by: Gordon Black

That's a pretty “in your face” statement but really it's frustrating for me to see and hear all the different admonitions coming at me from sources I am not absolutely convinced have this whole thing nailed down tight.

For example when I'm in the dressing room at the pool I'll hear discussed all kinds of complicated systems involving a myriad of vitamins and health foods. Well I guess some do have merit but from what I hear you'd need to be walking around with a calculator and a calorie counter; it's just so time consuming and so fussy who can sustain that kind of diligence in checking everything they eat? And then I get to the checkout at the supermarket and just about every magazine front page shouts out the answer to all your diet problems. Somebody very good is taking those Oprah cover shots and picking the clothes “oh so carefully”!!

Anyway that's my rant over; so what do I have to offer that's so much better? Well you can “chuck“ the calorie counter and forget the calculator and get back to just applying some common sense. Now let's be honest here do you really think you are going to benefit from eating French fries potato chips nachos cakes cookies doughnuts cheese burgers etc.? (and what does "etc." mean well just about any of the processed foods that are fried in their production).

In fact if we avoided pretty much ALL the processed foods you wouldn't be far off a very good start to an effective diet plan that would yield lasting results.

But and here's the bad news you have to put in some exercise. It can be any activity that gets your body moving and your system turning over but you have to do something more than just watch what you eat. So find something you will probably like doing because you want to feel inclined to do it more and more not dread or have to drag yourself to whatever it is. For example if you like the golf idea go for that and bear in mind that it seems to be true that when we get better at something we like to do it more so if you fancy golf but are not yet very good be patient and keep at it because as soon as you get better it gets awfully easy to show up and play.

Naturally for me swimming is a great choice and just getting in there and swimming laps sets the slimming and slenderizing process in motion. I don't know anyone who has “thickened-up” by swimming. Ladies want slimmer ankles? Get on down to the pool and do a little legs-only with the kickboard. It works!

So as I said try to find an activity that is going to lead to an increase in your participation. Heaven forbid you might actually enjoy it!