In Search of The Perfect Cleansing Diet

My friend was in her mid fifties as she rambled on about cleansing diets and detoxification. Out of respect for the fact she was older than I, my initial ridicule was stuffed back down my throat and I politely listened. She began to talk about these cleansing processes that initially I thought sounded rather barbaric. Milk thistle just sounded like something prickly to drink. But apparently it was part of this cleansing diet she was speaking about, so again, I nodded politely.

I think she knew that I found the notion of cleansing diets a bit silly. I left that day rolling my eyes and reminding myself that Kate does those things, she's so ready to try something new and different just to try to gain an ounce of good health. Less than a week later there was milk thistle and some sort of colon cleansing drink in our pantry. Knowing full well this did not belong to anyone in my family, I questioned my room mate about it, and was told all about the benefits of colon cleansing. This would have made sense to me if Kate and my room mate were friends, but in reality they had only met once for less than three minutes. Not to mention that the room mate was not one to try new things and to go out of her way to discover the latest and greatest health fad the way Kate did.

I allowed the room mate to take me through these websites that had nasty, graphic photographs of the results of colon cleansing. If anything like that ever came out of my body I suppose I would have to call an ambulance, considering that about half of it looked bigger than my entire body. Despite the fact that we mocked her daily, the room mate insisted on her colon cleansing routine everyday for several weeks. Somewhere in the middle of it there was a huge commotion as people were charging in and out of her bedroom. Apparently something resembling those pictures she showed me on the internet came out of her body, and the plumbing couldn't handle it. She had cleansed her colon right into a plumbing crisis. Despite her best efforts to get me to go into her bathroom and look at it, I just watched the parade of people coming out of her bedroom, shaking their heads.

Out of concern for her health and ignorance over the colon cleansing process, I looked up some information on the internet, and sure enough, whatever she produced was considered quite normal for colon cleansing. Apparently colon cleansing really cleans out everything that has been stored in the intestines for twenty years or so.

After the commotion died down, the room mate carried on for awhile about how wonderful she felt. Her colon cleansing had apparently solved her chronic back ache she'd been complaining of for several years. Ironically, a few days later I saw my friend Kate again, and she looked really good. In fact, she looked better than I had ever seen her before. When I complimented her on this, she launched into a full scale explanation of the cleansing diet. She explained how it cleansed everything she felt like she had been carrying around in her body for nearly 60 years and just washed it away. She told me that the cleansing diet made her feel like she was 20 again.

By now I am realizing that there's something about this cleansing diet that I just didn't get. At home I had seen the results of what appeared to be a very successful colon cleansing while right in front of me was the very obvious results from the cleansing diet.

I would have to be blind not to be able to notice the benefits of both the colon cleansing and the cleansing diet. What I really didn't seem to understand was how this was all so necessary. Wasn't our body supposed to be able to provide its own colon cleansing? I was also well aware of how careful Kate was about what she stuck in her body. So how could someone so health conscious have all of these toxins stored up in their body?

When I got home I realized that it was time for some serious research on both colon cleansing and the cleansing diet. I actually have very few health complaints, but who doesn't want to feel better if they can? So I looked up the colon cleansing and the cleansing diet. I have access to some extraordinary research tools through a University, and I was thoroughly surprised by what the research revealed. For starters, the cleansing diet, provided it is performed correctly, really does remove approximately 60-75% of your body's toxins. This really set my wheels thinking, and I continued on with some more research. There are a few parameters to the appropriate diet. 80% of the cleansing diets out there are more scam than research based cleansing diet information. Finding a safe and effective cleansing diet could prove to be a challenge. The wrong cleansing diet would simply allow a person to shed a few pounds, but other than that, it won't get rid of the real toxicity levels in the body.

So how does one determine the right cleansing diet from the wrong cleansing diet? The first question I asked was how does the cleansing diet offered educate me? Apparently we run around ingesting toxins every day. There are the common types that most people are aware of and then are the uncommon types. So any really good cleansing diet is going to educate me on which foods and drinks contain which toxins so that I can avoid them. I don't just want an outline of a cleansing diet. I'm going to want to know why I am eating some things and not eating other things. I am going to want my cleansing diet to work, but I am also going to want to keep the toxins out of my body.

