She constantly battled with her daughters. Her husband was chronically ill, paralyzed from the waist down, and an adulterer.

The director of the FBI planned to out her as a lesbian - or blackmail her because of it.

When asked by someone who probably knew all this how she remained so positive, Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the White House, simply said, “Life is what you make it.”

Years ago, I found her words falsely optimistic. Now I find them beautifully matter-of-fact and leading me to ask you a question: How do you “make” your life?

Do you make it simple, or do you make it complex?

The Buddhist philosopher Thich Nhat Hahn tells of a time when Buddha took his monks to a meadow to meditate and eat lunch. At one point, a clearly frazzled farmer approached and asked if anyone had seen his cows.

All 12 had run away, he explained, insects had destroyed his soybean crop, and he was so unhappy he wanted to kill himself.

Buddha suggested he search to the north since they had seen no cows on their walk from the south. The farmer left and Buddha said, “You lucky monks. You have no cows.”

While stories like this one are always subject to interpretation, Buddha’s words to his monks strike me as good-naturedly ironic. Monks voluntarily relinquish virtually all material possessions to simplify their lives. That they have no cows is not luck.

It’s a lifestyle choice.

Irony aside, how about you? Are you a modern-day lucky monk? Do you simplify your life where you can?

After all, that ever-optimist Eleanor Roosevelt really was right. Life is what you make it.

And each week I strive to make yours a wee bit better by penning this column. Which is something I’m sure will happen if you follow the eating suggestions found in the last one.

The suggestions are - surprise, surprise - rather simple.

So simple, in fact, I fear you will dismiss them in light of the bevy of facts that invariably lead you to believe long-term weight loss is as impossible as an eight-year-old conducting a moon launch. Such as:

• 73.6 percent of Americans 20 and over are overweight or worse;

• Americans spend $33 billion per year on weight-loss products;

• 80 percent of dieters regain all weight lost in five years.

But I would argue that regardless of the roadblock - poor genetics, current bad-eating habits, or past unsuccessful attempts at managing your weight - there is a simple formula for eating that improves your health immediately, leads you to a healthy weight eventually, and can be succinctly summarized in only 10 words.

Eat protein and healthy carbohydrates; avoid refined carbs and fats.

In last week’s conclusion, you learned two of the biggest benefits from eating this way: a stable blood sugar level and a greater expenditure of heat for digestion. Each helps control your body weight.

Whether your blood sugar level goes too high or too low, the end result is the same. You eat - whether your body needs nourishment or not. And a greater expenditure of heat during digestion “wastes” calories, ones you get to eat and enjoy but have no effect on your weight.

Studies have demonstrated both so often that experts now see them as fact. So why don’t more Americans abandon fast food and follow my 10 words of dietary wisdom?

Since I do believe that life is indeed what you make it, I can offer only one answer. To make life easier, too many Americans endanger their health to engender convenience.

They see planning to make healthy meals, shopping for the right stuff, and cooking at home as inconvenient. After all, all of this subtracts from a precious item already in short supply: time.

Pulling into a drive-thru and pulling out five minutes later with a full meal for four saves time obviously. If you find yourself ordering fast food for yourself or your family in any way more than once a week, however, consider something less obvious: Easier always seems simpler - until it leads to a complex result.

Like the byproducts of carrying around too many pounds: sleep apnea, arthritis, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, gallbladder disease, and heart disease, according to the U.S. National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

So don’t let a lack of time - or, more precisely, the seeming lack of it -lead to any of these diseases. Keep your life from becoming a complex health mess by educating yourself on how to simply apply those 10 simple words of diet advice.

Whether you read a number of my previous columns or just search the internet to do so, the info is out there.