The No-diet Diet

There is only one way to diet and diet correctly, and that is portion control. You have to realize that it is not so much what’s going into your mouth; it is the amount of what is going into your mouth that’s killing you.

All of these fad diets call for some really unrealistic and sometimes dangerous food rituals, that aren’t teaching you what you need to know about dieting. The reality is that a piece of pizza is not going to blow your diet; however, a half a pizza sure will.

At Christmas time in 2005 I toppled the scale at 201 pounds. I didn’t feel good about myself and I knew, especially at my age, that if I didn’t lose it now I may never get rid of it. The one thing I knew is that I didn’t want to go on a diet. So I just shifted my dinner plate for a salad plate. Trust me there wasn’t salad on the salad plate. I ate everything everyone else did; only I did it in miniature. The plate looked full, the portions were the portions that one should normally eat and soon the pounds started coming off.

Another sin against my waistline was that I didn’t eat breakfast. This was a hard habit to break. So I started out small with a piece of toast, or English muffin with some butter and a small glass of milk. Then at lunchtime I would have some soup or fruit and a sandwich. After a week or so on that routine I began to notice that by the time dinnertime came along I wasn’t hungry. I would take a few bites and be done.

Today I weigh in at 145 pounds. I realized that the only way that I could handle a diet was not to diet, but to change my perspective. When I look at a salad plate I see a lot of food and by the time I am done eating I am satisfied.

Sometimes our willpower gets in our way. This was the best non-diet I have ever done. I have been at my present weight for over six months now. It took me eighteen months to lose 56 pounds, averaging between 3-4 pounds a month. It was a safe way to lose the weight, ensuring a better chance at success. When you think about it, eighteen months is not a very long time, especially the older you get. Take the time to lose the weight, but enjoy the foods that you want to eat. No gimmicks, no additional costs, just good common sense.

Our ancestors lived off the land, there were no such things as preservatives and such that they add to our foods in these modern times. However, the biggest failure comes from fad diets that cost you money and makes big corporations rich. You don’t need to spend money to lose weight; you just have to change the size of your plate.