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Friday, September 21, 2007

Once Upon A Starvation Diet:
"KimKins Like" Diet For a Size Zero

Kimkins likes to tout that celebrities use "Kimkins-like" diets in order to lose weight fast. Yeah, despite that some of the celebrities she names are renown for their macrobiotic ways, which allows them brown rice and popcorn, which are carbs Kimkins would not stand for. And never mind that celebrities can have eating disorders and be obessive about food, too.

More Kimmer lies. More Kimkins aggressive marketing full of half-truths and outright fibs.

I'll show you a Kimkins-like diet. A real Kimkins-like diet...

Here's a gal who really ate a diet like the Kimkins Diet in her obsessive quest to become a size zero (US sizing). Small bits of lean protein, small servings of low-carb veggies, and starvation level calories:

Now, here I was, eight weeks after the experiment began - depressed and suffering from insomnia, headaches and mood swings. I was so tired I could barely get dressed in the morning. But my waist had shrunk 31/2in, I'd lost 17lb and 50 per cent of my body fat, and for the first time in my life, I was thin.


The exhaustion and other symptoms have been reported by other refugees from Kimkins. And even by some loyalists who refuse to accept that FAST is not necessarily GOOD.

Well, if you break your health, sometimes, you don't get it back. Young and resilient folks may. But some of us, well, when the thyroid is shot, it stays shot. When the eating disorder shows up it stays put. When the obsession strikes, it takes up residence for a long time. Starving can wreak havoc on your metabolism. Starving can set you up for some serious binges. I'm not talking a bag of chips and some cookies. I'm talking, "I can't stop eating. I'm so hungry!" binges.

Please, lose it healthfully.
Lose it while taking good care of youself.
Lose it while eating good foods with assorted nutrients from various sources. Not just small bits of chicken and egg whites and and some spinach or asparagus and broccoli.

You need food with colors, all those glorious colors God put into food to catch your eye and signal, "I'm nutritious! Eat me!:
You need healthy fats--essential fatty acids so your machinery works properly.
You need calcium in generous doses.
You need B-vitamins to keep your energy up and other vital functions.
You need FIBER, for pete's sake, to keep you regular and lower colon cancer risks.
You need potassium for a healthy blood pressure and other functions.
You need lycopene.
You need vitamin C.

Getting these things from supplements because you've cut your calories to 800 or 700 or 500 or 300 or less says something. It says your diet is wonky and nuts. Supplements are supposed to be just that--supplementation added to an already decent diet. It makes up for "holes" or is used for specific conditions according to a nutritionist or doctor's suggestions. Supplements are not supposed to be a routine part of an purposefully inadequate, malnourishing way of eating.

A crappy diet plus vitamins is still a crappy diet.

Don't starve yourself for ANY REASON.

Slow and steady is better than fast and half-dead-y. Easy and adaptive is better than speedy and compulsive. Gentle and persistent is better than frantic and destructive.

Prudence over vanity, people. Rational over emotional. Self-merciful over self-damaging.

Okay, rant and warning for the day delivered.

Go on to your regular schedule of taking good, good, good care of your body, mind, and spirit.

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