hehe…wasn’t really aiming at your post, wring, because that individual had just about the dumbest diet quirk I’ve ever heard of. That’s like making a big deal of leaving the cherry off your large hot fudge sundae.
Yup. I work out every day, and if I want a friggin’ cookie I just have one, for god’s sake. Otherwise the following syndrome kicks in:
Your body: “I want a cookie.”
You: “Are you nuts? They have four fat grams each!”
Your body: “You don’t understand. I REALLY want a cookie.”
You: “Tough tits. We’ve been doing really well avoiding fat all day, and I’m not going to blow it all now just because of you and your infantile whims. Have a rice-cake instead.”
Your body: “You think I don’t mean business? GIVE ME THE GODDAMN COOKIE.”
You: “Not listening, not listening, hum hum hum.”
Your body: (Goes to cupboard, grabs bag of cookies, and shoves 17 at once into mouth.)
If, on the other hand, you just have the cookie in the first place, obsession doesn’t kick in. Plus your body knows that you listen to it and aren’t trying to starve it, and it will be much happier to let go of the fat you’re trying to lose.
Be mellow. Go with the flow. Have a cookie. 
Stompy
Stompy has it right – when I want to lose weight, I watch what I eat all week long and exercise, but on Saturday I have Chinese (almost my favorite food) and a WeightWatchers dessert. When s.o. and I go out on the weekend, I’ll have a steak and baked potato with all the trimmings. When I talk to others about losing weight, I advise them “don’t deprive yourself of everything you love to eat all the time!” I almost don’t mind the strict dieting during the week because I know I get to treat myself on the weekend.
That inner dialogue is pretty funny, Stompy
About diet soda-- I’m one of those who will order a full, calorie infested dinner, or a gallon tub of movie popcorn, with a Diet Pepsi. It’s mainly because I like the taste, not because I think it’s cancelling out the food. I started drinking diet sodas when I was maybe 9, because I had older cousins who were dieting and they visited a lot. Once you get used to the less-sweet flavor of the diet varieties, regular soda can seem way too sugary.
Stompy,
That post is so accurate and funny, I’m printing it out and putting it on my fridge. Great stuff!
Zette
At last! A sig line of my very own…
Oh, pooh, it didn’t work. Ignore last post, please!
This would have been, like, SO much cooler if I had got it right the first time…
:rolleyes:
Stompy
Oh god. I am in hell. It didn’t work AGAIN.
One more time…
For the record, I read an interview with an actor who was known for his rather toned physique and he also smoked. The actor (whom I don’t recall, but I remember the interview was in Details) said that he works out to look good, not to live longer.
Yer pal,
Satan
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Six months, six days, 23 hours, 12 minutes and 52 seconds.
7598 cigarettes not smoked, saving $949.83.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 5 days, 9 hours, 10 minutes.
I slept with a moderator!*
I’m the same way, but with peanut butter. When I first tried a “reduced-fat” variety, it seemed very sticky and grainy to me. Now, regular peanut butter tastes much too oily to me, and I just don’t enjoy it.
Hey pal we don’t give a rip about your comment we want to know about your sig line! I musta missed something.
My last comment was directed at Satan.
I don’t eat a particularly healthy diet, but I do use artificial sweetner and drink diet coke. I started because I was worried about my teeth, not about my weight: lots of acidic drinks with a high sugar content are about the quickest way to end up looking like Shane MacGowan. Now it’s become a habit and I find that regular Coke or coffee with sugar doesn’t taste right.
As for the walking and smoking, it might be that they enjoy walking for its own sake and in any event, you are better off getting some exercise whether you smoke or not.
Hey, I do that all the time. They give us free soda here at work, and at the rate I go through them, I had better be drinking the Diet stuff rather than the regular stuff. If I have one regular Coke or Pepsi at some point, I can’t stand the taste of the Diet stuff for the rest of the day.
But when I ordered that Baconburger yesterday (not something I make a habit of) it did occur to me that I probably looked a little strange getting the Diet Coke to go with it. 
For the record, switching from regular to diet soda at work has made a small difference for me, and other people asked if I had lost weight. So I suppose every little bit helps.