This week an op-ed piece discussing the Italian diet appeared in the New York Times. It questions the reasoning behind Americans disdain for carbs when Italians are generally skinny and eat four times as much pasta per capita. As you'd guess, they have smaller portions of pasta in a meal and exercise is imbued in their daily lives.

It reminded me of my mom's super-secret, highly conceptual diet. Here is a step-by-step guide:

STEP 1: Burn more calories than you consume.

That's it. That's all you have to do. Okay, so it's not that easy, but if you do this and use common sense (balanced diet, regular exercise) then you're guaranteed to lose weight.

Like I said, it's not easy. Losing weight is a difficult proccess and I'm not intending to poke fun at those who are having trouble doing this. Americans have been trained to eat huge portions very quickly, which I think is our biggest problem. I could go on about how we need to slow down so you can more accurately tell when you're full, but the author of the op-ed piece is more convincing than I could be.

So, for the last time I hope, I ask you to reconsider your gimmick diet. By all means, find something structured that works for you, but if you're going to spend money on a new diet then I suggest you head to a nutritionist and ask for some help. It might be a touch more expensive than the South Beach book, but they know what they're doing.