Diet: A 4 letter word

It's been a while since I posted about relationships, I know. And I have some stuff brewing... but today there is something else on my mine.

Diets

Just a warning... this is a rambling post.

Ultimately, I'm posting because I've decided to go on a diet. Now, because of the connotations that society has placed on that word, you all have some extreme picture in your head of what I'm doing. In reality, all I have decided to do is eat better. I'm not going to eat less. I'm not going to cut my carbs. I'm not going to get a lifetime membership to Jenny Craig.

I bought a running book. And one chapter in this book talks about foods that help runners and foods that are bad for runners. It outlines good/bad foods for all meals and lifestyles. So here's my plan. For one week, I'm going to write down what I eat at each meal. Then, at the end of the week, I'm going to identify what bad foods I ate.

The first stage in my diet will be to reduce the number of bad things. For instance, I eat turkey sandwiches a lot. But I like to put mayonnaise on them. So now I'm going to use mustard, instead. Also, I like pepperoni pizza. Now I'll try eating just cheese pizza.

You see, it's about altering my diet slightly. I think that too often people embark on these insane diets that are so different from their normal eating habits, that they go crazy. Then they start sneaking in bad foods, and feel guilty for it.

A friend of mine did the body for life diet, and that's been my favorite so far that I looked at. For 6 days out of the week, you eat very healthy. Lots of salads and lowfat foods. Then, on the 7th day, you eat whatever you want. You can hit McDonalds and buy 100 triple cheese burgers. This way, you're working towards a goal. You tell yourself that you just need to eat this salad tonite because in a few days you can get that pizza.

I love watching insane diet specials on TV. Everyone has a gimmick. But in 9 out of 10 people, a diet really just comes down to decreasing your caloric intake and increasing the amount of calories your burn in a day. Obviously, I'm skipping the whole section of genetic issues that can also be the cause of problems.

So I guess this isn't so much a diet as it is a lifestyle change. One step closer to adulthood. We are no longer the kids who lived off of soda and candy, because our bodies burned it off so quickly. We're old. We get aches and pains. We sleep less and drink caffeine more. We are one day closer to the time when our generation rules the world.

That's a very scary thought.