doesn’t even eat dinner, he or she just snacks after
work until going to sleep.
Convenient consumer
Convenient consumers may eat regular meals, but
they barely ever cook. Because they don’t cook meals
at home, most of the foods that they eat are packaged
or are from restaurants, often fast food chains. Con-
venient consumers may also eat a lot of microwave
meals.
Fruitless feaster
Fruitless feasters may eat regular meals, but they
tend to leave out two important food groups, fruits
and vegetables. Instead the fruitless feaster eats lots of
meat andcarbohydrates.
Mindless muncher
The mindless muncher snacks constantly through-
out the day, usually in addition to eating a full break-
fast, lunch, and dinner. Often the snacking is done
without actually being hungry, and is done instead
out of habit or for emotional reasons.
Hearty portioner
The hearty portioner may eat three meals a day,
but tends to eat far too much at any given sitting.
Sometimes this may occur because they let eating go
for too long and then are ravenous when they sit down
to eat, and end up eating too much.Deprived snacker
Deprived snackers are often people who are con-
stantly on diets. They crave foods that they feel like
they shouldn’t eat, and then overeat alternative foods
instead. This is often a vicious cycle of making reso-
lutions and then eating in ways that may fit the specific
rules, but violate the spirit of the diet.
Dr. Kushner believes that helping people to iden-
tify the ways in which they eat is an important first step
in helping them change their eating behaviors. Paying
attention to what is being eaten may even help to
reduce negative patterns on its own. Dr. Kushner
suggests specific techniques to help each type of eater
overcome their specific type of problem. For example,
for the healthy portioner, learning the basics of how
much should be eaten at each meal can be very helpful.
Also, adding a small snack or two throughout the day
can help to ensure that the dieter is not so hungry by
mealtime that he or she overeats.
There are also different types of exercisers, such as
the hate-to-move struggler and the no-time-to exercise
protester. Dr. Kushner provides ideas for making
incremental changes to help achieve regular healthy
exercise habits. There are also different types of
copers, including cant’t-say-no pleaser, and the emo-
tional stuffer. There are suggestions about ways to put
better coping mechanisms in place, and to deal with
the problems that the dieter encounters.
Dr. Kushner believes that the best way for most
people to make changes is by making one small change
at a time along a single dimension. This may be helpful
for many people because it can be frustrating to try to
make complete lifestyle changes all at once when there
are many other things that take attention each day
such as a job and family. By focusing on one small
change at a time the dieter can feel as if he or she are
accomplishing things without the stress of complete
change all at once. It is also a program that provides
suggestions for ways to deal with accidental back slid-
ing, that in any long term diet and exercise program is
bound to occur occasionally. Dr. Kushner believes
that when changes are made slowly over time, healthy
eating and better exercising will lead to weight loss,
without the dieter having to constantly focus on it.
Instead of taking the spotlight, weight loss becomes a
secondary result of better, healthier living. Some peo-
ple who have follow! ed this diet reported that it wasKEY TERMS
Diabetes mellitus—A condition in which the body
either does not make or cannot respond to the hor-
mone insulin. As a result, the body cannot use glu-
cose (sugar). There are two types, type 1 or juvenile
onset and type 2 or adult onset.
Dietary supplement—A product, such as a vitamin,
mineral, herb, amino acid, or enzyme, that is
intended to be consumed in addition to an individ-
ual’s diet with the expectation that it will improve
health.
Mineral—An inorganic substance found in the
earth that is necessary in small quantities for the
body to maintain a health. Examples: zinc, copper,
iron.
Vitamin—A nutrient that the body needs in small
amounts to remain healthy but that the body cannot
manufacture for itself and must acquire through
diet.Personality type diet