The Shangri-La Diet

The results on the site look a lot like Atkins weight loss profiles. I shed 45 pounds in 6 months that way about 10 years ago. But like everyone else I couldn't keep Atkins going more than a couple of years and then all the weight came back. And then some.

I haven't tried dieting since. But this seems so simple, and to my mind makes so much sense ... so I'm in. I tried the sucrose in hot water this morning and couldn't get down half of it. Made my tongue sting too. I'm going to pick up some oil this afternoon. I'd like it if I could use one of the healthier oils - flax, fish, or a blend - but apparently they're not bland enough to work for this.

I'll continue to report results here. If anyone else here tries it please add a note to let us know how it works out for you.

Olive oil won't give you a heart attack - it's actually good for your heart. The diet itself won't give you a heart attack - it'll either work, in which case you won't be eating enough calories for the McBurgers to affect you, or it won't work in which case you'll give it up and do something else pretty quick. No one drinks oil for more than a month without seeing some real results ...

You don't need to pay anyone to try it, so there's no point in someone fielding it as BS, much less a UC Professor with a sizable academic reputation at stake.

In short - you have nothing to lose but your appetite. After all of one day so far I can say the thing's doing what I was led to expect. If you already have a nice body, how fortunate for you, and how much more fortunate for you if the rest of us get nice bodies too ...

Yesterday things worked well and I experienced no hunger while eating less than half what I usually would. But this morning I kind of screwed things up - skimped on breakfast and tooth brushing, and now my appetite has returned. Lessons learned:

Almost one week in and the effect is really dramatic. I'm simply not hungry most of the time, and when I am hungry just a little meal is enough to fill me up.

Many strange food experiences:

I lost a notch on my belt. Not bad for a week in - though much of it will be water weight as at the start of any diet.

Wednesday I tried changing my oil dosing from B 2T L 2T D (Breakfast, 2 Tbls ELOO, Lunch 2 Tbls ELOO, Dinner) to 2T B L D 2T. This worked okay but I felt some hunger at lunch.

Thursday I shifted to 1T B L 1T D 2T. I like the idea of oil before bedtime but 2T was too much - especially after I was hungry enough at dinner to eat twice what I'd planned. Still far less than an ordinary meal, but I'm tweaking here ...

Friday I'm trying B 1T L 2T D 1T. Lunch will by Yum Cha, so this will be a bit of a challenge ...

The 1 - 2 - 1 rhythm seems to be optimal to me. My appetite isn't just suppressed; I find my stomach has actively rebelled against me.

I went to Yum Cha and had at least a piece of every dish we ordered. But I couldn't manage more than that. I was eating purely out of curiosity and my stomach wouldn't let me have anything twice.

2 days later I did something I have never done before in my almost 45 years on the planet. I put a piece of chocolate in my mouth ... and spat it out. It still tasted like chocolate. But I no longer enjoyed that taste. It made me feel ... uncomfortable.

It's 6 hours later now and I'm not uncomfortable, but couldn't eat a bite of anything at all. That includes the pizza my wife ordered for dinner. She and my son tucked in happily though she ate less than usual - she'd on the ELOO too. But for me ... well, it looked really good, and smelled really nice, and I really couldn't even think about eating it.

That bout of Appetite Suppression - AS - lasted till late evening. Then I managed a good 4 pieces of pizza. That's about half what I'd usually eat and for main meals I think I'm generally eating about half. Given that snacks are now unthinkable I'm consuming around 1400 calories a day according to FitDay.

Tweaked dosage distribution again - now on B 1.5T L 1.5T D 1T. To help prevent taste I hold my nose when I quaff the ELOO and while I chase it with a full glass of water. And afterwards when I burp - for some reason quaffing while holding my nose always leads to a burp.

An unusual experience yesterday. I was rushed for time and didn't get my afternoon ELOO until too late - I was famished. Got home and for the first time in 2 weeks I just went for it - stuffed myself. I'd been stressed earlier in the day and my intent was sincerely to pig out. I ate a whole serving of spaghetti and meatballs, then 4 squares of a chocolate bar, and one of those tiger cheese wedges - you know the little ones that come in foil packs of 8.

Oh, what a pig I was! And without remorse - if you're gonna break a diet, I say, smash it!

Hmm. Okay, until just writing it down I was convinced that meal was enormous.

This diet messes with your head. -- frenata

So when I couldn't eat another bite I waited 1.5 hours, downed my afternoon ELOO, and figured I'd have a regular dinner later on. Later on never came - I had two more squares of chocolate for dinner, then evening ELOO and went to bed. Stomach didn't even growl once. I guess if you don't stick to this diet, the diet sticks to you.

Yesterday learned an interesting lesson in taste. My wife has been on SLD for one day less than I, but experienced much less AS. We've read that women take to it on a different schedule than men, and even though her AS is mild the ELOO is definitely helping her sleep and skin, so she's happy.

