What Rhymes with "Fad"?

   First and Foremost I have to comment on my small victory this morning: I MADE my own breakfast.  I'll let those words marinate with you for a moment. I MADE breakfast.  I've spent the past decade in NYC and LA. "Getting breakfast" meant opening a menu and having something, ANYTHING (scrambled eggs, light bulbs, toilet paper and a pint of ice cream at 4:17am?? Sure, why not?), delivered at any hour of the day. So basically my culinary skills include: making toast, grilling if it involves a George Foreman, and pressing the numbers on the microwave. I am the anti-Martha Stewart.  Anyway, this morning I made scrambled eggs! Yeah, I realize most 10-year-olds can do this, but everyone has to start somewhere right?? Woo-hoo!! Go me!

Down to business:
   Yesterday I feel I glossed over something that was definitely an "A-Ha! moment" (Oprah-ist for life!) for me and hopefully will be for someone else out there.  My body composition report from Dr. Josh listed my Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR if you want to get fancy (what I burn in a day when I'm doing literally nothing) and my Daily Energy Expenditure, DEE (what I burn when I'm add physical activity to my day).  These numbers for me are: 1463 (BMR) and 1902 (DEE). That means when I'm doing absolutely nothing I burn 1463.  So if I go BELOW that number, my body goes into starvation mode!  Conversely, if I go ABOVE 1902, I'm overfeeding myself.  Dr. Josh says my daily calorie intake should be somewhere in between those two numbers to achieve maximum, long term results.  Now, normally information like this wouldn't stick because there were about three science-y words and like I said.  . . I don't do science.  But this information stuck and I'll tell you why.

 As Dr. Josh was explaining this to me, I thought of all the magazines I'd purchased over the years with celebrities disclosing their "diet secrets".  Just YESTERDAY I bought some magazine with one of those girls from the show, The Hills, talking about how she only eats 900-1000 calories a day. That may work for her (read: she may be cool with starving herself), but that's about 500 calories less than what I NEED per day!!! DING-DING-DING!!!! I just learned something. The calories that people need per day can't be generalized.  Mine were pretty specific and probably different than the number of calories YOU need per day, which is going to be different than the number your cousin or your mom needs per day, and so on. I thought back to ALLLLLL the books and ALLLLLL the magazines I've purchased over the years and tried to add up all the money I've spent on pieces of literature that have given me inaccurate information and therefore doing more harm than good if I followed their suggestions. 

Lets do the math here: 10 years of buying magazines ($3.00 on average), if I bought 1 per month (sometimes more, sometimes less) +  probably 5 diet books (average $20.00 each) over the years = $460!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Incidentally $460 can get you:
- a suite for a one week cruise to the Bahamas 
- not one but TWO Diane von Furstenberg dresses
- 7 pairs of jeans from the GAP
- 18.4 pedicures (almost a years worth) at the place down the street from my house where they give you champagne while you get your feet rubbed.
- a car payment or two
- over a dozen sessions with a personal trainer

Aight (that is slang for "all right" - or so the cool kids tell me), everyone say it with me now . . . DOH!!!

So I guess what I learned, that I'm going to pass on is: Don't believe the hype!! What does "Fad Diet" rhyme with????? BAD DIET!!! Whatever works for Fergie, Beyonce, the cast of the Hills, Kim Kardashian,Valarie Burtonelli ,etc. may not work for you.  I get it now.  Sooooooo glad I went to Dr. Josh.  I feel like I'm finally going to do something that works. And so irritated at the InTouch Weekly sitting on the table.