True Confessions: Bonehead Diet Moves
While commenting on a post on Chai in the Sky the other day, I was reminded of the old Ayds diet products from the 1970s. They were appetite suppressant "candies" that came in all sorts of flavors. The idea was that the dieter would eat one or two of these candies before a meal with a glass of water to inihibit the appetite. It worked! Sometimes. :) Of course, now I know that the water was the inhibitor. A little wisdom is a wonderful thing.
Through the years, most of my diet attempts have been some variation of a healthy eating plan, usually Weight Watchers. The lone exception was a stint with a diet "doctor" in the early 80s. I was around 20 years old, and probably 40 pounds overweight. I was also missing about that many IQ points, apparently, because I took pills this doctor prescribed without even really questioning their merit or potential side effects. I know that one pill was a diuretic, one was a laxative, one was a vitamin, and one was a "metabolism booster". It's that last one that concerns me now. I suspect it was ephedrine. A few years ago a doctor (a real one) asked me if I had ever taken ephedrine, and my first answer was no. But then I had to backtrack and explain about the diet "doctor" and how I really have no idea what I took.
So now I have a teeny cloud of worry that a bonehead diet stunt from 20+ years ago will cause my aging body a problem in the future. It's not a prevalent worry, but it will resurface from time to time, I'm sure.
Friends of mine have shared their bonehead diet choices. Some are serious, some are sad, some are laugh-out-loud funny. Nothing but bananas and cheese for a week? Puh-lease! :)
So what's your biggest bonehead diet move? C'mon, we promise we're laughing with you, not at you. :)
P.S.
Thanks to all of you for the well wishes! I think the flu is fading and I'm left with a nasty little cold in its place. I feel like I will survive it!
Labels: Heathy(-ier) Eating, personal notes
17 Comments:
mine would probably be the atkins diet. now dont get me wrong, Im sure its great for some people. but for a college kid walking several miles to class on purely protein was not healthy at all. I wanted to pass out every day from sheer exhaustion and dizziness from not getting any carbs in. totally stupid of me.
I sure hope that you will never feel any effects from what the "diet" dr gave you. i actually knew someone who did some type of a trial and ended up becomign very ill because of the drug given to her. I think you probably g ot out before any damage was done.
I don't know about bonehead but let's see did NutriSystem years ago, tried Atkins for a few days (couldn't last any longer than that), WW numerous times, oh and I also took those phentermine or whatever they are called. The problem has always been I get frustrated at some point and give up or have a bad day and throw in the towel. This time it's different. I don't know why, but it is. I don't need to know why.
And are we having a friendly competition? I am all for it..might give me the extra motivation :)
Thank you for the well wishes on me getting better. I'm so sorry you had the flu! I sure hope you are feeling better. Take care and I can't wait to read more of your super cool blog!
Andrea
Ayds gave me a total flashback! I think my mom gave those to me! (I must have been junior high/early high school) I definitely remember chewing them. Hadn't thought of that--ever! Thanks for the memory.
I've done all the crazy stuff from Stillmans (pure protein) to yogurt fasts. But, I think my biggest bonehead mistake would be not starting earlier, and not sticking to it when I first began this weight loss journey in 1999.
There was this lentil thing going around a few years back, but it may have been before I was fat. And of course the soup diet. I never did any of those things!
Mine was a crash diet called something like the 3-day crash diet - you ate 1/4 cup of icecream every night after dinner!
In my first weight loss attempt, I went on a slimfast + popcorn or an apple for dinner diet. What the heck?
Are there long-term bad effects of ephedrine? I know while you're taking it there can be all kinds of problems, but problems later?
Hi Cammy!
I remember those Ayds commercials from my mom's magazines, and I thought they sounded pretty good, because they sounded just like caramels. But we never got them. We had Slender shakes, which were not very nice.
~Heather, I can just see you swooning all over campus. I think we've got a much healthier approach now.
~Thinking Thin, I wouldn't call it a competition exactly but I'll just point out that I'm at 3.5 mph and kicking your butt. :)
~Andrea, thanks for stopping by with a kind word!
~skinny inside, I hear you, but we can't go back. Our futures are looking brighter, though. :)
~handie, you made me remember my father's diet for dropping his "winter weight." He combines the grapefruit diet, with the oatmeal diet, with some awful cabbage soup concoction. He has the grapefruit and oatmeal for breakfast and then the soup for lunch and at dinner. He also adds in some protein and other veggies at dinner. Being of the male species he drops 20 lbs. in a couple of weeks. Pffft!
~Grumpy, anything with the word 'crash' in it isn't likely to end well. :) There actually might be some merit to that ice cream thing. I've been reading a lot about the benefits of calcium in the diet, especially in the evenings.
~happyblogger, popcorn and slimfast? We're lucky to have you with us today. :) As far as ephedra goes, one thing doctors have been concerned about is that extended use can cause heart damage that doesn't surface until years later. I'm not sure anything's been proven though.
~Lidian, I remember drinking shakes, too! They tasted like powder soaked in milk. Skim milk, of course. :)
Oh, wow...I did Slim-Fast, I did Atkins, I did grapefruit, I did cabbage soup, I did...I can't remember everything I did. :-) I even did take a Fen-Phen pill once, wasn't my prescription but I took a friend's and thought it was awesome. Doctor (smarter than I was!) wouldn't prescribe it for me though. (I think I was maybe, MAYBE 10 pounds overweight at the time.)
And of course I did the Dexatrim and other OTC diet pills. Definitely including ephedrine...
I'm soooo, soooo glad I finally got a clue and started just eating healthy and exercising. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to figure out, would you? Gah.
I've done them all I think but the one that proved to be the most detrimental to my health was The Rotation Diet. I lost about 30 lbs in one month right along with my gallbladder. This was as a result of losing too much weight too fast.
It's a lesson that losing it slowly is much safer and longer lasting. Patience IS a virtue when it comes to dieting for sure!
I tried that Aydes diet in the 80's. I tried some type of pill that makes you lose weight while you sleep. Now I find it funny and stupid of me. hahaha
Another one where this pill makes the fat slide out of you. (on the toilet)
Then my own inventions:
1/2 orange a day. That's it. (got real sick)
cottage cheese and pineapple a day. That's it. (got real sick)
What's that Rotation diet about? I ask because I saw something called Fat Loss 4 Idiots. They claim you rotate your calories every 11 days, then eat what you want for 3 days. Is this bad?
I did the Shaklie diet which felt like starvation mixed with veggies and shakes. However, it worked, and I kept if off for about a year till I got pregnant. I don't think I have the same motivation or should I say will power for that type of deprivation.
Hope you are feeling better.
Selma
I did the slimfast "diet" in the 80's. Lost the weight and lucky me--developed gallstones from a lack of good fats. Awful!!!
I would never do anthing where I have to give up certain things again.
Bonehead diet move...hmmm I don't know if I can take credit for this one, but my mom put me (as a 14 yr old) on Jenny Craig. Yeah nice job mom. LOL she is lucky I love her!
I will admit I bought some ephedrine but never had the nerve to try it.
My mom had the Ayds and I ate a whole box of them once! They were tasty. I was about six. She used to hide them under her bed.
Once I bought a pair of Slim Skins. These were plastic pants with tie gathers at the knee and waste and a port to plug a vacuum into. You would hook up the vacuum and then use it to suck the fat out of your lower abdomen and thighs.
It didn't work. And it nearly killed the vacuum.
A very low calorie diet, powdered soups etc VLCD. Warned side effects were that it could affect kidneys or liver - yes lost weight, but was one of the unlucky ones who did experience some damage.
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