Calorie Restriction #2

There is a front-page article in the Montreal Gazette this morning about calorie restriction, which was my very second diary entry here at Diaryland. In the meanwhile, there is another article by June Thompson in her every-other-week column which grew out of her own unsuccessful attempt to publicly lose 100 lbs. (to give her some credit, she did lose 35 lbs., and is still working on the rest).

The answer lies in the first sentence of the Gazette article: �Michael Rae, a tall willowy Calgarian who has not eaten a slice of pizza, a doughnut or a potato chip in six years, is trying to diet his way to a longer healthier life.� I ask you, my friends, could you voluntarily give up those foods you love, the potato chips, pizza, beer, doughnuts, chocolate croissants, chocolate mousse (chocolate anything, for that matter), President�s Choice cookies (drool�), and anything from the French p�tisserie display case at Green�s in order to prevent diabetes, heart attacks, various cancers and prolong your life for 20 years? Is it a price you would consider paying? Maybe that should have been the big Diaryland questionnaire I put to my readers.

After rereading my second entry wherein I expressed my desire to lose weight and buy leather pants (all of which has come to pass), I realized that it can be done. It�s bloody hard though. The �you� in the following paragraph does not refer to anyone I know, okay?

Instead of having two pieces of buttered toast and jam for breakfast with your fried egg, orange juice and coffee (or tea), you have one piece of toast, buttered lightly, with one-half cup orange juice. Oh yeah, you can still have your coffee or tea, but it has to be black or with low-fat milk, no sugar. And that�s it until lunch whereat you might forego the french fries and hamburger and instead make a lifestyle choice of a large, barely-dressed green salad, a hard-boiled egg, and the other slice of bread you didn�t have for breakfast. Do you see a pattern developing here? You have basically just spread over two meals what you used to eat for one. I heartily recommend a snack mid-afternoon of dried fruit and a beverage, preferably a nice, hot cup of Lady Grey tea, or Murchie�s No. 22 Blend, and then at dinner time eat what you would normally eat, just half portions and no dessert. See, it�s not so hard!

This is basically how I lost five pounds in three months, and it had taken me more than a year before that to lose eight. When I speak to people who want desperately to lose weight, and I tell them about my method, the first question I am asked is, �But don�t you get hungry?� Ho ho, yes I do (or I did at first), but you have to accept that hunger is going to be part of any weight-loss regime where simple math is involved: consumption < expenditure. Forget Atkins, South Beach, Dr. Phil, etc. Just eat less folks, eschew the fried, salty, sugary foods the industry has been brainwashing us into eating for years, go back to a more natural diet of less refined foods that actually force your body to use some calories in their digestion, and you will not only get back that girlish figure you thought was gone forever, but live longer and experience less illness at the same time.

Just one more thing before I go. It�s not easy. It is so effing hard not to devour a whole bag of chips (as I did at the bar on Friday night) or dip into the chocolate macaroons Buddy Boy left conveniently on the kitchen counter (as I was doing all week) or stop at one �serving� of anything (when it comes to things like crackers). It takes incredible willpower, which I for one do not possess. That is why my son is so royally frustrated that I do not buy junk food, because if it is in the house, I will eat it. And I think that illustrates the point perfectly. If the food industry is intent on killing us through diseases exacerbated by obesity, then we should say �fuck �em� and not buy those products anymore. Who�s with me on this one?

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