Diet Books Listening

[Paul]

Diet books are perennials on best-seller lists, and every year a new one seems to capture the public's imagination. But whether the latest fad involves no carbohydrates, low fats, grapefruit, cabbage soup or all beef all the time, the way to lose weight really always boils down to the same thing: Eat less and exercise more. So why do people shell out good money for diet books?

Maria Langer, a freelance writer and commercial helicopter pilot, seems like the kind of person who is nobody's fool. But she admits that over the years she's forked over more than a few dollars on the latest diet book: "I bought in on the Suzanne Somers book, also the Zone books, South Beach Diet books and Atkins Diet books."

"The diet category offers a tremendous amount of repeat business," says Ash-Milby. People "hook into one diet, [and it] doesn't work so well for them ... and they find there is another diet that sounds more interesting."

"For 25 years, as I taught creative unblocking, I had seen that my students would become more lean and more fit as they worked with creativity tools. And so I found myself thinking, 'Oh my God, this is right underneath my nose ... Writing is a weight loss tool," she says.

That's right: Cameron says you can write your way to thinness. Her new book, The Writing Diet (read an excerpt), has some standard dieting advice, including a recommendation to walk 20 minutes a day and drink lots of water. But beyond that, Cameron says, you should take time in the morning to write down your thoughts and then keep an eating journal throughout the day.

I also listen to a huge volume of podcasts. My favorites are long form interviews with artists, but I love a deep dive into almost any topic. Some that I listen to as often as they come out: Talk Easy, Time Sensitive, Dialogues: The David Zwirner podcast, Otherppl with Brad Listi, On Being, Ezra Klein, and the A24 podcast.

I recently wrote a newsletter about the very polarizing and extremely popular graphic novel series, Dog Man, by Dav Pilkey, and wow: there is a lot going on there. Dog Man touches on a LOT of things, including but not limited to: potty humor, lots of police, a non-verbal protagonist who is half dog / half man, learning disabilities, misspellings, lots of butts, family, and more. This is the gateway series for many kids learning to read and also a chronic bestseller, so there is a lot to think about. (YP)

Youngna Park (YP) is a friend of WITI. She\u2019s currently VP of product at Matter, but also wears other hats consulting with startups and writing a parenting newsletter called Making it Work. Have a great week. -Colin (CJN)

I work in a combination of tech, media, and the arts, depending on the day of the week, the season, and the year. I\u2019ve led product teams at startups for over 15 years, including building STEM apps for kids at Tinybop, starting/launching NYT Parenting (RIP), and am now the VP of product at a biotech company, Matter. I also consult with other startups on strategy, research, and product management, and try and mentor other women in the space. Most of my clients work with kids in some capacity, because tech needs to do better for the kids.

I also write a Substack newsletter called Making it Work that\u2019s broadly about parenting, but definitely not the advice part. Sometimes I write for The Strategist about kids\u2019 stuff, and run an Instagram side project called @kidsbookrecs, where I recommend my favorite children\u2019s books.

I\u2019ve really shifted away from lots of news to a lot of newsletters and podcasts. On the newsletter front, favorites include Anne Helen Petersen\u2019s Culture Study, Maybe Baby by Haley Nahman, Gloria, After School by Casey Lewis, Perfectly Imperfect, Emma Straub\u2019s newsletter, Embedded, Big Salad, and lots more. A lot of these newsletters recommend longer essays and articles at The Atlantic or New Yorker or whatnot, so I read a lot of those. (Shoutout to The Cut for revitalizing the personal essay.)

On the food-front, The Grub Street Diet is my favorite ongoing column. Christina Chaey\u2019s Gentle Foods, The Best Bit by Clare de Boer, The Green Spoon by Fanny Singer and Greta Caruso, and Keep Calm & Cook On by Julia Turshen are also great newsletters.

