Merely a barometer

  You can imagine that when the subject of whatever regime I'm subjecting myself too comes up in polite conversation, as well as a certain amount of curiosity, there's also very often some version of the, 'I was going to diet but I heard that when you stop you put a load of weight back on' etc. Someone's always got a story like this and it always turns the conversation in the same direction.

  As my mood is bordering on the cantankerous at the moment, I'll censor myself as I do want to be helpful and moderately polite. As an aside, I accept full responsibility for my reactivity to peoples' inability to react without thinking, (a trait of mine I'm hard on myself for too). But seriously, don't people think?

'This diet, doctor, do I take it before or after meals?

  Where do I start? Why not with a simple question such as, what were you eating before you started dieting? Followed by the obvious supplementary question, and what did you eat when you leapt off the wagon and dived face first into the all you can eat buffet?

  You can see where I'm going with this so I'll cut to the chase. Anybody who thinks of a diet as a magic cure all watches to much Harry Potter. It's much easier to spin things round a bit and think of your body, (shape and/or health) as a reflection of your diet. If you only want to look good strutting up and down the beach then a short term diet might help, but a lifestyle change will make fundamental and lasting changes. What happens when you go back to how you were eating before is the same body as before.

  It works the other way too. If you generally follow a strict, healthy diet but stray a little for a while then going back to it will have the same effect as starting the diet did in the first place. As a final thought, what is your understanding of the word, 'diet'? Is it a regime or simply a way of describing the food that you eat? Just a question.

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com