Which Diet? Wrong Question.

80 days to Memorial Day

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29393995/#storyContinued

Read it. I'll wait.

Atkins, Zone, whatever. People, it just doesn't matter. This story just came out last week. I know you all didn't read it so I'll summarize just a bit. two year study that examined the principle concepts of four major and popular diet programs. In the end, the results were all the same. The diet doesn't matter. Everybody made just about the same progress. 

Keys to success?

1. DON'T EAT SO MUCH. We as a culture need to learn portion control. If we're headed out to the Cheesecake Factory and Chili's every week for dinner, snarfing down a 1,791 calorie plate of orange chicken (that's an actual calorie value as reported by Cheesecake Factory themselves), and hoping that the 15 minutes of treadmill walking twice a week is going to get us anywhere, we're going to double the $117 billion we spent on obesity in '06 before long. Eat less, burn more. 
   
2. Support. Gym rats like myself know just exactly how much more can be accomplished with someone there to encourage you. Anyone who's ever been involved with a 12 step program knows all about accountability to another. Participants that attended weight loss counseling and meetings lost over 2 times the weight and were able to keep it off better. 
3. Journaling. Think you know what you're eating. I would bet you that you actually don't. Spend a week...scratch that. Start by spending a day. Any time something passes your lips, no latter how insignificant you may think it is, write down what it is, what time you ate it and how much of it you ate. Add up the caloric, fat, sugar, protein and fiber totals at the end of the day. Now compare that against the government's RDA for someone your size. Unless you've spent time journaling this kind of thing before, I guarantee you're going to be surprised. 

What they didn't really focus on here was the fact that no one, not even the counseling group could completely hold on to their gains. That's because a diet isn't going to get you anywhere. A diet won't get you anywhere. Look back to my New Year's post. Lifestyle choices, making one better choice for yourself every day, turning one healthy choice at a time, one day at a time and making that a way of life and not beating yourself up when you stray off track a little is the only way we're going to do this. You can make a difference in  your life. You can positively effect your health and fitness.

Jenny doesn't have the answer. Dr. Atkins doesn't have the answer. You do. You have the answer. You have the power to say I don't need the foot long, six inches will do just fine thank you. You have the power to realize that you were satiated on the first round and that the second plate is a learned behavioral event as opposed to your body needing more. 

Mahatma Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world." Make that more personal. Don't look to someone else to solve your problems. Be the change you want to see in your own life.