Parler Paris Newsletter, Paris France

How to Pig Out in Paris and Stay a Shrimp
by Adrian Leeds

Or How to Eat without Guilt! By the author of the Insider Paris Guide for Good Value Restaurants

The question I get asked most often is: "How do you eat out so often on such rich French food and stay so slim?" In fact, it's not unusual to be asked this question even more often than I dine out.

In the year 2001, I officially dined out in 200 restaurants in Paris. That's an average of 4 per week. Amazingly, of which I am very proud, the average meal was about $16.67 including tax and tip. Lord only knows how many calories that accounts for.

In 1980 I took up eating as a pastime instead of smoking three packs a day and immediately gained ten0 pounds. While five pounds up or down comes and goes with the seasons and situations, my weight has stayed pretty consistent all these years, in spite of Paris dining. Hence the ceaseless demands (from both women and men) on why I can do what I do without turning into a "cochon."

A pound of fat equals 3500 calories, so to lose one pound, one must expend 3500 more calories than eaten, whether through increased activity or decreased eating or both. Decreasing eating is tough for someone like me who eats for a living.

To answer this question, I first turned to my own daily habits. Then I turned to the Web. What I learned supported my own hunches. Please keep in mind that I am no doctor nor dietician. This is not necessarily good advice – but it's the truth – for me.

1. Start with good genetics. My mother now in her mid eighties is still as slim and trim as she's always been. 'Course, she doesn't eat quite like I eat except for her daily "hit" of chocolate which she absolutely MUST have. (Did you know that a person in love produces a chemical called "phenylethylamine" and chocolate has lots of it, too?!) According to Ben Z. Krentzman, M.D. of Venice, California notes on his Web site at
http://www.t0.or.at/~ascharf/links/krentzmann/genetics.html --
"What we inherit is passed on to us in the code in our genes. Genes control all aspects of our physical makeup, and as we are coming to find out, they also control a whole set of chemicals in our brain which control much of our eating behavior" Ever notice how small and gaunt the French are? So, genetics are simply on their side.

2. Eat two meals a day, one light, one heavy. Breakfast is the one I skip even though it's the one you're not supposed to skip. I'm simply not hungry in the morning except for coffee (a big frothy café crème) and then it is impossible to resist a "tartine" (fresh baguette with butter). No, this is not good for the waistline, but if you can't enjoy this simple pleasure every once and a while here in France, then when can you? France.com
(http://www.france.com/gastronomy/traditions.html) says that "As a rule, the French eat three meals a day, usually at the same hour. Even though this practice is disappearing in the professional world, many people see this tradition as an important aspect of the French way of life. French people start the day with the petit déjeuner (breakfast), which consists of bread (du pain): baguette, croissants or brioches, with an expresso, a café crème (expresso with hot, foamy milk), a simple but strong bowl of drip coffee or a chocolat chaud (hot cocoa)." I agree whole-heartedly.

3. Don't eat between meals. If you eat well at each meal, your body won't need to be fed in between. Eating between meals is a bad American habit. Leave it behind you. FreedomofHealth.com says that "After the regular meal is eaten, the stomach should be allowed to rest for five hours. Not a particle of food should be introduced into the stomach till the next meal. In this interval the stomach will perform its work, and will then be in a condition to receive more food." Snack food is becoming increasingly easier to find on Paris streets, much to our chagrin, and our growing thighs.

4. Walk. Walk. Walk. Paris is the greatest city in the world to walk in. Walking from place to place instead of grabbing a taxi, hopping a bus or heading to the nearest Métro, will naturally burn off the extra calories you may have consumed along with that millefeuille from Gérard Mulot you couldn't resist. You're going to love this tip -- http://diabeticgourmet.com/calculators/799burn.shtml -- a site to calculate how many calories you burn just by walking. If I walk from my apartment to the Hôtel de Ville, which takes about 15 minutes at a pace of 4 miles an hour, I burn 67 calories. If I keep walking all the way to my partner's apartment in the 6th arrondissement, I will burn 157 calories. Every little bit helps.

