There’s always Monday

‘Monday, Monday/So good to me/Monday morning/It was all I hoped it would be.”

Arleen Mavorah signs copies of her book about the ups and downs of dieting during a book launch event. When The Mamas & the Papas recorded that song, they weren’t singing about a week in the life of a dieter, but they could have been. Most dieters start a diet on Monday, and if it goes well that day, then they feel hopeful the diet will last.

Elberon resident Arleen Mavorah has written a comic account of yo-yo dieting that starts on Monday and ends on Sunday with the words, “This week is all over,/can’t believe how I feel./I’m bloated and nauseous/ since I ate my last meal.”

Her book, titled “There’s a Skinny Person Inside Me, but Shut the Bitch Up With a Cookie,” is written in verse and chronicles a week. Like so many dieters, Mavorah’s character is a chronic w e i g h t - l o sjunkiewho’stried dozens of diets, only to gain the unwanted pounds back again.

The book launch was held at Sharon’s Nail Connection in Allenhurst where a manicurist suggested the book’s title. Mavorah said she decided to write the book in light verse with an emphasis on fun because “dieting is a serious subject, but dieters can be very funny people. Being thin is a national obsession, and I thought it was time for people to really laugh about the silly things we do and say in the name of weight loss.”

She added that she loves to be around fun people who make her laugh.

“Aside from being the best medicine, I recently read that laughter burns calories. To be exact, a hearty 10- to 15-minute laugh burns about 238 calories,” she noted.

A diet expert who has battled her own weight problems, Mavorah worked for Jenny Craig and also ran her own weightloss centers in New York and New Jersey. She grew up as a “chunky kid” in Brooklyn and has counseled thousands of teens and adults on diet and nutrition programs. In addition, she has been working hard to maintain a good weight for herself.

“I try to watch what I eat and stay away from the sweets. I’d rather eat candy, cookies, ice cream, etc., than food, so I have to concentrate on eating three well-balanced meals a day. I’d lie if I told you it’s easy,” she said.

Besides eating well, she has been working out for the last 15 years.

“You can catch me most mornings at True Fitness in Long Branch. I do cardio almost every day and lift weights three times a week. My goal is to work out seven days a week, but if I miss a day or two, it’s fine,” she said, noting that in order to stay in shape, she has had to make exercising part of her life.

“One has to be willing to make lifestyle changes,” she said.

Mavorah’s book highlights in a lighthearted way the struggle to lose weight and keep it off. But it also points out the myriad ways in which dieters sabotage and fool themselves. One of the problems is the word “diet,” she said.

“I think we need to take the words ‘on a diet’ out of our vocabulary. It implies that if you’re ‘on’ something, you could be ‘off’ it too.”

She says everyone needs to focus on eating well and eating smaller portions, and that takes discipline.

“Over the long haul, I think the thing that drives me to exercise and eat well is health. I don’t want to be sick, plain and simple.”

Mavorah said she stopped smoking about 25 years ago for that same reason, but she notes that was easier than losing weight.

“When you stop smoking, you never have to deal with cigarettes again, but you’ve got to eat to live. I’ve made

ifestyle changes, and for the most part, it’s working for me, but I too have my ups and downs. Last summer I was 10 pounds heavier than I am now. I keep at it, accept myself for who I am and try to do the best I can. I try never to beat myself up for eating the wrong things and I focus on feeling good.”

In her book, Mavorah’s yo-yo dieter eats her way through the week and is now searching for the perfect diet to start on Monday. She doesn’t trust the scale, finds justification for cutting short her exercise program or eating the wrong thing and neglects to put everything she ate down in her journal. The week ends on Sunday with her pigging out in anticipation of starting again.

“Monday morning is the start/of a new diet for me/This time I mean it …” she says.

The author said she is going to donate a portion of the book’s sales to local food banks.

“I thought the FoodBank [of Monmouth and Ocean Counties] was a perfect charity to benefit from a portion of the proceeds of my book. One dollar in the FoodBank equals 4 pounds of food, which equals three meals,” she said.

“I’m hoping that I can bring more attention to this charity and ones like it around our country. We’ve got to start somewhere. Upwards of $40 billion a year is spent on diets and diet-related products in this country. While being thin has become an obsession for so many, there’s another segment of our society that go to bed hungry each night.”

Giving the gift of food is something that Mavorah has done for a long time because having a hot meal on the table has always been a priority for

her.

“When my kids went off to college, I was always sending

care packages filled with their homemade favorites. Who doesn’t

conjure up the memory of coming home to a house filled with aromas from mom’s cooking? It hurts me to imagine otherwise. Food to me always meant love, comfort, security and, of course, nourishment.”

She also sent food packages to her father in Florida and to her sister when she was ill.

“After they both passed on, I began delivering Meals on Wheels for the Jewish Family and Children’s Services. I did that for about six years.”

Mavorah and her husband Elliot have lived in Monmouth County since 1979, first in Oakhurst and now in the Elberon section of Long Branch.

“He’s never been on a diet in

his life. He’s a naturally thin guy who eats to live, unlike

some who live to eat. How many people do you know who will take just four or five M&M’s out of a bag and eat them one at a time, or buy just one doughnut and not eat it till they get to work, or not have

dessert because they’re full. I always believed these things

would stand on their own merit as grounds for divorce! What some wives have to put up with!”

Mavorah is winning her battle of the bulge, but she understands how difficult it is and that having fun and laughing at ourselves eases the journey.

Find out more about Mavorah’s book at the website www.dontfeedthebitch.com.