Wanted: A Healthy Lifestyle. No Diets Need Apply.

In 1983, at the age of 17, I started my first 'official' diet. I joined Nutri-System and ate their prepackaged food and drinks. I went from 162 lbs down to 140. To think that I thought I was 'fat' at 162!

That diet started me on the long and tortuous road of yo-yo dieting: lose 20lbs and gain back 30. That was par for the course.

I've been to Weight Watchers so many times in both the US and Ireland I think I should get some kind of medal. I belonged before there were points. However, I must admit that I was delighted with the points system. The more I weighed, the more points I was allowed and the more food I could eat. It was a perverse bonus.

In 1988 and 2005, I tried the Medifast diet. A doctor supervised liquid fast where you only drank fortified shakes. I lasted one month. It was deprivation on a grand scale.

1987 found my friend Georgette and I in some doctor's office on Niagara St. on the west side of Buffalo. I jumped on the scale and he barely looked at me as he wrote out a prescription for amphetamines. That lasted for a few days until I passed out one morning in the bathroom.

In 1992, I joined WW again for the umpteenth time and lost 75lbs in 6 months. It boomeranged back over the following years.

In the summer of 2000, I read a book, The Carbohydrate Addict's Book and loved it. A precursor to the low carb diets, I lost 35 lbs on that one. The premise was to eat no/low carb all day except for one hour and then you could add a small amount of good carbs. But only in that hour. You can see how easily that one spiralled out of control. I went from adding a roll at dinner to 'Oh my God! I've only got 5 minutes left to eat this chocolate cake, bag of Doritos...." That weight plus more came back on, too.

The idea of 'Fruit til Five' came from my Dad and my brother. It had worked for them so I figured how hard could it be? You were only supposed to eat fruit all day and then have your regular dinner at 5pm. That soon deteriorated to fruit til five and 3 meals and 3 snacks from 5pm-11pm.

The cabbage soup diet was interesting. A better name would have been 'colon blow.'

There was the 3 day diet of peanut butter, grapefruit, eggs, hot dogs and bananas.

Clearly, diets don't work for me. My bookshelves are sagging from the weight of all the diet books. I've read them all, but there are too many choices. My head spins at all the options out there and which one might be best for me.

In 1985, at 181 lbs., I bought a Huffy stationery bike from Twin Fair. I rode it regularly and got my weight down to 158. No diet. I watched what I ate but I didn't deprive myself. That went well until the chain fell off the bike and Twin Fair was closed by this time.

Again in the fall of 1994, living with my parents, I brushed the dust off my Dad's Nordic Track and lost 20 lbs. over 3 months. Again no diet, but I was careful of what I ate. Nordic Track is now out of business.

A revelation occurs to me as I write this. Obviously, diets don't work for me. But the exercise sure does. It's a shame that the equipment doesn't last.

But as my sister, Jen, says: baby steps. It's certainly not going to be fixed overnight. I'm not interested in any diet out there. I'm interested in a permanent lifestyle change. So, I've cut out the 2-3 family size Galaxy bars that I used to eat daily. I've stopped eating in between meals. It's hard, but then anything worth having is worth fighting for.



We only do well the things we like doing

Colette