« I hate meetings | Home | Movin' right along, then »
July 28, 2005
Diets in general
Poasted by gekko at 7:11 PM and filed under 
"Blob - Fitness, Weight, and Nutrition"
Diets are weird. The entire word has taken on the context of something temporary. Something we do for a little while, just to be able to get ready for the swimsuit season, for example. Or to try to lose a few pounds before the office Christmas party.
"Oh, sorry, no thanks. I'd love to have that burger, but I'm dieting. I'll take that yummy lettuce leaf, though, if you're not going to eat it!"
I spent parts of my youth eating "interesting" things as Mom got involved in different diets. I watched school mates, little bitty skinny teenagers moan about "dieting." I vowed, back then, that I would never diet.
And I was pretty true to my word, in that while I had a diet that consisted of ramen noodles and chocolate chip cookies, I did not diet -- for a while.
Then I started noticing that I was fat.
And I joined those other women who were always going on about dieting.
"Oh, try this one! You drink this noxious pukey beverage for a solid week -- nothing but the beverage. Then for a week you eat nothing but grapefruit. Then you get to eat whatever you want for a week, then it's back on the gunky drink. The pounds just MELTED off of me! I lost five whole pounds, so far!"
Then she gained back, like, twenty, because she glommed onto every high calorie, fatty food substance she could sink her chubby teeth into.
Or the one who decided that Atkins© was The Way Of Light And Truth.
"We evolved to eat meat, hello. Carbs are bad. So what if your breath stinks, at least you're eating the way Ma Nature determined was best for you, and the pounds are just going to MELT off of you! Oh! Is that a potato? Man. I looove potatos. I miss them so much. Oooh! And a muffin! I hear they're coming out with low carb versions of those muffins. I can't wait!"
So Ms. Nocarbs porked back up again, but at least her breath doesn't remind me of a decades-old charnel house.
The entire rant boils down to this ... epiphany ... that I had a while ago.
Dieting isn't something you do for a little while.
It's something you do for the rest of your life.
It's about eating smart. It's about eating foods that keep you healthy and energetic. It's about eating enough of them to satisfy your body's needs but no more. It's about eating the things you enjoy, but not overdoing it.
Because, really, food is too much a part of our existence to be something we play around with.
I don't know exactly how much, but I do know that a LOT of the food the typical American eats has more to do with socializing and comfort than with basic needs.
And if you can convince yourself to keep your portions small, and to have only ONE serving instead of, say, five, and to treat treats as treats instead of staples, you've gotten past the largest of the psychological humps that doom most diets to failure.
I'll ramble on more in other entries about this. It's one of my favorite religious rants. 
Tagz: Nutrition, Weight Management
Ooh, got me one hot comment!Post a comment
Leave a comment
©Copyright 2002-2007 gekkoGrafx.com -- All Rights Reserved
That is so true about the socializing. I've trained myself not to mindlessly take stuff that other peeps offer, but it is another learned behavior. Every day can be a "special occasion" if you let it, and a piece of birthday cake is 500+ cals.