It turns out the cleansing diets are really inappropriate for some people. There are people who should avoid cleansing diets altogether. So I don't want a cleansing diet sales person who is willing to just sell their version of the cleansing diet to just anyone without warning them that there are people who should avoid the cleansing diet. I certainly didn't know that some people actually become addicted to cleansing diets. This definitely concerned me. I was relieved to know that there are a couple of cleansing diet programs out there that do tell you how to avoid this and why cleansing diet addiction happens.

I did know that it is possible to overdose on vitamins, and while vitamins are an important part of ridding the body of toxins, there has to be a way to know when you are abusing the benefits of vitamins. I found a few more cleansing diets that offered information on avoiding vitamin overdosing. Although most of the information on cleansing diets that offered information on avoiding vitamin overdosing didn't offer information on cleansing diet addiction, and only one offered information on vitamin overdosing, cleansing diet addiction, and informed me on how to avoid the toxins altogether.

I dug a little deeper. There are ample people out there selling information on cleansing diets, some which include information on cleansing diet addiction, vitamin overdosing, and avoiding toxins. However these people aren't offering a cleansing diet plan! So now I have to go purchase a cleansing diet plan from one organization and then turn around and try to find comprehensive information on cleansing diet addiction, vitamin overdosing, and avoiding toxins. Why doesn't everyone just include it all in one package?

Well, it turns out that someone does. The package includes everything I wanted to know plus a few things that I didn't know that I wanted to know. The package included information on being aware of the potential to overdose on vitamins, a section on cleansing diet addiction, and even a section on avoiding toxins. Apparently there are 84 common toxins that I needed to be aware of. That's quite a few things I come in daily contact with that contain toxins. On top of all this information that I wanted, the package also included actual recipes for following a highly effective cleansing diet. I was so excited to find this.

Weight Loss Programs - Which Diet is Best?

We are lucky to live in an age when information is readily available to help us find a solution to almost any problem that we may be facing. Healthy weight loss is a perfect example of this. There are many weight loss programs that will suit almost any type of person and their lifestyle.

An important thing to consider when choosing the right program is to find one that educates you long term on how to lose weight and keep it off for good. Below are some of the most popular weight loss programs on the market today:

The Diabetes Diet

The Diabetes diet is not so much a diet as an education on what foods are healthy and what foods cause the diabetic to have an increase in glucose in the blood. Each person differs in the way that their body and metabolism burns up glucose, so the diabetic diet differs among those who use it. The Diabetic diet is less like a diet and more like a healthy weight loss program that can be used by anyone who wants to benefit from a healthier lifestyle.

The South Beach Diet

The South Beach diet is known as one of the most popular, healthy weight loss diets of our time. A cardiologist named Dr Arthur Agatston, at a hospital in South Beach, created this diet. He originally developed the diet for patients who were overweight and had heart problems. Dr Agatston has been quoted as saying that the South Beach Diet is not a low carb eating plan or a low fat eating plan, but you can be assured that it is both healthy and really works.

NutriSystem Nourish Program

The Nutri System Nourish Program works by controlling the foods that you eat, as well as your portions. There are a few good things about this diet. The first is that the food is already prepared and shipped right to your front door - healthy weight loss without the dishes, much like Jenny Craig. The other benefit of the NutriSystem Nourish Program is that it is very affordable, even if you are not a Hollywood star.

The Zone Diet

Barry Sears PhD created the Zone Diet and according to recent studies, it has been found to be the most successful diet from among such diets as the Atkins diet and other high carb, low fat diets. The diet itself is said to be quite tricky to understand and works on a formula of 40% carbs and 30% of both protein and fats, for every meal. If you can understand the Zone diet, you will have a great success rate from being on it.

