Do it or Diet?

In the last few weeks I have had quite a few people ask me how my "diet" is going.  I smile and answer, but inside I want to cringe.  The word diet is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me!

Let's just break it down.  Diet.  Does that mean that you will die if you try it?  That's what it sounds like, doesn't it?  And who's stupid idea was it to give the endeavor such a negative name anyway.  Hey!  I want to try something that begins with the word DIE!  Sign me up!!  

Let's start with Dictionary.com and see what they have to say about the word:

noun

1.

food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health: Milk is a wholesome article of diet.

2.

a particular selection of food, esp. as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.

3.

such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight: No pie for me, I'm on a diet.

4.

the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.

5.

food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.

6.

anything that is habitually provided or partaken of: Television has given us a steady diet of game shows and soap operas.

Okay, see, here we go again. . . you can't have that.  That food is bad.  Food is not good or bad.  Food is food.  It is the connections that WE put on it that make it good or bad.

Let's try another word.  I like lifestyle.  What does Mr. Dictionary.com have to say about that?

ifestyle  (ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl)
— n
1.	a set of attitudes, habits, or possessions associated with a particular person or group
2.	such attitudes, etc, regarded as fashionable or desirable
3.	( NZ )
	a. a luxurious semirural manner of living
	b. ( as modifier ): a lifestyle property

By reading those two definitions, I would much rather be on a lifestyle plan than a diet.  Wouldn't you?

People are making billions of dollars off that one stupid word ~ Diet.  That word is being used like a weapon to make all of us feel bad about ourselves and what we eat.  In order to "fix" the problem, we are offered all sorts of plans, pills and now even surgeries gaurenteed to cure us.  

I'm confused.  Is Diet a condition or a disease?   I think it is a word that should be struck from the language and never be allowed back in. 

I'm on a new lifestyle plan.  My plan is taking me on all sorts of new adventures?  Hop on the train and come along.!

We are leaving the Diets in the dust!!