The Rut: You avoid the office cookie jar, count the calories in your carrots and refer to yourself as "bad" if you dare enjoy a slice of your own birthday cake. Hating our bodies has become such a pastime that running down a list of flaws to friends actually counts as conversation. How boring!

Try It! Deprivation may be commendable in the Nicole Richie Book of Health but it hardly makes for a full life, so give it a rest already! Enjoy the wine, twirl the pasta and order that slice of Key Lime pie! Just as eating salad for one day won't make you thin, a few fun dinners with friends won't make you fat. And best of all? You'll have memories that will last much longer than those meals.

NEXT: Book your dream vacation >>

    or    Send to a friend