The Atkins Diet

The Atkins Diet has been around since the 70s when Dr. Robert Atkins wrote the book, The New Diet Revolution. This diet became very popular a few years ago, but that popularity is beginning to dwindle. The Atkins Diet works on the principal that you are allowed to eat proteins and fat, but must avoid eating carbs in your eating plan.

This particular way of eating has created a lot of controversy and the results have been mixed. It is said that the Atkins Diet is not for everyone, but research suggests that many people have achieved short-term weight loss from this diet.

Negative Calorie Diet Plan

This program is said to be a fad diet that is a thinly disguised low calorie diet. The Negative Calorie Diet works by eating foods that take more calories to digest than what they contain. There have been mixed results with the Negative Calorie Diet Plan, but, as a rule, many people have had a short-term weight loss solution on this diet.

The Three-Day Diet

The three-day diet claims that those using it will lose up to 10 pounds in 3 days by sticking to the meal plan for the three days. It is based on a very low calorie-eating plan. A low calorie plan can be of little use for shedding pounds if used over a longer period than three days because, after this time, your body will begin a starvation mode and slow down your metabolism. Because the diet is based on a low calorie-eating plan, you may also feel drained of energy and hungry. This may cause many people to stop using this eating plan.

Be careful in changing your eating habits - healthy weight loss is more important than losing pounds as fast as you can. There are many other weight loss programs that can help you lose weight, however it is always best to check with your doctor first before changing how you eat or taking any diet pills.

