Sandra Bullock and Tom Cruise steal the show.

Is Lindsay sitting down with Dr. Drew?

What should you be wearing this season? Nude and black, ladies!

What are your cravings trying to tell you?

Ruh roh, Chace Crawford….

Miley didn’t do anything wrong, y’all.

Attempting to lose weight can be seriously stressful when you feel like you have to follow a laundry list of rules—don’t eat after 7 pm, banish white flour, etc., etc.—in addition to hitting the dreaded treadmill and the stinky weight-room. According to Women’s Health magazine, however, it’s possible to shed pounds successfully without listening to every piece of diet advice that gets thrown around (or, you know, printed in Women’s Health).

What are the diet rules you can break?

Eat many small meals a day instead of three big meals:

Many people insist that eating small portions throughout the day instead of stuffing your face with three big meals will lead to weight-loss by revving your metabolism and keeping it going from morning until night. But Women’s Health points out that if you’re eating multiple times a day, you’re running the risk of consuming more calories than you might if you stuck to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack. Instead, make sure that mealtimes are defined by fiber-rich foods and lean proteins (those will fill you up without packing in the calorie), and leave the daylong grazing to the farm animals.

Brown rice and whole wheat breads and pastas are better than their evil white flour twins:

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if your pasta is white as long as you’re consuming the recommended six ounces of carbohydrates each day. Women’s Health says that a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that people on high-carb diets were slimmer than their carb-banning counterparts even when they consumed “bad carbs.” While you should make sure that half of your daily carbohydrate intake comes from whole grains, white bread isn’t going to lead to weight gain any more than whole-wheat bread if you keep your portion sizes small.

Don’t eat after dark:

Women’s Health quotes doctor Ann G. Kulze, who explains that the body handles calories in the same exact way no matter what time they’re consumed. Figure out how many calories you should be consuming each day – this number depends on your age, height and activity level – and stick to it. To make sure that you have enough energy to fuel your daily activities, you should spread out caloric intake throughout the day. But if you eat two cookies at 9 p.m., you’re not going to gain any more weight than you would if you ate them at 6.

Ban desserts:

Putting foods on the do-not-touch list only makes you want them more and can lead to binges. Eating dessert is okay as long as you tweak your diet accordingly, which means eating less for dinner and picking desserts like chocolate-dipped fruit and sorbets instead of ice-cream sundaes. Women’s Health points out that restaurant dessert portions are often ridiculously large and high in calories—an Applebee’s chocolate chip cookie sundae, for example, contains 1,620 calories, more than many people should be consuming all day long! The magazine also suggests re-thinking the traditional idea of dessert when you want to indulge. Your after dinner treat doesn’t need to be chocolate; a craving for something sweet can be met in the form of a yogurt and cereal parfait.

There have been countless instances where I’ve found myself shoveling nachos, ice cream or third helpings of dessert into my mouth. Realizing my own utter gluttony, I’ll drop the spoon or the cheesey chip and think, “What in god’s name am I doing?” Because the truth is I’m not even hungry. I’m bored or annoyed or just craving something that has nothing to do with food.

It took me years to identify any of this as emotional eating. I think because almost all of my girlfriends experienced the exact same thing. We’d even declare Sunday as the “Day of Eating” which made it OK to binge on the “bad stuff,” i.e. s’mores, pizza, bagels with cream cheese, to list a few. And the next day, of course, we’d all be at the gym, furiously working off the excess calories.

Looking back, I see how incredibly unhealthy and unbalanced this was. Yet, so many people turn to food to comfort themselves. In order to forget feelings from sadness, anxiety, loneliness or boredom, they reach for high-calorie, sweet, salty and fatty foods. And usually, they wind up eating way too much, which of course contributes to weight gain and guilt.

The good news is, all of us can regain control of these habits and get back on the healthy path. Read More »

When I Googled “things that are bad for me” and Chicken Pot Pie came up, I was surprised I didn’t eat more of it. I happen to specialize in loving all things bad. I am a bad things virtuoso. I cuss, I eat candy bars for breakfast and I drink more wine than water.

If I thought of Chicken Pot Pie as something harmful, would I crave it every evening? Probably. I look at it as comfort food to eat on winter nights while wearing thick wool socks, something that just fills me up and doesn’t take any serious toll on my health and in turn, I haven’t eaten a Chicken Pot Pie since I was about eight.

When we want what we shouldn’t have, is our want purely psychological because our cravings are forbidden? Just as rules are made to be broken, “bad things” are made to be desired.

For Instance:

Frappucinos– I blame this one on Britney Spears, because anytime she waddled out of a Starbucks her best accessory was her Venti sized Mocha Frappucino (whipped cream included) Why is it bad? 500 calories in a beverage is just too many.

JUNK FOOD– The term junk came around for a reason. Case in point: I spent twenty minutes staring at cookie dough in the grocery store today, simply because I knew I shouldn’t buy a BUCKET of cookie dough because I may have an instant heart attack after I finish the whole thing, uncooked. Or I may get a serious case of salmonella. I’ve never spent 20 minutes staring at grapefruit or kale, because who desires ‘effing KALE? Read More »