And coming home had its own gravity: I wanted to cook something fun, not diet food. I wanted to take her somewhere nice, since she'd been left out of everything I'd eaten on the road. Or I was just too worn out to cook at all — and that's when we'd both fall into what we call the "Teen Diet": burgers, pizza, fast Mexican, whatever UberEats could get to the door fastest.

My work involved a lot of travel and entertainment — high-end restaurants, expense accounts, sampling the best regional food the country had to offer, city after city. That's a hard environment to stay disciplined in, and it was frequent enough that "staying disciplined" wasn't really the ask anymore.

It was harder on Eleni than on me. In 40 years together, she's never had to cook — I do the shopping, the planning, all of it. So when I was gone, she wasn't just missing a meal plan; she was without the one skill that made the plan possible. For a while I'd cook a week of meals every Sunday before I left. But eventually we wanted our Sundays back.

We'd lose 20, 30 pounds. Then gain it back. Repeat.

Two years ago, medical issues took cooking off the table entirely. We tried Factor — burned out on it, both the food and price both, in under two months.

 I started figuring out how to fold them into recipes I already knew — using them to replace the fat, not the flavor. Egg whites instead of whole eggs. A light spray of oil and lower heat instead of a deep fry, so the crust still browns and crisps. Nonfat bases built up with just enough of these new ingredients to still taste like something worth having — my Roquefort and Green Goddess dressings are two of the clearest examples.

They tend to fail the same way: not from a lack of discipline, but from a lack of durability. A rigid plan can survive a normal week. It rarely survives a business trip, a late night, a stretch where the person who does the cooking is simply too tired to do it — or where only one person in the house ever learned how.

When that happens, the gap doesn't stay empty for long. Whatever's fastest and most familiar rushes in to fill it — the drive-through, the delivery app, the thing you order without thinking. Not a failure of willpower. A failure of the system to hold up when real life pushed back.

The Cravewell Kitchen isn't built to replace those plans. It's built to survive the parts of life that kept breaking them.

The point of The Cravewell Kitchen is that it was never supposed to carry the whole diet by itself — it's supposed to be there for the exact moment fatigue sets in, whether that's from the road, from recovery, or just from a long week. However limited our cooking gets over the next year, I know it'll be enough to cover that moment when it comes.

Since May 7th, when we decided to document the Cravewell approach, I've spent my time in the kitchen developing these recipes. Eleni has lost 20 and a half pounds, and I've lost 16. Neither of us did any exercise...

So we know that the core of the plan - replacing fat with flavor, works. 

But we replaced every meal because I can cook, and that's not what the Cravewell Kitchen is really about. Cravewell is about having the confidence to supplement a diet regimen with something good that down't come in a box, but keeps you on your weight loss plan.

Now comes the real life test. 

A friend of Eleni's was here to help for the first few days. I helped by pitching in from the sidelines while we a combination of her recipes and mine - it was a lot of fun. You'll see her roasted asparagus recipe (so simple but so good!) and her going away brunch dish "Tomato Ponzu Glazed Salmon over Super Crunch Salad". It's a really colofrul and very tasty recipe. She did the cooking, and I made the salad dressing from the barstool. It was all sooo good!

To kickstart this program, I have a few things stocked up for the first few meals. There's some Gringo Mole Verde sauce that will be great with chicken and pork; and some Light Greek Meatloaf. Really good both hot with some simple veggies and a Greek Salad, and cold on a romaine wrap with "Creamed" Feta. Easy stuff for her to get us started.

Our next goal is to decide on which prepackaged options to try; and what Eleni decides to prepare with them. Eleni will put Cravewell to the test by either cooking the options we decide on - or having popcorn!

So, we needed to find a way forward. Eleni was game to give cooking a try, so we started with a pretty easy recipe that doesn't require too much; Pistachio Cruste Pork Chops with a Charred Mixed Squash and Bell Peppers. It's easier than it sounds and it came out great! 

She's done a few more with me coaching from the couch. She even did a Reverse Seared Tri-Tip and follwed the recipe to make Romaine Boats with Lemon-Anchovy Dresing. Very brave - anchovies are not a thing for her. Both the steak and salad were perfectly executed.

But I won't lie, we've eaten a pretty fair amount of popcorn, and even went totally off-plan with a pizza (only once), Garlic Burgers and Fries at the Cotton Bottom Inn and brunch, which meant we didn't need to worry about food for the rest of the day. The killer was monster cheese steaks with extra meat and cheese at Taste of Phill. Now, up two lbs after steady weigh loss, we've been back on-plan for the last few days. Not because she's handling all of the cooking duties, but because I now have a scooter. I can keep my knee up so there's no weight on it, and help her in the kitchen.

It's working, she's dropped the 2 lbs that she gained.

Last night we had a fantastic Balck Garlic with Soba Noodles dish with Umami Lime Shrimp. She did most everything but peel the shrimp - that was right out. It's a beautiul dish with rainbow carrots and napa cabbage. The Black Garlic Sauce uses both black garlic cloves and black garlic - and about 15 other super umami ingredients that replace oils and fats.

The website is finally at the point where I am going ot send it ot some friends for critique - there's so much to do still. I have over 60 recipes that still need me to integrate the pictures with the recipe, so there's only 14 recipes to order.

Unless you know me pretty well, that problem will be fixed by the time you read this.

More to come in a week or so