The Diet Hell of a Food Porn Addict

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Note: As of Sept.29 I started my Halloween Transformation Diet click link for more info.

I am a food porn addict.  I became one just out of college when I was performing children's theatre and had no money.  I had no cable, so I watched a lot of cooking shows on public access TV.  I began to fall in love with the food of many different nations by watching cooking shows on my days off from touring.  Fast forward to this blog, Snapchat, and Instagram and my food porn addiction has bloomed into a true obsession.  Some people like taking pictures of themselves.  I like taking pictures of the food I make, eat, and order.  I love looking back on great meals that I have had.  My Instagram page reflects that love of food.  I devour the food conquests of others as well.  Doing random searches for pics of beautiful food porn on Pinterest. My Pinterest Page has several different boards devoted to food and drink from tea parties to holiday feasts. 
(A few of my food boards are Pancakes Pancakes and ... and Love Joy & Faith's: Foods Worth Breaking For) 

Pic is from my post Birthday Birthday And Again Birthday.
Cannellini Beans, Sushi Rice, Goat Cheese, 
Peppers and Tomatoes
       

When I am on a diet my food porn addiction takes over my life.  I spend hours on a bender, forgoing sleep at times.  I begin making plans of where I am going to eat and what I am going to eat when I go off my diet.  Depending on my diet I try to make delicious and amazing meals and if you follow me on Youtube you can see my effort to make my diet meals food porn as well.  In fact, before I go on a diet my food porn addiction begins to focus on foods that are suitable for whatever particular diet I am going to start.  My Pinterest boards (Alkaline Diet, Raw Food or Vegetarian, Low Carb, Atkins, Keto Diet, Paleo Diet, Meat Diet) and Youtube post and searches also reflect my desire to begin my diet.  When I look back at past post on all my social media pages I notice that a diary of sorts is being written.  Sometimes I post with that intention in mind, but most times I post because who doesn't love food porn?

Lately I have been experimenting on ways to have my cake and eat it, too.  I want to eat what I want when I want.  I also want to diet when I want and be able to decide in the middle of the day that no, I don't want to diet.  This is almost impossible, especially on the Keto diet, but I did find a way to make it work (click here: will post blog soon).  I really am proud and happy when I experience a great meal and I want to share it.  I wish I could be as happy taking selfies of myself, I might actually have my perfect body if I did, but food carries a memory and taste can be a living record.  Great food can become a moment all on its own.  Food porn is for me at least a part of my perfect self and there in lies the problem.  To take my love of food to a whole new level I want to be beautiful while making these memories.  It is frankly time for me to start my diet while accepting who I am which is a lover of food.  Looking beautiful while recording my food porn is a goal that is at odds with itself.  It is a hell.  Beginning a diet not beginning a diet creates a push and pull that I could argue is unnecessary.  Still though, walk with me through Dante's Inferno because my post, pins, blogs, vlogs and tweets evolve, devolve and evolve again based on this hellish goal linked to this divine food porn addiction. 

Note: For instant food porn gratification at random times you can follow my on Instagram.  Just click the link.  You can also subscribe to my Youtube and follow me on Pinterest.  Also you can subscribe to my blog here.   

Fear and Love; Diet and Food

Love Yascone with Jonathan Goldsmith at Astral Tequila bottle signing
and a Food collage
These are just some of my repeat meals this year

Fear and Love 

Yes, I realize the irony and the play on my name.  I am only going to talk about my fears with dieting and my love of food and how they get in my way.  I am one of those people who refuse to let my dieting affect my feelings for food.  I love food.  Love and fear can’t be together when I have food.  Unfortunately for me, diet and fear go hand in hand.  Over coming my fear of starting a diet means, for however long, I will be spurning some of my food loves.

Fear and Diet

Days before I start a diet I come up with a plan.  Once that plan is made it takes me days before I start.  

Fear #1 Stickler Love: Once I Start I don’t stop.  

