The M&M Diet

Have you heard the news about the latest nutrition guidelines?  Eggs are now good for you. Butter is better for you than margarine. As always, we’re encouraged to eat more veggies and fruits and less meat.  That’s a challenge at my house, as my husband will tell you there just aren’t that many veggies he likes—especially of the green variety.  I’ve learned through the years that he’s not putting Brussels sprouts, spinach, or squash in his mouth but will tolerate green beans and asparagus and will, thankfully, eat a salad.

 

After the new guidelines came out, an artist pal of mine posted this color coded nutrition guide on facebook.  It seems only appropriate that an artist would be attracted to this chart. 

My husband’s comment on her post?

That’s why I like M&Ms.  They have all the colors of the food groups needed to build strong bones and bodies and healthy minds.

How can you argue with that logic?   I’d love to follow an M&M diet; wouldn’t you?   Instead I’ll continue to try to eat a healthy diet and watch my weight. I’ve been watching it for years…watching it go up…and come down.  It seems to go up pretty quickly and then take months to come back down as I battle the same pounds over and over.

 

I have friends who’ve had great success with Weight Watchers and some who haven’t, and friends who try fad diets as they come and go. Remember the Scarsdale Diet?  When I was teaching many years ago, I think the entire teachers’ lounge was on that one. Even Warren Buffett has weighed in with his eating philosophy:  "I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among 6-year-olds. So I decided to eat like [one]," - Warren Buffett on his diet.

Thankfully, once my personal trainer introduced me to My Fitness Pal online and coached me to eat more protein, I was no longer tempted by new diets.  When I need to get extremely serious, as in when those stubborn five pounds just linger, I start logging my food intake online. Somehow that keeps me straight…most of the time.  That’s right, even with the logging, I’m not always successful at sticking to the 1200 calorie limit required for someone 5’3” to lose a few pounds.

Eating M&Ms seem so much easier and tastier.  Visions of sugar-plums…I mean M&Ms…are dancing in my head...until I consider that this diet idea comes from the man who once came home from work and told me he’d eaten five Payday bars.  When I asked, “Five, why on earth five?” he responded, “I ran out of change.”  I’m thinking that he and Warren Buffett would get along famously.