What's the silliest diet you've ever tried?

jerseymonster · Post by **jerseymonster** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:20 pm

I lost a lot of weight a number of years ago by just eating sensibly and getting moderate exercise, but I slid back into bad habits and some of the pounds crept back on. So, desperate to lose it fast, I tried some really silly diets.

Like that Special K challenge diet? Where you eat cereal for two meals a day, and one normal meal? Oh, man, that wreaked havoc with my blood sugar. I was ravenous all the time. I only lasted a week, and by that time I was ready to chow down on the entire cereal box - cardboard, plastic bag, and all.

I also tried one diet that allowed tiny portions of veggies, tofu, and brown rice for the first two weeks, and nothing else. No meat, no fish, and only limited portions of fruit. No dairy. You were allowed to gradually add things back in after a number of weeks had passed, but I couldn't stick with it. I love veggies, tofu, and brown rice, but not at every meal, and I can't stick with a diet that has "forbidden" foods.

NOTE - I'm not trying to dredge up difficult times for people who've struggled with eating disorders. I want this to be about the things you can look back at and laugh about.

So, with all that said, I don't know why I didn't start the No-S diet sooner. I used a very similar strategy when I lost all the weight to begin with (even though I hadn't heard of the No-S diet until recently), so I don't know why I didn't just stick with what works :)

What's the silliest thing you've ever tried?

elizabeth333 · Post by **elizabeth333** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:33 pm

The Lemonade Diet. HORRIBLE, TORTUROUS, REDICULOUS, COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPLY WITH UNLESS YOU ARE ANOREXIC. You don't eat any solid food. You drink lemon water with syrup and cayanne pepper in it. You drink laxative tea twice a day. You drink a HUGE glass of salt water each morning that makes you puke and have diarreah all at once. I get physically ill just thinking about this HELL DIET. It promises body cleansing, mental clarity, and dropping lbs faster than you can count them, but the fact is that I don't know who could punish themselves like this long enogh to lose lots of weight, and I can't imagine anyone maintaining any weight lost this way. I spent $300.00 on all the supplies needed for this plan thinking I was actually going to lose 60 lbs in two months! WHAT A WASTE! I've probably also tried just about every other silly diet out there, but this was THE WORST BY FAR!!

Dawn · Post by **Dawn** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 6:25 pm

I've heard of that cleansing diet, a friend works with an older couple and they swear by it - funny how something so crazy actually works for some people - or maybe they aren't people, maybe they are aliens!

Anyway, it is hard to pick the silliest since there have been so many. I can pick the funniest and the smelliest though.

Funniest - was Adkins. A co-worker lost 40 pounds on a similar plans years earlier so she and I got on the Adkins together. I ate so much meat it was insane. It was so opposite of what we were used to doing that so many things we would hear ourselves say just sounded hilarious - maybe we were high from all the fat. Things like "don't forget the extra cheese" or "yes you can have Ranch on your salad, as long as its the full fat and not the light" would have us rolling. To this day we rehash some of those antics when we get together. Of course the Adkins didn't work for me, but I do admit there is a connection to cutting way back on carbs and seeing your sugar cravings really subside. So I did get something out of - something that I can incorporate into my no S.

Smelliest - cabbage soup diet. Should be called the poop your brains out diet. Also, the gas was so bad I was afraid to leave the house, mostly because I thought I asphixiate myself in the car on the way. Sooooo not sexy!

Others I have done: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Slim Fast, starvation, Herbalife, many diet pills. Not to mention the $ I have spend on exercise. Treadmill $900 (liked this but once it broke I thought it was too expensive to replace) - CardioGlide - $250 (constant rash on butt cheeks - again, sooo not sexy) Gazelle - $250 (just couldn't get into) Membership at Curves, Billy Blanks DVD - way too intense, way too fast for this old woman of 43, and lots of other DVD's that don't hold my interest.

Jammin' Jan · Post by **Jammin' Jan** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:01 am

Atkins about 30 years ago...always hungry, never satisfied.

Cabbage Soup about 10 years ago...gassy and strange stomach spasms.

silver · Post by **silver** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:14 am

i've tried lots of silly diets but the worst thing was - tablets. now that i look back on it, there might even have been something illegal in them, i don't know.

i got them from a friend when i was living in england. she claimed they were for people 300lbs and more who were given them to help them lose weight at some clinics or something, but people who are not so heavy shouldn't use them. and she said she had a doctor friend who could get hold of them for me too. i took them for 2 months. i don't remember their name, the only thing i remember is, that the recommended dose was 15-30 milligrams. i took 60. she said it works better that way. and why i think there was something strange in them? well, first of all, i didn't sleep for 3 days. and i didn't miss sleep. my heart was racing like a race horse. only after that i started sleeping a few hours and then gradually more, as my body was adjusting to it. secondly, when i saw food, i felt like puking although there was nothing to bring up and out. that lasted about 4-5 days. then i had my first meal. well meal, i think i just had a banana. and thirdly a was a real b@#*ch! i argued with everybody about everything and all the time. i only realized this last one after i reached my desired weight and stopped taking those terrible things. it just hit me then, what a horrible flatmate i had been. fourthly, that girl was not only an these pills but also took valium on regular basis, which might not be so bad, but later i heard something about cocaine as well. and god knows what else.

i lost 16 kilograms (35 lbs, i think) in those 2 months but i got 15 back next 3 months. i was stupid, young and naive then. now, when i think of it i really think, there must have been something really horrible in those half green, half purle-brownish little things.

navin · Post by **navin** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:19 pm

For most of my pre-no-S existence, I was on the seefood diet. If I see food, I eat it.

franxious · Post by **franxious** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:27 am

I once went on an almost all-brocolli diet in high school. After a few days, I had such severe gas pains I had to stay home from school. That's when I gave up that diet.

More recently, I tried the Weight Loss for Idiots diet. Based on foods you select, you are given 11 days' worth of menus, of four meals a day. My days were all like: Meal 1 -- pastrami and peanuts. Meal 2 -- turkey and macadamia nuts. Meal 3 -- grapes and scrambled eggs. Meal 4 -- roast beef and green vegetables. This is an expensive and extremely inconvenient diet. Not to mention that after a few days, you get completely bored with the foods. After 11 days, you get three days that are like S days. On those days, I always went crazy because I was so fed up with the food from the past 11 days. The worst thing about it was that I didn't even lose any weight!

mausfrau · Post by **mausfrau** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:28 am

Without a doubt, the Shangri-La Diet. You'd think that something you hear about on NPR would be a little less STUPID, right?

