In my line of work I talk to a lot of people about what they eat. One of the things we do during our counseling sessions is work through their food journals and figure out how they are doing with calories and variety. A common refrain I hear is, "I don't really like ____________ (fill in the blank with whatever food you consider to be a diet food) but I eat it because I'm on a diet." Do you find yourself doing the same thing? The problem with that:

There are lots of foods in each food group – you should be able to find something that you like from each food group that won't derail your efforts to eat healthier. For example, don't like cottage cheese, try yogurt; don't like yogurt, try low fat chocolate milk. Get the idea? There's nothing wrong with trying new foods (in fact I strongly encourage it) but please don't use food as punishment and eat foods you don't like just because you think of them as 'diet' foods. As Virginia Woolf so eloquently stated, "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." Life's too short – enjoy your food!.