PHOTO: Has your inner Pig emerged for summer? Here's a little help, inspired by the French.
Jenny Craig est arrivée in France! Can you believe it! America has triumphed at last. I have a BETTER diet solution for you today, but first, this just in:
Yes, some of the French are overweight–call it American Creep. And yes, a few of them are actually signing up for pre-packaged food, an anathema to the French diet. It may not sound like a fun read, but it is: last week in the NY Times Susan Dominus wrote about Jenny Craig's French debut, and she interviews the French marketing exec charged with selling this totally un-French way of eating to the French. It’s entertaining, if you're a student of the French character as I am, to hear Madame the exec get her tongue all tangled up trying to justify this distinctly American plan while haughtily defending the superior French diet.
Which got us thinking about les regimes, since that same American Creep has slipped in chez nous, after a few rounds of visitors and trips lately. Alors, time for a tune-up!
When I need a diet tune-up, I loosely follow the diet that I’ve stolen from my dear friend Sandi. It worked well for her, and it works great for me also. While it isn’t French per se, it happens to have many elements of the French way of eating: a French breakfast, no snacking, lots of fruit, and no suffering. The French, as you know, don’t do suffering, especially when it comes to food. PHOTO, from a beach at Nice: Time to play the diet card.
Here is the very simple plan. Do le petit déjeuner the French way: coffee or tea, plus a tartine (baguette split lengthwise) or toast with jam. The main trick is lunch: you fix yourself a huge, delicious fresh fruit smoothie, recipe below. Fun AND filling! (Being a gourmand, I confess I sometimes have a small salad, some good whole wheat bread, or raw veggies at lunch with my smoothie). Then you eat a generous but healthy dinner, with lean meat or fish with a couple of 
veggies, maybe a lightly dressed salad, perhaps a whole grain starch that’s not too loaded with fat. Here we're talking whole grain pasta, grains, grits, potatoes, etc. (I often skip the meat and go with several veggies). And that’s it. Dessert should be a special event, like when you go out for a nice dinner, but that yummy smoothie is going to help with sugar cravings. Snack if you must, only once in the afternoon or with your apperos,. Snacks should be healthy, like a handful of nuts or some crudités. Cheese is off the menu for a while, except occasionally (Note that the French seldom use cheese in cooking as we do, and when they eat it, always after a meal, the portions are small. Also they eat it not on a fattening cracker but on a low-fat baguette. So go with that plan if you get cheese-obcessed). PHOTO: "I'm not fat, I'm fluffy!" Painting spotted at a Burgundy flea market.
My other very favorite French diet trick is to drink my coffee/tea on a schedule, the way the natives do. LIke this: a cup with breakfast, then at the end of lunch, and one 4-ish if you like, and maybe one after dinner, especially if you’re trying to resist dessert. Not only is it a filling way to round out a meal, but also if you take coffee on a schedule it also becomes a psychological signal to your mind and body. It says to you, "OK, You are done eating until the next time!" This works SO well, especially if you make not just any old watered down coffee but an excellent, rich expresso (we are totally addicted to our Nespresso machine) with just a touch of sugar.
Now, here is how to make Sandi’s smoothies that are good enough to be Lunch. And we'd love to hear your summer diet tips!
RECIPE: Sublime Smoothies
To make a “lunch” smoothie, do the following: Your main ingredient is going to be lots of fresh fruit. Then add a carton of lowfat yougurt, a little fruit juice or milk (just enough to get the blender whirring away), flavoring if desired (e.g. vanilla or almond extract), and a handful of ice cubes to make it cold and a little bit slushy. I find that adding some banana to a smoothie will give it a thicker, milkshake-like texture. Throw it all in the blender and you’re done. Anybody lurking around is likely to steal a slurp or three, so you may as well make a big one.
My favorite smoothis this week is a take on pina coladas.
Fill blender half full of fresh pineapple. Add some light coconut milk and coconut yogurt, and a splash of lime juice. Add half a banana or a handful of strawberries, and ice cubes.
There are a zillion other good combos. Summer peaches are out and they make the best smoothies ever. Try cantaloupe with blueberries; watermelon and banana; strawberries with kiwi and orange juice; coffee or caramel yogurt with bananas, and so on. Add lemon yogurt for a zing, or Greek yogurt for richness. Happy, healthy dieting!
