Isn’t it funny how really good ideas seem to find you in the shower? Maybe it’s simply the sensory overload of water touching your skin all over your body or the white noise of the water, but I think it may have more to do with the freedom to be alone with yourself and your thoughts.
So this morning, as I was getting ready to go meet one of my most interesting friends for lunch at the Royal Panda, it dawned on me that if I could eat the same food as Mr. Wu, then I could lose weight.
What I need is a Food Hero–and the healthy and trim San Lien Wu is the perfect candidate to be my new diet Moses.
I figure that if I eat what Mr. Wu eats, then I, too, will be healthy and trim. I can say this with some certainty because the Royal Panda menu is chock full of healthy items. Also, I have eaten there for decades, and I know a little about what Mr. Wu likes to eat. Not a lot of meat. Lots of veggies. Rice. Nothing greasy. Green tea. A small glass of wine. And Mr. Wu is a stickler for freshness and quality.
With my birthday coming up on October 3, this will give me a month to get myself into some new healthy habits. They say it takes three weeks to break an old habit and start a new behavior—well this will give me three weeks and one more to make sure I don’t slip back into my old bad ways. Like everyone, there are reasons for my “old bad ways”—and I guess more about them later, but for now: it’s a good day, and I feel really happy to be starting an exciting chapter.
Unfortunately Mr. Wu is not there when I arrive for lunch, so I must make my first decision without his guidance. I decide upon the sea bass—one of my favorite dishes on the menu—the fish tender and snow white with a thatch of julienned carrots and scallions on top, and enveloped in a ginger and soy based sauce. Yes, Mr. Wu would approve. We ordered a side of slender, fresh green beans, and a bowl of brown rice.
I ask Kwon to help me serve my plate with Wu-sized portions. Kwon urges me to keep adding more rice—and already I’m amazed—and liking this! This is a far cry from my teeny-weeny-leen-kweezeenie meals!
Mr. Wu arrives as we finish the meal, and is thrilled that I am going to follow his example and make wiser choices about what I eat—and he is confident that I will be able to achieve my goal of losing 5 pounds this month.
The Wu Food Project 
Best of luck, this sounds like something that will work well!
Hooray for you! Changing eating habits is not always easy. Just when I think I’ve successfully learned “the way” I fall off the wagon. I’m hoping your journey will put me back on my right path. You can do it!
I think this is a great idea and I will be glad to volunteer to accompany you to Mr. Wu’s. You know that I love his food.
“Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.”
Thus speaks Iago, who, despite trust issues, had a way with the food metaphor.
what wonderful dish did you enjoy last night? keep going.
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Good Luck, Jean!!
I just knew you had an October birthday. Bonnie E., you and I will have a big party and you will be SOOO Thin! Find out from Mr. Wu if he would like to work in the kitchen when we have our receptions. His food looks beautiful!
You look beautiful in the pictures!!! I am so proud of
you. Call me any time and I
will meet you at Royal Panda-
love thier food! I’ll be praying
for your success.