2012 - 34 : Dieting

When i was a kid, most of the food that i ate were homecook. My mom cook most the the meal that i took when i was a kid. We hardly eating out since my father only prefer homecook. Then i went to boarding school. All the food were, boarding school food, balance diet i guess but i cant tell for sure. When i was in college, the first two years, i was on meal plan and i didnt have much money. The food were not bad but after a while i was getting bored of the same western food (since i was on strict halal diet). i didnt eat much either. The next 2 years of my college life, i/my friends cook our own meal. Juggling between classes and study (and limited money), i just eat whatever to feed hunger.
When i start working, everything is different. A proper meal is a must and since you have the money and resources, there's no excuse for not eating or eating whatever. I tend to eat regularly a lot of thing that i'm not normally eat that much such as cake, fast food, oily deep fried goreng pisang, sweet drink....Then i hit me, i actually can get fat.
I did gain few kg since the past four years but nothing alarming. I still pretty much comfortable with my body. However, one thing that i noticed being a women it is hard not to complain about your weight (too thin, too fat, too normal) regardless how normal you are. So no matter how normal i feel, i still required to have a target 'ideal' weight so that i wont feel abnormal of being a women.
Since most of the people around me are having some sort of diet, i just make it up my own. All i did was, controlling my food intake. For example, not to drink more that 2 cups of sweet drink a day ( it's the hardest since i really craving for coffee at work). I allowed myself to take at most one fast food meal a week. On top of that i did some exercise. Since i quit aerobic class, i joined badminton but i always miss the session. Recently i started swimming. But i always felt extremely hungry after swimming. My point is i cant follow specific diet (atkins or whatever it is) and still eat whatever available but i can always control my food intake and exercise (no-name diet).
First of all, dieting is not starving ourselves to loose weight. I saw people around me doing it and it didnt work. It's all about eating healthy balance diet and exercise. If your target is to loose weight, you will loose weight by many means (starving, taking supplement, following specific "diet'). Unfortunately, u might gain the weight plus additional weight once you stop going it. It only work if you have certain deadline to meet.
But if your purpose to have a normal weight is to be healthy, we need to ensure that we have control over our diet. Dieting is not a short-term program, it is the lifetime lifestyle.