Chow down time at the Mandalay Bay Buffet in Vegas.

I know you LOVE to eat! With summer around the corner, and less layers of clothes becoming the "in" thing for the next three to four months (we hope), you might be considering dieting or even giving up delicious meals for "saw dust" bars. (I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a tasty treat to me!) Let me share a success story with you about great tasting food that won't go to your waist.

Their journey (like any other truly inspiring success stories) was one of overcoming bubble-bursting obstacles...

Enjoying authentic Italian pizza at Caffe Donnini in Florence.

Last month, while I was waiting for my flight at the airport, I stumbled upon an interesting article in the Reader's Digest about two Polish-Canadian sisters (Janet and Greta) who published cookbooks that mixed pots and pans with pens and puns in an effort to improve people's eating habits. They saw it being more than just a cookbook: It would be a lifestyle guide that would bring clarity (and fun) to the confusing world of nutrition and dieting. "Everyone loves to eat and everyone loves to laugh," they reasoned. "Why not combine the two?" So they did.

They wrapped the entire cookbook in humour—silly cartoons, corny jokes, and "punny" recipe titles such as Miss American Thigh, Jurassic Pork, Lord of the Wings and La Vida Mocha—to make the normally dry subject of nutrition easier to digest. Pun intended, of course!

Lunch time in Malaysia.

They literally went for broke to get their beloved cookbook on store shelves. After hatching their "brilliant" plan, they decided to quit their secure full-time jobs—on the same day, no less! To fund their project, they sold all their possessions at an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink yard sale—TVs, stereos, clothing, unopened infomercial purchases, Chia Pet and Thigh Master—basically anything that wasn't nailed down.

They went 14 months without any income while writing the book, living off proceeds from the yard sale, credit card advances, personal loans and the occasional bake sale or bottle drive (seriously). They would have resorted to panhandling had Greta not needed every single one of their pans to develop recipes!

I can never get enough dessert!

When their bank accounts dwindled to a paltry $1.17 between the two of them, they optimistically mailed their manuscript to the largest New York Publishers. Every single one bluntly turned them down. To the publishers, the sisters were simply two unknown would-be authors from Canada, without a track record, without an agent, without a hope. And their work was too much a break from tradition: "A cartoon-illustrated cookbook? You must be joking!" Actually, they were joking! That was the point! Jokes and food...food and jokes! But publishers didn't get their point and, at that time, they were $80,000 in debt, unemployed and starting to get on each other's nerves.

Chinese food at Sea Palace in Amsterdam.

Desperate, but undaunted, they solicited the help of David Chilton, author of Canada's all-time bestseller, The Wealthy Barber. In a nutshell, it was his cookbook-loving mother who tried the recipes, loved them all, and convinced David to get involved. (The sisters were convinced David felt sorry for them, too.)

Pigging out with my niece in Malaysia.

The very first cookbook they wrote and self-published, Looneyspoons: Low Fat Food Made Fun!, sold a whooping 325,000 copies in the first year, making it one of the fastest selling books in Canadian publishing history. Thousands of letters and phone calls came from people taking the time to pour their hearts explaining how the book has changed their lives for the better. And so, the sisters were inspired to produce their second book, Crazy Plates: Low-Fat Food So Good You'll Swear It's Bad For You! This book also had goofy recipe titles: Mercedes Buns, Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Coloured Polka Dot Rotini and Love Me Tenderloin, to name a few.

Pigging out with my cousin in Malaysia.

In its first 12 months, Crazy Plates sold 350,000 copies beating Looneyspoons' first-year sales. The book was a hit! You wouldn't just find it in the kitchen, but in cars, in planes, in trains, in beds, heck, readers even wrote to say they kept it in the bathroom.

Chowing down at La Bussola in Florence, Italy.

Soon, fans inspired the sisters to cook up their meatiest, juiciest, most flavourful batch of pots and puns with the first-ever know-carb, know-fat cookbook, Eat, Shrink & Be Merry. The sisters were able to teach people how to eat instead of how to diet-and clear up conflicting information, fads, myths and misconceptions with low-fat, no-fat, high-fat, high-protein, no-carb, low-carb, bad-carb, good carb...good grief!

Getting ready for my fourth course.

The point is...you don't need to stop eating or give up great tasting food when you "diet". (If you want, look for these "punny" cookbooks to help you get started on eating right.) So while you follow your heart to pursue your dreams (just as Janet and Greta did), remember to take good care of your body. Your body is your life vehicle—driven by your heart, with the help of your mind—taking you anywhere you want to go. How much wealth can you accumulate if your vehicle is down? So while you dream big, work hard (and smart), refuse to quit and let passion be your guide, remember to eat well and laugh your way to good health!