My Foolproof Diet Secret

(Like most advertised secrets, this is something everyone already knows.)

Lately I have been losing weight. For me this is good news as I have been trying, basically since I was 12. Dieting has always been hard, and eventually whatever weight I managed to lose came back when I got tired of the diet. Getting "tired of the diet" is a euphemism for "eating badly."

Eating badly means consuming candy, cake, ice cream, butter, cookies, butter cookies, burgers, French fries, pie, chicken wings, wonton soup, cheddar cheese, crackers, hot cocoa with marshmallows, those amazing chips they make at Whole Foods and those even more amazing Auntie Anne's pretzels sold at shopping mall and airport food courts.

Here's the Secret: I didn't call Jenny. I didn't sign on for mail-order packaged frozen food from NutriSystem. I shunned those Weight Watcher revival meetings. Instead, I stopped dieting out of a combination of boredom and disgust, and coincidentally, stopped eating bad foods. To my delight, the number on the scale has started falling.

Now when I'm hungry for something, I choose wisely from among the following:

celery sticks

carrots

radishes

grapes

apples

peaches

pears

bananas

oatmeal

raisins

yogurt

almonds

walnuts

chick peas

olives

strawberries

blueberries

raspberries

hard boiled eggs

string cheese

cold chicken

sliced turkey

spinach

kale

broccoli

cauliflower

applesauce

cottage cheese

shrimp cocktail
cold lamb chops
avocado

tuna salad

popcorn

cole slaw

 baked potato

hummus

corn on the cob

tofu

cantaloupe

stuffed grape leaves

honeydew melon

salmon
herring tidbits
watermelon

bell pepper

chopped liver

vegetable spring roll

vegetable soup

lentil soup

oranges

grapefruit

a mushroom omelet