This is especially true when I do low carb or the Keto Diet.  Keto is the highest performing diet I have ever done.  It is better than HCG, low carb, Intermittent Fasting Only, Carbohydrate Addict, Beverly Hills Diet, Sadkins and yes, plant based diets. (Why Keto? I don’t lose muscle and I am never hungry.) Keto is the strictest of all the diets.  Mistakes, at least for me, cannot be made.  Therefore when I start a diet I set a goal and/or a date and I can’t break my diet until that goal/date is reached.  It is because of this I usually start with a plant based diet or Intermittent Fasting if I have a lot of events to attend.

Fear #2 Missing Events and Cool Moments

Yes, it always seems I start my diets the day before some celebrity chef has an event, or there is a major bourbon or tequila tasting, or it is the most beautiful pre-summer day in years and it demands tacos or ramen with friends.  (I know I can make low carb versions but I want to be out enjoying someone else's food.) It is because of fear #2 that I ate tacos at El Taco Luchador three times this week.  It is also the reason my diet plan starts plant based and ends Keto.  I will post a video for my summer diet plan.  (Note: I started my period this week so the Tacos may be because of PMS.)

Fear #3 Failure

Part of success is picking the right diet at the right time and having the right frame of mind.  I am going through a lot these days. Literally I was just interrupted to deal with negative energy again.  It is enough to run out the house and have a nice glass of wine while looking at the river.  So depression causes failure.  If I am losing weight this usually doesn’t happen but sometimes I can also feel isolated when I am on a diet, so it depends.  The worst of the worst, is if a negative outside force comes after me.  Like at this moment.  I am innocently writing you and someone negatively impacts me.  Well, I haven’t started my plan yet.  I should just give up today.  Failure hurts me.  I have major events to go to on Friday and Saturday.  Going to these events looking the same way I look today would also make me feel like a failure.  I need to do a video on this, too.  I fear coming up with plans because once I have a plan I need to start it.  If I don’t start that is a failure.  Worse, if I start and quit due to some reason or other, it is a bigger failure.  The absolute worst failure (and this has happened to me) is being a stickler on a diet for two months and not losing an ounce.  I was suffering on a very strict diet missing Hollywood parties while my sisters went out and I did not lose a pound! The failure never left my heart.  It was an event that colors all my dieting fears.  I have an allergy to sugar substitutes including the natural ones.  I can use sugar alcohols (without a migraine) but, my body will not lose any weight.  I won’t gain but I won’t lose either.  It was a horrible lesson and I reconfirmed the lesson when I made my Keto pound cake.  The cake was wonderful and I did not gain weight but I did not lose either.  Other people don’t have this problem but I do.  It is a built in failure😢, but knowing is half the battle.

Once I start my diet for real I am confident.  I know the goal.  My love for certain foods are ignored.  Although I do look at food porn a lot. So what does food do for my life? Let’s explore.

My Love Of Food

To me, food is art.  Food is the emotion enhancer.  Food is a mood setter.  Food defines the moment, the season, the event and the person.  I happen to be an eclectic individual.  I can be the French woman with the simple frock and a joie de vie.  I can be the Neet who has binged all the episodes of My Hero Academia.  I can also be the woman going club hopping with friends.  I know the clothes I would wear to make each moment picture perfect.  I also know the food I would eat and the alcohol I would drink.  I realized for the longest time I have not been enjoying my summers.  Why? I never took that summer has started let’s have summer food moment.  Yes, I know the saying, “Do we eat to live or live to eat?” To me it is a bullshit phrase to over simplify a great issue.  What is life to YOU? To me life can be art, even the most ugly moments make beautiful pictures.  Food is art and so is the sample size dress I want to fit into.  Do you want to live your life as a function or as art?  Is life a task? Or is life a string of positive and negative emotions telling one kick ass story? I love how food can enhance and change a moment.  

I really want to change the moment I am having now.   But to tell the truth diet food is a moment too.  I have had my fill of food. I also know Saturday and Friday are going to be good days.  What my plant based diet shake says about me is that I am in the challenge of my life and I intend to win. 

