Best Diets of 2007: How My Slim Fast Diet Worked for Me

Slim Fast is a well known product; it has been on supermarket shelves and sold in health stores all over the planet for many years. This year my friends advice hit home, "look, you've tried the other stuff, why not try this, it works for me." It was the "it works for me" that got my attention because my friend takes superb care of herself and is a model of health and beauty. With that in mind her advice was met with skepticism by others who quickly let me know that such stuff is a mess, doesn't work, and is foolish. They aren't, in many cases, as attractive or fit as my friend, so it was easy to discount their bad advice; however, were such not the case, I'm not certain if that would have been the result, and it's not for certain in many cases how many times someone may have thought of trying this diet and been talked out of it. It is for that person that I'm penning this entry- to let you know, yes you can, and it works, and it works well.

My results are so easy to see that it is startling; at the beginning of my experience with the diet I weighed 210 pounds, ate whatever was in front of me, and whatever was in front of anyone else, and then went back for seconds and thirds, because I felt hungry, and because food helped me placate my lack of physical pride. It was, and it is, a vicious cycle, you feel bad because you are out of shape, you eat to feel better, and you do while you are eating. It doesn't last, the sugars and the carbohydrates, wear off, and your down again, only with renewed weight gain, or, lack of weight loss, it is a vicious circle of food addiction.

After only two months on the Slim Fast plan (with some obvious modifications- I don't follow their eating plans to the core, only the shake substitutes...) my weight went down to 190, which was shocking; and, my hunger was diminished, I no longer craved the food as much, and I felt marvelous. At the three month measure I was down to 180, and enjoying a new style of energy, less focus on food, more focus on things that matter, and setting goals to attain. Presently in the fourth month my weight is cycling down at 175 and has reached a plateau (which we knew would occur) but it is a marvelous plateau, which has taken me from a size 40 waist down to a size 34 in men's pants.

Here is how it has worked, bear in mind, Slim Fast is only a drink substitute in this diet process, the other components are healthy work habits, exercise of 30 minutes per day duration (or more), and sensible control of eating in the evenings. All this takes very little effort on my part as the shakes actually do have an effect in the lifestyle, they do control hunger in some regard, and by using them as they suggest I've noticed the change in my hunger status, it is much less. The healthy work habits means that if you are at a desk job you take note of ways you can utilize passive exercise techniques such as foot lifts and leg exercises, even while seated (these are numerous and are available via the internet and other resources); if you are in a job where you move around quite a bit, it is taking advantage of that movement by making it as aerobic as you can; instead of just sauntering, move with purpose- this very small adjustment in your style will rend huge results in terms of calories used during the work day. Exercise has been a paramount part of this process and cannot be excluded from it, walking is an effective way to bring exercise into your life and walking for 30 minutes a day will yield results for you. Finally the use of the shakes to control urges to "munch" in the evenings can yield very high results for you - during the first two months of the program I was using the shake in the evening to control evening munching habits, and it worked, I didn't crave sweets at night, which was like a miracle, as prior to this my evening was sweet then salt then sweet then salt then...well, you get the picture, who knows, you might even be there?

I recommend this diet to anyone who wants to lose weight and feel better, but also bear in mind that eating habits have to go along with the substitution of the shake just like they say. Also bear in mind, a half hour of exercise per day, and also working to get exercise into your daily work routine, all these are factors. Put them all together and we'll get lighter and enjoy life more with less worry.