From The Utica Observer Dispatch:
Annual winter rumblings about failed diets and thwarted weight loss have become a cultural post-holiday ritual, so I suppose I ought to just wave the white flag now and call it a day.
Yes, it's upon us once again. Publishers have pumped out books about diets with real gusto this year –– "The Amen Solution," "The Carb Lover's Diet," "Cinch!" "The New Sonoma," "The New Atkins," "The Lean Belly Prescription" –– and guess what? They all work, and they all fail.
Why? Because they drench us with so many visions of our next meal that we forget life exists outside the imprisoning circle of this year's food rules.
I'd love to know why something as pure and uncorrupt as finding pleasure in life-sustaining nourishment had to become so complex or so evil. (Don't answer that; I know the answer and so do you.)
Naturally we're eager to hear the newest research about carbs or what the temperature of food has to do with burning body fat. If the information turns out to be true, it's pregnant with promise. Therein lies the caveat: IF it turns out to be true.
We're confused. And we're desperately hungry … for the truth.
While I must confess I haven't opened a single one of the 2011 diet books to learn what new earth-shattering secrets I might be missing, I'm confident that a little common sense will go a long way in managing our weight (not to mention our physical and psychological well-being).
So please allow me, once again, to help you wade through the plethora of diet confusion.
- Most important, be as vigorously active as your life will allow while doing what you love.
- Eat food that looks the way the earth gave it to us as often as possible. (Mother Earth did not create granola bars.)
- Eat an entire rainbow of colors each day (the deeper the color, the better).
- Eat often, but not to fullness.
- Drink water when you're thirsty (not strictly to satisfy some arbitrary number of ounces).
- Eat whole fruit instead of packaged juice whenever possible.
- Save the white stuff (flour) for making things like play dough for your kids. Use whole grain flour instead.
- Enjoy the food you choose. (If you hate celery sticks, don't promise yourself to eat them for lunch every day.)
- Fat is not a foe, but the kind you pour (like olive oil) is better than the kind you spoon (butter). And I encourage you to substitute the word "poison" for words like "hydrogenated" or "trans" fats.
- One final word about sugar (in any form): Our planet gives us all kinds of sweetness. You might be surprised at how sweet foods like veggies, whole grains and fruits taste once your taste buds get a break from sugar. Sugar is really just another pollutant to the body.
