Think about it…
Are “fad
diets” actually worth the stress?
Only eating cabbage
on days that end “ay”… Using a green cup for every drink you have… Standing on
your head for ten minutes after every meal…
These all sound
ridiculous, to put it mildly, don’t they? No one with ANY common sense or
dignity would put themselves through these fad diets. Would they? During the
past three weeks, I’ve been doing a sensible and manageable weight loss
programme, which essentially has two aspects that I have found to be the only
things that work (for me, anyway):
1.
“Eat less”… this does not mean, in
any shape or form, that you should starve yourself. To me it means eating a
healthy amount (1200-1500 calories, not 2500) of good food, and watching those
pesky portion sizes. I love food, I really do! Some days I would’ve happily eaten
a Man Vs. Food size meal, loaded with fat, bad carbs and anything else you can
think of. But I was (I guess I still am, but I’m certainly working on it) fat.
Obese. Corpulent, even! Christmas came and went, and I noticed how much I was
hating seeing photographs of myself- and I am a poser, so this is worrying- so
I knew that it was time to do something about it. This is where Weight Watchers
came in. For me it’s an easy way to control what you’re eating without having
to starve yourself. There are tons of great weight loss programmes designed to
help, it’s all about choosing one that suits your needs and your personality.
Rosemary Conley and Slimming World are two that myself or friends have had
success with in the past. But the weight management side to WW Online is ideal
for my lifestyle now that I have a child.
2.
“Move more”… Now, the tricky part!
Not only did I like large portions of stodgy food, I also was pretty lazy when
it came to exercise. It’s quite ironic really, as I always have thoroughly enjoyed
exercise, and was a keen netballer with an interest in Sports Science when I
was at school. Then along came the freedom of sixth form, and that all stopped.
It’s surprising how quickly I’ve caught the workout bug. Three weeks in and I
like to squeeze some cardio into my daily routine wherever I can; I feel a bit
agitated if I don’t. This isn’t in an obsessive way, it’s in a “knowing what’s
best” for my body and mind way. This means sacrifices, and for me it’s TV
watching! I am not going to see my husband and son less, so I fit my exercise
in around them. Some nights it means going out to the gym at 9pm, but so be it.
If I want to lose weight, and improve my fitness and lifestyle, then I will
have to work hard for it.
I’m yet to meet
anyone who tried a “fad” diet and got long term results. If you have, by all
means let me know, but seeing is believing in this case. This thought process
led me to research the diet crazes that are out there (better known as the
crazy diets). I’ve found a few that I’d like to share, purely for your
entertainment!
Number
10: The Wine and Eggs Diet
Self-explanatory
really. This diet pretty much consists of hard boiled eggs and wine for each
meal. This level of preposterousness is almost beyond anything I’ve seen. It
suggests that your eat 10 (yes, TEN) hard boiled eggs a day and drink ½ bottle
of wine every evening. A typical day would look like this and consist of 1186
calories per day:
Lunch box
3 eggs, 1 carrot, 1 apple, 2 raisin packs and 2 multi-vitamins, Magnesium
Citrate pills.
Bring 3 water bottles to work.
Morning 7-9 am (210 calories)
Eat 3 eggs with black pepper
Drink black coffee / tea
Drink 1/2L water
Mid-morning 10-11 am (73 calories)
Eat 1 carrot and one multivitamin and a magnesium citrate
Eat raisins mini snack 14 grams
Drink 1/2L water
Drink black coffee / tea
Lunch 12-2 pm (210 calories)
Eat 3 eggs with black pepper
Drink black coffee / tea
Drink 1/2L water
Afternoon 3-5 pm (113 calories)
Eat 1 apple and one multivitamin and one magnesium citrate
Eat raisins mini snack 14 grams
Drink black coffee / tea
Drink 1/2L water
Dinner 6-9 pm (580 calories)
Eat 4 eggs with black pepper
Drink 1/2 bottle of wine
Drink 1/2L water
Drink black coffee / tea
If you want to have a bit of a laugh at mankind, visit www.eggwinediet.com.
It is surely humanity at it’s craziest.
Number Nine: The cookie diet
Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Is the cookie diet my idea of
heaven, or the reason Santa looks the way he does? Neither! In a nutshell an
actual doctor (shame on him) invented a diet where you eat six meal replacement
cookies during the day. Siegal’s cookies amount to about 500 calories. You then
have one 300 calories meal for tea/dinner. The limit on this diet is 800
calories. That’s 400 less than most weight management plans start you on. I
really wouldn’t want to meet someone who has consisted on a diet of cookies for
too long- temperamental and agitated will not compare here!
Number Eight: The Drinking Man’s Diet
Well, well, well! What exactly have we got here? This diet was first
published in the 1960s, and not one medical professional would ever recommend
it. It’s goal is somewhat ambiguous, The calorie intake for a day on this plan
is almost three times the recommended amount. It recommends that you drink six
alcoholic drinks (wine and cocktails) and a lot of meat, fish and cheese. I
cannot understand why anyone even considered this to be a sound weight loss
program. Surely all you would achieve is an almighty hangover?
Number Seven: The Joan Crawford Diet
Ever wonder why movie sirens from the Golden Era were often so skinny?
