Just a teaser tonight.

The topic will be diet and why not to deprive yourself so you can go shopping in Beverly Hills. I don't think Superman was a fool staying away from poisonous kryptonite. We are fools who can't stay away from poisonous foods either by eating them in excess or by eating no-nos for humans.

How many different diets have you heard about even if you are as thin as a rail? The yo-yo, the grapefruit, the vegetarian, the South Florida, the Atkins, waaaaaaaait!

Aretha is singing, "Think!" It is you who needs to make decisions about diet; not diets make decisions for you. I must have gained and lost about a ton during my lifetime. I don't have the resources Oprah does, and I don't think you do, either. However, not all is lost. It's a combo of diet and exercise that does the trick.

When talking exercise, think of kissing goodbye to modern equipment. Take the stairs, walk to the grocer, to the newstand, to the pharmacy. Each step you take is cumulative. At the end of the day you may have burned 800 calories, enough to eat some icecream.

Eat slowly, don't read or watch TV when you eat. If you do other things while eating you don't register the intake, psychologically. Eat at fixed times, sit down, make a plate in a bigger plate, don't pile up more food than reasonable.

What are reasonable foods? Did I say please become a goat named Sylvia? No, that is Albee's play. Eat vegetables you like, and remember potatoes and ketchup are vegetables for school programs, and even that has been changed. Just tasty vegetables, seasoned with mustard, garlic or onions, a tiny little bit of olive oil. When you make your salad, be creative, toss in some nuts and dried cranberries.

The name of the game is be creative, be active, be frugal. Make a commitment to keeping a food diary, to maybe joining WW, having a nurse from your health insurance follow your progress. Don't go for the "I got to loose 50 lbs." attitude. Go slowly but surely, easy does it, like a Harlem shuffle. Before you know it, not you but others will ask you if you're losing weight. Just shrug your shoulders, as you have shrug away the black outfits, and murmur, "Gee, I don't know"