Hot Cookie - the Archive

My week: Singing at a music camp for adults. When not singing, we are eating and wine-tasting.  The setting is Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, home of dense, nuanced wines, which flow each evening at the "Fermata Bar" on the campus lawn. Buffet meals in the college cafeteria, and the food is good (really). What to do when faced with lots of easy-to-eat calories? In general, potlucks, parties and buffets can be especially treacherous for people who love food but want to cut back. So many new things to try, and so many that didn’t require any work on my part. Parties and buffets make food way too easy to eat. Nothing--not even preparation time--stands between my mouth and the food except some good strategizing. Remembering that my stomach is only as big as my fist, I have to be picky about what goes down the hatch. Here are some of my favorite strategies: Only a spoonful. If I don't know I'll really like something, I take as little as a teaspoonful o...

I have consistently weighed in below 151 for more than two weeks. I'm calling it half the goal achieved. A couple pairs of pants are noticeably looser and others fit much better. The muffin tops are still there, but smaller. I can see a better shape in the mirror - at least at some angles. My friends have been remarkably kind about not asking my weight, but they do ask how I plan to lose while baking cookies. I find it difficult to write about weight loss. It's like writing about religion. People cling to deeply held beliefs about weight loss which, much like the troublesome pounds, are hard to shed. Remember that 149 on my scale is 150 by the doctor's office scale. These beliefs may have come from one authority or another, many of whom tout elaborate theories or philosophies in a popularized book, and are only partially based on science. If you have a diet that eliminates specific foods, doesn't put health at risk, and it works for you, go for it. I won...