Dan's Miracle Diet
How I Dropped My Weight From 185 to 149 in Three Months
Let's start with the DISCLAIMER: I am no
doctor, what I did was not recommended by my doctor (he told me to cut back
SOME, but I cut back A LOT), and I make no claims as to the safety of what I
did. All I know is that so far, it has done
wonders for my weight. If you try it and your arms fall off, don't blame me because I am saying right up front you are completely on your own here.
See your doctor first!!
Thanks to my wife's urgings, I went on a self-modified version of the Atkins
diet. Results: in three months, with little effort, I went from 185 to 149
pounds. That's about 12 pounds per month. And I wasn't hungry, and I didn't do
any exercise.
Now for the meat of the story (ouch)--here is what I did:
No sugar, no potatoes, no pasta, no bread, no rice, no milk (I've never used alcohol, but
that is on the forbidden list too).
That's it! That is absolutely all there is to it.
To replace those things, I am eating a lot of meat (steak, cold cuts, hot dogs,
fish, chicken, turkey, bacon, you name it--lots of meat), and sometimes a
handful of peanuts whenever I want a
snack. Strawberries (or any other berries) and sugar-free jello take care of my
sweet tooth.
My pounds just disappeared on this diet! And I'm not hungry, and whenever I want
something I'm not allowed I just remind
myself that my health is of tantamount importance.
We go to a local buffet every week or two, and I eat a couple of steaks, some
salmon, some chicken, some barbeque, a salad, cheese, and dessert from their sugar-free table (pudding, jello, they even have
sugar-free whipped cream).
For breakfast I usually have a ham and cheese rollup "sandwich" without the
bread (I roll a couple of slices of ham up with a
couple of slices of cheese, like a jellyroll), and a glass or two of
ice water. My
wife enjoys lots of bacon and eggs, which are fine on this diet too.
For lunch I usually do a simple salad (lettuce, tomato, cold-meat turkey or
ham), or a few microwaved hot dogs (use as much mustard as you want, but go easy
on the ketchup). And no buns! Use one of the low-carb tortillas
shown below if you want bread - if you're doing 3 hot dogs, cut the tortilla
into three triangles and roll up a hotdog in each one. If I
get hungry during the day I'll eat a little peanut butter right
from the jar with a spoon. Or nibble some peanuts.
For supper I usually do a low-carb tortilla with peanut butter and low-sugar
jelly; rolled into a jellyroll shape and microwaved for 15 seconds.
Dessert may be low-carb ice cream or sugar-free pudding or jello.
We eat out often. We go to McDonalds, and order
chicken sandwiches with no buns (from the dollar menu). They put them in those
little plastic containers they use for breakfast sandwiches. At first this was
confusing to them, but if you explain they'll generally do as you ask.
If you have a Ci-Ci's Pizza, you're in luck. They'll make you special
pizzas without crust--they just put the sauce, cheese, and toppings in one of
the aluminum pans they use for deep-dish pizzas and run it through the oven for
us. Ask for an Atkins pizza.
If you are embarrassed to ask for food without bread or crust, just tell them
you are allergic to flour. Works for us!
If you cook for yourself, use Splenda instead of Nutrasweet or other nonsugar sweeteners. Costs more but is supposed to be better for you. As for diet drinks, Diet-Rite and several others now use Splenda instead of Nutrasweet. (I hear they taste better than the others, too.)
My wife makes her own pizza, using
scrambled eggs for the crust instead of dough. She loves this concoction.
Some of my students and friends have seen my results,
and they are doing the same things and watching their weight drop, too.
If you want the documentation, read one of the books by Dr. Atkins. I see them
at yard sales a lot, or your library will have them if you don't want to spend the
money.
By the way, my wife knows much more about the theory behind this than I do, and
she tells me it takes longer for women to lose weight than men. So ladies,
give it some time
to kick in.
UPDATE: It's now been eight months and my weight seems to have stabilized at about
145-150 pounds, depending on how much sugar-free chocolate pudding and low-carb ice cream I am consuming. (Cheating, I know, because the main ingredient is milk, but this small sin satisfies my craving for sweets and keeps me from indulging in the gluttony that might otherwise cause me to jump off the wagon entirely.)
Many stores see low-carb as a fad that is fading, and as a result many products are disappearing from the grocery shelves. My personal favorite is Breyer's Low-Carb chocolate ice cream (see photo below), which you can get at Wal-Mart.
And my weight after a year and a half of this? Right now, 146. I'll take it.
UPDATE II: It's been over five years now, and my weight has been steady at about 150-152 for the past three years. I have been able to stay on this diet with no problems at all, and I don't see me ever falling off the wagon. By the way, I recently saw a diet book that said "no white food after 6:00 pm." I looked at my list above, and everything on it except alcohol is indeed white. Weird.
Finally--Let me know if you try this, and how it works for you. Email me at danhughesmail@gmail.com.
---Dan
P.S. My wife is a member of a low-carb bulletin board. Other people on this type of diet post their diaries and notes to each other. Lots of friendly people helping each other, and it's all free. If you have trouble staying on a diet, the low-carb board will be a great help to you. Check it out by clicking here.
Wal-Mart sells most of my diet foods. From left: Tortillas from Sam's Club (only place I've seen them), Hershey's low-sugar chocolate syrup, Smucker's Sugar Free cherry preserves, and Breyers Carb Smart Ice Cream.
UPDATE, JUNE 2014: Wal-Mart now carries Breyer's low-carb ice cream only in vanilla.