I’m oh-so-fickle when it comes to diets.  I’ll vascillate from one to another, never finding one that truly satisfies me long-term.  One of my biggest problems with dieting is that I have a raging sweet tooth.  I have a hard time eating foods in strictly measured amounts – for instance, if a two-inch square of cake equals x number of points – I’ll readily cheat by telling myself, “Oh, a three-inch square isn’t that much bigger, so it won’t really matter.”  That type of thinking invariably leads me to failure.  On the other hand, I can’t stay with diets that are TOO strict, such as the ones that require you to eat carrot sticks at 2 PM and radishes at 4 PM, or whatever. 

Several years ago, I learned of a diet called the 3-Apple-A-Day Plan while shopping for apples at Sam’s Club in Parkersburg, West Virginia.  Sam’s sells everything in large quantities, and nearly every 10-pound bag of apples in their produce section had a sticker that advertised the 3-Apple-A-Day Plan.  My curiosity was piqued, so when I got home, I did some research about the Plan on the Internet.  

I learned that Tammi Flynn is the nutrition director at Gold’s Gym in Wenatchee, Washington, and in a nutshell, she discovered that clients who ate an apple before every meal were shedding pounds like crazy.  Some people lost as much as 30 pounds in three months.  Well, I like apples, and I wanted to have results like that, so I bought Ms. Flynn’s bookat our local Wal-Mart.

Being the flake that I am, however, I followed the plan for a day or two, then promptly regressed into my old (bad) habits.  The 3-Apple-A-Day Plan ended up in my stack of unread books, and when I was downsizing last year, I even tried to sell it at the V-100 yard sale in Charleston.  Fortunately, the book didn’t have any takers and it ended up coming back home with me.  I decided to just hang onto it for awhile.   

The book surfaced again recently, so I decided to give the plan a more serious try.  Last Thursday, I followed the 1800 calorie meal plan from the book.  I wasn’t hungry all day, so yesterday I figured I could go with even less calories and I used the 1500 calorie plan, but I cheated last night and impulsively ate a Kashi oatmeal raisin cookie for an additional 130-or-so calories.  I really could have done without the cookie, though, since the apples seem to be curbing my cravings for sweets for the most part. 

My apple of choice is the Pink Lady, because it’s so crisp and tangy-sweet.  My second favorite is the Granny Smith, with Gala running a close third.  I must confess that I have a strange quirk about apples, though — I don’t like to eat them whole, out of hand.  I always feel like the apple is all over my face once I’ve finished eating it.  So, I always slice them up.  

At any rate, I hope I can stick with this diet for awhile and make it work.