I’ve been reading a lot a whole lot a mountain of diet and weight-loss related books the past few weeks. I don’t know why I torture myself. They’re really all rubbish. Eat this fat, don’t eat that fat. Eat these carbs, don’t eat carbs at all. Eat this much fiber, eat that much protein. Eat this super-wonder fruit, drink this green tea. They all promise that if you follow their plan, you’ll lose 100 pounds and live happily ever after.
One book in particular that got under my skin is the Beck Diet Solution. It’s a cognitive therapy approach to dieting. What kills me about this particular book is that it allows virtually NO room for real-life eating. Basically, the author says that you will have to pep-talk yourself into never eating bad stuff, EVER. Because if you allow even one bite of bad food to pass your lips, well then you’ve just let in a freight train of Twinkies. I’m sorry, but that’s just not reasonable. Now, I’m not trying to fast talk my way into eating some Godiva every night. But the best way to make me run for the chocolate? Tell me I can’t ever eat it again – and for the kicker, mention that skinny folks don’t eat it. Um….no. That’s not how real life works!
What ever happened to the concept of just being sensible? I mean – I know I’m not going to get healthy and shed these extra pounds by eating an entire chocolate bar every night after dinner. I know that I’m not going to get rid of it by having mashed potatoes with gravy every night, or downing all the leftover Halloween Reese’s PB cups while the boys nap in the afternoon. I know I’m not going to get back in shape by buying workout clothes and then using them as pajamas. I know this, yet all of these are things I’ve found myself doing in the past six months. The way I’ve been living isn’t sensible. Sure, it *feels* good in the moment, but being sensible isn’t about feeling good all the time. It’s about making the choices that will pay off in the long run (you know, the things that make sense!)
Being sensible is having one pb cup every once in a while – as a special treat, not a daily food group. Being sensible is having one square of chocolate occasionally. Being sensible is getting real with myself about the fact that I’m not 20 anymore, and if I don’t start moving these muscles of mine soon, they’re going to start to atrophy. Then when I want to use them to, I dunno have sex walk when I’m 50, I’ll have no one but myself to blame that I can’t move without pain (and maybe a crane, at the rate of weight gain I’ve had going)
Being sensible isn’t strangling my love of food till it asphyxiates, it’s learning to savor the special meals as (duh) special and not trying to make every night as gastronomical wonder of the world.
The best diet book I’ve ever read, with the most sound advice for eating sensibly is Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. Pollan says
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Really, now that’s quite sensible.
