Wednesday, February 4, 2009

New Year, New Attitude, New Diet

Now that I'm a grandma, I believe I've earned the right to eat dessert on the weekends. I've earned the right not to live on a diet for the rest of my life. That's the executive decision I've arrived at in these, the earliest days of 2009.

About 3 years ago I went down to 117 lbs. My weight fluctuated between 117 and 122 for about a year. I don't want to give the impression that it was effortless, either. At the time I was working in New York, so in addition to traipsing off regularly to the gym, I also walked from the Path Station on Christopher Street to my job on MacDougal in Greenwich Village & back every weekday. Back then, I was also doing Weight Watchers. It wasn't effortless, but neither was it torture.

These past two years, though? Fuhgettabouit. If you want to know what frustrating is, try gaining and losing the same few pounds over and over again. It's a miracle I haven't tossed our scale out of our second-floor bathroom's window. And I'm sorry, but I am so done with counting points. I just can't diet anymore.

Well...almost. A friend recently introduced me to the No S Diet, which is not like a conventional diet at all, more like a common sense approach to eating. It's easy, inexpensive, and requires no writing, so I can save all my pens and notebooks for my stories. Even better, it doesn't require any counting, measuring, or allowing the scale to dictate your success or happiness. There's more info on the No S website, explained much better by its creator and author of The No S Diet book, Reinhard Engels, but basically you eat whatever you want for 3 meals a day (but common sense tells you to watch your portions and eat healthfully). No Snacks, no Sweets, and no Seconds--except on days that start with S.

So far, I LOVE it. This is basically the way I ate when I was younger, before I started having problems with my weight. I've been on it for 3 weeks and my clothes are looser--yay! Interestingly, I initially dropped a few pounds but have since maintained 131. And you know what? That's okay.

On No S, you drop weight gradually rather than quickly, and that's fine. It's not like I'm on The Biggest Loser or something, where I have to lose 12 pounds in a week right on national TV or anything. I'm also pretty sure I won't be photographed next to some size 0 actress anytime soon, so what's the hurry? It's about health, about taking good care of yourself so you'll be around for a while to enjoy your loved ones, and about having a healthy self-image.

Oh--and if a girl can't have cheesecake once in a while, what's this world coming to?