5. Take the stairs. There are 70 steps up to my apartment and no elevator (it's a 350 year-old "hôtel particulier" with a wide curving stairwell no one is willing to destroy with an elevator) . I have a love-hate relationship with the stairs. On one hand I am cursing them and on the other hand I am thankful to them for giving my legs great shape, pumping up my biceps (carrying heavy loads), granting me a natural daily cardio-vascular workout with no other option. Steve Kendall at http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/kendall.html says "Use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. Not only will you burn the fat but you will have the stairs all to yourself." Not in my building.

6. Buy clothing that is always tight. You might think this is a joke, but it works, psychologically. When I've gained a pound or two, I put on my tummy-flattening undies and tightest pants. Just breathing reminds me I am overweight. When I swallow, it gets stuck at the belt. Indigestion sets in and then I know I'm on the road to losing that extra bulge. If I ever buy pants or a skirt that is actually loose and comfortable, I'm sure the battle to stay thin will surely be lost. While surfing the Web to support this theory, I came across lots of sites that say that tight clothing is a sign of weight gain but none that use it as a method of weight loss! Could this start a new diet fad?

7. Skip or share dessert. It's tough for me to resist a "tarte tatin" with "crème fraiche," so if I must have it, I'll order one and share it with fellow diners. Face it -- fat grams are what make fat cells. Once a fat cell, always a fat cell. At
http://www.howstuffworks.com/fat-cell.htm you can learn that half of the adults in the United States are overweight -- 97 million people. "As your body stores more fat, the number of fat cells remains the same; each fat cell simply gets bigger." Depressing, huh?

8. Pretend you're allergic to high-in-fat foods. Way back when I was living in California and everyone was going daily to the gym and discussing diets during every guilt-ridden meal, I learned this from a friend who was devoted to Gold's Gym and had the best body I had ever seen. In three weeks I lost 10 pounds just by imagining that I was allergic to certain foods and simply not part of my diet: chocolate, avocado, tortilla chips, French fries, and all things which are high in fat. InfoPlease.com at
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0106382.html says that "Some foods and food groups are higher in fat than others. Fats and oils, and some types of desserts and snack foods that contain fat provide calories but few nutrients. Many foods in the milk group and in the meat and beans group (which includes eggs and nuts, as well as meat, poultry, and fish) are also high in fat as are some processed foods in the grain group." So, what's left to eat in Paris? Not much. I find this one the toughest to adhere to.

9. Reduce your portions. Although I've noticed the portions in French restaurants lately starting to rival their American counterparts, most three-course meals in Paris will leave you satisfied without being stuffed and you didn't have to share one bite with your dining partner. An "entrée" (appetizer) is exactly that, on a small plate and enough to take the edge off your hunger. The "plat" (main course) is usually about 100 grams of meat or fish accompanied by a vegetable or starch taking up about 25% of the plate, leaving you room for dessert. A slice of "tarte aux pommes" (apple pie) is one-eighth of the pie, not an American one-sixth. In France, it is rude to leave food on your plate, so it's best if the portions are reasonable. I am often both amazed and repulsed by the portions US restaurants are serving up these days, now that I am so accustomed to the French idea of reasonableness.

10. Eat without guilt. This is the most important way to stay slim and happy! Often, visitors worry that they'll gain weight while they're here. Don't! Just change your habits to adapt to the French lifestyle and you'll be able to eat all you want without gaining weight and without the guilt. It's one thing I love most about living here.

About the Author

Adrian Leeds has been living in Paris nine years. She is the director of the International Living Paris office and president of Adrian Leeds Group, LLC, her Internet U.S. based company. She is the author of the "Insider Paris Guide for Good Value Restaurants" published by International Living, the result of her insatiable desire for great food at bargain prices, writes the Parler Paris email newsletter, and co-hosts her own brainchild, the popular Parler Parlor French/English Conversation Group in Paris where members from almost 50 different countries meet to practice speaking French and English. Email : Info@AdrianLeeds.com