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Losing weight with the 'Cruise Ship Diet'
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A cruise is the perfect environment for weight gain: food everywhere, huge dining rooms and buffet lines, long hours at sea with nothing to do but eat, and limited time and opportunity for exercise. There couldnt be a worse place to diet, right? - photo by Linda and Richard Eyre
As we mentioned in a couple of earlier columns, going on an effective diet can be one of the best gifts we can give our children and our spouse it is the gift of a longer and better life together. Today, we want to add a little to this thought in the form of what we now call the Cruise Ship Diet.

Talk about an oxymoron! Has anyone ever lost weight on a cruise ship?

Actually, yes, someone has! Well tell you who later.

As reported by the Daily Mail, a study conducted by cruise travel agency BonVoyage.uk revealed that about half of the passengers on a two-week cruise gain 14 pounds. CruiseReviews.com likewise reported that the average cruise ship passenger gains 5-10 pounds during a seven-day cruise.

A cruise is the perfect environment for weight gain: food everywhere, huge dining rooms and buffet lines, long hours at sea with nothing to do but eat, and limited time and opportunity for exercise. And having paid a lot for the cruise, people feel they need to eat a lot to get their moneys worth. There couldnt be a worse place to diet, right?

But when you think about it, our normal, everyday life has become a lot like a cruise ship. Food is so plentiful and available and cheap and fast. We are surrounded by food whether we are in our homes or driving down the street. It takes time to exercise, but not to eat. We can grab food fast almost anywhere. Since time is scarce, we eat faster, but we dont eat less.

In our earlier diet columns, we made the case that portion control is the key. Our basic premise there, and of Richards new book, The Half-Diet Diet, is that it is not so much about what we eat as it is about how much of it we eat and the metaphor is that we need to bridle our appetites much as we bridle a horse to make it serve us rather than run away with us.

Now, getting to the point about the cruise: By coincidence, we were scheduled to speak on a cruise in the South Pacific in early January, just as our diet book was being published. Someone suggested that if we really wanted to test the viability of the diet and the four habits that it suggests, we should try to implement them on the cruise.

Give it the acid test, our friend said. If it works on a cruise, it will work anywhere.

So we did. For the 13 days we were on that floating food court, we practiced:

The water habit (drinking a glass of water before each meal or snack)

The slow habit (taking small bites, and setting the fork down and smelling, sipping, savoring and swallowing each bite before picking up the fork again)

The exercise habit (20 minutes of aerobic exercise every day)

The ultimate half habit (splitting everything into two halves and then only eating one half)

Maybe we were only able to do it with consistency because we had told the people we were traveling with what we were doing, and they came around to our table at every meal like clockwork to check on us and see whether we were actually eating only half of the food on our plates.

But guess what: It worked!

Instead of putting on 13 or 14 pounds, we each lost a few pounds, and what we gained was increased confidence that we can keep on doing it. We actually said to ourselves, many times, If we can do this on a cruise ship, we can do it everywhere.

The only thing we lack, now that we are off the boat, is all those folks checking on us and keeping us monitored and motivated.

Perhaps we can recommit ourselves by telling you, our readers, right here in this column, that we are going to stick with this eat-half diet. And in the days and weeks ahead, either in reality or in our imagination, you might be watching us in a restaurant, at a food court or even at a Jazz game checking to see if we practice what we preach. And that might motivate us to keep working at it and to keep feeling as great as we always do when we just eat half.

Join us. If you do it right, you will actually enjoy the half you do eat more than you used to enjoy the whole thing.

And remember: Its for your spouse and your kids.
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How to avoid 'sharenting' and other paparazzi parenting habits
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A recent study revealed parents often spend up to two hours staging a single photo of his or her child to post online. - photo by Amy Iverson
Before having kids, some people just dont appreciate their friends baby posts. But after having a child of their own, three fourths of new parents jump right on the parental social media bandwagon. If you have become a member of this group, there are some rules to follow for posting responsibly.

Much of a parents worry is how to teach their children to use social media responsibly. We talk with our kids about privacy, oversharing, and setting restrictions on their devices to keep them safe. But parents themselves need to look in the digital mirror once in a while. Before having children, it doesnt take as much effort to think about what to post online. Its up to us to decide what we share about our own lives. But once you become a parent, there are many questions to think about regarding what is appropriate to post about your kids on social media.

In a recent survey, kids clothing subscription company Mac and Mia surveyed 2000 new parents to find out how they are documenting their kids lives on social media, and what concerns they may have.

First of all, people without children seem to feel a bit differently about the onslaught of baby pictures online than those who are parents. 18 percent of people say before they had kids, they were annoyed by their friends baby posts. But after having children of their own, 73 percent admit they post progress pictures of their little ones every single month.

Not only are new parents letting the world know each time their baby is a month older, but they are posting about their kids every few days or so. Men and women report they post 6-7 times per month about their baby.

And while 70 percent of new parents say the benefit of using social media is how easy it is to help family and friends feel involved, there are some downsides. Here are a few tips to avoid the pitfall of becoming paparazzi parents.

Dont miss the moment

In the Mac and Mia survey, some parents admitted to spending up to two hours to get the perfect shot of their baby. That seems a little extreme. New and old parents alike should be careful about spending so much time taking pictures and videos that they dont enjoy the moment. Years ago, I decided to never live an experience through my phone. A study by Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, found that when people took pictures of objects in an art museum, they didnt remember the objects as well as if they simply observed them.

This photo-taking impairment effect can happen to parents as well. If we are so consumed by getting the perfect photo, we can miss out on the moment all together, and our memory of it will suffer.

Dont forget about privacy

60 percent of couples say they have discussed rules and boundaries for posting their babys photos, according to the Mac and Mia survey. Even so, men are 34 percent more likely to publish baby posts on public accounts. If parents are concerned about their childrens privacy, keeping photos off of public accounts is a given.

In the Washington Post, Stacey Steinberg, a legal skills professor at the University of Florida, and Bahareh Keith, a Portland pediatrician, wrote that sharing too much information about kids online puts them at risk. They write that all that sharenting can make it easier for data thieves to target out kids for identity theft. Check that your privacy settings are where they should be and never share identifying information like full names and birth dates.

Dont be paparazzi parents

36 percent of parents say they take issue when their childs photo is posted online by someone else. Responsible social media users will always ask permission before posting a photo of another child. But parents should also think about whether their own children will take issue with their own posted photos a few years down the road.

When parents are constantly snapping pictures and throwing them on social media, it can be easy to forget to pause and make sure the post is appropriate. I always use the billboard example with my kids. I ask them to picture whatever they are posting going up on a billboard in our neighborhood. If they are okay with that, then their post is probably fine. Parents should ask themselves this same question when posting about their children. But they should also ask themselves if their child would be OK with this post on a billboard in 15 years. If it would cause embarrassment or humiliation, it might be best to keep it private.

Once children reach an appropriate age, parents should include them in the process of deciding what pictures are OK to post. Researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed 10- to 17-year-olds and found children believe their parents should ask permission more than parents think they should. The kids in the survey said sharing happy family moments, or accomplishments in sports, school and hobbies is fine. But when the post is negative (like when a child is disciplined) or embarrassing (think naked baby pictures or messy hair), kids say to keep it off social media.
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