Lose 50 pounds - but not the popcorn

Thursday 18, Jun 2009 - My mother awoke recently thinking a bear had broken into her house. Pantry doors were slamming. She swore she heard a growl.

No need to call animal control. It was my father. He's a night eater. We all have our sweet or salty vices, and his is the late-night snack. It's his key diet weakness, preventing him from losing the weight that showed up when my sisters and I were born - no matter how many diets he tries. An exercise fanatic, he actually kind of looks like a bear: barrel-chested with powerful arms . . . except for the gut. My grandfather is the same way: a one-time karate instructor and retired minister who frequents the gym even at 86, yet still watches his eating carefully. Being the next in line, I inherited this lot.

My Achilles' heel? Movie theater popcorn. Living in Davis Square, the scent of buttery kernels wafting from the theater may as well be a siren's song. The problem with these cravings is that you attempt to get rid of them from your life entirely, swapping all the "bad" foods for their "good" alternatives. Soon, nothing tastes good anymore and you invariably fall off the wagon.

After I graduated from college and settled into the role of online producer at Boston.com, the work week got the best of me. Sitting on my duff eight hours a day staring at a computer (and working on the food section, no less) contributed to a quick 40 pounds. Playing in a band, Cassavettes, didn't help. Sometimes the only pay musicians get is a bucket of Budweisers. I'm 23 years old, just a hair over 6 feet 1, and I've never been much of a cook. In fact, I've always been anti-diet, having watched numerous family members try and fail at every weight-loss fad.

But when my own weight ballooned to over 220 pounds last summer, and my health was affected, I knew something had to give. After overseeing an online chat with the authors of "Eat This, Not That," a book about making smarter food choices, I decided to follow that logic. I embellished parts and added my own rules where I saw fit. Still, I didn't imagine losing 50 pounds in six months.

As I set out to drop the weight, I identified certain foods as perhaps unhealthy, but nonnegotiable. After all, if I'm switching breads from white to high-fiber whole-wheat, and cereals from Frosted Flakes to Cheerios, surely I can allow for real mayo on that sandwich or an occasional bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar to break up the breakfast monotony. And I didn't consider getting rid of popcorn - I still made room for that once a week with no major changes.

Source:http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/06/17/