(I failed horribly, I never started because I started my period, lol.  The cravings were too strong and I just did not need the added stress.  So I will start after Memorial Day. Yes, I will be posting a video on youtube and you can watch my past exploits there too.)

Fat Bomb Soup 

my Favorite Keto Diet Recipes

(If you want to see more of my food follow me on Instagram and YouTube and Snapchat.)

NoMo, Executive Chef Salaam And Our Most Magical Food Moment In New York

NoMo
Pic by Joy Yascone

Glenda Yascone (Mom) with Executive Chef Salaam

It was a Tuesday, early afternoon and we were at risk of having a very crappy food day.  Monday we had a "meeting" that lasted about 7 hours.  We worked hard Monday and we were in the midst of deciding if yesterday's meeting would continue today (Tuesday) or if we would be lucky enough to have the day off.  I was in the camp of we aren't going to have to meet today and obviously Faith was too because she found NoMo.  The problem was Joy wasn't sure and she wanted to be ready to do business.  She made things difficult a little.  Mom of course was a total diplomat.  We decided to go eat lunch.  Joy of course was like no we won't be ready.  I was like we wasted 20 minutes arguing already.  We were only going for lunch.  That's what we thought, that's what we intended.  That's not what happened.  We did have lunch, but we also had dinner and then went out to drinks with the Executive Chef Salaam; oh and we had dinner at NOMO Wednesday, too.

We walked into this beautiful hotel that houses the beautiful restaurant NOMO and we felt like we were home.  We were greeted by one of the most beautiful, cheerful and inviting staff we ever meet in New York.  We were what we as a family would consider underdressed for our beautiful surroundings.  I personally braced myself for a snob routine but that didn't happen.  This was New York and it was beautiful people New York but they treated us as if we were the Royal Family returning home.  We ordered drinks right away.  At some point we found out we would not be "meeting" today so we relaxed.   Now we were sad.  This was clearly a place we should be having dinner and technically our meeting now setup for tomorrow should occur here, too.  Joy decided to make sure our meeting would end at NOMO and Joy always gets what she wants.  While Joy was sending pics of the place to production the rest of us were trying to plan the night.  We all decided we would split 2 NoMo Wagyu Burgers.  (The burgers were perfect and tasted perfect.  The ketchup for the fries were made in house.  We would come to find out all sauces at NoMo are made in house!)  We noticed this beautiful man in an executive chef jacket.  He was talking to an equally beautiful woman who turned out to be the Marketing Manager.  Faith excused herself to go to the ladies room (apparently she spoke to him on her way out) and while she was gone Chef Salaam made his way to our table.

We all talked as if we had known each other for years.  We had arranged to have dinner with NoMo at 8:30 (we ended up pushing it back to 9:00pm).  We also arranged to meet there again on Wednesday with a producer we knew Chef Salaam should meet.  When we left the restaurant after lunch we were excited.  We began the day at a chain fake French place for breakfast (we did not eat of course) and happened upon the best food day of our lives, but I get ahead of myself.  We spent the rest of the day getting ready for Wednesday's meeting.  This entailed conference calls, bargaining, begging and shopping.  By 8:00 pm we still had not dressed for dinner.  Four women in a loft apartment in SoHo with their dog who has to be walked first and sharing one bathroom! No way in hell we were going to make it there by 8:30.  We almost didn't make it at the rescheduled time of 9:00 pm but I at the last minute went off and walked my ass over there to arrive promptly at 8:59 pm.  Surprisingly they were only 4 minutes behind me.  We knew Chef Salaam wanted us to go with him to The Ship for after dinner drinks and that place is so amazing.  If you want to know a city you have to know the chefs because they know everything!

