Hardwired to eat. By Jill Brown.

Face it, we’re hardwired to eat. Our ancient ancestors lived in a harsh world where food was scarce and starvation was a frequent reality. Consequently we have evolved to seek out sustenance and our efficient bodies store every single itty-bitty calorie in the event of another famine.

So, it’s not reasonable to expect to rely on willpower alone to deal with temptation. We have thousands of years of evolution urging us to go on, eat up to overcome. You need to put some TEMPTATION BUSTING strategies in place instead. And one of the most effective things you can do is reengineer your environment.

What does this involve? It means removing all alluring sources of temptation from your personal space: your home, your car, your handbag, your desk drawer and anywhere else you’ve stashed a few goodies. Ditching the junk is an empowering gesture that says I am in control here. I am master of my domain.

This strategy is something the contestants on The Biggest Loser have all learned. Cosi said to me, ‘If we have some yummy cake in the fridge at home I think of it all day. If the bad food isn’t there, I can’t eat, simple as that.’ So, grab a garbage bag and clean out your fridge and pantry. Be ruthless.

Then, replace the lot with life-giving, delectable real food. Make sure it’s stuff you really like. Life will be too miserable if you don’t have anything delicious to eat and you’ll feel resentful and end up backsliding sooner or later. Next repeat this process at work and elsewhere. Protect yourself from temptation. By making it easy to succeed you reinforce positive new eating behaviours and you’ll have more confidence in your ability to control your eating. Result!

Self-justification. By Jill Brown.

So, my friend Paul tells me that he’s getting to the beach extra early every morning for a body surf. And on the way home he drops in to this amazing bakery for a latte and a CROISSANT. ‘Is that bad?’ he asked.

His self-justification was that by getting out in the surf he ‘could afford’ the extra calories in the alluring Madamoiselle Croissant. But he was replacing (exceeding?) the energy he had burned with a (nutrient-free) folderol, so the body surf wasn’t going to help him shift a few kilos after all. He may as well just struggle out of bed at dawn and head straight for the bakery.

But the bigger problem is that by linking the two events—body surf and croissant—he has set up an expectation in his brain that they go together. He has created a conditioned response. And we all have them: pleasurable occasions we associate with certain food. Choc top at the movies. Meat pie at the footy. Biscuit with a cup of tea. And because we unconsciously anticipate eating, we feel deprived and annoyed if we can’t. The temptation is too hard to ignore because of the strength of the association.

‘What should I do?’ he groaned. My TEMPTATION BUSTING tip: set up a new association pronto with a high quality breakfast. Not something boring, but something he likes just as much or more than that buttery minx. Say, poached eggs and mushrooms or grilled tomato on sourdough toast. By swapping something delicious but unhealthy with something equally delicious and totally healthy he will gradually develop a new conditioned response, one that allows him to meet his weight-loss goals.

Successful TEMPTATION BUSTING means challenging your unhealthy conditioned responses. This can be scary to start with, but with the right substitutions you can take control. And set yourself free.

Avoiding temptation. By Jill Brown.

In the heat of the moment, it’s tough to ignore that little voice whispering I want it, I want it. When temptation has you in its grip, what do you do, dammit?

There are two approaches to that killer moment. Number one is: get busy. Disrupt the chain of events that goes from wanting to eat a particular something special to actually eating it. Cravings are rarely about physical hunger, so it makes sense not to respond to them by eating. Go for a quick walk. Make a quick phone call. Do sudoku for five minutes. Anything that distracts you from indulging that first impulse to eat will work.

The other approach, little grasshopper, is more Zen. Instead of ignoring your overwhelming desire to inhale a litre of Häagen-Dazs, stop and acknowledge it. Don’t get upset, just notice what you are feeling and wait until it passes. Accepting your uncomfortable feelings but not acting upon them creates a new pathway in your brain. Next time you’re in a hot temptation zone you will find it easier to activate this new pathway and so on until it becomes second nature.

Both these approaches have the effect of calming you down. There is tension associated with temptation, which you usually deal with by giving yourself a reason to indulge: I deserve it or It won’t kill me to have one more or Why should I miss out? Reducing the tension reduces the emotion. And by not giving in to temptation the desire will eventually weaken in intensity and reduce in frequency.

Distract your attention or breathe through the pain of the moment . . . whichever way you choose to go, if you keep at it you will become stronger in the face of temptation and on your way to a slimmer, happier life.

Inspiration for the tween party planner. By Kerrie Hess.

