Maggie

My doctor’s office called last month and insisted that I come in for a check-up. They do that about every five years and I oblige, reluctantly. The nurse pointed to the tall weight scale and said, “Let’s get your weight.”

I challenged her, “What if I refuse?” She grinned and pointed to the scale again, “You’re not heavy,” she said as she adjusted the weights on the scale. She tapped and tapped and finally the perfect balance was achieved. She read the number, “Well, not as heavy as some of our patients.”

“Right,” I snapped at her. “I saw that 6’5” rotund guy in the waiting room. He outweighs me by a good ten pounds.” She chuckled. “I’m not too fat. I am just too short,” I defended myself.

The doctor was not concerned about the pounds, but I was and I left the office determined to lose the weight that I have gained since we began our lunch program at work. Cooking for the 30 of us is tricky and our chef does a good job. He needs to cook hearty food for the guys in the machine shop who lift and push heavy plastics and metals around and are on their feet and in constant motion all day. But for those of us who get our only exercise by talking on the phone and walking to the cafeteria once a day, he needs to provide a lower calorie fare.

Try a sensible plan not a fad diet.

It took getting stuck in a Whitehouse bathtub for rotund President William Howard Taft at 355 pounds to vow to reduce, but for me ten pounds did it. “What I need,” I thought “is a good fast and easy diet to take off the few pounds fast.” What I had done was describe the promises of a fad diet, any fad diet. Fast, easy! They also promise “scientific evidence” and “proven results.”

Throughout history, we have tried fad diet of all types. Today, we are experimenting with the Zone, Atkins, Jenny Craig, and South Beach Diets. But we have also tried Vision-Dieter Glasses which make the food look less appealing and encourage us to eat less and the Mini-Fork system which helps us to take smaller bites. The Breatharians claim that ancient yoga practices can eliminate the need to eat any food at all. Or we’re told to Loose 20 pounds in 3 weeks with amazing We0Loong Tea.

Elvis Presley is said to have tried the “Sleeping Beauty Diet” in which he was heavily sedated for several days, hoping to wake up thinner and able to get into the white, jeweled jumpsuits more easily.

In 1903 the Great Masticator Diet was popular. It advocated a weight-loss program that involved incessant chewing, but not swallowing. Each bite of food was chewed 32 times, once for each tooth. It was believed that the nutrients in the food would be absorbed during the chewing process.

Advertising agencies took advantage of our desire to be thin in 1925 and promoted the “Cigarette Diet” with an ad for Lucky Strikes urging smokers to "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet and you'll get to enjoy the flavor of the meal without gaining weight.” Slimming soaps were the rage in the 1930s, with products like "Fatoff" and "La Mar Reducing Soap" that were nothing more than hand soap laden with potassium chloride and other impurities.

In 1961, Dr. Herman Taller, an obstetrician, claimed you could eat as much as you want of a high protein diet, provided that you washed it down with three ounces of polyunsaturated vegetable oil, delivered in a pill he provided. The doctor was eventually convicted of mail fraud for peddling safflower oil capsules, said to be essential to his diet but of questionable value.

“The Drinking Man’s Diet” was a best seller in 1964 which expounded carbohydrate control and was followed by other diets clones such as “The Martinis and Whipped Cream Diet”. This is not a new idea, however. In the years after his triumph at the Battle of Hastings, a French royal grew so rotund that he devised his own weight-loss technique. He confined himself to his room and consumed nothing but alcohol.

“The Master Cleanse” or “Limonade Diet” involves eating no solid food and drinking a mixture of fresh lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and grade B maple syrup for a recommended minimum of ten days, although it is not uncommon for people to stay on the cleanse for longer periods of time. In addition, to help elimination, cleansers drink a cup of herbal laxative tea.

