. Honestly, Lynn, from the bottom of my heart for this conversation. It was just so affirming. Again, as I alluded to in the intro of the show that, you know what? I'm Paul and I are doing something right and and empowering for ourselves. And I really, once again, appreciated Lynn's conversation with just bringing this all home to us and really making it feel and and ex you know, exercising how doable truly it all is. So if you are interested in learning more about what Lynn is about and about brownies for breakfast, I implore you to please check out the show notes for ways to connect and learn about Lynn and ways for you to actually get that great get your hands on a copy of brownies for breakfast. Trust me. You will not be disappointed at all.

Debra Coleman [01:01:44]:
It the cover alone will make you drool. Like, it'll just make you wanna crack it open and go, okay. What are we doing here? And as a side note, if you are interested in, in exploring, trying a sugar free lifestyle, I am more than happy to share my journey, my poll and I's journey so far with you and how it's going and the different, really low key, very minimal needed recipes like Lynn talked about or or ingredient recipes that Lynn Lynn alluded to in the conversation with you. I I am just that's how bought in to this new lifestyle I am in. It is and it's not fly by night. It's not a diet. It's we are enjoying the same foods. We are just opting for sugar free slash healthier versions of those menus, of those recipes, of those meals.

Debra Coleman [01:02:34]:
So it's super simple, honestly. Anyway, so if you would like to talk further, honestly, check out the show notes for ways to connect with Lynn and to get your hands on a copy of brownies for breakfast. As always, there is a link in the show notes, to direct you to the Have A Seat website where you will find at the very top a contact me link, and feel free to drop me a line. What that does is shoot me an email. Happy to dive into this further if you'd like to explore that as well. Alright, my friend. Well, as always, you know the drill. Please stay safe, be well, and remember, keep having those conversations.