I’ve kind of been a yo-yo dieter for the past, I don’t know, 10 years. Half the time I’m following a strict diet, and half the time I’m, well, not. But no matter how much I’ve dieted or not dieted, I’ve stayed pretty close to the same size (give or take 5 pounds) since high school. I’m not really a crazy dieter… I actually prefer to work out if I’m feeling like I need to lose a couple pounds… but I will admit that I have tried several different fad diets over the years including but not limited to the Slimfast plan, the Special K diet, the liquid diet (which didn’t last much longer than a day)… I’ve completely eliminated any sugary foods/desserts for a period of time, I’ve tried counting calories and not eating anything after 6 pm, given up soda, given up coffee, and I’ve tried the whole 6 small meals a day plan. Anyway, none of these plans/diets have ever lasted for more than a month or two at most. The most unique diet I have ever tried was one that I came up with myself during my freshman year of college… I called it the ‘S’ diet. Why? Because I only allowed myself to eat foods that began with an S… soups, salads, sandwiches, subs, sushi, stir-fry, salmon… you get the picture. It sounds really ridiculous and I realize that. But it was actually a fairly easy diet to follow because I had a meal plan at my dorm and the main cafeteria I went to served most of those things. There was a sub stand, a create-your-own stir-fry bar, freshly prepared sushi, soup, salads, and the grill made grilled chicken sandwiches as an alternative to burgers. There are a lot of other foods that start with S too… slurpees, steak, sorbet, sweet-and-sour chicken, shrimp, salsa and chips (notice the word flipage), strawberries, etc. I’m not going to lie… I still think it was a pretty good idea. The majority of those foods are pretty healthy and the diet also keeps you from eating junk food with the simple reason of “it doesn’t start with S.” I know, you can say it, I’m brilliant.

But I am clearly not following the ‘S’ diet these days… there are 25 other letters that were feeling left out. Especially ‘C’. I really like chocolate.