Food writer on a diet

Working as a food professional, whether be it a home cook, food guide, journalist or food show host – coincidentally, my job description – poses nutrition challenges.

The anatomy of a food writer is always put up against a grumbling stomach. The occupational hazard has to do with constantly testing recipes, cooking many dishes and visiting restaurants (for research!), plates upon plates that need to be described, photographed and ultimately eaten. All this concurs to an ever-expanding waistline.

Personally, the weight was always an issue. Even before I worked in the food world. Even before pregnancy. I was overweight before I stopped smoking, imagine after. 

I blame the quantity of gelato I downed to overcome broken hearts. 

I blame having been educated to clean my plate. 

I blame my slow metabolism. 

I now can blame pre-menopause.

What I never did was take responsibility and blame myself. My sublime ability to procrastinate was never the problem, it was something else.

Continue Reading → Food writer on a diet as appeared on The American Magazine in Italia.

New challenge: going on a diet

I have purged the fridge. Emptied the pantry. Gifted neighbors with full jars of marmalade, hazelnut spread and precious oil-preserved Taggiasca olives. Monday marks the beginning of a new project. Project ME.

In the past few weeks I have eliminated refined sugar and alcohol. In the following 14 days I will have to deal with further detoxing. I will be eliminating foods that are slowing down my metabolism and are essentially being stored as fat because my body can't deal with them like it used to.
That means no more processed food.
No more salt.
No dairy.
No yeast.

Next after that, I will be embarking in a 5-day paleo shock, to be followed by a 40-day metabolism regime. The gym membership has been renewed. The Fitbit fully charged.
Everything has been carefully planned, and I am now ready.

Back from my sunset run, I took a "before" polaroid and glued it to the bathroom mirror.

Fortunately, shifting my eating habits during summer in Italy will be easy, given the abundance of this...

            

 

But it will also mean saying bye bye to this for a little while...

This doesn't mean I'll stop publishing articles and posts about recipes, restaurants and food tours, on the contrary. I will continue to write about my favorite food & wine related topics and share photos of beautiful, healthy Italian dishes. It will be the ultimate zen challenge!

{Just be prepared for the occasional rant, frustration and (hopefully) cheering related to my weight loss program}

Wish me luck!