“The moon diet” claims that the moon is all powerful and all knowing. It controls the tides, the rivers, the crops and our weight, of course. This diet involves 24-hour fasts of fruit and vegetable juice, but these must coincide with changes in the moon's cycle. I think it is a loony diet rather than a lunar diet.

The “Cabbage Soup Diet” is a seven day diet in which we can eat all the cabbage soup that we want, or not. Each day during the seven days other foods are added; day four, for example, allows a banana and skim milk. Using cognitive behavioral techniques, Dr. Isabelle R. Shaw, provides a step-by-step guide to achieving lifestyle modifications by teaching us to reward our good behavior with fantastic shoes.

The most disgusting, dangerous diet of all was promoted in 1954. Rumors spread of a “Tapeworm Diet.” Supposedly, a pill existed that allowed a very rich person to ingest the same sort of parasite that a very poor person would suffer from by eating uncooked meat. The “Chocolate Diet” sounds more appealing to me.

That does it!! I will not look further at fad diets and follow a sensible plan for dieting away the pounds. A well-balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables combined with consistent daily exercise is still the healthiest and most effective way to achieve weight loss with long-term maintenance.

It's also important to educate ourselves about nutrition. As we struggle with weight, we can't afford to guess just how much fat and how many calories a food has. We can’t assume the taco we buy at the fast food store has the same calories as the taco we make at home. We can’t assume that low fat means low calorie. There are many misconceptions about diet foods that can lead to weight creep.

There are many diet tips and I plan to use all of them! One of my morning chores at work is to go to the kitchen about 30 minutes before lunch to check on the schedule and to help if the chef is running late. Now, I am getting a small bowl and filling it with odds and ends from the salad bar, maybe sliced cucumber with a little low cal dressing or pickles. This practice takes the edge off of my hunger and I eat less at lunch.

I have also started to select the 8 inch luncheon plate rather than the larger dinner plate. I have more will power at the beginning of the lunch line than I do when I am standing face to face with the chef’s great “smashed potatoes and gravy” and the smaller plate limits what I can serve myself.

Research has shown that getting enough low calorie protein from fish, chicken, dairy and lean meat helps us to feel satisfied longer, so I never skip meat products, especially for breakfast. Diets are more successful when our day is started with a meal, even if it is only a hard boiled egg. Snacking all day long adds more calories.

Eat slowly and if at all possible team up with a buddy. And don’t forget to drink 8 glasses of water each day. I’m bad at that one, but a glass of water before a meal will cause us to eat less. Pick a place to eat in order to limit snacking and it helps to make the diet public. We never want to disappoint friends or be thought of as a failure, even with dieting.

Consuming most calories in one big meal is the worst way to diet. Eat 4 or 5 small meals rather than in one all-out feeding frenzy. We don’t want frenzy but we don’t want to starve ourselves either. And we should never eat when we are stressed. Take a walk instead.

I plan to reward myself for eating low calorie and have found a couple of recipes that will do just that. From the California Strawberry Commission comes a great one.

Skinny Strawberry Sandwich

8 oz of low-fat cream cheese
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
4 English muffins, split and toasted
2 cups sliced stemmed strawberries

In food processor, process cheese, honey and zest until well mixed, or mix in bowl with wooden spoon.

Spread 1 tablespoon cheese mixture on cut side of 1 muffin half; top with 1/4 cup strawberries.

Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 8 open face sandwiches

Turkey Soup is a favorite of mine and I think this one looks good.

Turkey Soup

2 cups turkey light meat, skinless, cooked and cubed
3 cups water
1/2 cups celery, sliced
10 ounces frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
14-1/2 ounce chicken broth
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup elbow macaroni, uncooked

Directions:

In a quart 4-quart saucepan, combine turkey, water, celery, vegetables, broth, poultry seasoning, and black pepper.

Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a full boil.

Add macaroni and reduced heat to low.

Cover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until macaroni is tender.

Wish me luck, everybody! By the way, all was fine with my tests at the doctor's and he said, “See you in five years.”