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A Fad Diet is a Bad Diet |
A Fad Diet a Bad Diet
The sensible approach to a healthy weight.
The vegetable soup diet could have been called the gas in a bowl diet but I tried it. I should have known the Atkins Diet that advocated low carbs and high protein was just another gimmick when I discovered that Dr. Atkins himself was overweight following his own system, but I tried it. Dr. Agatston of The South Beach Diet fame took medication to lower his cholesterol but I tried it even though I could hardly put one foot in front of the other for the first two weeks while I cut out sugar. We are warned about these (www.atkinsexposed.org) but who wants to listen when you can lose half your body weight in half an hour? There is something so alluring about the idea of something for nothing and if it has been around, I have probably tried it.
Some of these diets can’t even be called fads because they have been hawked by their founders and followed by millions of people like me for decades. Why is that? I believe it is because those diets fill the need for instant gratification that we have come to expect from so many things in our lives. The microwave means we don’t have to wait for food to cook at home. Fast food restaurants mean we don’t have to wait for food to cook while we are out. Liposuction means we can forego months of sit-ups for a few hours in surgery and look fantastic without the work.
What is so wrong with the healthy standard of everything in moderation including both food and exercise? I finally took the time to start (and continue) an exercise program that an instructor put together especially for me. I don’t “do” gyms so it is an easy one that I can follow at home. Here’s the surprise: it actually works! It was only three weeks into it that I could honestly notice a difference in the way my clothes and body felt. It cost me $40 to make a difference instead of the $400 a month my co-worker spends for her personal trainer. To each her own I guess. I may not be a cool as her but I certainly keep more cash in my jeans which, incidentally, I now look as good in as she does.
I have given up on diets of any kind and instead am making healthy choices on a daily basis. This way I am able to enjoy an indulgence on occasion and really, truly enjoy it knowing that it is the exception rather than the rule. Is it more fun than eating chips and chocolate? Of course not but it also isn’t as bad as you might think. Once your body gets used to having healthy, nutritious food on a regular basis, it actually wants those foods more and the empty calorie foods less. I know that this is what they always told us but was quite surprised to find out it is actually true. (www.healthyeating.net)
My problem was that I never stuck with anything long enough to see a difference. Sure I hung in there on South Beach when my energy was completely sapped and all I wanted to do was crawl under my desk and nap, but a week after that I couldn’t take it anymore. The Vegetable Soup Diet worked on water weight but who cares when you can’t go out in public thanks to all of that cabbage? Why do we insist on the idea that a diet (Dare I Eat That?) has to involve deprivation? A sensible approach to a healthy weight always has and always will include eating nutritious foods and getting some exercise. I know it’s not what we want to hear because it’s not a quick fix, but after decades of dieting I have come to understand how much sense it makes to just live moderately. The kicker though, is that if I had just understood this concept when I was in my teens I would have had a much easier time of staying trim and being healthy. They say that a smart person learns from their mistakes but a wise person learns from other’s mistakes. Maybe the youthful mindset of knowing it all when we are 18 years old keeps us from listening when we are given these words of wisdom. Maybe though, it also gives us the impetus to go out and live life and make those mistakes so that we can become who we are meant to be. After all, we are just a sum of our experiences and what fun would it be to learn from the fun and alas, the heartache of others? A word to the wise: live moderately and live well.
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com
More About Rhonda Hoffman: Rhonda Hoffman is a successful author and regular contributor to www.canadian-cook.com |
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