I don’t know if you remember me telling you about Bethenny Frankel before, but I first met her at ChefDance in Park City in January. Her new book, Naturally Thin, is fresh off the press and I wanted to tell you more about it.

First, let me start by saying that I hate diets. Who doesn’t? But as a food writer and founder of a company that is all about food you could say I’m a bit obsessed with eating, and as such, would like to shed a few pounds before summer. Naturally Thin is a book about how to free ourselves from dieting, so Naturally Thin isn’t a diet, it’s a way of life. Better yet, Bethenny tells us that we don’t have to give up the foods we love. We simply need to moderate our intake.

As a natural foods chef (among many other things) her goal is to “democratize” health. That is, she wants health to be accessible to everyone, not just stars on the red carpet who can afford personal chefs and trainers to keep their bellies flat. Everyone deserves to eat well, be healthy and feel good. Amen.

She bases her no-diet tricks on 10 easy, no brainer rules. I’ll share some of my favorites with you:

1. Your diet is your bank account

Just like a bank account you need to manage how much you spend and save. It’s simply being aware of what you’re putting in your body; balancing not only the amount you eat, but also food “categories” (carbs, proteins, dairy, veggies, etc..) If you eat a hamburger for lunch, then it’s salad for dinner. Easy. No counting calories or points or any of that; just being cognizant of what you eat.

2. Get Real

This is one of my favorites because I grew up eating what I like to call “hippie food.” My mom always piled our plates high with whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and her own soups. We all get busy, but I will fall off the wagon if a diet tells me I can’t have something. Bethenny doesn’t say no to processed foods, but says to limit them and choose foods as close to their natural state as possible. And, as most of us know, raw foods are high in fiber so they fill us up more.

3. Taste everything, eat nothing

I know that sounds strange, but how many times have you been to a cocktail party with a lovely spread of food and you chow down a bit too much on the pâté and brie? Both Bethenny and I have spent a significant amount of time in Italy where we learned the expression mangia poco ma bene. Meaning “Eat little, but well.”  Bethenny says we don’t have to avoid the food table, in fact have it all, but only a taste of each. I like that, because again, if I know I can’t have it I’ll eat the whole darn thing. One of her other rules, which helps to moderate us in the “taste everything, eat nothing” rule, is to spoil our appetite with something healthy before we go to a party, that way we aren’t pigging out.

What happens when we overdo it? Bethenny says, “Don’t focus on your guilt – focus on healing.”  She has recovery recipes – light and easily digestible foods – to naturally flush our system and get us back on track. We just returned from Mexico (lots of chips and guacamole, beans, pork – you get the picture) and my jeans were a bit tighter than they were when I left. I’ve been eating her Pureed Zucchini Soup and I already feel better (and can zip up my jeans!). It’s darn good too, even if you don’t need the recovery!

Pureed Zucchini Soup

1 medium red onion, evenly chopped
6 cups chicken stock or broth
6 medium sized zucchini, evenly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
12 oz. frozen butternut squash, defrosted
1 cup plain soy milk
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Sauté the onions in a large pot using nonstick pray, until lightly soft. Add the chicken stock, zucchini, salt, and pepper. Cook until zucchini are soft.

Using a hand immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth. Add the defrosted butternut squash. Turn off the heat and add the soy milk and lemon juice. Season with more salt and pepper, to taste.

At the end of the day I like to relax with a little glass of wine or a cocktail – who doesn’t! Bethenny has a line of cocktails coming soon called SkinnyGirl. Her SkinnyGirl Margarita, in stores in May, is a low-sugar, low-cal version that she says is “the one to trust” since it’s free of all that heavy syrup you get in restaurant margaritas. She even asks bartenders to make it for her, which I now do too!

SkinnyGirl Margarita

2 ounces clear tequila (100% pure agave)
Large splash of lime juice, or 4 lime wedges
Tiny splash of orange or citrus liqueur
Optional: a splash of club soda to lighten it up.

If you’re tired of dieting, but want to look and feel good by summer, then I recommend this as a read (and no, I wasn’t paid to tell you that). Bethenny also has a cookbook coming out next year, but check out her website for more about her and other delicious recipes.

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Categories:	Author • Chefs • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • Interview	3 Comments
Tags:	bethenny frankel • books • diet • healthy eating • Interview • naturally thin

While at the Sundance Film Festival I had the pleasure of sitting down with Bethenny Frankel, celebrity chef and co-host of Chefdance, the culinary “Alt Dance” of the Festival. But she doesn’t stop there. In addition to being a natural food chef she’s also taken the time to pen her new book Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself From a Lifetime of Dieting (on shelves in March 10) and launch both her low-cal cocktail line SkinnyGirl Margarita (coming soon) as well as her low fat, wheat, dairy, and egg-free line of baked goods BethennyBakes. She also happens to star in Bravo’s reality T.V. show The Real Housewives of New York City and was a contestant on Martha Stewart’s The Apprentice.

Phew! Did you catch all that? This woman is not only charismatic and smart, but obviously possesses the energy and metabolism of a hummingbird; she’s so petite I could fit her in my pocket.

Bethenny started to co-host Chefdance (along with Kenny Griswold, Founder and President) five years ago, selecting the chefs, lending a hand in planning the four-course menus and attracting the celebs. The normally 10-night event (this year is was five nights due to her hectic book tour schedule) features 10 celebrity chefs and a cast of celebrity dinners. This year the likes of Mike Tyson, Hugh Dancy, Amy Irving and Brittany Snow were amongst the guest list.

Before the event began that evening we sipped our Chardonnays and talked about her new book. The premise of Naturally Thin is so simple it will make you question why you never ate like this before. As she puts it, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself” or “Taste everything but eat nothing.” To me that makes perfect sense: don’t overload at the hors d’oeuvres table, but enjoy a bit of each offering. She says that food isn’t our enemy and that we should view our daily intake as a bank account. If we only have, say, 1500 calories for that day and we snarf down a cheeseburger at lunch, then we need to deduct those calories from our “account” and eat something healthy for dinner, like a salad. It’s not new science, by any means, but I like the way she encourages us to not beat ourselves up for what I previously referred to as “falling off the wagon.” I also appreciate the fact that I can eat whatever I’d like as long as I keep track of it and keep it in check. No one likes to diet, and weight loss is achieved more easily if we just learn to balance.

Her goal is to democratize health, meaning she believes everyone deserves to live a healthy and balanced life. We all can’t afford private chefs or even organic foods, and some of us simply lack the education, but she wants to inform people on how they can stock their fridge, live a green life and maximize their health in quick and easy ways.

I tell you, it’s great motivation to get dietary advice from a tiny celebrity in a cute little knit dress. I enjoyed my Chefdance meal immensely and followed her rules to the letter. And you know what? It felt darn good.

Stay tuned as I’ll be writing more on Bethenny’s new book on March 1o – there’s a lot more you’ll want to know and learn!

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Categories:	Events • Interview	3 Comments
Tags:	bethenny frankel • celebrity chef • chefdance • Interview • naturally thin • Sundance Film Festival