Also, when I was in sixth grade, my mother put us both on something that I think was a precursor to the Cabbage Soup Diet. It was disgusting. The vegetable drink (it was a chilled drink instead of soup, but the ingredients were similar) went moldy in the refrigerator and left a stain on the Tupperware pitcher it was in. I found that pitcher in her cabinet a few years ago; nearly 30 years and hundreds of trips through the dishwasher later, the mold stains were STILL THERE. Maybe I'm the only one who can see them; that diet left a permanent stain on my psyche, that's for sure.

mausfrau
<:3)~

chiquitabanana · Post by **chiquitabanana** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:01 am

Slim fast was by far the wackiest one for me drink two shakes of pure sugar flavored milk and and a sensible dinner! yeah right i was so starved i chewed on gum the whole day to beat the hunger cravings and then i would pig out at dinner because i was so deprived. It totally sent me into binge mode.

bonnieUK · Post by **bonnieUK** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:53 am

Re: Lemonade diet

I had a friend at college who often "fasted" drinking lots of water, a little fruit and veg / juice, and sometimes allowed egg white only omlettes. I also knew girls who abused over the counter laxatives daily and considered this normal.

Somehow I don't think the so called "Lemonade diet" is much different to the self abuse my college friends inflicted on themselves, but somehow because it is an official "diet" and considered a "detox" it isn't looked upon as badly as an eating disorder / laxative abuse. I have to admit I was tempted once to try the lemonade diet as a weight loss kick start, then I thought about my college friend and thought, is this really any different to what she did? So I decided not to go there

I did try a raw food diet fast / detox once, but depriving my body of warm starchy foods and a good cup of coffee was more difficult than I first thought! (I lasted less than 2 days).

popsmoonface · Post by **popsmoonface** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:31 pm

The "Mayo Clinic Diet".....basically on Mondays you could have bananas all day and on Tuesday it was all veggies and so on and so on....it was the stupidest diet that claimed that Mayo Clinic gave this plan to their extremely obese patients for a super fast weight loss. It's so funny thinking about all the crazy things I've done just to lose weight...I'm ready for a REAL-LIFE plan!

MerryKat · Post by **MerryKat** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:20 am

I think the daftest ones I have tried have been:

Shakes for breakfast and lunch and pigging out for dinner because I was so glad to see food. I did loose for a few weeks, but then the dinner pig outs got too big and I maintained.

Food Combining (No Proteins & Starches, only veggies with either and no fruit with anything else - Dairy was a protein). This worked and I lost about 5kg (11lb) in 3 months, but it was definitely not sustanable, or friendly for eating with other people.

bonnieUK · Post by **bonnieUK** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 2:00 pm

Did anyone catch "Super slim me - the race to size zero" on BBC 3 last night?

It was very interesting, for those who didn't see it, a fairly average/slim young woman (UK size 12) documented her 2 months or so of extreme dieting with the aim of getting to a hollywood size Zero (UK size 4). She basically endured a couple of months of torture/starvation - limiting herself to 500 calories a day, and trying fads like the lemonade diet etc. too. She lost something like 7 kilos, but by the end of it looked really miserable, exhausted and unhealthy. Her doctor said something about having dangerously low white blood count and antioxidant levels, cancer risk etc. etc.

One thing that amazed me is that she somehow managed to exercise on this diet (some quite hardcore exercise too like a bootcamp class type thing in LA) - I find it difficult to have the energy for exercise on a normal diet, and if I cut back my calory intake even a little my energy goes out of the window.

I think you can watch the episode here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074gf6

I think this quote from her pretty much sums up why we should avoid extreme dieting!

â€œI suffered from extreme depression four or five weeks into it. I could not even face leaving the flat. I had chronic insomnia and felt like a total social reject.â€

freegirlnow · Post by **freegirlnow** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 2:48 pm

I think for me it was the Cambridge Diet, akin to MediFast and Optifast style where you just stay on a liquid fast for two weeks or so and then try to eat 'normally' in between for a week. I was only consuming 330 calories a day (starving) and I must say, adjusting to no food is easier than one might think. I had a lot of energy somehow (less fat = more energy?) and worked out 5 days a week...I lost 73 lbs in 4 months, got pregnant, started consuming 1600-1800 cal per day (which should have been maintenance), gained 40 lbs during the pregnancy (which was short term 7 mos), and another 30 after, created a metabolic mess, quit smoking, gained 30 more lbs, ended up with high BP and depression, nearly stroked out and learned a hard lesson about what is realisitic and healthy and livable. Suffice it to say I have tried just about everything up until finally deciding to just say NO to diets. Then one day 3 weeks ago I stumbled upon NoSdiet.com and went, "Hmmmm...I think can live with this..." and I've lived happily ever after.

Mavilu · Post by **Mavilu** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:20 am

It was Weight Watchers for me.
I realize it's a system that works and has worked for millions, but it's just not for everyone.
If you cook a lot, all the point calculations start being a source of anxiety, after a while I was just paralyzed with indecision and uncertainty upon getting hungry; should I eat this?, let's see... *counting* nope, too many points, that? *counting* still too many points, this one! *counting* too many points! *stomach growls* aw, hell, what am I going to eat!! *stomach growls alarmingly now*.

Never again.

annafarmer · Post by **annafarmer** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:32 am

Wow, these posts are like a trip down memory lane! I spent 5 months on the cabbage soup diet, leading to a long term hatred of vegetable soup. I had completely forgotten about that Mayo clinic diet with the all banana and milk day! I did that for like 3 or 4 months once. I thought I had tried every diet out there, but I have to admit the Lemonade one is new to me.

As far as the silliest diet... I did one where I could eat whatever I wanted for 1 hour a day, but the rest of the day I could only drink herbal teas. Talk about eating like a crazed woman! Nobody had better get in my way during my hour of food

.

