Diane's most memorable fad was to try Master Cleanse, which involves drinking lemon juice with cayenne pepper for more than a week. On the 9th day, she was supposed to gradually add solid food back into her diet but the 'gradual' part of that directive never had a chance. She was so starved, she went into a kind of fugue state as she ate her first real meal from her favorite Chinese restaurant. As she says, "While driving home I was shoving this food into my mouth. Even when I dropped my fork in the car, believe it or not, I started using my hands."
The good thing is, Diane learned some important lessons from that experience, lessons that have helped her in the long run. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way, don't we? Read more of Diane's story and share your own, if you've got one...what ridiculous weight loss or exercise fad have you tried?
In defense of fad diets, I tried all of the mainstream diets like no fat, no carb, stillman, atkins, zone, weight watchers, south beach etc. For most of my life 24-52 I was able to keep the weight off with most diets. The low carb diets seem to work best for me. Exercise and I mean heavy exercise seemed to do it for me. I ran 5K, 10K, competitive tennis, racquetball and bicycling to stay in shape and keep the weight off. My knees went bad in my early 50s so the heavy exercise slowed down and the weight came back.
So, I have to side with fad diets. As long as they give you the basics to stay healthy, I’m in. Of course, the lemon juice/pepper diet and others that don’t offer the nutrients to survive should be shunned.
C