A Balanced Diet...

This week I am talking about my eating habits. The cartoon above illustrates my general eating habits. I diet and diet for a few days at a pop...maybe even a week. Gasp! Then I blow it. Or the weekend comes and I blow it. Or someone brings donuts into the office (like they did on Tuesday) and I blow it. The general theme here is I BLOW IT!

Well, I started thinking again about what might work for me. And I remembered how much I love watching Dr. Oz. (He is so awesome!) So I went and found his book You: On a Diet and of course pulled up my old pal Oprah's site cause they hang out together. One of the articles I found by him on her site was Dr. Oz's 5 Secrets to "Waist Loss".

In the article he lays out 5 rules to slimming your waist down. So here goes. I am sharing with you and giving this a shot. Cause clearly a restricted diet is not working with me.

Rule #1: Spoil Your Dinner

Remember the plant from Little Shop of Horrors, with its demands to "Feed me"? The hormone ghrelin is your body's version of Audrey II, only it gets your attention with stomach growls instead of musical numbers. Once you've started eating, it takes about 30 minutes for ghrelin levels to fall and that "full" feeling to kick in. But if you eat a 100-calorie snack (like a handful of nuts) about a half hour before mealtime, your ghrelin levels will already be subsiding by the time you pick up your fork.

Rule #2: Nix Soft Drinks with Meals

Leptin is a hormone that signals the brain that you can stop eating once your body has stored enough energy from food. Yet fructose (a sugar found in soft drinks) interrupts the feedback loop, preventing your brain from getting the message. Quench your thirst with water instead.

Rule #3: Fill Up on Fiber

The ileum is a part of the small bowel that can squeeze, or "brake," to slow the transit of food through the intestines. When that happens, you get a slow but steady supply of fuel, which keeps you feeling satiated. A high-fiber breakfast triggers this mechanism, because the bowel needs more time to absorb nutrients from fiber. The result: No more 11 a.m. stops at the vending machine.

Rule #4: Eat with Awareness

That means eating at the table, not sprawled across the couch. It also means no zoning out in front of American Idol , checking your BlackBerry, or surfing the Web during meals. Not only will mindful eating increase the satisfaction you get from food but the extra time will allow your ghrelin levels to drop even further as you eat.

Rule #5: Build More Muscle

You may have heard that muscle burns more calories than fat, but did you know that it burns a dozen times more? Aim to walk 10,000 steps a day, and begin a muscle-strengthening program, which will help steel your skeleton as well. Trainer Joel Harper has an excellent 20-minute exercise routine .

On the flip side, I also have been out of action of late. Following his guidance above I am going to work on my exercise habits. Maybe I can't do Billy Blanks right now, but I can sit my butt on my stationary bike and pedal. So that is what I am going to do.

In the mean time, my scale has been fluctuating wildly...Monday I was 200lbs, Tuesday I was 196. I like that Tuesday number so I am rolling with it. BUT! I vow not to get on the scale again for at least 7 days, maybe more. This is not about a number really; it is about getting healthy before my body craps out on me!