The Big One

As I mentioned yesterday, losing weight or achieving a specific athletic goal is the number one New Year's Resolution each and every year.  It's probably on many of your lists this year, as it has been on mine in the past.  The thing is, there are tons of misconceptions about losing weight.

Put simply, in order to lose weight, one must take in fewer calories than one expends.  It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound.  That deficit can be created by eating/drinking less, exercising more, or some combination of both.  Let's begin by looking at the intake side of things.

Ask any doctor how to lose weight and you will be told, "diet and exercise."  The problem is with that word "diet."  The word comes from several old words, including the Greek word diaita, meaning "way of life," and the Latin word dieta, "daily food allowance."  In the 14th century, the word began to take on a meaning of restriction of food, and in 1650, diet took on the additional meaning "regulate one's food intake against fatness."

Today, a diet is that awful way of starving yourself half to death, making yourself and everyone around you miserable, only to lose 2 pounds.  And when you stop dieting, you gain it all back.

What we need to do is to take back the ancient definition of diet.  Your diet is your "way of life."  It doesn't mean deprivation and starvation.  Your diet is your way of eating and drinking.  Let's make an effort for that diet to be a healthy one.

Follow these links to learn more about good nutrition and a healthy diet from the U.S. Government, helpguide.org, UC Berkeley, and the Mayo Clinic.
Click here to read about the health impact of soda.