Well... I have been on the Adkins diet, Weight Watchers, Curves, The Sacred Heart Diet (found out it wasn't from Sacred Heart at all), the cabbage soup diet, Used Eola Drops (found out that the ephedra in them was actually not good for you although they worked brilliantly), belonged to T.O.P.S. (take off pounds sensibly)and probably have tried others out there that I didn't mention. The shot story longer is that none of them actually worked. Well, I take that back... ALL of them worked, but I always gained the weight back and more. My friend Amy and I would laugh when we were in high school saying that when we got older we would never say, "I wish I weighed what I did in high school." I have now been out of high school for twenty years, and I have seen the pictures of us when we were in high school. Unfortunately I do wish I just stuck to that weight in high school. It is strange how your perceptions change.
I have never tried the macrobiotic diet, and that is what I am doing now. At least that is what I am trying to do now. It isn't as easy as it sounds.
A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics), from the Greek "macro" (large, long) and "bios" (life), is a dietary regimen that involves eating grains as a staple food supplemented with other foodstuffs such as vegetables and beans, and avoiding the use of highly processed or refined foods. Macrobiotics also address the manner of eating, by recommending against overeating, and requiring that food be chewed thoroughly before swallowing. According to Wikipedia.
So I am reading lots of books and surfing the web constantly in order to find the information I need for this diet. I have decided to take the information I like about it and apply it to my life. For example, according to Wikipedia you are supposed to eat:
Whole cereal grains, especially brown rice: 50-60%
Vegetables: 25-30%
Beans and legumes: 5-10 %
Miso soup: 5%
Which is basically what I have read in other books as well. I really like fruit, and I don't think that fruit should have a bad name. I eat all kinds of fruit, but I don't add any kind of sweetener to it. I have also cut out most animal products including cheese which is one of my favorite foods.
My parents are eating what I cook, but my dad likes any diet as long as he doesn't have to give up butter, meat, sugar, or anything else that he eats. My mom is doing a better job although she is taking a day or two off a week which I have never understood the concept of doing. Don't get me wrong. I love the idea, but if I go off a diet... I am done. I guess that is the mind set that I have to get out of.
So wish me luck!