Dukan Diet Myths - If You Want To Lose Weight Fast You Should Read This

The Dukan diet has reached a level of popularity that myths and rumors are now flooding the internet. This, in itself, is hardly a surprise. The world's news media know the Dukan diet is hot topic and articles about the diet will attract readers. So called experts, as well as the real deal, will not want to be seen without an opinion on the current hot diet topic. Dr. Pierre Dukan will know, I'm sure, that it doesn't matter how good something is, if no-one has ever heard of it it will die a quiet death without anyone noticing its birth or demise. It is in his interests for his diet to be considered newsworthy. And in the interest of anyone wanting to lose weight. I would have never known about Dukan had I not read about it in a British newspaper.
Today there are articles, news stories and magazine features aplenty on the Dukan diet. Hack journalists, including those who happened, in a former life and career, to be doctors will not find it hard to trot out a thousand words or so on diets in general, with vague allusions to the Dukan. In a time when increasingly more editors value their online writers by the number of page views their articles get, it make sense to use the world 'Dukan' in your title (even when your article is merely about diets in general).
Well, they say than all publicity is good publicity and I supposed, that for Dr. Dukan, the media storm is exactly what he wants. Good luck to him I say. His diet helped me lose the weight I needed to and it came off easy! I admin a forum full of happy and successful dieters all singing, for no reason other than they experienced the Dukan and they are happy to share, the praises of the diet. The diet may not be a miracle. It certainly isn't magical but, as I discovered from personal experience, it works!
Of course, the need to be seen to know about the latest diet revolution has led to a lot of the old copy and paste and the beginning of some Dukan diet myths. Here is my guide, as someone who has enjoyed losing weight on this particular diet, to these myths.
Myth number 1 - the Dukan is a starvation diet
Well, this is a ridiculous claim. One of the strongest points in favour of this diet, for me at least, is the fact that you never have to weigh or measure your food and that you can eat as much as you like. There is no calorie counting and portion sizes are calculated on how hungry you feel. Still hungry? Eat some more!
The only reason, I can think of, why anyone would suggest, or appear to suggest, that the Dukan is a starvation diet is because they used the name of diet to attract readers but in their article, the writers are talking about fad diets in general.
I've read many an article on the Dukan that starts off by talking about this particular diet but then quickly turns into a very generalized article about weight loss in general. It is simply a category mistake to include this diet in with starvation or other silly fad diets. Anyone who actually bothers to read the official book will immediately see that the Dukan encourages you to eat as much as you want! No starvation here.
Myth number 2 - that the Dukan is a fad diet
There is a tendency to consider anything new as a fad. After all, we experience novelty every day. Yesterday's news is today's fish wrapper, or so they used to say when newspaper was used to wrap fish and chips (and people thought newsprint added to the flavour of their meal!)
Yes, the Dukan diet is new to English speaking countries. Although, not that new, I've been blogging about the diet for over a year now. But this weight loss program has a long history and the official book is translated into 10 different languages! In fact, the very first diets, were based on cutting down carbohydrates. The science behind the Dukan diet is nothing new.
Myth number 3 - That the Dukan is unhealthy
There are two ideas in play here. The first is a legitimate concern about high protein diets but the second idea is just a piece of nonsense. When the body breaks down protein there are waste products left over. To avoid problems like kidney stones, these products must be flushed from the system. This is achieved by simply drinking the recommended daily quantity of water. If you drink, in total not all at once, two liters of water (or iced-tea, soft drinks) a day you will have no problems.
However, if you don't drink this amount of water (or more if it's a very hot day) then your body will become dehydrated. This applies to everyone, not just people on diets. Women, are more likely to experience water retention if they do not hydrate their bodies by drinking water. This retained water makes a people look bloated and they will weigh more when they step on the scales. Since all dieters want to look less bloated and weigh less, it makes sense to drink plenty of water whether you're on the Dukan diet or following a different plan.
So, drink the water you are supposed to be drinking as a part of a healthy lifestyle and you will have no problems. If, like most people, you don't actually consume the proper amount of water a day, then once you start you should actually begin to notice the health benefits.
The nonsense claim about the Dukan diet being unhealthy comes from people who have no idea what this program involves. You can be sure that whenever an article about the diet appears online there will a whole slew of comments saying "just eat a healthy diet and take regular exercise!" What these people fail to understand Is that is exactly what the Dukan diet is all about.
In the book, Dr. Pierre Dukan, makes it absolutely clear that regular exercise is an essential part of his program. He takes his readers through the benefits of walking in particular, and insists that some kind of regular exercise is taken.
As for a healthy balanced diet, most people eat far too much carbohydrate. Of course, I know that there is carbohydrates in vegetables, but I'm talking about bread, potatoes, rice, pasta. The Dukan diet teaches us that not only is it possible to cut down these carbohydrates dramatically but without sacrificing taste, flavor and enjoyment.
People who already have unhealthy diets and lifestyles don't eat balanced diets. By following the Dukan diet, most find that they are introducing new foods (such a vegetables) and surprising themselves by enjoying these previously shunned food groups. Many people, after being on the diet, managed to break free from the lure of pre-cooked, processed foods.
So, far from being healthy, the Dukan diet encourages you to drink the correct amount of water, to take regular exercise, to eat healthier, more balanced meals and to avoid highly salted processed foods as well as fatty, sugary snacks and desserts.
If all the diet is telling us to do is eat healthily and to take regular exercise you may wonder what is so special about the Dukan diet. The answer is the way the program makes weight loss so much easier than other diets. The reason I managed to lose weight and keep it off, was simply because I found the plan easy to follow and stick to. Two things that made it so much easier, for me, was the speed of the weight loss and the lack of hunger and food cravings.

Start the change now. You can follow my progress on the Dukan diet from day one of the attack phase until the end. I have included all my recipes and menu ideas as well as top tips in getting the most out of your Dukan diet experience. If you're ready to lose weight fast without hunger click Dukan diet to begin your journey.

Diets - Are You In A Dieting Circle Of Stress?

It's all over the news these days that we Americans, although more overweight, obese, and unhealthy than ever before, are also obsessed with dieting.

Recent reports say about 75 Million of us are doing it right now. And we'll "try" 4 new diets a year on average.

Wow! That's a lot of diets.

Fueled by a constant bombardment of TV commercials touting all sorts of diets; obnoxiously unavoidable tabloid and magazine covers at the grocery checkout line extolling thin models, fat celebrities, and lose 30 pounds in 30 days "miracle" diet plans; and, a plethora of exercise machines, programs, and gurus, it's no wonder we're obsessed with thinking we should be super model thin and Superman strong.

