To put this piece in context my Pilates affiliation is with the PhysicalMind Institute and I am proud to say that I was a founding member of the organization that started it all back in 1991. I struggle with weight and food and have spent a lot of time looking for a diet that would allow to me to eat a lot and still lose weight.

Six weeks ago I went on the Diet Directives Bite Diet program [DD] and have lost 20 pounds so far—and it has been easy, too. Now you may be thinking, “So what Lynda? Big deal. Most of us have lost and regained that amount dozens of times at least. Testimonials like this aren’t even news. Women’s magazines now routinely run stories about women who have lost 100 plus pounds.”

So why is a really big deal? Three years ago DietDirectives was introduced by Joan Breibart and Meredith Luce RD, MS, LN as the official weight loss program of the Institute and Certifying Teachers like me were required to review it. At that time I found DD not at all appealing. Counting bites seemed somewhat obsessive to me and, quite frankly, I grew up eating large portions of food and preferred to continue with that. This is where it gets more interesting. Last week I emailed Joan Breibart (the founder of the PhysicalMind Institute who put Pilates on the fitness map and is the co-creator of the bite diet plan) and told her about my success.

Now Joan doesn’t mince words. Her emailed response was instructive. No congratulations. No encouragement. Just this:
“A couple of months ago you wrote an embarrassingly laudatory blog post reviewing Barbara Rolls’ Volumetrics weight loss plan. You practically had an orgasm over how much you could eat. [Too true!] The New York Times even describes Volumetrics as a diet that tells you how much you can stuff your face with. So why are you doing the exact opposite—our program which despises finding virtue in a meal—eat as much as you want as long as it is “good” food. Putting aside the fact that 70% of the adult American population is overweight or obese and almost half the kids are too, gussied up overeating—what we used to call gluttony- obviously isn’t working. “