Living as a Baker

[JFLinLA]

This is not so much of a baking question. I guess it's a follow-up to the earlier post about creating recipes where you indicate you share much of what you make but also taste everything. Clearly you are a petite person. How do you manage to be a baker and stay so fit? Maybe it's just genetic and you're lucky that way. Or, perhaps, living in NYC you get to do much more walking around than the average American. (Ah, sometimes I wish I had a less fattening hobby but it's too late. I'm hooked.)

[Dorie Greenspan]

I am thin -- and, for that, I think I can thank my mom. But I do try to watch what I eat. I eat everything -- and I always eat what I bake -- but I do try, as Julia Child always said, to eat everything in moderation. In my case, that means I have to give away most of what I bake, so that one temptation doesn't pile up on top of another.

Here are the things that I think help when you've got, what you called, "a fattening habit":

Eat the best of whatever you want -- which means, eat your homemade cookies, but don't eat Oreos.

Eat slowly and savor every bite -- I'm the world's slowest eater -- it makes good food taste even better and, of course, it makes the pleasure of good food last longer.

Eat what you want -- I find that if I want a taste of chocolate cake, but don't think I should have it and decide to substitute a rice cracker, let's say, for the cake, I'll eat a dozen rice crackers, because they just don't satisfy me. It's better to have a small taste of the thing you want, than a big hunk of the substitute. In the end, it will cost you less in calories and frustration.

If anybody has a magic answer to your question I'd LOVE to know it. I keep waiting for The New York Times article that proclaims chocolate cake the newest diet food!

[miladyinsanity]

Dorie, that is exactly what I do!

[RuthWells]

In my case, that means I have to give away most of what I bake, so that one temptation doesn't pile up on top of another.

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This is why I keep my day job -- co-workers are always happy to eat the extras!

Edited November 7, 2006 by RuthWells (log)