Excellent!  So glad you had that opportunity and took it.  Way to go!

Hi Amanda -

I just saw this post.  Well done!  I really, truly pity the millions of people around me who seem to be on diets.  My poor friend Andrew is doing his second round on the HCG (or whatever it’s called) and he’s struggling with gaining weight if he eats VEGETABLES.  Some lady at church today told me she was in her second week on the South Beach diet (and let me just say…she looks so great. I would so love to look like her).  She had a couple pieces of baked chicken and a salad for lunch - no spaghetti, no cheesy potatoes, no bread, no rice.  Poor thing.  My dear friend Anna (who had gotten just a big more curvy since her wedding - for which I’m sure she dieted) has started on the HCG thing, and it makes me soooo sad.  She is going to start struggling with her weight for…forever.  I don’t feel like I can speak into this because I’m still in my gaining phase, but I want to so badly.  I want to say to them all, “Look.  You’re not that fat.  Just live with who you are at the weight you are because if you continue down this road, you will end up being really fat.  Like me.”  I want to secretly put copies of the book in everyone’s mailbox…  So good job spreading the news Amanda.  I hope to have opportunities to do the same at some point.

On that HCG diet, one phase has you eating 500 calories a day!!!!  Good grief.  No wonder people lose weight on it.  They’re starving to death.  (Which, as we know, won’t last long.)

Beth, I like what you said, what you would like to tell your friends who “aren’t fat” but are dieting anyway. And, hey, maybe you’re onto something with the idea to buy a bunch of the books and give them anonymously… or leave them in public places like the coffee shop or the hair salon. We might start a movement! In the front of the book, I would write: THIS WORKS!

I have two friends who’ve done hCG. One lost over 100 pounds (she was still overweight then) and is now gaining it back quite rapidly. The other is in her “try to keep it off… in denial” phase. Ahh… when will they ever learn?

I read on the forum of another instance where someone lost 100 pounds and gained it all back.  What a heartache.

I know the HCG thing seems like the worst of the worst to me.  500 calories.  And they have these poor people duped into believing that taking their little drops will mean that their metabolism isn’t negatively affected and they’re not losing muscle but only fat.  It’s such a gimic.  I think Anna is now the 5th person from my office who has done it so far.  Andrew, who is on his second round, is now gaining weight if he eats vegetables along with the pure protein he’s allowed to have.  I really was considering photocopying part of the feast or famine cycle chapter from BOOFJ and sticking it in their mailboxes.  Then at least they’d know why they can’t control their urge to eat ice cream anymore.  And not blame themselves.

I have so been there and done that.  I have gone days without eating more than one meal a day.  I have done the only protein thing (which usually ended up meaning skipping meals as well, because you can really only eat so many eggs).  I have binged all the weight I lost back on and felt like such a failure.  And it was an almost supernatural hunger as well.  Like, something finally just snapped and I could no more stop eating Little Debbie’s then I could stop breathing.  That perhaps should have been a clue to me that the Little Debbie’s (or, food in other words) was JUST as important to my survival as breathing.  The pain of having lost 100 pounds and then gaining it back must be truly devastating to your friend.  The agony that it took to lose all that weight (and what is self-torture if it’s not eating 500 calories a day?!) was one thing.  The agony of gaining it back is 10,000 times worse.  Mail her the book anonymously Noel!  Poor thing.  she needs to be set free.

Oh, I can see that I am going to become a crusader.  I need to somehow get 7000 copies of the book and get them into the hands of everyone I know…and then start leaving them in hair salons.  I don’t care if it “works” or not at this point…(my mood about that will change by sometime later today, but still…).  Just feeling in control of my eating is so worth it.  Feeling like I can take or leave potato chips?  Priceless.  Feeling like I will never, ever have to go hungry again, after all the undereating I have done?  There aren’t words to describe my gratitude.

You are so right Beth - the hCG is the WORST!  I tried it about 15 times.  Won’t even go into the nightmare of it and how famine sensitive it made me… I’ll just say when I hear about your coworkers trying it I visualize myself running in slow motion, shouting “NOOOOOOOOOOO-ooooooooooooo” and tackling them to the ground.  Oooo!  We should become a band of caped-crusaders who fight the evil of dieting!

I like it Jenny.  It really does distress me, and I love the idea of being a caped crusader.  Should we have an A on our cape for Anti-diet?

Wow, I see I’ve missed a lot while my computer was in the shop getting repaired!  Beth, I’m no fortune-teller, but by what you write, I can tell you are going to succeed in this!  I can see how clearly you are understanding the principles, and that dieting promotes weight gain.  I couldn’t believe how you said you wanted to give copies of the book anonymously to dieting people who need it, that thought has crossed my mind many times!  And Noel’s suggesting to write “This works!” inside the cover—fabulous idea!  I have a few extra copies on hand for lending, I’m thinking of placing one on the coffee table at my hair salon at my next appointment, and on a paperback table at church.

Hey, Swan, maybe that’s the way we become “caped crusaders,” the anonymous anti-dieters… the “A” squad!

Hooray for the A squad!!

And thanks Swan.  That’s very encouraging.  Especially since I discovered this morning that even my underwear feel tight.  Ha.

Beth - you and I are in the same boat - started about the same time, clothes getting tight about the same rate :-)  I just posted in another thread about my fat pants getting pocket flare…

For me the biggest problem is I miss the hope factor that comes with an “official” diet.  The sense of wonder and possibility - believing that inside me is a lovely, lithe pro tennis player just waiting to get out.  For some reason, accepting this weight gain has knocked out my ability to fantasize about reaching my goal.  Anyone else have this problem?

OK, and yes, I do have a cape with a big “A” on it.  I work with a woman who is very heavy, always dieting, and always talking about it.  She started chattering non-stop at me the other day, and I finally got fed up and said “I’m almost 60 years old - I don’t have to diet any more.”  She looked at me like I’d grown two heads!  I just know there was a big scarlet A on my chest that day!

That was a great answer, truly inspired. I’m going to remember that. Today I remarked to myself that I’m over 65 years old and I don’t have to work out so hard at the gym anymore. I’m taking time to play with my baby grandson, when he grows up maybe he’ll remember me for that and not what size I was.

Awesome Matty…we should get T-shirts!  I love your answer too…I could say, “I’m 43!  I don’t have to diet anymore” too.  Doesn’t have quite the same ring, but I could give it a whirl.

I don’t know.  I just feel convinced enough that undereating is the cause of overweight that I am trying to just take it one day at a time.  I think I will have to get some bigger clothes and that will feel better. I think I would rather problem solve and do that than ever go on another diet. I think though that it has been a long while since I had any real hope that any diet would work.  I was only sort of paying it occasional lip service.  So…  And I can also remember still quite vividly the pain of being HUNGRY and thinking about cheeseburgers incessantly, and going to the grocery store and feeling so sad and deprived that I couldn’t get potato chips. 

Tonight, Anna, my poor hCG friend, was commenting on the desert that we made (we’re hosting a conference this week).  It was a really yummy looking apple crisp.  “It smells SOOOOO good.”  I looked at it, thought, “I could have a piece of that if I really wanted to.” And then didn’t.  It didn’t phase me.  There would have been a time when I would have had a piece, and wanted to eat the entire pan.  But…it just didn’t phase me.  Another bowl of the Thai chicken soup sounded much more appealing.

Now, that is really progress!