A new year, a new diet/health regime: “Just Add Flax“. This is based, to my understanding, mostly on classical Chinese health philosophy. Had my first consultation on Sunday & have committed to compliance for at least 3 months.
Why this program?
- Very highly recommended by a friend who’s had dramatic health benefits for over a year. (Aside: I’m not going to mention anyone’s name here until/unless I get permission. For the unlikely event that anyone besides me ever reads this blog)
- The consultant, SN, is persuasive, charming, and experienced. And frank. Stated during the 1st meeting that she’ll be able to address only specific items on my laundry list of complaints.
- This is also the first time that a program I’ve tried involves prescriptions beyond food/exercise:
- A face “serum” that’s supposed to be healing/relaxing
- A strong recommendation to do something creative
<Sigh> That last item is nearly a deal breaker. Yet another thing to add to my already impossible to-do list…Hence this blog, which was actually an idea tossed out by the consultant. Is it “creative”? Dunno–but at least it’s a departure from my usual rut of work/family/exercise/cooking/tv. I did in the past really enjoy writing a little food column for the Jerusalem Post. Those articles had been previously collected on my earlier, now-defunct, blog–since the JP charges a fee to read them. (If I find the time I’ll upload them one day to this new version.) And I guess I’ll use this same blog for anything non-food-related (if such a thing exists) that I want to air.
So this newest health program makes number… Yikes, can’t even recall offhand. Will list now, counting backward:
- Crossfit & running: That sounds impressive. My performance was not. Tried my utmost for 2-1/2 months. But simply couldn’t keep up with the group. It was both overly exhausting and ineffective. I still think it’s a great program — and the local trainer is excellent — but it’s just not for me.
- Modified fasting: Based on The Fast Diet. Pretty effective for me and serves as my fall-back plan. Recently realized that its success depends on also walking at least 10,000 steps per day–not always possible on work days.
- Naturopath’s recommendations: He works via Kupat Cholim Clalit and his recommendations were extremely effective for one of my sons. But for me: not so much. After 3 months, I didn’t feel any better. And had actually gained weight.
- The Plan: Had remarkable results in the first days. Then tanked. Very very time consuming and found it impossible to judge which foods, exactly, I was “sensitive” to. Couldn’t sustain it more than a month.
- “Nutritarian” regime — modified vegan. Manged to gain weight on it.
- Local diet group with weekly meetings : Don’t think it even has a name. It did work. Over the course of 6 months reached my target weight. Which I stayed at. For approximately 10 minutes. It depended on absolute fanatic compliance. Like bringing rice cakes and cucumber sticks to eat at your daughter’s wedding. Plus a lot of the recommended food was crap: fake sweeteners, fake bread, processed meat, low fat products with lots of additives, etc. And positively couldn’t tolerate the meetings; felt like I’d joined Alcoholics Anonymous — or Hare Krishna.
- Atkins / South Beach: Low carb / high fat. Nuff said. Can’t believe I bought into that for even a second.
- Adelle Davis. This was while I was still young, fit, and healthy. What was I thinking?? Friends still shudder to recall some of the meals they were subjected to during that [mercifully brief] period.
Pretty long list for someone who was chronically underweight till the age of nearly 50…
So let’s see how I fare with Flax.
Goals:
- Overcome this grinding, constant fatigue
- Lose enough weight (~8 kilo) to help reduce odds of cancer recurrence
Wish me luck! [Note to self: No one but me is reading this…Just how many unread blogs exist out there???]
Mindful Eating 