It's January, & the law states that you must put at least one good intention into practice. I'm willing to bet a very large sum of money that sales of Nicorette, subscriptions to Weight Watchers, & bookings for health spas will go through the roof over the next 4 weeks.Last year I astonished everyone - especially myself - by stopping smoking after 25 years. I'd like to say that I did it by willpower alone, but I was dosed up to the eyeballs with nicotine patches (industrial strength, 24 hour ones) & nicotine lozenges. The latter became necessary after the patches started irritating my skin, at which point the doctor advised me to stop using them, sending me into immediate & unbearable 'cold turkey'. Lozenges took the edge off this, but they taste pretty revolting. Still, that was nearly a year ago & I haven't lapsed.
The popular magazines will be full of weight loss plans this month, which will be greeted with great enthusiam by readers who are unfortunately destined to fall at the first hurdle. Generally this is because they will say something like: "Breakfast: porridge & fruit compote, Lunch: poached fish with basil puree, & Dinner: spicy kedgeree with cashews & almonds." Many will get as far as making a shopping list; some may even get as far as buying the ingredients. Few, however, will stick to the plan for the duration of the entire diet.
The only diet absolutely guaranteed to get the weight off is good old exercise & eating less (revolutionary!), but for some reason this is never included in the magazines. I once followed the Scarsdale Diet, years ago, which I seem to remember was quite effective. I also remember that I was about 14 at the time & living at home. Furthermore, my mum was doing the same diet, which of course meant that I didn't have to do any of the cooking. I doubt if I could be bothered with it now.
The diet industry is a lucrative one, and dieting costs money. From The Scotsman:
"According to Virgin Money, two million of us started last year on a diet. However, given that improving your financial wellbeing is also likely to feature high on your list of new-year resolutions, it's worth thinking about how much your plans to shape up and get fit will actually cost.
Celebrity diets don't come cheap. Virgin's research reveals that a week on the Atkins Diet - which involves loading up on meat and cheese in place of now-demonised carbs - will set you back £141.59. Even Gillian McKeith's You Are What You Eat Diet, which maxes out on more obviously healthy foods like fruit and vegetables, costs £91.20 a week. Then there's gym membership, averaging around £40 a month plus joining fees, not to mention all the exercise bikes, thigh masters and abdominisers that promise to whip you into shape. Even if your approach is a little less military, Virgin's research reveals the average new-year dieter will spend £34 a month on their campaign."
I know that I've put on weight over the past week or so - it's very hard not to, what with all the variety of calorie-laden foods on offer over Christmas - so tomorrow I intend to start attempting to lose it. I love food & hate dieting, so I'm not looking forward to it. So much so that I think I'm going to opt for the Special K "eat one bowl for breakfast & another for lunch, & drop a dress size!". Except I'm going to do it with Weetabix ... I also plan to eat a lot of soup, which is good for filling you up without containing that many calories (as long as you don't put loads of cream in it).
Talking of soup, there is a diet that has cabbage soup as the main component.
Imaginatively named The Cabbage Soup Diet (left), it goes as follows:Day 1: Eat only fruit all day & as much cabbage soup as you want. N.B. no bananas.
Day 2: Eat only vegetables all day (no fruit), & a baked potato for tea. As much cabbage soup as you want.
Day 3: Eat as much fruit, veg, & cabbage soup as you want - nothing else.
Day 4: Eat 8 bananas, as much skimmed milk as you can stomach & of course loads of cabbage soup.
Day 5: 10 - 20 ounces of beef & 6 tomatoes; 8 glasses of water & lots of cabbage soup.
Day 6: Unlimited beef (2 - 3 steaks if you so wish) , veg, & cabbage soup.
Day 7: As much brown rice, fruit juice, & veg as you want. More cabbage soup.
After all of which you will never want to encounter cabbage in any form ever again.
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