When did Diet become a verb and a dirty word?

When did Diet become a verb? I always considered it a noun.  My diet is what I eat day in and day out.  It was never a dirty 4-letter word; a verb for the torture du jour of odd food combinations, deprivations, and blatant lies of the perfect body you will have if only you follow their plan, whoever they are. 

I’ve seen friends diet on and off their whole lives.  I know the many diets they tried didn’t work, or it worked for a while.  But for most of them, the moment they started eating their ‘normal diet’ they got bigger than they ever were.  

I blithely, and I admit it, went my own way wondering what the big deal was.  I’ve never dieted a day in my life; I never had to.  I was always on the go, ran or walked every morning, did weights at the Y, practiced yoga 2-3 times a week - yes, even when I had a job, a husband, and an exceptional child at home.  

But as I said in yesterday’s blog, I let go and I’m not happy with the result.  I still refuse to embrace diet as a verb, I just need to remember myself and reinstate all those good things I used to do just for me.  I know I’m still in there somewhere.

Zen in the Kitchen

More often than not in the last few years, the devil on my left shoulder won out over the angel on my right.  I’ve been letting so much slip.  I can’t pinpoint when it began.  Like most erosion, it’s a gradual thing. 

Coming from a large cooking family, I always took pleasure in the preparation of food.  Zen is a good chef’s knife and food to chop, dice, mince, a pot to stir.   Like my morning walk slowly but surely, my healthy eating and cooking habits fell away, too.


Although I still shopped the farmer’s market, that love of kitchen time slipped away.  I let the fresh vegetables and fruit in the fridge spoil.  I opted instead for a quick egg and toast for breakfast, tuna sandwich for lunch, wings from Western’s wing bar for supper, and on Friday a large pizza that I would eat a slice at a time breakfast lunch and dinner over the weekend until it was gone.



And all each slice chased by a beer or two or six a day. (Still on the To-Don’t list – no beer until 5pm this where).

Having the walking habit back in place for the last ten days, it’s now time to realign the foods in my life.  Time to recapture the pleasure in preparing good simple food.

First up is breakfast.  As it’s March, not quite spring yet, but close enough.  It’s time for a little spring tonic, cleanse and to reinstate my spring and summer favorites.  First up to fix is breakfasts:

• Protein smoothie with berries, oats, yogurt, flax and a spoon of blackstrap molasses
• Muesli with yogurt
• Fresh spinach  frittata in a half pita.
• Black beans on a warm corn tortilla

Breakfast is a good first step.  I know it’s not enough, but it’s a start.  I didn’t lose my way in a day; I won’t find my way back in a day.  Baby steps.