The Taco Bell Diet and Facebook

Maybe I am the only one who is a little skeptical about this (I doubt it), but ... is theTaco Bell Drive Thru Diet for real? I was eavesdropping in public the other day (haha) and I heard someone talking about it. I remembered seeing a few commercials advertising it back in January, but I tried to forget about it because it was so laughable to me. I did just google it though to make sure I wasn't making this up (and I'm not!). But it is very reminiscent of the whole Subway diet craze that was big awhile back when Jared, the Subway guy, lost a bunch of weight after eating all of his meals at Subway. It's always so interesting to see what the latest fad diet is because there is always a new one, and it always promises drastic results, and fast! It seems like we should all know by now that typically anything that requires little effort and big change equals major scam. These fad diets are silly. Why?? Because diets don't work!! Do you think it's a coincidence that there is an asterisk at the bottom of Taco Bell's website that says 'results not typical' ?? I hope you all aren't getting tired of reading about the myths of dieting, but I like to re-post on dieting about once a month, because I feel that strongly about this subject. And I think that the diet mentality is so pervasive in our culture that it is good to be reminded about the false promises that diets offer. Anyways, all that to say, diets do NOT work! Follow this link to read more on why they don't and how the diet mentality can keep us from moving forward.

On a completely unrelated note, I wanted to propose a challenge to any of you reading this who are currently active on facebook or other social networking sites. One thing I have been noticing, especially since the beginning of the New Year, is that there have been a lot of statuses/updates involving fat talk, calorie counts, reports on workouts and how many calories you burned yesterday or want to burn tomorrow, dieting reports, what you shouldn't have eaten or what you wish you could eat, etc. Please know that I am not judging and my heart about this is not one of judgment. Really! But I started thinking that maybe by decreasing some of this, we can help ourselves and each other focus on things that are more productive and that deserve our time and attention more than these things do. It is good to be healthy!!, but our health is more of a personal thing that does not necessarily need to be shared with all of our facebook friends. And some of our thoughts about food, exercise, etc, may not be healthy; our choices about food and exercise are personal ones, and by sharing calories, diet reports, etc, you may be triggering other people to think unhealthily about themselves.

One of my all time favorite quotes is something that Cynthia Bulik said in reference to the time we give to thinking about food, weight, dieting, calories, etc. She said, "Imagine what women could accomplish if they spent that time and energy on things other than body issues." When put like that, it is so encouraging to think about all of the things that we can do instead and the difference that we can make not just in our own lives but in the lives of others!! So if there is one thing you can do today, just think twice before you post a status on facebook or before you tweet about your bad body image, or how tight your jeans are, or how many calories you burned at the gym, or how you ate too much tonight, etc. I would imagine that if we all try this, we might be surprised at the positive effect it could have on how we feel about ourselves and others!