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Today is the first day that I’ve felt really positive about reaching my goal.  I had an Egg McMuffin at 8:30, admittedly not an ideal breakfast but I wasn’t hungry again all morning.  In fact I once again missed my lunch break at 1:00 because I wasn’t hungry or thinking about lunch at all.  I ended up eating a small salad at 1:30 and I’m pretty full right now.  There is no way that amount of food would have done it for me before the Shangri-La Diet.

My diet has really improved since starting this diet.  I used to eat a candy bar or bag of chips almost every day, usually in the afternoon.  Most days I ate fast food for lunch, a good day for me would be skipping the fries but that didn’t happen too often.  Dinner was usually not too bad but I would often have snacks throughout the evening.

The snacking has almost totally stopped and the idea of a fast food meal is nauseating.  Too much food, too much grease, too much salt.  Unlike every other diet plan I’ve tried, I don’t feel like it will be difficult to maintain these changes.  If eating a small salad fills me up more now than a quarter pounder value meal used to, how can I fail?

Over at Instapundit, the Glen and Helen Show podcast features an interview with Seth Roberts.  I’ll be downloading this tonight and listening while I work out.

Technorati Tags: shangrila, diet, seth roberts

Weight: 258.4

At least it’s going down again.  I actually ate a pretty full dinner last night, I was surprised to see a weight loss. 

I’ve increased my flavorless calorie intake to 3 Tbsp sugar and 3 Tbsp ELOO.  I’ll try this for a week and see if there’s any improvement.

Technorati Tags: shangrila, diet

Weight: 259.0

 Very disappointing to see a slight gain.  Except for that stupid milkshake I didn’t eat much yesterday.  I haven’t been exercising as much as usual either so that can’t be helping.

I’ve been thinking about the claims made for the Shangri-La diet and how my results have been very mild in comparison.  One of the things Seth Roberts talks about in the book is how eating processed foods raises the body’s set point because of the strong flavor-calorie association.  Even though I’m eating less than in the past I still eat highly processed foods almost exclusively.  Could it be that the flavorless calories of ELOO and SW are lowering my set point but then the canned soup and Lean Cuisine dinners are raising it right back up?  If the set point theory is correct, and I think it is, then this would make sense.

I’m going to try to eat minimally processed foods for at least a few days and see if I notice any changes.  It’s going to be tough because I don’t cook at all and it’s going to limit my lunch choices to basically salad.

Update:  I didn’t have any breakfast this morning and had a small salad at 11.  Still a little hungry, I may have something at 1 but it won’t be a full meal and I’ll try to avoid processed food. 

Technorati Tags: shangri-la, diet

Since the Shangri-La Diet is such a simple plan my main question was whether it’s worth buying the book.  After all, you can get the details through any number of websites, as well as read about the experiences of people who have tried the SLD.  Seth Roberts maintains a website with a forum that contains a lot of information, there’s also information to be found at calorielab.com and the  Freakonomics website.

So is the book worth the $11.97 from Amazon?  I have to say yes, it is.  Seth Roberts explains the theories behind the diet in detail, explaining how individual researchers over the years independently discovered key aspects of the theory.  Unlike probably every other diet book out there, he doesn’t include any recipes or push any products in the book.  There’s no SLD branded ELOO or sugar water, no SLD frozen dinners.  In fact there’s really not a lot of padding in the book either.  He just explains the diet, explains the theory and presents some testimonials.  There’s not a lot of discussion of the possible negative side effects but really, if how many negative side effects could you get from 4 tablespoons of olive oil or sugar per day?  Especially since almost everyone who needs to lose weight already ingests far more than that.

Would I pay $30 for this book?  No.  Even if it was padded out with some bogus recipes the core message is just too simple to justify that kind of price tag.  But $12?  Sure.  The publisher wisely chose to just present the information needed in a nice package at a price anyone can afford.  You can buy the book, a bottle of ELOO and a bag of sugar all for under $20.  Why not give it a shot?

Technorati Tags: shangri-la, diet, seth roberts

Weight: 257.6

In all my previous attempts to lose weight I was never able to get below the 258 threshold so this is a nice milestone.  The weekend was fairly painless, I never felt overly hungry and never had the urge to snack between meals. 

