The summer of my senior year of college, I read Mireille Guiliano's French Women Don't Get Fat. I had just had to have my choir dress let out a little, and felt like emergency action was required.
What I remember from the book is the philosophy of thoughtfully eating what you like. Guiliano doesn't frown on dessert, but she encourages eating one piece of quality bittersweet chocolate over eating a frosted Krispy Kreme doughnut or half a bag of M&Ms. She writes about facing a craving for an apple pastry head on by eating slow roasted apples cooked in cabbage leaves.
(Who are we kidding? Cabbage leaves instead of layer upon layer of crisp buttery pastry?? As I type this, I'm struck that she would likely support a cake that substitutes zucchini for Coca-Cola.)
But the concepts are good. If you love the apple flavor, don't substitute a cheap, unsatisfying fiber bar - eat real apples. Just limit yourself on the fats and sugars the majority of the time.
Guiliano also shares the diet plan that her family's doctor advised for her after she put on weight in the United States. For the first 48 hours, she ate only what she deemed "Magical Leek Soup." In glowing terms she describes how this was the catalyst of her life-long love for sweet, buttery leeks. She drank the delicious and nourishing leek broth several times a day, and whenever she got hungry she would eat a boiled leek with a little olive oil and cracked pepper. Not only were these leeks delectable, they filled her up; and she still lost some significant pounds (or kilos).
I was sold.
