I took down my anti-dieting sidebar list, and I'm moving on from my anti-dieting phase. I read a bunch of books, like Intuitive Eating, Diets Don't Work, and Breaking Out of Food Jail, which argue that dieting itself causes you to gain weight. The more you restrict food, the argument goes, the more you obsess about it. You're hungry, and your body overcomes your will and makes you binge. You have to make peace with food and give up dieting forever or you'll continue to get fatter every time a new diet fails. Eventually, you will learn to eat only when you're hungry and stop when you're full. Your weight will stabilize and all will be well.

Makes sense, right? So I tried it. I ate all the things I loved, like Cambozola cheese, lemon cake, and big bowls of granola. I never stuffed myself or binged. I ate when I was hungry and stopped when I was full. And I gained 30 pounds.

So now I'm on Jenny Craig, which I think is a good choice for me. All the meals are planned and portion controlled. I don't have to count calories or think about what kind of fat free cheese to buy. I don't obsess, because it's all done for me. I've lost about 4 pounds so far (in two and a half weeks). We'll have to wait and see what happens when I have to buy my own food.

I think there are a couple of things we have to accept on this question. One, that no matter how much I work out or how little I eat, I'll never look like Natalie Portman. Natalie Portman doesn't even really look like Natalie Portman. And when she's 36, she'll look a lot more like me than the princess of Naboo. Two, you can't eat a huge bowl of granola every morning and expect to keep your girlish figure. That's just the way of the world, no matter what Jean Antonello says.