A Novel Approach to Dieting

I needed a break from my own long-windedness and introspective posts.  Time for something short(er) and light.

This is not a book review.  This is not a “diet plan” review.  But it is about a diet plan in a book.  Hang in there… I’m getting to it.  (Not being verbose is almost as hard for me as not overeating!)

In Janet Evanovich’s latest novel, Sizzling Sixteen, one of the main characters, Lula, is on a diet.  This voluptuous ex-“ho” turned bounty hunter has decided her diet prayers will be answered with a simple plan:  the diet of “one.”  She can only eat one of anything.  Because she suspects, as do many, that moderation is the key to weight loss.  Except, like me, Lula manages to cheat quite a bit without really cheating per the terms of her eating plan.  Her one is a bit skewed in definition.  One donut becomes one of every kind in the shop.  One piece of pizza is really one whole pizza.  “The diet isn’t real specific about meaning one chip or one box of nachos.”  Get the idea?  And later, after inhaling her one serving of pot roast so fast that she forgot she ate it, she asks, “Do you think eating something counts if you don’t remember?”

I enjoyed having a laugh at a fictional character’s dieting antics for a change, rather than being bogged down in my own.  And I have to admire that this zaftig character, despite wanting to lose a little weight, is amazingly comfortable in her own skin and sex appeal.  You go Lula!

As for me, I already know that I can’t eat just one.  So this is one (bad pun intended) diet bandwagon I will not be jumping on.  And, in case you are wondering, Lula quit her diet midway through the book because “it don’t work.”