Really? Cookies?

A friend posted this crazy diet to Facebook. It is seriously fucked up. Really? Cookies? How dumb are people?

Here is the link.

The gist of the diet is that you eat six of their prepackaged cookies a day and one 'real' meal a day and you will lose 10 pounds a month. Of course you'll lose weight if you are only eating 800 calories a day! It should be called Malnutrition for Dummies. It doesn't help when Dr. Siegal (the creator of this bullshit) says, “I have yet to see the first case where anyone suffered the ill effects of a low calorie diet.” Really? What about fatigue, constipation, nausea, and diarrhea. Not to mention an increased susceptibility to a host of viruses.   

This sort of nonsense makes me angry. Weight loss is confusing and hard enough without mountebanks like this guy making it worse.

Warning: Exclamation Points Ahead...

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Those of you who are my friends on Facebook know that I finally hit my goal of 199 pounds. That means I have lost 100 pounds. 100 fucking pounds! It feels great to type it (and even better to say it). It doesn't seem real somehow. I'm so glad I decided to do this incrementally. Even though it doesn't seem like it took that long, I would have seemed almost unreachable in June of 2008, when I weighed 299 pounds.

No resting on my laurels, after all, I'm not finished. I am 2/3 the way through so I still have 50 pounds to go. However, I do get to maintain for a month, so I suppose there will be some resting  - just a little. I'm going to consider the weight I have to maintain is 197 pounds. With the 5 pound spread I allow myself that means I can weigh anything from 199 - 195. I don't want to see that 2 on the scale!

I have to say it one more time...

100 FUCKING POUNDS!!!!!!

Puling a Stephanie

Since I still have not reached that elusive 199 I had to "pull a Stephanie". Stephanie is one of my employees and when she started working for me she was in the middle of a self-imposed sugar ban. She wanted to see if she could not eat sugar for 6 months. She was able to, in fact I want to stop her whenever I see her eating sugar now - she's not supposed to eat sugar!

Until I see 199 I can't have sugar. So far it is working well, I am losing relatively quickly (within 5 pounds!) I hope to see it soon.

“There’s a subterfuge of health. But it’s just vanity.”

Msn.com had a very interesting article today about detox "cleansing" diets. I would recommend reading it. I really liked this part at the end:

"As Carly Milne, a 33-year-old journalist in L.A. and former master cleanser, puts it, “If I were to tell my girlfriends I was going on a diet to lose weight, they’d all say, ‘Love yourself for who you are; you look fabulous!’ But if I say I’m on a quest to get healthy, everyone is really supportive. It’s like you’re taking care of yourself, instead of beating up on yourself for not being perfect.”

Unfortunately most of the forum comments are from idiots.

The Lose Weight Diet

If you have a few free moments you may want to visit the Lose Weight Diet. I thought it was cool. I think the guy has the right sort of take on losing weight. He does a pretty good job at keeping it simple and straightforward as it really is.

My major complaint is that he has the Google Ads allowed on his site. I know he is keeping his 'program' free and all but it makes him seem hypocritical when it is alongside ads for the "lose 18 pounds in 4 days" shit.

I think it is definitely worth a gander.

I still haven't seen that elusive 1 on the scale yet, but I really don't deserve to. I've been bad. It would just be negative reinforcement. I'm going for the end of September, all I have to do it be good.

The Cheater's Diet

I just read The Cheater's Diet by Paul Rivas, M.D. and E.A. Tremblay. Apparently it is "the medically proven way to supercharge weight loss, break through diet ruts, and stay thin for good". Their theory is that by "taking weekends off" from your diet your body will not go into starvation mode and your metabolism will run hot consistently.

I thought it was an interesting hypothesis, but I don't think he had enough proof. The book doesn't have any footnotes or bibliography. I was put off at the first chapter because it was written with a this is so easy and doesn't involve any hard work on your part mentality. It did get better though. I could see this working well for some people with some weight to lose, but I don't see it working me. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Since today is my birthday I wanted to be at 199. Unfortunately, I have missed that goal by 6 pounds. So I still have some work to do until I can maintain (and see the wonderful 1 on the scale!). I hope to be able to do it in two weeks. We shall see.

Time Article

There was a very annoying article in Time Magazine recently. It was from a dude who was taking the stance that exercise won't help you lose weight. You can read the whole article here. However, he was just blaming exercise for his poor choices.

And here is an excellent rebuttal.

I think I'm particularly annoyed at Time for giving this idea a platform. I realize that not everyone needs a gym to get in shape (in fact, most people who lose weight use walking), but if you burn more calories than you consume - you will lose weight. It's a simple equation. It seems that too many people are already frightened by the idea of exerting themselves without giving them an excuse not to.

I thought of this article yesterday when I was asked on two separate times if I "was killing myself at the gym". I thought it was sad that it seemed like the only way I could lose weight was to "kill myself at the gym." I admit it's hard to get in the habit but I am at the point where I feel uncomfortable if I don't go to the gym. But I thought that a few years ago - and stopped going to the gym and gained back the weight I had lost (about 30 pounds). But I am glad it happened so I know I can't get complacent and assume that it will take care of itself.