Hosting the ultimate girls tween party at your pad only takes a few key ingredients . . . A little planning, some fun invitations, activities to make you laugh, a cook off that your taste buds will adore, and a girly movie to top it all off.  Think Mean Girls, The Princess Diaries or the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

You can make your party elaborate and lavish, or simple and relaxed. A fun sleepover can be arranged at short notice, with very little planning. Or you could go all-out for a special event, such as giving your birthday party a fashion, haunted house or cooking theme. Have a High School Musical moment, and throw your own music party, complete with SingStar or even just a hairbrush and your iPod playlists!  Channel Bend it like Beckham, and throw an outdoor sports party, or become an instant critic hosting a book club tea party.  How civilised!

Make your party super special by devising some fun activities, costumes, decorations, props, invitations, take home goodie bag ideas, and recipes.  Try to plan ahead so that you are excited and not frazzled when it comes to party time.

Your party can be themed around anything that you really love! Just think about what you and your friends enjoy doing when you get together, and take it from there. Or try something you rarely do. . . You just may discover a hidden talent for art, dancing or film reviews.

Let the party planning begin. . .  And find out more in Girls Only, which is available now.

www.kerriehess.com.au

Fabulous fashion movies for a girls night in. By Kerrie Hess.

My first brush with fashion came on an overseas trip to Paris at eleven years old with my parents. I remember arriving into Charles de Gaulle airport, to realise that my fluorescent pink and blue patchwork parker, just wasn’t going to cut it in the most chic city on the planet. Then later in the Latin quarter, I noticed Parisian girls my age wearing little black dresses with black hosiery, smoking and sipping on double espressos.  All with an air of ‘bored chic’ that only a Parisian can pull off with panache.  Looking down at my big orange Fanta and denim cut off’s, I realised I had a long way to go.

Excited with my new found fashion obsession, I decided to lobby to my parents for a black velvet tuxedo jacket that I found in a painfully expensive boutique in the ‘Opera’ district.  (Yves Saint Laurent would have been proud.) I was in a trance; all after only one day in the fashion mecca of Paris.

I never did get the jacket, but remember spreading the word to my friends back home that the ‘tendance du jour’ was the little black dress.  Ironically, many moons later, it still is.

And now, through a love of design and fashion (but a complete inability to sew) I have found my niche as a fashion and beauty illustrator for such fabulous brands as Vogue, Tatler, Chanel and Neiman Marcus.  And I can’t help but wonder if that fateful trip to the city of lights so many moons ago may have been the original spark to the creative path I now find myself on.

Top fashion movies for a girls night in –

• Funny Face http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050419/

• The Devil wears Prada

• Rear Window (a la Grace Kelly)

• Roman Holiday

• Confessions of a Shopaholic http://www.shopaholicmovie.com.au/ 

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s

• Sabrina http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047437/

Tween friendly recipes. By Kerrie Hess.

I recently caught the wonderful film Julie and Julia at the cinema, whereby the title character works her way through Julia Child’s famous cookbook, and burns or ruins almost every dish along the way. I couldn’t help reminisce about my own cooking disasters and triumphs during the course of compiling a number of tween friendly recipes for Girls Only.

Most of the recipes in the book are my own old faithfuls, but some were uncharted territory. There were the black cat cookies that took four attempts to get right, the tarte-aux- pommes that I completely under cooked, the coconut bread that I completely over cooked and then the chocolate mouse that refused to set.  (So typically French!)  This was of course all in the name of gastronomic research, with only the ones I finally got right, and loved, making it into the book. Enjoy…

Apple Tart (Tarte-aux-pommes)

Ingredients   

Melted butter, to grease

1 sheet (25 x 25cm) puff pastry, partially thawed

1 50g pkt almond meal

1 tbs caster sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

1 egg white, lightly whisked

1 large golden delicious apple, quartered, cored, (very thinly sliced)

85g (1/4 cup) apricot jam

To make

Preheat oven to 220°C. Brush a baking tray with melted butter. Place pastry sheet on greased tray and score a 2cm border around sheet, only scoring half-way through. Combine almond meal, sugar, cinnamon and egg white, and spread evenly over pastry. Top with an overlapping layer of apple slices. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until apples are tender and pastry is crisp.

Meanwhile, melt jam in a small saucepan over low heat. With a pastry brush, brush the melted jam evenly over apples and pastry. Cut apple tart into quarters. Cut each quarter in half diagonally and serve immediately.

www.kerriehess.com