After some booze and New Year's cheer, almost all of my female friends, including myself, promised that this year we would "eat right" and lose about 10-20 pounds. Reality is, some of my friends would become toothpicks if they lost that amount. I came home to next day to hear my relatives discuss New Year's resolutions, or should I say, the same old yearly resolution of no more junk, no more snacks and no more muffin tops while wearing jeans. For most of America, the new decade still means the same old diet.

Beginning on Monday this week, many people started their routine of going back to the gym and "dieting" or hardly eating for the first week or so and then stuffing their face with one meal a day. I at first thought this was just my circle of friends and family, but I was very wrong. In honor of 2010, The South Beach Diet has created a 2010 New Year's Challenge--a 100 day event dedicated to helping you jump start your weight loss and chat for 30 minutes weekly with online nutritionists about new recipes, how to conquer cravings, and using strategies for dining out. The challenge automatically enters you for a chance to win a free 3 day/ 2 night trip to Miami to meet with South Beach dieticians for private consultation.

From this one program alone, it is evident our society has become so obsessed with feeding into diet programs that even getaway vacations that are not really vacations, but rather diet consultations, are being used as bribery to join the challenge. How many books and websites and Weight Watchers recipes can we provide to the public that they still need more? I myself even succumbed to a Lucille Roberts "Eat Right" Diet where I was suckered for 100 dollars a month to be weighed in once a week, measured, and have someone read a food journal (actions any idiot could be capable of after purchasing a scale, pen and paper).

Now, with each New Year's, we watch society's ideal weight and image get worse and worse. In 2009, Ralph Lauren's model, 23 year old Fillipa Hamilton was fired for being unable to meet expectations for the brand or as Ralph Lauren says she was released "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us." What sparked the controversy was Fillipa appeared in a Ralph Lauren ad that had been digitally emancipated her figure by making her head appear bigger than her waist. At 5'10 , weighing less than 130 pounds, Hamilton's size 8 was deemed unacceptable for Ralph Lauren's image Mind you, Hamilton has been modeling for them since she was 15 years old.

Furthermore, websites like thinsporation.com are still a click away from low self-esteem dosages for the entire world. The site promotes an ideal body image all should meet, revealing photos of models with visible rib cages and shoulder bones. The site also links to hundreds of shocking blogs where you can follow every day people hating himself or herself for every piece of food they intake. It also encourages the "All Apple Diet," where one apple cut into for pieces should serve as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and of course, a snack for your everyday diet. Genius these people are! Or rather, the reason why our nation is so hyped on self-image and lack of confidence. It's as if we want to turn ourselves into robots who don't need to eat in order to survive. It's insane!

Yet this image still mostly remains an American thing. In 2006, Spain banned models under 120-130 pounds (pending height) for Madrid's Fashion Week. Diets like the Weight Watchers phenomenon and South Beach brainwashing does not exist in other countries. Web MD's Collete Bouchez tries to answer the question of why every other country in the world has the answer to weight control except us, in an article titled "Diet Secrets from Around the World". However, we seem to already know these secrets: less portions, more fruits and veggies, more nuts, more organic meals! We know the amount of calories we should intake per day, and we know what is good or us and what is bad--yet we refuse to listen! Or is it that we are incapable of eating as we should?

I argue that our issue is TIME. Americans don't have enough of it. Some high schools only give about 20 minutes for lunch, and it takes our brain 20 minutes to signal our stomachs that we are fully sated. We rush our lunch breaks and our dinners because "time is money" and "the clock is always ticking". American restaurant goers constantly complain when people are seated at a table for over two hours--trust me, I've been a hostess. We never allow ourselves to appreciate every single bite we put in our mouths. And still, we write books on this, we form guidelines and we lecture each other on poor habits. We've become an obese, hypocritical, large portion obsessed nation...and only we can change that.

So for 2010 I propose to you, and to myself, this: Enjoy your food, but do not over enjoy. Start a diet for you, and only you--one free of charge and full of fabulousness. And maybe 2010 will be decade with less Photoshop disasters, fad diets, eating disorders, and low self-esteem. More importantly, a beginning to a healthy body and appreciation for every morsel we have the privilege to eat. It's a New Year, and for once, this year has a new resolution.