I’ve been on a multi-year weight loss journey and have lost about half of myself. I'm a believer of a really crazy diet plan: eat less, eat well, move more. It works! Along the way, I gained an amazing trainer who shares my interest in not just fitness but also nutrition. In December of 2008, she suggested we try to eat only one sweet treat every week for the entire upcoming year, 2009. Four or five of us agreed to try this and most gave up early on. I stuck with it for an entire year, thanks to the 52 Donuts project (www.52donuts.com).
I knew if I were to eat only one sweet every week, I would need to tie it into a larger project. Donuts were the one sweet I knew I could not pass up for an entire year, so I decided to visit a different donut shop every week for a year. Midway through the year, I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance, which made it impossible for me to eat donuts from 99.9% of donut shops.
Instead of eating donuts, I spent the last 6 months going with friends to donut shops and chatting with them while they ate my favorite sweet. In that 6 months, I realized a large part of eating for me is the act of sharing time with friends and family over food, it’s not so much about the food itself. Well, maybe a little.
After doing this “sweet-a-week” thing for a year, I realized it works! But I didn’t want to spend another year chasing down donuts I could not eat. I also wanted to de-mystify gluten-free baking and offer recipes that were not only gluten-free but also tasty. Many gluten-free recipes I tried were total flops, required lots of exotic flours and tasted horrible. I knew I could find a way to make gluten-free baking easy and tasty.
To continue with my thing-a-week/52 plan in 2010, I chose to bake a different sweet every week and pick a different friend to share the sweet with. This led to lots of complications, like making sure I made something the week’s chosen friend would enjoy, making sure our schedules would mesh, making sure I had 52 friends. As the end of 2010's project approached, I realized I was nowhere near done baking. I am fully captivated by gluten-free baking and have found a way to continue the project.
In 2011, I am baking a gluten-free Sweet each week with a different ingredient that is new to me, or perhaps something that I have never considered incorporating in a Sweet. I asked friends for ingredient suggestions and am looking forward to the challenge!
In 2011, I am baking a gluten-free Sweet each week with a different ingredient that is new to me, or perhaps something that I have never considered incorporating in a Sweet. I asked friends for ingredient suggestions and am looking forward to the challenge!
And now there’s another spin-off of my 52 projects. Because I work at quite a few fairs and festivals, I see lots of food-on-a-stick. I, along with friends, ate 52 different foods on a stick during the Summer and Fall of 2010. You can read all about it at www.52foodsonastick.com.
If you have read this far, you know this is an ever-evolving project. There's even more...If you are interested in reading about my adventures traveling and dining out gluten-free, visit me at Johnna's Beyond 52 blog. I also share a non-sweet recipe or two from time to time over there, along with random musings about my gluten-free vegetarian lifestyle. I hope you'll join me there, too!
If you have read this far, you know this is an ever-evolving project. There's even more...If you are interested in reading about my adventures traveling and dining out gluten-free, visit me at Johnna's Beyond 52 blog. I also share a non-sweet recipe or two from time to time over there, along with random musings about my gluten-free vegetarian lifestyle. I hope you'll join me there, too!
