‘Diet’ is a Four Letter Word

"If you have formed the habit of checking on every new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information: french-fried potatoes are out." — Jean Kerr

Week #9

In my opinion ‘Diet’ is a four letter word.  Now, this is just me…maybe you’re doing really well on the ‘big D’…

Me and diets go way back...I have tried the grapefruit diet, the egg diet, the soup diet, the watermelon diet, the cleansing diet, and the South Beach Diet. Back in the 70’s I even spent a few days on diet pills (I think that little pink pill is like a deal with the Devil).   I feel like I knew Atkins personally, participated with my lady friends in my weekly weigh- ins at Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig was almost like a sister to me and who hasn’t joined Richard Simmons for a giggle or two ? Oh,  I was successful with each.  I did lose the weight.  But, as we all know that’s not where the story ends….we soon gain it back, with a higher weight  and lower self esteem. Well,  I’m ready to leave those days behind (no pun intended)!  Instead, I want to have energy, feel good and be active…damn the diets! 

I have decided that rather than focusing on what I can’t eat, I will focus on the foods that are good for me to eat.  Since I'm planning my journey purposefully, I began by perusing the Internet to find out what the healthiest foods actually are.  I quickly found that the top ten healthy foods vary depending on the article, the research and the website.  So I made my own list by writing down the healthiest foods that continued showing up over and over again. I actually came up with 20. 

Since my overall goal this year is to be better at 61 than I am at 60, It makes perfect sense to begin inserting these foods into my diet on a regular basis.  (or if I already eat them, then eat more of them).  Here’s the list of the healthiest foods that I have compiled into my own ‘top 20 healthiest foods’ list.   Since my intent is to eat all of these foods regularly,  I’ll make them a constant on my weekly grocery shopping trip. 

 Vegies:

1.       Broccoli
2.       Spinach
3.       Carrots
4.       Red Bell Pepper
5.       Tomatoes
6.       Seasonal Vegies (asparagus, artichokes)

Fruits

7.       lemon
8.       apples
9.       oranges
10.     cranberry juice
11.     seasonal  fruits (cateloupe, blueberries, apricots)

Other

12.   almonds / walnuts/ peanuts
13.   Yogurt
14.   Beans (black, kidney, pinto)
15.   Brown Rice/pasta
16.   Olive oil
17.   Oatmeal
18.   Salmon
19.   Tuna
20.   Soy

* There were a few other foods mentioned over and over, but I chose not to put them on my list.  Remember, one of my rules for setting goals is I need to have a good attitude about it to begin with.  So I’m choosing not to add the following: sweet potato, avocado, greens (kale,gress), and Tofu.  

I’m also going to print a copy of the 100 healthiest foods that I found on this website: http://www.dwlz.com/HealthyLife/healthy50.html   I’ll stick it up in a convenient place as a reminder that I should try and incorporate these healthy foods more frequently into my diet as well.

Small step for this week: Include 20 healthy foods, each week,  from the list I created.

So that's it for this week's blog, my friends...gotta run… time to go grocery shopping!