Cheese puffs out! Pirate's Booty in!

Before I would buy a piece of clothing for my kids I would ask them: "Do you love this (fill in the blank)?" If they said "yes," we took it home. If they hesitated for even an instant, it stayed in the store.

Yesterday, I was thinking about why I love The Food Lovers system of eating so much, and that flashback popped into my mind. If my kids loved their clothes, they would wear them.

The Food Lovers system is based on the premise that you eat only the foods you love. Period. Do not waste calories on food that is unappealing or not satisfying. The key to eating is portion control, and once you understand that, everything else falls into place.

I have to admit that the past few weeks have been a real eye opener for me. I can eat everything in the store, as long as the food does not contain what Food Lovers calls the dirty dozen (primarily sugars that fill our processed foods) in the first four ingredients. But for every food in the store that is made up of one or more of the dirty dozen, there is a healthy substitute waiting to be tried.

And I've found some foods I really love. Like Pirate's Booty, the healthy alternative to cheese puffs. First, it doesn't turn your fingers and teeth orange, a very good thing for adults. And Pirate's Booty tastes terrific.

I've become a shopping detective, searching for new and interesting foods, and then reading labels to see how healthy they really are. I've also been reading the labels on some of our mainstays, and was amazed by the amount of junk so many of them contain.

But the most amazing thing of all: In the past two weeks, I can honestly say there was not one food that passed my lips that I didn't love. As for my weight: I cannot weigh myself until a week from today, but I can tell I have dropped a few pounds. I already feel it in my clothes. Wow! I feel so normal.