The Circle Of Stress

This is a lot of pressure and it causes stress.

And that's not to even mention the stress in ordinary life. Your job is hanging by a thread - or the thread's already broken. Your 13 year old thinks it's time she started dating - an 18 year old. There's a tsunami on the way. Gangs are taking over your neighborhood. The economy is in the dumper. There's war breaking out or about to break out somewhere.

It never ends.

Plus, when you go on a diet you really start stressing yourself out.

In my personal informal and unscientific study/poll/research, I learned that people on diets rate the difficulty level of following and sticking with a diet at an average of around 8 on a 10 scale - regardless of the diet. No one rated the difficulty less than 5 and many people had it at a full 10.

Also, most people dieting allow their diet to consume their lives. They think about it, plan around it, and yes, stress over it, 24/7.

The diet controls you - you don't control the diet.

We stress because of life in general, and then add to it because we're overweight, feel pressured to lose weight and stress about that. Then we finally go on our diet and majorly stress ourselves over that, too.

So we live and diet in what I call a "Circle Of Stress."

Stress Leads To Weight Gain

A sad part of The Circle Of Stress is that stress has been directly related to weight gain.

According to Elissa Epel, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, "While the immediate... response to acute stress can be a temporary loss of appetite, more and more we are coming to recognize that for some people, chronic stress can be tied to an increase in appetite -- and stress-induced weight gain." (From an Article Published in WebMD, "Can Stress Cause Weight Gain?" by Colette Bouchez, March 27, 2011.)

Stress and weight gain appear to be related to cortisol, one of the hormones released as a result of stress that can cause us to eat more. Cortisol is sometimes called the "stress hormone" because excess cortisol is secreted during times of physical or psychological stress.

Excess cortisol that is released because of stress, can not only cause you to gain weight, but it can also affect where you put it on.

Bad news: elevated cortisol tends to cause abdominal fat which is now being shown to correlate with the development of cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and strokes...and even cancer.

It's Complicated

This Circle of Stress business can get really complicated. But here's the bottom line.
You want to live the longest healthiest life you can.
To look and feel your best you need to maintain a healthy weight.
To do that, you may need to diet (formally or informally).
While dieting, you don't want to deprive yourself of good food or starve yourself in the process.
Stress is a fact of life. There are many causes that are pretty much out of your control and that you cannot avoid.
You can, however, avoid the stress of dieting.
You can do that by not dieting. But if you're overweight, unhealthy, not feeling strong, confident, filled with pride and self-esteem, not dieting can also cause plenty of stress.

So if you need to diet to look your best, feel your best, and be your healthiest, it's important to learn how to diet with the least amount of stress - in ways that don't overtax you or your will power and help keep you from fighting your diet day-in and day-out.

And, you especially want to make sure your whole life does not become consumed by your diet 24/7 which seems to be one of the biggest causes of dieting stress.

How To Diet Without Stress

How do you diet with the least amount of stress?

The 2 main reasons you "fight" with your diets and cause yourself dieting stress are that you either choose diets that are not consistent with your innate Temperament or nature or you don't use your natural strengths (as determined by your Temperament) to diet in easy and successful ways regardless of the diet of your choice.

For example, if because of your innate Temperament, you're the type of person that doesn't like change and is slower paced in life, you can't expect to do well trying to strictly follow a diet based on radical changes and fast action. You'd be fighting your nature the whole time and you can't win that fight. And vice versa if you are fast paced and more aggressive and adventurous by Temperament (your innate nature) and you tried to stick to a slow, gradual, boring weight loss plan you'd be fighting your nature, causing yourself stress, and likely fail.

There are actually 4 different Temperament Types and corresponding Dieting Compatibility Styles™. How you should diet for maximum ease and success is dependent on which type you are.

A good way to eliminate at least some of the stress of dieting is to get a good handle on your Temperament and Dieting Compatibility Style and use them to select your diet or learn how to alter your approach to any diet in ways that are compatible with your Temperament and Dieting Style.