Hi, Boomers,
By now all of you know I teach yoga. Truly, I taught 25 classes this week; of course, one was tango lesson. I have a dear friend who is known to me as the “wall of sound” (he reflects my sounds) who insists on taking a tango lesson from me every Friday. Of course, that means that at the exact hour of 4 pm, we retreat to El Cholo Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica and have a margarita and talk about the truths of life.
The other day, one of my students who has a weight problem, although her yoga practice is unbelievable, started a conversation with me about a diet she was going on in addition to weight watchers. Really? A double diet?. I inquired as to the extreme diet she was beginning that day – a day of nothing but fruits, mainly watermelon, and tomorrow she will add veggies – while adhering to the Weight Watchers plan. She told me that she was desperate to lose weight. I counseled her to be careful of too much diet. If not careful, my darling yogini was going down the well without without a way to climb out. She came back to class 2 days later and confessed that the extreme diet made her dizzy and she was over it. Thank God for her Weight Watchers, which she loved. And she loves yoga because she has been losing weight steadily for the past year.
This morning I heard that 2/3 of all Americans are obese or over-weight. I’m not sure the definition of over-weight but let’s say about 30 pounds over the desired weight for a particular height would be moving toward the over-weight category. We’ve got a problem in the good, old U S of A. But so do other countries. Have you been to France lately. I used to remember the slim, perfectly natural French women and the skinny French men in the 1960s. I mean, how chic could you get on a diet of buttery croissants, sugary french bread, fattening cheese while drinking red wine all day. I fell in love with the French look while watching all those French movies in the 1960s. Of course, the men were way too skinny for me. I like to know that the guy I’m with weighs more than I do. Today, the French populations is getting over-weight and sloppy. So much for fast foods.
My first diet after delivering my son was a dip made up of cottage cheese with cocktail sauce or cottage cheese mixed with yogurt, and celery, cucumbers, and carrots that I manically dipped into my concoctions. My girlfriend and I added cooked shrimp or lobster to that combo for our dinner. Once a week we went to the movies and our dinner was red vines. I lost all my weight and more and kept it off because I was hooked on cottage cheese. I mainlined it. But I’m a freak anyway.
My second and last diet was the grapefruit diet. I love grapefruit so it was great for me. I ate grapefruit before every meal and I could have bacon and eggs and fish and salads. Everything I liked. I lost 10 pounds.
The only diet worth talking about is to do yoga, eat smaller portions and lose the sugar and white flour -bread, pasta, crackers, all that good stuff. It’s all about the veggies (I eat them raw) and lean protein.
Well, then, it’s obvious that the simplicity of a diet that is minimal, mostly the same every day, is completely boring. But it works. Have a glass of wine once or twice a week and relieve the monotony. Or go to Weight Watchers and get variety and let them weigh you. All good.
But did I tell you that I’m a really boring person.
Namaste
Joan