The Promise Diet™ -- a Radical Approach to Permanent Weight Loss

Proper nutrition and fitness are essential for vibrant health, whether or not you are following the Promise Diet™.

But if you are, they are vital for your success, as any promise you make needs to be rooted in PUBIMO's U and I -- your promises must be informed and they must be uncontested.

Other posts on this website are going to detail many specifics, discuss the medical/scientific rationale for these guidelines, and introduce (interesting!) areas of current controversy/divergence, but here's a quick "short list" of dietary and exercise principles. If you're not currently doing these things, doing them will likely be beneficial to your health and wellness. (But always consult your doctor before making any changes in your diet or exercise, particularly if you have existing medical condiitions or are taking prescription medications.)

Eat Right

These are listed in no particular order. (And those familiar with it will see Walter Willett's Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy influence on me, in particular regarding the need for good fats.)

• Eat lots of vegetables and fruit. (But white potatoes shouldn't be a staple, especially french-fried ones. :)
• Eat whole grains instead of refined ones. That is, eat whole grain bread, slow cooked oatmeal, brown rice, whole grain noodles instead of white bread, white rice, instant oatmeal, and normal noodles
• Eat beans/legumes and nuts
• Eat leaner meat as opposed to super-fatty meat
• Eat "good fats" such as olive oil and canola oil and the fat in wild salmon. Good fats are good for you
• Avoid partionally hydrogenated oils found in margerine and many processed snack foods and pastries
• Reduce the amount of sugar in your diet. (And "sugar" comes in many different forms)
• Don't make deep-fried meats, potatoes, etc. a staple. (And if you're from the southern U.S., realize that "etc." includes many, many things you may currently enjoy :)

I like the way some people summarize a fair amount of this: Eat things that spoil, and eat them before they spoil.

Get Fit

(Or stay fit, as the case may be...)

• Partake in regular cardiovascular activity -- get moving and get your heart pumping, daily or just about daily
• Do resistance training, a.k.a. weight training, working each major muscle group two or three times a week
• Do stretching in order to increase flexibility several times a week

Again, additional posts will go into much greater detail on all of these and will also discuss the "whys" along with the "whats". (Broccoli literally started tasting a lot better when I realized how good it was for my body.)

Thoughts?

Posted by Reid at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Fox News posted a good article yesterday called "How Much Exercise Sparks Weight Loss?"

Here's a quote near the end:

To maximize weight loss and minimize weight regain, it appears that overweight individuals should supplement dietary changes with approximately 300 minutes of exercise each week, which is twice the amount recommended for health in the general public.

300 minutes is 5 hours a week, which I must say is more exercise than I've done during most my weight loss, so don't feel discouraged if you're doing less than that. (But try to increase! :)

Posted by Reid at 06:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's some interesting reading. I think last fall was the last time this concept went through the media:

Stephen Blair of the the Cooper Institute of Aerobics Research: Fitness, not Fatness, is the issue

Kenneth Cooper: 'Fat but fit' or 'skinny and sedentary'?

Can Being Fit Outweigh Fat? (Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2004)

Fat and Fit is Good! (Big Fat Blog, July 21, 2003)

A view from the other side:
De-Bunking the Myth:
"Fit and Fat" is Not What You Think (Calorie Control Council)

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I guess here's my question in all of this:

How many "normal" people -- normal meaing there are no atypical genetic medical conditions causing them to be obese -- can actually be fit and eat healthy and still be obese? That is, excluding those few who are quite simply fated to be fat, how many obese, fit, healthy eaters with stable body weights are out there? (If you are one, I'd like to hear about it, and if I could be nosy, I'd be interested in hearing about what you do for exercise, what kinds of things you eat, and about how many calories a day you eat on average.)

For me, doing the "right" things -- eat healthy, do cardio, lift weights, and eat between 2200 and 2500 calories/day day-in day-out (that is, eat plenty but not too much) -- with a focus on being healthy as much as losing weight, resulted in significant weight loss too, as a "natural" result of what I did.

Would that not be the case for most (but I realize perhaps not all)?

Posted by Reid at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)