I think Patty Limerick’s “pedestrian diet and exercise plan” makes a lot of sense. In short, it’s got two parts: “Part One: Walk as much as you can. Part Two: Eat all the time. Never go hungry on the Pedestrian Diet.”
Never go hungry. Eat whenever the impulse strikes. Eat everything you can find in the way of apples, bananas, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, pineapple, and I have probably left out several fun and appealing fruits. Reduce the obstacles presented by the seeming hassle of preparation: every day or two, put ten minutes into cutting apples in quarters, washing grapes and strawberries, etc., and storing them in the refrigerator for easy access, so that not a second will pass between feeling hungry–and eating! Nothing can count as “forbidden fruit” on the Limerick Pedestrian Diet. On the contrary, as you settle into these new habits, fruit will become more and more astonishing in its power to knock your taste buds for a loop, almost overpowering the unleashing of endorphins as a good time.
Same for vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, or zucchini with feta cheese can taste like a gourmet meal. Eat enough salads well-stocked with cucumbers, celery, bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms, lettuce, and arrgula, and you are well-installed on the high-ground. Thus you are free to indulge in any salad supplement like olives, avocado, artichoke hearts, anchovies, smoked salmon, slices of roast turkey or beef. You do not, in other words, have to become a vegetarian (although it is always an interesting fact to contemplate, that it takes seven pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat). Perhaps most important, do not hold back on the salad dressing. Dump it on. Do not ask for the dressing to be brought on the side, and do not dribble out a drop or two on an otherwise graceless salad. Once again, dump it on. If you are eating a salad, you have made the fundamental commitment to eating a plate filled with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, carrots, etc. (really, when you think about the make-up of these items, you are lunching on a big bowl of water with a little fiber thrown in), and no one (not even you yourself) has any right to punish you by withholding the salad dressing.