I have tried many diets in my life. I have tried calorie counting diets, point counting diets, low fat diets, and starvation diets. I even tried the cabbage soup diet once. If you are reading this, and have not yet tried it, take my advice and don't. There is only so much cabbage soup you can down before you begin to look and smell like a cabbage.
Most of these diets, if applied with enough willpower, caused me to lose weight. Of course, they also caused me to be very, very, very hungry, because they all involved NOT EATING ENOUGH FOOD! I remember counting out twelve wheat crackers into the palm of my hand once, and salivating as I did it, because I was sooo hungry, but twelve one inch crackers was all I could have for the rest of the night. This struck me as madness. Still, with every diet I lost weight if I applied myself.
And then I turned 45. In honor of this achievement my body decided to never lose another easy ounce. Not that those ounces were easy in the past, but after 45 I could not lose weight no matter what I applied and when I applied it. I increased exercise, no weight loss. I decreased my eating, no weight loss. When I finally decided to fast, I did lose weight. Mostly it was water, and the minute I took a bite of food, it all came back overnight.
I was totally frustrated because not only was I unable to lose weight, but I had also let myself get 20 pounds heavier than I had ever been before, and I was uncomfortable, unhappy, unattractive, and felt guilty every time I ate a meal. I was reading all over the internet for things to try, and nothing seemed to work.
And then I discovered a style of eating that interested me: the Paleo or Primal Diet. It didn't interest me because it promised weight loss (though it did (they all did!)); it interested me because it involved eating like our ancient ancestors and I have always been interested in cavemen. I played with little plastic ones when I was a toddler and enjoyed camping and hunting as an adult, so I was fascinated by someone who was promoting eating more meat, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and nothing processed, like they did in days of prehistory.
I decided to try this style of eating, for my health. I had no pretenses that I would lose weight. I had tried everything and nothing had worked. I was doing it to see if it made me feel better. My digestive system had been giving me fits for a few years and I was tired of feeling bad half the time because of it.
I was pleasantly surprised when after a week on the diet, I stepped on a scale and had lost 4 pounds! This is more than I had lost in two or three weeks on a diet back when I could still lose weight, and unheard of at my present state of health and age. I wrote it off to a happy coincidence or perhaps time to get a new scale, and went on. Ignoring the scale for a couple weeks (it always bore bad news anyway), I stepped back up a couple weeks later and had lost another six pounds! for a total of 10 pounds in three weeks.
Not only had I lost weight, but after the first week, I was not hungry. I no longer got hunger pains by 11 in the morning, longing for lunch so I could stop them. I was even more astounded by the fact that by week two, my digestive problems had also disappeared.
I had found a diet that enabled me to lose weight, feel good AND did not make me hungry. Gone are the days of counting wheat crackers into my palm for a snack. Gone are the days of hunger pains so intense I longed for "real food". Gone are the days of expensive diet replacements for fat.
I would suggest if you are any age, but especially if you are 40 or older, and you want to lose weight, increase your health and not be hungry doing it, that you look into the Paleo or Primal (or Caveman or many other names that have similar methodologies) Diet.
I have lost close to 30 pounds now and have decided to make this a lifestyle rather than a temporary diet. I feel better and healthier now than I did when I was in college!
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