The Diet

The diet is eternal. Has anyone else noticed that? We're on, we're off, we're strict, we're letting go, we're comfortable, we're not. Where's the balance? Why are we all dieting? Even if you've found a euphemism for dieting, get real: you're dieting.

My lifelong diet started when I was about eight. Yes, third grade or so. Not that I was on a diet, per se, but it was certainly the age during which my indoctrination into the dieting culture began. It's when I started selecting diet soda over regular soda. The evils of soda in the American food culture notwithstanding, it is ridiculous that a third-grader would even consider such a thing. And then I discovered lite salad dressing. Yes, I was a kid who loved salads and vegetables and such. Yet I was mindful of them because of the dressing. Imagine. A kid eating exactly how and what you'd like her to be eating, and it's still causing anxiety. This prepubescent consciousness was reinforced by television, a topic for another blog. I was watching Celebrity Squares, and the question was, Which is higher in calories, pancakes with butter and syrup or a salad with ranch dressing? Guess what the answer was? Is it any wonder we are confounded by food choices?

So the diet began. I was never an overweight kid, although I was a little pudgy in a cute, baby-fat way. Then the growth spurt, which occured between 7th and 8th grade, I believe. There's actually a funny series of photos of me in a family album. One summer I'm in the pool as a normally pudgy kid, the next summer I'm all legs, waist and boobs.

The diet continued in this non-action, overly-conscious way until 12th grade. The summer prior, I went to Syracuse University. I gained the freshman 15, except that it didn't take me a semester - it took me 6 weeks. We as Americans have no training when it comes to identifying healthily-sized portions. Any AYCE sign, when you read between the neon lines, actually reads: This is what's wrong with America's food culture. And this, for me, the AYCE aspect of the student dining experience, began my true diet. You know. The one that causes a person to drastically change her intake and habits and comfort with food.

And that's the way it's been ever since. Ever since I was 17. I have been either in the overly-conscious dieting zone or the active dieting zone.

Until next time...