I'd not head of the F-Plan, so I had to google. It was a popular diet in the late 80s and it looks interesting. The books was updated in 2007 and you can get cheap used copies on amazon. I think I'm going to read a bit more.
Okay, so I found this on diets in review:
There are ten basic rules to follow with the F2 Diet:
Drink plenty of water, herbal teas or low-calorie drinks
Eat either a vegetarian diet or choose fish over red meat and poultry
Avoid or strictly limit the amount of fat you eat that is found in certain foods like cheese, high fat dairy and chocolate
Every day, eat plenty of fresh greens and legumes
Eat two slices of a high fiber bread each day
Consume a fresh salad or the special F2 soup every day
Start the day with a half of a pink grapefruit and a bowl of high fiber cereal topped with green-colored banana
Eat two additional servings of low- glycemic fruits every day
Consume a food that contains live active yogurt cultures or probiotics each day
When consuming starches, choose whole grains such as bulgur, brown rice or barley
Looks like a good healthy plan to me. I maintained my weight for years when I was younger eating low fat/high fibre vegetarian. This one takes low GI into account too. I look forward to reading more of your success with it, hippie.
Hi there, hope it's okay if a newbie joins in? I'm with you Tortie, trying to just eat three meals a day and no sweets. If I snack between meals I'm eating fruit, baby carrots, or low fat popcorn. I'm also trying to eat lots of high fiber food which seems to keep me filled up longer. There was a diet out when I was a teenager called The F-Plan and my Mom tried it and she lost a lot of weight. She remembers it involved eating a lot of oatmeal, shredded wheat, etc. I've been doing that and it seems to be working.
I'll weigh myself again when I go to work this weekend since I don't own a scale.
Okay, so I was having a couple of problems with the 3 meals and no snacks. The biggest trouble was getting enough calories into 3 meals. The larger meals were causing acid reflux and that was triggering my asthma.
So I'm back to calorie counting (which was how I lost all my med weight several years ago) that way I can have smaller meals and snacks without eating too much food within a day. Yesterday I had breakfast half the size of my previous plan and I felt so much better. I was able to have a yogurt between breakfast and lunch when I was feeling a bit hungry, and that tasted very nice indeed.
I weighed my serving of tofurky roast last night, and ended up being allowed to have a larger serving than I thought I could have. Measuring the roasted vegetables, however was a different story. By simply eye-balling what seemed like a reasonable amount, I was eating 3 times as much as I should. *sigh* No wonder I wasn't losing weight.
Good for you for realizing it wasn't working quite that way and making a change! I think too often we try to stick with something even if it isn't right for us personally, rather than modify so it will work.
I'm still floundering. I'm exercising regularly again, and that's good, but I am so f***** up about the food. I don't want to admit I have an eating disorder, and the stubborn little compulsive over eater in me is running the show at the moment, alternating between under-eating and over-eating and obsessing...always obsessing. I think the 3 meals a day only brought me peace of mind, I just needed to shrink the portions a bit to accommodate the acid-reflux..?
Grocery shopping is bringing all sorts of anxiety. I'm considering going to meetings again, maybe I just can't do this alone.
Tortie, I'm sorry you're having a hard time. I think obsession is easy to get into when dieting. I have it, as well. Last week I had a 1/2 pint of ice cream and caught myself feeling guilty about it. Guilty! And there was plenty of room in my diet for it, and it's not something I do often, but I just felt like I'd totally messed up my entire diet with a 1/2 pint of ice cream. So I get it.
If you do need support from a group, I say do it. Whatever makes you feel most comfortable and gives you the best chance of success.
Please don't be so hard on yourself Tortie! Have you tried replacing part of your meal with low calorie stuff like more veggies? Until your body gets used to smaller portions it is going to want more.
I'm sorry my post wasn't clear, I'm feeling a bit out of sorts lately. I meant to say is, I think I'm approaching this all wrong. I need to be approaching this from a mental health standpoint instead of a weight-loss/dieting frame of mind.
I think dieting and just focusing on weight loss, for me, is trying to stick a band-aid on a much deeper problem.
By meetings I meant 12-step or another support group for people with eating disorders.
