I'm putting the crunch back into dieting

This business of trying to lose a few pounds is for the birds, figuratively speaking, that is. As the years have piled up so has the poundage and the resulting problem of keeping those extra inches around the waist under control.

It wasn't an overnight change, a change that many can relate to. So the pounds and the inches just sort of crept up and around and one day, a decade or two ago, it became obvious that things weren't what they used to be. They had to change. They weren't.

The usual "cutting back on certain goodies" was aided and abetted with some sporadic exercises, all things the experts claimed could help solve the problem. The problem was bigger than all of that advice, which brings us to today.

I've started paying a little attention -- emphasis on the word little -- to some of the constant dieting advertisements on the tube and the printed page. All to no avail.

The situation isn't helped by the choice of goodies available on the grocery store shelves and at the fast food counters. Those, coupled with good home cookin' at my house, provides the no-brainer that I might just as well succumb to temptations and settle in -- no pun intended -- to the fact that I just ain't what I used to be, or never was.

The experts suggest quitting or cutting back on snacks as an integral part of controlling the poundage. That should be the easiest part of the "drop the pounds" equation. That's the problem. The equation doesn't take into account a favorite snack of mine -- potato chips.

Vegetable oil, even without trans fat, is still fat. And throw in some dip and an accompanying burger or hot dog and the anticipated result goes out the window.

Let's get to the point of this 'cuff which is not about losing pounds but rather the problem of adjusting to the temptation provided by that favorite snack food -- potato chips.

Have you noticed the explosion of potato chip flavors and styles? A walk down the long chip-selection aisle is enough to make a chip-fetish nibbler go nuts. All of those rippled and waffled and wavy selections reach out to the shopping cart.

There are baked and kettle-fried chips that almost sing to be selected for a spot in the cart, to say nothing of the flavors available to tempt the palate. It makes the saliva glands go berserk just to list a few of the flavors: rosemary, garlic, cheddar and various other cheese flavors, onion, jalapeno, honey barbecue, plain barbecue, ginger ... I could go on and on.

The whole display always reminds me of those days I was in grade school -- back then we called them that -- when, as a 4-H member, our whole club took a trip to Rogers to visit the Coca Cola bottler and, yes, a potato chip "factory" where each of us got a little bag of Proctor's Potato Chips to go with the miniature Coke bottle. Ah, those were the good old days of yore.

Both the bottler and the chip maker are gone and are replaced with a plethora of hi-tech, computer-based, gigabyte employers.

But back to potato chips. What? No raspberry or dill pickle or apple pie or cotton candy chips? They may be available somewhere but keep 'em out of my sight.

I was going to mention bacon since that has been the fad food flavor of today, but that is a topic for another 'cuff. Maybe. At any rate, with the many selections of chips and other cart grabbing types of new food products that tempt and taunt and grab, it does make it hard for a so-called dieter to have a chance.

Guess I'll just try to hold the present belt line or at least hope for the best. Crunch. Crunch.

Dodie Evans is the former owner and editor of the Gravette News Herald. Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 04/15/2015