I’m so glad to have proof that you’re all reading! Monday’s piece brought a fair bit of disagreement – enough so that I want to be clear about my stance:
Drinking Coca-Cola is bad for you, as the NYT reminds us. It’s full of stuff that just does not do a body good. I don’t recommend it. Eating ice-cream in excess (or at all, for me) is bad for you. It’ll send you to the endocrinologist or the cardiologist eventually.
Working out is good for you. You should do it.
What I do not believe you should do is put yourself in a position to fail. I do not believe you should “go on a diet,” because I think that implies that at some point you will go off that diet. I do not believe you should deny yourself something that will cause you to get off track.
If having a bottle of Coke every few days keeps you from the constant distraction of wanting a bottle of Coke … you should drink the damn thing. If a small bowl of ice-cream a couple of times a week helps you stay on track otherwise, eat the ice cream. This is not license to drink a six-pack of Coke or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s every day. It’s advice to do what you need to do to keep your habits on the straight and narrow. Mostly.
If you have to force yourself to go to the gym several times a week, if working out is always a chore that makes you resent the whole plan … you’re engaging in counter-productive behavior that is not going to be helpful to you in the long run. If you really are forcing yourself to do it, always, you’re going to just stop at some point, and that’s not good.
Exercise in ways that work for your body and your mind. Frankly, if you’re a guy carrying 75 extra pounds everywhere you go, the regimen that works for the dude on the cover of Men’s Health is not likely to work for you. That guy’s regimen is clearly perfect for him … but it’s probably going to push you over the edge in a couple of months. And then you’ll head right back to you original habits.
Again, I do want you to exercise. I do want you to eat well and consume real food. I just want you to do it in such a way that you will be able to stay with. I want you to change your life for the rest of your life, not for a few weeks.
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Thanks for reading – don’t be shy about forwarding!
Skipping Dessert 
Posted by Amy on January 23, 2013 at 8:50 pm
I do agree with this more. I still think Coca-Cola is Satan. I probably let that color my reaction to any statement made about its nutritional benefits. I mean, I totally agree that having some ice cream every once in a while isn’t gonna kill you. But ice cream doesn’t PRETEND to be OK. Coke’s all, like, “enjoy me with every meal! I’m America!”
I guess this is the difference in how I interpret dirty ice cream-making hippies from Vermont versus Atlanta Suits.
Swines.
Posted by Stefanie on January 23, 2013 at 10:20 pm
If you are going to have that coke (as I do once or twice a year) make it a mexican coke – no high fructose corn syrup, just pure cane sugar like Candler intended