Anna

paulrone · Post by **paulrone** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:33 pm

silver wrote:well, first of all, i didn't sleep for 3 days. and i didn't miss sleep. my heart was racing like a race horse. only after that i started sleeping a few hours and then gradually more, as my body was adjusting to it. secondly, when i saw food, i felt like puking although there was nothing to bring up and out. that lasted about 4-5 days. then i had my first meal. well meal, i think i just had a banana. and thirdly a was a real b@#*ch! i argued with everybody about everything and all the time. i only realized this last one after i reached my desired weight and stopped taking those terrible things.

That sounds a lot like crystal methamphetamine.

Actually, I did something similar. My wife ran a child day care in the house, so I would get about 3 hours of sleep per day, I went to college from 5:00pm to 10:00pm, worked the night shift from 10:30pm to 7:30pm and lived on coffee and ephedra pills. My pupils were so constricted, I looked like a zombie (felt like one, too). I quit taking the pills when I started hearing voices at work (I was a computer administrator, I worked alone in the office all night). I can't remember how much weight I lost, but I only ate about four real meals during the week. My most vivid memory was the continual state of mental fog.

lmt2pt · Post by **lmt2pt** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:56 am

The silliest was the Grapefruit Diet. I was 15 and my best friend AND HER PARENTS were doing it and talked me into it. It was 7 years before I ate citrus fruit again. I live in Florida. It was bad.

But the most complicated by far was the Rotation Diet, and the Weight Watchers message board version called the Wendy Plan. I would eat different caloric or points amounts each day. Some days I was stuffed and still had 600 calories left to eat other days I was out of calories by lunch. Instead of it being Tuesday it was 1250 day. Blech!

palomayombe · Post by **palomayombe** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:39 pm

***************

FarmerHal · Post by **FarmerHal** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:00 pm

In high school I was the fat kid (179lbs- I'd love to be that even now!!)
and In 3 months (junior to senior summer) I dropped 30 by eating only white, plain minute rice for lunch and a baked potato with only light margerine for supper. I kept that off for about 2 years and then it crept back up and up and up over the last 12 or so. Up to 242 and now after noSing (even not perfectly!) I'm down to 216.5 give or take. Slow but Steady!

I also did the slim fast shake diet inbetween there. It worked well but I was insanely hungry the entire time. I'm hungry inbetween meals on noS, but it's not hard to ignore, it's actually a bit pleasant, but when I was doing the shakes, MAN, that rolling stomach starving, headachy, dizzy hunger. Crazy. Must have been the blood sugar roller coaster from that.

ETA: I also did the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, which has a lot of the same principles of nos, 3 meals, no carbs for b'fast or lunch (not even a carrot! LOL) and one carb for supper (whatever u wanted it to be). They stressed no snacking. I lost weight quickly on that but I had horrid headaches (they claim it's from going no carb adn taht you'd get used to it) and the whole exclusion of healthy whole grains, potatoes and many, many veggies made it very hard to stick to!

Noturningback · Post by **Noturningback** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:28 pm

Phen-Fen!

I was a teenager and it caused me to over-salivate. I was constantly swallowing and couldn't sleep. When I confronted the doctor with my problem, she basically denied it was the Phen-Fen.

I quit cold turkey, never realizing the withdrawals would be SO much fun (sense sarcasm?)

My salivation problem ceased when I quit taking the pills. Now, at 35, I pray those pills didn't do irreversible damage to my body.

Someone mentioned weight watchers. I always gained with weight watchers because I am the type - when given 24 points to use daily - I'll eat a 13x9" brownie instead of spreading my meals - LOL. I do better with more protein/fat than carbs - well I suppose if the carbs are refined anyone would do better to limit those. Thankfully, I don't count fat/carbs/calories anymore. The No S diet is great!

~Danielle

Lilly · Post by **Lilly** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:00 pm

Super Size Me.
I know that it was a "documentary" and not a diet(by definiton, isn't a documentary suppose to be factual?) I was stupified by how many people thought it was an eye opening expose on McDonald's. Wouldn't any food establishment have had the same results? Who eats til they are stuffed, throws up, and keeps eating the food they were forced to eat. Who has to say yes to everything they are offered at a food establishment? He went about trying to slam fast food establishments in the most insane manner I have ever seen. This is truly the most ASININE thing I have ever heard about in my lifetime.
*Did anyone but me see the follow up to this movie? A lady was paid to eat at Mcd's 3 times a day. She ate whatever she wanted and actually lost a couple of pounds.

Nichole · Post by **Nichole** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:14 pm

Toss between Special K Diet and Atkins.

I also tried logging all my foods into mypyramid.gov and I also tried prevention.com. You can actually make your own nutrtion facts. I remember just a couple months ago sitting there filling out the blanks with my soup cup in hand. That got old fast.

TingTing · Post by **TingTing** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:14 pm

SlimFast was the worst diet I've ever been on!

When it first came out, I was pretty excited! I thought that I would be able to drop the weight just like that and I wouldn't be hungry because I had something in my stomach! Boy, was I totally, totally wrong!

I lasted on SlimFast for a day.

Every 10 seconds I'd fart. I farted all day and it smelt really bad. I tried not to stand too close to anyone while at work and I walked funny because I was frantically trying to clench my buttocks together so the loud fart would not escape.

It was extremely embarassing in that after awhile, all my co-workers knew who the farter was. I ended up throwing away all the cans of SlimFast. I'll never go on it again!

maura007 · Post by **maura007** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:46 pm

Well, let's see: There was the 3 prescribed amphentamine capsules daily (lowered to 3 smaller tablets daily when I didn't sleep for 3 days). And there was Adkins, and Pritikin and Cabbage Soup and Slim Fast (gives me the sugar shakes just like donuts do). I think Slim Fast is dangerous. There was high carb and low carb and no carb at all. And high fat and low fat and good fat, ya'll.

The only thing that took pounds off and kept it off was giving up any sort of sugar in any drink forever. No sugar in coffee, no sugar in tea, no juice, no regular pop. I have kept 20 pounds off with that strategy; of course, the artificial sweetners have probably wreaked havoc with my body.

The funniest diet is the 35 grams of fiber daily diet. Talk about methane production! Abdomen so bloated I had to wear my fat clothes. Spent more time in the restroom than I did in the office and didn't lose an ounce!

Melsie52 · Post by **Melsie52** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:55 pm

When I was 16 and very anorexic, I would only eat 500 calories a day and I had horrible malnutrition and swollen neck glands. I have been on every single diet except diet pills. Doing No Sing has truly saved me in all these years. I am just happy. I walked for an hour today and looking forward to barbecue pork chops tonight.

