Everyday Systems

I just threw out the last of my diet books and it felt great. I could have given them away but to me they are sort of evil and why put anyone else through the nonsense. It was also cathartic to physically throw them out.

Much needed and long overdue!

No-S is for me... why read anything else!

I did that about 5 years ago. Now I no longer pay attention to diet "news" -- the newest plan, research, etc. It's very liberating.

wow, 5 years is a long time. that's awesome! And you never feel tempted by the "latest craze"?

gettheweightoff wrote:wow, 5 years is a long time. that's awesome! And you never feel tempted by the "latest craze"?

No -- never. I'd read about them, but rarely even considered following them. Nothing made sense to me.

Good for you, Nicole! I wish I could bring myself to throw all MINE out! Most of my "library" is made up of diet books... and I hardly ever read them these days. It's almost as if I'm hanging onto them as some sort of security blanket

Just this morning, I was leafing through the latest edition of woman's world magazine and I won't go into specifics here cos I don't wanna mess with anyone else's head(s) but there was yet another new and exciting diet plan featured and it did pique my interest for all of 5 minutes... and then I remembered where dieting had got me in the past - not only dieting, jumping around from plan to plan, seeking the perfect diet i.e. one where I could eat all I wanted and NOT gain weight There ain't one!!

No S is the answer to eating what you want, when you want in unlimited quantities (well, sort of).

Roxy, was that the one with the tummy tuck diet on the cover? I hate to admit it but I leafed through it at the checkout.

Anyways, I was holding on to all my diet books for far too long and maybe in the back of my mind I thought I could always go back to one of them but they don't work or else I wouldn't be here so it just felt good to chuck em. And you should have seen me throw them in the trash.. part of me wanted to sell them or recycle them or give them away but it felt very meaningful and cathartic for me to throw them with vengeance into the garbage. I hesitated and then I just threw the pile of them in all at once. It was something I had to do for me because the meaning behind it is that I am done with all of them. Good riddance!

Interesting to see this topic 'cause I was looking at my bookshelf this weekend and thinking the exact same thing!

I was thinking of donating them to the public library, but maybe I'll follow your lead and throw them out so they won't "poison" anyone else.

So long, diets! I'll never miss 'em.

I find it very salutary to re-visit old diet books, seeing those promises, so convincing, yet so false. Maybe the authors believed in them, yet they let me down.

Another idea might be to donate them to a public library but with a note in the flyleaf saying "I totally believed this author, did the diet, and it let me down, just like all the others. I finally found something that works - the No S diet. You don't even need to buy a book, just go to www.nosdiet.com" That sounds better to me than throwing them away.

That's a great idea but unfortunately I already threw them out. It did feel good to chuck em in the garbage because even though donating them is a good thing to do, I needed to symbolically chuck them as a statement to and for myself that I am DONE with all those "diets". No-S is giving me my life/mind back and I don't need to keep this junk around. It's like it was holding me back subconsciously or something. They were in my nightstand and under my bed and I have so much trouble sleeping and I just needed to purge it all to get it out and away from me.

I know this sounds a little nuts but it was hanging over me. I'd see these books and it's almost like a reminder of all this diet insanity and all the failures.

I actually have a few more things to throw out that I stumbled upon last night (weight watchers books, diet log books etc.) Will throw out the rest tonight!

I'll confess that I occasionally look at the various magazines that mention the newest diet -- but it's more to see what nonsense they're promoting now. The diets are nothing I'd consider learning more about or actually following.

Hey guys ! Can't remember the name of the diet Nicole, but it basically the plan was to eat 3 x 400 calorie meals a day, regardless of whether it were junk or 'real food'. Yes, it actually had some medical person or other quoting this in the article! As you can imagine, it did pique my interest, especially the bit about the junk food part. If it were down to me, I'd end up making all my meals 400 cals' worth of junk and once you get down that route... nah! If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

wosnes wrote:I did that about 5 years ago. Now I no longer pay attention to diet "news" -- the newest plan, research, etc. It's very liberating.

This is hard to do, but good advice.

The one I read was called the Mega Meyr Diet based on some spa in Austria.

Ya, just eating junk wouldn't work. That's pretty much what I did on Weight Watchers. It didn't teach me anything and I gained everything I lost back extremely quickly.

gettheweightoff wrote:I just threw the pile of them in all at once. It was something I had to do for me because the meaning behind it is that I am done with all of them. Good riddance!

I did that with all of mine except one....The kids have a hamster and I ended up being the one to clean its cage every week. I use that one remaining diet book to block the hamster in his little cubby hole while I clean all the CRAP out of his cage. Hmmm.....there's no underlying meaning in that is there????

I think people should do whatever works for them.

That said...
I'm the opposing voice here.

Diet books are just interesting information for me.
As part of my dieting hobby, I read them all the time.
Actually, I love diet books. I like looking at the different methods
that people have to lose and maintain weight.
I even enjoy the confirmation when I find that a new diet is the same old one.
I can honestly say that I've learned something from every diet book I've read,
.....and I've read hundreds of them.
Sometimes what I learn is exactly the opposite from what the author intends to teach me.
Sometimes I find a new thought or a new idea.
Sometimes I find a new recipe that puts together foods I like
in a whole new way that I'd previously never considered.
If I had stopped reading diet books after I reached my goal weight,
and maintaining it a couple of years,
I would never found No S,
nor been exposed to the many concepts here that are very helpful to me,
or "met" all the great people here on this forum.
Many diet books are similiar,
but occasionally, while reading many of them, I find some Gems.

I don't have to hate dieting,
and I don't have to hate reading diet books.
It's okay if other people choose to think this way,
but there are other options available,
and those are okay too.
It really IS all a matter of perspective.