My mother has always carried this joke when people proclaim they are on a special weight loss diet. She says, " Her diet is an all sea food diet, everything she sees she eats." But that's not exactly true; my mother has Multiple Sclerosis and the only food she eats is what my father brings to her.

Lately he's been worried about her weight. Not that she's over weight but that she's five foot eight and has no muscle function. One hundred and forty pounds of anything can be of great concern when you have to carry it at 75 years of age. They both laugh when dad says he's cutting her back but his idea of how to lose weight is probably the best you're gonna find.

I "Googled" diets to see what was popular these days and found an exuberant understanding of how to go about losing those extra pounds a person puts on almost always voluntarily.

I found E-Diet with robust lasagna, orange chipotle chicken and spinach salad with hot dripping bacon dressing for sale. There was even a refrigerator on the home page filled with goodies you could buy. I guess that way you never have to take the power in your own hands and let other people tell you how to live.

The most unsurprising part of this page was the before and after shots. Women who had lost from 120 to 10 pounds were featured as winners of E-Diet success. But I have a feeling that many of those same people have to come back to E-Diet or revert to their lives of guilt and abstaining.

Although E-Diet didn't seem like an answer for me, my interest continued when I saw a contest to win a new refrigerator. The one that came with my house was made for a family of elves in sub-zero weather. E-diets pulled me in but behind the curtain wasn't an entry form for the refrigerator. Instead they put me in line to find out how much weight I wanted to lose and in how many days.

They also asked " What event do you want to lose weight for: wedding, vacation, back to school, new job or dating." What? Those events are for shoping and a lot more fun. Losing weight for an event is doom to fail, the closer you get to the date the more anxious you become because yesterday was a "I haven't eaten for a week day" and now well you know how it goes. Even if you're one to stick to your plan, the weight is guaranteed to return as easily as junk mail.

If there's one thing all diets have in common is that they don't fit right. Healthy people are designed to enjoy the diversity of all food groups including brownies. What we've all missed at least since I was placed on a diet in first grade is that food is to help you function not for food gorging functions as in the upcoming barbeque picnics.

So, I forgot about the refridgerator and went to pick up my daughter at school. I must have hit the bell just right because all the kids from first to fifth grades were pushing through the narrow gates on their way home. Not surprising for a school. What I didn't realize was that the proportion of the epidemic in obesity among children had hit Camarillo. Unlike my days in the '60's, I found the majority of kids in baggy clothes holding much more weight than my childhood school mates.

I'm sure there are several university studies going on right now trying to find the big A. But people don't have to spend any money to find the answer to obesity from over eating. Most all obesity happens when we eat more than we need. I know five is a better number than two, and so what if I can't bend my chins to button my shirt. Yet if it makes you feel bad about yourself and it hurts your health don't you think making choices that would help you feel better about yourself at all times would fit better?

Listen, I'm sure there are many of you out there giving me the good old "Yeah But." Yet I am one of those people who have searched and successfully found the answer at absolutely no cost. I didn't grow up thin. It has nothing to do with your genes and everything to do with how you think of yourself.

Treat your body well ( No thunder thigh jokes) talk about yourself in the postive alone and with people, give yourself diversity, and plain old.... moderation. In return your body will give you the body you what for life.