Balance is the name of the game.

Melanie in Colorado

KTina · Post by **KTina** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:38 am

My ex husband and I went on the Beverly Hills diet, where you eat Strawberries all day on day, the next day it's grapes. ON the third day it was pinapple, etc. It was RIDICULOUS>

The pineapple made the skin in our throats irritated, which created a rasspy, hoarse voice. We pretended that we were the people answering the 1-900 calls. It was HILARIOUS, RIDICULOUS! We did lose weight but gained it back promptly.

Nossuzy · Post by **Nossuzy** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:00 am

Ting Ting, I don't know if I've ever laughed so hard at someones post!!
Same thing for me with the Slim Fast. My husband pretty much told me I couldn't do it anymore because he couldn't be around me and my constant gas anymore. Also, I would have to go run down the hall and let loose at work so no one would know it was me! Horrific.

Also, I tried this Kimkins diet last summer where you can only eat lean meat and green veggies and one piece of string cheese a day. I lost 17 pounds pretty fast but it was the most disgusting hard to stay on diet and I gained almost all of it back before finding No S.

Otherwise I have tried every single diet out there. I was able to lose 40 pounds on weight watchers when I was 19 but I lived with my parents and had no kids so I didn't have anyone to think about but myself.

Name the crazy diet, I've tried it!

nubiennelady · Post by **nubiennelady** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:59 am

The absolute worst was Lindora's Lean for Life program.

I don't know where to begin with the stupidity of this diet. It was essentially a super low-carb diet that advocated patients peeing on a ketosis stick and aiming to send your body into ketosis (the opposite of what a type I or insulin dependent diabetic would do). The rationale is that if your body is in ketosis, you are burning fat and not carbs. So you had to buy these ketosis sticks and pee on them every so often (as I type this I can't believe how insane I was for going along with this non-sense).

And yes, it gets worse. You are also given vitamin B injections in your butt.

They claim these injections get to the vitamin to the bloodstream faster. What? I thought the butt was a huge muscle and finding a vein in my arm would make more sense?? Regardless, I broke out in hives after the first couple of shots (didn't initially attribute the hives to the injections until my throat closed up on me at the doctor's office).

Then it was the carb counting, the nasty chalky shakes, soups that had no flavor. It was supposed to be an 8 week program. I got to week 3 before I had to stop that insanity.

Now I've tried the rice diet, the cabbage soup diet, Jenny Craig (had success but it was expensive), Weight Watchers (more times that I could count), and plenty of others. No-S is the only one thus far where I don't feel like I'm going crazy. Although I've only been on the program for a week, I feel like I have control without feeling imprisoned.

DJ

MerryKat · Post by **MerryKat** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:29 am

lmt2pt wrote: and the Weight Watchers message board version called the Wendy Plan. I would eat different caloric or points amounts each day. Some days I was stuffed and still had 600 calories left to eat other days I was out of calories by lunch. Instead of it being Tuesday it was 1250 day.

The Wendie Plan was the only version of Weight Watchers that worked for me and I lost a substantial amount of weight using this before I just got totally sick of counting points. I even did WP with No S for a while when going through one of my I know better than Reinhard stages - needless to say it did not work as all I did was complicate No S with the points of WW.

The other daft diet I tried was the peanut butter diet. You had a tablespoon or two of peanut butter as a snack 2 or 3 times a day! I can't remember the details but it was something to do with the protein keeping you full. For me this seemed like heaven on earth as I love peanut butter but eventually even I got sick of it.

Rheba · Post by **Rheba** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:07 pm

did anyone try the stillman diet? Meat, cheese and eggs for one week and then you switched to veggies only the next week. Made it through the first week and started the second week off with a can of saurkraut..

..ended up in the doctor's office with severe stomach pains. I thought he was going to die laughing when he heard what I had done! But he sent me home with diet pills.....didn't last long on those. Dear hubby didn't like me when I was on them!! I didn't either.

Then I came up with the ingenious idea of eating only once a day.

Talk about stupidity!!!
Weight watchers, doctor's family weight loss plan (still say that one gave me my IBS), weight watchers again, and again, and again!! Bought Dr. Phils book but didn't do it or even finish reading it, the reader's digest diet book.....the list goes on and on and on!!!!

BrightAngel · Post by **BrightAngel** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:08 pm

I've been on most diets mentioned above....at least once, and sad to say some of them several or many times.

My most severe and difficult have been:

Optifast, which was a medically supervised liquid formula only...about 300 to 500 calories per day, I did that 6 months plus;

and, of course, my inability to eat almost anything...about 300 to 500 calories per day the first 6 to 7 months after my gastric bypass surgery 15 years ago;

QOD and JUDDD..which are alternate day diets, One day about 300-500 calories and the next day normal eating (about 1400 calories for me as that is my total burn including exercise);

Fast-5 and EatStopEat are the least favorites I've tried.
In Fast-5, one can only eat each day during a 5 hour window--normally from 5 pm to 10 p.m.---which is a 19 hour fast every day between eating; and
In EatStopEat, one can eat one normal day until 5 p.m., and the following day not eat until 5 p.m. which is a 24 hour fast between meals on alternate days.

DianeA2Z · Post by **DianeA2Z** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:44 pm

OMG, talk about a trip down memory lane! I've been on soooo many stupid diets! I once tried some kind of liquid diet through a hypnotist (Lord, until today I had buried that awful week). The liquid stuff you had to drink (bought from..guess who...the hypnotist) was vile enough, but we also had to drink this fizzy potassium stuff. YUK! Makes me gag even now. I must have also done a combination cabbage soup/Mayo clinic banana diet too. And the Wendy plan (a long time after WW). Oh, yes, and let us not forget the pharmaceutical diets. I'm surprised I'm still alive after putting my body through such abuse.

I think one of the few I didn't try was SlimFast, and after reading Ting's and Nossuzy's posts...well you've certainly ruined every SlimFast ad for me

. Your description of your symptoms, though horrid for you, was one of the funniest diet stories I've ever read!

