Hi there, I hope you’re well today!

I was recently reading through this new cookbook I purchased. Yes! There is a cookbook to compliment French Women Don’t Get Fat! I just discovered it myself!

If you haven’t yet discovered French Women Don’t Get Fat, it’s a delightful stroll! Mireille explains a French way of thinking about, cooking and enjoying food that makes your mouth water!

Here at home in the US, we have made food into a series of doomed experiments:
1 How little time can we spend preparing and eating food and get away with it?
2 How much real food can we avoid, since we’re not used to it and because it won’t sit on a shelf for three years?
3 What can I eat that has this or that “nutrient component”?
4 Can I just think of food in terms of caloric values, and stop there?
5 What energy can we derive from caffeine or other easy-to-consume chemical soups so that we don’t have to think about buying, preparing, or eating food?

How terribly sad this is when you think of the delectable food we have on this planet!

This kind of thinking has led to disconnect with our food, our bodies, the land, our gardens, our families, {because we lack family-bonding meal times}, not to mention our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health as a society.

Here is a snip-it from the book that illustrates a bit of what I want to share with you about a food philosophy for women, (in this case for weight loss) while also shedding a little light on the mindset of the standard American diet:

“Three months of hard-core dieting might well be enough to crush any woman’s spirit, but three months of discovering new things and getting to know your body better is a kindness to yourself that will continue to be repaid for years to come.
We have not and will not be judging our successes by obsessive attention to calories, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, lipids, glucose, or other chemical structures or units. Most French women are not like Madame Curie and would be bored to tears reading about such things, much less applying them to one of the most sacred parts of life, food. Remember to tiptoe onto the bathroom scale only once in a while, but not daily. Judge your progress by your eyes and hands, using your clothes and your mirror as guides. And use the food scale to get to know one- to five-ounce portions whether it’s fish, meat, or dessert, particularly pie and cake!
Approaching your equilibrium weight is a natural and intuitive progression, a course of fine-tuning that embraces both discovery and moderation.” French Women Don’t Get Fat, Mireille Fuiliano, page 59, italics added.

See what I mean? Even in weight loss there can be balance and joy, even joy from good, real food.

So, I’ve been cooking from the FWDGF cookbook and I’ll tell you it is a delight!

Wish I could send you a bowl of butternut apple soup, a piece of bread, some smoked cheese, a piece of bacon and some ripe peaches with yogurt for dessert!

Isn’t it a delicious thought: we will be served best by falling madly in love with food, learning the art of cooking and eating in balance?

As long as it is: Real, high quality, homemade and full of beauty, eat up! Slowly, mindfully and with loved ones.

Be well my friend!

Love,

The mission of Lioness at the Door is to uplift, strengthen and encourage women of all ages to magnify health, hope and happiness at home. We do so boldly, with humility and gratitude for the opportunity.