Cooking for life

Julia Child didn’t start cooking until she was 36 years old.

In 1948 the would-be world-renowned American chef moved to Paris for her husband’s job. To make the most of her time in France, she enlisted in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and embarked on a new career (she had previously worked for the U.S. government).

Child is hardly the role model for healthy cooking, but she can inspire those who believe they can never change.

In just six weeks, most of us have made extraordinary lifestyle changes to accommodate the Colorado Diet. Because we have to eat six times a day, preparing food that complies with the diet consumes a great deal of time. We are cooking more than we ever have; before this diet, some participants never cooked.

“I enjoy all the other parts of being a mom, but cooking is the one thing I hate,” Natalie said the other day, explaining that she didn’t even like sautéing meat. Before, she routinely bought frozen and pre-made food, which looked healthy but in fact contained high sodium and oil (among other things).

“What I ate before didn’t contribute to weight loss,” she said. “They weren’t fat burners. I wasn’t eating the right food. It was all pre-made and I didn’t know what was in them.”

So, to eat the right food – the fat burners – in the right combinations, cooking is survival, unless you want to eat cottage cheese six times a day, every day. 

On Natalie’s first big cooking day – the first Sunday of the diet – it took her six hours to prepare stir fry, pumpkin chili, pancakes, muffins and other foods for the week. “I hate to cook,” I heard from her more than once as she tried to see the lifestyle change in a positive light.

But slowly, Sunday by Sunday, Natalie has reduced that food prep time to three hours and has come to enjoy cooking for the first time in her life.

And, family and friends have started asking for her recipes.

“No one’s ever asked me about what I cooked,” Natalie laughs. “My kids are taking pictures of me in the kitchen.”

I think a lot of what has prevented people from changing – most visibly as weight loss – is the belief that they can’t change. Hope for change is fleeting and many may give up before they start.

But as Julia Child and Natalie Goldstein show us, change is never impossible, no matter how old you are or how many life milestones you have passed.  

“This diet has changed my life,” Natalie said. “And now I know I can cook.”

Who knows? Because of this life change, we may have the next, great American chef in our midst.