Last night I was flipping through our second cookbook, Crazy Plates, trying to figure out what the heck to make for dinner for me and my Jack Russell terrier, Lacey Lou. (She’s on a raw food diet, but she loves it when I cook for her, too. Lacey demands variety!) After running the idea by my dog, I finally opted for Tuna Turner (grilled tuna steaks with a tropical fruit marinade), which I remember loving when Greta made it the first time in her “test kitchen,” which really isn’t a test kitchen at all, but her own kitchen). As I spread the book out to begin making the recipe, I noticed a short article in the margin that I had written way back in 1999 when CP was first published. Almost ten years later, it still made me smile. (Are we allowed to like our own work? Actually enjoy it? I’m not sure if that’s somehow against “the rules” or something. If it is, I so apologize for considering myself clever. I’ll never do it again!)
Anyway, thought you might get a chuckle out of it, too. It’s called “Twinkie, Twinkie, Little Star,” and it emphasizes the way that Greta and I feel about diets in general. (Our philosophy is “Dieting is only wishful shrinking!”)
Here’s the blurb:
After dieting for a while, you can get a little obsessed with the idea of eating. Every try singing to take your mind off food? Go ahead. Try it. Gumdrops keep fallin’ on my head…Ain’t nothin’ but a hot dog…the farmer in the deli… It just doesn’t work. And dieting doesn’t work, either–in fact, diets stink! They’re unrealistic and temporary, putting us in a voluntary state of famine. Funny that we’d starve ourselves to death, hoping we’ll live longer. And how about those diet programs with the boot-camp mentality? You know, they say you have to eat their food, they tell you what time of day to eat it, and that you have to eat all of it. This isn’t a diet, it’s living with your parents! No wonder 95% of diets fail. It’s time to forget about dieting and get on with living! Changing your eating habits doesn’t always mean eating less, it means eating better. Now that’s something to sing about.
4 responses so far ↓
1 greg // Aug 21, 2008 at 3:14 pm
amen to that.
I just ordered your recent book and can’t wait to get it! I am deep fried on all the diet info, seems to go in circles and I am sick of the diet books with recipes that don’t even turn out, like they never tested them and telling you when to eat, how much, etc. It really keeps you from listening to yourself and developing a healthy relationship with food.
Keep up the great work and I like your videos!
2 Sacred Suzie // Aug 22, 2008 at 7:53 am
Woohoo! I think you should totally pat yourself on the back and that is a sign you’re on the right path when you feel that way about your work and I totally agree! I’m all about eating better right now above all else. I even made pickled beets this week because I want to bring more red into my diet. Eating the rainbow!
3 Elly // Aug 24, 2008 at 2:36 pm
How very well expressed——————–my thoughts exactly!! I’ve tried diets before and always gained back more than I lost in the first place.
Lately I’ve been cooking from your cookbooks and lost 10 lbs……….I didn’t even think I was on a diet!!
Keep up the good work!
4 patty // Aug 29, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I agree wholeheartedly. Whenever I lose weight on a diet, I inevitably gain it all back, plus some! And, like you said, I become totally obsessed with food, which is no fun at all (for me or for those who live with me!)
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