DIET | DETECTIVE^®

Within a few weeks, the weeks of spring/summer celebrations will begin.  Graduations, reunions, Mother and Father Days, engagement parties and weddings will crowd the calendar. Many of these events require dressing up and looking one’s best. And that means, of course, losing those five pounds that you have been trying to get rid of since January.

Who among us has not taken out an article of clothing neglected for many months and asked ourselves if we can still fit into it? Or perhaps you have purchased a dress to wear for a special occasion. Unfortunately, now it is a little too tight but you assure yourself that you will lose the weight necessary to fit into it by the time the event rolls around. However, if the day is fast approaching and your clothes are snug around the waistline and hips and sitting down threatens to open some seams, you may decide that a crash weight-loss plan is needed. A week of starvation ought to take care of five pounds, right? Starting Monday you will live on nothing but lettuce, ice water and vitamin pills, exercise for hours and sit in the sauna. (And of course wear a pair of tight pantyhose when you put on the dress.)

Usually a really strict diet for a few days does get rid of 4 or 5 pounds, although some of it is just water. The problem is that by the end of the celebration for which you may have semi-starved yourself, you probably gained it back. A few glasses of wine, an hour or so of eating high-fat appetizers or a prolonged brunch will start the arrival process of the pounds you worked so hard to remove.

But worse events usually follow. After a week of deprivation, many of us eat more than usual. Days of self-discipline are often followed by a few weeks of culinary self-indulgence, especially if the next affair for which you have to look good is not coming up right away. And those who may stay on a diet for weeks in order to look terrific for a wedding or class reunion will often take a picture of themselves on the day of the event so they have visual record of when they were thin.  I cannot count the number of weight-loss clients who told me that they never weighed as little as the day they got married.

But does a strenuous weight-loss program always have to be followed by a quick weight gain?  Couldn’t the five days and five pounds of weight loss be the starting point for a permanent change in weight, exercise and life style? We all know people who after years of smoking finally gave it up after an illness prevented them from smoking for several days. Why couldn’t the first five pounds lead to several more being lost, along with a commitment to fitness, regular exercise, and healthy eating?

The key to doing this is to prevent yourself from feeling that culinary self-indulgence is justified after a week of disciplined eating. The easiest way to keep from eating highly caloric food as a reward for losing five pounds is to give yourself a sense of emotional contentment that does not depend on eating a pint of Häagen-Dazs ice cream or a Big Mac. There are two easy ways to do this: one is to elevate the levels of the contentment chemical in your brain and the other is to find non-edible ways of making yourself feel good.

Serotonin is the brain chemical. It gives us a feeling of emotional stability and tranquility. You can’t eat serotonin nor get your brain to make more of it by taking medication. But you can increase serotonin simply by eating sweet or starchy foods by themselves, with no protein. The best way to do this, the day after the diet, is to eat a snack late in the afternoon. An ounce of pretzels, or 2 cups of popcorn, a small bag of Twizzlers, a cup of crunchy breakfast cereal or 6 small graham cracker squares are sufficient to make your brain, and you, feel content by boosting serotonin. (And as a value-added benefit, serotonin will also decrease your appetite).

Eating a carbohydrate snack every day will keep you on the emotional feel-well track and decrease your temptation to reach for a high-calorie food.

The second thing to do is identify things you like to do that give you pleasure and enjoyment. Too often we reach for food as a way of taking a break, decreasing the tedium of a particular task or doing something for ourselves when we have been doing too much for others. But there are so many other ways of making yourself feel rewarded that do not involve calories. I give my dog a tummy rub and massage and that small thing alone makes me feel relaxed (and my dog as well). Yesterday I was walking the same dog and a young woman came jogging by me singing loudly. She was listening to her iPod and I don’t think she realized how loud her voice was. But there was a big smile on her face as she ran past and it was clear she was having fun. A friend ‘s idea of total relaxation is to do the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. And true joy comes when he can finish the one on Sunday, the hardest of the week.

Serotonin and fun are unbeatable combinations to keep off that weight so that you will look, and feel, wonderful whenever the next celebration occurs.

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