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"Qutting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." -- Mark Twain

Mark Twain's lament about the failure to successfully quit smoking also applies to diets. I would venture to guess that most readers have have been on more than one diet and still battle the problems of excess body fat. To turn a phrase, "To diet is human; to regain is a statistical probability." This brings me to another point and another reason a lot of these popular "one diet fits all" programs, ultimately, fail. With an eating plan designed for you and for the rest of your life, absolutely nothing is completely forbidden. I know I am going to go against the grain of popular thought here, but it is an important difference. If you are absolutely, positively denied a certain food or group of foods, you start to think of nothing but these foods. It's like the old psychological ploy used by debaters and politicians all the time. If you tell someone to "think of any animal they want but not an elephant," what animal do they think about? An elephant of course! If you tell someone they can not have, under any circumstances, a certain food or food group, what do you think they think about every time they eat or think about eating? You're right. They immediately think about what they cannot have. And, the more they think about it, the less their will power becomes. Eventually, and this is another guarantee, they will start to crave that which is forbidden (think about Eve and the apple) and the inevitable happens. They eat it. And they don't just eat a bite of it, they overeat or binge.

It is for this reason that any long-term eating plan you develop based on your food preferences and tastes should not deny you any particular type of food. Yes, you should be able to eat pizza. Yes, you should be able (and I do!) eat Breyer's™ Vanilla Bean ice cream. Yes, you should be able to eat chocolate. The only guidelines you should have about these "target" foods is that you have to plan on eating them. In your plan, you should have a solid idea of when and where you are going to eat them. You should have a clear idea of what you are to cut back on to compensate for eating them in your diet. And, finally, you should have a "compensation plan" - what are you going to do extra, in the form of exercise, to make up for them. To pay for them, if you will. All pleasures, for the most part, have costs and consequences. If you buy a new car and, like some do, trade in a car that is already paid off, you have to plan for the new expense of a new car. Same thing applies for having a go at some pizza or ice cream or chocolate. You have to plan and, I hate to say it in these words, pay penance for the indiscretion. Is it fair that you have plan and compensate for eating "out of plan?" Absolutely not but, sorry, that's just the way it is. Learn to live with it.

Let me tell you about my relationship with my favorite ice cream. Every Saturday, when I do my shopping for the week, I buy a half-gallon block of Breyer's™ Vanilla Bean ice cream. By the time I get it home, it is soft but still firm. I put on a pair of disposable latex gloves and peel off the packaging of the block of ice cream. I then take the largest kitchen knife I have and cut the block into 12 cubes. I then take some aluminum foil and wrap each cube and place them Zip Lock™ sandwich bags in my freezer. Every night, about an hour before I go to bed, I have my "ice cream time." I take one of the cubes from the freezer, remove the bag and unwrap the cube. I put it in a small bowl, get out my special teaspoon and sit at the dining room table (more on this later) for my wonderful snack. I take exactly 15 minutes to eat the ice cream. I take small bites (a necessity with my small spoon) and slowly savor and allow each bite to slowly melt in my mouth. I relax. I enjoy it. It's a ritual. If I want to have more ice cream, I must wait at least 30 minutes before I can unwrap another. That's 30 less minutes of sleep. Sometimes I am willing to make the sacrifice; most nights I am not.

Does this sound a little obsessive? Possibly. Does it seem like a lot of trouble? Absolutely. But what is the method to this madness? It has several purposes:

Planning. I have to prepare and plan for eating problem foods like, for me, ice cream.
Control. I have portioned out the "target" food so that I do not sit down with the whole tub just begging for me to eat the whole container.
Environment. I can only eat at the dining room table. I cannot eat ice cream - or anything else, for that matter - while watching television or being engaged in any other activity. I do not split my attention. I give 100% of my mind to enjoying the "forbidden fruit" - my ice cream.
Cost. If I chose to eat more than my allotted cube of ice cream I can. The cost? I have to give up 30 minutes of sleep. Am I willing to do that some nights? You betcha! Am I willing to make that sacrifice every night? No way. But I have the option and I have the power. It is my choice. Some nights it's worth it; most nights it is not.

When you have problems with weight control, you are required to make some changes in your lifestyle. You have to get control and you have to plan. And these are not, contrary to what you might be thinking as you read this, necessarily bad things. For some of you, it is going to take a huge amount of work, initially. But, a lifelong experience in dealing with this personally and over a decade of dealing with it professionally both tell me these truths: planning and control are essential to life-long weight management.If you do not get control of your life, in general, and your eating habits, in particular, you will not be successful in maintaining a healthier weight.You might be able to lose weight with a helter-skelter lifestyle but you will not be able to sustain your weight loss over the long term.

Albright Bariatric Clinic