the apple diet

Earlier today, as I was sitting waiting for a class to start, a number of the students in my class started discussing the "Apple Diet," which one of my more portly classmates had just committed to. "This week," he explained, "all I'm gonna eat is apples and water. If I do, my buddy's gonna give me 20 bucks!" The students and the teacher questioned how he could stand it, whether he could eat applesauce or drink apple juice, etc., ignoring what I thought was the central issue:

DIETS LIKE THIS ARE RIDICULOUS

This particular one might be a little more over-the-top than some others, but it got me thinking - how many people go on hopelessly unsustainable diets thinking they're really going to make a long term difference, when they're really doomed to fail? So many require their followers to unrealistically (and needlessly) restrict their diets:

• Atkins Diet (low-carb)
• Cabbage Soup Diet
• Grapefruit Diet
  
• Master Cleanse
• Nutrisystem (eating only THEIR food)
• Paleolithic Diet

... and dozens (hundreds?) more. Anybody who has tried these, or approached their diet from sustainability viewpoint, knows these plans don't work - they're band-aids at best, hopefully facilitating weight-loss but avoiding addressing the underlying causes for your weight problem.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems like a successful approach to long-term weight loss and management must take at least these two factors into account:

1. Your Priorities (What do you want? What will you give up? What won't you?)
2. Your Food Intake/Expenditure (What/how much are you eating? Are you burning it all off?)

It might seem like a pain, but only a holistic approach to our weight can really help us lose our love handles.

You can put down your apple now :)

Wait ... I didn't REALLY want that!

Have you ever fallen victim to the "allure of food?" If you struggle with your weight, I'm sure that you have - those delectables that you just can't keep your hands off can often seem too appealing to pass up. But what about when you're on track, trying to make good food choices - can we still get fooled by an outwardly glamorous, healthy sounding menu item?

Earlier today, I decided to eat lunch at my favorite grilled chicken place. Towards the end of my order, the cashier asked if I would like a whole wheat pita. Now, I usually pass on the regular pita. Today was different. "Ooh!" I thought to myself, "whole wheat huh? Sounds healthy and delicious." Famous last words.

What was I thinking? I know better than that. Your average whole wheat pita is only marginally healthier than your average white flour pita - slightly higher fiber, barely lower calories. And I know that whether I eat the pita or not doesn't really effect my satisfaction with my lunch. Those were empty calories that I jumped on because of two words that sometimes aren't easy for the calorie-conscious to pass up: whole wheat. I didn't REALLY want that pita, but, for some reason, I still said yes anyway!

One of the things that I love about maintaining my weight loss is that I'm constantly reminded of my fallibility. Just when I think I've mastered the whole "weight thing," something like a whole wheat pita reminds me that my ongoing vigilance is key to my ongoing success.

So this is what it boils down to: only when we are consistently present and aware in our decision making can we consistently make sound choices about what goes in our mouth!