A Random List of Diet Advice

Over the years, I've visited a small boatload of nutritionists in a quest to slim down. My physicians have also pitched in with their insights and hints [once, even the doctor who did my colonoscopy]. It's half common sense, half folklore, but you want to believe it--just as when I was a teen, I believed when Donna said to sleep with your bra on and my friend Linda said to spray perfume not just on your neck but in your hair, too. Every now and then, I shake my palm and see the nutritionists' wisdom, like well-worn river stones. Their advice was plainly put. Here goes:

• It's much easier to gain weight when you're pregnant than it is to take it off later. Said my male ob/gyn in downtown NYC. I do wish I'd listened more closely.
• You will eat a handful of nuts every day. Almonds or walnuts, said the kind female doctor in Montclair, when I went for a physical and told her I was trying to lose weight. She was sweet, and said it with a smile. I got a jar of nuts on my way home.
• Have hot cereal for breakfast.  Words from a registered dietitian who met me at her dining room table in suburbia. The idea was to fill up on grains early in the day.
• Put skim milk in your iced coffee, with just a splash of half and half. From the pretty blonde in pumps and nice outfits whose office was across from Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue.
• Take the stairs. That from the graying doctor who did my colonoscopy, over near Central Park. I promise you, if you take the stairs instead of the elevator, you will lose weight.
• Wear sneakers. See what we're wearing? said my favorite doctor, nodding toward his and his nurse's sneaks. Yes, yes, I see. And when I brought him my best dark-chocolate dipped biscotti in a jar one December, he said, I loved them, but you could have brought me a jar of celery sticks and I'd be happy, too. That doctor has such a good heart, I mean it.

Off to my next task, and then good night.

TCOY

1. Oatmeal with apple for breakfast. Turkey and Swiss in hand for midday hunger. Part of a farm carrot. Planned what I ate and ate what I planned, for the most part. This weather makes me want to hibernate and lay on butter, but I made good choices.