Favorite Reads/Films: Also in the NY Times this week, food guru Mark Bittman talks about the lastest diet research in his excellent article Which Diet Works? In movie news, I'm sure I'm the last person still standing who hasn't seen The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Meanwhile in our corner of the world we're all excited about seeing The Vintner's Luck, a New Zealand movie, obviously with a major wine theme, which will be at our little theater in Cluny next week-end. It was filmed in part at the magnificant château Berzé-le-Chatel, which is just down the road from us. Note to US buyers: you can order it, but you have to have a multi-region DVD player to watch it. You can see the trailer, with a peek at the châteu, here.
15 thoughts on “An Almost-French Weight Loss Diet That Works”
The best Exotic Marigold Hotel book by Deborah Moggach is wonderful. She writes beautifully; a real treat, moving, sincere and funny.
Lynn, love the blog again, and I totally agree that in the summer smoothies, both fruit and veggies are wonderful. The veggie ones work well with fromage blanc….0% of course. Didn’t we used to call that chilled/cold soup? Smoothie sounds so much more appetizing
Dee
As you so rightly pointed out, after the great hordes of visitors this spring and summer, le French cuisine has made a few inroads around my middle section. So with Ole still away, I have done this…..whole wheat English muffin with a little Lavender honey for breakfast with home-made ice tea (too hot for hot tea right now on the Riviera), some COLD grapes and half a melon for lunch, and one of a multitude of various takes on chicken salad for dinner with either some slices of avocado or freshly roasted tomatoes (extremely easy to make and completely addicting) on the side. I am becoming a master at inventing different kinds of chicken salad – all tasty and none I get tired of. And on the mornings I don’t go to Chien Dressage avec Margaux, I do a 5K walk on the treadmill downstairs. It all seems to be working. I still have my 2 glasses of Rose at night….after all…I am in France.
It looks like I am not the only one that got a big kick out of that article in the NY Times! Left a hefty comment too. And not only is your idea for drinking smoothie’s healthy and delish but very à la mode too–just today I drank one from Monoprix. On the bottom of the label, it stated “pronouncez-le smoosi” which made me laugh because the French never can get the “th” right now can they? Hence my being called “Issa” or “Hezza” when my name is in fact, Heather.
We are trying to eat lighter in the evening and it is gazpacho, gazpacho, gazpacho!!!
At home I make my smoothies for breakfast, but maybe I should start making them for lunch because I always want a little something sweet in the afternoon. However, I don’t know if there is coconut yogurt in the States. I eat it every day in France. However, here in Dijon this summer all the places my husband wants to eat have lamb, beef, chevre, and other heavy stuff. The salads in Dijon always seem to be smothered with some thick honey mustard type of stuff. No good oil and vinegar.
Loving these diet tips Lynn, but sounds more like the ‘proper’ way one should eat. Healthy and with lots & lots of fresh flavor. THANKS!!! Can’t wait to try the smoothies.
I frequently have smoothie for breakfast, sometime with a handful of oatmeal & ground flax seed. I started doing this when I finally couldn’t stand the weight that creeped on after 40 & side effect of med I am taking. I had always been “naturally” thin or underweight so the extra weight made me feel very heavy for me. I wonder if this could possibly work switching breakfast & lunch? That’s much more something I’d like for lunch. I’ve been working on getting dinner like you described & trying to be careful of portion sizes. Any thoughts? A handful of nuts is my favorite snack & already have coffee or tea pretty much on schedule tho 4 times a cup in the morning, after lunch, before dinner(when my husband gets home from work) then when I sit down to read later in the evening. Thanks
Diets! Oh my nerves! Get out your copy of your Richard Simmons
of “Dancing With the Oldies” put on your DVD player. By the time it has run thru and you have ‘Twisted’ as they did last summer you will be too tired to eat. Have a glass of water with lemmon-then go take a nap. When you arise you can put together your portion controls from the Richard Simmons menu planner which actually works and will make you lose weight. However, this takes so long and you are reading should I have Zucchini or broccoli florets on day 3 of week 2 with dover sole that your eyes are tired. you have another glass of water with lemmon, you take nap and miss dinner. you lost 5 lbs today. To celebrate you have creme brulee on alternate mondays.
there is so much focus on food and dieting.. let’s not forget Nora Ephron’s quotes from her last book.
