I have followed many diets over the years, and by "diet" I simply mean way of eating. It all started back in high school trying to lean out by a few pounds so I had definition in my shoulders. I read Dr. Haas and tried low-fat. Then I read Pritikin and decided Haas wasn't working because it wasn't strict enough. I went lower fat, less animal products. At the time it made sense to me. Wow, I feel foolish even saying that.
I could never really maintain that diet for long, and just gave up after school. I just followed a typical Standard American Diet (SAD) and by the time I was in my late 20s I was rather heavy. I had a belly.
Shortly before I turned 30 I decided to do something about it, and I lost a LOT of fat following my "sludge" diet. It was completely vegan. It was also completely awful. I'm prone to some pretty extreme behavior and this diet was a great example.
I studied some vegan literature and decided I could do it even better. If low fat was good, then I'd go as low as possible. If low sugar was good, I'd go as low as possible. And so I created my own diet.
I took different types of legumes, typically black beans and lentils, and cooked those in a giant pot along with brown rice. After it all cooked together it would congeal into a gelatin-like goo which I called sludge.
It was damn easy to calculate how many calories it all contained. I didn't add anything other than water so I just added up the calories from the packages of beans, lentils, and rice. I recall making it in batches of 2000-4000 calories at a time. I would then pour it (while still warm, before it congealed) into plastic containers, each with 1000 calories.
My plan was to eat one container a day. Super simple, and easy enough. Well, easy at first. The first few days I felt incredible! I felt light, energetic, vibrant! I thought I was a genius. On that last part I wasn't wrong, but this experiment came closer to disproving it rather than supporting it. :)
I bragged about my sludge to anyone patient enough to listen. And within a week I had taken my belt up a notch. The weight was coming off, to the tune of about 5 pounds the first week. The following week I took off about 3 more pounds, and on week 3 I only lost 2 pounds.
So down 10 pounds in 3 weeks seemed good to me. But I had quit bragging about my diet. Sure, I had lost close to 3" off my waist in 3 weeks, sure I was wearing a loose size 36 instead of tight size 38 jeans. But I had lost that vibrant feeling. I had lost the energy. I had noticed a drop in my sex drive, and this was at the age of 29! I'm surprised I didn't start losing my hair. I had certainly lost my mind.
The fourth week my weight loss stalled and I felt even worse. Dragging to do anything, I had lost all drive to exercise in any form. Nothing. And around then I chatted with my dad about Atkins. I had always considered it something of a trick diet. I thought it was a way for very overweight people to take off some weight quickly, but certainly you couldn't actually get trim from it. I clearly remember asking my dad if he thought that someone could actually go all the way to six-pack abs on Atkins. He said he didn't see why not.
And so, having switched from a SAD diet just 4 weeks prior to a strict vegan sludge diet, I decided to switch instead to a strict Atkins diet. I bought the book, and the next morning I dumped out two containers of sludge and cooked some bacon and eggs.
So close your eyes, and try to imagine this scene: Heaven. Heaven exploding. Heaven exploding...in your mouth.
It was that good.
No, really.
And suddenly I felt like I was superman again. My energy rebounded. I felt vibrant. I had gone from strength of a kitten to eye of the tiger in about 4 hours. I was curious what would happen though, since I remembered feeling that good when I started the sludge.
But 4 weeks later, and many MANY pounds of bacon, eggs, hamburger, steak, and lobster later I still felt great. And I lost another 10 pounds! I had my drive back. I mean my sex drive, my drive to workout, my drive to do...well, anything!
I started my sludge diet at a weight of about 220 pounds. I started my Atkins diet at a weight of about 210 pounds. And in 4 months I was down to 178. I was lean, with a six-pack. I was wearing size 32 pants for the first time since about 9th grade. It was cool.
My wife was pregnant at the time, and I still remember her last weigh-in at the OB-GYN. She was up to 172 and I stepped on the scale (dressed) and weighed 178. I told her that if she could just gain 3 more pounds and I could lose 3 more in the two weeks before her due date that for one day we'd weigh the same!
It turns out I wouldn't get the chance. The nurse took her blood pressure, the doctor checked her out, and they said she wasn't doing well and they were going to induce labor. And they meant right then! We went from the office to the hospital, and my youngest child was born less than 12 hours later.
Somehow I got off track diet-wise in the aftermath, and never got back on track. It felt effortless to get to 178, and then the weight crept back up. And it kept creeping. And at some point about 10 years later I stepped on the scale and read 239. Wow!
And so I started reading again, and in the last 7 years I have played with Body for Life, Atkins, NHE, Zone, and Paleo. At this point, I think I'll be eating Paleo for life. When I'm strict I have great results, feel great, and perform well.
Most of the time when I stray from my diet, it isn't due to some cravings. It's almost never because I feel deprived. I just have some emotional eating patterns that I have not handled yet. From time to time food is anesthesia for me, as opposed to fuel.
As I continue to get better at handling those times, I full expect to return to the same lean levels I had on Atkins 14 years ago. I have much more muscle now, so don't know if I'll ever get to 178 again, but I don't see any reason to be over 185. Right now I'm about 10 pounds heavier than that, but I have the components of my diet completely dialed in.
My focus right now is on getting to 185 or less by the end of March. I'm going to create a few challenges for myself, and some rewards to move towards and penalties to move away from. I'll post some updated pics as soon as I reach my goal.
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