I decided it was time to diet. I informed the relevant parties — my roommate and my boyfriend — and then informed another party, in writing: Myself.
I wrote myself a 500 word essay, with some repetition for emphasis, on why a period of food discipline was necessary. I’m not posting it here. It’s between me, […]

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I wanted to offer you guys some slimming, tried-and-true soup recipes. Alas, my first attempt at a new recipe, Greek Eggplant and Zucchini Soup from The Soup Bible, was only mediocre. We don’t do mediocre at TFT.
On the upside, it came with a new, improved recipe for Tzatziki. Even better, it gave me the idea […]

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My grandfather died yesterday at 91. He was vigorous, in every sense of the word, almost to the very end. My boyfriend asked me how he did it. So I thought about that.
How to Live Past 90 with Passion
As Lived by Nick Nickerson (1917-2008)
1. Be a cowboy. Ramble, explore, and gidyap, always with a vast […]

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Mark Bittman — columnist and author of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian — writes in the NY Times:

“To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, [two university geophysicists] calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from […]

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Lately I’ve made a real effort to boost my veggies. I want plants to be the bulk of my daily carbs. I’m not trying to eliminate grains, just squeeze them out of contention with a ton of appetizing veggie dishes. (And extravagant sloshes of olive oil.)
Why am I doing this? Recent research regarding the effect […]

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Mo’ Pie responds to a commenter on Big Fat Deal with an explanation that mirrors much of my own muddled thinking about fat acceptance and the limitations thereof. I’m glad I’m not alone in my mental wrangling to find a happy balance between body-positivity and healthy living.

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So I had to laugh yesterday when two sites I like — Elastic Waist and Mark’s Daily Apple — had two totally opposite posts on soy!!
Elastic Waist: “It’s no doubt that soy is super tasty and uber good for you…”
Mark’s: “So we find soy in its current circumstances, dissected by the health media, floundering, searching […]

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Gina Kolata’s NY Times piece on the possibly exaggerated health benefits of exercise has this terrible news:
Jack Wilmore, an exercise physiologist at Texas A & M University, calculated that the average amount of muscle that men gained after a serious 12-week weight-lifting program was 2 kilograms, or 4.4 pounds. That added muscle would increase the […]

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Today I was going to link to an article about how cinnamon helps regulate blood sugar, but after scrolling down, I decided everything on the front page was good enough to link. So I’m just sending you to the homepage of A Weight Lifted.
Happy Friday! Hope your weekend includes plenty of rose-smelling.

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Yes, you do burn more calories in the two weeks before your period, to the tune of about 10 percent of your resting metabolism. Unfortunately, according at least to calorieking.com, your appetite encourages you to eat about 500 extra calories per day. So unless you ignore about half your cravings (or indulge them all, halfway, […]

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