The last one I tried was kind of a cleansing type/anti allergy diet where you omitted all white flour, white sugar, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, dairy, gluten and peanuts, and then eventually slowly added back foods to the point where your body could better metabolize them. You also had to do a 20-minute soak in a bath with lavender oil, baking soda and epsom salts. As much as I like to soak in the tub, 20-minute mandated soaks in water as hot as I could tolerate were difficult for me, not to mention an awful waste of water. The first two weeks on that diet were really rough, and an awful lot of time and food prep. It actually worked quite well, but it all just become so time consuming! I still follow some of the things I learned, but I honestly can't see any other kind of program working the way I expect No S to work. For the first time in in don't know how long I feel "normal".

Diane

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:02 pm

elizabeth333 wrote:The Lemonade Diet. HORRIBLE, TORTUROUS, REDICULOUS, COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPLY WITH UNLESS YOU ARE ANOREXIC. You don't eat any solid food. You drink lemon water with syrup and cayanne pepper in it. You drink laxative tea twice a day. You drink a HUGE glass of salt water each morning that makes you puke and have diarreah all at once. I get physically ill just thinking about this HELL DIET. It promises body cleansing, mental clarity, and dropping lbs faster than you can count them, but the fact is that I don't know who could punish themselves like this long enogh to lose lots of weight, and I can't imagine anyone maintaining any weight lost this way. I spent $300.00 on all the supplies needed for this plan thinking I was actually going to lose 60 lbs in two months! WHAT A WASTE! I've probably also tried just about every other silly diet out there, but this was THE WORST BY FAR!!

Well, with all that laxative tea and such I don't doubt weight would be lost, but waht a way to do it!

I think Atkins was the goofiest diet I tried! I was soooooo fed up with meat I thought I'd gag! To this day meat is just not a favorite with me and its been 10 years since I've tried Atkins! Closely following is the Cabbage Soup Diet! Gross!

Jazzys Mom

OrganicGal · Post by **OrganicGal** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:11 pm

This is not a diet I have tried, but it is certainly one of the craziest I've ever heard of.

I heard on the radio a few days ago about a man who lost 134lbs. in something like 9 months, by eating 6 cans of beans a day...and nothing else....ummmm....ok...not!

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:20 pm

OrganicGal wrote:This is not a diet I have tried, but it is certainly one of the craziest I've ever heard of.

I heard on the radio a few days ago about a man who lost 134lbs. in something like 9 months, by eating 6 cans of beans a day...and nothing else....ummmm....ok...not!

Oh, now wouldn't he just be a joy to live with! Yuck! All the candles in the world couldn't hide that smell!

JAzzys Mom

Noturningback · Post by **Noturningback** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:21 pm

OrganicGal wrote:This is not a diet I have tried, but it is certainly one of the craziest I've ever heard of.

I heard on the radio a few days ago about a man who lost 134lbs. in something like 9 months, by eating 6 cans of beans a day...and nothing else....ummmm....ok...not!

ROFL

I would have to walk around with a set of matches.

~Danielle

Buffalo Gal · Post by **Buffalo Gal** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:34 pm

Does anyone remember the woman on TV who said you could lose weight by posing and breathing correclty? I tried it...it did't work but my son got a good laugh watching me pose like a cat

Buffalo Gal!

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:47 pm

Oh my gosh, yes, I do remember that one! Actually bought her book and did all the breathing exercises in the bathroom so no one in the family would see me! What nonsense!

Anyone do the G.I. Diet? I had forgotten about this one until I ran across the book (I have diet books all across one shelf!) On The G.I. (Glycemic Index) diet you only eat things that are "green light" foods or foods that are low on the glycemic scale ---- egg whites, egg beaters, meats, deli and otherwise, salads with low fat dressing, oatmeal, yogurt, open face sandwiches on pure whole wheat bread, seafoods, fresh fruit, nuts, veggies. "Red light" foods were verboten which was bacon, sausage, bagles, "real" eggs, all muffins, pancakes, waffles, bakery goods, butter, mayo, cheese, all fast food, all pasta, pizza, potatoes, breads other tha whole wheat, beef, lamb, pork (only chicken and fish were allowed), pastries, cream soups, white rice, all candy, cookies, popcorn, pretzles and cakes.

Can anyone say Atkins?

Jazzys Mom

Lilly · Post by **Lilly** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:36 pm

Jazzy,
The two probs with the g.i. are needing to "eat til satisfied" and no fat everything-yum. Not.
NoS has us eating 3 satisfying plates of food w/o restriction incorporating everything in a 7 day period.

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:46 pm

Oh the G.I Diet didn't last very long! I found I was looking up the green light food and red light foods for longer than it would take to prepare and eat them! Too complicated, not enough "GOOD" food, by good I mean tasty! I just love No S Diet! For lunch today I had a turkey, bacon, lettuce & tomato sandwich on sourdough bread with mayonaise. Brought some home, couldn't eat it all! Along with the sandwice I had fresh pineapple, honeydew and slices of oranges. It was delicious and I didn't feel the least bit guilty! What a wonderful feeling!

Jazzys Mom

DianeA2Z · Post by **DianeA2Z** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:31 pm

"OrganicGal"]This is not a diet I have tried, but it is certainly one of the craziest I've ever heard of.

I heard on the radio a few days ago about a man who lost 134lbs. in something like 9 months, by eating 6 cans of beans a day...and nothing else....ummmm....ok...not!

[/quote]

Wonder if we should send him a case of SlimFast?????

Diane

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:12 am

They would probably have to reach out and catch him as he flew by the space station!

Jazzys Mom

Rheba · Post by **Rheba** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:39 am

you gals are toooooooooooo much!!!! The image of that guy floating out in space (or should I say Jet Propelled into space) are giving me more than my quota of laughs for the day! Thanks for the image!!!!

Beckycan · Post by **Beckycan** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:34 am

I was "really fat" in high school -- 145 lbs. (and 5' 8" tall). I was on a diet most of the time. The craziest one was nothing but apples and diet Dr. Pepper. I lasted a couple of weeks on that one. I felt awful and as soon as I began eating regular food I gained back whatever I had lost.

Becky

OrganicGal · Post by **OrganicGal** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:44 am

Becky I hope you were kidding when you say you were "really fat" in high school at 145lb and 5' 8". There is no way IMHO that you were fat at all!!!! When I get down to that weight at 5' 4.5" I will look fabulous, so I can't see where you think you were fat.

