Really? Eat weird stuff for a week and suddenly you’re a bikini model? I totally understand the attraction. A lot of people wouldn’t take their think past this level of it, they’d just stock up on bananas and go for it.
What I don’t understand – or maybe I do, because I was like this for years – is the following attitude that many people have. In the past year or so, I’ve talked to a lot of overweight people who were desperate to shed some serious poundage. They’d do serious weight loss strategies, because they were sick and tired of living the fat lifestyle. They’d eat weird little packages of frozen mac and cheese lite, or cabbage soup, or the all banana diet, or whatever. Torturing themselves with non-foods. Understand that to these people, weight loss was their number one goal in life.
So I’d suggest a strategy. It was like I asked them to kill a baby or something. “No way! I could NEVER do that!”
Actually, before I tell you what it is, care to take a guess? Anyone?
I get that people are looking for a quick and easy fix. I just don’t believe that people really and truly think that one week on this diet and they will be thin forever, problem solved. Do they really think it’s a permanent fix? If not, what’s the point of losing weight for a week? As others have said, you can do that with a bout of stomach flu.
Yes. Our diet is now supposed to comprise 95% saturated fat (they recommend at least five daily servings of lard or fried cheese) and we’re to avoid all fresh fruits and vegetables. (Jalapeno poppers are acceptable.) Plain drinking water is strongly discouraged; dehydration may be avoided by consuming several tall glasses of gin, vermouth, and olive juice. (Melted Freezer Pops may be substituted for children under four.) Most strikingly, cigarettes and Vicodin are somehow now considered “food groups.”
It seems counterintuitive to those of us accustomed to the old food pyramid, but it’s based on hard science. I, for one, am enjoying my newly-healthy lifestyle.
Actually, they didn’t so much reverse it as turn it on its side. It’s better than it was, but they still got some things wrong. And it’s become pretty useless. From it, I now know that I’m supposed to be eating more orange triangles, and cutting down on those thin little yellow triangles. Does this mean I should be getting more Doritos in my diet?
Yeah, I got that too. After I lost some weight, people were very interested in how/what I ate (actually only made small adjustments there) and seemed disappointed when I said I also worked out 3-5 times a week. Maybe it seems like too much work? It’s not after you get used to it, but it does require a time of adjustment.
It’s not all that weird to me, and I say that as someone who’s exercised for the last eleven years. It’s uncomfortable, it makes you tired, and it takes time from your day. It’s hard for people to see the real benefits of being in good physical condition. I noticed it most sharply during our trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. Being able to climb to the tops of both High Dune and Star Dune and back to the parking lot in five hours and not be more than very tired (hey, it’s not easy to climb vertical hills all afternoon when you’re sinking to your shins in sand, you know) is a wonderful feeling.
By the way, you can exercise and still be overweight. I was. So was my husband. It wasn’t until we started dieting that we lost weight.
You know, coming from someone who was obsessive about exercise then became super morbidly obese – exercise is not as simple when you’re 5’3" and 330+ lbs as it is when you’re a normal weight. Do you know that just standing up hurt like hell – I tried to exercise, but ended up just hurting myself.
I know, and you know that weight loss should be a simple equation (calories in > calories out = gain, calories in < calories out = loss, calories in = calories out = stability), it isn’t always that simple. Sometimes our bodies throw us a curveball such as thryoid issues.
Weight loss is a lot more than just “watch what you eat and exercise more” for many people. It may also be “get some bloodwork done” or “check the side effects of the medicines you’re taking.” While I also am amazed at how people grasp at every fad (read: idiotic/restrictive/extreme) diet, but refuse to exercise, I know that it is just the way people are. It’s the same thing as people who call me to say “OMG, I am trying to place an order online and it won’t let me, what’s wrong with your website?” When I ask them how much their order is, they reply, “$14, why?” I say “Do you see that bright yellow highlighted text that says that your order must be over $25 to be processed?” and they reply “Oh, I never read that stuff, I figure it doesn’t apply to me.” :dubious:
Our society is always going to be looking for the easy way out – whether it’s calling someone to tell us what we could just as easily read for ourself or eating some crazy shit diet rather than exercising – that’s how we have ended up with cars and planes and well, pretty much all technology, we are always trying to do it the easy way.
I personally pray that they do find the gene to turn off to stop obesity. I hope that they do invent a magic pill to make you lose weight even while eating everything in sight, but until they do, because of my own history, I will reserve judgement on those who choose – for whatever reason, be it laziness or medical – not to exercise.
Make no mistake, I wasn’t judging people who have legitimate medical reasons. I’m talking about otherwise healthy individuals who, when you mention exercise to them, turn right off. You can almost hear their inner child whine “Awwwwww, do I have to?”
I don’t judge people or even talk about my own weight loss methods unless people ask me about it. I don’t care what my co-workers eat or how much they exercise. But if they ask me how I did it, then don’t like the answer, well…I can’t help them. I swear one woman here has asked me how I did it 3 times and never seems to believe that for me it really was eat less, exercise more. Like I am holding back some big secret from her. I think if I took her aside one day and said, you know, I actually really did lose 20 pounds by eating nothing but corn and strawberry pie she would do it. That would seem more enticing and logical to her.
Of course it would be more enticing! My daughter, last school year, decided she wanted to drop 20 lbs. She didn’t really need to, but it wouldn’t hurt her, so I tried to help. We talked about how she could be better about exercising instead of eating when she was bored, stop eating in between meals, etc. One of her friends told her “oh, I once dropped 20 lbs just by cutting out eating pork” so my daughter asked me about this. I explained that while that might work for someone who eats a lot of pork (especially if they primarily eat country ham) it wouldn’t have any affect on her weight loss, since she might eat pork, oh, once a month? She’s a smart kid, but yeh, she’s human and would rather have a quick-fix answer than “step away from the computer and put the doritos down.”
**Side note – I actually did lose a ton of weight one summer on what I called the corn diet. I ate nothing but whole kernel corn (lightly salted, no butter) and airpopped popcorn. I figured the corn tastes good, but makes its way pretty much undigested through your system coming out whole, so it’s gotta be the perfect food! As for the popcorn – that’s just an OCD thing – it literally takes me about 2 hours to eat one small bowl of popcorn, because of the way I have to eat it. It’s a sickness, I refuse to eat popcorn in front of non-family because of it.
Just cut out pork? Huh. I once was told that I could lose weight if I just cut out beef. I was told this by someone who never ate beef and constantly called herself fat.
We could almost do a whole thread on crazy ideas we’ve heard about nutrition and weight loss, but this thread is pretty much turning into that anyway.
I do get frustrated though, when even my own mother asks me how I’ve dropped some weight and gotten fit but then will offer a bazillion excuses as to why what I’ve done won’t work for her.
The latest excuse was that she did not have enough space in the family room to do Pilates with a video I’d given her. Excuse me? I’ve been in that family room and you could probably fit three people in there all doing Pilates at the same time with no problem.
I told her if I could do Pilates in a hotel room between the two beds, I was pretty sure she could do it in her family room–if she wanted to.
She did look sheepish and admit it came down to motivation.
I get that she may not be motivated to make these changes, but given that she’s entirely capable and doesn’t have an underlying medical issue as Litoris mentioned up thread, then IMO she’s also forfeited the right to complain about her weight.
Yup – of course, what I found funny is that Susan Pewter (wasn’t that her name? with the blonde buzz cut that lost a ton) saying “well, of course, you can’t eat pork, I mean – it comes from pigs and why do you think we call fat people ‘pigs’?” I honestly think that still ranks in the top 10 stupidest arguments I have ever heard.
