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Home » Diet » Lamentations of a food writer on a diet – Florida Today

Italian sausage rolls made up the first of six courses at a birthday luncheon at The Dove III in downtown Melbourne.(Photo: Suzy Fleming Leonard/FLORIDA TODAY)Buy Photo

Is there anything sadder than a food writer on a diet?

OK, OK, there are lots of things. This is a real First World problem. But its mine, and Im trying to come to terms with it.

Knowing this is a journey best embarked upon with company, I joined a program touted by a Well-Known Celebrity just after Christmas with a couple of friends. We decided this wouldnt be a New Years Resolution, so we started early, before 2016 fizzled into the mists of midnight.

Well-Known Celebrity is all over TV talking about the program. Its easy! Its delicious! It works! Its not a diet, its a lifestyle!

When Im hungry, Im tempted to throw a shoe at Well-Known Celebrity.

Dont say that: Cringe-worthy wordplay

The first week was kind of rough.

Note to self: Before starting next diet, go grocery shopping. When trying to lose weight, it helps to have something in the house other than Froot Loops and ButterFingers.

It didnt help that one of my diet buddies was freakishly cheerful about the whole process.

Im never hungry, she said. And everything Im eating is so good!

Note to self: Its mean to slap your friends when they act like they actually enjoy self deprivation.

By the second week, Id stocked up on fresh fruit and baby carrots. Id ditched my afternoon M&Ms break in favor of an apple or Halo orange.

The scale, while not breathing a sigh of relief, no longer groaned when I stepped on it in the mornings. I began to feel the slightest bit of room in the waistband of my favorite jeans.

This white chocolate mousse creation with raspberry jam at Les Chefs de France in Epcot stole my heart on Valentines Day.(Photo: Suzy Fleming Leonard/FLORIDA TODAY)

I started to believe Well-Known Celebrity. This was turning out to be easy.

I even survived a business trip that involved visiting a restaurant that served fried chicken and doughnuts. On the same plate.

For the first five weeks, the numbers on the scale dropped steadily.

Then February hit, bringing with it:

A six-course birthday lunch at The Dove III in downtown Melbourne. Sausage rolled in crusty Italian bread, eggplant snuggled into a perfect bed of tomato sauce and cheese, fish, chicken, cake. It was a great eating day, but not a great diet day.

A cooking lesson with former Brevard caterer Bill Farina. What human who enjoys food could resist buttery, spicy shrimp and grits?

Brevard restaurant owner started 2016 as widower; ended it as newlywed

An early Valentines dinner at The Tides in Vero Beach. I ordered the pompano special. Fish is healthy, right? OK, so no excuse for the potatoes and sticky pudding dessert.

An interview at Epcot that ended with lunch at Les Chefs de France. When Eric Weistroffer, the restaurants director of operations, arrived with treats, it would have been rude to turn them down: Gateau Opera (Opera Cake), a coffee cake with white chocolate coffee, whipped cream and chocolate ganache; and a heart-shaped crimson creation of white chocolate mousse and raspberry jam. Resistance was futile.

And I wont even go into various lunches with girlfriends, the amazing spread at this weeks book club meeting or the upcoming vacation thats sure to hold its share of tasty treats.

Emma Kirkpatrick, manager of Ossorio Cafe & Bakery in Cocoa Village, wasnt sympathetic.

Imagine trying to lose weight when you run a restaurant, she said.

Shes managed to slim down considerably in the past year, and she spends her days surrounded by croissants and cinnamon rolls. I guess shes proof it can be done.

At least Well-Known Celebrity has one thing right. This program is working when I have the willpower to follow it.

Once February is behind me, heres hoping youll be seeing a lot less of me.

Email Leonard at sleonard@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Facebook at /SuzyFlemingLeonard and on Instagram @SuzyLeonard.

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Lamentations of a food writer on a diet - Florida Today

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Home » Diet » Lamentations of a food writer on a diet – Florida Today