New Year's Day 2011

This is traditionally the time of year when the world goes on a diet and makes the famous resolutions to eat better and lose weight.  I applaud any and all efforts along those lines.  Unfortunately this isn't the type of blog to help with that unless you're okay consuming only virtual calories.  You'll notice there's nothing low-fat, low-cal on here and I don't bake with unnatural sweeteners: no splenda or stevia, just good ol' sugar.  And full fat butter and wheat flour with gluten.  The funny part is, the question I'm asked most often is not how to bake a particular item but "how come you don't weigh 300 pounds?"

I usually cut back on baking in January out of respect for people "dieting" as I didn't want to sabotage anyone's healthy eating efforts.  I myself used to be one of those people who would be fired up at the new year to drop the last 10 lbs, eat more veggies (or any), and cut back on rich, fattening foods.  Which always seemed easier to do after holiday feasts.  Then it got less easy as the month of January wore on and the dim memory of Christmas eating got more and more dim. By February I was back to my old ways.

In recent years, I've gotten honest enough with myself to finally break that cycle.  Successful weight loss and maintenance isn't about getting fired up for a short time, dropping a few pounds then going back to old habits that made you gain the weight in the first place.  It's about establishing new habits over the long term.  The only way you can do that is to make small changes, stick to them, make further small changes, keep sticking to them and over the long-term, those small changes actually become big changes that are now second nature.

Case in point - if you're not currently very active, joining a gym and making a resolution to workout 7 days a week is a pretty drastic change from your normal lifestyle.  You might be able to keep it up for a few weeks or longer but the first day you're too tired to exercise or run out of time, are you going to throw the towel in because you missed a day or keep pressing on?  The easier thing to do is focus on being more active all day.  Definitely get a workout in (that'll never hurt) but also go for a walk as often as possible, move around and do activities instead of sitting in front of the TV or a computer.  Move.  One of the things I like about where I live is I can always go for a walk and I can walk some of my errands, primarily to the grocery store, the post office, and, if I have enough time, even the library.  I consciously try not to take my car out at least 1 day a week and just walk instead.  I take the stairs everywhere, I park farther away than necessary, and I look for ways to stay active throughout the day.  Not to say that I'm not a couch potato sometimes but it's not all the time and it's not day after day.

Portion control is another key element.  I've long ago given up the "Snackwell syndrome" - you know, where you eat a lot of low-calorie, low-fat food because you think they're healthier or lower calorie.  Perhaps they are but not if you eat a lot of it.  Even low-calorie foods add up in calories. Personally, I'd rather eat 300 calories of a small portion of something rich and satisfying than 600 calories of something larger but sub-optimal in taste that leaves me unsatisfied and wishing I'd eaten something else.  If I'm going to have empty calories, they're going to be the best empty calories I can have.  I just don't have a lot of it and I don't have it all the time.  Food is meant to be enjoyed and savored, not give you a sick, full feeling or looked at as something that has the power to make you unhappy because it causes your clothes to become tighter.  It doesn't jump into your mouth on its own.  Make a conscious choice about what you're going to enjoy and how much.  Then stop and savor for another day.

Happy New Year!