by Joyce Lamb)
Ruth Glick, aka author Rebecca York, whose latest romantic suspense release, Bad Nights, is out now from Sourcebooks, has teamed with Nancy Baggett to write The 2 Day a Week Diet Cookbook. Two days a week, you say? And Ruth says yes. She's tried it, and it works, so she's sharing the secret recipes of her success with readers …
Ruth/Rebecca: I've always thought that, as a romance writer, I had the best job in the world. I sit around all day making up emotion-drenched, conflict- laden stories that push my heroes and heroines to the edge of sanity. Then I give them a happy ending.
Of course, there's got to be a downside to the job. It's the sitting part. If you're chained to a computer all day, you're not using up much energy, even if you drag yourself to the gym a couple of days a week. And to make matters worse for me, I've had a secondary career right along with my romance writing — cookbook author, under my real name, Ruth Glick. So I do a lot of recipe creation. Translation: cooking tempting dishes that must be eaten.
A few months ago I woke up to find I'd put on 20 pounds that were making my clothes tight — and probably affecting my health. But apparently a lot of my writing buddies were in a similar predicament because we started discussing an unbelievably easy new diet on the Novelists Inc. bulletin board.
It was called the 5-2 or Fast Diet, but I think it makes more sense to call it The Two-Day-a-Week Diet, because you eat normal meals five days a week and cut back to only 500 calories (guys can eat 600 calories) on two non-consecutive days.
I dove right in to what turned out to be a big lifestyle change. And because I love designing recipes, I began creating some low-cal dishes for myself and my husband, who agreed to join me on the diet. Since I know his tastes, I started him off with Tex-Mex Ground Beef and Vegetable Soup and went on to Mock Pizza Omelet, New England Clam Chowder, and Sausage Hash.
My next thought was — I should publish a recipe book for people on this diet or for anyone who wants to try it. Because working with a friend is always more fun than going it alone, I asked my longtime cookbook collaborator, Nancy Baggett, to join me on the project. Both of us have written for nutrition-oriented publishers like The American Diabetes Association, Rodale Books, and Surrey Books, so we have a lot of experience creating great-tasting recipes that were low in fat and carbs.
We've been deep into this project for several months, and the results are finally ready to share, in The 2 Day a Week Diet Cookbook. It's got 75 great-tasting recipes, all 200 calories a serving or less, and 50 fabulous pictures taken by Nancy.
Using the recipes, I've lost 16 pounds — the easiest 16 pounds I've ever taken off. I love that I only have to diet two days a week — and that I didn't gain any weight over the holidays, just by sticking to the program.
My results aren't unique. A number of studies have shown that intermittent dieting actually works better than restricting calories every day.
So now when I sit in front of the computer torturing my hero and heroine before I send them off into the sunset, I'm not worried that I'm going to turn into a doughnut. And when I'm not coming up with plot twists, I'm thinking of new diet recipes like Creamy Tomato Soup, Turkish Vegetable Salad, White Chili, and Mixed Berry Smoothie that will fill me up without filling me out.
Time to cook dinner soon. I think I'll try a spicy filling for soft tacos.
Find out more about Ruth and her books at rebeccayork.com. Find out more about co-author Nancy Baggett at www.kitchenlane.com.
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