A friend of mine
and I were discussing diets we've tried. Have you ever played this
game? The "Oh, I did THAT diet" and the "OH, yes! I remember eating
frozen grapes for two weeks!"
No? You don't play the Diet Story game? Well, consider it your lucky day. Today? We play.
I mentioned before that I was reading the French Women Don't Get Fat book. In this book she recommends Leak Soup
for a one weekend purifier to start the program. My friend and I
laughed. "That reminds me of the time…" and off we started playing
the Diet Stories game.
So far, to date, I've done the following diets:
- South Beach
- French Women
- Body For Life
- Low Glycemic
- High Carb, Low Fat
- Running-all-
the-time-and-not-eating - Various SELF magazine diet plans
- and writing down, daily, my consumption. For. Three. Years. (1992-1995)
Wow. I wish I had a dime for every time I said I was hungry. I'd
have a lot of dimes. Which in turn would pay for my high chocolate and
wine and coffee consumption now-a-days.
My point is this (hi! I have a point!) we do crazy things to
"get the body of our dreams' but is the body of our dreams really worth
those crazy things? Or is it worth making the healthy choice to get up,
work out, drink water, fill your tummy will good food and get enough
sleep?
15 years after my first diet, I'm only now starting to learn. Share what you've learned in our forums. And then? Let's start being healthy. The non-diet way.
Mrs. Flingers blogs and mixes it up at her blog, appropriately titled, Mrs. Flinger
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I have to disagree. I think it is all about finding a diet with healthy principals that works for your body. I lost 160 lbs. on South Beach over 2 years ago and haven't gained an ounce back. The entire time I was on the diet, I never complained about being hungry – I was constantly satisfied. Sure, I had to make sacrifices, but sacrificing fried chicken for an additional 15 or so years with my family seems reasonable to me.
I started the diet with a group of 10 women. The first month, two had quit. By the time a year had passed only 3 were still following the diet's principals – the rest had gone back to their former ways. Now, those 7 women who didn't lose the weight still complain about health problems and not fitting into clothes while bragging that "at least they can have a donut". Good. I'm at a point in my life where I'm not defined by whether or not I can have a donut. It is more important to me that I can run a marathon with my husband or participate in sports with my kids than having that donut and I would give up much more than that to be able to keep it that way.
Easy way to lose weight: Eat a little less move a little more.
Move more everyday then you did the day before and eat a few less calories until you get down to 2,000 a day (or less if your dr. ok's it). Easy peasy! (or at least it is when you start thinking like that and not like "oh I have to lose 10 lbs. by such-n-such date/party/etc.)
HTH!! Don't make things harder than they have to be!
I agree that crazy diets don't work, things like the grapefruit diet come to mind.
But some of the ones you listed DO work well and South Beach is one that even physicians are promoting now because it is both healthy and do able long term as a lifestyle change.
Writing down your daily food consumption is also a very useful and important tool but it needs to be coupled with a plan to make changes.
Again I agree that "crazy" diets don't work but I think that's because most aren't sustainable as a lifestyle.
Ultimately though even a good plan won't work without commitment and persistence. Most of the time it isn't the plan that's the problem, it's me! :-/
I've had pretty good luck with the running all the time and not eating diet. Is 1,000 cals considered not eating? I do that when I really need to drop a few and then go back to my regular pretty healthy way of eating which is probably 1,200-1,300 calories and more of a slow jog.
I think that diets work for some people, like Lindsey and Michele, if they're doable over the long-term. But for a lot of people that just doesn't work. And for some people (like myself), even "good" diets like Weight Watchers and South Beach are an excuse to obsess and perpetuate disordered eating. The truth of the matter is that the underlying machinery of any diet (decrease calorie intake and increase physical activity) is what works. I think the goal is to find strategies that work for you and use them as best you can.
Personally, I want to learn gradually how to have a healthy diet that includes occasional treats while dealing with the underlying reasons why my diet has become so effed up to begin with. I don't want to be "on a diet" for the rest of my life. I want to have a healthy lifestyle and be able to have that doughnut on occasion. And I don't think this is an impossible or irrational goal. It's all about the big picture.