Tina Haupert

Tina Hauperts blog-a-book attempts to bridge the chasm of sane dieting and sustainable healthy living.
There are lots of practical approaches to making good food in her book. One of the seemingly obvious ones being use smaller baking pans for desserts. Like Brian Wansink's evidence of our ability to mismanage portions, the psychology of cooking can be useful to look at for answers on long term healthy living.
There are a good number of recipes for back up her words of wisdom and they play with many typical American ingredients as well as a swath of soy products. This is an interesting take on how food bloggers may want to layout a book for publication.… (més)

When I first started reading this book, I was disappointed. I admit to being really excited about the title, for I love carrot cake on an insane level. So hearing about this woman's diet tips and nutritional recipes didn't really fit what I was looking for. I also didn't really care about her relationship with her husband, how she was strength training for her wedding, or her new pug. I couldn't figure out what this book was supposed to be. It was part motivational with all its tips and recipes; part autobiographical; part cookbook; and part advice on how to write a successful full-time blog. Near the end, I started empathizing with the author about the horrors and anxieties from overworking and I'm glad that she's found a happy balance in her life now.

I don't think some of the language used to describe her relationship with food is particularly healthy, but she mentions growing up under stressful conditions when nutrition wasn't always of top importance. Like so many American women, she grew up with the media that surrounds us and tells us that we feel "blah" when we've eaten too much, to wear tight fitting pants to remind ourselves not to "overindulge," to plan our "splurges" by compensating with less food at other meals, to "resist the temptation" of certain foods, and "setting oneself up for a disaster.". There's an entire vocabulary about food being the enemy or something bad or sinful, and it's often written between the lines. Every attempt to deny it only re-defines it. As an American woman with my own eating issues, much of it was uncomfortable for me to read, because I try not to think of food in those terms.

After seeing how thin she is from her blog, I almost think her book borders on obsessive about losing and maintaining weight loss. I found myself feeling sort of stressed about my diet while reading it, for not being as vigilant as I "should" be according to my inner voice.

I am curious to try some of her recipes though. I had never heard of her blog before her book, and was curious at first about how much of the book was coming from her blog. Her blog looks really nice and I think I will follow it.

Cheers to Tina Haupert for doing it her way!… (més)