WEEK 2 -- DAY 11 -- Knowledge Is Power

I tell you that by the time I'm done with all of this, I'll be able to write my own diet book because I'm learning more and more every day. It seems that every single TV show I turn on has a guest talking about diets and all the bad things in the different foods we eat.

Today, on the Rachel Ray Show, she had a guest, Lisa Lillien (aka Hungry girl), who had a display of about five different foods. She was talking about how much sugar was in each one. We all know that "sugar" is the "devil" when it comes to dieting. Some of the things I found out today surprised me. For instance, you know the dried fruit we love to munch on.....well it turns out it's very high in fat and calories. Here you are thinking you can snack on something healthy and it's a very unhealthy snack afterall. How about tonic water......it's loaded with sugar. And Greek yogurt.....very high in fat. And here's the kicker.....when you go to the movies and you order the popcorn and don't even put the butter on it -- it's still 700 calories for a medium popcorn. This really stinks because I'm going to the movies tomorrow and, now that I know it's 700 calories, there's no way I can sit there and eat it.

Before we see the movie tomorrow, we're going to dinner at The Olive Garden. This is the beauty of my "plan". Before, when I was on diets like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and weighing myself every single day, I used to avoid going anywhere because I didn't want to blow my diet. But, the way I'm doing it now, leaves me open to live my life the way I normally would. So to Olive Garden I go. Can't wait.