The industry breathed a sigh of relief seeing that a few changes made everything all right and world could return to its infatuation with Drive-Thru. We beamed with a sense of satisfaction that we had prodded market in a healthier direction. Then we noticed that we were still fat.

Where had we gone wrong? Well, "small" burgers were still big: two to three times size of their relatives of forty years ago. The salads were healthy until drenched with several hundred calories of creamy dressing. To maintain taste we had come to love, toppings were added: more kinds of cheese, butter, relishes and dipping sauces. And everything was still primarily fried: breakfast, burgers, chicken, potatoes. Even high quality, frequently-changed deep fry oil is loaded with calories to be deposited on our waistlines, hips, and internal organs.

Fast food has taken us out of kitchen into a world where demand for productivity makes us work harder and longer and steals away any notion of spare time. We run to keep pace with a society spinning ever faster and we eat on run because to pause is to fail. Is there no escape? This is Twenty-first Century -- returning to food regimes of fifty or a hundred years ago is improbable. The old fashioned "made from scratch" meals require too much time and effort, except for special occasions, in our fast-paced, two-working-parents, long-work-and-commute lives.

What we can do, if we seek to withdraw from enormous herd of heavyweights, is to remember that way to health, slenderness, delayed aging, and increased longevity has been demonstrated repetitively by our little friend, laboratory rat.

The secret is consistent, prolonged, cheat-proofed, under-eating. Once that core concept has been adopted, and completely internalized, pathway to a new, thin you becomes clear: eat whatever you want but a LOT LESS. We're not looking at old adage of "eat moderately and move around a lot" because we know, from experience, that it doesn't work. When I say a "lot less" I mean it. You may be eating three times a day, plus snacks. Cutting out a snack here or a dessert there may eventually help you lose weight - if you have twenty years to invest in attempt.

Don't "cut back." Slash, sever, pulverize your portions. If you eat three meals a day, change to eating just one. If you like to graze on six mini-meals or snacks, cut to two. Reducing your overall intake by two thirds should bring you into zone of your actual daily needs. Yes, it would be nice if you opted to make those reduced calories all highly nutritious but we all know that you are going to eat what you are going to eat, no matter how much health gurus nag you. So go ahead and eat what you intend, just one third of your usual rations.

To keep your energy on an even keel, you can spread your one meal throughout day. If your usual lunch is a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake, split it up: a shake for breakfast, a burger for lunch, a dinner of fries and a slice of cheese. Are you then on a diet? Are you using your precious time on specialty shopping and food preparation? Do you have to think about what menu items fit into your prescribed weight plan? No, none of these apply. You are simply eating way you have always done except one day of your prior food plan now last three days. If you're worried about your health, take a multivitamin (funny, you weren't worried about your health on same fare in past, were you?) If you are a tall, large-boned individual or you feel (genuinely and persistently) faint, take a canned nutritional booster like Ensure.

It is almost too simple and too easy IF you have really internalized concept of under-eating and have adopted a "can do,will do," attitude - key to everything.

P. S. You'll save a lot of money too!

Physical: Height Weight Shape General Appearance Hips Chest Arms Legs Posture Ways You Move Attractiveness Grooming Hairstyle Wrinkles Looks What Age Voice Age-Appropriate Taste In Clothes Make-Up Expertise Bearing Teeth Fingernails Appearance - Strongest Points Appearance - Biggest Shortcomings

Other: Usual mood Politeness Attitude Confidence Level Empathy Level Honesty Rating Personality - Strongest Points Personality - Biggest Shortcomings Dealing with People -- Strongest Points Dealing with People -- Biggest Shortcomings

Next to each personal quality, write down one to three adjectives you feel best describe you on that facet of yourself.

Now give list to several friends, your spouse, relatives, coworkers. Tell them you're involved in a project or survey and make sure they can submit it anonymously. Having it completed by someone you think doesn't like you can be most revealing of all!

How closely do all lists overlap?

Typically, there will be substantial repetition in a number of areas. There will likely be divergence between people who know you very well and those who only see a certain side of you, at work, at school, in business.

Now combine lists, deleting repetitions, so that you have anywhere from a few words to dozens of words to describe your public persona. Since we are primarily interested here in weight management, concentrate on descriptors that relate to your physical attributes. Do others see you as you see yourself or are there a few shockers showing up?

Focus on those and try to ferret out source of contradictions. Are you misleading yourself about way you look or are you unconsciously facing world in a manner designed to create a certain image? Do you focus on your "good points" - a small waist you cinch tight with a belt - and forget about other areas - your hips look enormous in comparison? Do you fake something imperfectly such as a hairpiece, a shoe lift, padded underwear? Have you convinced yourself that long, flowing clothes, or oversized suits, make you look slim? Do you always study your face in glow of bathroom warming lights to convince yourself that wrinkles don't really show?

What can be very gratifying and self-affirming about this exercise is that much of what is written about you is far more tolerant and non-judgmental than how you describe yourself. You are your own biggest critic because you know yourself so well - that old internal criteria stuff. You want to be good, you want to be perfect, but you are acutely aware of your weaknesses and dark secrets.

This is where balance can be so nurturing: knowing how others see you can help you make any changes you want to pursue. You can start to emphasize certain aspects of yourself while discarding tricks that everyone saw through. If you want to modify your appearance, lose weight, build strength, it will be valuable only if it is built on reality of where internal and external converge. You are considerably more likely to attain your goals if they arise out of where you are and lead naturally to where you want to be.

One more side effect of this little exercise: you find out that no one in whole world is as interested, or as focused, on you as you are! Even close friends and family may have difficulty in finding descriptors for you: "I just never really thought about it." Of course they didn't because they were too busy concentrating on themselves. Once you really grasp this concept, it can be incredibly freeing. You can start to lose that self-consciousness that tells you others are studying and judging you. That standing-out-from-the-crowd vulnerability can start to fade. That "I can't go looking like this" panic can start to wane.

And as you start to realize that your weight and appearance are primary focus of only yourself, you can start to understand that whatever your physical shape reflects, it is your appreciation which is vital, not other people's. Manage your weight, and manage your life, for yourself - not for those others "out there" who don't even notice.