Diets-Diets and More Diets--They Work (Kind of)

A multi-million dollar business out there of different diet books succeeds daily to take care of our bad eating habits.  Come up with a new diet and you could get rich.  The simple fact of dieting is that if you take in less food than you use up you will start to shed some pounds.  The major problem with diets is—not that they don’t work but most of we mortals will lose the prescribed weight and head back to our old eating habits.  It is hard to give up those chocolate chip cookies. 

I am not going to lecture you here on  what you should or shouldn’t eat, especially during the holiday season where food is everywhere.  There are more calories consumed between Thanksgiving and the first of the year than the rest of the year.  I am fairly disciplined in my eating habits and stick with healthy diet of lots of produce and protein.  I rarely eat anything processed or made with sugar.  However, it is pretty darn hard to avert your eyes from a table full of favorite sweet desserts.  My way of survival here is to scan the table and decide if anything is so wonderful that I must indulge.  I honestly may pick up one thing and it will be very small.  Well—maybe two or three.

A Few Different diets

As you know hundreds of thousands of people make resolutions for the New Year to head to the gym and start losing weight with one diet or another.  And most diets as I mentioned are quite successful.  There are generally new names  for these diets emerging each year.  the old ones were Atkins, South Beach for many years and the one called The Mayo Clinic Diet with grapefruit and cottage cheese—just to mention a few.  Today it is  Paleo and Ketogenic.   Most diets have many similarities so you can pick and choose what appeals to you most.   And of course there are the regular diets of Vegan, Vegetarian, no gluten, no sodium and no sugar.  I did not forget the liquid diet drinks but I hate missing a real meal.  Restaurants have become very creative and offer many alternatives to satisfy customers.  Having a dinner party today one must check with guests as to their preferences. 

What remains most amazing to me with all of these diets—some weight loss, some health oriented —our health care system is still in a mess. Doctor’s offices are continually filled and prescription drugs are purchased at an all time rate.  

Here are just a few of my solutions that I follow to stay slender all year long.

1. Drink lots of water
2. When you are really hungry have a glass of low sodium V8 Juice
3. Eat only when hungry
4. Stop eating just before you are feeling full
5. Avoid random eating
6. If you are to splurge make sure it is something you love