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Showing posts with the label Fad Diets

Thought for the Day--April 28, 2011: Weight Watchers, Diets in General, and Writing Every Day

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There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a [keyboard] and open a vein. --Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith I started this site on January 10, one week after I restarted Weight Watchers (almost four months after I started my healthy life style). I had heard about the new PointsPlus and 0 points fruit and thought it was worth another try. After three months, I'm still here and going strong! Yes, as the above image reveals, I'm a Lifetime Member; my first stint with Weight Watchers started in 1973, which obviously dates me (LOL). I lost 43 pounds and made it to Lifetime status within six months, but I hadn't really changed my relationship with food. I still viewed "diet" as a temporary state, that once "the diet" was over, I could eat whatever I wanted. The old WW diet didn't help much; it was a draconian regimen, requiring at least 10 ounces of hard-core protein a day, very little bread, no potatoes or pasta, and a required servi

Who is an "Extreme Dieter," and What is an "Extreme Diet"?

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The subtitle for this blog is "Food for Thought for Recovering Extreme Dieters." So just what is an "extreme dieter"? Answer: a dieter who will take extreme measures to lose weight, such as embracing fad diets, some of which are downright dangerous: sustained fasting, intentional vomiting, eating only certain foods, drinking only liquids (such as fruit juice or milkshakes), popping diet pills, etc. One of the most creative extreme diets: getting one's jaw wired shut so that one can't eat solid food. Yes, this practice was popular in the late 1970's. No, I never tried this one. Even back then, this one sounded too way out there. These extreme diets have one major characteristic in common: they are all temporary fixes, and, therefore, do little or nothing to help the dieter change his or her eating habits permanently. Any diet program that asks its participants to exclude (for extended periods of time) entire categories of food for the sole purpose of losi

Memoir Madness: Driven to Involuntary Commitment