Your Final Diet! Lose Weight with "Healthy Junk Foods"

by Jim Evans

"This is fabulous!"

— Hillary Rodham Clinton

Rejoice, chocolate-lovers! According to Dr. Abby Aronowitz you can actually lose weight by eating "healthy junk foods" — even chocolate — for your New Year’s resolution! Aronowitz’s new book Your Final Diet is hot off the press and will be available at bookstores (including Amazon.com) across the country in the coming weeks.

Dr. Aronowitz, who holds two masters degreees and a Ph.D from Columbia, has "created a system for sustaining optimal body weight and life-long freedom from dieting." She has been a consultant to Weight Watchers International and is a member of the American Psychological Association and Mensa.

Her book is targeted to women and teenage girls in this country who are faced with societal pressure to be "unrealistically thin" says Aronowitz. "It is important to begin changing the cultural thin ideal which creates a sense of personal inferiority upon which the billon-dollar diet industry thrives," she says. Readers will learn how to:

• Manage sugar, carbs, and fats instead of bingeing or depriving.

• Personalize their food plans.

• Reinvent sexuality — "thin" does not equal sexy!

• Become good role models for children with food and body image.

• Overcome pressure to be unrealistically thin.

"Powerful and influential research ("Com-fort Foods Switch Off Stress, Scientists Find," NY Times, September 16, 2003) recently found that sugar and fat relieve chronic stress on a biological level. Chocolate cake and ice cream simply shut down the stress system, bringing relief and relaxation. Therefore, we must learn how to manage the foods we crave instead of overindulging or depriving ourselves."

Aronowitz has integrated the two basic diet philosophies of either eliminating certain food groups (most commonly carbohydrates, fats, or sugars) or eating whatever you want — as much as you want — until you get sick of it into a personalized plan for each individual to find his/her ideal weight and then promoting the proper management of food intake to maintain that weight.

"Our culture discriminates against fat people," says Aronowitz in one of her chapters ("Get Real, Dr. Phil"), "and the public and the private shame they face every day is being acted out on the Dr. Phil Show. He’s so busy trying to psychologize that he completely missed the most important point. People fail at their diets because they get bored! Humans crave stimulation and variety for biological and psychological reasons," yet Dr. Phil’s program "is a carbon copy of any traditional diet which works temporarily to knock off a few pounds. After a period of time people sabotage their own progress since it is impossible to tolerate such intense denial. People need healthy junk foods that can be programmed into their daily lives."

The key to successful weight loss, according to Aronowitz, is managing calories — regardless of the source of those calories — so that nutritional concerns are balanced with taste. Dr. Aronowitz asks readers to "imagine life without obsessions about fat and body image." While her method of losing weight might seem contrary to so-called "traditional" diets, it also makes sense.

"Let’s finally become our personal best," says Dr. Aronowitz, "and stay there!" (www.yourfinaldiet.com)