Ephron, an admitted food lover, went on: “When you are actually going to have your last meal, you’ll either be too sick to have it or you aren’t gonna know it’s your last meal and you could squander it on something like a tuna melt and that would be ironic. So it’s important … I feel it’s important to have that last meal today, tomorrow, soon.”
I agree that there is another way of looking at eating the foods you love and being greatful for living everyday to the fullest.
Oh,my,how depressing to realize exactly how much my metabolism has slowed down!Since I hit 60,loosing every pound has become a real challenge.
Lynn, your ideas are wonderful! THANK YOU for sharing them with us!
I especially appreciate that I can incorporate low carbs ,
and not feel deprived.
YAY!!!!
Lynn,
Do you think Yellow-meated watermelon would work for a Slushy french diet? It’s truly and sincerely HOT in Alabama! Cold drinks sound great! Wonderful blog this week. Wish I could get the movie “The Vintner’s Luck”
Lynn, your summer diet sounds good and doable. I’ve been avoiding baguettes, however, instead eating whole grain. I’ve lost almost 15 pounds and gone down a size – mostly by eating whole grain, and no sugar, except what’s in my wine and dark chocolate. I like the smoothie idea for lunch, except that all that fruit is expensive. Also in the US, yogurt is a high sugar affair, so I always use plain Greek yogurt. Maybe I’ll try that with one fruit and some fat free milk for a lunch smoothie. I like Deb’s idea of adding oatmeal (or oat bran) to the smoothie. For breakfast, I usually have a mini-bagel, whole wheat, with some cheese, fat-free cream cheese or natural peanut butter. And don’t forget, ladies, eggs are now approved, and contain omega 3.
Watermelon is great for dieting, and the yellow ones are really sweet.
Interested in low carb pancakes? 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. 1/2 cup of rolled oats and 2 eggs…I put the eggs and cottage cheese in first, the I throw in the oats. I generally thin this out with a bit of milk…more if I want crepes. Saute in a non-stick pan with butter and serve with fruits. It’s time for local strawberries here in Maine, which are to die for. This recipe will make 6 pancakes and serve two people and I promise you will want to eat them three times a day! This is part of an old diet I hve used very successfully called “Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days”. Basically it’s the South Beach diet with carbs at breakfast time (meaning 1/2 an English muffin basically), and a half cup of rice or pasta for dinner a couple of times a week. I don’t know if you can find it on the Internet anymore (when I say old I’m not fooling around!)
I love a smoothie but I’m too lazy to make them unless it’s blistering hot, and my favorite is that old standby: banana, (lots of)strawberries and orange juice with ice cubes. I’m salivating, if it EVER gets warm here, I’ll raise a glass to my friend Lynne. Another winner.
Hi Lynn….You have gotten great responses abut dieting!! I particularly like the one from Suzanne H…..she says ” I eat no sugar except what’s in my wine and dark chocolate” Good balance!
Mickey
Great dieting suggestions, Lynn! As you know, I’m a HUGE fan of French cheeses and simply can’t resist while I’m in France. To keep myself from ballooning to an absurd size while I’m here, I follow a few basic rules that seem to work for me.
-I eat a heathy but small breakfast either of oatmeal or plain yogurt and jam with a few slices of bread.
-I don’t snack, period. The only exception is to have a few almonds before/after some heavy cardio. This isn’t a snack after walking around town, but after sweating enough I need a shower!
-I limit the number of slices of baguette+cheese I have to 4/day. It makes me savor the cheese while still not feeling deprived. I usually cut the slices in half and have different cheese on each have so it ‘feels’ like I just ate 8 slices of bread.
-Plus, we eat a large salad each night stuffed with fresh greens we find at the markets.
Quality over quantity seems to do the trick!
I am looking forward to trying the smoothie recipe. Virginia should have some great fruit when I get home in a few weeks and am back with my blender!