by Janice Turner, Toronto Star, May 11, 1993

For decades weight loss and thinness have been hailed as laudable and noble goals.

It's time, says Linda Omichinski, author of You Count, Calories Don't (Hyperion Press/Tamos Books $19.95), to replace those outdated goals with new and more rewarding ones.

"People have to learn to stop punishing themselves," says the 38 year old registered dietitian from Portage La Prairie, Man. "It's not that they have failed, it's their diets that have failed them. The focus of their lives should not be to lose weight but on better health."

Society also has to start changing its attitude toward large people, she says, emphasizing that people can be both large and healthy.

Omichinski speaks in Toronto this Thursday at a public forum on the myths of dieting at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute's lecture theater at 350 Victoria St. at 7:30 p.m. (for information call 979-5135).

Her message: accept the body you're in, make the best of it and get on with your life.

The realization that most diets don't work finally seems to be sinking in. More than 90% of dieters who lose weight, eventually regain the weight they lost - and more - within 2 to 5 years.

Diets can actually make people heavier. Fat becomes increasingly harder to lose and easier to gain as the body responds to repeated cycles of starving and stuffing.

More important than what people weigh, Omichinski notes, is where they carry their weight. Fat concentrated in the stomach puts people at a higher risk for heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

People have to stop believing that they need a "diet" - a program - a set of guidelines, calorie charts and scales - to feel "in control," Omichinski says.

They have to learn to get hooked on a new lifestyle in which they have more energy and interest in taking care of themselves. They have to learn to feel good about who they are.

Diets and scales trap people in restrictive eating and exercise patterns. Focus on weight loss as a measure of success causes people to become preoccupied with food and food avoidance.

Omichinski says that instead of asking ourselves should we eat something or do we need it, the more appropriate question is, do we want it? The healthy eater decides when and what to eat according to how physically hungry he or she is.

The healthy eater is flexible, not fearful and rigid.

"People are at the stage where they're ready to stop dieting, but they don't know how," she says. "They think it's normal, it's a part of life. They've forgotten how to like themselves."

To get off the diet roller coaster people have to "throw away the diet sheets, throw away the scales." They have to start taking responsibility for their own health, rather than relying on a prescribed sheet of do's and don'ts. They have to tune into themselves and learn how to think as they did as children; to think as the non-dieter.

"I tell people to get rid of their 'thin clothes' and go out and buy something that looks good on them right now, that fits and makes them feel good about themselves," Omichinski says.

They have to start focusing on retraining their taste buds so they develop a preference for healthy foods, and eat because they want to and without feeling guilty about it, she says.

The trouble with repeated dieting, she points out, is that it robs people of the confidence to make suitable and sensible choices. They no longer trust themselves.

What can anti-dieters look forward to? Not feeling deprived, feeling proud, confident and in control; being undistracted, having time and energy to spare.

Sound appealing? Omichinski says keep in mind that developing a healthy lifestyle takes time. The good news is that just deciding to do away with dieting can be liberating.

Some dieting do's and don'ts -- doing what comes naturally

According to Linda Omichinski, author of You Count, Calories Don't, you are working against your body when you:

• Ignore your actual hunger signals and undereat at the expense of health.
• Overeat to find emotional satisfaction from food rather than from other areas of your life.
• Undereat to try to change you body shape to what you feel is accepted by society.
• Overeat because you are not paying sufficient attention to your food to derive both physical and psychological satisfaction from it

Instead you should:

• Eat regularly, every 3 to 6 hours, when you are physically hungry.
• Eat only until you are satisfied. Tune in to feelings of hunger and fullness.
• Allow yourself to be more relaxed when eating. Not feeling guilty allows you to get more enjoyment from eating.
• Pause before and during eating. Ask yourself if you are really hungry: If you are full, there's nothing wrong with leaving food on your plate.