Our Views: Dieting hard in Louisiana
New Year’s Day was less than a month ago, but already, all those New Year’s resolutions to eat more sensibly are facing some uphill struggles, particularly for those of us who live in south Louisiana, perhaps the world’s epicenter of culinary excess.
Perhaps if calorie-counters were in charge of Louisiana’s calendar, then New Year’s wouldn’t be followed so closely by the arrival of carnival season. It’s rather difficult to fulfill those healthy diet plans we made on Jan. 1 when king cakes start showing up in homes and offices.
And, to make matters even more challenging, we’ve recently been getting sales pitches for Girl Scout cookies, too. That’s a great cause, and we urge readers to buy as many cookies as possible to support the Girl Scout program. But reconciling those cookies with the cause of dietary restraint will be quite a trick, we know. We tell ourselves each year that we’ll exercise moderation in cookie consumption when the Thin Mints and Tagalongs reach our desk, but it’s awfully hard — OK, virtually impossible — to eat just one Girl Scout cookie.
So, we’ll just sigh and do the best we can to take those pounds off — and keep them off — before spring arrives.
Soon, at the very least, we’ll have Lent to remind us about the virtues of abstinence.