For book-related stuff, I listen to Poured Over (from Barnes & Noble), LARB radio hour from the Los Angeles Review of Books, and a bunch of others. Other greats: This is Uncomfortable, Normal Gossip, Broken Record, Decoder Ring. My kids also love this ethics podcast (for kids) called Short & Curly, so that\u2019s a fun family listen.

For news news I listen to NPR in the morning\u2014though we shut it off half the time because there\u2019s some grim story and the kids are listening. I check in on the NYT and WaPo throughout the day and listen to Vox's Today, Explained and Up First from NPR at least a few times a week.

I also really loved Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, which so many people recommended to me and now I\u2019m recommending to everyone. Catherine Newman\u2019s heartbreaking and hilarious, We All Want Impossible Things, about best friends in their forties, one of whom is in hospice, is so good. That sounds SO sad, but it\u2019s really an incredible story about adult friendship. I\u2019m excited about her new book, Sandwich.

I just got a copy of Miranda July\u2019s new book about perimenopause, All Fours, after seeing her in conversation with Jia Tolentino for the book launch. Every friend group chat I\u2019m on, and the book club I'm in are all talking about this book. It\u2019s a wild ride.

I\u2019m also reading Autobiography of X by Catherine Lacey, and just got a copy of Priyanka Mattoo\u2019s forthcoming memoir, Bird Milk & Mosquitos Bones. Usually, I'm not a person who reads multiple books at a time, but you only live once.

The Brooklyn Public Library app. Is that non-famous? It should be more famous! There\u2019s nothing I love more than to wander a bookstore while simultaneously putting all the books I want to read on hold from the library. I check how many holds are on a book to decide what to buy. If it\u2019s like >100 and I have to wait seven years to actually read it, I will let myself buy the book. Also Libby, the library\u2019s audio book app.

Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) with editing help from Louis Cheslaw about interesting things. If you\u2019ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you\u2019re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.

Note: I wrote the original post in January 2011. I was taking biochemistry and anatomy, and waiting to find out if I was accepted to grad school at the University of Washington to become a dietitian. I was 100% in diet culture. Truly, madly, deeply in diet culture.

Last summer, I got myself into awesome shape by competing in a transformation challenge that had the unfortunate side effect of making me want to pull my hair out and/or throw things. It was too much, for too long.

Nothing wrong with working out that way, and I do remember enjoying it. I also knew exactly what type of workouts fitness models were doing because I was freaking obsessed with the magazines that featured them, their obsessive workouts, and their very disordered eating. I wanted to be them.

On my way home (again, driving) I started to feel worse. Woozy. I dropped my friend off, then was hell-bent on making it the final 10-15 minutes home, even as I was feeling worse and worse. At one point, my vision started to gray out around the edges (a sign I was close to fainting). I made it home and collapsed on the couch. I was faint, dizzy and experiencing extreme abdominal pain. My husband called 911, and paramedics took me to the emergency room because my blood pressure and heart rate were shockingly low. I was white as a ghost. Later, I would joke that I had my first ever PSL and then had to go to the ER.

On the one hand, I was listening to my body about what type of workout felt good. (And listening to my mind, because full-body workouts really did feel tedious back then, even though I love them today.) But what was glossed over in my original post was the dangerous ways I was NOT listening to my body.

Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN, is a Pacific Northwest-based registered dietitian nutritionist, freelance writer, intuitive eating counselor, author, and speaker. Her superpowers include busting nutrition myths and empowering women to feel better in their bodies and make food choices that support pleasure, nutrition and health. This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute individualized nutrition or medical advice.

She has the most comprehensive and intuitive approach to a better and more productive relationship with body image and food. She has helped me somehow find a way to accept myself and continue this path to unconditional self-love. She is not a run-of-the-mill nutritionist/dietician, she is so much more. A therapist, life coach, cheerleader, confidant and friend.

The modules were extremely helpful and so thorough and it was clear that she does everything she can to help. Sending books, listening to the project body love podcast, journaling, and just being able to reach out whenever I needed made me feel supported and made the journey more memorable.

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