August 2010 Archives

If you've noticed the blog has been a little bare lately it's because I was busy getting married last Saturday (that's me and my dad upper left)! I had no idea how incredibly emotional the whole thing would be, but I think it had a lot to do with my sister Bridget's dreamy planning--we got married under the ribbon draped tree (she designed the whole thing AND hosted it in her backyard). And of course the groom. Devra and Harris from our downtown LA store made the cake and it was scarfed up in seconds and drop dead gorgeous--I promise to post a photo of it when I get my hands on it.

I will share more details later, I swear!

Do you know David Lebovitz? If not, please do not read any further until you sign up to follow him on twitter and read a few entries from his blog.

Back? Cool. So David worked in the pastry dept at Chez Panisse for about 13 years in San Francisco (I worked there too, soon after he left) and he also was named one of the Top 5 Pastry Chefs in San Francisco which is a bigger deal than he'll ever admit. He wrote a ton of cult hit pastry cookbooks and then my absolute favorite, The Sweet Life in Paris, a memoir about his first years living in Paris which had me rolling on the floor laughing and then made me want to do-over my first trip there. David has a way of writing about food and pastry that is earnest yet fun, and real. A more human approach maybe? This is refreshing to me since so many foodies have emerged in the past 10 years that fancy themselves just a little too awesome and take it a crack to the obnoxious side of the fence, are you with me?

David stopped by the bakery a few weeks ago because he has been following our videos and wanted to see what was up with us. He was as hilarious in person as he is in his writing! Speaking of, he went back to Paris and then wrote this really adorable thing about his visit. To date, this is my all-time favorite write up that has ever been published about us. Thank you David! Will you marry me? Oh wait, my wedding's on Saturday. Too late.

Last week I spoke with a reporter for the Daily Beast about the growing popularity of gluten-free diets due to the number of celebrities who are booting gluten out of their lives. It seems like the whole world is now questioning whether following this diet is going to deflate their muffin tops and get their beach bodies back. Naturally, the quote that was pulled for the article had to do with me dropping 7 pounds when I gave up gluten which implied that following a gluten-free diet was a magic bullet to lose weight. But there were a few important details left out that had a lot to do with it.

When I removed gluten from my diet, I also stopped eating the common irritants: dairy, soy, eggs, caffeine, sugar, artificial sweeteners and preservatives--much like Dr. Junger's Clean Detox Program. I ate simple and natural--the way I always imagined hippies ate. Food was now carefully chosen but abundant. Fruit, avocado, walnuts, organic greens, brown rice and flax and olive oil. I drank yerba mate instead of coffee. There was no dessert (which is why I created BabyCakes--hello!). It was a hellish transition. I missed my boca burgers and had major chemical-withdrawal headaches from not eating my daily sugar-free frozen yogurt. No one prepared me for this! Luckily the symptoms departed after a week and I began to feel better than I ever had in my life. Eating didn't mean reserving time to curl up on the couch and recover, it actually gave me more energy. Yes, there was some weight loss but it had nothing to do with calorie counting and everything to do with feeding my body food it knew what to do with. This completely changed my attitude about eating and gave me a distinct respect for every organ in my body. I felt newly responsible for helping my body get the nourishment it needed.

Over the years, I'll admit it has been tough to maintain this lifestyle. I've lazed out and caved to a preservative-packed protein bar here and something fried there when I'm too busy to care and it had taken a toll. Thankfully, I recently picked up Dr. Junger's book, Clean which gives a fascinating insight on what goes on with your liver and gut and how important it is to care for your body. I decided to follow his Clean Detox Program to reset and start fresh and I can say I now feel back to my old self (the first week was pretty brutal though!).

So the point, right? Not sure. I was moved to write this simply because I don't think people should go gluten-free as a tool to lose weight. The key to better weight balance is to chose your food carefully and consider the opportunity each meal presents to be good to your body. Try to tap into your inner-hippy. Eat whole foods and remove pre-packaged and processed junk out of your diet and see how you feel in a week. I swear, you'll be testifyin' too!