's Message for Friday Jan 11, 2008

[Guest guest]

's Daily Message FridayJanuary 11, 2008THE DINNER BELL!

When I was growing up, I couldn`t wait for the clock to strike 6PM. It`s almost as if a little dinner bell rang inside my head. At 6PM, Leonard, Shirley, Lenny and I would head for the dinner table, say grace and get ready to chow down!

And oh, you had to have a good excuse to not be there for dinner at 6. The only excuse acceptable to my father for missing dinner was death! He'd say, I`ll know that you`re dead when you`re not here to eat dinner promptly at 6:00!

(I think my father saw too many Boris Karloff movies!)

Things are so different in our modern society. Most families don`t meet at the dinner table at 6:00, say grace and chow down. Everyone is just too busy these days.

Big Brother has to go to soccer practice. Little Sis has dance lessons. Mom or Dad works a second or even third job...you get the picture. Everyone just has too many things to do. So who has time to sit down as a family and have a good, healthy meal together?

Many times, whoever cooks the family meal may even have to cook different meals for different members of the family. It`s all so confusing! The whole family becomes like "grabbers." They grab food here, they grab food there, just when and where ever they can squeeze in time to eat. And, depending on their schedules, many of the family members end up eating too late in the day.

Now, if you want to lose weight, this kind of "dining" ritual has to be fixed. You have to really start working on what you eat and on what time you eat, too. You know that if you eat late at night, say 8:30, 9:30 or even 10PM, the food you`ve eaten just sits like a big lump in your stomach as you sleep. Your body is busy trying to digest food while it`s also trying to give you some needed rest. Your body doesn`t like that!

So I`ve got one more thing for you to add to your list of New Year`s resolutions. No more eating late! Hey, you know your fate if you eat late! You have to stop worrying so much about what everyone else is eating. You`ve got to make time to plan your meals and make sure they are healthy meals, too.

When I was in New York, every night, I`d have a healthy salad for dinner. My salads consisted of romaine and butter lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and a chicken breast, grilled and cubed. I`d add oil and red wine vinegar, fresh ground pepper and enjoy it with an assortment of whole-grain crackers. I have to tell you, those salads were lifesavers for me. And because I ate light and early, I would wake up the next morning with a tremendous amount of energy. One day, I thought I was just going to fly up Fifth Avenue!

I`ve always sung the praises of salads. I`ve always told you their healthy benefits. If you want to lose a pound or pound-and-a-half a week, then it`s salads you should seek! And it only takes 10-15 minutes to chop, slice and toss a healthy salad together.

There`s the dinner bell! So enjoy a salad on this fine day and watch your weight...whittle away!

Love,