Life and body: a perfect diet

Like most teenage girls, weight is something that crosses my mind every once in a while. Perhaps too often for my own good.

Dieting.

I hate that word, but I nevertheless force myself into the process it defines quite often. I haven't tried any book diets or any special diet food. Instead, I get tips and advice from various health journals/websites and improvise from there.

What works best?

A combination of the following:

-Eating in moderation.
Everyone tells you this. Everyone knows this. Yet almost no one does this. Why? Because when we see a plate full of food, it's really, really hard to stop yourself in the middle and tell yourself, "That's it, I'm done. No more." It's so hard to leave half a plate of food just lying there, wasted!
Although this is the hardest thing you can do, it also works best. Eventually, if you give it enough time and patience, you won't find yourself craving the same gargantuan amounts of food as before. You'll be used to, and content with, eating smaller portions. What's the best way to get yourself into this habit, though?

-Use smaller plates.
Don't try to force yourself to leave half of your meal on the plate. It doesn't work unless you have a very strong will, and even then, it probably won't work every time. Instead, you can play a trick on your brain. Instead of using a larger plate and filling it with food that you will feel compelled to eat every last cubic centimeter of, use a small plate. When you fill it up with food, it still looks like a good, filling meal. Allow yourself to finish every last bite. You'll feel satisfied, but not overly full (oftentimes, if you feel you're still hungry after eating what seems like a reasonably sized meal, it's a false alarm - the feeling will go away in about 20 minutes). This way, you can trick yourself into eating smaller portions - just don't let yourself refill the plate once you've emptied it. I've found this works well because it's easier to stop yourself from getting a refill than from stopping yourself from finishing what's right in front of you.

-Don't eat after 7.
My mom always used to tell me this, but I never paid much attention. Now, I'm on a new diet, and this is one of the key parts.

Some good snacks to eat without compromising a diet are (especially if it's after 7):

-Nuts - just not too many. Good for making you feel less hungry, and you only need to eat 3 or 4.

-Fruits - eat as many as you want. Nothing bad, diet-wise, will happen to you if you eat a few apples, bananas, etc. when you're hungry. I like them even more than nuts - I can eat a wider variety of them and more of them. And I guess they just taste better :-)


The most important part of the diet I've found to be most successful is LESS SUGAR. I am a crazy sweet-tooth - and I've found this to be my one downfall in maintaining/losting weight. The first step is to remove desert from the daily menu. It sounds horribly cruel, but it works very, very efficiently. I once found I lost about 5 pounds in a week because I took sugar out of my diet entirely. As hard as it sounds, it's harder to do. In order to ease myself into the sugar-free diet, I still put sugar (a lot - *guilty grin*) in my tea. I also eat a lot of the sugary but low-calorie and fat-free meringue(sp?). It's delicious and takes away all of my cravings for any of my usual deserts. Then, after a while, I stop eating meringues and drink juice instead of tea. Natural sugars are fine - I just stop eating unnecessary, added ones.

Of course, nothing works better with the aforementioned suggestions than exercise. I'm a dancer, and I have to admit that I don't go to the gym much since dancing takes up most of the time I have for exercise. Occasionally, I run around my neighborhood when I'm taking a break from dance.

Oh, by the way, speaking of dance - I highly recommend it as a very, VERY good way to loose weight (especially if you combine it with a diet, or with the tips abovce). Ballroom dancing, specifically: it's really, really fun and a great way to meet people. What can be better? You're moving around, not even noticing the fact that you're burning calories, and at the same time you can be conversing with your dance partner.

Wow, I think this might actually be one of the longest posts I have ever written on any one of my numerous blogs.

Well, this about does it.

Hope it helped.

I'll try a book review

Yes, in my last post I promised to give the results of my color film experiment... but I didn't really have time for it today, seeing as it took me long enough to finish the 26 B+W exposures left in my camera.

So, instead, I'm going to try a book review.

I just finished reading Tony Hillerman's A Thief of Time.

This book follows the stories two Navajo policemen as they try to solve the mystery of an archeologist's disappearance. The first, Joe Leaphorn, has just recently lost his beloved wife. Depressed and with no excitement for life, he prepares to resign from his job - but a few weeks before the date he is to leave, he suddenly finds that he is interested in this case. Jim Chee, a young man new to the Navajo police force, is also assigned to the woman's case. Together, they find out what she was researching - Anasazi pots - and try to unravel her whereabouts and why she disappeared, both of which are related to the pots she was trying to find.

