ThinkSlim

Would I take Diet Drug Alli? Not on Your Life

The first FDA-approved diet drug to be available over the counter has hit the shelves in the US. It's called Alli and it's a fat-blocker - it works by preventing some of the fat in your meals from being digested - it passes right through you.

And therein lies the problem with all these fat-blocker type drugs - they are not a way to eat all the fat you want because the more fat you eat the more you are in danger of soiling yourself - lovely!

With that hanging over your head it sure would put a blocker on your visions of a happy eat all you want social dinner.

On the other hand it just may help you think twice about eating those french fries. And in tests those taking the drug have lost 50% more weight than those  not taking it when combined with diet and exercise (presumably the same diet and exercise).

Me? I would rather continue eating healthily and not pump my system full of drugs to strengthen my willpower - feeling fantastic and being slim is motivation enough thank you very much. There's no way I would want to live my life wearing dark clothes and carrying a change of clothing "just in case" - as the manufacturers advise. I would also rather spend my $60 a month of delicious fresh foods or a gym membership - but that's just me.

Alli is disappearing off the shelves as fast as they can be stocked. It makes me sad that people deny themselves the fantastic feeling of losing weight under their own steam by eating healthily and moving their bodies and would rather take a pill with pretty unpleasant side effects.

WIStv.com Columbia, SC: Diet drug "Alli" comes to store shelves

technorati tags:Diet+drug+Alli, fat+blocker, oover+the+counter+diet+drug, FDA+approved+diet+drug

The Strange World of Women's Magazine Diets

I had to laugh at this feature about the Kimkims diet shown here on the Woman's World Cover. On one side of the cover there they are spouting off about losing weight and on the other a recipe for a huge chocolate cake that would feed a starving family for a week.

Plus another headline "Superfoods you will love to eat" - pancakes, pizza and ice-cream.

Kimkims low-carb diet has received a lot of good reports especially from those who like low-carb diets.

I don't go for this type of diet but if it's for you then you might want to get the magazine - just ignore the recipe section!

CarbWire - Woman's World Magazine Making Kimkins Low-Carb Diet A Household Name

technorati tags:kimkims+diet, womans+world, lowcarb+diet

Biggest Loser - Don't Try This At Home

Shows like the Biggest Loser produce spectacular results with the contestants but don't despair if you can't match those results. To achieve massive weight loss, contestants exercise for 4 hours or so a day and they have no access to tempting calorie rich foods like you and I.

Even the participants in the show admit that they couldn't do it at home.

Weight just a minute - TV & Radio - Entertainment - smh.com.au

If you do have a lot of time however or even if you want to try the plan but with a more reasonable goal in mind, make sure you get all the information you need from books and sites like the Biggest Loser forums.

technorati tags:Biggest+Loser, weight+loss

Food Heaven or Food Hell?

When you take the time to look at the real fast food images at the link below, what do you think? Is that what you really want your to put into your body - ever?

Instead eat like your life depended on it, not just your weight.

Is it really news to you that your life DOES depend on it?

I can feel my arteries furring up just looking at this stuff :)

Zuza Fun » Ads vs. Reality

technorati tags:fast+food, healthy+food, healthy+eating

The Shoe Diet

If you love shoes and need to lose weight the Shoe Diet might very well be right up your street. It's really just another diet book but with a reward plan built in - you reward yourself with shoes instead of whatever else takes your fancy.

Actually I can think of a better shoe diet. Buy yourself some walking or running shoes - and use them regularly - it will do you more good than trying to walk in those heels on the front cover :)

Lose Pounds and Gain Shoes: The Shoe Diet | FitSugar

technorati tags:the+shoe+diet, lose+weight

Are You Eating Healthy or Drinking Toilet Bowl Cleaner?

"...you'll be more likely to drink the toilet bowl cleaner before you'd eat the foods that are unhealthy and again let me stress, this isn't an aversion therapy book, this is a totally new level of information for you and it will change your life..."

Interesting claim from this book. I would love to think that it was true but all the evidence in my weight loss coaching points to the fact that we all know what is bad for us, what makes us pile on the weight. We know our foods are full of artery-clogging cholesterol and chemicals which do all kinds of things to rats in the lab, yet it doesn't stop us eating it.

