Just a teaser tonight.
The topic will be diet and why not to deprive yourself just because you want to go shopping in Beverly Hills, where an XX-Large is a 2. I don't think Superman was a fool staying away from poisonous kryptonite. We are fools who can't stay away from poisonous foods either by eating them in excess or by eating no-nos for humans.
How many different diets have you heard about even if you are as thin as a rail? The yo-yo, the grapefruit, the vegetarian, the South Florida, the Atkins, the Zone, waaaaaaaait!
Aretha is singing, "Think!" It is you who needs to make decisions about diet; not diets make decisions for you. I must have gained and lost about a ton during my lifetime. I don't have the resources Oprah does, and I don't think you do, either. However, not all is lost. It's a combo of diet and exercise that does the trick.
When talking exercise, think of kissing goodbye to modern equipment. Take the stairs, walk to the grocer, to the newstand, to the pharmacy. Each step you take is cumulative. At the end of the day you may have burned 800 calories, enough to eat some icecream.
Eat slowly, don't read or watch TV when you eat. If you do other things while eating you don't register the intake, psychologically. Eat at fixed times, sit down, make a plate in a bigger plate, don't pile up more food than reasonable.
What are reasonable foods? Did I say please become a goat named Sylvia? No, that is Albee's play. Eat vegetables you like, and remember potatoes and ketchup are vegetables for school programs, and even that has been changed. Just tasty vegetables, seasoned with mustard, garlic or onions, a tiny little bit of olive oil. When you make your salad, be creative, toss in some nuts and dried cranberries.
The name of the game is be creative, be active, be frugal. Make a commitment to keeping a food diary, to maybe joining WW, having a nurse from your health insurance follow your progress. Don't go for the "I got to lose 50 lbs." attitude. Go slowly but surely, easy does it, like a Harlem shuffle. Before you know it, not you but others will ask you if you're losing weight. Just shrug your shoulders, as you have shrugged away the black outfits, and murmur, "Gee, I don't know."
Water; six cups a day. Water fills you up and is necessary. Mantra: "Water Good Wine Bad." Did you know a shot of scotch packs 150 calories just like that? And it makes you retain water. When you look at older British rockers, or even younger American ones, you can see how some of them are bloated.
I am not a calorie-counting freak. Or portion-counting ogre. However, fish is better than steak, vegan is best. The egss made with whites only made be less tasty than the sunny-side up ones you were used to having as a kid. Each daily sacrifice is a day in your life gained. As for meat, the standard count is a fistful measure of steak. There is fake bacon and there is kosher everything these days. Furthermore, the middle-eastern diet is considered the healthiest there is. Diet without religious borders, great!
Today is John Lennon's birthday. Born John Winston Lennon, murdered John Ono Lennon, he discovered healthy food as a post-Beatle adult. I met a former student, who was twelve when i taught him, at a clinic in Brazil. He remembered my teaching "Imagine."
Just for today, for our tavaritch in Russia, in Sudan, click. Thank you. Click again.
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