For decades now, the conventional advice from trainers and weight loss specialists has been this:

"Eat three meals a day plus two snacks."

The big question is whether or not it's true.

And the answer (drum roll and envelope please) is ...... sometimes. But not always. ...

Many people do absolutely great on three meals a day with no snacks, and sometimes, on some days -- (gasp) -- even two.

See, the conventional advice was built upon the "truth" that "grazing" is always a better eating strategy for weight loss than eating three (or, god forbid, two) "solid" meals a day. Eating three meals and two snacks was supposed to keep your blood sugar even throughout the day, keeping cravings at bay.

Well, maybe.
But the truth of the matter is that people are far more variable and individual than we often acknowledge. And there's a downside to the "five meals a day" theory, a downside which may affect some people more than others.

For one thing, eating every two hours guarantees that your insulin is going to go up five times a day instead of, say, three. For many people, that means more hunger, not less.

Insulin is not only the fat storage hormone, it's also the hunger hormone. In fact, the whole "Carbohydrate Addicts Diet" got started when one of its creators, a (then) very-overweight Rachel Heller, found that she experienced a lot less hunger on one particularly busy day when she "forgot" to eat.

Three meals a day -- each with a beginning and an end -- is making a comeback as a weight-loss strategy, snacking be damned. Celebrity nutritionist JJ Virgin now advocates eating three meals a day, the first meal within an hour of waking up and the last meal at least three hours before bed. And recent research has demonstrated-- at least in rats -- that "intermittent fasting" actually has some major health benefits.

The point here is not that the old information was wrong and the new information is right.

The point is ....
that there are huge individual differences in how we respond to food, and no one strategy -- including the "five meals a day" strategy -- works for everyone.

We need to stop blindly following conventional wisdom and start paying attention to our individual differences when it comes to weight loss. (In fact, that's not a bad strategy to follow for everything, but that's another column.)

Ellen Langner, the Harvard psychologist, puts it brilliantly in her book "Mindfulness," when she says that "certainty" is the enemy of mindfulness. When we blindly follow a strategy, for weight loss or for anything else, we often stop paying attention to the individual cues that tell us whether it's the right thing to do in our particular situation.

 "Certainty is a cruel mindset," she wrote.
"It is uncertainty that we need to embrace, particularly about our health.
If we do so, the payoff is that we create choices
and the opportunity to exercise control over our lives."

So if three meals and two snacks per day works for you, great. Keep it up and carry on! But if it's not working, don't assume it's because there's something wrong with you. It just might be that you need to try a different strategy.

And three meals a day -- each with a beginning and an end point, and with no "snacking" in between -- might be one technique worth trying.

I find that concentrating on what I can’t do,
tends to limit my choices.
Concentrating on what I can do
tends to expand my choices.

 There’s no law that a person has to exercise
for at least 20 minutes or more to get even the slightest benefit;
or that one must do high intensity exercise;
or that strength training requires the use
of more than one’s own body weight.

In fact, small bouts of fitness add up.
Something is always better than nothing.

Dieting is another thing I can’t do perfectly.
What I can do is make my food choices better quality,
and I can eat smaller food portions of everything I choose to eat.
I can choose to mostly eat foods that make me less hungry,
like those containing more protein or fiber and less sugar.
My goal is to do well, not to be perfect.
I can’t be perfect, but I can do well.

It is easy to get a very black and white view of fit living.
Either you are dieting and exercising or you’re not. 
 There’s another way….a rainbow view.
We can see all sorts of colors and shades in between.
Adopting a “fit” lifestyle is very individualized
and it often includes more than a specific diet and exercise.
What makes one person fit may never work for another.
It could be genetics, environment, health, or just because
our lives run in completely different directions.

There is no on-or-off of the fit living issue.
We are just on the road.

It’s a winding road with mountains, bridges,
detours, vacation spots and a million other things.
We can be positive drivers and enjoy the scenery, 
sing with the radio, have fun with our passengers,
and find ways around the obstacles of the road.
It’s even okay to stop at the vacation spots here and there.

  We can choose not to give away our freedom
by saying: "I can’t."  There are far more choices with "I can."
When we hit a roadblock, we don’t have to say…

"I can’t go on until this clears away.”

Instead" we can say

"What can I do from here, right where I am now?

Today's video is one of the "Ask Grandma" series made specifically for YouTube,
if you are interested, you can see it by clicking the link here 
which is located under RESOURCES, Videos, Ask Grandma.

Sometime in the early morning when I am writing here,
I feel enthusiastic about an issue and words pour forth.

Other mornings...like today..
it is a struggle to feel the tiniest bit of optimism
about any subject at all...especially all the matters
that surround the issue of dieting and weight-control.

I believe this is typical and universal, rather than individual,
and that it is true of almost all of us. 

 Our individual choice is the behavior that we choose
for ourselves during the times when we feel less than positive.
That behavior choice can make us feel better, or worse.

This is the time when the positive Habits that we've established over time
can be extremely helpful to get and to keep us on track toward our ultimate goals.

So today I begin my day by sitting at my computer.
updating my graphs and tracking information;,
entering my weight and the breakfast I plan to eat;
reading a few new posts at forums I regularly follow;
and writing this article....
...which although not particularly inspiring or informative...
is nonetheless authentic.

                          
One definition of a qualification is
a restriction or modification...like...
"an offer with a number of qualifications".

That's the kind of ANYTHING that become possible,
when we make enough little changes.
The body has some natural limits. 
Some limits of the body are across the board for everyone,
and some of them are specific to one's own individual body.

I can't fly...no matter what I do.
I can't grow taller or younger...no matter what I do.

My body won't change from an endomorph into an ectomorph.
None of my fat cells will ever disappear.
I will never stop wanting to naturally eat a greater amount of calories 
than the calorie amount my body needs to keep me normal weight.

 Some days I wonder if my arm will completely heal,
and if I'm ever going to be able to make a fist with my left hand again.
Some days I wonder if my body is ever going to go back under 120 lbs
and remain there, even on less than 1000 calories a day.

So it the following saying is with qualifications... i.e. Restrictions and modifications....

When we make enough little changes,
(.....almost....) .Anything IS possible.