The Joys (and Tastes) of a 3-Day Weekend

I don't know about you, but I'm eating up this three-day weekend. My husband and I decided to stay at home for this holiday and we haven't regretted our decision once. Particularly since we re-discovered the beauty of our favorite appliance ever: the bread machine. When we were deciding what to make for dinner last night, I said, "What about homemade pizza?" and his eyes lit up about as bright as my were shining when I thought of the idea.

We'd never made pizza dough before, so the whole process was new and therefore fun and oh-so-yummy. I got the ball rolling on this one, but as soon as the dough was ready to come out of the bread machine Jeremy couldn't take his hands off it. There's something about digging your hands into real homemade dough without the emulsifiers and pectins and guar and xanthum gums...and whatever else comes in the pre-packaged stuff.

And I have to say -- this pizza was the best pizza I remember eating in a long time. As you'll see above, this wasn't a picture-perfect pie because we had to break the dough into two oblong pieces to fit in the cookie sheets we had. But it made it even more fun to eat.

If you're wondering what was in Maggie & Jeremy's best pizza ever, here are the ingredients, which I'm proud to say are fully pronounceable and amount to only 8 ingredients! Dough: warm water, olive oil, all purpose flour, salt, sugar, dry yeast; and then cheese and pepperoni, which came from Whole Foods. DELISH!

We were planning to go to our favorite gelato store in the city after dinner, but both of us were so satisfied with this meal (with also entailed broccoli cooked with garlic and olive oil) that we didn't want dessert -- and that's practically unheard of for us.

I'm telling you -- Eat When You're Hungry (make it good-quality stuff), and stop when you're full. It's the only thing you ever need to know when it comes to food and feeling good.

Happy Labor Day!

America The Beautiful

I just found out about America The Beautiful, a documentary exploring our nation's obsession with beauty. I am turning my schedule upside down so I can see it this weekend, and I encourage you to do the same. Check out the trailer below. I'm so excited about this film. I think it's going to be an important one. Come out and support it with me!

Way To Go, Margaret Cho!

Despite being a person who rarely uses a bad word -- it just doesn't come naturally to me -- last year I shared a piece written by Margaret Cho that, aside from being filled with f-bombs, was brilliant. Today I'm happy to follow that up with this "news." Cho's weight loss is making headlines this month and for once in my life I'm happy to share the news of someone's weight loss on this blog.

Why? Because Margaret Cho reminds us all that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Because Margaret Cho reminds us that she eats ice cream and pizza and chips. Because Margaret Cho reminds us that diets don't work, and that listening to our bodies -- even when they want cheeseburgers -- does work. It works by helping us tune into our own hunger and fullness signals. It helps us learn to appreciate our curves, our strengths, and yes, even our weaknesses.

Back to watching the Olympics. Just wanted to share this with you before the "news" is forgotten.

And so you're not surprised, I plan to re-post Margaret Cho's original piece as long as the link is live. It just doesn't go stale.

Dieting Doesn't Work. Intuitive Eating Does

We all have reason to celebrate today. And to thank Ken Carlson for writing a great piece in The Modesto Bee about intuitive eating. I hope to see more of these soon.

Only thing I must caution you about when reading this piece is the last part of the article where a source from WW says that WW is not a diet. HA! Though believe me, I understand the requirements of journalism and balanced reporting, so this was probably necessary.

If you ignore that last bit about the WW DIET, this is a great article on intuitive eating.

This is all very funny timing for me. For some reason, I've encountered a lot of people recently who are on diets. Friends, colleagues and acquaintances who are skipping out on things they enjoy (wine, salad dressing, you name it) because it isn't allowed on their particular diet.

This saddens me. Immensely. Because study after study after study after study has shown that diets don't work. As Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of physchology and lead author of a study on dieting, said, "Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people."

And....intuitive eating does. So take a deep, appreciative breath of life. Close your eyes for a moment. And remember that if you listen to it, your body will tell you exactly what it wants -- and needs -- to eat. Honor that.

And have a great weekend while you're at it.