Ms Rowlett, the author, evidently eats very pure food - hormone-free, free-range, wholly additive-free organic etc. Quite honestly, I would love to go there too (and where I have an easy choice at the supermarket I do that) - but I am loathe to let food take over my life that much by insisting on this100% - I don't feel that is healthy either - and I can see the sourcing, shopping and cooking of food taking a lot more effort if I did that.

As for my clients, they make great strides in their health and weight loss with a reduction in junk food and portion sizes and an increase in health giving foods like fruit and vegetables and the drinking of water in place of high-calorie drinks.

What about you? Has evidence about the ingredients in food ever changed the way you eat or stopped you buying a cookie or fast food?

Little Bites - The Official Blog of The GO Diet: Drink Toilet Bowl Cleaner?

technorati tags:Go+diet, toilet+bowl+cleaner, healthy+food

Healthy Attitude to Food?

It really does strike me whenever I see a food diary from someone trying to lose weight or an online blog how unbalanced many of our eating patterns are - especially when unhappy with our bodies.

Now I know it's not practical to work out an exact nutritionally balanced eating plan on a daily or weekly basis - I don't have time for that myself either. But that's exactly why variety is important. Yet I see over and over that people will eat the same old low calorie snack bars or rice cakes or chicken and salad over and over again thinking that they are being healthy.

Not only is is not healthy - it's downright boring.

Food should be something which gives you pleasure - not in a sweet, fatty, sticky comfort sort of way but in enjoying the myriad tastes and textures of all the natural delightful real food the world has to offer - in moderate portions.

If you truly love yourself, you value your health - and you feed yourself the things which bring you joy and energy and health.

Is weight really just a self-esteem issue? Chances are it is - at least in some measure - otherwise why do you continue to punish yourself with poor eating habits that are giving you a body you don't like?

technorati tags:healthy+diet, healthy+food, self-esteem, lose+weight, weight+loss

Peppermint Tea Diet

I just read this "Posh's Peppermint tea diet" article on on the Metro website about an 11 hour flight she made with only tea to eat

Ingredients

• Peppermint tea bags
• Iron willpower to starve yourself for 11 or more hours at a stretch

Typical Results

• Unhealthy weight loss
• Being too skinny
• Losing muscle as well as fat
• Wrecking your metabolism

Alternative

• Drinking peppermint tea in place of soda, milky drinks, coffee, fruit juice or smoothies
• Eating moderate amounts of good food
  
• Now THAT'S Healthy!

Well, I have to say that I regularly go more than 11 hours without eating anything at all and am only normally slim (not skinny) - but that is from 7 at night until 6 in the morning. Maybe Victoria was just jet-lagged and in a night phase but if not, someone should mention that fasting is not a way to lasting weight loss....

Posh's peppermint tea diet | Metro.co.uk

technorati tags:Peppermint+tea+diet, Posh+Spice, Victoria+Beckham

Be Healthy, Lose Weight without Dieting, Set an Example

I read this comment on a blog today

"I, too, am a Mom of four daughters and today my oldest twin came home asking me (at 10 years old) if I thought that she should go on a diet! I just about fell over.... And I realised that now is the time to start showing them how to treat their bodies in the right way. Not the ways that I have been doing the past years...."

How sad that we are teaching our children a poor relationship with their health, their bodies and food - and kudos to this mother for seeing how her attitide to losing weight and dieting might affect for her children.

Eat well, Move more - lose weight as healthilly as possible because of who is watching and learning from you.

Kara's blog on Choose to Move

technorati tags:lose+weight+without+dieting, children+on+diet, healthy+lifestyle

What Can You Learn from My Food Diary?

Here's a start

• You don't have to eat healthy all the time to stay slim
• You don't have to give up chocolate or cakes
• You don't have to go hungry to stay slim
• You don't have to exercise every day, but it's good to stay active
• Portion sizes are what matter the most provided you eat a reasonably healthy balanced diet

I also noticed a couple of things which no doubt help me maintain my weight

• Rarely eating after dinner
• Cooking at home most evenings
• Not putting extra sugar on cereal or in tea or coffee
• Not drinking much alcohol
• Not eating out much (and not choosing fast "pile it high, sell it cheap" food when I do)

My habits don't have to be yours - you can still get and stay slim as long as you have a set that keep you healthy based on your own life and priorities...

Anyone else like to take up the diary challenge?