Part of a continuing series related to ideas in my book, “Sustainable You/8 First Steps to Lasting Change in Business and in Life.”

We venerate the quick fix. Don't have the time, don’t have the money, don’t have the willingness to honestly examine a problem and invest in a real solution.

(How do you identify a “real” solution? Hint: It solves. When it stops solving, it’s not a solution any more, and maybe never was.)

I’ve gained weight recently. In overweight/obese America, that’s certainly not unusual, and the circumstance can provoke reactions ranging from klaxons and self-hatred to cluelessness and denial.

For today, I don’t have any of those, and I’m delighted. Even though I weigh myself only a handful of times of year, almost exclusively in doctors’ offices, I became aware that my bod was burgeoning by the feel of my clothing. So that’s how I avoided cluelessness.

Here’s a report from the intersection of legumes and insanity, or, in a single word, nuts. I have a checkered history with one, and I have the other. I went through this intersection last week and the tale illustrates what food addiction feels like.

A strong segment of dieting wisdom holds that people who want to lose weight shouldn’t rule out any dishes or substances, because people won’t stick with any plan that leaves them feeling deprived.

Though I concede that that’s not totally, completely wrong, I do feel great frustration with it.

If someone wants to make a change, something has to change, does it not? In this context, there are essentially only two tools — eat less, or eat different — and this anti-deprivation dogma removes one of them.

I like to spout that I’ve lost 155 pounds and kept it off for almost 20 years without having weight-loss surgery and without going on a diet. The trick is in the word “diet,” of course, which is used in parlance as a temporary change — often in varying stages of craziness— in response to what, for many, is a recurring problem.

I hear frequently from readers, more all the time, about their experiences with food, and this week, a woman who heard me on Connecticut Public Radio shared:

I am dealing with an office full of people that bring in desserts to share. I'm not having luck convincing them that this is as bad as smoking in the office. One woman brings in brownies every week, has been asked by the manangers not to, and she still continues.