Related Topics:

Healthy Living

Monday, October 6, 2008

Top 10 diet tips I don't follow

Oh, the no-no's of healthy living. It seems as if everywhere I look, I'm faced with the same suggestions on how to lose weight, be healthier, and have more energy. But, when I read the behaviors to avoid, I think: I do that, what's so wrong with that?

I consider myself a fairly healthy person, I have my fair share of energy, I've lost weight. I should get a gold star from the diet gods. But alas, we're just not meant to be; we differ on too many things.

Top ten so-called diet faux pas that I remain completely unapologetic about:

10. Drinking my calories. Something tells me that the smoothies I've come to depend on during the summer months for cool portable meals are not contributing to an unhealthy lifestyle.


9. Eating dinner in front of the television. I was considering spending a nice evening at home, eating dinner and talking to the imaginary family of five I have, but they were watching TV too and asked that I please shut up.


8. Preferring the treadmill to the great outdoors. The benefits of outdoor running are touted everywhere, but uh, it's not air conditioned outside, and it's hot out, and there's no TV floating in front of me to distract me from the fact that I am running.


7. Actually putting the salad dressing on my salad. I like food to be easy. I really don't want to have to spend my mealtime creating some sort of salad dressing dipping dance. But if it will make the diet gods happy, I promise I will use good fats in my salad dressing.


6. Thinking coconut water is nasty. Okay, so this stuff is nature's Gatorade, or whatever, but as far as I'm concerned, it tastes like dirty gym sock water. I'm way keener on the chocolate-milk-as-thirst-quencher idea.

5. Eating my food on normal-sized plates. It's just so sad...a wee little meal. I want to look at my food and think, this is going to nourish me, not I'm going to starve to death. If I want to utilize my salad plates, I'll eat a salad.

4. Salt. Apparently salt makes you retain water and is therefore evil. But wait, aren't we comprised of 61.8% water? What's amazing about the human body is that it totally knows how to regulate itself and water retention is generally short lived due to our handy-dandy excretory system. Nature, you so crazy; I think I wanna have yo baby.

3. Egg Yolks. I eat them. They taste good. The yolk is actually where most of the nutrients in the egg are. The vitamins choline and boitin are found in egg yolks and are vital in maintaining neurotransmitter health, which helps you concentrate and can actually help regulate cholesterol. So there.

2. Eating lunch during my lunch break. Yes, I could use this one hour break I have during the day to burn a couple hundred calories on a stroll around the city but I'd rather use it to EAT MY LUNCH.

1. Carbohydrates. When did carbs become the Darth Vader of food? Carbs are great. Carbs release serotonin into your blood stream: carbs are nature's happy pill.

I don't know who Harvey Steiman is, but apparently he said, "Everything in moderation--including moderation," and that's pretty much how I feel about diet advice. There's validity in everything, but all advice should be taken with a grain of salt, and without fear of bloating.


MORE FROM ELASTIC WAIST AND SELF:


[photo credit: Getty Images]

Related: treadmills, smoothies, salt, salad dressing, eggs, diet tips, diet and nutrition, coconut water, carbohydrates, calories

Syndication:

related Healthy Living links

  1. 1. Letters to a new dieter
  2. 2. The 9-inch diet is 10 lbs. of crap in a 5. lb bag

From the Community…

Comments 1-10 of 66
  • KEL1025's Avatar
    Posted by KEL1025 Tue Jul 8, 2008 6:15am PDT

    I AGREE! LOL. EATING HAS JUST BECOME SO COMPLICATED.

    Report Abuse
  • Jessica's Avatar
    Posted by Jessica Tue Jul 8, 2008 6:16am PDT

    I think someone must have read my mind!! These are most definitely the issues in my poor lifestyle choices. I just can't seem to shake them. These are also the things that, when I do try to change, I always feel like make me too uncomfortable to make a long term change. It's almost like these are my "comfort" behaviors!! Oh what a vicious cycle!!

    Report Abuse
  • springtime's Avatar
    Posted by springtime Tue Jul 8, 2008 6:18am PDT

    Sing it, sister. I have no weight problem and eat pretty much what I want. Common sense tells me to stay away from fast foods and fried foods. Here in Texas, Tex -Mex food is more of a religion than a cuisine. There are thousands of excellent TM restaurants here, and there is nothing I would love more than to visit everyone of them. But I don't for two reasions: I don't want a butt the size of a barn and I like happily flowing arteries. Okay, there's a third. Gas. It would cost a small fortune to cross Texas now.

    Report Abuse
  • Julie S's Avatar
    Posted by Julie S Tue Jul 8, 2008 6:40am PDT

    This writer is incredible. I really liked this peice and I agree with pretty much everything that was said.

