2008 Woodie Awards
Dieting resolution no longer involves sacrificing favorite foods
Lila Herrman
Issue date: 1/12/06 Section: Opinion
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The Christmas decorations have been put away. The turkey has made its final appearance. First there is reheated turkey and dressing, after that turkey surprise, which is a Frankenstein assemblage of turkey parts now thrown into a casserole and covered in gravy and passed off as food to unsuspecting family members.
New Year's Eve has come and gone, and you are left with blurry memories of kissing someone at midnight and waking up New Year's Day with the imprint of bathroom tile on your face after spending quality time at the porcelain throne.
It is that time of year when the dreaded resolutions are brought forth. Eagerly anticipated and then quickly damned, most resolutions involve dieting.
Preying on those who make the same resolution year after year -"I'm Going to Lose Weight This Year"- advertisements are in full force. You can't turn on the television without seeing Jared the Subway dude still hawking that deli sandwich method of weight loss.
Special K cereal says all it takes is two weeks of cereal for breakfast and lunch and you can lose six pounds…if dinner consists of a breath mint and a stick of sugarless gum, would be my guess.
I miss the good old days when diets were extreme and promised you could lose 10 pounds by 8 o'clock the next day. Sure, these plans usually called for the use of illegal stimulants, but there is always some sacrifice involved- beauty is pain.
My diet days always start off reasonably enough: a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of juice for breakfast, then a sliced apple for snack, for lunch a turkey sandwich, iced tea and ten M&Ms carefully counted out to assuage the sugar craving, then for dinner a grilled chicken breast, a small serving of plain carrots…and the remainder of the two pound party-size bag of M&Ms.
One of the best diet suggestions I have gotten is the cold beer/ice cream diet. It works on the premise that cold foods require the body to expend more energy to burn them up, therefore burning more calories and allowing you to consume even more beer and ice cream and start dropping weight like crazy as all the energy is spent burning those cold calories. Apparently there are some flaws with this particular plan, but I propose more research in this area.
New Year's Eve has come and gone, and you are left with blurry memories of kissing someone at midnight and waking up New Year's Day with the imprint of bathroom tile on your face after spending quality time at the porcelain throne.
It is that time of year when the dreaded resolutions are brought forth. Eagerly anticipated and then quickly damned, most resolutions involve dieting.
Preying on those who make the same resolution year after year -"I'm Going to Lose Weight This Year"- advertisements are in full force. You can't turn on the television without seeing Jared the Subway dude still hawking that deli sandwich method of weight loss.
Special K cereal says all it takes is two weeks of cereal for breakfast and lunch and you can lose six pounds…if dinner consists of a breath mint and a stick of sugarless gum, would be my guess.
I miss the good old days when diets were extreme and promised you could lose 10 pounds by 8 o'clock the next day. Sure, these plans usually called for the use of illegal stimulants, but there is always some sacrifice involved- beauty is pain.
My diet days always start off reasonably enough: a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of juice for breakfast, then a sliced apple for snack, for lunch a turkey sandwich, iced tea and ten M&Ms carefully counted out to assuage the sugar craving, then for dinner a grilled chicken breast, a small serving of plain carrots…and the remainder of the two pound party-size bag of M&Ms.
One of the best diet suggestions I have gotten is the cold beer/ice cream diet. It works on the premise that cold foods require the body to expend more energy to burn them up, therefore burning more calories and allowing you to consume even more beer and ice cream and start dropping weight like crazy as all the energy is spent burning those cold calories. Apparently there are some flaws with this particular plan, but I propose more research in this area.