Hi ladies, Kirbie again. Gregg has been a writing fool – and I can tell you, after just finishing my first reading of his new book, that you’re gonna LOVE it!!! I was hooked right off the bat! It made me think, chuckle and have hope.

Now, for the topic at hand. As I was reading Gregg’s new book, a peeve topic came up – DIETing. Why is this a peeve topic? Because I hate the word DIET. Gregg and I work very well together because, in many instances, we come from the same ‘place’.

I hold workshops sometimes, and they focus on things like leadership and personal development. In one workshop on goal setting, I was explaining why people don’t often achieve their goals, and one man asked, “Is this why people often fail at dieting?”. Well, I smiled, took a deep breath and said “No, but since you asked, let me give you my take on dieting.”

You didn’t ask, but here it is anyway.

D-I-E-T is a four letter word – no denying that, right? Diet is also a word that we think of as a temporary activity to lose weight. Diet, as defined by Mirriam-Webster, however, goes something like this:

a: food and drink regularly provided;

b: habitual nourishment;

c: the kind and amount of food prescribed for a personal or animal for a special reason;

d: a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight;

If we follow the real definition of diet, then, it just means eating. The trick to losing weight is to change up what and how you eat – not temporarily – permanently. Several years ago, I went from being a carnivore to being a vegetarian. I really didn’t like meat so why eat it? It wasn’t some animal rights decision or anything like that – just a preference. About 18 months ago, I was forced to begin eating vegan due to allergies. The result? About 20 lbs gone. Why? I changed how I was eating.

Once you switch to eating more fruits and vegetables instead of cakes, breads, high-fat meats and dairy products, your body starts burning up all of the fat you had stored away. Another benefit I discovered was that I got sick less often, and when I do get sick, it’s not usually as bad.

The point of that is this – in order to get into your little black dress, or your regular-sized black dress, which is more reasonable for someone my age, you are going to need to change how and what you eat.

How to ‘Git ‘er Done’

Eat smaller portions – did you know you should only eat a piece of meat that is the size of a deck of cards? When was the last time you did that? Did you also know that something like 3/4 of your plate should be grains & veggies, with a small portion being meat or protein? Eight ounces of milk is a serving, not the whole 12-15 ounce glass.

I highly recommend joining Weight Watchers, even for just a month. They will teach you portion control and they will do it fast! This program runs on a point system – not denial. You can have that 16 ounce steak or that big hunk of chocolate cake, but it’s gonna cost you about 2/3 of your WEEKLY allotment of ‘points’, leaving you with very few options for the remainder of the week. I’m now very mindful about reading labels – how many shrimp are in a serving? WOW only 6 and I once ate 10?

Of course, it goes without saying that you can lose weight by changing how you eat, but don’t forget the exercise component. I’m not going to drag on about it here, mostly because I’m not a traditional exercise type of person – too many artificial and ‘shored up’ joints. Instead, I like to do things like taking walks in the early morning after it has snowed or, like today, shoveling my driveway or running around the house chasing my granddaughters like a monster.

Think about it this way- when was the last time you heard someone say “Yeah I’ve been doing Adkins now for 10 years and I feel great!” More likely, they tried it for a couple of weeks and blammo, they got sick of eating that way and gave up, yo-yo’d back to their original weight, or worse – higher, and maybe tried another ‘fad’ diet only to have the same results.

Set a goal today to begin eating better. No vow to start another diet or anything like that, just get healthy. Oh and one final thing – when you DO fall off of the wagon for a day, don’t beat yourself up. It’s over and done with, you know it won’t contribute to your goal of 10 more pounds, but stop beating yourself up over it – you ate it, move on.