Do you remember the Cabbage Soup Diet?

I ran across an article this morning about diet fads click here to read, and how the claims may not always be so true.  It lead me down memory lane and all the crazy diet fads friends of mine had tried.  Like the Cabbage Soup Diet.  I remember when I was dating my husband, his roommate was doing this.  He cooked up a big batch of cabbage soup and left it on the stove for a week and would just take the soup from the enormous pot left on the stove.  If the soup didn't help him lose weight, the food poisoning could have helped.

I also remember hearing of friends doing the Grapefruit Diet.  Of course eating nothing but grapefruit will lead to weight loss, but how healthy is it to restrict your caloric intake to under 500 cals per day?

I had a friend tell me of her own diet she made up.  It was the Potato Chip & Coke Diet.  You would eat 1 small bag of chips with a coke for breakfast and repeat for lunch.  Then have a "sensible" dinner.  Ugh...

A good nutrition and exercise plan will have you losing only 1-2 pounds per week.  Anything more than that and your losing muscle and water.  Muscle is what helps you burn fat.  So your goal should be building muscle, not getting rid of it.

If you need help coming up with some healthy menus and recipes, there are a lot of good books on the market.  One book I've been reading is the Primal Blueprint.  Depending on where you stand on the laws of creation vs evolution, you will need to read with an open mind.  But Mark Sisson makes some good points about not being too restrictive with your caloric intake, as well as how humans need some fat.

Another good place to turn for healthy weight loss and healthy living is Team Beachbody.  Here you can sign up for free help or you can upgrade to "club" membership and get custom meal plans, using a meal plan wizard, get recipes, shopping lists, a free cookbook and discounts on products.

The key to healthy weight loss is and always will be good nutrition and exercise.  Burring more calories than you eat.