Yesterday, I found out about Shangrila Diet. I’m 37 years old (female) and have fought being overweight my entire frackin’ life! :::misery:::: So name the diet, I’ve tried it. Another yo-yo queen in the ‘hood, and no story I can tell you about my life spent fighting fat is going to be any different that the ones you know.
I read about this plan in (where else?) Freakonomics just the other day (I had not been reading it regularly, although I love those guys; when it moved the the NYTimes I was hooked good!). I was intrigued. What nailed me was Seth’s observation that when he ate, he only got hungier. BING! My husband and I purposely avoid breakfast, despite dire warnings from nutritionists high and low, because eating in the morning just makes us ravenous by noon. The Hunger of it all! And, no, eating in the morning never never ever made us eat less later; it just ended up being more calories over all by bed time. We noticed thisbut all the popular research denied it. Most sensible diet plans suggest six meals of 200 calories, give or take depending on your weight. Get real. The 200 calories only starts the machine. We knew we weren’t crazy, but nothing we read validated our experiences…until now!
I’m a full time grad student and husband is in school too; we are poor, so I can’t get Seth’s book until payday nor can I buy any groceries either. But this morning I thought, hey, just try it out with what you can. I made up a liter of water with about 200 calories of sugar and took it to work. I finished my coffee at 8:30, drank the hummingbird water at 10:30 (I sipped at it over the course on 30 minutes) and went to fix my lunch at 1pm. I brought my usual rice/beans/veggies mix, which I make at home as it is wayyy cheap. It never fills me up, even a whole bowl of it, but takes off The Hunger pangs and then I usually end up snacking by 3 or 4pm. Then dinner…then after dinner snack…and so on.
Imagine my SHOCK to be standing in front of the microwave at work and thinking, “What is this strange feeling?” And it was strange, indeed. It was my body being hungry, but not my brain! As I cooked the food, I didn’t feel the normal panicky, ravenous hunger I feel right before I eat. It just wasn’t there. And when I ate my lunch, it was yummy but not…I don’t know how to describe it, but “not addictive” comes to mind. In fact I did not even finish it. I did not do my usual “shovel it in before you die!!” routine. The motivation was gone. I ate until my body said “ugh, no more” and then stopped.
O.
Mi.
Ghod.
I do not know what I weigh right now. I’m a size 16 and I think (from past experiences) that I’m tipping 200 by a pound or two. I’m 5′6″ and in excellent health, other than the BMI thing, and I even exercise regularly. I’m stating that here because tomorrow I’m going to weigh and post that #, and keep track for a while. Just to see. But even if I never lose a pound (a fate I’ve nearly come to accept…nearly…) I will consider myself blessed to be free of The Hunger.
