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Guest Contributor Chris is married to Zola. They have been married for over 40 years.

“No one is born a great cook,” said Julia Child. “One learns by doing.”

One of the “secrets” of losing weight on Plan Z is that you cook your own food. That puts you in control of everything that goes into your mouth.

You may have said to yourself, “I don’t have time to cook.” The processed food companies are counting on that.

On the other hand, do you have time to spend in doctors’ waiting rooms? Because “the path to feeling good from day to day and staying clear of dialysis machines, heart stents and prescription pain pills runs through a place that’s long been a center point of human living—our own kitchens.” Melanie Warner wrote that in Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Foods Took Over the American Meal.

Staying healthy and out of doctors’ offices and hospitals is a big reason why I make the time to make dinner with Zola most evenings.

Zola’s mother told her, “If you can read you can cook.” And Zola can really cook.

There are about a thousand recipes on the Plan Z Diet website. I’ve tasted every one of them. Usually, I’m Zola’s prep cook. I wash vegetables, chop them and clean up behind Zola. It’s a nice way to spend time together.

Here are more thoughts about cooking that reinforce the need to do more of it.

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

― Robert H. Lustig, The Hacking of the American Mind: Inside the Sugar-Coated Plot to Confuse Pleasure with Happiness

― Mark Hyman, M.D.

Most evenings I’m in the kitchen with Zola; watching and learning from her.

Last night I made Zola’s delicious mushroom and bacon soup for dinner all by myself. All I had to do was read and follow the recipe. I can read. And — what do you know? — I can cook. If you’ve read this far, I bet you can cook, too.

VP Anger Management