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CHANGE ONE LETTER AND FAT BECOMES FAD

by the Social Diary Health Expert Columnist Ruth S. Jacobowitz
Column #8, March 22nd, 2006

I was getting ready to write my April column and although it’s still cold even here in Southern California this year, I was thinking about spring. For me thoughts of spring turn into thoughts of summer and summer means a slimmer trimmer you and me.

Of course, all of this thinking made me think of low fat diets and those thoughts made me realize that with the change of just one letter fat becomes fad and that’s what diets continue to be. Fads.

Bookshelves are filled with books about fad diets and magazine articles dating back as far as I can remember tell us how to lose ten pounds in ten days or some other manifestation of the same idea. We’ve had low calorie, low carbohydrate, low fat, no fat, and sugar busters and still the United States is faced with an obesity epidemic.

At one time or another, I’ve tried them all. The Atkins Diet Revolution enabled me to lose weight and put it back on as quickly as I lost it once I quit. Pritikin was impossible for me to stay on, South Beach, which, although I love that part of Miami for its ritzy, glitzy ways, is a reinvented heart-healthy form of Atkins. I’ve been in and out of the Zone Diet and still every spring I want to take off the pounds that winter has somehow padded on me. Besides all of these diet, I’ve gone on most of the other that have become fads in all the years in-between.

So what is the answer? Healthy eating on an ongoing basis coupled with a solid exercise program is the only thing that really works. Why that discovery took so many of us so long to make is curious and I guess the only reason for the long delay is that the other diets, the fads, seemed so much easier.

My simple rule is to forego eating anything that is white. Oops that is not exactly true. This diet rule forbids anything made with white flour or white sugar. It does not mean foregoing white asparagus, cauliflower, turnips or white radishes. So white bread, cake, cookies, deserts and candy have been sacrificed for a life of vegetables, fruit, and grains served along with fish, chicken, or meat. Oh, sure, you can add a dessert treat every once in a while on special occasions for good behavior.

I know this sounds austere, but for me it’s working along with exercise at least five days a week. I hired a personal trainer for the weight lifting part because I decided that I required an exercise policeperson—someone who is waiting for me at the fitness center Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and who phones and charges me if I’m delinquent. I’m also making practically daily use of the ellipse machine that is in my dressing room and watching the Today Show has become a healthful activity.

Then two day a week I take an hour long yoga class. Yoga is the gift I give myself and one that truly keeps on giving. I’m taking a meditative yoga class and at the end of the hour all my worries have disappeared. You know we all really need four kinds of exercise---aerobic to protect our hearts, weight-bearing to protect our bones, stretching to maintain flexibility, and some stress-busting exercise like yoga, tai chi, meditation, or the like.

If all of this is just too much just begin or continue on with your walking program, stretching before you begin for flexibility, adding a little speed for cardiovascular health while you’re protecting your bones, and spending your time out of doors enjoying nature, which can diminish stress. No cell phones on your walks, please.

* Ruth S. Jacobowitz is a health advocate, lecturer, and the author of five consumer health books. Her newest book is Final Acts—a novel. Visit Ruth at her web site www.ruthjacobowitz.com .

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