Guest post by Joanna Cake of Having My Cake and Eating It Too
Hello. My name is Joanna and I am an anorexic. Currently I am in remission but it lies there, lurking, waiting for my defenses to come down.
‘But,’ I hear you asking, ‘What’s a skinny girl doing on a weight loss website where the aim is to help people to lose weight? ’Well, I think the million dollar question here is ‘What are the best diets for fast weight loss?’
And who better to answer than an anorexic. We’ve tried them all and added in a few little extras of our own like starvation, vomiting and laxatives to help the process.
Just Stop Eating
Obviously, the best way to lose weight fast is just to stop eating and, trust me, that’s what happens in the more advanced stages of anorexia. You physically lose your appetite, as well as the desire to eat and, from personal experience, this really is not a good place to be.
Now that I am back at a more healthy weight, I am learning to deal with my body dysmorphia. Because I am starting to love myself, I can look back on three whole decades of dietary experience from a more objective viewpoint.
What Works
What works for me now as a maintenance diet is a regular eating pattern of smaller amounts more often, making sure that each of those meals incorporates foods from the three main food groups – fats, carbohydrates and proteins because the body needs all of them in order to be able to metabolize the calories effectively.
And it is metabolism which is key here. So many of us have a sluggish system with waste being retained in the digestive tract which further interferes with our body’s ability to use our food intake properly. Invariably this is caused by our reliance on processed flours and sugars which destroy the natural balance of good and bad bacteria in our guts.
For me, the diets which worked best were the ones that kick-started my digestive system. Avoiding caffeinated drinks and eating only fruit in the morning before noon was especially effective. It really got my bowels working on a daily basis to get rid of all the excess waste that was clogging up the system.
Eat More Bacteria
I have found that a daily dose of acidophilus, a natural probiotic, is just as effective. However, not in the form that most of you will recognize it – those yogurts or dairy drinks. Yuk! They are full of sugar, which will counteract any of the beneficial effects of the good acidophilus bacteria. These guys go into your system and do battle with any proliferation of villainous bad organisms, such as Candida Albicans, restoring the natural balance down there and helping to regulate your toilet habits.
This is far more effective than the F Plan Diet, which encourages you to eat lots of fiber and can actually cause constipation if you don’t drink enough water. On the plus side, the F Plan encourages you to eat foods which will make you feel fuller for longer and now I always start my day with a bowlful of porridge. But not just any porridge! I make it with water and add in lots of chopped fruit, seeds, nuts and sprouted grains. You can use cinnamon, honey or agave syrup as a sweetener, since both of these are far better for you than processed sugar.
My Experience
I found that ‘exclusion’ diets were all pretty much of a muchness. I did have some initial success with not mixing carbohydrates and proteins on one plate but nothing that could be maintained – and, in retrospect, I think this is because of all the extraneous factors linked to those foods in terms of processing for carbohydrates and added hormones in the high protein diets.
I also found that, when I did feel hungry between meals, drinking a glass of water was the solution. In many cases, we misinterpret the signal that our brain is giving us as hunger rather than thirst.
So, there you go, thirty years of almost too successful dieting summed up in 650 words.
But, if Dr Kal will let me, there is another vital element that needs to be added to this mix if you really want to achieve lasting weight loss. More on that in ‘Don’t Let Your Body Build Stockpiles of Fat’.
Joanna Cake is a sensual blogger who write about life, health, parenting, intimacy, and other issues which affect the modern middle aged mum at Having My Cake and Eating It Too
Get a copy of Dr. Kal’s free weight loss plan the Don’t Go Broke Diet. The Don’t Go Broke Diet is your guide to inexpensive and permanent weight loss. The new you is waiting. Get started now!
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