And Dee, I'm terribly sorry you couldn't enjoy your ice cream without guilt I hope now you're able to enjoy a bit of ice cream on the rare occasion you have it
This is an individual battle for all of us, and the path we take to better health is going to be different. So I'd say if a 12 step program or therapy or whatever is helpful to you, then embrace that.
I did actually have 1/2 pint (the most I'll allow myself in one day) of ice cream last night. Not for the best reasons- I had fasted until lunch and then didn't eat enough at lunch and by dinner I was S T A R V I N G and so I ate the 1/2 pint of ice cream while dinner was cooking (a whole chicken breast takes forever, when you're hungry!). I was also super fatigued because I'd been up until 1am the night before with a veterinary issue with one of my dogs, so my willpower was low. But I didn't feel guilty this time. And then I weighed in this morning at 1 lb down. Weird. Think I could sell the "Ice Cream Diet"? Haha! I know it was a whoosh that would have happened anyway, but it was funny to see it on the scale today.
Lack of sleep and worry about the fur baby, plus being under-fed on top of it all
? No wonder you had a bit of ice cream while waiting for the slow- as- **** chicken
Hey Tortie, I've been looking around reading up on Overeaters Anonymous and similar 12step programs myself. Not sure if I will actually go to a face to face meeting but I'm thinking of trying it out online.
I went to OA face to face meetings many years ago, and I met lots of lovely people, and some not-so-lovely people - as you do. I'm not sure yet if I want to re-visit that. I like the idea of online meetings to start though, and I'm thinking of giving an EDA meeting a go. I've started to read the EDA Big Book and it seems to be hitting home for me, but there isn't a face to face EDA meeting locally.
I'll post in the OA forum if I do either. Best of luck to us both
Hi everyone, compulsive overeater/food addict here.
I'm just doing the 3 meals a day, no snacks, no sweets, but I allow a bit of both on weekends and special occasions. If I'm so hungry to the point I can't sleep, I have a glass of milk. It's kind of Intuitive Eating with training wheels. If I overload my plate at dinner, I feel stuffed and sick, so I avoid that behaviour. Or if I have a meal with too little protein I feel hungry and struggle to make it to the next meal. So I make sure I have protein with each meal. You get the picture.
It's challenging, but I feel so much more sane when I stick to it. I have lost a bit of weight already, because even though I'm not counting calories, I am eating so much less food within a day.
So that's myplan.
.. and geez, it goes smoothly and works brilliantly, until... I get overtired (I suffer insomnia) or depressed ( I have bipolar disorder) and I start to feel the lure of calorie counting. Or something like Weight Watchers or Slimming World.
While those plans are great for a lot of people. I go into them with some serious magical thinking. On the surface I think "this will be great! I'll lose 2 lbs a week, I'll belong to this community, I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want, just count the calories, points, syns, whatever" But what's really happening for me, is I'm want a plan that is not sustainable, that does not work for my husband, -who is slim and has a much greater caloric need than me and is not a food addict. This way, my binge is justified, "those diets don't work!
Who can stay with something so restrictive" and " I shouldn't be forcing my husband to eat diet food" ( I do all the cooking, meal planning and shopping). But really what I'm looking for is the perfect excuse to binge and return to constant grazing.
I fell into this trap again this week. *sigh* Back on plan today.
Constant grazing is not so simple to follow. Your husband be highly motivated and no one should tempt him.
Last edited by emilygroni; 01-23-2018 at 01:35 AM.
Reason: wrongly pasted
Back in the 90s I remember a lot of successful old-timers in OA having a list of foods they never ate. One man who had maintained his weight for years had a list of over one hundred things. My twenty-something self thought this was overly-restrictive, and he did say that he didn't think everyone needed to do that, it was just the only way he was able to remain abstinent. I'm starting to wonder if sweets and snacks are something I should be avoiding 7 days a week, not just 5. I'm struggling, but I wasn't struggling when I extended the 3 meals only to include weekends. I'm going to give it a go for the next few weeks.
I think you might like a book called Bright Lines. She took it from the old Grey Sheet used in O.A. No meetings necessary. There is facebook groups on this but all that is needed is the book no boot camps is necessary.
I hope now you're able to enjoy a bit of ice cream on the rare occasion you have it 
