Winsome Wisdom – Welcome to 2018

As promised in last month's WW, the answers to the Christmas Quiz can be found at the following link: Christmas Quiz.

But on to different matters in the future. Such as the traditional New Year's resolutions.The month of January is little more than half behind us, and I suspect by now many New Year’s resolutions may be in the early stages of abandonment. According to several polls, the most popular of these is losing those pounds picked up during the "eat-and-greet" holiday season. The inevitable result is rooted in the theories of Adam Smith: where there is a demand, there will be chocolate and eggnog.

 

This is the time of year when the airwaves, periodicals, blogs, and the ever popular social media are saturated with messages touting the can't-fail pathway to losing weight and keeping it off for good. Wannabe actors posing as ordinary people strike a pose with Cheshire cat grins in front of "before" pictures displaying their newly acquired bodies and promising that "you too can look like me."

 

The list of these "last-weight-loss-program-you-will-ever-need" offerings would rival a list of all the Irish names in the Boston phone book. Throughout many decades they appear and reappear: Nordictrack, Abdomenizer, South Beach, Atkins, Grapefruit, Nutrisystem .... recognize any of these? When it comes to weight loss programs, some work, some are fakes, and some are downright dangerous. But of this you can be sure: there is no shortcut nor easy path to shedding that excess adipose tissue that always settles in the worst possible places. 

 

For those of you who still aspire to a more healthy and youthful state, the Forbes article entitled Ten Diets That Work may be helpful.

Whatever your choice, I wish you good luck. But let’s face the facts! If losing weight was as easy as those commercials make it sound, those commercials would have ceased to exist long ago.

 

Happy New Year.... and bon appetit!