The look no further than the little known Joan Crawford diet. Crawford was a
very methodical woman, particularly when it came to diet and exercise. Her “diet”
would consist of seven or so coffees a day and a packet of cigarettes. She
would start her day at 6am with a cup of hot water, and occasionally eat a
salad or a carb-free meal for lunch. This blatant lack of nutrients would not
have helped her one bit in her career, although she felt that starvation was
the way forward.
Number Six: The Blood Type Diet
The Blood Type Diet claims to be scientific, using the idea that each
blood type has it’s own diet style to follow. If you ask me, this is more
science fiction that scientific discovery. Even the website screams scam. Take
a look for yourself: www.dadamo.com.
Number Five: The Lemonade Diet
Have you ever wanted to be the kind of person who would snap at everyone
and totally alienate your loved ones? Then try this diet. It’s a fifty-year old
craze, that even the likes of Beyoncé
have tried. You ingest nothing but the drink for two weeks, and then attempt to
re-introduce food, such as soup, then fruits and vegetables. The bizarre
version of lemonade is made up of:
·
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
·
2 tablespoons grade-B organic maple syrup
·
1/10 teaspoon cayenne pepper
·
10 ounces filtered water
Number Four: The Baby Food Diet
As a fairly new mother, who not so long ago fed her child baby food, I
could not stress how much you should avoid this diet! Baby food is fine, for a
baby who cannot really chew, or who doesn’t care that his food lacks any form
of flavour. If you have three meals a day, you’re looking at about 500
calories. This is total madness!
Number Three: The Cigarette Diet
Ninety years ago, the idea of smoking a cigarette to lose weight (to
curb your appetite, more to the point) was a novel one. It all stemmed from a
marketing campaign by Lucky Strike, who had the slogan of “Reach for a Lucky
instead of a sweet”. From that day onwards, women would do just that, not only
starving themselves but risking their lungs. Not really my idea of a healthy
lifestyle.
Number Two: The Grapefruit Diet
This diet is a 12-days on, 12-days off diet, but it’s still ridiculous,
if you ask me. From the onset, you can see that as soon as you’re “off” the
diet, you’re going to put on any weight that you have lost, so then you hop
back on the fad, and the cycle starts all over again. You’d have to do this for
the rest of your life. It’s not how I want to spend my days.
A sample menu:
Breakfast
1/2 Grapefruit
2 Eggs (any style)
2 Slices Bacon
Lunch
1/2 Grapefruit
Meat (any style, any amount)
Salad (any kind of dressing)
Dinner
1/2 Grapefruit
Meat (any style, any amount) (fish may be substituted for meat)
Vegetables (any green, yellow, or red vegetables cooked in butter or any
seasoning)
Bed Time Snack
1 glass tomato juice or 1 glass Skim milk
Number One: The Cabbage Soup Diet
The smell! The taste! THE SMELL! This diet is barbaric. Why would you
put yourself through basically eating just cabbage soup for a week? This diet
states it should not be seen as a long term fix, but if you ask me, it shouldn’t
be any fix! It’s a bland lifestyle, and cabbage isn’t the friendliest on your
bowls. A typical week’s eating plan looks like this:
Day One:
Fruit: Eat all of the fruit you want (except bananas). Eat
only your soup and the fruit for the first day. For drinks- unsweetened teas,
cranberry juice and water.
Day Two:
Vegetables: Eat until you are stuffed will all fresh, raw or cooked
vegetables of your choice. Try to eat leafy green vegetables and stay away from
dry beans, peas and corn. Eat all the vegetables you want along with your soup.
At dinner, reward yourself with a big baked potato with butter. Do not eat
fruit today.
Day Three:
Mix Days One and Two: Eat all the soup, fruits and vegetables you want. No
Baked Potato.
Day Four:
Bananas and Skim Milk: Eat as many as eight bananas and drink as many
glasses of skim milk as you would like on this day, along with your soup. This
day is supposed to lessen your desire for sweets.
Day Five:
Beef And Tomatoes: Ten to twenty ounces of beef and up to six fresh
tomatoes. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water this day to wash the uric acid
from your body. Eat your soup at least once this day. You may eat broiled or
baked chicken instead of beef (but absolutely no skin-on chicken). If you
prefer, you can substitute broiled fish for beef on one of the beef days (but
not both).
Day Six:
Beef and Vegetables: Eat to your heart’s content of beef and vegetables
this day. You can even have 2 or 3 steaks if you like, with leafy green
vegetables. No Baked Potato. Eat your soup at least once.
Day Seven:
Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables: Again stuff,
stuff, stuff yourself. Be sure to eat your soup at least once this day.
If you want your friends to still spend time with you, do not try this
diet!
I’m in favour of weight management plans, like Weight Watchers, Slimming
World, Rosemary Conley etc. I’m not a fan of stupid and dangerous fads. When you
next consider starting a fad diet, please consider the pros and cons. Ask
yourself if you want a quick fix, or something more long-term. Starving yourself is not the way to do, and if you know anyone, young or old, who is doing just that, then please show them this article. It's no way to life. Strive for health, not for skin and bones.
©Alison Williamson, 2014
