The Hungry Microbiome - Resistant Starch Explained Easily

A fairly new member named Alfred on the McDougall forums posted these two links that help explain what resistant starch IS and why it's so important to intestinal health. Nice CGI in the video that goes down to the molecular level to explain it all. Nice!

The Hungry Microbiome

Engine 2 28-Day Challenge Sign-Ups

Go to the official Challenge site for details by December 31st on how to sign up and to get a coupon for $5 off any 2 Engine 2 products from Whole Foods. 

You can also download the guidebook PDF file from Dropbox. If you don't have a Dropbox account, just ignore the window that pops up and the file is open right beneath it. It's very basic and geared towards beginners to a WFPB diet, but if you keep scrolling down you'll find an exercise guide and a few Engine 2/Essesltyn recipes and (my favorite) the Engine 2 Easy Meal guide. This handy dandy grid shows 42 different 3-5 ingredient no-recipe meal suggestions, like butternut squash and lentils with smoky chipotle seasoning served over rice and kale. 

When you get to the bottom of the file where the links to resources are, be aware that the "new" book by Rip Esselstyn called Plant Strong is just a re-release of My Beef With Meat but with a few new and updated recipes added, and I'll assume a mention of the Engine 2 products in Whole Foods, something that wasn't around when the first 2 books were written.

OK, One More - All I Want for Christmas is Kale

Adeste Fidelis at Westminster Abbey

Star Trek Cast - Jingle Bells

Engine 2 - New (Free) Social Media Site

After a few years of having a paid community, Engine 2 is now hosting a free one again. It's on the site called Social Engine, and you have to request an invitation before you can register to post. Well, AFAIK it's free. Nobody actually mentioned a fee nor addressed the question outright when asked on E2E.

If you like communities such as Pinterest and Instagram, then you'll have no problem using this site, for it's basically a clone of those.

The Engine 2 Extra site had coaches, a file and video archive, and (long ignored) message boards. Most people posted on their blog that was provided. I'm not the most tech savy person around but don't see anything like that on the new site. AFAIK, the remaining 2 "coaches" and "Fire Marshalls" will also be posting to the new site.

Let's see if this community grows or falters, like Engine 2 Extra has done since Natala left.

Timmy - Jingle Bells

For those of you in love with Adman Studios' Shaun the Sheep and his friends, here's the littlest sheep, Timmy, and his friends doing Jingle Bells:

Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)

Elvis - Blue Christmas

Holiday Treats with Nina and Randa Nelson

While the candy canes and Oreo cookies may not be 100% McDougall-approved, if you have kids or need to bring sweet treats to a party, these should do quite nicely.