You on a Diet

Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz wrote this book (interesting video on this link) that was recently featured on Oprah. It is one of the best written diet books that I have ever read. It’s humorous and complete with illustrations and it is very technical/medical without being boring. My mom gave me the book after my sister Precious recommended it. Precious lost 21 pounds on this diet in 1 month, but she has a slight advantage because she had lap band surgery so that helps her to eat smaller portions.

So what is the big secret that this book has that other diet books don’t have? Not much really. What it does explain though is that you should view food as a weapon against fat and not avoid it. Instead avoid the sugars and high carb foods. Eat more vegetables, more chicken and fish, it’s the same old story with only a few slight variations. One of those variations is that your belly is the main area that you should focus on when you diet. It is a true picture of how healthy you are and it also points out that the larger your belly is the more stress you have. Belly fat is stress fat. Hmmm… I’ve got a belly and I’ve got a lot of stress, I wonder if I continue to de-stress my life if my belly will shrink as a result? Possibly.

So what about the actual diet in the book? I actually didn’t like it. It had these ridiculously small portions like 1 piece of wheat toast for breakfast with some apple butter. Tuna and lettuce for lunch. Chicken breast for dinner. This is a slight exaggeration, but the point is, don’t buy this book thinking that it will have some magical answers that will help you lose weight. It doesn’t. It basically has these guidelines.

1. Cut out bad carbs -sugar, white bread, white rice, potatoes, corn, etc.
2. Watch out for trans fat and partially hydrogenated substances which are found in margarines and most items that are prepackaged in a bag like chips and crackers and cookies.
3. Eat more fruit and vegetables – especially the green ones. How long have we heard this and not listened to it?
4. Walk for 30 minutes a day no matter what. Lift weights for 30 minutes at least once a week.
5. Try to eat protein at every meal as it increases your metabolism by 14%.
6. Increasing your body temperature while working out does increase your metabolism. So get that fan off of you while you are on the treadmill. It won’t hurt you to sweat.
7. Eat at least 17 grams of fiber a day.

So now after reading the South Beach Diet book, You on a Diet and Dr. Atkins diet book they all say virtually the same thing. EAT FEWER CARBS – EAT MORE VEGETABLES. Why is that so hard to do? I’m going to add this mantra to my Outlook calendar with a daily reminder because my mentor recently told me that if you have goals you should read over them every day. Olympic athletes apparently do this. Every morning they read over their goals and this makes them more successful at reaching them.