I have been thinking about really how "simple" the process is to lose weight once I accepted that for me the only sensible thing was to count calories and thus stop overeating. More recently I have accepted that exercise needs to be part of the process and I am actually starting to enjoy it!!! It is invigorating!
Anyway, I started thinking about some of the "crazy" stuff I have tried over the years to lose weight and thought it might be funny if we all shared.
Stuff I have done:
Phentremine
Trying to survive on less than 1000 calories
Grapefruit (UGH!)
Richard Simmons Deal A Meal
Weight lifting (figure that one out!)
Body"shaping" - can't remember the name of the business but basically I went there and paid money to lay on a table in some foil suit while the table vibrated and shook me. LOL- I wasn't even fat then!!!! What was I thinking?
I developed a eating disorder in high school. I would binge then purge. Then I realized I was doing nothing but hurting myself in more ways in one. Then I tried everything out there for a quick fix. I learned though its nothing you can fix over night.
I've done "bariatric surgery" pills, or pills that were supposed to fill up your stomach so you felt like you could only eat a tiny portion and be full.
I've binged and purged.
I've eaten less than 200 calories a day.
I've done weight loss shake fasts.
I've eaten cereal for two meals a day along with a "sensible dinner".
I ate cabbage soup all day every day until my stomach felt like it was going to explode.
There's so much I've done, that's only the things I could think of off the top of my head. And I'm only 26 years old! It's crazy the things society manages to sell you on. I'm STILL working on getting it through my head that watching what I eat and a reasonable amount of exercise will actually get me where I want to be.
Last edited by Latchkey Princess; 07-28-2010 at 12:51 AM.
Binge and purge. Still struggle with it. I started out severely restricting and counting calories(hence why I don't count calories- even though I don't restrict it still brings me to an obsessive place. Obsessive for me at least). Eat an apple for breakfast, cup of broth for lunch, no dinner. Binge binge binge all night and purge. Horrible.
I tried eating two meals a day and doing 100 situps at night in middle school.
Yelling at my fat? Dunno why I thought that if I just screamed at my stomach it would shrink.
I've eaten diet biscuits - wow, had forgotten about them.
Eaten 'chocolate' (never) meall replacement bars.
Drunk shakes for 3 meals a day.
Done the Stillman diet - steak, burgers and cottage cheese. Oh and eggs. Not a gram of veg., not even salad. I lost 20lbs in a month though but daren't describe the side effects in polite company...
I have been thinking about really how "simple" the process is to lose weight once I accepted that for me the only sensible thing was to count calories and thus stop overeating. More recently I have accepted that exercise needs to be part of the process and I am actually starting to enjoy it!!! It is invigorating!
This is me exactly now!!
Before I finally woke up this year and got back to the most logical diet there is - eat less, move more - I was considering the shangri la oil diet. I think you drink oil before meals - GROSS!
I've also done:
- metabolife (made me so jittery!)
- Grapefruit diet
- Mayo Clinic diet (don't think it was the legit one)
- 300 calories a day
- and I'm sure many many more I have forgotten
Reading here reminded me (how does one forget?) that my Jr. year in high school my parents hospitalized me for 6 weeks in a treatment hospital for bulemia. Again, was not fat, but thought I was because I didn't look like some of the skinny cheerleaders. I honestly think that if I had truly known I wasn't fat, when I thought I was - I would have never become fat ever.
Sometimes, I have gotten judgemental about some of the girls I have seen in public and how racy they will dress while being grossly overweight - but clearly they have confidence I never had! I did everything I could to hide my fat, dress it up and disguise it and here's lots of todays girls just letting it all hang out! LOL
Anyone ever hear of the ASAP diet? I liked that one. Basically the author spelled a calorically restricted meal and added or deleted 100 carbs over the weeks to follow. He also incorporated slow exercise, like pushups that were 20 seconds down, 20 seconds up. HARD!! It might have worked if it weren't so regimented.
South Beach...still use principals from that.
In high school, I basically didn't eat, but what I did eat was crap. Skip breakfast, fries and lemonade for lunch, as little dinner as I could get away with without Mom noticing. Fortunately those stages never lasted long.
I honestly think that if I had truly known I wasn't fat, when I thought I was - I would have never become fat ever.
I had this same realization a while back when I found some (VERY OLD) pics from cheerleader camp. I was next to the girl that I thought of my skinnier, prettier friend and her thighs are like twice the size of mine. HOW did my parents not only let me think I was fat, but perpetuate that? Ugh.
I have done all the standard crazy diets, but one of my earliest memories is of my mom having a staple put in her ear. I figure as long as I never let anyone peg me with a staple gun, I pretty much can't top that kind of diet craziness
I once lost 70lbs eating less than 5 fat grams a day. I basically had those lipton rice and sauce packets with no added butter for just about every meal. Very few veggies, dairy, protein, ANYTHING but carbs. I used to sit on the couch for hours every evening dreaming about food. I think it is a testament to my will power that I actually could keep up something that ridiculous for long enough to lose all that weight! But guess what happened? I went on a vacation to New Orleans, went all out, and that was the end of that one! I'm enjoying reading everyone's examples of the silliness we've put ourselves (and our bodies) through.
Crazy stuff? Original Dexatrim. This was just legal speed! I also tried the Cabbage soup diet. Ugh! That one has less than attractive side effects.
As far as Richard Simmon's Deal a Meal and Southbeach.....I don't count these in the crazy stuff category. These are actually very healthy plans. Deal-A-Meal is kinda like Weight Watchers and Southbeach taught me how to fight my insulin resistance and still lose weight.
Crazy things you have tried over the years..
Fortunately those stages never lasted long.
I'm enjoying reading everyone's examples of the silliness we've put ourselves (and our bodies) through. 
