Weight: 257.6
Just setting a starting point. My intial goal is to get down to 225.
Last night I had 2 Tbsp of walnut oil. This morning I had my breakfast shake. No noseclips on hand so I pinched my nose while I chugged the shake. I estimate 90% of the flavor was gone.
12 noon and I’m a little hungry but not bad. I’ll take lunch at 1.
After a lot of reading and a lot of soul searching I’m re-committing to the Shangri La Diet with some new ideas from the members of the sethroberts.net forums.
1. Walnut oil instead of ELOO. Many SLD’ers have reported good results from Walnut oil. A bonus is that it’s high in omega-3, which is supposed to help with brain functioning. I tried 2 Tbsp last night, mixed with a few ounces of water. It wasn’t as oily/greasy as the ELOO but had a slight aftertaste of walnuts. I’m not sure if the taste is enough to counteract the SLD effect but there’s only one way to find out. I’ll stick with walnut oil for 14 days, then switch back to ELOO if I don’t see the desired effects.
2. Noseclips. Using noseclips while eating tends to dull the flavor. Seth Roberts has stated that eating any food while wearing noseclips should have the same effect as consuming flavorless oil. I’ll be using noseclips with step 3.
3. Breakfast smoothy consisting of orange juice, a banana, psyllium husks, soy protein powder and flax seed oil, consumed while wearing noseclips to kill the flavor. A bummer because I really like the taste but a small sacrifice to make. The flax oil here is for health benefits, not SLD weight loss.
4. Reducing ditto foods. This is a big one for me. My diet has been pretty monotonous, consisting of high flavor fast foods and other crap. It’s not realistic to expect to go cold turkey on that and switch to a macrobiotic diet but I’m going to make every effort to eat foods I normally don’t eat.
5. Smaller portions. I’m going to try to limit my meals to 500 calories or less. When I tried SLD previously this wasn’t too difficult. Avoiding soft drinks and chips or fries will keep most lunch time meals under 500 calories.
6. Exercise. A minimum of 30 minutes every day, either running or resistance training. 30 minutes is the minimum, I usually exercise for longer than that, it’s the every day part that might be tough.
7. Tracking. I will be weighing in every day and tracking the data on a spreadsheet. I will not be posting my weight every day, probably once a week will be sufficient. I’m thinking of taking a weekly photo and posting the series when I’ve lost a decent amount. I’m not really into looking at myself but it might be a good motivator.
So that’s my plan. Really pretty easy compared to other weight loss plans but as always the deciding factor is committment to the plan. This blog has already helped with that: I started blogging back in May and if I had stuck with it and had average results I would have lost 30-40 pounds by now and be near my ideal weight. Writing about the daily effects of the oil helps keep me focused on maintaining the SLD plan so I’ll be tracking my progress closely.
The Shangri La Diet sure sounds great, right? Just drink a little flavorless oil every day and you won’t feel hungry. Watch the pounds melt away without even really trying. Unfortunately it’s not quite that easy. As anyone who’s struggled with weight knows, there are powerful psychological issues at play. In many cases (including, apparently, myself), there is a significant emotional component to eating. I semi-intentionally stopped adhering to the SLD regimen a while back, in part because I didn’t like the full feeling I was getting when eating what used to be a normal meal. That’s right, I was rejecting the diet because it was working. See, a big reason I’m overweight is I eat junk food out of habit, on some level I find it comforting. Not comfort in the sense that I’m all stressed out and it calms me down. It’s become something of a ritual for me to get out of the office on my lunch break, listen to talk radio, get drive through food and enjoy time alone. After work there’s always the urge to eat something simple and tasty, like pizza or processed boxed dinners. The next day there’s the urge for an Egg McMuffin or donuts or a breakfast burrito.
What it all adds up to is I wanted to eat crappy food more than I wanted to lose weight so I stopped SLD and recently even stopped exercising. Fortunately I haven’t gained weight but things have definitely gone downhill. A recent comment from successful SLDer Stephen M. got me thinking about all this and refocused on losing weight. After reading through the forums at SethRoberts.net I was inspired to try SLD again, with some tweaks and (hopefully) improvements. I’ll outline my new regimen tomorrow, as well as start tracking my weight again.
This graphic was a big help in getting me out of my rut. It’s a compilation of results reported by members of the sethroberts.net forums.
I fall in the 225 to 342 category, where dieters have reported an average of 30 pounds lost in 15 weeks. That’s about the same tonnage I’d like to lose so I’m going to use that as my target.
Thanks to Stephen M and all the other SLD’ers who’ve reported their experiences. I wouldn’t be back on track without your inspiration.