I switched to Extra Light Olive Oil and it’s definitely more palatable for me than Canola Oil.  Both have a very slight taste but ELOO is less disgusting and just feels healthier.

While there has been a real reduction in hunger I haven’t seen the miraculous loss of desire to eat that some have reported.  I’m not skipping meals or anything like that.  I may try to increase my tasteless calorie intake to see if there’s a corresponding decrease in the desire to eat.

Update: A funny thing happened today.  I ate a bowl of soup at 11, then when my lunch break came around at 1 I forgot to take my break.  I wasn’t hungry, wasn’t thinking about food at all.  Unfortunately I finally did take my break at 1:20 and since I had nothing to do I started thinking about food and foolishly had a milkshake from McDonald’s.  I was thinking it’s not so bad, maybe 300 calories.  I just checked and it was a whopping 580 calories!  Holy crap!  It wasn’t even that big.  On the plus side, at least I didn’t order any food along with it.

I think the lesson here is going to be to bring something to work to occupy myself during my breaks.  I wasn’t really hungry, I simply allowed myself to eat something bad out of boredom.  The act of leaving the building, driving to McDonald’s and ordering the food was more satisfying than actually consuming it.  From now on I’ll bring a book to work, anything to occupy my mind.

Technorati Tags: shangrila diet, sld, diet

Weight: 258.4

Last night I had a pre-SLD sized dinner.  Not huge but not what I would eat on a diet.  Today I really started to notice the SLD effects.  I was not hungry at all when I woke up this morning, I had no desire to eat breakfast.  In fact I did not eat anything until I went to Souplantation at 11:30am.  Despite the fact that it was a buffet I did not eat a large amount.  I not only did not go back for a second helping, I did not even finish my fairly small salad.  I took my oil at around 2, ate dinner around 7.  I had a Lean Cuisine entree, 250 calories, and a slice of bread.  I couldn’t eat the entire entree and still felt full afterwards.  I finished my sugar water at 9:30pm and still do not feal hungry.

What really stands out for me is yesterday I bought some cookies and imitation Cheetos from Trader Joes and have hardly touched them.  Normally I would have been snacking on the cookies all day long.  I looked right at them this morning and had no desire to eat any.

I had a good workout at the gym today too so all in all I think it was a good day.  While the SLD effects haven’t been as dramatic as many people have described I have no doubt I will lose weight if this continues.

Technorati Tags: shangri-la diet, seth roberts

Weight: 259.8  Ouch!

The moral of the story is do not eat at McDonalds!  I think the incredibly high sodium caused me to retain more water than usual.  I’m not going to worry too much about a one day spike in weight, even without the junk food it could fluctuate that much.

Dinner last night was a 280 calorie Lean Cuisine dinner, a slice of bread with light butter and some diet green tea.  Not bad at all but damn, that McDonalds killed everything.

I also didn’t exercise, that’s 3 days in a row without going to the gym so that hasn’t helped either.

Today’s plan: I didn’t have time for breakfast at all today so I’m trying the sugar water at 9:30.  If I’m still hungry I can eat something on my break at 11. 

Update: The SW was infinitely easier than the oil.  I had 2 tablespoons of sugar in 16 oz of water and drank it over half an hour.  There is a slight reduction in hunger.  The notion of drinking sugared water to lose weight is so crazy it just might work!  Well maybe not but I’m willing to give it a couple of weeks on the off chance it actually works. 

Update 2: I had an early lunch at 11, a turkey and cheese sandwich and small bag of Fritos.  Normally this wouldn’t really fill me up, especially after no breakfast, but It’s now 12 and I’m still stuffed.  My colleagues ordered Chinese food and I have no desire to even eat a single bite.

Update 3:  2:30pm.  I had the rather pleasant experience of a 1pm lunch break with nothing to do.  I had no desire to eat, not even out of boredom.  I came back at 2 and had my 2nd helping of SW.  One thing I’ve noticed is drinking the sugar water makes me very hot, I feel like I drank some kind of thermogenic diet tea or something.  No other negative side effects so far.

My copy of the book came today, I’ll read it over the weekend and post a review on Monday.

Technorati Tags: shangri-la, diet, freakonomics, seth roberts

Weight: 258.4

For dinner last night I had a bowl of rice with teriyaki steak and peppers.  It was a fairly small meal, normally I would have had a second helping but I was able to stop without difficulty.

