Quotable Tuesday: Moderation

"Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health." - Julia Child

Out-Frenching the French, huh, Julia? She said this long before American women were devouring the French secrets to staying thin (the ones that don't involve cigarettes, anyway).

This is as good a time as any to report back on my "miracle soup" leek-eating experiment, inspired by the original French Women Don't Get Fat book. I'll make this quick: it sucked. I totally failed. As it turns out, the instructions for the soup (really just a leek broth) are kind of vague and they don't seem to yield nearly enough broth to cover the prescribed cup every 2 or 3 hours for 2 days.

I actually did last for most of the first day, drinking the broth every couple of hours (it tasted like weak onion tea) and eating a small amount of leeks twice during the day. I like leeks, so the taste wasn't a problem. But my outrageous hunger was. By about 4 pm, I was literally nauseous and weak. I thought maybe I was getting the flu - that's how I felt.

Then I remembered that - oh RIGHT - I had barely eaten anything all day. And that I don't do well with self-discipline. So I decided that it's OK to fail sometimes. And I ate a big bowl of pasta.

Honestly, though, I'm not sure how much weight I really would've lost after only 2 days. I'm not layered in water weight, anyway, so how much can a quick fix really help?

The one good thing that came out of the whole experience, though, is that I became extremely conscious of just how much of Dixon's food I eat during the day. Apparently I take at least one bite of pretty much everything that goes in his mouth. Since then, I've avoided that, which means I've avoided a bunch of random calories.

Plus, Dixon's probably happier with me, too.