The problem with this obsession is that we can't get a grip on it. For the majority of us, if we would just follow sound nutrition and exercise advice, we would probably all be within a reasonable weight range and feel pretty good about ourselves. Instead, we want the easy way out, which typically means fad diets and sketchy (sometimes risky) supplements. What's more, for many of us, we want unreasonably thin results. And, in the end, we aren't rid of the obsession; we don't achieve long-term success, but rather a perpetual rollercoaster of short-term weight-loss results.

Why do we make it so difficult? How many of us have tried to lose weight with Metabolife, despite the fact that we know ephedrine is bad for us? How many of us have tried diets, even though we continue to have no or only short-lived success with them? In the past couple of years, a number of people I know have been on one diet or another. One relative of mine went on the Atkins Diet and lost a considerable amount of weight. I admit, I was impressed. But I later learned that the only way he manages to keep the weight off is by going back on the diet each time he gains a few pounds. If the Atkins Diet is a lifelong endeavor, I'd hardly call that weight-loss success.

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With 20 million Americans on a diet today, and 20 million more thinking they need to be on a diet, according to Bryant, Peterson & Conviser in their article, "High-Protein, Low-Carbohydrate Diets: Fact vs. Fiction" I think the message is clear: We are not in control of the situation. We are not listening to good, common sense. And, if we are, we are letting it go in one ear and out the other, simply because it's too hard for us to look at that cookie and say, "No!"