Vocabulary word of the week.

This week’s word is diet. I chose this word because I have joined a weight loss challenge with several of my blogger buddies and so far I have managed to lose 5 pounds but have held steady for the past two weeks. Holding steady is not getting me any closer to either my goal or the prize. With that in mind I thought I would look up the word to see exactly what the definition is, its origin, and history. I figured I already knew that it meant to regulate your selection of food in order to lose weight. I was surprised to learn that one definition is the usual food or drink of a person or animal. I find that definition empowering. I tend to have a negative attitude about diet because I most often associate it with removing all the good stuff from what I eat and learn to love broccoli and baked fish. Knowing that a diet is the usual food a person eats I now understand that I have always been on a diet, every one is always on a diet. I have just been on a bad one. I now have to choose a diet that is healthy, tastes good and I can live with. Therefore it must include the occasional chocolate and cheese. If I can do that I know will be ok.
Word: diet
Definition
Noun:
1. The usual food and drink of a person or animal.
2. A regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss.
3. Something used, enjoyed, or provided regularly: subsisted on a diet of detective novels during his vacation.
Adjective:
1. Of or relating to a food regimen designed to promote weight loss in a person or an animal: the diet industry.
2.
a. Having fewer calories.
b. Sweetened with a noncaloric sugar substitute.
3. Designed to reduce or suppress the appetite: diet pills; diet drugs.
Verb:
To eat and drink according to a regulated system, especially so as to lose weight or control a medical condition.
Or
To regulate or prescribe food and drink for.
Origin:
Middle English diete, from Old French, from Latin diaeta, way of living, diet, from Greek diaita, back-formation from diaitāsthai, to live one's life, middle voice of diaitān, to treat.
Source: http://www.answers.com/diet