Extreme Dieting
A couple of days ago, one of our bloggers mentioned the water diet in The Best Comfort Foods thread. It calls for drinking an 8 ounce glass of water before, during and after a meal. (Three glasses in total.) I said it seemed a little extreme to me.
That got me thinking about extreme diets and the lengths we will go to in our quest to lose weight. I wrote in my first column about my experience with the Cambridge Diet in the early 1980s. It was a lot like Slim Fast, except instead of having a "sensible meal" once a day, all you did was drink the shakes for every meal. (I can't remember if I was allowed 3 or 4 shakes a day.) I think the calorie total was only between 300 and 400 calories each day! Can you imagine? Also, there was so much fiber in each shake that it tasted like flavored sawdust. My college roommates thought I was crazy. I seem to remember losing 11 pounds in the first week, then falling off the diet when I cheated by eating half an apple. Of course, the weight came back within days.
What about you? What is the most extreme diet you have tried? Slim Fast? Nutrisystem or Jenny Craig? The LA Weight Loss Solution? One of your own making? (I tried to lose weight in high school by just eating 500 to 700 calories a day. I remember eating a lot of sugar free Jell-O and drinking a lot of Tab soda.) Let's swap our diet war stories.
Those types of diets are so different than what I am trying to accomplish now. I want to eat and exercise in a manner that I can live with forever. I don't ever want to diet again.
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Oh, and Dr. Phil's book, the schwarzbein plan, and a biggest loser challenge at work.
extreme dieting
It doesn't really matter how much food you eat, as long as it tastes good to you. Your body knows what it likes. The secret is choosing products that are healthy, nutritious, and within your budget. Many commercial diets are purchased as a quick fix or like a jumpstart to eating healthier. Most people buy into these diets not realizing that they have to become 100 percent committed to it. Does anyone like those kind of restrictions? It is personal. It's their life, and unless they are totally committed to that diet restriction, their "DIET" becomes Null and Void! I slimmed down by choosing healthier products, and listening to my stomach. I eat when I'm hungry, and before I decide to prepare myself a meal I ask myself if I'm really hungry? If yes, I eat. If no, then I wait until I hear my stomach growling. No special diet. Good luck to you all.
Well lets see I've done Weight Watchers 5 times, Atkins for one day, South Beach for about 4 days, the cabbage soup diet (yuck!) and have read countless other books on dieting. I have a whole box of dieting books. What a waste in money. I never want to diet again. I want to eat because I'm hungry not because my "diet" says I must eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. How we've lost touch with ourselves. None of the "diets" are a quick fix. And obviously if they worked, there wouldn't be so many.