Starting My Diet on Monday

My sister, my mom and I were famous for starting diets on Monday. We would never consider starting a diet on a Tuesday or on a Friday. Monday brought with it HOPE, and also, gave us the chance to "eat up before beginning."  We tried many different diets..depending on how serious we were at the time. Most of our diets lasted a few days because of where we lived. Hold on to that thought, for a minute.

I think you might want to know which diets we tried! We tried the 'Starvation Diet,' which consisted of drinking Tab soda, 3 times a day and, another favorite was the 'Potato Diet.' We would bake potatoes, wrap them up in aluminum foil, and put them in the fridge. Whenever we were hungry, we would take one and eat it. We, also, drank lots of coffee on that diet. I don't remember the 'why'..maybe it was the carb/caffeine combination, which made it work. ( it didn't)

Growing up in Brooklyn, Flatbush to be more exact, made it difficult for fatties who wanted to lose weight; like mom, sissy and me. I mean, how was I ever going to marry Paul McCartney when I was wearing a size 12?!!! Twiggy, was my role model!! The only guy that thought I was the perfect size was my dad (and you know, when it comes to losing weight, you can never believe your father!) Flatbush was synonymous with BAGELS!!! We had Bagel (and bialeys) stores on every corner.  If we wanted to diet, we'd tell Sam, the guy behind the deli counter, to give us a "shmear" of cream cheese, instead of piling it on. Those words, whenever said, brought tears to my mother's eyes.

We had cafeterias! I loved Garfield's, with its array of potato salads, desserts, and homemade chicken soup. It was conveniently located across the street from Erasmus Hall; making lunch time my nightmare! But my BFF (Patty A.) and the guys would meet there each day for our staple...french fries and cokes! Another great place to eat [at] was Dubrow's. It had the most delicious black and white cookies! My dad would have his coffee and I, my cookie and a tall glass of milk. The smell of lean pastrami  and knishes filled the air that surrounded us.

Jahn's (on Church or on Nostrand) was another place to TRY and avoid, while I was dieting. Well before Baskin-Robbins, it had soooo many flavors of ice cream; settling for the "Kitchen Sink" was the only way to go when I was with my friends. Really, I could not walk out of my house and not stumble upon a road-block!! I mean, I never looked to sabotage my diet!! But temptations were all around me!!

When visiting my relatives in Bay Ridge, mom and I would bring a cake. (It WAS the right thing to do, in the 60's) There were so many Italian bakeries in that neck of the woods. The cannolis and tiramisu were always displayed in their front windows.  Sure, we had N.E. Tell's and Ebinger's on Church Avenue, but somehow, the smell of the sweet confection powder filled our senses; trumping the small mocha creme cake, we could have bought in Flatbush.

Mom, my sister and I tried to avoid stores that were close to an eatery. Kind of impossible to do; unless you're blindfolded and have a clothes pin on your nose. When I moved to Bensonhurst with my husband, I thought things would get better. I was a newlywed and I wanted to maintain, for a while at least, my svelte body. My husband was not a big eater, and I didn't know how to cook..this, I felt, was a good recipe for losing weight. Little did I know, that around the corner from our apartment was a place called L & B's Spumoni Gardens. 

The smell of oven baked pizza permeated the walls of my apartment and hypnotically lured us there, each night..either for pizza or spumoni. Oy. I believe that the 15 pounds, I gained that first year of my married life, I still wear on my ass, today. Seriously, how could one pass up the inviting smells of mozzarella and tomato sauce on a crispy, oven baked crust?! The term 'food addiction' was unheard of, at that time. So, we ate happily, never thinking about tomorrow.

We knew that 'walking it off' was what we needed to do; so as NOT to get any bigger. So, we walked, avoiding main streets, where the food demons lurked.  But we were not always strong, and sometimes, we succumbed to temptation. When visiting my in-laws in Sheepshead Bay, we would walk from the corner of Ocean Avenue, up Emmons Avenue to Roll N Roaster, get their famous, thinly sliced roast beef, served on a buttered bun (hold on, I'm salivating as I'm writing this)...eat it, and then, walk back!! If I am going to blame anyone or anything for my weight gain, it has to be Brooklyn!

Honestly, the best thing my husband and I ever did was to move to East Meadow, and leave all those places behind! Speaking of 'behind', I need to start my diet this Monday!

Peace.