No, I’m not starving myself

My boss asked me this morning if I was “still starving myself,” by which he meant, are you still on the diet. Well, as just two weeks in, with another 5 or 6 months to go, he’d better hope I’m still on track.

But starving is no kind of diet. I mean, let’s forget about the modern definition of “dieting” for a minute and remember that the word “diet” means “what you eat.”

Eating healthy can be a challenge, certainly, but it doesn’t have to be miserable. You don’t have to sip broth and nibble on twigs and deny yourself a piece of toast or a sandwich or a steak. You just have to be smart about what you’re eating.

Case in point — my friends called last weekend and wanted to see the new Bond movie. Since my wife hadn’t eaten, we decided to have lunch first. My friend chose Johnny Carino’s, which serves Italian food.

Bread and oil, big bowls of pasta, thick meat sauce, creamy alfredo — this kind of thing doesn’t bode well for a guy trying to lose weight. Luckily, there are options. There are ALWAYS options. In this case, I had pasta with artichokes, olives, tomatoes and some grilled chicken. Delicious. There was more than I needed to eat in one meal, though, so I had them pack up half of it and I ate the rest for dinner.

It’s all about common sense, which is not to say you can’t be a little stupid sometimes. A piece of chocolate cake? I wouldn’t eat one every day and expect to lose weight, but as a rare treat, why not? I love gyros, but I know that if I get one, I need to take a hard look at what else I’m eating that day.

If you’ve got a tip on how to fill your stomach while shrinking your waistline, leave it in the comments.