Okay so we are all at the table.  Each of us have wonderful drinks.  We know from this afternoon there are no misses on this menu.  Our server from lunch gave us the rundown of the food and we knew we wanted, no needed to try everything.  It made it near to impossible to decide.  We ordered the chicken lollipop.  Remember the Teriyaki sauce like all sauces are made in house.  It was amazing! At some point Faith realized we would not be able to decide for ourselves what we wanted to eat.  So she decreed that we should try anything the chef decided for us.  Executive Chef Salaam did not disappoint.  It was a beautiful dream filled with beautiful food in beautiful surroundings.  I could spend all day talking about how wonderful the food was and how it was the best food day I have had in many years; but it would take an eternity to describe this day.  The food and the conversations were full of life.  I must let the pictures speak for themselves.  I will only say that none of us asked for more salt or pepper or sauce and that NEVER happens during a meal with us.  Mom or Joy almost always have an issue but here at NoMo we had the most peaceful and perfect time together.  Of course I our meeting went well on Wednesday.  After getting a rocky start and working a few hours at the loft we moved our "meeting" to NoMo and NoMo provided a relaxing end to a long day.

Please note the pics of the food are of a tasting.  Actual full orders are not pictured here.

Chicken lollipop

Cauliflower

Mini Tacos

Mini Tacos

Tuna Tartare

Kale Caesar

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe
I also reordered this on Wednesday
it has a beautiful poached egg in the middle.

Branzino
This was so amazing with lobster sauce

Wagyu Flatiron Steak
Heaven on a plate

Their version of an ice cream sandwich is so good

Tapioca Pudding
I forgot the name of this dessert but so good

Another Amazing Dessert

The Lobby of NoMo
shot by Joy

Lobby of NoMo Shot By Joy

   

Party Food So Good You Don’t Want To Share- Halloween Goodness

Okay I have made a jambalaya so good I want to sit in the closet and eat every bit of it by myself.  Unfortunately it is for tomorrow’s party.  We are also having chili and fettuccine Alfredo and all sorts of other fun good food I can’t wait to eat but I tasted my jambalaya and I am in love.  I won’t add the sea food until tomorrow night and it is still OMG good.  Italian Parsley, cilantro, jasmine rice, butter, chicken, chorizo, moonshine sausage…I am in love!  Tomorrow I won’t even remember to take a picture so I am posting now without the shrimp.  Halloween isn’t just candy.  Halloween can be the best fun food you ever had.

Jambalaya 

Halloween Drinks
This is the base of our drinks Tequila 

Birthday Birthday And Again Birthday Part Deux Or Our September

Last year we spent the September Birthdays in North Carolina. It was beautiful and sad because not only was it their (Glenda. Joy and Faith's) first birthdays without my husband but our Uncle Pookie passed away just a month before in August.  It was a beautiful and fun birthday but it was not a party.  It was simply the 4 of My Royal Family 4 healing.  The title of this blog is a play off of a 2013 posting (Bryan was still with us) Birthday Birthday And Again Birthday and if you read both postings you will see how far we have come.  This years party celebrations are closer to the real us but not really.  We are trying our best to live the dream and we do this as a family by celebrating each other.

This year we had a dinner party for Mom (Virgo).  We went to Churchill Downs night racing on Faith's (Libra) actual birthday and had a party to end all parties for Faith and our cousin Shawn two days later.  We had a brunch and a dinner for Joy's (Libra) birthday while we worked and partied with the Idea Festival! My diet went to hell on the 26th of September!  I almost want to name this posting Our September because it was busy, fun and full of great food.  This September was the September of the 90's Party, food trucks, parties, great ideas, BILLIONAIRES (although I will not point out who they are), night racing at Churchill Downs, Cincinnati Bengals Pro Football players and just plain living!

Faith's 90's Birthday Party

Sit back and relax.  I am posting pretty pictures and fun videos and maybe just maybe you will get an idea or two.  This is more than just about parties, birthdays and celebrations.  It is about food, love and life.  It is about doing what feels right, like having a food truck! YES, we had a food truck at Faith's 90's birthday party and it was amazing!  It cut down on clean up and the food was so good!

Food

Birthday Cake

Food Truck Holy Molé

Holy Molé Tacos were awesome for Faith's 90's Party

Joy's Brunch

Joy's Dinner 

The Fun

Fabulous