Dieting easier when you don’t think about it

Share this story

Tweet

• Forget South Beach, try the Gary Roberts diet
• Melt, don’t truck, snow
• Don’t play politics with BC Hydro
• Natural resources don’t have to leave
• Don't persecute those who speak out
• I guess the old safety rules don’t apply anymore

I excel at forming bad habits.

I’m always going to do something about them, but I never actually seem to get around to it. Like dieting. I’ve been meaning to take a long hard look at my eating habits for several decades now, and I’ve actually tried most of those fly-by-night diets out at one time or another. The biggest problem I’ve found with most of those diets is they make me hungry.

But last year I managed to lose a bunch of weight and realized it’s really not all that hard as long as you don’t think of what you’re doing as a diet. A lot of times fat is more about what you’re carrying between your ears than on your body. Also, when you get to a certain age things you took for granted start to break down. Like my knees. One of them has become very cranky. The first winter I was here I had to use a cane occasionally when my knee just plain went on strike. Danged thing. I argued with it, cussed it out, whined a lot, and it still wouldn’t work. I guess it figured it had been doing enough heavy lifting over the years.

Anyway, this year though that stupid knee (and its crony, the hip) complain a lot some days, I’ve lost enough weight I don’t ever need a cane. But now I figure it’s time to get serious and lose more. After all, who knows what body part is going on strike next? Time to treat them all a little better, I guess.

So I’m drinking these super duper healthy juices, have been ordered to quit diet soda and am trying to put more movement into my life. I’m actually liking it and doing pretty well, but now my car is giving me trouble, trying to throw a wrench into my success. That stupid car can’t seem to understand it is supposed to pass by the McDonald’s in the morning, not travel to work via the nearest drive-by window.

And, since I’m at the drive-by window anyway, it seems rude not to order one of those tasty breakfast sandwiches, probably the only fast food I actually like.

Not that a greasy sandwich does in a diet, so long as you’re willing to eat only fruit or vegetables for the rest of the day, but a friend of mine (the one who makes the all-natural juices) lists off all these ingredients in them that have more syllables than, say, an egg.

Oh well.

Besides learning to eat better, I’ve also learned there’s some things a person does for no other reason than it makes you feel good doing it. Sneaking out for the occasional (OK, maybe more than occasional) treat is one of the things I like. So is drawing and painting. I even have a few of my own creations on my wall at home. Gorgeous if I do say so myself. Of course, the one I did that looks like a dozen cats clawed holes in it while vomiting catnip never made it to any wall. As far as I know it’s still hidden in the unfinished basement corner of the house I lived in Alberta.

I also love to sing. At the top of my warbly voice as I play whatever favourite tune I have on so loud the windows in my car threaten to explode (that will teach it to stop at Mickey D’s in the morning). And I read like someone was paying me to do it – everything from classics to suspense. And I like television. There, I said it. I love the crime suspense shows, but I also torture my boys by watching stuff like Say Yes To The Dress and Housewives Of Beverly Hills. I’m not sure if I watch those for the entertainment they provide or for the pained look that etches my boys’ faces. Teach them to play on their laptops and leave the remote unattended.

Anyway, for me it isn’t so much about losing weight to be like one of those fancy housewives. I do, however, want to be healthier. And I do want to maintain my sanity and be happy.

Now I just have to decide what side of the line – sanity supplying equating good, or diet dashing equating bad – that danged delicious breakfast sandwich falls on.