Diet-Phobic, Don't Call it "Diet"

One reason many people just can't "diet" to lose weight is that the recommended portions are just much too small. Yes, I'm one of them. For decades I refused to hear about diets, because the idea of eating a few spoonfuls of food and shrinking the plate just made me phobic.

Yes, diet-phobic!

Am I the only one diet-phobic? I honestly doubt it.

Another, probably related, thing I don't particularly like is when people serve me, deciding how much of the various foods I will eat. Inevitably I would have prefered less of one and more of another. Maybe I'm just contrary and it could be called a "control" thing. Whatever you want to call it, the psychological effect on "dieting" is pretty bad.

And the most important part of "dieting" is the ability to make it a life-changer, finding a way to permanently eat in a way that the weight will stay off.

It certainly doesn't pay to work hard, lose weight and have it return with interest before you've worn out your new clothes. Let's say you manage to lose weight for a special event, get some great clothes, look spectacular in the pictures and then just a few years later people look at the album and say:

"Who's that?"

I've always said that it's best to make a few livable, sustainable changes, which may not produce the perfect body of your dreams, but you can continue eating that way.

I basically did that almost ten years ago. The weight stayed off until just over a year ago, and all that came back was barely a third of what I had lost. That is considered successful weight loss. And I'm already working hard at banishing them again. I have no doubt that this will happen periodically for the rest of my life.

My basic eating plan is to include a lot of cooked vegetables, which are filling and tasty. Here's yesterday's lunch.

The beef was cooked for Shabbat, and I heated it up with an onion and and a big chunk of cabbage. Salad was simply a cucumber and tomato. Since my husband and I have an empty nest, I cook a week's worth of meat, mostly chicken, when I cook for Shabbat and we reheat it during the week. That's most efficient for us.

I hope this helps, me, you and all.