Eileen Daspin - The Manhattan Diet: Lose Weight While Living a Fabulous Life

For Sara Z. Daspin,
my inspiration

Copyright 2012 by Eileen Daspin. All rights reserved

Recipe credits: p. 222, Tandoori Salmon: Originally published in Family Circle Eat What You Love and Lose Cookbook. All Rights Reserved; p. 228, Tom Colicchio's Poached Sea Bass with Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette and Fennel Salad: Recipe courtesy of Tom Colicchio; p. 231, Eric Ripert's Grilled Salmon and Herb Salad with Toasted Sesame Seeds and Ponzu Vinaigrette: Recipe courtesy of Eric Ripert; p. 232, Skillet Chicken Breasts Aglio e Olio : Recipe courtesy of Lidia Bastianich, Lidia's Family Table (Knopf, 2004); p. 245, Tomato-Watermelon Salad with Almond Vinaigrette recipe from New American Table by Marcus Samuelsson. Copyright 2009 by Marcus Samuelsson. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; p. 249, Misticanza: Recipe courtesy of Mario Batali, Molto Gusto (Ecco, 2010)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Daspin, Eileen.
The Manhattan diet : lose weight while living a fabulous life / Eileen Daspin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-01614-5 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-16906-3 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-118-16907-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-16908-7 (ebk)
1. Weight lossNew York (State)New York. 2. Weight lossPsychological aspects. 3. Exercise. 4. Food habits. 5. Reducing dietsRecipes. 6. Self-care, Health. I. Title.
RM222.2.D299 2012
613.25dc23
2011049847

Acknowledgments

Thank you first to all of the amazing and generous women who shared their stories, tips, and crazy habits with me. Without you, I'd have no book. Ditto for all of my diary keepers, who tracked their every bite, large and small, in service of creating the Manhattan Diet (I would list you by name, but I promised anonymity). Between Joanne Lipman, Amy Stevens, Hilary Stout, Bill Tonelli, Lauren Lipton, Nancy Farkas, Susie Adams, Janet Ungless, Shari Steinberg, Ruth Porat, and Dana Weinstein. I had the world's greatest cheerleading squad. You are all awesome. Thank you to Tom Weber, photographer supreme, and Kim Diamond, my nutritional guru. Thank you to Caitlin McNiff for networking so diligently on my behalf and to Dorothy Hamilton for listening, advising, and offering a helping hand. Thank you to Richard Pine for taking on this project and to Tom Miller for snapping it up. Thank you to my dad, Michael Daspin, for everything, and to my mom, Sara, for her guiding spirit. And most of all, thank you to my best eating and partner in all things foodie and otherwise, Cesare Casella. And thank you to Chen Casella, for just being your delicious self.

Introduction

I've been dieting since I was about twelve years old. That year, at five feet seven, I tipped the scale at about 112 pounds and survived on a diet of homemade gelatin concocted from low-cal soda and Knox, low-fat cottage cheese mixed with Sweet'N Lo and cinnamon (to taste like the filling from a Danish pastry), frozen shrimp, and iceberg lettuce doused in low-cal Thousand Island dressing.

As I got older, I expanded my horizons. I did the grapefruit diet, I fasted, and I tried Weight Watchers. For a while, I even went to a therapist. I lost weight and I gained it. And I lost it.

It's been years since I followed an actual weight-loss diet, but the yo-yo mentality stuck with me like a bad pop song. I'm never not dieting. It's part of who I am.

I got the idea for The Manhattan Diet in the summer of 2009 after reading a story in the New York Times comparing the overweight and obesity rates of the five boroughs that make up New York City: Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan. According to the article, which drew on research from the Centers for Disease Control, Manhattan was not only the thinnest borough, it was the skinniest of all sixty-two counties in New York State.

Given my backstory, the piece was one of those things that just resonated. In spite of everythingthe four-star restaurants, street food culture, chefmania, snack shops galore, Dylan's Candy Bar and its many imitatorsManhattanites, and Manhattan women in particular, were svelte.

The idea for a book unspooled in five minutes. If Manhattan women had figured out how to keep fighting trim in this punishingly foodie environment, there must be something to learn from them. I had a million questions: How do Manhattan Dieters think about food? What do they eat? What don't they eat? What and how do they order in restaurants? Do they cook? Do they order in? Are they thin just because they walk a lot? Where do they shop? Are their habits different from the rest of the country's?

I set out to uncover just what the Manhattan Diet is and how the rules here can be adopted by women in Orlando, Florida, where I grew up; or Milton, Massachusetts, my mom's hometown; or Three Rivers, California, where my friend Chris lives. In other words, how could the lessons of Manhattan eating apply to places that weren't Manhattan?

To find out, I started talking to every thin, fit, stylish woman around me. I debriefed diet and exercise pros, psychologists, academics, chefs, and waiters. I reviewed studies and haunted the aisles of Whole Foods. I visited gyms and restaurants and took yoga seminars, Spin classes, and even pole-dancing lessons. I was the George Plimpton of the diet set.