Did you try the "Grapefruit Diet???"

"Today I give birth
to the woman in me
who has waited so long
to be acknowledged.
I welcome myself to the world
and I will not forget again
that service to self is a worthy task."

~from "Entitled" by Naomi

I was thinking about the many types of diets I have tried over my 55 years of living... of the many years of feeling fat, of feeling a failure, of feeling undesireable--unsexy--unpretty. And then I started thinking about the many diets I have tried in vain to get myself to what I considered my ideal weight.

Did you know the whole "diet" idea began in the 1930's with a "Dr. Stoll's Diet-Aid, the Natural Reducing Food" which a doctor in Chicago promoted in beauty parlors. What was in this elixir? Milk Chocolate, starch, whole wheat and bran--about 11 calories. Women were encouraged to eat it for breakfast and lunch stirred into a cup of water. Well--of course if I only eat 11 calories at lunch and dinner I will lose weight!

How many of you have tried the "Grapefruit Diet?" I remember my brother doing this to make weight during wrestling season. I tried it back then when I was in high school--I am not sure why as I look back at my high school photos--I was not even a little fat! Besides--I REALLY didn't like grapefruit that much!

I love a good vegetable soup... but anything eaten over and over gets to be tiresome.... the "Cabbage Soup" diet is enough to make me swear off cabbage forever!

How about "Ayds?" Remember those little chewy chocolate candies? I think I was supposed to eat one before every meal...right. I just liked eating chocolate guilt-free!

By 1999 the sale of commercial diet programs, foods, books
appetite suppressants, hospital weight-loss programs, health clubs, surgery, and spas had reached more than $30 billion a year!!!

~from Fight Fat After Forty by Pamela Peeke, MD, M.P.H.

Think about all of the many ways I have tried to become pretty; the many ways I have tried to feel good about myself by losing weight. I have been obsessed with weight and appearance to the exclusion of sanity! Grapefruit? Cabbage? Aydes? What was I thinking? What are all of us women thinking about when we try these fads...

I think I want a quick fix. I want a solution that does not involve self-discipline. How many diet books do you own, or have you read? The Detox Diet, The South Beach Diet, The 17 Day diet, The Carb Lovers Diet... really now... it has gotten out of hand! 'Fess up girls... how many diet books have you really bought or read??? I can't even tell you how many--but it's been LOTS!

I believe that the real solution lies in a long-term solution. It is a changed mind-set. It is learning about myself; what stresses me and how I react to stress. It is becoming aware.