I wanted to try the diet for a week. The food comes in these little rectangle packages, which hold six cookies. None of the packaging is recyclable though, which constitutes a huge waste. For breakfast, I was supposed to eat two cookies; at lunch, the same thing; and for supper, I would need to have a lot of protein and simple greens. The two last cookies would be for snacks, in case I got hungry. I'd have to drink 8 glasses of water a day too.
I went through my first and second day with about the same enthusiasm a soldier would have being shipped to war. I was basically dissatisfied for the vast majority of the day and had trouble focusing on much else than all the people food I was missing out. I even had tuna for the first time in a while for one of my suppers and freak out at how awesome I thought it tasted. I would actually say I would have preferred not eating for two meals than eating the cookies.
The consistency of these cookies was interesting to say the least. First of all, the undeniable taste of plastic was present with every bite. Next, the cookies were so thick I couldn't finish chewing them without drinking water in between and during bites. It felt, as my friend Alex described when he tasted one, like trying to swallow pill, but it getting stuck at the back of your throat, taking a while to go down. I would make a face every time I needed to eat one, and pretty much loathed the process.
So it's the end of a week and I've lost 1 pound. To be fair, I cheated almost every day; either I'd have a coffee, or I'd eat lunch (oh!). This diet did not make me feel positive. I didn't feel good thinking I was helping myself change, or lose weight. It wasn't like I was making better choices; I wasn't eating salads, or eating less bread voluntarily, etc. I ate cookies, that made me feel pretty shitty in the first place, to replace hungry, but it could replace disappointment. I could have found some kind of satisfaction in a salad, but never the cookies.
Why do people decide to diet, anyways? According to Jeff Talbot, overweight people are typically those who tend to diet. Those who do it healthily reap mroe benefits than those who try to lose dangerous amounts of weight. Others just continue to diet because it's out of habit; some could keep dieting because they simply do not feel attractive enough. Talbot and I share the same opinion that a lot of this pressure to have a nice body comes from the media and fashion industry.
More importantly, why do people fail their diets? According to a writer named Shelly, 98% of people end up not completing their diet. When you starve youself, the body goes into survival mode. It stores fat; you won't lose weight. You might even put some on because your body would retain everything you ate. This is not my case... I was lenient with what I ate for my meals so really the results are my own fault.
I really hated thsi diet. I'd feel better just changing my habits, and feeling like I'm making a positive change for myself. I think I can do it if I really tried. It's important to me, and I want to feel good about myself, but the habit is almost addictive and it's something I really gotta work on.
Want to know more?
All images are from Google.
Jeff Talbot's article: http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Do-People-Decide-To-Diet?&id=588724
Shelly's article: http://searchwarp.com/swa14572.htm
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