Recently at a garage sale I picked up an old copy of "Fit for Life," surprisingly one of the few diet books I had never read before. Anyway, I'm about 1/3 into it and thinking of giving the food combining it talks about a try. I think I can do this while still eating according to SB Phase 2 and on principles; the only thing that's questionable is the whole "nothing but fruit before noon" thing.

Anyone ever do FFL? Have thoughts on doing FFL/SB at the same time? What about the fruit thing?

Nothing but fruit before noon? I'd starve!!

I know I wouldn't do well with just fruit before lunchtime, but it may work for some people. Eating fruit, alone, tends to make me hungrier.

Maybe you can do the combo and just ignore the nothing but fruit thing?
When I eat fruit 1st thing in the morning without eating anything else it makes me feel a little lightheaded and then definitely hungrier.
I've never heard of FFL. Please update and let us know how it's working.

I've also heard of the "nothing but fruit before lunch" before. Doesn't sound sensible at all. Probably why you don't hear anything about this plan anymore.

I have Fit For Life (but haven't read it! FOR SHAME!!!) - let us know if you try it and keep us posted.

Good luck

Matilda,

My sis, hubby and I followed FFL many years ago, after I had lost a substantial amount of weight. My sis has IBD(Crohns) and experienced great results in normalizing her bowels and being free of flare ups. My DH, who takes anti-siezure meds lowered his dosage by half within two weeks of starting. He and his Dr. were very impressed. I felt absolutely great and had that burst of continual energy that we seem to find on SBD.

We did modify and didn't "just eat fruit" until noon. We didn't snack after our early dinner and we each had an orange or apple in the wee morning hours, got a few more hours of sleep then moved on to coffee and breakfast.

To this day, I still don't mix fruit with my meal. I also don't drink water with my meal, but drink my water 15 minutes before. It seems to make sense to me that drinking water with food does "dilute" the digestive juices.

It does make sense to me, too, their philosopy regarding acidic/alkaline foods, however I don't follow that as strictly any more.

It does seem very compatible with SBD, especially since you're leaning more towards grains. It was definitely an intro to SBD for me, because we never went back to the ol' meat and potato lifestyle.

Debbie - do you think all those good results were because of the food combining, or just eating more healthfully?

Matilda,

My sis and DH absolutely had a turnaround moment with their specific health issues due to food combining. My sis had her 1st "normal" bowel movement in 15+ years. My DH commented within the first week that he had to quit "eating like this", because he was dizzy and seing "trails". We got him to the Dr. for bloodwork and he was majorly over medicated on his dilantin. He went from taking 10 pills/day to 4 over the next few months.(they had to wean him off). I don't believe two results like that within a week could be attributed to anything else.

OK, pretty intense. I get the basics of food combining, which is that you don't eat proteins and carbs at the same meal or within 3 hours of each other, and fruit is always eaten by itself. But, are you allowed to have fats when you have protein/veggies and carb/veggies, or not? Like, could you have a salad with chicken and dressing? And how do you interpret what they say about beans - can you combine them with a protein, or only a carb? I'm finding the book a little confusing, but haven't finished reading the combining section, so I'm sure the answers are there somewhere.

Beans are neutral, as I remember, so they can be eaten with either proteins or carbs. Since I'm not at the house where I have the book I can't tell you any more. After you finish the book, PM me with any other questions.

Matilda, have you tried this? I did Fit for Life for a few weeks (my life story ) when the book first came out. I think I lost an amazing amount of weight at the beginning -- about 15 pounds in 2 weeks? -- but back then, that way of eating was completely foreign to my cheeseburger for dinner and lots of snacks mentality. I have kept the idea of eating vegetables and protein without any starchy carbohydrates at dinner, and it not only helped weight loss but helped digestive problems similar to those noted above. One of the things I want to sort out this time is: is it the carbs, is it food combining, is it sensitivity to gluten.

I've never tried it, but I have read the Somersizing books, which are also based on food combining. I'd be curious to know your experience.

Xan, I haven't tried it yet but I am going to read the book and then I think I will try it. I don't think I can do the nothing but fruit before noon thing, but I can isolate fruit as my morning and afternoon snacks and allow the recommended time between eating a meal and fruit/fruit and the next meal. I'm going on vacation next week which also includes Thanskgiving, so I think I'll probably give it a try when I get back. I have to finish the book too; I still have a lot of questions. Something about it seems to make inherent sense to me (even though I know there are a lot of skeptics).

If I'm remembering correctly, the authors made an adjustment in a second book because so many readers had said they couldn't do fruit in the morning, and they allowed oatmeal. (The theory was that fruit was fine for people in southern climates, but New Englanders needed something warm. Now, I haven't read this for years and years, but that's what I remember.)

I also remember that you could have fat with protein and with vegetables, but absolutely not with starchy carbohydrates. I also remember that the suggested menus were very low on protein -- I had trouble with that at the time, and it's the main reason I didn't stick to it.

I'll be interested to see how it goes!

editing very belatedly to say that I was writing about a diet from the 1980s called Fit for Life by (first name) Diamond. I didn't realize there was a new, different one by the same name. The Diamond F4L was based on the old "natural hygience" vegetarian movement.