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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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