Long Bones

Or can I?

Deprivation diets don’t work. Say it with me: Deprivation diets don’t work. Once again: Deprivation diets don’t work. I can’t hear you: Deprivation diets don’t work.

Glad I got that out of my system.

Now I’m not advocating for you to go out and eat whatever you like and call it a diet. Oh wait, actually I am. I’m not advocating for you to go out and eat as much as you like of whatever you like. The trick, of course, is moderation. The less cliche trick is quality.

I’m serious about the quality thing. Two squares of Lindt 70 or 85 will satisfy me more than an entire bar of Hershey’s Special Dark. And then two squares of the good stuff has 110 calories, the full bar of the waxy yick stuff has 180 calories. Of course, if you were to eat the whole bar of the Lindt chocolate you’d have a problem (550 calories) but you won’t do that. Because that would be far too much chocolate.

The same thing goes for pretty much any unhealthy food I can think of. Jonesing for a burger? Get one! But don’t go to McD’s, head over to your nice little sit down place, eat half the burger and substitute salad for fries. Unless of course you want fries, in which case you order a side of fries and split it with a friend. Let the friend have most. That way you get less calories and your friend gets fatter, making you look thinner in comparison.

If you bake make cupcakes instead of a full cake and then bring them to work. You’ll be instantly popular and you won’t overindulge. Make cookies for friends or lovers. So long as it isn’t spouses because spouses tend to live with you. The idea is to indulge and then get it away from you.

Whatever your method is, I cannot stress it enough: Do not let cravings sit. They will just intensify. Satisfy your craving at first opportunity and you will eat less.