Smile-breaks
Diet Day
It's Diet Day. Just like any other day, except for all those weird foods you have to eat. For me it's carrot sticks and granola bars and nuts. What's it for you? Oh! You're not on a diet! How come? I thought everyone was. Maybe you read that article in AARP last year that reported it's better to be slightly overweight than too skinny when you're old, and maybe you're not old now—but you will be. Sooner or later.
I'm not saying where I stand in this cycle of life and I don't necessarily need to be skinny but I sure wouldn't mind losing a few pounds. Especially off the middle. So today is diet day for me. This time I'll stick with it. Too many of my diet days have morphed into "not diet days."
The old lure of dessert at the end of the day—the hat trick I used last time I shed a few pounds—doesn't seem to be working this time. Thoughts of tasty foods and a growling stomach interfere with my brain's good intentions and this rainy weather isn't helping as I settle in with a good book and a few carrot sticks. Before I know it, the carrot sticks are gone and a few peanuts aren't going to stop me from wanting more food—substantial food. Anything but more carrot sticks.
I checked to see if there's an official Diet Day, or more likely, a Diet Month. Wikipedia lists all kinds of food months but no Diet Month. The closest was National Bird Feeding Month in February, which might fit the bill if you think in terms of eating like a bird. Unfortunately it's listed just above National Donut Month.
There are food months for almost every food you can think of. March boasts National Peanut Month but I can't see eating only peanuts for a month. National Celery Month and National Frozen Food Month are also March honorees. But back to today, my Diet Day. If it works, I'll convince myself to do it again tomorrow... If not, well I tried.
I start the day with a good healthy bowl of cereal—not too full a bowl, not too much milk, hardly any sugar sprinkled on top—and then I don't eat another thing until my delicious granola bar 'n banana lunch, which tides me over to dinnertime. That's only if I'm really good and don't get tempted by a caramel Frappuccino instead of straight coffee this afternoon when I'm out and about.
Chocolate. I'm craving chocolate. It's only three o'clock. That Hershey's Mr. Goodbar I hid in my drawer has peanuts in it but I can't eat the peanuts without accidentally breaking off a bit of chocolate with them. No one will see. I'll only break off one square. Oops! Three squares came off. Well, I can't let them lie there getting stale.
That was so-o-o good. Ever had a Mr. Goodbar? The Hershey Company does a fantastic job of sabotaging the strongest of dietary intentions. Best to keep away from anything that remotely smells of chocolate while dieting. You knew that.
That keeps me until dessert time. That's the reward at the end of the day for resisting temptations left and right—not counting the three squares of Mr. Goodbar. If you had your small bowl of cereal and your granola bar and banana, with a few peanuts and carrot sticks between and you haven't strayed—much—to the great beyond of hamburgers and enchiladas and pepperoni pizza or, name your poison, then you get your reward: the dessert of your choice!
That's all. Enjoy your dessert. You've earned it!