We went out to visit our horse. I wasn't certain whether to bring along a bottle of ELOO and a tablespoon but Gigi said why not just mix it up in a plastic drinking bottle the way she does. Don't bother holding your nose, she said, you can't smell it through the bottle anyway.

So I did. When the time came I mixed it up in the bottle the way she did, didn't bother nose holding, and took a slug. Yuck!. Not only did it taste, it tasted strongly of plastic.

Lunchtime came but no AS. I was ravenous. In the grand scheme of things I didn't eat a big meal, but I was hungry with it. I'd forgotten what hunger feels like - it's really not a pleasant sensation at all. And when we got home I snacked on leftovers!

In other words one dose of flavourful oil and SLD fell into a hole in the ground. I waited 1.5 hours after the snack and downed 2T of oil. Dinner was a 400 calorie oat bar - which is a lot for dinner these days. Then another 1T before bed. Today I'm back on the rails.

Lessons learned. Gigi is going to ditch the plastic bottles and commence nose-holding. I'm happy that the AS simply reasserts the next day if you screw up. And we had a lot of exercise yesterday anyway, so no worries.

My son and I have been home ill the last couple of days. Both seem to be well again now, but we both had a low-grade fever and he had a chesty cough with it.

This altered meal availability for me; he's a born grazer, eats on the hour every hour. No weight loss necessary for him - little fellow's got the body of Adonis, not a skerick of fat, I only worry about feeding him enough to keep him growing as fast as he does.

When Riley eats he generally leaves a bit of it on the plate, and I've developed the habit of polishing off after him. This cut into my flavor free window this morning and I didn't take oil till the afternoon.

To tell the truth I'd thought the diet would have the day off - seems many of my observations here have to do with occasions when I expect the thing to fail. I consumed about 3/4 of my average calories all before 1pm. Finally got a bit of time away from food so downed 2T of oil.

Well, boy felt better by 6 and scoffed leftover pasta I made the other night. Really very nice pasta if I say so myself - bolognese with basil/oregano/wistershire/vegetable-stock/butter condiments. Oh, and a splash of cream. Highly addictive stuff. Boy left some skericks so I had them for dinner.

And that was that - didn't overeat on the day afterall, AS back strongly all evening and didn't want any snacks before bed. The mirror is starting to tell me nice things about the effects of all this not-eating too; belt is down another notch.

Must try to make next post about something other than diet almost failing and then kicking in in the nick of time.

The last couple of days I've tried doing the 2 dose arrangement that others use. Not so good - by dinner I was hungry and didn't enjoy the experience.

Part of the problem was eating too little during the day. I get overexcited about the AS and do myself a big disservice by letting hunger occur.

Back to 3 doses tomorrow. I think I'm going to try B 2T L 1T D 1T and see ...

B 2T L 1T D 1T sucked - got hungry at dinnertime. Today I tried 1T B L 2T D 1T, which worked great. Except I'm still waiting to not feel full so I can have my last 1T. If that doesn't happen before bedtime I'll skip it. Oil on a full stomach is queezy-making.

Minor mishap - switched brands of ELOO and experienced instant drop in AS. Back on the good oil today and dosing B 2T L 2T D to try to pick it up again.

I read about SLD causing grey hair to re-pigment. Sounds pretty suss to me, but then really everything about this diet sounds suss to me. No question my hair and skin are looking better from all the ELOO. But losing the grey? I'll trumpet it if I see it.

I can report that brushing teeth assiduously an hour before the oil has dramatically deepened my AS - I consumed under 1000 calories today including oil. Not certain I want to keep that up - but I feel neither hungry, weak, nor tired, so it's hard to think it's doing me harm ...

Things have been going along pretty well in the AS department but I think my weight has plateau'ed. No worries - it's supposed to do that on SLD. Weight loss on SLD looks like a staircase.

But of course a plateaus has me tinkering with the thing. Yesterday I decided to try taking all for Tablespoons in one hit before bedtime. The forums say this works well for some, not for others. Well, mark me down as one of the others.

4T of oil made me almost immediately queasy. I went to bed and woke with a headache. Strong AS for the first few hours of the morning subsided pretty much completely by lunch. I don't think I ate as much as I used to in a day before SLD ... but no question I ate twice as much as the day before.

Back to 2T B L D 2T for me I think.

Been a few months since I updated this. Short story is, nothing much to report - I continue to lose a pound or two every week or two, only notice because my clothes get looser occasionally. I've switched from ELOO to flax oil pills - 15 1g pills per day in a 2 hour flavour free window. And I'm thinking of replacing some of that with fish oil pills. Otherwise, same old.

If anything the interesting thing about my experience is there's no difficulty falling off the diet. I don't diet if I'm ill, frinstance - today I'm home with flu - but tomorrow I'll down my oil an hour after toothbrushing, and hour before breakfast, and away I go - 1500 kcals of food like clockwork.