From the beginning... (part 1)

July 18, 2006 I decided to make a lifestyle change. I was going to eat right, exercise and lose weight. Brilliant, a plan - now what?

Like many other people I had struggled for 20 years with my weight. Every six months to a year I would come up with a brilliant plan. I would grab a fresh notebook and pencil and plot it out. My favorite things was to go week by week and note the two pounds I expected to lose and count down to the svelte new me. Not once did it happen. I would get a week in or 6 weeks in and something would happen and I would give up.

This time, honestly, I didn't vow that I wouldn't screw it up again. I simply told myself if I did (and I did a number of times and sometimes still do), I wouldn't stop, I would restart.

When you are obese you make side glances at the 'skinny' girl eating her salad in the food court. Even though you know it's not true, you think she is probably perfect. Maybe she has a filthy apartment and a mouth like a trucker, but right now, she is perfect. She can eat lettuce and carrots with lite dressing while there is a perfectly good burger and fries within reach. You think, "If she's that good now, she probably doesn't eat cake at birthday parties either. Skinny bitch."

The truth: if she's doing it right, she can eat anything she wants - in moderation. And if she has a moment where she isn't so moderate, she doesn't fall into a bag of Oreos and write off all healthy food choices because she 'failed'. Instead, she is better at the next meal or snack and maybe she does 10 extra minutes of cardio to assuage her guilt. The next day, she starts anew and doesn't live with lingering feeling over a moment of indiscretion - she moves on.

That's where we overweight folks falter. We expect, from the first carrot stick, to stay in the zone all of the time. We will always measure our cereal; we will always avoid the candy dish at the office; we will always eat only the leanest cuts of meat; we will always eat 5 or more servings of vegetables a day. No. The only thing we will always do? Be human.

Nothing, especially people, changes overnight. So expecting that you will just wake up one day loving celery more than chocolate or pilates more than being in your p.j.s watching "How I met Your Mother", is a prescription for failure.

So, I'll tell you right now - pick your poison. Mine is chocolate.

And now I am giving you TIP #1 if you are starting from the beginning: Once you have set your calorie level to goal for each day - set 50-100 calories aside to be 'bad'. Yep, I am encouraging you to have a daily cheat.

Across the world now nutritionists are very jittery and don't even know why.

Why? Because we want 'it'. Everyone has that thing that vexes them as they head into a change of eating habits. (the word diet is incorrect and I will cover that tomorrow) So plan for it. Call it a daily reward, call it your stress buster, call it Myrtle, but don't fear it, embrace it.

This is the beginning of taking your power back. Right now, the food has power over you. You want it more than you need it and that has put your body off balance. You are going to have to eat what you need now and not simply inhale everything you want. If you are asking that much of your mind (and yes, this is intensely psychological), you have to have something to maintain control. The promise of your treat at 4 p.m. or right before bed, is that thing.

Believe me, early on, I made it through a lot of Lean Cuisines and salads during the day with a simple reminder to myself that there was a dark chocolate goody at the end of my day.

Tomorrow, I will cover why diets don't work and why this tip isn't a license to 'have just one more'.

Yours in health, Kate