    Report Abuse
  • Suzanne's Avatar
    Posted by Suzanne Tue Jul 8, 2008 6:58am PDT

    Amen!! Might I also add: The waiting 3 hours after your last bite of food to go to bed thing. I'D NEVER GO TO BED! No, I don't eat dinner and fall into bed. And I don't eat a dinner number two and fall into bed. But I might have a piece of cheese, small bowl of cereal, some frozen yogurt, a nibble of the stuff I was packing for my lunch the next day. Whatever, I can't sleep when I'm hungry.

    Report Abuse
  • Sandy's Avatar
    Posted by Sandy Tue Jul 8, 2008 7:01am PDT

    Amen, sistah! If you can't enjoy your food, what's the point?

    Report Abuse
  • fools_and_sages's Avatar
    Posted by fools_and_sages Tue Jul 8, 2008 7:24am PDT

    I so agree with everything written here. I am heavy. And I do watch portions, exercise, count fat and carb grams, avoid junk food and sweets etc. I avoid drinking my calories and I don't use a lot of salt (I don't like the taste of too much salt on any non-junk food).

    But when you live in the south and it's 900 bazillion degrees at 6 am in August. . .how much exercise outside the house do you think I'm going to do? Do you really think I'm going to take a walk during my lunch break? Let's be serious, here. I really don't want sweat stains on my dry clean only work clothes and I would prefer if I didn't turn into a little pile of shriveled skin and grease on the sidewalk because I took a walk in 100 plus degree mid-day heat. So give me my recumbent bike, my treadmill, and my dumb bells in my living room.

    As somebody who is single, I find eating in front of the tv slows down my food intake. If I sit at the kitchen table by myself, I suck the food down like a Hoover and grab seconds. Eating alone is boring. Eating in front of the tv encourages me to set down the food to grab the remote and channel surf, where I inevitably get sucked in by the TVGuide channel for 15 mins while trying to remember to watch the tv schedule as it floats by even as Justin Guarini and Kimberly Caldwell distract me with celebrity gossip I really don't care about but can't take my eyes off of. Overall, eating in front of the tv ends up taking me about 30 mins to eat one helping of dinner instead of the 10 mins it would take me to eat three days worth of food sitting alone in my kitchen.

    But I do have a trick for limiting salad dressing. I use two tablespoons of the real dressing and add some extra spices and a couple drizzles of straight white vinegar. I don't use creamy dressings at all and I only use light dressing, so this works to cover my salad without adding hundreds of extra calories. Vinegar has no calories.

    Report Abuse
  • Disgruntled's Avatar
    Posted by Disgruntled Tue Jul 8, 2008 7:40am PDT

    I am guilty of pretty much all of the same things. Eating is supposed to be a pleasure not a punishment. I eat healthy foods about 90% of the time so I figure breaking the occasional diet rule isn't going to kill me. People that obsess over what they eat are a pain in the butt. If I get lectured one more time about the evils of dairy or carbs, I may have to hurt someone! People who have perfect eating habits may be skinny but they're about as much fun as a root canal.

    Report Abuse
  • Rebekah's Avatar
    Posted by Rebekah Tue Jul 8, 2008 7:59am PDT

    This article made me smile.

    Report Abuse
  • optiva's Avatar
    Posted by optiva Tue Jul 8, 2008 9:37am PDT

    DUMB USELESS ----- !!! WHO WRITE THIS STUFF? A SKINNY 90 POUND WOMAN?? YOU MUST WATCH WHAT YOU EAT!! ORGANIC FRESH LOCAL PRODUCTS ARE THE BEST,AND DON'T SAY YOU CAN'T FIND ANY,GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS AND EXPLORE YOUR SURROUNDINGS. I AM VERY SAD BY THIS ARTICLE,I JUST HAD TWO AUNTS PASS AWAY NO DOUBT THEIR EATING HABITS CONTRIBUTED TO THEIR ILLNESS. WATCHING SOMEONE DIE IN TERRIABLE PAIN IS ENOUGH FOR ME TO EAT ORGANIC AND EAT LITTLE MEAT,AND PROCESSED PRODUCTS. IF YOU WANT TO GET CANCER,HEART DISEASE,DIABETES..... THEN FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE. I BELIEVE NOTHING I READ AND ONLY HALF OF WHAT I SEE.

    Report Abuse
Comments 1-10 of 66

leave your comment

You must sign in to post a comment

Sign In for personalized information

New User? Sign Up

Let’s talk: Manage Blog My Stuff

Health Byte

Does the election have you all worked up? Take a break from the hype and instead, take some deep breaths.

Try this meditation for the health of the country. »

Sponsored Links