Crazy diets

I found this in the Syracuse Post Standard.

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So many of us struggling to lose weight listen for words that will be our salvation. We want to read something that will solve our weight problems and change our lives.
I am as guilty as everyone else of listening to words that really make no sense.
Years ago when I was an overweight teenager, I read an article that recommended sleeping in a cold bedroom as a method of losing weight without dieting. The reasoning was that the cold would force your body to shiver to keep you warm, and you would burn calories in your sleep. I opened my bedroom windows wide in the dead of winter, put up with ranting parents, stuffed towels under the door so no heat would come in--and remained a fat teenager.




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On my treadmill the other day, I listened to "diet tips" that would help battle obesity without dieting. Supposedly having a bouquet of flowers on the table will make us think of food, so the suggestion was to replace the floral centerpiece with a bowl of fruit. Like that will keep me from thinking of food? I have yet to eat a flower bouquet. Entice me with a bowl of fruit, though, and I'll eat.
Someone told me to stop using clear bowls to hold fruit. The reasoning is that if we see all of the food in a clear bowl, we will eat more than just the few that are visible on the top in a regular bowl. I like clear bowls so I can keep my eye on which piece is ripening the fastest, and eat that piece first. I find it hard to believe if I buy new bowls I will eat less fruit.
My all-time favorite crazy bit of advice is to eat mini-meals throughout the day. Mini-meals might be a good thing for a mini-appetite, but I have learned the hard way that the more I am around food, the more tempting it becomes. And, I'm not sure how much food constitutes a mini-meal. An apple? If many of us who are overweight had the ability to eat mini-meals, we would not be in the mess we are in.
I have a book that tells me, based on my blood type, how to lose weight.
I have invested in larger pots for batches of low-calorie cabbage soup, considered a "free" food on Weight Watchers and other diet plans.
I bought dessert plates in a color I hate because, supposedly, a person eats less from smaller plates, and less from plates they don't like.
I've done all this, and more, in an effort to avoid what I know is the truth: the words of inspiration that will help me lose weight are inside of me.
Bunny Dimmel, of Liverpool, is a teacher at Clary Middle School in Syracuse who has lost more than 250 pounds. She weighs in every other week. Reach her through [email protected].

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Thoughts???