This morning I had two slices of toast for breakfast.  I’m hungry and could eat more but am not experiencing the overwhelming hunger I normally feel in the morning. 

So far the so-called Shangri-La plan has not been miracle, nor was I expecting it to be.  I still have to be careful to eat smaller portions but it’s definitely been easier because I haven’t had the severe hunger pangs that drive me to overeat.  We’ll see how day two goes.

Morning update:  I took two tablespoons of canola oil and had trouble keeping it down.  I may switch to the sugar water this afternoon, the oil is just too gross.  I was hungry before the oil, less so now but not dramatically different. 

Afternoon update:  Not a success.  I was very hungry at lunch and ate a Quarter Pounder value meal from McD’s.  Very disappointing but I hope to make up for it by working extra hard at the gym tonight and eating a very small dinner.

Late Afternoon update:  At least I’m not feeling any hunger after that big meal.  I’m probably going to skip the oil today and start fresh tomorrow with the sugar water and see if that has any effect.  Also, Shangri La or not it’s hard to go from two slices of toast at 8 all the way to 1pm without any food so I’m going to eat a bigger breakfast tomorrow, or possibly have lunch at 11.

Technorati Tags: shangrila, diet, freakonomics, seth roberts

Lunch consisted of 2 chicken soft tacos from Del Taco, 420 total calories (more than I expected actually, they’re very small.  Must be the sauce and/or the cheese).  Also had about 4 oz of the small Coke I ordered, about 70 calories.  That’s less than 500 calories for lunch, plus the 240 from the canola oil.  Next time I’ll skip the Coke altogether.  My typical meal of a Quarter Pounder with cheese and medium fries and coke is over 1000 so I’m a little ahead.  I don’t intend to count calories like this for every meal but I was curious to see where I’m at.

So far I’m surprised that the very first ingestion of oil has made an impact.  While I was hungry when I took my lunch break at 1 I could easily have skipped eating.  The only reason I didn’t was that I’m stuck at work until 6 and was worried I would get hungry in a few hours and raid the snack machine.  The two tacos were very small but I’m satisfied and while I could certainly eat more I have no desire to.  I don’t think I could have eaten my typical lunch of a burger or sandwich with fries and a coke.

I don’t expect miracles from the Shangri-La diet but my hope is it will just curb the severe hunger I experience that leads me to make bad food choices.  If I can eat a 500 calorie lunch instead of 1000 and cut out the late afternoon candy bar or chips I should see some changes very soon.

I plan on taking another tablespoon of oil around 3:30.  I’m interested to see if the effect lasts through the evening.   Yesterday I tried to eat very little without using the oil and I was so famished after work that I bought a frozen pizza and ate three slices along with a beer when I got home.  It was damn tasty but if I wasn’t so hungry I probably would have just had soup for dinner.

Update: 2:23pm - It’s been over an hour since I ate that relatively small lunch and I’m actually more full now than after I ate.  I don’t feel bloated as if I just ate a huge meal but there’s a definite lack of hunger.  If someone came in with a hot pizza or some cake, as often happens in my office, I would have to turn it down. 

Technorati Tags: shangri-la, diet, shangrila, freakonomics

8:30am: I had my usual breakfast, a shake made from orange juice, 1 banana, 1 Tbsp fiber (psyllium husks),  1 scoop of soy protein powder with spirulina and vitamins, 1 Tsp of brown sugar. 

10:50am:  I normally will eat a small meal at 11.  At this time I’m starting to get hungry and feel the need to eat.  Today I will be taking 1 Tbsp of canola oil instead.  Results of that to follow.

Update: I took 1Tbsp of canola oil and noticed no immediate effects.  I stuck a measuring spoon far back in my mouth and poured it in, it went down easily.  After a couple of minutes I decided one wasn’t enough and downed a second Tbspn.  It went down even easier.  I’ve noticed a reduction in hunger, not dramatic but I’m definitely not hungry right now.  Not full but not hungry either.

Update #2: One hour later I’m still not very hungry.  Normally at this time I’d be starving and the smell of other people’s lunch would only make it worse.  So far so good. 

Technorati Tags: shangrila, diet, freakonomics, seth roberts