Everyday Systems

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01203.html

This link is to an article in today's Washington Post. A columnist (Sally Squires) with a regular "Lean Plate Club" column writes about what has helped people lose weight and keep it off. Some of the elements interlock with No-S principles. Others supplement No-S. Many of them are quite simple.

Habit-building and exercise appear to be key, as does limiting consumption of "calorie-dense" foods (that is, snacks) and increasing consumption of high-volume foods (that is, meals).

What a nice, pro-common-sense article. I like how it illustrates the importance of forming better habits. We need more reporting like this to encourage people and drown out the din of all the fad diets hyping themselves. I also think the constant bemoaning of the so-called obesity "epidemic" is counter-productive. We already know that many people are fat in the US and other developed countries. Hearing about it again and again is probably just depressing people and making them feel hopeless (and inclined to blame external factors, or genetics, for their weight problems, based on the constant reminders that weight problems are rampant). Sometimes it's not such a good thing to feel "not alone", if it prompts people to say "Well, there's nothing I can personally do about this problem, since obviously something bigger is going on here that's beyond my control". NOT GOOD!

Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into an off-topic rant. I'm done now.