This book goes by pretty fast. I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing, but if you're looking for something that isn't time consuming, this is it. There are many slow parts - actually, there really isn't much action at all. The language itself isn't difficult (I don't mean it's simple or easy, though), which elimiates the frustrations evoked over some novels due to wording that is hard to understand. Many parts of the novel describe Navajo traditions and beliefs, which are interesting - but I found them at times a little confusing and not well-explained.

Hillerman does a good job of character development for Leaphorn, changing him during the course of the novel from a depressed, sulky individual to one who regains interest in life. Yet I also feel that some characters were not characterized well enough to make their actions make sense at the end of the novel when everything is unraveled. A big discovery Leaphorn (and we) makes seems to make sense because the author drops several big hints about it, but when I think about the motives driving the character concerned, I come to the conclusion that the character didn't have the right characteristics to pull it off. I can't really say more about this for fear of spoiling the novel.


Overall, as far as mysteries go, it's a good mystery. For me, there wasn't enough drama, or action, or anything else (this makes sense, since it's a mystery novel - but it's nice when a novel incorporates aspects from genres other than the main one, since this makes it appealing to a wider range of readers). I'm personally not a big fan of this book. I guess if you like mysteries, go for it. Otherwise, if you like reading mixed genres, like me - I don't recommend it. It was well-written, but at the same time, I didn't feel there was much "in it". No food for thought, really. Nothing made me go "wow" when I closed it for the last time. Personally, I'm more for "wow" books myself.

I guess I'm just used to reading books in which every detail about every character is explained and makes their actions seem almost inevitable to the reader. Obviously, this doesn't work in a mystery novel, since the "who" behind the actions isn't revealed until the end. I just can't find much to analyze in this novel. And I just realized how horrible that sounds - my English classes have turned me into a reader who can't enjoy a book because she has to analyze everything!!!

Okay, well, I'm going to go and try to get rid of that ugly habit.

Au revoir.

Only 3 more days

I'm running out of time. Okay, rereading that sentence, it probably sounds like I'm about to die from a fatal disease. And maybe I am, because once school starts, the summer-happy part of me will probably die.

But anyway: Since I'm running out of time, I'm feeling a little guilty. I haven't done nearly enough photography this summer. Mr. B will probably kill me when I get back. I mean I've shot about three rolls of film - over two months. I'm ashamed of myself.

Of course, I have an excuse: I was away a lot of the time, and my camera's batteries died, and I couldn't get the right kind anywhere except Newtonville Camera.

But forgetting excuses for a minute, I definitely could have tried harder.

Also, in my last post, I decided that over these last few days of freedom I will try to spend more time outside. For once, I'm actually going to do what I said. Right now, my family and I are going to Nantucket beach with Andrey's family and a few other people. And guess what, not only will I be spending time outside, not only is this the perfect opportunity to finish the last 60 pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I can also do an experiment!

Let me explain. I'm almost out of Ilford black-and-white film, and I need to shoot. I NEED to. So, I'm going to get color film from CVS for the first time. I've never shot with color film before! Not for artistic purposes, anyway. I am EXTREMELY excited.

Well, time to run - I'll post the results of my experiment when I get back!

Countdown... there are four more days of freedom. I'd really love to fill them all up with FUN, which is something I will be lacking for about nine months starting on September 6th. What shall I do?



Well, of course, most of my time will be spent dancing. But then, what? A lot of my friends are already in school, so I won't be able to do much "hanging out." I have a feeling that I should spend as much time as possible outside, since soon that will no longer be an option, as I will be cooped up inside of NSHS for a very, very long time.



These thoughts make me think. During the school year, when I'm insanely busy, all I really want to do is relax, watch some TV, browse the net... in other words, do nothing. Now that summer is here, I'm relaxing all the time... That is, my day consists of: several hours (usually 5 or more) of TV, and when the headaches start coming, I make my way over to the computer. When my eyes start hurting, I go dance. When my legs give in, I go home and read. And my day is over.

Relaxing? Well, I don't know. Now that I have time to do whatever I want, all I want to do is get a job. Do research. Read more. Do something useful. Use brain more. I guess I won't really know how "relaxing" my summer was until I go to school and wish for it all back again.

Funny. Strange. And one of the worst parts of human nature, because both sides of the fence are equally barren... Or maybe they're equally full of painfully green grass, so painful, in fact, that one must shut his or her eyes. And not see the grass. For fear of becoming blind from its brightness. And wish they were on the other side. But, lo and behold, the grass is just as green over there.

What interesting philosophy. Be nice if I wasn't the millionth person to think of it.

Okay, done ranting.

Goodnight, and see you on the other side.