Don't mean to sound harsh, but holy cr*p!

BrightAngel · Post by **BrightAngel** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:25 pm

Beckycan wrote:I was "really fat" in high school -- 145 lbs. (and 5' 8" tall).

Becky,
Your statement must have been "tongue in cheek".

I was only "a bit plump" in high school, (1959-1962)
and my weight bounced between 125 and 130,
while my height was 5'1".

That's an inch taller than now, but my weight's lower.

JillyBean · Post by **JillyBean** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:30 pm

I had the best time reading these posts this morning! Thanks for the memories and especially for the laughs!

I don't think there was a diet mentioned that I have not heard of. Fortunately, I didn't try them all, but I have tried: Rice Diet, Cabbage Diet, WW (over and over and over...), Protein Power, Atkins, Dr. Phil, hypnosis, Dexatrim, starving, Ipecac syrup (only did that once and would never do it again!), Scarsdale Diet, TOPS, and OA to name a few.

The only times I have been thin for any length of time were when my son was a baby and I was nursing him and when I did a special food plan in OA a couple years ago. That was a very rigid diet. Every single thing weighed on a digital scale exactly, 0 sugar, 0 flour, 0 wheat, 0 artificial sweeteners, 0 caffeine, 3 meals with nothing in between but water, written down the night before and called in to a sponsor the next morning. Any changes needed to be reported before being made. I was very thin and felt great, but I just could not continue to do that for the rest of my life. I was still obsessed with food (maybe even worse), even though I was thin. When I cracked, I cracked big time. Gained all the weight I'd lost back with a vengeance.

My husband has been telling me for years that I just need to learn to eat in moderation. I didn't think that was possible. But this diet seems to be showing me how to do that. (But I am looking forward to an S day.) Will I be able to not be an idiot? I hope so...

fkwan · Post by **fkwan** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:31 pm

High school: 5'0", 150 pounds. Fat. See also: college, post college and entrance into middle age.

f

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:12 pm

My daughter did Jenny Craig a few years back and had some success but it cost her and arm and leg to lose the lbs. She only had about 20 lbs to lose! Of course when she went off of it she gained the 20 back and some more. So, she went back to Jenny Craig again. Was at it for about a month when her dog died. He was her baby and was only 7 yrs old. He was a puppy from one of my litters. She was devastated and of course kinda blew the diet that week. The stupid "counsler" at Jenny Craig yelled at her and said "let me get this straight, you went off your diet because YOUR DOG DIED?????" My daughter never went back again

sandooch · Post by **sandooch** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:43 pm

jazzys mom wrote: The stupid "counsler" at Jenny Craig yelled at her and said "let me get this straight, you went off your diet because YOUR DOG DIED?????" My daughter never went back again

She was a stupid consultant, and I don't blame your daughter one bit for being upset about it. In fact, her counselor's rudeness should have been brought to the attention of her manager.

I worked for Jenny Craig years ago. It was actually one of my favorite jobs. I couldn't imagine speaking that way to one of my clients. Sorry that happened to your daughter.

Pssst...here's a little JC tidbit most people aren't aware of: Consultants are only trained for 5 weeks before they start work. Most people think they have months of training and are experts at nutrition. Not so! That's why it burns my britches when a JC consultant (and I've worked with plenty) thinks she is holier than thou because she is a consultant...pffff!

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:07 pm

Thanks! Thanks for that tip too! I always thought they were trained for a long time and I think my daughter thinks that too. I'll be sure to tell her different! This particular counselor did think she was better than everyone else. I went with Debbie one time and she had me wait outside the room while she "talked" to her about her food!

Beckycan · Post by **Beckycan** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 1:47 pm

Of course I speak of my mental image of myself at that time. I *thought* I was fat at 145-- probably all my dumb dieting as a teenager that wrecked my metabolism and helped me to put on so much weight as an adult.

I'm almost 300 lbs. now, and so desperately need SOMETHING to work. This idea (NoS) appeals to me because it is NOT a diet, but a healthy way of normal eating.

Becky

Rheba · Post by **Rheba** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:10 pm

I am wondering what the attraction of being a size 4 is as every diet aid/commercial I see anymore has all of these women bitching because they were a size 10 and couldn't handle it so they went on this "ideal" plan and got down to a size 4!!! No wonder we have such screwed up diet mentality when we are bombarded with these infomercials and ads on a daily basis saying we are fat when we are such and such a size. I don't think I was EVER a size 4 in my life and I know I never was a 10 either. And I am just so tired of hearing and seeing these gals prancing and preening and making the rest of the women who are even a little overweight (according to whose standards anyway) become dissatisfied with their body image. What in the world are we doing to our daughters and sons by buying into this type of thinking?
This is by far the healthiest attitude plan I have seen in a long, long time and I don't plan on trying any others ever again. And I don't care if it takes 2 or 3 years to reach my body's normal weight...if it even remembers it after all the diets I have been on.

But I am assuming by eating three square meals a day (which is what we used to call the No S way of eating) my body will eventually relearn what is a healthy weight for it to be at and will stop losing weight at that point.
Thanks for letting me vent this morning!

I was downstairs and an ad came on for a diet plan and just sent me on this tangent!!

flipturn · Post by **flipturn** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:32 pm

Wow -- This is all so interesting. I can't stand those nutrisystem commercials that are on certain cable news shows. That bottle blone who says that she isn't a typical female because she loves football . . . ! From the angle the footage of her was shot it all looks photo-shopped. We will all be closing in on our ideal weights on No S and eating healthy, fun foods and she will be on another absurd diet. Beckycan, I love what you said about thinking that you were fat at a thin weight. I look at old "fat pictures" and can't believe how thin I was at those various weights.

Noturningback · Post by **Noturningback** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:53 pm

Rheba wrote:I am wondering what the attraction of being a size 4 is as every diet aid/commercial I see anymore has all of these women bitching because they were a size 10 and couldn't handle it so they went on this "ideal" plan and got down to a size 4!!! No wonder we have such screwed up diet mentality when we are bombarded with these infomercials and ads on a daily basis saying we are fat when we are such and such a size. I don't think I was EVER a size 4 in my life and I know I never was a 10 either. And I am just so tired of hearing and seeing these gals prancing and preening and making the rest of the women who are even a little overweight (according to whose standards anyway) become dissatisfied with their body image. What in the world are we doing to our daughters and sons by buying into this type of thinking?
This is by far the healthiest attitude plan I have seen in a long, long time and I don't plan on trying any others ever again. And I don't care if it takes 2 or 3 years to reach my body's normal weight...if it even remembers it after all the diets I have been on. But I am assuming by eating three square meals a day (which is what we used to call the No S way of eating) my body will eventually relearn what is a healthy weight for it to be at and will stop losing weight at that point.
Thanks for letting me vent this morning! I was downstairs and an ad came on for a diet plan and just sent me on this tangent!!

