Why do crazy diets work?

I once owned a book called “The Dr. Forgot-His-Name’s Quick Weight Loss Diet Plan.”  It was really a collection of  crash diets that called upon the dieter to eat strange things for quick weight loss.  I tried several of them and they worked — temporarily.  Why?

Simple reason. The ones that were effective were ones which were basically low glycemic. The trouble was that you can’t eat crazy stuff forever and be healthy.  After the first few days you feel lousy and develop intestinal issues and bad breath, among other things.  Then, as soon as you quit the weird food, you gain the pounds back, pronto.  To make matters worse, the weight you lost was partly lean muscle and water. The weight you gained back was all fat.  Not a good idea.

Those strange plans are still around.  Like the Egg Diet, in which you eat all the eggs you want along with vegetables and some fruit.   Guess what?  Eggs have a zero glycemic number and the vegetables and fruit are in the green zone.  Egg dieters are eating a very low glycemic diet, so they will see a quick weight drop.  But are you going to eat only eggs forever?  Not a healthy idea. Besides, I predict you will hate eggs after the first week.

Our goal isn’t to see a quick number change on the scale, but to build a healthy, lean body.  That takes time, and it’s just a good plan to vary your meals.  Eat protein, including eggs, if you wish, but add some variety with lean meat, poultry and fish.  Eat lots of veggies — and add variety there, too.  Pick a new variety of vegetable and try out new recipes.  I’m adding jicama to my salad today.(I’ll let you know how that goes.) Choose an exotic fruit from the produce section to have as a snack or dessert.  Star fruit, for example, really jazzes up the way a fruit salad looks and tastes.

Use some creativity and treat yourself to a wide variety of foods from the green list and add a few from the yellow. You are going to eat this way for the rest of your life, so don’t burn out by eating just a few foods until you are sick of them!

On the flip side, there are some advantages of having some of your meals on cruise control.  More about that tomorrow.

Eating to live and living for Christ,
Susan Jordan Brown