I saw on the cover of a magazine the other day a super skinny model holding a piece of cake up to her mouth and I thought, “yeah, right!” Frankly I couldn’t see how her toothpick legs were holding her up with such a heavy object in her hand and she probably cut that piece of cake with her knife-blade hipbones.

Throw that thing down the hatch and she’ll have a cake-shaped lump in her lack-of-stomach for days. It surprises me that we can still see images like these on magazine covers after all the backlash against the skinny hype in recent years.

I remember when titanic came out some years ago and everyone thought Kate Winslet was fat. I think that may have been the beginning of this recent shift in public thought. People got fed up with it and started coming out and defending Winslet as the healthy, normal person she was. Not too long after came the Bridget Jones’ Diary movies which were a huge success. We’re now making fun of those sickly skinny Hollywood types like Nicole Ritchie.

But that doesn’t mean that we see any fewer advertisements for fattening food and it doesn’t mean that it makes it any easier to look at these skinny models eating what we want to eat and looking like we want to look.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all look like the women on McDonald’s commercials and Pepsi billboards? The fact is that the reality they portray is not real. These models’ careers depend on not eating fattening and sugary foods like those they sponsor. Ironic, isn’t it?

Not that this should get us down. Instead, we must understand in a personal sense how our bodies respond to certain foods and exercise so that we can be realistic about the goals we set for ourselves. Never get sucked into discouragement because it appears someone else can eat whatever they want and can maintain a perfect figure. There has to be some give and take for everyone—yes, everyone.

Decide what is most important to you and what will best fit in with your lifestyle. If you find yourself in social situations often where you feel obligated to eat, then pick up the slack in your exercise routine. If you just don’t have as much time to exercise as you would like, watch your calories and carbs closely. There should always be a balance between diet and exercise but just make sure those are in balance with your lifestyle as well.

Something I have struggled with since I started working in an office is getting active after I clock out. It makes no sense, but the longer I sit, the longer I, well, want to sit.

And to make matters worse, I used to have a job that provided vending machine tokens to every employee each day. Instead of two 15 minute breaks, I got cake and chips and soda. It sounds ideal, but as soon as my doctor said I was putting on the ‘marriage pounds’ (I was a newly wed at the time) I knew something had to change.

While I am still working off some of those Doritos, here are some things that noticed make a change in how I feel after a long day at work. They help me get motivated and move, instead of sit, then sit some more:

1. Stay active at work: It sounds simple, and it is. To feel energy when you get home, you have to get invigorated while at work. I used to find excuses to walk up and down the stairs when my building had a staircase. Now that it doesn’t, I enjoy short breaks to walk around the perimeter. Instead of jumping in your car right after work, try one of these activities to get your heart pumping.

2. Get a buddy: Just this evening my husband had to dislodge me from the couch where I was half asleep to go on a walk. And, as much hard as it was to initially get up, I was grateful that he encouraged me to enjoy the evening with him. There’s nothing like holding hands on a cool evening to make you feel motivated.

3. Make a set schedule to engage in activity: I know that if I don’t set a time to exercise or take a little walk, I’ll procrastinate until it’s too dark or too late at night, or too something… Set a time and mark it off on your calendar each day you meet that goal.

I hope these simple suggestions help you overcome the blob. Feel free to write your own ideas below.

I used to have a couple cats that lived in the back yard. They were always climbing up on the window screens and meowing for attention. They ruined two or three screens completely this way.

It was a big problem. I was getting really frustrated with them and yelling at them of course didn’t help much. I told my friend about it one day and she said that she’d heard you can train cats by squirting them with water when they’re doing something bad. They hate it.

I decided I’d give that a try so I bought a dollar store squirt gun and put it by the cats’ favorite window. The next time I saw the cats climbing on the screen, I gave them a couple shots with the squirt gun. They hissed and got off immediately.

After a few more times of this they learned their lesson. Climb on the screen and you get wet. They never did it again.

This technique works great with pets but I’ve found that it can also work with humans. Think back to when you were little and your parents gave you brussel sprouts or some other green food for dinner. I would just play with it on my plate and make faces.

Dad would tell me I couldn’t have dessert if I didn’t eat it first and I would be thinking, “no way am I eating that junk,” and dig my heels in. An argument ensues and the next thing I know, I’m in my room with no dessert in my belly. Most people probably went through this as a little kid. Unfortunately, these types of bad experiences get stuck in our subconscious and, if you’re like me, you never really get a liking for certain vegetables.

On the other end of the spectrum, think about the associations you’ve had with foods that are bad for you. We have cake and ice cream at birthday parties, we got a cool toy every time we went to McDonald’s and had hamburgers, and sometimes mom and dad would give you candy as a treat for doing your chores or being good.

With all this training from the time we are little it’s no wonder we like to overindulge on things that are bad for us. So how does all this relate to your next diet? Well, go buy a squirt gun, give it to someone who lives with you and every time you go to the fridge and pull out a piece of cake. . . No, not that.

What I’m getting at is creating a positive experience with the foods that are good for you. When you’re watching your favorite movie, munch on carrot sticks. When you’re going to your favorite place for fun, bring along a piece of fruit. I’ve found that when I do this a piece of fruit starts to look more like a piece of candy. We need to train ourselves to have good associations with the foods that are best for us. Then maybe we won’t feel like a wet, angry cat every time we eat a healthy meal.