Very true!

How about the size zero that some are trying to achieve?

The BBC did a special entitled "Super Slim Me". Here is a link to the article. I'm trying to find the full special on the net. If I do, I'll add the link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6335077.stm

Noturningback · Post by **Noturningback** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:56 pm

I found the video series of "Super Slim Me" from the BBC. This is the link to part I. You can find all 6 parts if you look to the right at "related videos" when you click the link.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 2tAQ&hl=en

~Danielle

flipturn · Post by **flipturn** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:59 pm

Hi, again -- I forgot about this diet because I never tried it. I did read the book, though. I authors -- two women -- even gave workshops about their eating theories. You were supposed to carry around a "feed bag" with anything that you might want to eat, i.e. red Twizzzlers, Oreos, Doritos, celery. Whenever the urge to snack hit, you were to ask yourself whether you wanted celery or Oreos. I guess that it was supposed to be sort of like an S day, everyday. Just thinking about this makes me love No S even more!

jazzys mom · Post by **jazzys mom** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:58 pm

Yes, I get a little irate at those Nutrisystem commercials too! That super skinny young model standing there all smug saying "I used to look like this when I was a size 12, now I'm a size 4!" First off, look at her age. When I was her age I was a size 4 too! As we age our bodies change and we put on fat. Even some of my skinny size 10 friends have a little tummy pouch --- AGE! I agree, some of those models are Photoshoped!

I know I'll never see a size 4 again and I don't think I'd want to. At my age (a grandma) I'd look like something out of the Addam's Family at a size 4! I'll be happy with a 10!

Rheba · Post by **Rheba** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:02 pm

Thank you for the web site. I went and checked it out and made it through part 3..........with my mouth open in sheer disbelief, I might add!

Even her cat wouldn't eat the left over food!!

God help us all if this mentality stays "alive and well"! I feel so very sorry for those young girls who are literally worshipping these anorexic models and super stars. They literally look gross!
I will be so happy to just be healthy and look good for an almost 66 year old grandma!

Jaymiz · Post by **Jaymiz** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:56 pm

Don't know if I can name the silliest diet, or even if I can say I've ever truly "dieted"... nothing lasted very long! But here's what I've attempted (even if only for one day):

- Dr. Phil's "Ultimate Weight Solution"
- Bob Greene's "Get with the Program"
- Carole Lewis' "First Place" (based off the American Diatetic Assoc. Food list)
- the G.I. Diet (didn't last a day! I went out and bought the "special foods", and then couldn't bring myself to eat them!)
- Weight Watchers (never went to meetings...just had a friend who photocopied the Points list for me, and I tried to follow along)
- Leslie Sansone's "Walk Away the Pounds" plan (to lose 10 lbs in 6 weeks by walking with her DVDs -- LOVE the DVDs!!! but the weight didn't come off by just exercising alone)
- Intuitive Eating ... this is the ONLY THING that ever really worked for me! But, when I quit being "mindful" and allowed my afternoon *SNACKS* back in, I put the weight back on.

This is why the NoS plan sounds intriguing to me... 'cause I know that cutting out snacking works for me, and because I know that I need to put my "sweet-tooth" in its proper place by allowing sweets only "once in a while". ((starting NoS on Monday))

I've never really "forbidden" foods -- not for any length of time, anyway. So, I have always eaten the *regular*, full-fat varieties. I don't care for "fat-free" or "low-fat" stuff, so I don't eat it.

I was a tiny size 6 throughout high-school and college (at 5'6" tall), and yet -- thanks to the media's influence -- I thought I was "fat". Thankfully I didn't have "food issues", so i never really gave much concern to my weight, other than to suck in my stomach whenever I was feeling self-conscious about it. I never dieted back then.

It wasn't until I got pregnant with my son when I was 19 that I put on weight BIG TIME (72 lbs, to be exact!), and began my "weight problem" -- I only lost about 20-30 pounds of that extra weight after the pregnancy, and have only gotten back down to a size 8 once... in 2005, when I first learned of "Intuitive Eating" (http://www.intuitiveeating.org ). Then I dropped 2 lbs in the first 2 days from not snacking mid-afternoon, and proptly lost another 23 lbs in the following 6 months.

flipturn · Post by **flipturn** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:06 pm

Oh, I completely forgot that when I lived in Paris and had gained about ten pounds, I went to see a friend's diet doctor. I had never been to a fat doctor, but she (a Frenchwoman, BTW) insisted that I needed to schedule an appointment. Several years later, I had to laugh because he wrote a book with Karl Lagerfeld (the designer for Chanel, who lost a good 100 pounds while a patient of his). This is what I remember: no fruit except a small amount of applesauce once a week, vegetables in small quantities at lunch or dinner, only meat, fish and eggs. I think that I stayed on his diet from the time that it took me to walk to the Metro station and go home. Needless to say, he was a big believer in amphetamines. How else were you supposed to eat that way?

bell4030 · Post by **bell4030** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:52 pm

The silliest diet I ever tried was the Shangri-La Diet. I did a lot of research on it, bought the book, and even found a small bathroom in our office where I could sneak off and indiscretly down my tablespoon of oil a few times a day. I latest about 5 days. I just couldn't do it.

Beckycan · Post by **Beckycan** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:14 am

Haven't heard of that one, Bell. Did you mean oil as in some sort of laxative oil? Yuck, sounds like torture.

Reminds me of "Super Dieter's Tea" -- nothing more than senna herb tea bags. (Like Senokot laxative.) I keep some on hand for when I need a laxative -- I don't like taking pills and would rather use a natural remedy whenever I can.

