My book won’t be released for over six months and yet the title has already gone through four iterations.  Some of the early titles seem silly now, so I won’t even tell you about them.  (And, it turns out that there were a few other books with “The Last Diet” in the title.) But, when my agent and editor initially proposed, “Smart People Don’t Diet,” I really didn’t like it.  My research assistants didn’t like it and suggested it had the potential to insult a lot of people (probably not what you want to do if you want them to buy your book).  But, I wanted a book deal and in the end it seemed reasonable to defer to the folks who actually had experience selling books. 

Now, I’ve come to like the title.  I’m hoping it proves provocative.  I hope it appeals to people’s ego (as in, “hmmm… I want to be smart.  What should I be doing?”).  I hope it proves catchy and it leads people to actually buy this book.  It is terrifying to think that I could spend a year writing something that no one actually reads.

In spite of my insecurity, I’ll admit I’ve had a few moments of grandiosity recently.  I stop caring about just the chapters I’ve written and I want this book to start a revolution.  I want all women (and men) to just stop dieting; to take control of their health without subjecting themselves to weird food rules or the elimination of entire food groups.  I want the book to be a part of something bigger and more influential than the scientific studies I’ve been doing in a lab for the last 15 years.  I want the messages contained within the book’s pages to be a part of popular culture – but not the part that makes people feel subpar to the celebrities and beautiful people.  I want to it to be a part of the backlash against that element of popular culture; the popular culture comprised of so-called normal people.

When the time comes, buy the book…don’t buy the book… just don’t diet.  Because Smart People Don’t Diet.  But, if you want to know what they do do, you’ll have to buy the book.  And, if you buy the book I may be able to afford to build a deck in my back yard.  And, I’ve been wanting to do that for almost as long as I’ve been trying to tell people how to eat.

 

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