Some day my prince will come.....

 Do you want to know how to waste your money, shred your self-esteem and make big business more profitable?

The answer?  Go on a weight loss regime - or diet as it is more commonly called.  Firstly, spend a fortune on products from the likes of  Jenny Craig.  These companies are, in turn, owned by huge food conglomerates.  These big businesses make money out of repeat business.  You get the logic.  Psychologically you are setting yourself an impossible task and are doomed to failure - that should help your stress levels.  Oh yes, the big business stuff - why don't you try again and again and again for the whole of your life, buying in to the latest fad of weight loss and spending thousands of pounds over a lifetime, buying in to an impossible dream.

Or you could read carry on watching Cinderella and believe that she and Prince Charming lived happily ever after and never got cross about dirty socks being left on the floor, or the loo seat being left up or his snoring, or her snoring or any of those other minor irritations that ruin the fairytale.

Here's why you shouldn't bother with dieting.  I love this post and have to reblog most of it - my comments are in red.

1. As weight loss programs, diets don't work! Yes, you lose weight, but about 95% of people who lose weight by dieting will regain it in 1-5 years. Since dieting, by definition, is a temporary food plan, it won't work in the long run. Moreover, the deprivation of restrictive diets may lead to a diet-overeat or diet-binge cycle. And since your body doesn't want you to starve, it responds to overly-restrictive diets by slowing your metabolism which of course makes it harder to lose weight. 

Is there no solution then to obesity and eating disorders? Actually there is. We should eat in a way to convince our bodies that they no longer, and will never again, live with famine. That means never go on a reduced calorie diet. Most people should eat more frequent, smaller meals beginning with breakfast. We should eat a diet closer to the one humans evolved with. There are no naturally occurring sweet fats or processed carbohydrates and our bodies don’t regulate as well with them. Follow Michelle Obama’s advice to substitute water for soft drinks, and increase fruits and vegetables. It is easier to do if you stop dieting. Find some physical activities you enjoy and make time for them. And then pray for the grace to accept the body you have. (Shan Guisinger)

2. Fad diets can be harmful. They may lack essential nutrients, for example. Moreover, they teach you nothing about healthy eating. Thus, when you've "completed" your fad diet, you simply boomerang back to the unhealthy eating patterns that caused your weight gain in the first place! This is the beginning of "yo-yo dieting," which can bring its own health problems in its wake.

Last month, The Journal of Adolescent Health reported results from a 10-year study that indicates teenagers who engage in extended cycles of yo-yo dieting end up increasing their body mass index years later: “Specific weight control behaviors used during adolescence that predicted large increases in BMI at 10-year follow-up included skipping meals and reporting eating very little (females and males), use of food substitutes (males), and use of diet pills (females).”

3. Overly restrictive diets can take all the pleasure out of eating! There's no reason to be a sacrificial lamb, so to speak, to lose weight.

 A report in the August issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism might help to explain why it's so frustratingly difficult to stick to a diet. When we don't eat, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves. That act of self-cannibalism turns up a hunger signal to prompt eating.

4. Dieting, along with the frequent and compulsive weighing that accompanies it, can lead to eating disorders. According to one source, people who diet are 8 times as likely to develop an eating disorder as people who don't.

I think the odds of 8 times more like to develop the most lethal psychiatric disorder there is should give some pause for thought.....

5. Unscrupulous people can peddle "magic weight-loss potions," such as "special" powders and pills, to desperate people, costing them their money and time at best, and fatal health consequences at worse (think "fen-phen," the diet drug that caused often fatal heart valve problems). And have you ever noticed that every diet product claims it will be wondrously effective "if used simultaneously with a healthy diet and regular exercise program?" Skip the magic potions--it's the healthy eating and exercise that are actually the effective ingredients.

As fat blockers like orlistat (Xenical) remove excess fats via the intestines, they may cause uncomfortable cramping, gas and diarrhea. Because these drugs also reduce the body's absorption of essential vitaminsand nutrients, people who take Xenical are advised to take a daily multivitamin supplement.

Sibutramine (Meridia) and other similar appetite suppressants stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, which can raise blood pressure and heart rate. This increases the risk of heart attack and cardiac arrest, especially among people who already suffer from high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat or heart disease. In fact, between February 1998 and March 2003, the FDA received reports of 49 deaths related to sibutramine. Other, more minor side effects include constipation, headache, dry mouth and insomnia (because the chemicals in these drugs also influence sleep patterns).

Herbal diet pills, even though they're "all natural," can have potentially dangerous side effects depending upon their ingredients. "Herbal" doesn't necessarily mean "safe." Also, because they are considered part of the food industry and are therefore regulated differently by the FDA, there is no guarantee that they can live up to their manufacturers' claims.