Becky

blueskighs · Post by **blueskighs** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:05 am

flipturn,

HAH! are you telling me that's REALLY how those frenchwomen stay thin ....
hahhahhahahahhahaha

Blueskighs

flipturn · Post by **flipturn** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:24 pm

Hi, blueskighs -- No, I am not saying that all Frenchwomen do that, I really am not. But dieting is a big industry there, between liposuction (developed by a French surgeon, after all), bariatric doctors, reduced-calorie foods, and a new fad diet every week in magazines like Elle (which is a weekly there). They do, of course, have different habits. It is considered impolite not to finish everything on your plate, so if you are invited to someone's house you serve yourself small portions when the platters are passed. Dinner at home might often be vegetable soup and grilled vegetables if you have eaten lunch at a restaurant. I'll never forget a conversation with a friend's slender 65-year-old mother. We were discussing bread, and she said that she hadn't eaten it since the war (that's World War II)! Or, as an American friend used to ask me, "Do you think those tiny legs are normal?"

AnnaBanana · Post by **AnnaBanana** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:02 pm

A friend and I went to a diet doctor in Mexico.... not a fancy town in the interior of Mexico, but a border town. We went in to see him at the same time.

Picture this - He can't understand us, we can't understand him. All I recognized were the words potato and tomato. To make it worse we both got shots in our butts at the same time. Okay so now you have two best friends leaning over a table at the same time with their fat butts sticking up in the air and their shorts around their ankles. When we looked at each other we actually cracked up laughing. Ahh youth. Now I shudder now when I think about it and to this day I don't know what it was in those shots.

He also gave us two pills and told us to come back in 3 months if we needed more. The first 4 days I lost 12 lbs, now mind you I wasn't that heavy to start. Well, didn't sleep. Couldn't eat. Heart racing like crazy. On the fourth day I started having cramps everywhere. Fingers, hands, toes, even neck. Found out the next day I had depleted my potassium pretty much. Dumb, dumb and dangerous, dangerous.

pinkmommy · Post by **pinkmommy** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:23 pm

Well, the silliest diet I ever tried actually did work a bit so I guess it isn't that silly but it is cringe worthy.

In 7th grade (wayyyyyyyyyy back when), I had already tried various diets as best I could being 12/13 years old. This was pre internet days and I was on my own in this realm. I tried different diets I read in my mom's magazines. Finally, I made up my own diet (by accident) and it worked.

I just ate normal meals and whatever. I didn't change anything EXCEPT my lunchtime meal. I had $1/day to spend on lunch. I bought fifty cents worth of generic M&Ms and one bottle of diet root beer. I was new at the school and didn't have much friends so lunchtime was just awful sitting in the cafeteria. For several months, I went off campus (we could do this) to a nearby store. I guess it worked because my caloric intake was reduced at lunch. Also, I think I got my "sweet" fill and then didn't have as much in the way of sweets later in the day. I probably lost about 5 or 10 pounds which was a significant amount for me.

IF ONLY I could now weigh what I weighed in 7th grade (same height as I am now).

I didn't start the M&M and diet root beer thing as a diet. I did it because I was dizzy with freedom to choose what I wanted and that's what I wanted -- and I did it because going off campus allowed me to dodge social situations. Oh yeah - and I walked a goodly amount to and from the store for my lunch break, too.

Mavilu · Post by **Mavilu** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:56 pm

flipturn wrote:Wow -- This is all so interesting. I can't stand those nutrisystem commercials that are on certain cable news shows. That bottle blone who says that she isn't a typical female because she loves football . . . ! From the angle the footage of her was shot it all looks photo-shopped. We will all be closing in on our ideal weights on No S and eating healthy, fun foods and she will be on another absurd diet. Beckycan, I love what you said about thinking that you were fat at a thin weight. I look at old "fat pictures" and can't believe how thin I was at those various weights.

I can't remember her name, but she does a morning TV show here in California, together with another gal and a guy and they are well known here.
I don't remember the name of the show either, because I don't watch it, heh.
But I've seen a million commercials for the show over the years and I can tell you that she is that thin and she ain't all that young.
To be fair, I never took those commercials as tht I'm supposed to look *just* like her, but more like she got her "ideal" weight and so can I.
Just different ways to interpret, I guess.
No, I don't work for Nutrisystem.

EDIT
Her name is Gillian Barberie (Reynolds)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jillian_Barberie

flipturn · Post by **flipturn** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:58 pm

Mavilu -- I am laughing! I had no idea that she was known for anything other than the Nutrisystem commercials. Thanks for the posting. I can't wait to tell my husband, who hates those things even more than I do.

Mavilu · Post by **Mavilu** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:43 am

You know, even if I do know the gal and I defend her, I still think that Nutrisystem is a scam: my husband's son in law bought the program and couldn't stay on it for more than a week, so my husband's daughter gave all the remaining "food" to my husband...
It is all dehydrated food-all of it-, it's also diminutive in it's portions and thoroughly disgusting, I don't know where did they get the gall to call that "food" and how can you stay on that forevermore.
In my husband's opinion, the only reason you lose weight with Nutrisystem is that you'd rather starve than eat those silly little packets and boxes.
So, yeah, the ads are deceptive, that food you see in them?, that ain't it!.

Shirls · Post by **Shirls** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 7:18 pm

I also have a whole shelf full of diet books. Last year it got so bad I was ordering a new one before I'd even finished reading the first. Trouble is they are all so skewed. One set says cut out all fat but carbs are okay. Others say the total opposite. But the maddest I ever tried was that Mayo Clinic one mentioed above. On the milk and bananas day I ate eight enormous bananas and had a horrendous stomach ache. Then there was the bran muffin story. I just loved them and would bake a batch every other day. You keep the dough in the fridge so it's really easy to zap it into muffin pans. I figured all that bran was doing me good. Probably it was, but the oil and brown sugar in them was quietly piling on the pounds...

billyymc12508 · Post by **billyymc12508** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:06 pm

I meant to add this a long time ago. At one time I got the bright idea that I would lose weight by counting the number of BITES of food I ate every day. I limited myself to 33 bites, which was a completely arbitrary number. I didnt' limit any type of food, but I did focus on nutritious foods by default because I knew I had limited volume to get the nutrients I needed.

I lost weight, but was hungry all the time. So I started taking enormous bites when I ate, which obviously defeats the purpose and creates even worse eating habits. I mean really...is 1/3 of a slice of pizza really a bite?

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